Depends on what you're looking through....
Do we really see the Universe ? While our eyes may see the moon, we are really seeing the moon's position where it was 2 1/2 seconds ago....not where it really is. While our eyes may see the sun (with the proper protection, of course) we are really seeing the sun where it was 8 1/2 minutes ago ! Even through the Hubble Telescope, which has given us magnificent views from all parts of the Universe in multiple electromagnetic spectra, we are yet only able to see the Universe as it looked 13.5 BILLION years ago !!
Scientists tell us the the Universe is expanding.
However, there is nothing expanded at all; besides you becoming aware of Reality's true dimensions.....which includes you.
What ARE Reality's true dimensions ?
It is because we ARE human that though we look at the Universe with our eyes, we actually SEE it, and ourselves, through our "eye"-deas (ideas !)
That's how the premise of your question can be perceived in the TRUE perspective in which we live, move and have our Being.
Eternity is the true Reality in which we live, move, and have our Being.
God knows the future because GOD IS all hours, all dates, all days, all time, and all times, ALL futures, ALL pasts, ALL presents EVERY WHERE AND EVERY WHEN.......at ONCE!!!
To God, Who is ETERNITY itself, ALL is COMPLETE, PERFECT, EVER-PRESENT and KNOWN !
God’s plan is NOT unfolding. It is ALREADY perfected and completed.
There is no "future" OR "history" in which ETERNITY, Itself CAN change.
Eternity CONTAINS all futures and all histories, not the reverse.
Time is merely a name we have mutually agreed amongst ourselves to erroneously describe the experience of partitioning Eternity into segments.
Designations of past, present, future are what WE utilize to pretend that the ONE is divisible into those segments. It only appears to US that we are somehow in the middle, moving in time from what we call the past toward what we call the future.
Eternity CANNOT BE DIVIDED into parts.....because the Reality itself is ONE, INDIVISABLE WHOLE.
We think that because we've agreed that there is a Tuesday on our calendars that there really IS a span of time called Tuesday. Similarly we think that because the hands of our clocks are oriented with the longer one pointing in one direction while the shorter hand points in another, we actually believe that designates a real "hour" in a real day ("it's 3 o'clock").
In the "territory" in which we TRULY live, RIGHT NOW WHILE YOU ARE READING THIS, there is NO SUCH THING as an hour, or a second, or a minute, or a day, or night, or Tuesday, or 2019, 2029, or beginnings or ends.
As author Baird Spalding says in the reference, ”Becoming aware of yourself as a spiritual being, offspring of an infinite spiritual system and one with all the powers and capacities within that system, is the very essence of attainment. To grow from the present state of awareness of himself as a material being and into the consciousness that he is a spiritual being contains the full secret of man's attainment.' Man's nature cannot be reversed for he always remains a spiritual being. He can only reverse his notion of himself. Instead of doing this, he should reverse his mistaken idea that he is a material being and retain the truth that he is a spiritual being created in the image and likeness of God."
It is because we ARE human that though we look at the Universe with our eyes, we actually SEE it, and ourselves, through our "eye"-deas (ideas !)
Our Creator did not create human beings as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or any religious faiths we associate with these or any other names (whether I've named them here or not!). These names, believed and acted upon as if relevant, only serve to hide the FACT that the Creator made ALL OF US of His Spirit and AS His Image....
Our Creator created human beings, AS HIS VERY SPIRIT AND IMAGE. We are Who the Creator is in Spirit....not subservient adherents to whatever religion or philosophy we profess to include ourselves or exclude one another from or fight over.
As Spiritual Beings, there are NO temporal OR spatial "borders" for us, either. As Spiritual Beings, being every where and every when AT ONCE means there are no partitions called "past", "present" OR "future". THIS is Who we are and THIS is what IS perfect, as well as natural, to us in our proper estate. Not after we die! I mean right NOW as you read these very words.
Don't believe me ??
Consider that the ONLY reason we CAN act as if there are passing days and nights is BECAUSE the rotation of the Earth on its axis makes the sun APPEAR to be rising in the east and setting in the west. Outside of this rotation, there IS NO occurrence called night OR day. Ironically, if the Earth were rotating in the OTHER direction, we would STILL act as if days and nights occur in succession.
Do you REALLY, ACTUALLY believe you are 30 years old (or ANY number you prefer) because the Earth rotates on its axis while revolving around the Sun....just because you've celebrated a certain number of birthdays recorded on an artifact filled with made-up designations called dates ???
If you were a citizen of Mars, which rotates on its axis faster than Earth's rotation, but takes LONGER to rotate around the Sun, would you consider yourself OLDER than your Earth neighbor ?
There are no beginnings or endings to......NOW.
Jesus' message and reason for coming to this earthly dimension was to show us, in as stark, as uncompromising, and as definitive a manner as possible, that we are as He is, which is as our Creator endowed us all to be, and that is as immortal, Spiritual beings who are the Spirit and Image of our Creator. We are NOT physical beings. We are Spiritual Beings like He is! ...the exact Spirit and Likeness of the Creator, Himself. As such, we are PERFECTLY CREATED SPIRITUAL BEINGS, who have forgotten Who we are to such an extent that we believe we must use clocks and calendars to tell us where and when we are.
Just as Creation acts as One, there is really no such place where "you" begin and where Creation ends; and similarly, there is no dividing line between a "universal self"and an "individual self".
Ego gives the false appearance (illusion) that "a part OF" the Whole is "apart FROM" the Whole.
"Individual" really means; cannot be divided from, or separated from, the One Whole I AM into parts.
The 'individual' self and the 'universal' Self are One and the Same.
"I, the individual self" is really the Whole I AM expressing Itself as "a part of the Whole"....you.
God is the I AM of all. We live, move, and have our Being in Him. And beside Him there is no other.
I AM THAT I AM AND BESIDE ME THERE IS NO OTHER.
The Creator and the Created are one.
The Knower and the Known are one.
The Universal and the individual are one.
"As above, so below".......as One.
If God is One, and God is ALL THERE IS.....then there is no one else to BE anyone else.
.......so Who does that make us as "offspring of an infinite spiritual system and one with all the powers and capacities within that system" ?
You know Who, don't you?......you don't even have to say it.
…..Created as the very Spirit and Image of God, Himself, we ALREADY live with our Creator in the "territory" of Eternity....as One.......NOW !!
"I and my Father are One"....is just as true of you as it is of all...
I AM THAT I AM AND BESIDE ME THERE IS NO OTHER .
......means exactly that....
The Creator is Who WE, and EACH OTHER, are !!
"Love thy neighbor as thyself"......because thy neighbor IS Thyself.
Understanding THAT is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, of the matter.
Again, whether scientists, theologians, philosophers, or laypersons, we may look at the Creation with our eyes, but we “see” through our ideas.
Pretty mind-expanding, isn't it ??
Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East (6 Volume Set)
By Baird T. Spalding
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