People often have difficulty seeing the coherence of the position held by some Christian thinkers that God is timeless sans creation, but is inherently personal (tri-presonal in fact). The answer lies in a term that harkens back to the church fathers. Perichoresis is a term in Christian theology that refers to the mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Moreover, the persons of the Trinity share mutual love, knowledge, and volition.
Moreover, in order to answer the question of how the Trinity could be timeless and yet inherently personal, we have to briefly discuss changelessness, and timeless, in addition to perichoresis. On a relational view of time, there is no time without events, or changes occuring. Thus, if the Trinity exists changelessly prior to creation, there wouldn't be any before, or after, there wouldn't be time. What the question is really about then is whether personal relations can be conceived of as exisitng changelessly and timelessly. Well, why not?
Recall that according to the classic doctrine of perichoresis, the three persons of the Trinity share mutual love, knowledge, and will. Take love. William Lane Craig writes,
"Why can’t two persons love each other changelessly? I don’t find this at all conceptually difficult. I just don’t see any difficulty in there being unconditional, positive regard and even emotional attachment between two unchanging persons. Again, it doesn’t take any time to know something. So two persons could know each other intimately and thoroughly without changing. And volition: two unchanging persons can will the same thing in a changeless way. Change just doesn’t seem necessary for two persons to relate in the way perichoresis requires."
Notice that our finite human relations occur in time, and while they are good, they would probably become unfulling in light of eternity. But God (the Trinity) is utterly different. God is infinite goodness and love, and had no lack in Himself, or yearning for fulfillment because the Trinity was itself somehow unfulfilling. In fact, it is unthinkable that any member of the Trinity would become bored with another member. This is why creation, like salvation, is an act of grace whereby God invites finite creatures into the greatest conceivable good, which is fellowship with the members of the Trinity. WOW!
Additionally, some Christian philosophers such as Gary DeWeese have defended the notion that the Trinity exists in a metaphysical time that is devoid of any intrinsic metric.
Moreover, in order to answer the question of how the Trinity could be timeless and yet inherently personal, we have to briefly discuss changelessness, and timeless, in addition to perichoresis. On a relational view of time, there is no time without events, or changes occuring. Thus, if the Trinity exists changelessly prior to creation, there wouldn't be any before, or after, there wouldn't be time. What the question is really about then is whether personal relations can be conceived of as exisitng changelessly and timelessly. Well, why not?
Recall that according to the classic doctrine of perichoresis, the three persons of the Trinity share mutual love, knowledge, and will. Take love. William Lane Craig writes,
"Why can’t two persons love each other changelessly? I don’t find this at all conceptually difficult. I just don’t see any difficulty in there being unconditional, positive regard and even emotional attachment between two unchanging persons. Again, it doesn’t take any time to know something. So two persons could know each other intimately and thoroughly without changing. And volition: two unchanging persons can will the same thing in a changeless way. Change just doesn’t seem necessary for two persons to relate in the way perichoresis requires."
Notice that our finite human relations occur in time, and while they are good, they would probably become unfulling in light of eternity. But God (the Trinity) is utterly different. God is infinite goodness and love, and had no lack in Himself, or yearning for fulfillment because the Trinity was itself somehow unfulfilling. In fact, it is unthinkable that any member of the Trinity would become bored with another member. This is why creation, like salvation, is an act of grace whereby God invites finite creatures into the greatest conceivable good, which is fellowship with the members of the Trinity. WOW!
Additionally, some Christian philosophers such as Gary DeWeese have defended the notion that the Trinity exists in a metaphysical time that is devoid of any intrinsic metric.
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