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I tend to look at it in a simpler form, as in God is “above” time.

Picture a Globe in your mind. Time is marching happily along following the equator. God, sitting on His Throne at the North Pole. At any given instant He can see every moment in our history, all in the present in His view. Just as we can trace multiple lines of longitude on a globe at the same time. In God’s eye, the past - present - future are all “now” to Him.

Oh, while I am thinking about it, I think at some point we will exceed the speed of light. What I wonder is when that happens, who is gonna pay the speeding ticket? [grin]

Thank you so much for sharing your visualization of God's "now" dear brother in Christ!

Oh, while I am thinking about it, I think at some point we will exceed the speed of light.

Some Jewish mystics believe the firmament is not geometric, i.e. here/earth versus there/heaven. Rather, they believe the firmament is a boundary such as the speed of light, that the "here" is "there" and vice versa.

Sound and light - like our very existence in Wesson's article linked above - are waves. And according to Wesson's article, the oscillating wave (our existence) continues after death, which is to say we merely experience a phase shift when we physically die.

Indeed, space/time and wave fluctuation are like hand-in-glove. From a previous post of mine:

Mathematically, the dimension of a space is the minimum number of coordinates (axes) necessary to identify a point within the space. A space of zero dimensions is a point; one dimension, a line, two dimensions, a plane; three, a cube, etc. That is the geometry of it. In zero dimensions, the mathematical point is indivisible.

It is not nothing. It is a spatial point. A singularity is not nothing.

In ex nihilo Creation (beginning of space/time) - the dimensions are not merely zero, they are null, dimensions do not exist at all. There is no space and no time. Period.

There is no mathematical point, no volume, no content, no scalar quantities. Ex nihilo doesn’t exist in relationship to anything else; there is no thing.

In an existing physical space, each point (e.g. particle) can be parameterized by a quantity such as mass. The parameter (e.g. a specific quantity within the range of possible quantities) is in effect another descriptor or quasi-dimension that uniquely identifies the point within the space.

Moreover, if the quantity of the parameter changes for a point, then a time dimension is invoked. For example, at one moment the point value is “0” and the next it is “1”.

Wave propagation (e.g. big bang, inflation) cannot occur in null dimensions nor can it occur in zero spatial dimensions, a mathematical point; a dimension of time is required for any fluctuation in a parameter value at a point.

Moreover, wave propagation must also have a spatial/temporal relation from cause point to effect point, i.e. physical causation.

For instance “0” at point n^t causes “1” at point n+1^t+1 which causes "0" at point n+1^t+2 etc..

Obviously, physical wave propagation (e.g. big bang/inflationary model) cannot precede space/time and physical causality. Again,

In the absence of space, things cannot exist.

In the absence of time, events cannot occur.

Both space and time are required for physical causation.

Likewise, some Jewish mystics offer an insight that I find helpful in expressing that God is the Creator of "all that there is" including space, time and causation. More specifically, they use the term Ayn Sof to refer to Him as the Creator. The term literally means "no thing" and conveys the points that He is not subject to His own Creation and moreover, that any word we mere mortals would use to describe Him (e.g. time, space, causation) limits our ability to know Who He IS to the term that we used.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. - Revelation 1:8

To God be the glory!.

I tend to look at it in a simpler form, as in God is “above” time.

Picture a Globe in your mind. Time is marching happily along following the equator. God, sitting on His Throne at the North Pole. At any given instant He can see every moment in our history, all in the present in His view. Just as we can trace multiple lines of longitude on a globe at the same time. In God’s eye, the past - present - future are all “now” to Him.

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A-G & bb: It appears that, in Petruchio, we have another participant in our discussions of God's "Universal Now"... :-)

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FWIW, APOD has just published a new, "deeper" iteration of the "Hubble Deep Field" image, called "the Hubble Extreme Deep Field". It is a longer exposure (and "sees farther") than, even the "Hubble Ultra Deep Field"!

(Reduced size for posting on FR.) To experience the image in its 'full glory', go the APOD page for 14 OCT 2012, then click on the image to open it at full resolution, then blow it up and "wander around that section of space". Trust me, the experience is awesome -- and humbling...

The HST was set to "stare" at a "spot" in space so small that the image only includes two of the "local" stars in our "Milky Way" galaxy. (Sorta like peering through a tiny "soda straw"...) Aside from those two stars, every other object in that image is a complete, unimaginably huge, billions of stars -- GALAXY! ...and the view is, essentially the same -- regardless of the direction in which we point our "soda straw"!

Of course, we are incapable of perceiving "reality": because our data only arrive at the speed of light, we see each of those galaxies as it was when the photons we see departed it. For a galaxy a thousand light years ago, we see it as (and where) it was in 1012AD.

Only God (looking from His "extra-4D vantage point") can see His entire created universe as it actually is "right NOW". (the "Universal NOW").

So, Petruchio we share the same concept of God's "beyond time" omniscience!

I can't help but wonder if, when we are with Him "Where" He is, we will share that "Universal NOW" viewing capability...

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Wow! Talk about "Hope and Change"...!!! :-)

I think at some point we will exceed the speed of light.

It's not a question of whether something can exceed the speed of light. It's a question of measurement. We cannot observe or measure anything that goes faster than light in a vacuum.