Time as “The Pattern of the Heavens”
Time, as a Biblical concept, is not an external mechanical process but an organic relationship of earth’s conformity to the “Pattern of the Heavens.” This “Pattern” represents the ideal, the pure, the true, the incorruptible, the immortal. God’s perfect Pattern is shown in the Heavens and should govern in our daily lives: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
An important aspect of true religion is not merely to mark the times through periodic observances, but rather, by a constant lifestyle and attitude to conform to the image of God; not to worship one or the other, or even all of the heavenly bodies or phenomena, but to walk in a total conformity to the Pattern. It is Man’s vocation and recreation to learn and to take dominion over the whole earth in conformity to the Pattern of the Heavens.
The whole earth is imprinted by the Pattern: “The earth is turned as clay to the seal.” (Job 38:14). Just as the soft clay or wax responded to the impress of the signet seal, so the earth responds to the turning heavens, making day and night, creating seasonal changes, bringing forth herbs, grasses, and grains, producing fruits and fat cattle; then, dying, it is covered by snows and softened by rains.
The earth reflects the heavens. Just as the vast oceans mirror the heavens, so also Man should reflect as a mirror the pure image of God. He is impressed and molded by the stamp of God’s Name seal upon him. The great truth that the earth was created as an image or reflection of the heavens underlies the Biblical text and its world view.[1] The whole Bible is informed by it; etymology and philology of Biblical words can be enhanced by it; interpretation and translation can be greatly aided by reference to this view. It is a unifying view–all things become a uni-verse,–at one. It is an exalted view, lifting the earthly to an ideal purpose. It is a productive view, bringing the power of times and seasons into the service of the labors of Mankind, but most of all furnishing a comprehensive analog for the universal relationship of God and Man, and exalting the Man Christ Jesus.
Time as Psychological Order:
When the earth was without form and blank, Christ was the concept of Order in the mind of God before He became a spoken Word.[2] When the Concept became a Word, Christ was that Word. When God spoke that Word, the Word issued forth as Light. This was the process of the birth of the Firstborn from the mind of God. Christ is not only the Light of the World, but is the universal and primordial Light that initiated Time.
The impression of Light created Pattern, form and order in the earth. Moses was to “make all things according to the Pattern…” Just as God had created form and order in the earth through Patterns of Light from the heavens, so was Moses to copy that Pattern in all of the works which God instructed him to do. Although this Pattern is a much more comprehensive concept than what we call ‘time,’ it includes it. It is the influence of the ideal order of things, the force of irresistible power, the impress of heaven upon earth.
The Pattern is manifest by order in all things, for example, time, (i.e. the calendar), the order of space, (i.e. cartography), the social order of law, the mental order of wisdom, the bodily order of health. This Pattern of creative Light is Christ, the mystery hidden until the New Testament era.
1. Logos:
The Greeks aspired to this world view through their concept of logos, but logos falls short of the full impact of the Biblical unity of Time and Light. This Unity of Light and Time is expressed in the term Urim ve Thummim and that term becomes one word in the written form ‘oth, (aleph ve tau), Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. (See my article: “Alpha and Omega,” commentary on Revelation 1:8).
There are some facts about light which will illustrate why it is such a fitting symbol of Christ. Light has physical and spiritual qualities as well as psychological effects. The physical properties of light are the creative forces of the material world; the spiritual qualities are faith, hope and love; the psychological effects are those of orientation in time and space. The Book of Revelation shows Christ in these roles.[3]
In the physical sense, all that is created was created by light, and all energy or power comes ultimately from light in some form. For example, as the source of photosynthesis, light causes plants to grow, develop and produce after their kind; plants, in turn, feed animals and human life. Past ages of light have generated the energy of fossil fuels by which we now have electric lights.
The psychological effects of light are for orientation in time and space. For orientation in space, sight, the faculty by which we navigate and understand our world, is made possible by light. Sight may be physical or intellectual. Understanding and wisdom are the internalization of the physical phenomenon of an experience of light. Commonly, the term “I see” means “I understand.” A wise man who understands the higher mysteries is called a ‘seer.’ The spiritual effects of Light orient us to the immaterial world which is seen by faith, grasped by hope and experienced by love.
2. Orientation
Orientation in time and space requires a center or focal point. Christ is not only that Light that proceeds forth from God, but is also that Point of Light which remains steady throughout the ages and which, therefore, can serve as a reference point in regard to all else in this shifting universe. “Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today, and forever.”[4]
From the perspective of the earth, the natural point of light which appears to remain constantly in place while the entire universe turns about it is the pole star.[5] The pole star has served as the point of reference for orientation in time and space since the dawn of history. Charts of the apparent heavens use it to mark the meridian lines from which the whole heavens and earth can be described. Navigators on land, sea and air have guided themselves by it. Architectural and engineering projects have been oriented by means of it. Surveys of the earth’s surface use it as a prime reference point.
But the heavens are in an apparent, ordered, constant motion that continually circles the pole. Other celestial objects might be said to have their “year,” that is, their period of time in which they go forth and return to their same apparent position in regard to other celestial positions. For example, there is the sun year of 365+ days, the moon year of 354+ days, and the various “years” of the stars and planets. It may be said, however, that the “year” of the pole star is eternal, for it remains in the same place constantly.[6] It is both the constancy of the pole star and the regularity of these circlings that make counting of time possible.[7]
Only recently have the universal dimensions of time become popularly known through publicity surrounding the space programs. But the view of the cosmos as a mechanical process must be surrendered if we are to interpret Biblical time correctly. We must rather view time as universal Patterns of Light, declaring the glory of God to the world.
Biological Order:
There is also a biological aspect of time and light, a subjective, innate awareness that is both physical and psychological. The effects of time and light upon the biological creation are incalculable although poorly understood. We can speak of our “body clocks” that determine our sleeping and waking patterns and which are disturbed, for example, when one suffers “jet lag” after a long journey by plane. Insects, birds, and other animals navigate and migrate by reference to light and the changing light of the seasons. Plants, too, blossom and set fruit according to the patterns of light they experience. The whole range of the effects of time and light upon us are not yet known.
So Christ, too, was “made flesh” and became subject to the earthly biological experience of time. In doing so He revealed the profound hidden mystery of Time, the unity of heaven and earth.
[1] Neugebauer shows that in Babylonian mathematics of the Hammurabi period there was a strong concept of similarity, (congruence), which later led to geometric calculations. (p. 45.) The concept of ratio and proportion followed this idea of similarity. The germ of the idea lies in this tradition of the likeness of heaven and earth. Neugebauer, O. Exact Sciences In Antiquity. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey. 1952.
[3] See my article “Visions of God,” commentary on Revelation 1:11-20. In this vision of Christ, He is at the center of the universe, holding the “seven stars” in His hand.
[4]Malina, ibid., sees Christ as the polokrator, the power that turns the universe, p. 73. He suggests that moderns who face an ever-expanding cosmos can find wholeness and “at home-ness” in the idea that God is the center of the universe.
[5] The pole star has been known as the aleph star since the earliest records. The letter aleph in Hebrew is also used as the number one. The aleph with a mark over it is the number 1,000. The term “thousand years” may well be the translation of the Hebrew aleph with the mark over it, meaning 1,000 eternal, or aleph years. Since each of the aleph years, or, that is, the years of the pole star, are eternal, the phrase means ‘forever.’ Christ will reign for 1,000 eternal years. This is consistent with many other Scriptures; for example, Luke 1:33b: “And of His kingdom there shall be no end.” Isaiah 9:7a: “Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end,…” This view makes the millennial question irrelevant.
It may also be that the aleph years referred to the great cycle of the precession of the equinox in which the equinox precesses through the entire circle of 360 degrees. According to Ulansey, David, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World, Oxford University Press. New York, Oxford. 1989, this period would be 25,920 solar years. If this be the period referred to, one thousand aleph years would be literally 25,920,000 solar years, an unimaginable period of time! (See my article “Alpha and Omega”, page 15
See also my commentary on Revelation chapter 20, “Thousand Years.”
[6] Astronomers point out that there is no mathematically exact “pole star” for all time, but that the deviation from the precise polar position is so small that, for all practical purposes, the pole star serves as the reference point. Because of the earth’s wobble over the eons of time, the earth’s north pole projected into space would draw a wavy line around the celestial pole. These deviations, however, are so small as not to be apparent to the observer on earth except with very sophisticated instruments.
It also must be kept in mind that all celestial motion as observed by the natural eye are only the apparent motion; that is, what they appear to be doing from our earthly perspective. For example, we perceive the earth as steady, not in motion, and the sun, moon, and stars as revolving around the earth. But from the perspective of the universe, the earth is actually spinning on its axis in orbit around the sun. This causes the periodic shadow of night and the changing of the seasons which we experience.
These imperfections in our perceptions do not nullify the analogy with the supremacy of Christ in His majestic role as Light. It simply points up the fact that no symbol is fully worthy to describe Him. We only see Him now as through a darkened glass–as we must view an eclipse of the sun–but when our bodies become like His glorious Body, we shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him.
[7] There was also the idea of the “Great Year”: “When the vault of the sky returns to the position it had at the very time of creation, it will be with Aries at the point of preeminence, the head of the cosmos…. (Quoting Cicero: ‘… but when all the stars return to the place from which they at first set forth, and, at long intervals, restore the original configuration of the whole heaven, then that can truly be called a revolving year… ‘) For our author, John the Revelator, that year is already here…. “ Malina, ibid., pp. 240-1.