TIME

 

Time ends for us when we die. We do not experience time during death.  

“The Dead Know Nothing”.

Time does not exist for Yahweh and spirit beings. 

Yahweh Inhabits Eternity. He exists outside of time.

Below is a Scripture-based case built in three steps:

1. Death = unconscious sleep (no awareness → no experience of time)

1. Therefore for the dead, the next moment experienced is the resurrection

1. God and the spirit realm exist outside human time

1) Death is described as unconscious sleep

If a person has no thought, knowledge, memory, awareness, work, or praise, then they cannot perceive time passing.

No awareness or thought

Ecclesiastes 9:5–6,10

“The dead know nothing… their love, hatred and envy have perished…
there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you go.”

Psalm 146:4

“His breath goes forth, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”

Psalm 6:5

“In death there is no remembrance of You.”

Psalm 115:17

“The dead do not praise the LORD.”

👉 No thoughts + no awareness = no perception of duration
A person cannot experience minutes, years, or millennia without consciousness.

Death repeatedly called “sleep”

John 11:11–14

“Our friend Lazarus sleeps… Lazarus is dead.”

Daniel 12:2

“Many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.”

1 Thessalonians 4:13–16

“Those who sleep in Jesus… the dead in Christ will rise.”

Sleep is the Bible’s chosen metaphor because:

• sleep has no awareness of elapsed time
• the next instant experienced is waking

2) Therefore the dead experience no passage of time

From the dead person’s perspective:

What happens in reality	What the dead person experiences
Dies	Falls asleep
Thousands of years pass	No awareness
Resurrection	Wakes instantly

Biblical example — David

Acts 2:29,34

“David is both dead and buried…
David did not ascend into the heavens.”

David has been dead ~3000 years — yet he has not experienced those years.

Biblical example — resurrection hope

Job 14:12

“Man lies down and does not rise till the heavens are no more.”

Job 14:14–15

“All the days of my waiting I will wait, till my change comes.
You shall call, and I will answer You.”

For Job, the next moment he expects after death is hearing God’s voice.

Conclusion of section

Because consciousness stops, time stops experientially.

To the dead:

Death → Resurrection feels instantaneous

Not because time literally stops in the universe —
but because awareness stops.

3) God exists outside time

Scripture consistently teaches God is not bound to human time.

God sees all time at once

2 Peter 3:8

“With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Psalm 90:4

“A thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past.”

God inhabits eternity

Isaiah 57:15

“The High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity.”

He doesn’t live through time — He lives beyond it.

4) The spirit realm is not bound by physical time

Spirits are not physical, therefore not governed by physical processes (decay, motion, clocks).

Angels do not age or die

Luke 20:36

“They cannot die anymore, for they are equal to the angels.”

God declares the future as already seen

Isaiah 46:9–10

“Declaring the end from the beginning.”

This requires a viewpoint outside linear time.

Putting it together

Humans (physical realm)

• Consciousness tied to brain
• Brain stops → awareness stops → time not experienced

Dead

• No thoughts
• No perception
• Next moment = resurrection

God & spirit realm

• Not material
• Not aging
• Not sequentially bound
• Exist in eternity

Final Biblical Picture

For the dead believer:

Last breath → next awareness is Christ’s return

1 Corinthians 15:52

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye… the dead will be raised.”

From their perspective, it truly is a twinkling of an eye — even if thousands of years pass on earth.

Simple statement

Death removes awareness.
Without awareness, time cannot be experienced.
God, being eternal spirit, exists beyond time itself.

—————————

Below is a careful Biblical explanation — not philosophy — of how Yahweh relates to time.

The Bible never says God merely “lives a long time.”
It says He exists in a different mode of existence than time-bound creation.

1) Yahweh does not move through time — He inhabits eternity

Key verse

Isaiah 57:15

“Thus says the High and Lofty One that inhabits eternity…”

Humans:

• live inside time
• move from past → present → future

Yahweh:

• dwells in eternity itself
• sees all moments at once

Eternity in Scripture is not “endless time”
It is a state outside the sequence of time

God sees all history simultaneously

Isaiah 46:9–10

“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done.”

He does not predict — He observes.

For God:

• Creation
• Abraham
• Christ’s return
• New Earth

are all present to Him.

2) Time exists inside creation, not inside God

Time began when the physical universe began.

Genesis 1:1–5

• Light and darkness
• Evening and morning
• First day

Time starts when matter and motion start.

God already existed before the first day existed.

Therefore

God does not “wait”
God does not “age”
God does not “experience duration”

3) To God, all moments are equally immediate

2 Peter 3:8

“With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Psalm 90:4

“A thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past.”

This does NOT mean God counts slowly.

It means:

Time intervals have no effect on God’s experience.

A billion years does not feel longer to God than one second.

4) God interacts with time without being bound by it

He enters time when He acts in creation.

Example:

God speaks → events occur in sequence

To humans it unfolds step-by-step
To God it is a completed work

Acts 15:18

“Known unto God are all His works from eternity.”

5) How this explains prophecy

Prophecy is not guessing the future.

God is describing what He already sees.

That is why scripture often speaks of future events as past:

Isaiah 53:5

“He was wounded for our transgressions”

Written centuries before Christ.

Because to God — it was already visible.

6) Relationship between God, time, and death

This ties directly to resurrection.

Humans experience:

Event	Human experience
Death	thousands of years pass
Resurrection	far future

But God sees:

Event	God's perspective
Death	immediate
Resurrection	immediate

So when a person dies:

The next conscious moment they experience is God calling them —
because God already stands at that moment.

Simple analogy (limited but helpful)

Imagine a parade:

• Humans stand on the street → see one float at a time
• God stands above the city → sees beginning and end together

He is not ahead in time —
He is above time.

Final Summary

Yahweh does not experience time passing.

He:

• created time
• observes all moments simultaneously
• enters time when interacting with creation
• calls the dead from a point already present to Him

So from God's view:

Creation, Cross, Resurrection, Kingdom — all exist before Him now.