As humans with our very finite understanding of the things of the Lord, we frequently have a problem understanding time in relation to the Lord. It is really simple, however. The Lord is outside of time. The Lord was giving us a large clue when God told Moses His name, “I am that I am.” (Exodus 3:14) The Lord is not in the past tense or the future tense. He simply is. He did not say, “I was, I am and I will be,” He simply is.

Living in this physical world, we cannot imagine no time. This concept, however, explains some seeming contradictions in the Word. We know that the Lord Jesus told us that He would spend “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40) This is confirmed by the Apostle Paul who told us, “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” (Ephesians 4:9) If this is so, how could the Lord Jesus promise the thief on the cross “Verily I say unto thee, Today shall thou be with me in paradise”? (Luke 23:43)

The answer is – there is no time in Heaven. In Heaven it is always Now! Upon his death, the thief was with the Lord Jesus then and there, in Heaven. And yet the Lord Jesus was in the grave for three days, in this physical world.

The Apostle Paul said, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (Second Corinthians 5:8) This is a message of hope for Christians. But then the Apostle told us,

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (First Thessalonians 4:16-17)

To be absent from the body and present with the Lord indicates an immediate translation from this world to Heaven. How can it be then, that the “dead in Christ” and “we which are alive” will be snatched up to be with the Lord at the same event? The answer is – there is no time in Heaven.

This seems to indicate that those who have gone on before us are with the Lord in Heaven right now. And yet, when the Rapture occurs, the dead and the living will be gathered to be with the Lord in the clouds together! It appears that we will all get there at the same time! And in Heaven that time is Now, whenever it happens.

He is supreme in holiness, knowledge, presence, power, mercy and grace. Praise the Lord for His supremacy in all matters!