The Beginning of Time

Posted on: 08 October 2024 by Andrew Perry
Posted in: [Creation]

The question must have been asked countless times as to whether there was a beginning of time or whether time goes back into eternity past. I am going to give a definitive answer and say that there has got to be a beginning of time. You may ask the question as to why, so let us look at this in a bit more detail.

To possess an infinite number of things (whatever those ‘things’ might be) is an impossibility, as it defies all laws of logic and reason. (Please see the footnote at the end if you want to see a more detailed argument.) If time can be traced backwards forever, that would mean that the universe possesses an infinite number of years of history, each one unique in its own right, but we have just said that it is impossible to possess an infinite number of things. The conclusion therefore is that time must have had a beginning.

I would like to first make an analogy with a running computer. Suppose that the machine is turned on at 14:00 hours and that it maintains a timer to say how long the current session has been running. At 14:05 hours, this timer would register five minutes, at 14:10 hours, ten minutes, and so on. What about at 13:55 hours? Minus five minutes? Definitely not, because at this point in time, the running session was a non-entity, i.e. it did not exist. In other words, the running session on the computer effectively has its own built-in beginning of time.

Now let us look at a slightly different argument. If nothing were to move, and I mean absolutely nothing, right down to the level of sub-atomic particles (making it a totally hypothetical situation anyway), then there would be no passage of time, i.e. time would effectively stand still. Therefore, the existence of time is totally dependent upon the existence of space and matter. Likewise, given the existence of space and matter, there has got to be the passage of time, as everything is not going to stand completely still.

Therefore if time had a beginning, then so did the universe, and that beginning had to somehow be instigated from an external source. We are told that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). One might ask the question “where was God before the beginning of time?”. That is not really an issue, because in reality, God is outside the boundaries of space and time as we understand them. The Bible describes God as being eternal, but eternity here is more a matter of timelessness rather than just the unending passage of time. We need to look with awe at God as Creator, whilst accepting that in our mortal bodies with our finite minds, we cannot currently understand everything.

Footnote: Mathematically, infinity is an abstract concept. In other words, it is not a rational number that can be counted or subjected to the normal rules of arithmetic. This is why it is impossible to have an infinite number of things, because if a new one were added, there would be one more, and yet the overall number would not change, i.e. we would have a totally self-contradictory situation.

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