Page 173 - Through New Eyes

The World of Noah 169

enth day of God’s week of creation, but the first full day of man’s
week. Thus, the time of sabbath, of judgment and evaluation, is
simultaneously the last day of an old week and the first day of a
new week. Z It is the time of covenant-renewal, and thus of wor-
ship. The worship service, then, should be a time of leaving
behind the old world of the previous week, and receiving the gift
of the Kingdom, the new world, for the new week.
Second, this sequence helps us understand better the Biblical
view of time. In traditional paganism, time and history are con-
ceived of as a bondage from which you want to escape through
religious activity. In Christianity, however, time is o~porhmi~. The
succession of moments continues to put before us new choices,
and new opportunities to do better than we have done before.
The Christian view of time is also linear rather than cyclical.
In paganism, time and history are a series of endless cycles, in
which no real progress is or can ever be made. Christianity,
however, sees real progress in history, as each new “world” is
more glorious than the one before. 3
The Christian view of time is, however, not linear in the
modern secular sense: a succession of moments without mean-
ing. Rather, time and history are rhythmical; that is, there are
fundamental patterns that repeat. There are indeed historical
cycles, but they are spirals, not circles. The fact that the patterns
repeat, with variations, is of course related to what we have
mentioned earlier, which is that the Biblical view of history is
fundamentally topological.
Finally, the Christian view of time is liturgical. We begin in
sabbath at the throne of God, move out into the world and work,
and then return at the Lord’s Day for His evaluation and bless-
ing. All history proceeds from God’s alpha, and develops into
His never-ending omega.

Announcement
After the sin of man in the Garden of Eden, and his expul-
sion, we read of the sin of Cain in the Land of Eden, and his ex-
pulsion. Cain went out and built a city, a city basically built on
his brother’s blood. This city became a city of blood; and in the
seventh generation from Adam, we find the murderer Lamech
celebrating his violence in song (Genesis 4).