Peter said, “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8).
Many latter-day saint apostles and writers have taken this to mean that one thousand of our years are as one day to the Lord. So who's time is moving faster, ours or the Lord's? Einy pointed out that space and time are relative, so we need to think in terms of comparing one time reference to another time reference in order to answer this question.
If we could strap you onto a beam of light for a journey to the star Sirius and back again, your journey would last about 17.4 years for us on earth. However, for you the journey would take no time at all because you are traveling at the speed of light and time stops at the speed of light. Thus you would return not a second older than when you left, yet everyone on earth would have aged by 17.4 years when you return.
This time discrepancy sounds a bit like how it is with the Lord, doesn’t it? 1000 years flies by here on earth while it hardly moves by for the Lord. “Wait a minute!” you might say. “Are you suggesting that the Lord is traveling near the speed of light? That sounds silly.” Yes, that does sound silly. The Lord’s slower time relative to our time is not caused by speed; it is likely caused by something else, like gravity. Studies on gravitational redshift have shown that time slows down as gravity increases. In gravitational redshift studies, clocks positioned near greater gravitational forces tick more slowly.
PhysicsWorld.com explains it this way (if you care to read this technical explanation):
Gravitational redshift follows on from the equivalence principle that underlies general relativity. The equivalence principle states that the local effects of gravity are the same as those of being in an accelerated frame of reference [mass/gravity increases as velocity increases]. So the downward force felt by someone in a lift could be equally due to an upward acceleration of the lift or to gravity. Pulses of light sent upwards from a clock on the lift floor will be Doppler shifted, or redshifted, when the lift is accelerating upwards, meaning that this clock will appear to tick more slowly when its flashes are compared at the ceiling of the lift to another clock. Because there is no way to tell gravity and acceleration apart, the same will hold true in a gravitational field; in other words the greater the gravitational pull experienced by a clock, or the closer it is to a massive body, the more slowly it will tick.
Does the Lord live in an area of the universe with massive gravity? It appears so. The Pearl of Great Price seems to suggest that there is massive gravity near the throne of God.
1. “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” (Abraham 3:2). Interpretation: His throne is in a cluster containing large stars.
2. “These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me” (Abr. 3:3) Interpretation: Kolob is a very large cluster of stars (It is not an individual star as some have assumed – see “Kokaubeam” next point below).
3. “Kokaubeam, which signifies stars, or all the great lights, which were in the firmament of heaven . . . [and] Kolob is the greatest of all the Kokaubeam that thou hast seen, because it is nearest unto me” (Abraham 3: 13, 16). Interpretation: There are multiple star clusters near His throne, but the greatest cluster of them all is the location of His throne (called Kolob).
4. “I have set this one [Kolob] to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest.” Interpretation: The star cluster known as Kolob influences all the other stars and planets that circle around in the spiral arms of our galaxy, including our sun by gravitational force. Scientists speculate that many galaxies have an immense gravity well in their center (their best guess is to call them black holes because those are the only entities known to man that are capable of creating the gravitational pull needed to keep a galaxy together). The immense source of gravity could very well be a globular (“tightly packed”) cluster of super giant stars.
It is conceivable that Kolob’s massive gravity slows down celestial time relative to our time on the magnitude of 1 day to 1000 years.
Many latter-day saint apostles and writers have taken this to mean that one thousand of our years are as one day to the Lord. So who's time is moving faster, ours or the Lord's? Einy pointed out that space and time are relative, so we need to think in terms of comparing one time reference to another time reference in order to answer this question.
If we could strap you onto a beam of light for a journey to the star Sirius and back again, your journey would last about 17.4 years for us on earth. However, for you the journey would take no time at all because you are traveling at the speed of light and time stops at the speed of light. Thus you would return not a second older than when you left, yet everyone on earth would have aged by 17.4 years when you return.
This time discrepancy sounds a bit like how it is with the Lord, doesn’t it? 1000 years flies by here on earth while it hardly moves by for the Lord. “Wait a minute!” you might say. “Are you suggesting that the Lord is traveling near the speed of light? That sounds silly.” Yes, that does sound silly. The Lord’s slower time relative to our time is not caused by speed; it is likely caused by something else, like gravity. Studies on gravitational redshift have shown that time slows down as gravity increases. In gravitational redshift studies, clocks positioned near greater gravitational forces tick more slowly.
PhysicsWorld.com explains it this way (if you care to read this technical explanation):
Gravitational redshift follows on from the equivalence principle that underlies general relativity. The equivalence principle states that the local effects of gravity are the same as those of being in an accelerated frame of reference [mass/gravity increases as velocity increases]. So the downward force felt by someone in a lift could be equally due to an upward acceleration of the lift or to gravity. Pulses of light sent upwards from a clock on the lift floor will be Doppler shifted, or redshifted, when the lift is accelerating upwards, meaning that this clock will appear to tick more slowly when its flashes are compared at the ceiling of the lift to another clock. Because there is no way to tell gravity and acceleration apart, the same will hold true in a gravitational field; in other words the greater the gravitational pull experienced by a clock, or the closer it is to a massive body, the more slowly it will tick.
Does the Lord live in an area of the universe with massive gravity? It appears so. The Pearl of Great Price seems to suggest that there is massive gravity near the throne of God.
1. “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” (Abraham 3:2). Interpretation: His throne is in a cluster containing large stars.
2. “These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me” (Abr. 3:3) Interpretation: Kolob is a very large cluster of stars (It is not an individual star as some have assumed – see “Kokaubeam” next point below).
3. “Kokaubeam, which signifies stars, or all the great lights, which were in the firmament of heaven . . . [and] Kolob is the greatest of all the Kokaubeam that thou hast seen, because it is nearest unto me” (Abraham 3: 13, 16). Interpretation: There are multiple star clusters near His throne, but the greatest cluster of them all is the location of His throne (called Kolob).
4. “I have set this one [Kolob] to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest.” Interpretation: The star cluster known as Kolob influences all the other stars and planets that circle around in the spiral arms of our galaxy, including our sun by gravitational force. Scientists speculate that many galaxies have an immense gravity well in their center (their best guess is to call them black holes because those are the only entities known to man that are capable of creating the gravitational pull needed to keep a galaxy together). The immense source of gravity could very well be a globular (“tightly packed”) cluster of super giant stars.
It is conceivable that Kolob’s massive gravity slows down celestial time relative to our time on the magnitude of 1 day to 1000 years.
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