The Definition of Time
Let there be a Firmament between the waters and the waters.
Illustration © Genesis Logic
The First Day, that is, the first cycle of creation, concluded with the alternation of Daytime and Night, making the repetition of experiences possible. However, experiences become distinguishable from one another only when they are also separated in time.
Experiences must be known one by one so that the appearing laws can be distinguished. Sequential knowing is necessary; therefore, it is through experience limited by time and space that we become capable of knowing the appearing laws.
According to the text, God does not create the present. Rather, He creates a Firmament between the waters and the waters.
According to the wording of the Bible, the Firmament is the Present, which appears here and now. The past is the sequence of times and experiences before the Present, while the future is the sequence of times and experiences after the Present.
"And God called the Firmament Heaven." According to our previous definitions, Heaven is the world of laws, where our definitions exist. In the Present, definitions appear because the laws existing in Heaven appear in the material world. In the Present, we always experience the manifestations of the laws. This is equally true of the past and the future when we are actually experiencing those particular experiences, but only while we experience them as the Present.
The past and the future, however, as we remember them and imagine them, do not constitute experience. We may imagine anything whatsoever, but everything can appear only as it is possible according to the laws of Heaven. Therefore, the name of the Firmament is Heaven.
The significance of imagining the past and the future also appears here, because the past and the future are the waters, which represent laws that are present unconsciously. We imagine how things will appear based on our present knowledge of the laws of the world. The experiences that follow either confirm our expectations when what happens is what we expected, or reveal the errors in our expectations when what happens is not what we expected.
Many Bible translations use the word Vault instead of Firmament. Therefore, we include both terms in the glossary.
Firmament, Ceiling (Vault): Present.
A boundary line that separates the laws that can be known through our experiences so far from those laws that, in the absence of experience, are not yet knowable for us. The present moment, where the consequences of the laws appear in matter, are experienceable, and can be recognized through correct attention.
Genesis 1:6-8
The definition of Heaven means the world of laws, which appears in the material world. Based on this passage, the meaning of Heaven is expanded by the recognition that Heaven appears in the Present.
Only in the experiences that appear in the Present do the laws defined in Heaven certainly appear. During the process of knowing, we formulate the laws of Heaven based on our experiences in the form we are presently capable of. However, the degree to which our definitions correspond to the laws of Heaven is revealed by the experiences we live through in the Present.
This is, in practice, the trial by fire.
In the fire of experience, our false definitions are burned away, while those that correspond to the true laws become strengthened and refined.
We perceive the world and future events according to our own conceptions, but reality appears in the Present according to the laws of Heaven.
The fire burns continuously. The fire is life—the continuous sequence of experiences that constantly refines our knowledge, provided that we shape our knowledge according to our experiences.
The concept of Heaven must therefore be expanded, because God calls the Firmament Heaven.
With the appearance of time, this expands the meaning of Heaven and declares that the laws of Heaven appear within the experiences lived in the Present.
Heaven: Present.
The firmament is the present, its name is Heaven. The experiences of the present provide the possibility of the knowing of laws. When we are present in the here and now, then we see the laws appear in reality.
Genesis 1:8
Before the definition of time, this could not yet be defined. The repetition of experiences makes this expansion of the definition possible. Thus, during the process of knowing, the meanings of the definitions we have already come to know also expand and become increasingly precise.
The statement that the laws of Heaven appear in the Present also indirectly reveals that the definitions created by the Human are the means of knowing. However, the correctness of our definitions is confirmed through the experiences lived in the Present. The definitions and worldview we have formed based on our experiences so far imply a particular future and evaluate the past in a particular way. The reality that appears then reveals the extent to which our conceptions correspond to reality.
Second Day: Time, presence.
The second cycle of creation.
The present moment as the source of knowledge. Presence, the definition of the process of the present moment. Heaven, the gate of the knowledge of laws, is the present. Time: the definition of past, present, and future.
Genesis 1:8
The Bible makes a very important and specific statement regarding the imagined future and the future that comes into manifestation. There is a difference between the future that comes into manifestation and the imagined future because our knowledge is different. God, who knows every law and possesses complete understanding — that is, who knows the complete network of relationships between the laws — knows exactly what will happen, how people will decide, what their intentions are, and whether they will be able to bring them into manifestation. Whatever God foretells comes into manifestation. Always.
People's conceptions of the future differ because they possess different knowledge, and they perceive different networks of relationships among the elements of the knowledge they interpret. Therefore, the imagined future also differs from one individual to another.
The future that comes into manifestation always comes into manifestation according to the laws of heaven, and the network of relationships that exists among the laws of heaven is revealed. These are also new experiences, which point to the errors and misinterpretations in the knowledge that we considered valid.
The future that comes into manifestation becomes the present and reveals the extent to which our knowledge corresponds to reality. Thus, in the purifying fire of the present, our true knowledge is continuously refined, and our false interpretations are continuously burned away.