How can God know both the past and the future of All things from beginning?

[InvestigateTruth]

The best way, I am comfortable to see that according to my ability is, to say, this whole world is God's creation.
the relationship between God and His creation is, like a Painter and His painting.

So, imagine a painting. In this painting from left to right, Past, Present and future is painted. When the Painter looks at the Painting, He see, past, Present and future of All things at the same time. For Him, past, present and future is the same.
That's because, It is not like God, at some point started to create, or there was a time, He did not have any creation. Neither It is fair to say, there was a time, God's creation was less complete and gradually He has been completing it.
No! From beginning that has no beginning to the end that has no End, God's creation is perfect and the same.
The fate of everything is determined in the Living Painting.
So, for us, which are part of the creation, past, present and future are different. But, for the God, it is all the same. He can just see all of it at the same time, on the Living Painting of creation.

This is my understanding from Bahai Scriptures.


Some reference Quotes:

"Consider the relation between the craftsman and his handiwork, between the painter and his painting. Can it ever be maintained that the work their hands have produced is the same as themselves?" Baha'u'llah

"The past, the present, and the future are all equal in relation to God. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow do not exist in the sun." Abdulbaha



What are your thoughts?

 

[Pete in Panama]

The question makes a lot of assumptions that I don't buy into.

In the first place, I don't believe the past goes on FOREVER and I don't believe the future goes on FOREVER either. I see all of creation as being finite and bounded, and when I say "I see", I'm talking about physical observations -we can get into that if you're curious.

Secondly, all we can really see and touch is the here and now. My personal view is that the past may not exist now. Sure, the past generates a universe that we live in now but whether it still exists is debatable.

Finally, the future is not available to us in its entirety now. Tomorrow we will see what kind of universe God has ready for us then, but for now all we got are hints. Our reality has place and time, and our reality comes into conflict when we observe the quantum level and when we observe the intergalactic level. Fortunately those levels don't mess w/ us enough to make our life impossible here and now.

 

[InvestigateTruth]

The question makes a lot of assumptions that I don't buy into.

In the first place, I don't believe the past goes on FOREVER and I don't believe the future goes on FOREVER either. I see all of creation as being finite and bounded, and when I say "I see", I'm talking about physical observations -we can get into that if you're curious.

Secondly, all we can really see and touch is the here and now. My personal view is that the past may not exist now. Sure, the past generates a universe that we live in now but whether it still exists is debatable.

Finally, the future is not available to us in its entirety now. Tomorrow we will see what kind of universe God has ready for us then, but for now all we got are hints. Our reality has place and time, and our reality comes into conflict when we observe the quantum level and when we observe the intergalactic level. Fortunately those levels don't mess w/ us enough to make our life impossible here and now.

Sure, but God is not like us, and we are not like God.
All you say is true, from our perspective which are part of the Painting. We are drawn in that Painting of God. But God Himself is outside of the Painting. So, while for us past, present and future are different, and that there is a limit to the past of this world, in relation with God, it is different

 

[1213]

The best way, I am comfortable to see that according to my ability is, to say, this whole world is God's creation.
the relationship between God and His creation is, like a Painter and His painting.

I think that is quite good way to see it. I think God knows His creation so well that He can know what it will do in future. Similarly as the maker of car knows what happens when car is handled in certain way.

 

[Pete in Panama]

Sure, but God is not like us, and we are not like God.

My preference is to avoid saying what God is like and what He's not like because if I did then I'd feel like I'd be putting God in a box. That get's dicey. OK, so we can say that we're different from God but at the same time the scriptures say we were created in God's image:

Genesis 1;26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.​

--and yet we can't forget that an image of a mountain is not the same as the mountain. Still, looking at an image of a mountain is really a lot like looking at the mountain, while not being the "same".

All you say is true, from our perspective which are part of the Painting. We are drawn in that Painting of God. But God Himself is outside of the Painting. So, while for us past, present and future are different, and that there is a limit to the past of this world, in relation with God, it is different

Maybe it's different for God or maybe it's not different, seems that what's going on w/ God is way over my pay grade. As for the past, present, and future I can see that everything in our observable universe began about some 13Billion years ago and it's all going to end one way or the other. The creation that God seems to have given us is limited.

 

[Frank Buffalo]

I think this is a concept invented by theologians as part of an ongoing development to idealize a human-invented god. It was influenced by philosophical musings about the nature of the universe, about the nature of being, and a weird hopefulness that there are controls on history. Observations of nature led to assumptions about how all that happens follows universal laws--and that these laws are unchanging. The development of god, including the notion of omniscience, had to pay attention to these musings and observations, to keep up to date with the development of human understanding--such as it was--of the world around us.

Biblical sources include the creation story in Genesis, the Old Testament "histories" of Israel, and the New Testament book of revelation. Men wrote these things, but what did they know, really?

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

There are two things that you need to define first
What is God
And what is Time.

 

[Pete in Panama]

There are two things that you need to define first
What is God
And what is Time.

For me the definitions are fairly straightforward.

God is reality. We can discuss that further if you want. Time is (from here) is the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues. Time began some 13B years ago. The properties of our universe are objectively real -another way of say all is ordained by God. What happens outside of our observations may or may not be real --another way of saying God has hidden those things from us.