Boundaries - Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time - page 187

As Burnet's globes display the arrow of history beginning at Christ's left,
reaching our present earth at the bottom, and chronicling our future at the
right hand of Jesus, Hampton's pieces record the Old Testament, Moses, and
the Commandments to the left side of Christ's throne, and the New
Testament, Jesus, and Grace to the right. Two circular panels, mounted high
in the top row to the left and right of Christ's throne, proclaim the status of
each side—B.C. to the left, A.D. to the right (Figure 5.5). A row of plaques,
found mounted on the left wall of Hampton's garage, bore names of the
prophets, and a corresponding row on the right, the apostles.
But as the constructions of Burnet and Hampton display the arrow of history
(in proper eschatological order with bad old pasts to the left, or sinister, side
of divinity, and bright futures to the right), they also proclaim the immanence
of God's glory. Not only does Christ directly announce his eternal presence in
both, but (most important), the cycle of history follows an elaborate design
with each incident on the old left precisely and symmetrically matching a
corresponding replay on the new right. 1 In Burnet's frontispiece, we note a
perfect world after consolidation of the elements from primeval chaos on the
left, and our planet made perfect again after descent of the elements from the
future universal fire in the same position on the right—or we find the earth
destroyed by water
1. When I first saw Hampton's throne in Washington, this order was reversed in the
display—with Old Testament objects to the right and New Testament to the left of
Christ's throne. I wasn't bothered at first, reasoning that an uneducated man like
Hampton might not have known the conventions of eschatology. Then I stopped
myself: why should I make such an assumption. Who am I, a Jewish paleontologist
on a coffee break, to presume superior knowledge of Christian tradition. So I wrote
to the curator, asking if, perhaps, they had reversed the elements. They compared
their arrangement with the photos of Hampton's order in his garage and wrote back
to say that I was correct. Hampton had placed his pieces in conventional order, Old
Testament objects to Christ's left. The display has now been returned to its original
order. I don't say this to gloat (I guess I do, in part)— but it does speak for the
power of time's cycle that a naturalist, knowing only Burnet's frontispiece, could
recognize this misordering from knowledge of an abstract theme that pervades the
centuries unchanged.