What Does the Present Mean in the Bible?
The present is the reality being experienced at this very moment. It is the perception of experience. The past and the future are always imagined; they appear according to our knowledge. The present, however, reveals what exists in reality regardless of our knowledge.
Reality is always present in the present. Our expectations and our knowledge merely qualify and evaluate what we experience, and from these evaluations our will arises.
From the experience that appears in the present, we are only capable of perceiving what we are able to interpret in some way according to our knowledge. If we know how to read, we discover the author's message on the pages of a book. If we do not, we see only paper, which may serve as good insulation or kindling, but we are unable to interpret the text written on it.
The present is that part of reality which we are capable of perceiving at this moment. The present is limited not only by time, but also by the limits of our perception. Our senses enable us to perceive certain signals within specific ranges and at specific speeds. All of this is determined, and as explained earlier, our knowledge also determines how much of the information we perceive we are able to interpret. The more laws we know that determine the existence of the world, the more of what we perceive we become capable of interpreting.
The speed of our perception defines the present for us. This does not mean that only the present exists, but rather that it defines the speed at which we are able to perceive and comprehend the world. According to our current knowledge, a high-quality film displays sixty frames per second, giving us an indication of the speed of our perception. The wings of a fly cannot be distinguished at sixty frames per second; we can perceive their movement only when it is slowed down significantly, to the point where sixty frames per minute makes the motion perceptible.
The present is continuous. We are continuously present, and frame by frame we come to know the world according to the level of our perception. Thus, throughout our lives, the world appears before consciousness like a film being projected, in which we are always present.
According to our current understanding of time, there is a past, a future, and between them a single moment called the present. In reality, the world simply exists, and the present is the moment of the world that we are capable of perceiving. The past and the future exist just as much as the present, but we are always able to perceive only a tiny fragment of the world, so that we may become capable of interpreting and comprehending what we perceive.
The changes we perceive in the past and the future are not real. What changes continuously is the knowledge available to us in the present. As our current knowledge changes, the past and the future always appear differently because we interpret them differently. This is the result of changes in our knowledge.
Reality is always present. For us, however, the present is that portion of reality which we are capable of perceiving.