Many members of the Church of Jesus hold to the belief that a single day to the Lord is equal to a thousand years for mankind, a semi-doctrine which is supported by both passages of scripture and the expressed views of some church leaders. However, I believe that a more complete analysis of the scriptures upon which this doctrinal theory is based reveals that the time ratio is not what it appears.
One may dismiss this discussion as being unnecessary, as it does not relate directly to the Atonement of Jesus Christ or His Gospel. While this is true, this defense is often used as a defense mechanism to halt the discussion when the discussion may require one to modify their views.
This does in fact pertain to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it pertains to the nature of deity itself. I believe that God does not measure time as we do at all, and that the Thousand-Year-Day is a symbolic expression that may typically be interpreted as a very long time to those of us on this earth.
The Creationist Timeframe versus Science
Amongst many Christian literalists there is a strongly held view that the days of creation described in Genesis are just that - days. In addition, there is a timeline set forth in the Old Testament which literally suggests that this world is not much older than the oldest Bristlecone Pine trees. This is a cornerstone of so called "Creation Science," which is not related to actual science.
Scientists estimate this earth at about 4.5 billion years, with life existing in some form for well over half of that span. The geological evidence for an ancient creation is overwhelming to say the least.
I'm not going to review the Biblical timelines or the scientific evidence further. I have another purpose.
The Reckoning of the Lord's Time
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a popular theory exists which adds to creation science somewhat, suggesting that a day to the Lord is a thousand years to mankind. I will refer to this as the Thousand-Year-Day theory. Allow me to review certain scriptural quotes which form the basis for this view:
"... Kolob was after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and seasons in the revolutions thereof; that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time appointed unto that whereon thou standest. This is the reckoning of the Lord’s time, according to the reckoning of Kolob." - Abraham 3:4
This reference in Abraham is fairly explicit. Two Bible verses similarly support this idea, though somewhat more ambiguously:
"For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past..." - Psalm 90:4"... One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." - 2 Peter 3:8
Further support for this different reckoning of time is had in references to the Garden of Eden.
"... In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." - Genesis 2:17
Note that the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price has almost identical language. Given that Adam lived to be nearly a thousand years old, as did the first several generations before the Great Flood, this tends to support the prior verses. To the Lord, Adam died in the same day he ate the fruit, even though to Adam he lived 930 years. The Book of Abraham expands slightly on this:
"... In the time that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now I, Abraham, saw that it was after the Lord’s time, which was after the time of Kolob; for as yet the Gods had not appointed unto Adam his reckoning." - Abraham 5:13
Further verses also support the significance of thousand year intervals in the history of the earth. To sample just a few:
"... Concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence." - Doctrine & Covenants 77:6"... The first seal contains the things of the first thousand years, and the second also of the second thousand years, and so on until the seventh." - Doctrine & Covenants 77:7
Taken collectively, these verses have popularized a belief that somewhat corresponds with the Creationist view, albeit by extending the days of creation to the point where each was a thousand years according to our modern chronology, thus granting a little more space for creation. The days of creation become millennia, and the age of the earth doubles to well over ten thousand years old.
Looking Deeper into the Scriptures
Beware of telegraphic doctrine, that is to say skimming the surface of the scriptural text to gain deep insights. If we wish to gain a deeper understanding of the Lord's purposes we must engage in a deeper review of the scriptures. Let's start by adding a few scriptures in that directly conflict with this Thousand-Year-Day theory:
"... All is as one day with God, and time only is measured unto men." - Alma 40:8
There is simply no way to reconcile this with the thousand-year-day theory. This suggests that God does not even see time as linear, as though we were ants working our way along a string stretched out before Him. He sees our past, present, and future as one. Another verse asserts this even more fully:
"...Is not the reckoning of God’s time, angel’s time, prophet’s time, and man’s time, according to the planet on which they reside? I answer, Yes. But there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it. The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord." - Doctrine & Covenants 130:4-7
This wonderfully weaves the two threads together: To God there is no time, only to men. Once again, this cannot be reconciled at all with the Thousand-Year-Day theory, as it specifically mentions the "reckoning of God's time". Sure if the deeper truth were that God saw time as a simple ratio of a thousand years to a day he would have mentioned it herein?
But he did not. Instead, he asserted a very different view of time, one that is much more beautiful.
Also, one which in no way contradicts the enduring timelines put forth by science.
What Was the Lord Teaching Abraham?
What then should we make of the references to the thousand-year-day? After all, the two Bible references to this theory are sufficiently ambiguous as to be moldable, but the reference in Abraham is specific and unyielding. We will need to delve deeper into Abraham:
"And I, Abraham, had the Urim and Thummim, which the Lord my God had given unto me, in Ur of the Chaldees; And I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it; And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest." - Abraham 3:1-3
This is the context for the scripture in Abraham that best support the Thousand-Year-Day theory. Yet, this is not talking about time, but astronomy. We are learning about Kolob. Herein we learn the following:
- Kolob is the greatest star, and is nearest to the 'throne' (residence) of God.
- Around Kolob are other great stars.
- Kolob and these other stars govern all other stars, including ours.
- Our star is one of an 'order', meaning there are others like it.
One cannot see a diagram of our galaxy without feeling humbled by the majesty and order of it. What we cannot see is that at the center of our galaxy are a series of super-stars which in turn have enormous gravitational pulls. Scientists have detected that a super-star greater than all the others sits in the midst of these massive suns, perhaps a Black Hole. It is thought that the gravitational pull of these massive stars, collectively, is what holds the entire galaxy in its ordered pattern.
Could the Lord have been teaching Abraham about our galaxy?
Let's continue. In verse four, which I quoted previously, it makes it clear that we are discussing "revolutions," and in regards to Kolob "that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning." We know, for example, that the Earth revolves completely once every 23:56 hours, but let's continue:
"And the Lord said unto me: The planet which is the lesser light, lesser than that which is to rule the day, even the night, is above or greater than that upon which thou standest in point of reckoning, for it moveth in order more slow; this is in order because it standeth above the earth upon which thou standest, therefore the reckoning of its time is not so many as to its number of days, and of months, and of years. And the Lord said unto me: Now, Abraham, these two facts exist, behold thine eyes see it; it is given unto thee to know the times of reckoning, and the set time, yea, the set time of the earth upon which thou standest, and the set time of the greater light which is set to rule the day, and the set time of the lesser light which is set to rule the night. Now the set time of the lesser light is a longer time as to its reckoning than the reckoning of the time of the earth upon which thou standest." - Abraham 3:5-7
So, here Abraham is taught that the reckoning of time on the Sun ("the greater light") and the Moon ("the lesser light") are both longer than the Earth ("that upon which though standest"). One full revolution of the sun takes roughly 24 to 35 days (depending on which part you speak of), and roughly twenty-seven days for the moon. That is to say, their reckoning of time is longer.
Abraham was being taught astronomy.
"And where these two facts exist, there shall be another fact above them, that is, there shall be another planet whose reckoning of time shall be longer still; And thus there shall be the reckoning of the time of one planet above another, until thou come nigh unto Kolob, which Kolob is after the reckoning of the Lord’s time; which Kolob is set nigh unto the throne of God, to govern all those planets which belong to the same border as that upon which thou standest. And it is given unto thee to know the set time of all the stars that are set to give light, until thou come near unto the throne of God." - Abraham 3:8-10
Apparently, Kolob revolves so slowly that a day one Kolob last a thousand of Abraham's years.
What Exactly is Kolob?
Now we piece together Abraham and modern science. We now know that gravity affects the flow of time. That is to say, the greater the gravity the slower the time. Bear in mind that the great stars at the center of our galaxy are so enormous that their gravity holds our galaxy together, much like the sun holds our solar system together.
A black hole is a star whose gravity is so great, and its mass so great, that not even light can escape it. Black holes literally suck in stars that get too close, peeling them apart and eating them. In the midst of the great stars in the center of our galaxy is a juggernaut that is thought to be a black hole.
If you get too close to a black hole you pass the Event Horizon, after which point you are pulled into the black hole with no hope of escape. If, somehow, you could stay conscious during this process (as opposed to being crushed into oblivion) time would slow so much that before you landed on the surface you would witness the birth and death of new stars. Time would appear to stop.
So, let's venture a guess as to what Kolob actually is. Kolob is a black hole, so vast and powerful that with its gargantuan neighbors it holds the entire galaxy in its position. It is the greatest of the "governing ones," to quote Abraham. The Lord explained this to Abraham thousands of years before science began to understand it.
One could delve even deeper into astrophysics here and venture a guess as to where God lives. Let's revisit one of our earlier citations:
"Kolob is set nigh unto the throne of God" - Abraham 3:9
Some mistakenly identify Kolob as God's planet, but it is not. It is nearest to wherever God is. Now let's see where God resides:
"The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord." - Doctrine & Covenants 130:6-7
The vividness of this description - a sea of glass and fire - it is an image that is almost impossible to paint in one's mind. As is said both here and in Alma 40:8, there is no 'Time' as we know it in the place God resides.
There is nothing else in or around Kolob that could be where God dwells. Here we venture into speculation so wild it borders on the irresponsible: Could a black hole like Kolob somehow be a hole punched in the fabric of our universe, which connects this universe to the plane on which God dwells?
Given that where God dwells is timeless, it makes one wonder, what exactly will change in the end of times when this world will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory? What does it imply in Doctrine & Covenants 84:100 when it is said:
"Satan is bound and time is no longer."
I'll end this line of thought at this point. We are reaching the outer limits of what we can comprehend without the intercession of the Lord, as occurred with those to whom the Lord revealed everything he ever did.
Suffice it to say, it is naïve of us to impose a sleep-wake cycle on our Savior.
Revisiting the Thousand-Year-Days Theory
We often take literally what the Lord states symbolically, an effect of our limited brains that are contained in these littles tomes of flesh. Yet, if you can start to accept that the scriptural term "day" does not represent an exact one thousand calendar years, but rather an extremely long period of time we begin to see truth distilling from the confusion.
At times the Lord may be using the ratio literally, as appears to be the case in stating that Adam would die in Genesis, although in Abraham the word 'day' is replaced with 'time', a word choice that is not without meaning.
However, the days of creation were long spans of time, with no specified length. There is no conflict between science and our particular faith on this point. We can believe in an ancient earth without conflict, because:
"... All is as one day with God, and time only is measured unto men." - Alma 40:8
Conclusion
We are taught that the Atonement is infinite and eternal, and as our testimonies of Jesus Christ grow we may begin to personally feel the breadth of the Atonement in our lives, not only redeeming us from the effect of sin, but also releasing us from the pains of this world that rest in our minds and hearts. Christ is truly marvelous, and His Atonement is truly eternal and infinite.
The Thousand-Year-Day ratio is not a set ratio but a symbolic one. A deeper reading of the scriptures supports this view, and in the process gives us a tiny glimpse of the eternal nature of Christ Himself and our Heavenly Father.
