The Variable of Time

By Martijn van Tilborgh

Albert Einstein, one of the most influential minds in human history, once exposed a truth that should unsettle anyone who claims to have all the answers.

After a test, a student complained, "These are the same questions you asked last year. Nothing has changed."

Einstein responded, "That's true. The questions are the same. This year, the answers are different."

That statement should make us nervous. Because it confronts a dangerous assumption.

That if the question stays the same, the answer must too.

But answers do not exist in a vacuum. They are shaped by context.

Context is formed by variables like culture, knowledge, perspective, and power.

Yet the most overlooked variable is time.

Time changes everything.

Timing determines meaning. Meaning determines answers. And answers shape how we live.

When you read Scripture with honest eyes, it becomes clear that God does not freeze humanity in one moment of understanding. He leads us forward. He reveals Himself progressively while dismantling the false images we cling to.

Revelation and deconstruction are not opposites. They move together.

Over time, the same questions appear again and again, yet the answers shift.

I began to notice a recurring pattern.

First, a specific question receives a certain answer.

Later, the same question receives a different answer.

Eventually, the same question becomes irrelevant altogether.

At that point, clinging to the old question becomes the problem.

And new questions must be asked.

Here is a biblical example to illustrate this point.

Do you need to be circumcised?

Moses says yes.

Peter says no.

Today, the question itself sounds absurd.

Nothing about God changed. Everything about context did.

This is not an isolated case. There are many more examples. Some of them deeply uncomfortable.

Personally, I find this exhilarating.

We are not meant to live backward. We are not called to preserve answers that time has outgrown.

We are being drawn forward. From glory to glory.

God keeps inviting us into deeper understanding, new responses, and fuller participation in His Kingdom as it takes shape on earth.