The Secret in Biblical HistoryThroughout the world, the following two perspectives on time coexist:
- “Is time a physical reality that actually exists?”
- “Is time merely a concept used to express the relationships between changes in physical states?”
These two perspectives arise from different approaches: one is a physical interpretation based on actual physical measurements and experimental results, while the other is a theoretical interpretation derived from an examination of the mathematical structure of the universe’s fundamental equations.
In particular, some theories propose that:
“Time does not flow outside the universe but is merely a constituent element of the structure of the universe.”
This is a valid explanation in the sense that time is not an absolute background that flows independently outside the universe, but rather an element defined within the overall state of the universe and the structure of spacetime.
In other words, time can be understood not as an external flow separate from the universe, but as a physical property contained within the structure of the universe.
However, drawing from this explanation the conclusion that “time does not flow” or “time does not exist” constitutes a philosophical interpretation that confuses structural interpretation with physical reality.
Time has a structural character in that it is an element contained within the structure of the universe. At the same time, it is also a physical reality that manifests within that structure through the accumulation of actual physical changes.
In other words, time is not an external flow separate from the structure of the universe, but this does not mean that time itself, as the accumulation of physical changes, is thereby negated.
In modern physics, time is a clearly measurable physical quantity.
Atomic clocks measure time using the frequency associated with the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium-133 atom. The SI second is defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to this transition.
An atomic clock does not directly count electrons repeatedly moving between energy states. Instead, it uses electromagnetic oscillations tuned to the characteristic transition frequency of the atom as a reproducible frequency standard.
The cycles of this frequency standard can be physically counted and used to measure elapsed time. This establishes an objective method of measuring temporal intervals, although it does not by itself determine the ultimate philosophical nature of time.
According to relativity, relative motion and differences in gravitational potential affect the amount of proper time accumulated by clocks.
Locally, identical atomic clocks operate according to the same physical laws. However, when clocks that have followed different paths or remained at different gravitational potentials are compared, they can show different amounts of accumulated elapsed time.
A clock moving at a higher speed relative to a chosen reference frame can accumulate less proper time between the same comparison events. Likewise, a clock at a lower gravitational potential generally accumulates less proper time than a comparable clock at a higher gravitational potential.
This means that the accumulation of physical change itself has proceeded differently.
This difference is not merely a matter of interpretation, but a physical fact demonstrating that the accumulation of actual physical change has proceeded differently.
If time did not exist, there would be no basis by which the sequence and accumulation of physical changes could be defined.
All physical processes—including atomic oscillations, particle decay, and transitions between energy states—can be defined only through the accumulation and sequence of change.
If such accumulation did not exist, the following problems would arise:
- It would become impossible to distinguish between before and after a change.
- The very definition of a physical state could no longer be established.
Ultimately, this would mean that all physical processes would be reduced to a single static structure in which no distinctions could be made, and the very possibility of distinguishing among physical entities could no longer be established.
Therefore, the explanation that time is an element contained within the structure of the universe is valid. However, it is not logically valid to conclude from this that the flow of time or its physical reality must be denied.
Time is not an external flow separate from the structure of the universe, but a physical reality that exists as the accumulation of actual physical changes occurring within the structure of spacetime.
Time may be a subject of philosophical interpretation, but it is also a physical fact confirmed through physical changes occurring at the atomic level and the results of their measurement; it exists both as a structural element and as a physical flow that actually accumulates.
From a biblical perspective as well, events are recorded not as simply unfolding automatically within an already determined structure, but as a process in which they manifest as actual events through choices and actions made in time.
The Old Testament (Prophecy) does not declare that the future is mechanically fixed; rather, it is a record of revelation that shows, through the figurative structure of prophecy, how people’s choices and the consequences that follow from those choices unfold within the flow of time.
Prophecy is not a declaration that forcibly fixes the future, but a revelation that discloses in advance the direction of events that will occur in time and their consequences.
This presupposes that events actually occur in time and that those events manifest through the choices and actions of actual beings and through their consequences.