The Nature of Time
On Marth 20th, 2020 I was listening to an interview on NPR with Brian Greene. They were discussing his new book - “Until the End of Time”. I pulled my car into the garage just as this comment about time, emphasis mine:
If you ask me what time is, as a physicist I can’t really give you an answer. No physicists or thinkers that I’ve encountered can. But certainly I can give you qualities of time, one potent quality is that time is that part of the universe that allows for change to occur.
And so, our lives are all about change, going from moment to moment to moment. And time, what ever it is fundamentally, is that characteristic of the world that allows that kind of progression to occur.
That comment about the nature of time really hit me. I heard that concept from the gospel point of view. If you want to hear it for your self, it starts at about 11:20 in the interview.
I’ve thought a lot about this idea - that there is something unique about how we experience time in mortality. It is somehow different from other points in eternity.
God is Unchangeable
For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.
For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
By these things we know that there is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them;
– DC 20:17
Fundamental to the gospel is a concept of God - that he is unchangeable. Without knowing the full details, we know that God experiences time in a way that is different from how we are going through it now. It would seem there is something inherently different about the way God experiences time. Perhaps part of that includes his unchangeable nature.
Repentance
This stands in stark contrast to the mortal experience that we are going through now. Change is at the very essense of the mortal experience.
We know that we will all fall short of perfection, we will all sin. Our Heavenly Father, knowing this ahead of time, made repentence part of the plan for our time here on earth. And what is repentence but a change? A change of heart, and change of mind, a change of behavior, a change of who we are.
From the Gospel Topics entry on repentance:
Repentance is one of the first principles of the gospel and is essential to our temporal and eternal happiness. It is much more than just acknowledging wrongdoings. It is a change of mind and heart that gives us a fresh view about God, about ourselves, and about the world. It includes turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness. It is motivated by love for God and the sincere desire to obey His commandments.
Part of how we experience time may be tied to our ability to repent.
Progression
The plan of salvation itself is one of progression. In mortality, at least, we are rarely given the whole picture all at once. Instead it comes as a piece here and a section there. Or in the words of Nephi:
For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.
The lines of our mortal experience in time are lines of change.