What time is, and why God is in it with you

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This is a companion to my conversation with Dr. Ryan Mullins, "This chat about 'God and time' literally changed my life." Ryan is a philosopher of religion who has spent his career on one question, God's relationship to time. He holds a doctorate in philosophical theology from St Andrews and a habilitation, the further degree Nordic and German-speaking universities award after the doctorate, from the University of Helsinki, and he teaches philosophy and theology at the University of Lucerne. He is also one of the most delightful people I have ever had on this channel, and near the end of the video you will hear me tell him that I feel significantly less crazy for having talked to him. That sentence is the reason this guide exists.

It is for the person who was handed "God is outside of time" as if it settled something, and who has felt for years that it settled nothing. Maybe you followed the logic of what you were taught all the way down and could not live with the God at the bottom of it. Maybe you have real questions about foreknowledge and free will that you have never said out loud in a Bible study, because you were afraid of what they would mean about you. If that is you, this is for you.

How to use it: watch the video first if you can, because Ryan's way of talking is half the gift. Then keep your Bible open and read "The teaching" straight through; it carries the whole argument on its own. I have credited Ryan's teaching to Ryan by name, quoted him only where I have his exact words, and kept my own claims as my own. After that, work "The passages" slowly with a pen, checking every quotation against your own Bible, and save "Questions to sit with" for last, on paper.

One thing before we go. Being right about God and time does not save anyone. Faith in Christ does. I have friends all over the map on this, people who love the Lord and love others, and Ryan himself is still working out where he lands on how God knows the future. We disagree on that, and I say so plainly below. So hold this loosely enough to be convinced by the text, and kindly enough to stay at the table with the people who read it differently.

It matters because the picture you carry of God and time decides whether you believe your prayers reach a God who can respond, whether the worst day of your life was in a script, and whether anything you do this week can change anything. Those are the questions underneath the philosophy. The philosophy is worth the effort because of them.