1/3/2023 0 Comments One moment in time book![]() God decided outside of time how creation should be, and the fact that it exists in time does not mean that God exists in time. ![]() God exists separately from time, and temporal things unfold as part of his eternal design. Augustine cannot fully answer this question except to say that it is the wrong kind of question. Manichees were wont to question this, asking what God was doing before creation. Augustine explains that all human speech exists in time, with even a single word having a beginning and an end and "the syllables sounded and passed away." The Word could not have been like temporal speech: God's Word is always being said, and has no beginning and no end.Īnother temporal word that Moses wrote in Genesis was "beginning," which caused similar problems for Augustine. The "And God said" (Gen 1:3) passage in Genesis also presented problems for Augustine. Here, Augustine employs the figurative, or spiritual, interpretation of the Bible that was first taught to him by Bishop Ambrose. That would mean that God existed in time, and was thus limited by it. Genesis states that God made the universe, but that suggests that there was a time before the creation of the universe. His primary problem begins with Genesis, and the idea that God created the universe. The temporality of Earth and the eternity of God are tenets of Augustine's faith. Leading from his discussion of memory, the understanding of the nature of time appears to be the next logical topic. ![]() Indeed, this is true of all the Books in Confessions. He is writing this with God in mind, and in an effort to further his own understanding of God. ![]() This is a rhetorical device that negates the possibility that he might be critiqued for any philosophical errors, and also serves to show that he is not philosophizing just for the sake of doing so. At the beginning of the Book he tells his readers that the arguments are both intricate and difficult, and that he has to appeal for God to help. In this Book Augustine assesses the nature of time itself and discusses how it relates to the eternity of God. ![]()
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