Transcription
What was God doing before creation? Well, that's an easy one to answer. There was no before.
Now, what do I mean by that? I remember being at a conference where a man came up to me and he said, "Surely, uh, the Earth has to be billions of years old. I mean, you know, uh, God, what was he doing, uh, before he created the Earth? I mean, it couldn't be just thousands of years old because that wouldn't make sense. I mean, you know, it it makes more sense that it's billions of years old."
And I said, "Wait a minute. Do do you really realize what you're saying? Because if you said it was billions of years old, 5 billion years old or whatever, just think about this. Then you keep going back. You could go back another 5 billion, and then another 5 billion, and then 10 billion, and then a trillion, and then a zillion. I mean, it doesn't make sense. I I it doesn't matter how old you say the Earth is if you say, 'Well, it has to be billions of years old because what was God doing all that time?' But you you would go back zillions and zillions of years, and it it just is not logical."
But here's the point. God created time. When in the Bible it says, "In the beginning," that's time. God created the heaven, space, and the Earth, matter, space, mass, time continuum. Now, that's when he created time. You see, the Bible makes it very clear that God exists in eternity.
You know, I've had children say to me, "Mr. Ham, Will, what was here before God created?" "Nothing." Well, no, because nothing is really something. I mean, if you think about space, space actually is something. It's not nothing. We don't even really understand space. There had to be not even nothing, which doesn't sort of make sense to us. But that's because we don't understand an infinite Creator God who exists in eternity. He's the Alpha and Omega. He exists outside of time.
Now, that's why we will never understand an infinite Creator God. We're created beings. We're created in time. And that's why the Bible says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please him," because there's always going to be a faith aspect. But it's not a blind faith. Uh, because the faith we have as Christians makes sense of what we see, sense of why we have, uh, the laws of nature and and the laws of mathematics, for instance, the the the laws of chemistry, etc., the laws of logic, and so on. Only makes sense with the Creator God.
But what we need to understand is that God exists in eternity. So there was no time before he created. And that is impossible for us to totally understand. And it's going to be that way because, as I said, we're created in time. We're finite beings, and we don't know everything. Only God knows everything. Remember what he said to Moses? Moses said, "Who shall I say sent me?" And he was told, "Say, I AM." In other words, he exists. "I AM who I AM." He is the infinite Creator God.
You know, the Bible tells us a way in which we can calculate the age of the universe because it tells us that he created everything in six days. And the Hebrew word "day," when it's qualified by evening, morning, number, or night, means an ordinary day. Uh, each of those six days, from the language and the context in which it's written there in Genesis 1, means six days. Jump over to Exodus 20:1. "In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is." In other words, from Genesis 1:1 all the way through Genesis chapter 1, everything was made in six days, then rested on the seventh day. That's our seven-day week. That's where it comes from. It's based on the creation week, uh, in Genesis chapter 1.
And on day six, God made Adam. We're told that Adam lived for 930 years. But at 130 years old, he had a son called Seth. And then when you read those genealogies in Genesis chapter 5 and Genesis chapter 11, uh, we are given the times in which people were born, when they died. You can add up all those dates. You come to the time of Abraham, and then from Abraham to Christ, and then from Christ, the baby in a manger, uh, up to the present, it adds up to about 6,000 years. That's how we get, uh, the age of the universe from the Bible.
The Bible doesn't say the universe is 6,000 years old. Remember, God's written word was finished 2,000 years ago. So if it said the universe is 6,000 years old now, it'll be 8,000 years old. That's why the Bible doesn't give a specific date, but it gives us the ability to calculate the age because of the history that God has given us, uh, in his word.
So, what was God doing before he created? God, God is, he is The Great I AM. He exists in eternity. There's no time with God. Some people have even tried to argue, "Well, the days of creation, you know, they they the days that God created, you know, in in his day, in his time." And there is no time for God. He's outside of time.
That's why even in the New Testament, in 2 Peter chapter 3, concerning scoffers in the last days, uh, and we're told that "to God a day is like a thousand years, or a thousand years is like a day." Is telling us this, you know, why hasn't Jesus returned? Because scoffers are saying, "Things keep going on and on and on." Um, and they reject creation, they reject the flood of Noah's day, they reject coming judgment by fire. You know, "If Jesus was coming back, you know, that can't be right because look, it's been so long since he said he was returning." But to God, a day is like a thousand years, or a thousand years is like a day. Which means what? God is outside of time. He's not limited by natural processes in time. So to God, a day, it's like a thousand years, or a thousand years, it's just like a day. Uh, and the Bible tells us why Jesus hasn't returned, by the way. It's not his will that any should perish. There'll be a time when he does, uh, but when he has called those, uh, that are going to be with him for eternity, uh, to be with him. And so there is no time with God. Time was created for us and for this universe so we can exist in time.
Hey, does the Bible tell us how old the Earth is? Since time was created on day one of creation and we have such detailed genealogies in the Old Testament, we can use the information provided in the Bible to determine the age of the Earth. So watch this video to see how.