JEFF TURNER

When the Bible says that one day is like a thousand years to God, and a thousand years like a single day, I don’t believe it means that time has no meaning to Him. The verse from 2 Peter 3:8 reminds us that God experiences time differently. While we live within the limits of time, God stands outside of it. He is eternal and not affected by the hours and years that shape our world.

Still, are the time references in the Bible without reason. When Scripture says that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, some say those days carry their normal meaning. Throughout the Bible, numbers such as 40, 3, and 1,000 are used with care. Forty days appear often, a period of testing or preparation. The time between Jesus’ resurrection and His return to heaven was forty days, an exact and meaningful period. When Jesus said He would rise again in three days, I believe He meant three real days.

Prophecy also uses specific spans of time. The book of Revelation speaks of 3½ years, or 42 months, of judgment on the earth, and Daniel gives exact numbers of days. I do not believe these are to be taken as symbols because there is no reason for them to be taken that way. The thousand-year reign described in Revelation 20 is likely a thousand actual years, since that length is repeated several times in the same passage.

So, while God Himself is not bound by time, the timeframes written in the Bible have a clear meaning. To Him, time does not pass as it does for us. He sees it all at once, eternal and complete.