The God of the Bible is sovereign over all things

Plato in the Timaeus taught that his god made order out of chaos and then he (like Zeus?) made divine children that created mortal man. In this, Plato taught that his god was not in control of all things. Bible declares however that God created the heavens and the earth. He was before all things. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness wasupon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." - Genesis 1

Not only do we have God before all things but also shaping and forming all things in seven literal days.


Gordon H. Clark says, "It is at about this stage that Mackay begins to discuss the relation between the world and God. His view of creation is not clear. 'Chance in the sense of chaos is indeed recognized (Gen. 1:2), but only as something banished from the world by God's creative word' (p. 49). This seems to say that there was a physical world of chaos before God created the cosmos. This is similar to the work of Plato's demiurge. Yet two pages later he says, 'God has conceived and made our world out of nothing.' Then later he says, 'Creation . . . . is not just a single datable event which happened at a particular time; it is rather a continuing relationship of dependence between us and God' (p. 69). How does this fit in with 'Let there be light, and there was light'? How also does a continuing relationship between God and man fit in with 'And on the seventh day God ended his work . . . and rested . . . from all his work which he had made'? Has not Mackay again contradicted himself? That the world is now upheld by the power of God is undeniable; but creation out of nothing must be instantaneous." - Beahaviorism and Christianity, Pg. 93

God is one and so His knowledge is eternal

"The knowledge of God proves him without successive duration. God knows all things, past, present, and to come, that is, which are so to us; not that they are so to him; these he knows at once, and all together, not one thing after another, as they successively come into being; all things are open and manifest to him at once and together, not only what are past and present, but he calls things that are not yet, as though they were; he sees and knows all in one view, in his all-comprehending mind: and as his knowledge is not successive, so not his duration." - John Gill, The Body of Divinity, Pg. 49

If there was a successive  moments in God, then He would not be immutable if he thought like us.

"Is not time measured by the succession of ideas in our minds?" says Philonous, in George Berkeley's Three Dialogues, Pg. 23

God, Eternity, Christ, Ascension

I do not see at all where the Second person of the Holy Trinity took upon himself flesh (as he is God). But, I do say that Christ (both God and Man) in the flesh ascended to the right hand of God the father.

1 Corinthians 15:20But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. 24Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Hebrews 2:17 - Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

God and Time

"In his nature and essence, being simple, and devoid of all composition, as has been proved: the more simple and free from mixture and composition any thing is the less subject to change. . . . and since he is eternal, there can be no change of time with him; time doth not belong to him, only to a creature, which is the measure of its duration; and began when a creature began to be, and not before; but God is before all creatures; they being made by him, and so before time; he was the same before the day was as now, and now as he was before; 'even the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever:' though he is the ancient of days, he does not become than he was millions of ages ago, nor will be millions of ages to come; his eternity is an everlasting and unchangeable now;" - John Gill, The Body of Divinity, Pg. 36-37

Time existed after creation. God is not older now than he was when he first created.

Is Raymond an atheist?

This is what Raymond says, "Third, there seems to be an inherent contradiction in saying that a timeless person lives in the 'eternal present' because the referent of the word 'present' has significance only in the ordering category which includes past and future as well. Nicholas Wolterstorff points out:
In order for something to be timeless, none of these ordering relationships [past, present, future] can be applicable to that being. If a being is truly timeless, it should be impossible for it to exist simultaneously with anything else, or before anything else, or after anything else. Once it is established [or argued, as Hodge does - author] that a being does occupy one of the ordering relations, then that being is clearly temporal." - A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, Pg. 175


I do not know about you but Raymond's argument is ridiculous and his support for Wolterstorff is also. So God being present means that he is temporal? At best I do not know what this means, but at worse this is pure atheism - If a being is truly timeless, it should be impossible for it to exist simultaneously with anything else...