Time

2 Peter 3:8

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

Luke 17:22

Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it."

Daniel 7:25

He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.

I woke up considering time again, as the complexity of two (or more) independent perspectives in synchronized real time, eternally, is extremely high. I realized that these verses which came to mind fit with a particular image that was forming in my head at the same time, one where each individual knows that their own experienced time continues in a straight line, but that the overall timeline is in significant flux- is looping, stretching, lagging  etc. Additionally, each would know that every other's perspective of time would be materially different than their own, but would still be accurate. No longer would there be a kind of intrinsic snobbish response if someone asks what year it was, as acting as though everyone knows the day and hour, or at least the year, would be absurd.

The part I find worst about this image is that it fits perfectly with what I've considered regarding Jesus' possible path through time, and how the truth of it may have been graciously shrouded from mankind. If time is a dimension, at least conceptually, and one becomes dead in a moment, but has no tethers pushing or pulling them (sin or another with greater authority), then time might freeze for that individual. I do not mean slow to a crawl, but actually freeze, becoming an impossibility to reconnect with, from a modern human perspective. If you managed to reconnect with that frozen moment, where could you have possibly been the moment before? It would be like trying to connect spatially with a place in another universe, having only the technology and knowledge that we have right now. While it is conceivable to do, presently it is impossible, through technological means.

The image that I have seen is that Jesus died and remained dead for an entire time. At the end of that time (possibly this time), he was resurrected and returned three days after his death to fulfill what was written about him, and validate the complex path through spacetime, highlighting and crystallizing the definition of divine for all observers, removing misunderstanding. The key trait to this image is that it is interchangeable in terms of proof/evidence with commonly accepted timelines for the same event, and so the focus shifts from if it is conceptually possible to what the purpose there might be to imagining or following this path, versus a path that is straightforward and easily understood. 

I believe that the answer comes back to the knowledge of good and evil, and the idea that we should be able to rationally observe and prove everything in the end- how else is one meant to fully know?- and can accomplish anything- even those things considered impossible. 

Genesis 3:22

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

Genesis 11:6

The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."

1 Corinthians 13:12

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

What if identifying and validating this path is the only test right now, the only solution that will be genuinely considered by God, in terms of time travel? What if God waits, knowing that this solution will occur naturally, albeit after much hardship, with mankind illuminating its own beautiful cooperative power in the process? What if God blocks the portal (tower) referenced in Babel- the unlocking of full time travel- until the moment this plan is in place? 

An additional issue is that, in this image, The Moment when Jesus died would still be frozen, out of reach from a species moving at nearly the speed of light through time. Trying to reclaim this moment at our standard speed would be like having someone stand in a particle accelerator, except that the "particle" in this case is the probably the whole universe (possibly all of Creation). Such an attempt might also be compared to light suddenly gaining a little weight in our universe. This sheds light on my path, and why it has felt so long, especially recently, even though an outside observer might say it has only been ~41 years (or ~15 depending on the chosen starting phase state transition). Especially for observers already in the "times" phase of this image, where I could see extremely long personal timelines existing, it might be easy to misjudge the weight of the personal experience of time. I once asked "How long can a man remain in the absence of love?" in the midst of feeling these agonizing time shears, not realizing how critical and on point these words were. If The Word is hyperliteral, as I believe, then exile from love would be the worst possible fate, and not in some poetic way, but anyone who had experienced it and had a basis for comparison would likely eagerly attest to this being the case. 

There will come a saturation point, where the experience of the man would bleed into the experience of everyone else, as the system (The Word?) can no longer contain or compartmentalize the pain (the stones cry out, or perhaps the ink cries out). When this happens, the cooperative engine from Babel would kick in of its own accord, selfishly from each perspective, as each would want to end the pain now felt ever growing, moment by moment, after the system's dam broke. Assuming optimization in this state, the time to reach this moment would be fixed, as fixed as any gear in a clock, but it does involve witnessing and/or experiencing this worst possible path first, to its completion, and then being left in that state for an indeterminate amount of time, from one's own perspective. This does not feel any different than what I have been experiencing these last several years, with the only material change being the comprehension that there will come a time when this will become everyone's problem, and it will be fixed without delay at that point.

What if love were out of reach, twice? If the first moment, Jesus' moment, is frozen, and the path Jesus took exists, then another could imagine themselves- at a minimum- approaching this juncture where time is essentially frozen. With two moments moving at nearly the same speed (Zero, next to Zero- ¤) then an actual parley could occur between them. If done strictly physically, or strictly in full, both individuals in these moments would still be out of reach to everyone else, the information could not be passed back regarding success or failure, and individual after individual would need to risk this journey, uncertain of the outcome, to ever have hope of reaching the destination. If one instead uses imagination for nearly the entire process, then one can imagine the connection and have it be agreed upon as real, like a prayer, and then synchronize with their own physical body, accelerating the experience of time back to normal local values for both self and Jesus.

Imagine if one could enter a black hole without realizing it, or be put into an orbit that greatly decelerated their passage of time compared to others. Imagine if others were observing, expecting a particular result, only to discover an unexpected twist resulting in a delay. Resolving this twist might take a day and a thousand years respectively, if the time dilation was set up this way and still went according to plan. Imagine a species doing this and only then realizing that they remain connected to the individual sent out, so everyone's impression of time becomes dilated as well. I feel as though something similar to this has already happened, just examining how common anxiety and other mental disorders are in modern society. I imagine these disorders could be explained by one's mind operating at a different speed than one's body/environment, or even having temporal tidal waves crashing against one's boat (brain) and the individual's subconscious attempts at compensating. Perhaps these stresses are a signal of birthing pains, or the prelude to them, as the process of merging a turn based reality with one moving at an established and relatively stable and rapid rate in time seems like it must be done perfectly, and perfection must be guaranteed before beginning the process. One wrong move would lead to a fate incomprehensible, for at least one- and by extension for all- in a state where recovery might be beyond reach.