This statement makes no sense.
Evidently.
If we, rather, imagine God to be the Master and Creator of time, He can easily act "once" (for lack of a better word) to fulfill all of His interaction with the created world.
So what is God doing with the rest of his time?
Sigh. God is eternal. He is outside of time. Saying "what does God do with His time" is nonsensical. God is. He exists.
Try to think of it as if you were a filmmaker. You can conceive the entire idea for the story of the film in one moment of inspiration. You don't have to sit around and wait for the story to unfold in real time before you decide what is going to happen next. And if you want to go back and change the opening credits, you can do so. You exist outside of the time frame of the movie. You are its creator.
If God chose to predestine absolutely everything, why even bother going through the effort of the creation?
I never said God "predestines" everything, though in a way He does. It is simply that God interacts with creation in a manner in which He is not limited to the time we experience.
This assumption of yours is nothing more than idle speculation.
And yours isn't? LOL
But God, who is not limited to time, and can see and know all things and all times, can simply act from eternity in a single action.
Really?
Yes, really.
Then please explain how the Biblical account of creation took six days, with God resting on the seventh, fits within your assumptions. Seems to me that God was operating within time to me.
Yes, it seems to you that way. You and I are in time. Of course it seems that way to us. That's what I am saying. Sheesh!
It also seems to me that such a position would also mean that the sequence of events would not be relevant. This is absurd on its face. Christ was not conceived, born, grow up, start his ministry, crucified, died, buried, rise again, and ascend into heaven all at the same moment.
Not in time, no. But to God, all things, all times are the same.
God is a God of order and not disorder, and if man is made in the image of God, it would seem reasonable to me to think that God operates within time since man clearly thinks within time.
Rather, since you think within time, you think it is reasonable to think that God must share your limitations. Doesn't Scripture tell us that God's thoughts are not ours?
I fear you still are not understanding. Yes, to us God operates within our time, sequentially. That does not mean, to a Being outside of time, that this is necessarily the case.
I also think it is a bit of a stretch to use the phrase "God created time" when it seems reasonable to me that time is simply a characteristic of the nature of the world; and like God, has always existed.
The "nature of the world" has always existed? God didn't create it?
God created everything. Period. There are no "natures" or "ideas" that existed prior to God creating the universe.
To think that time did not always exist would lead a reasonable person to question whether God always existed.
Only a "reasonable" person who takes time and "nature" as given absolutes, rather than considering God to be such.
SD
Really?
Yes, really.
In all respect, the question is not what He can do in some hypothetical sense that our minds could imagine, but what does the biblical data suggest that He can and did do. It appears to me that the biblical data suggests that He acts linearly and sequentially.
"What is the purpose of discussing time as it relates to God? Doesn't the Bible start with "In the beginning" and isn't God eternal and "from everlasting to everlasting"? And isn't Jesus Christ the focal point of all of human history? This all seems so obvious to me that there really isn't much, if anything, to add that is worthwhile stating; or am I missing something?"
It seems to me this discussion involves much speculation on both sides. I would make comments on several of your statements, but I simply don't look at the matter of whether God is within time or outside of time to be interesting enough to devote further effort on my part. I am not trying to say others shouldn't discuss it; just that it is not of any real compelling interest to me.
Have a great day.