diff --git a/src/event/cloudevent.ts b/src/event/cloudevent.ts
index 197b4bc1..33e1df20 100644
--- a/src/event/cloudevent.ts
+++ b/src/event/cloudevent.ts
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ export class CloudEvent implements CloudEventV1, CloudEventV03 {
   datacontenttype?: string;
   dataschema?: string;
   subject?: string;
-  #_time?: string | Date;
+  time?: string;
   #_data?: Record<string, unknown | string | number | boolean> | string | number | boolean | null | unknown;
   data_base64?: string;
 
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@ export class CloudEvent implements CloudEventV1, CloudEventV03 {
     this.id = (properties.id as string) || uuidv4();
     delete properties.id;
 
+    this.time = properties.time || new Date().toISOString();
+    delete properties.time;
+
     this.type = properties.type;
     delete properties.type;
 
@@ -69,9 +72,6 @@ export class CloudEvent implements CloudEventV1, CloudEventV03 {
     this.subject = properties.subject;
     delete properties.subject;
 
-    this.#_time = properties.time;
-    delete properties.time;
-
     this.datacontentencoding = properties.datacontentencoding as string;
     delete properties.datacontentencoding;
 
@@ -87,13 +87,6 @@ export class CloudEvent implements CloudEventV1, CloudEventV03 {
     this._setData(properties.data);
     delete properties.data;
 
-    // Make sure time has a default value and whatever is provided is formatted
-    if (!this.#_time) {
-      this.#_time = new Date().toISOString();
-    } else if (this.#_time instanceof Date) {
-      this.#_time = this.#_time.toISOString();
-    }
-
     // sanity checking
     if (this.specversion === Version.V1 && this.schemaurl) {
       throw new TypeError("cannot set schemaurl on version 1.0 event");
@@ -123,14 +116,6 @@ export class CloudEvent implements CloudEventV1, CloudEventV03 {
     Object.freeze(this);
   }
 
-  get time(): string | Date {
-    return this.#_time as string | Date;
-  }
-
-  set time(val: string | Date) {
-    this.#_time = new Date(val).toISOString();
-  }
-
   get data(): unknown {
     if (
       this.datacontenttype === CONSTANTS.MIME_JSON &&
@@ -164,7 +149,7 @@ export class CloudEvent implements CloudEventV1, CloudEventV03 {
    */
   toJSON(): Record<string, unknown> {
     const event = { ...this };
-    event.time = this.time;
+    event.time = new Date(this.time as string).toISOString();
     event.data = this.data;
     return event;
   }
@@ -182,6 +167,7 @@ export class CloudEvent implements CloudEventV1, CloudEventV03 {
     try {
       return validateCloudEvent(this);
     } catch (e) {
+      console.error(e.errors);
       if (e instanceof ValidationError) {
         throw e;
       } else {
diff --git a/src/event/interfaces.ts b/src/event/interfaces.ts
index f886cb1f..bfc3a0e9 100644
--- a/src/event/interfaces.ts
+++ b/src/event/interfaces.ts
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ export interface CloudEventV1OptionalAttributes {
    * the same algorithm to determine the value used.
    * @example "2020-08-08T14:48:09.769Z"
    */
-  time?: Date | string;
+  time?: string;
   /**
    * [OPTIONAL] The event payload. This specification does not place any restriction
    * on the type of this information. It is encoded into a media format which is
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ export interface CloudEventV03OptionalAttributes {
    * the same algorithm to determine the value used.
    * @example "2020-08-08T14:48:09.769Z"
    */
-  time?: Date | string;
+  time?: string;
   /**
    * [OPTIONAL] The event payload. This specification does not place any restriction
    * on the type of this information. It is encoded into a media format which is
diff --git a/src/event/schemas.ts b/src/event/schemas.ts
index 51d21e14..c27e44bf 100644
--- a/src/event/schemas.ts
+++ b/src/event/schemas.ts
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ export const schemaV1 = {
       minLength: 1,
     },
     time: {
-      format: "date-time",
+      format: "js-date-time",
       type: "string",
     },
     dataschema: {
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ export const schemaV03 = {
       minLength: 1,
     },
     time: {
-      format: "date-time",
+      format: "js-date-time",
       type: "string",
     },
     schemaurl: {
diff --git a/src/event/spec.ts b/src/event/spec.ts
index 537b6432..3c3abc31 100644
--- a/src/event/spec.ts
+++ b/src/event/spec.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,14 @@ import { Version } from "./cloudevent";
 import CONSTANTS from "../constants";
 
 const ajv = new Ajv({ extendRefs: true });
+
+// handle date-time format specially because a user could pass
+// Date().toString(), which is not spec compliant date-time format
+ajv.addFormat("js-date-time", function (dateTimeString) {
+  const date = new Date(Date.parse(dateTimeString));
+  return date.toString() !== "Invalid Date";
+});
+
 const isValidAgainstSchemaV1 = ajv.compile(schemaV1);
 const isValidAgainstSchemaV03 = ajv.compile(schemaV03);
 
diff --git a/src/message/http/headers.ts b/src/message/http/headers.ts
index 228445cb..fcb65e52 100644
--- a/src/message/http/headers.ts
+++ b/src/message/http/headers.ts
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ export function headersFor(event: CloudEvent): Headers {
   });
   // Treat time specially, since it's handled with getters and setters in CloudEvent
   if (event.time) {
-    headers[CONSTANTS.CE_HEADERS.TIME] = event.time as string;
+    headers[CONSTANTS.CE_HEADERS.TIME] = new Date(event.time).toISOString();
   }
   return headers;
 }
diff --git a/src/parsers.ts b/src/parsers.ts
index f97bfed9..bbfe128c 100644
--- a/src/parsers.ts
+++ b/src/parsers.ts
@@ -66,8 +66,12 @@ export interface MappedParser {
 }
 
 export class DateParser extends Parser {
-  parse(payload: string): Date {
-    return new Date(Date.parse(payload));
+  parse(payload: string): string {
+    let date = new Date(Date.parse(payload));
+    if (date.toString() === "Invalid Date") {
+      date = new Date();
+    }
+    return date.toISOString();
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/test/integration/cloud_event_test.ts b/test/integration/cloud_event_test.ts
index 70881c96..e4fa1abc 100644
--- a/test/integration/cloud_event_test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/cloud_event_test.ts
@@ -21,8 +21,10 @@ describe("A CloudEvent", () => {
   });
 
   it("serializes as JSON with toString()", () => {
-    const ce = new CloudEvent(fixture);
+    const ce = new CloudEvent({ ...fixture, data: { lunch: "tacos" } });
     expect(ce.toString()).to.deep.equal(JSON.stringify(ce));
+    expect(new CloudEvent(JSON.parse(ce.toString()))).to.deep.equal(ce);
+    expect(new CloudEvent(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(ce)))).to.deep.equal(ce);
   });
 
   it("Throw a validation error for invalid extension names", () => {
@@ -188,9 +190,9 @@ describe("A 0.3 CloudEvent", () => {
   });
 
   it("can be constructed with a timestamp", () => {
-    const time = new Date();
+    const time = new Date().toISOString();
     const ce = new CloudEvent({ time, ...v03fixture });
-    expect(ce.time).to.equal(time.toISOString());
+    expect(ce.time).to.equal(time);
   });
 
   it("can be constructed with a datacontenttype", () => {
diff --git a/test/integration/http_binding_03.ts b/test/integration/http_binding_03.ts
index aae7f3b7..c3dc2f57 100644
--- a/test/integration/http_binding_03.ts
+++ b/test/integration/http_binding_03.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ const type = "com.github.pull.create";
 const source = "urn:event:from:myapi/resourse/123";
 const contentEncoding = "base64";
 const contentType = "application/cloudevents+json; charset=utf-8";
-const time = new Date();
+const time = new Date().toISOString();
 const schemaurl = "http://cloudevents.io/schema.json";
 
 const ceContentType = "application/json";
diff --git a/test/integration/http_binding_1.ts b/test/integration/http_binding_1.ts
index d64cd75e..a5a0decf 100644
--- a/test/integration/http_binding_1.ts
+++ b/test/integration/http_binding_1.ts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import { AxiosResponse } from "axios";
 const type = "com.github.pull.create";
 const source = "urn:event:from:myapi/resource/123";
 const contentType = "application/cloudevents+json; charset=utf-8";
-const time = new Date();
+const time = new Date().toISOString();
 const subject = "subject.ext";
 const dataschema = "http://cloudevents.io/schema.json";
 const datacontenttype = "application/json";
diff --git a/test/integration/http_emitter_test.ts b/test/integration/http_emitter_test.ts
index e9f184bc..a2d9c051 100644
--- a/test/integration/http_emitter_test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/http_emitter_test.ts
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ describe("HTTP Transport Binding Emitter for CloudEvents", () => {
     const event = new CloudEvent({
       type,
       source,
-      time: new Date(),
+      time: new Date().toISOString(),
       data,
       [ext1Name]: ext1Value,
       [ext2Name]: ext2Value,
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ describe("HTTP Transport Binding Emitter for CloudEvents", () => {
       specversion: Version.V03,
       type,
       source,
-      time: new Date(),
+      time: new Date().toISOString(),
       data,
       [ext1Name]: ext1Value,
       [ext2Name]: ext2Value,
diff --git a/test/integration/message_test.ts b/test/integration/message_test.ts
index c6a3315f..c8966af1 100644
--- a/test/integration/message_test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/message_test.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import { Message, HTTP } from "../../src/message";
 
 const type = "org.cncf.cloudevents.example";
 const source = "urn:event:from:myapi/resource/123";
-const time = new Date();
+const time = new Date().toISOString();
 const subject = "subject.ext";
 const dataschema = "http://cloudevents.io/schema.json";
 const datacontenttype = "application/json";
diff --git a/test/integration/spec_03_tests.ts b/test/integration/spec_03_tests.ts
index c0732758..84252a4a 100644
--- a/test/integration/spec_03_tests.ts
+++ b/test/integration/spec_03_tests.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import Constants from "../../src/constants";
 const id = "97699ec2-a8d9-47c1-bfa0-ff7aa526f838";
 const type = "com.github.pull.create";
 const source = "urn:event:from:myapi/resourse/123";
-const time = new Date();
+const time = new Date().toISOString();
 const schemaurl = "http://example.com/registry/myschema.json";
 const data = {
   much: "wow",
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ describe("CloudEvents Spec v0.3", () => {
     });
 
     it("Should have 'time'", () => {
-      expect(cloudevent.time).to.equal(time.toISOString());
+      expect(cloudevent.time).to.equal(time);
     });
 
     it("Should have 'data'", () => {
@@ -186,8 +186,12 @@ describe("CloudEvents Spec v0.3", () => {
 
     describe("'time'", () => {
       it("must adhere to the format specified in RFC 3339", () => {
-        cloudevent = cloudevent.cloneWith({ time: time });
-        expect(cloudevent.time).to.equal(time.toISOString());
+        const d = new Date();
+        cloudevent = cloudevent.cloneWith({ time: d.toString() });
+        // ensure that we always get back the same thing we passed in
+        expect(cloudevent.time).to.equal(d.toString());
+        // ensure that when stringified, the timestamp is in RFC3339 format
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(cloudevent)).time).to.equal(new Date(d.toString()).toISOString());
       });
     });
   });
diff --git a/test/integration/spec_1_tests.ts b/test/integration/spec_1_tests.ts
index e39d3a56..9329dbd0 100644
--- a/test/integration/spec_1_tests.ts
+++ b/test/integration/spec_1_tests.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import Constants from "../../src/constants";
 const id = "97699ec2-a8d9-47c1-bfa0-ff7aa526f838";
 const type = "com.github.pull.create";
 const source = "urn:event:from:myapi/resourse/123";
-const time = new Date();
+const time = new Date().toISOString();
 const dataschema = "http://example.com/registry/myschema.json";
 const data = {
   much: "wow",
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ describe("CloudEvents Spec v1.0", () => {
     });
 
     it("Should have 'time'", () => {
-      expect(cloudevent.time).to.equal(time.toISOString());
+      expect(cloudevent.time).to.equal(time);
     });
   });
 
@@ -144,8 +144,12 @@ describe("CloudEvents Spec v1.0", () => {
 
     describe("'time'", () => {
       it("must adhere to the format specified in RFC 3339", () => {
-        cloudevent = cloudevent.cloneWith({ time: time });
-        expect(cloudevent.time).to.equal(time.toISOString());
+        const d = new Date();
+        cloudevent = cloudevent.cloneWith({ time: d.toString() });
+        // ensure that we always get back the same thing we passed in
+        expect(cloudevent.time).to.equal(d.toString());
+        // ensure that when stringified, the timestamp is in RFC3339 format
+        expect(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(cloudevent)).time).to.equal(new Date(d.toString()).toISOString());
       });
     });
   });