For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:20-22)

In 2023 I wrote in my Masters Thesis for Seminary,

“Entropy is a measure of the disorder of a system and describes how much energy is not available to do work. The more disordered a system and higher the entropy, the less energy is available to do work. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the total entropy of a closed system either increases or remains constant in any process; it never decreases. In layman’s terms—the Second Law explains why everything decays, runs down or wears out. The Second Law is instrumental in the universal pain and suffering throughout the cosmos. James Shin, PhD in Systematic Theology, authored a fascinating book entitled “Natural and Cosmic Theodicy: A Trinitarian Panentheistic Vision” which wrestles with God’s involvement with a world “ridden with natural and cosmic evil.” He postulates that “the problem of pain, suffering, and death is contingent but inherent in the fabric of the universe because the second law of thermodynamics is universal.” He is correct; there are no known exceptions to the Second Law of Thermodynamics . . . Entropy is a result of the Fall.”

The Second Law of Thermodynamics, otherwise known as the law of entropy, represents the curse on creation as a result of the Fall. There are no known exceptions to this law. Everything dies: people, anmimals, plants, stars, galaxies – everything. Unless God intervenes, the Universe will ulimately die a “heat death” with no light, no heat and no life and with everything at a uniform temperature very close to absolute zero.

Time is a great mystery and incredibly difficult for philosophers, physicists and theologians alike to define. Augustine’s famous enquiry into the nature of time begins by asking “What, then, is time? If no one ask of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not.” In expounding on the metaphyics of time, Oxford philosophy professor Vincent Grandjean admits that while we experience time vividly and intuitively, yet no accurate and universally-accepted definition of time exists.

I wrote in Seminary,

“While there is disagreement on the nature of time (with some even believing that it does not exist and is an illusion), we can measure the passage of time. We measure time by the observation of regular, repeatable processes. For thousands of years, people have measured time using the sun, moon and stars. Galileo discovered “isochronism of the pendulum”, i.e. the “law of the pendulum”—no matter how big or small the amplitude of the pendulum swing, the time for each swing is always the same. (Interestingly, he used his heartbeat to measure the time of the swings since there was no clock accurate enough yet to measure seconds.) His discovery led to the invention of the pendulum clock, marking the first time that time could be consistently and accurately measured on a smaller scale. Instead of years, months, weeks and days, time could now be accurately measured in hours and minutes. Wth the advent of the atomic clock, accuracy became possible to within 1 second every 300 million years. The measurement of “deep time” on our planet (the far distant past) is possible with radioactive isotopes. The Universe is in some sense itself an unimagineably immense “clock”, making possible estimates of the age of the Universe by measuring expansion of the Cosmos. It is important to grasp that all measurements of time occurs with what I shall call immanent time . . . that is, time occuring within creation. It is impossible by definition for us to measure or even access transcendent time . . . “

There is a reason that entropy is called “the arrow of time.” A watch or clock measures time. In so doing it is actually measuring entropy. There is a fascinating academic physics paper published in May of 2021 here entitled “Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping.” The authors report,

“All clocks, in some form or another, use the evolution of nature toward higher entropy states to quantify the passage of time. Because of the statistical nature of the second law and corresponding entropy flows, fluctuations fundamentally limit the performance of any clock. This suggests a deep relation between the increase in entropy and the quality of clock ticks. Indeed, minimal models for autonomous clocks in the quantum realm revealed that a linear relation can be derived, where for a limited regime every bit of entropy linearly increases the accuracy of quantum clocks. But can such a linear relation persist as we move toward a more classical system? We answer this in the affirmative by presenting the first experimental investigation of this thermodynamic relation in a nanoscale clock.”

In layman’s terms, they write . . .

“Clocks are essential building blocks of modern technology, from computers to GPS receivers. They are also essentially engines, irreversibly consuming resources in order to generate accurate ticks. But what resources have to be expended to achieve a desired accuracy? Here, we answer this question experimentally by measuring, for the first time, the entropy generated by a minimal clock.”

In other words not only do clocks measure entropy but they actually produce entropy – which is why they ultimately wind down (or the battery dies for an electric model) and they require new input of energy. My watch is measuring entropy and in so doing is measuring the curse on creation. Your watch is in effect, an entropy-measuring device, measuring the curse on creation. For those in Christ, clocks and watches track time to the day of their deliverance; time is thus a great friend drawing them inevitably to the best day of their life. Alternatively for those outside Christ’s saving grace, time is a feared enemy inevitably carrying them to the worst day of their life – the day of their coming judgment. Time in this fallen world exists because of entropy, the divine curse on creation. Consequently, when entropy is removed in the new creation (Rev 21:1), time will no longer exist. Time exists currently because of the curse on creation. When the curse is removed from creation, time will cease to exist as we enter eternity.

*******

Addendum.

After reading this post, someone wisely asked me “Time exists because of entropy, the divine curse on creation.” Didn’t time exist before the fall? Seven days of creation. Gen 1:14 – “…let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.””

My reply is . . . “Yes. Great question. But the very nature of time itself was impacted by the Fall just as mankind was altered by the Fall. Everything changed. Time in its current manifestation occurs because of entropy. Of course this raises the obvious question as to why did time exist before the Fall? I did not want to get into that in a short blog; that deserves an entire chapter in a future book. I have been thinking more and more about time and am increasingly inclined to write a book about a thelogical understanding of “Time” after my current book is finished. There are some fascinating and complex metaphysical issues to wrestle with.”