LOVING: GOD’S WORK BEFORE CREATION

Frt. Brian Rochus

A man approached me and said, “But it makes no sense to believe in a young

universe. After all, what was God doing all that time before He created If God
created the universe; there was a time when he commenced to create. Back of that
commencement there must have been an eternity. In that eternity what was this
God doing? He certainly did not think. There was nothing to think about. He did
not remember. Nothing had ever happened. What did he do?”

I answered, “What time do you mean?” The person answered, “Well, it doesn’t
make sense to say that God has always existed, and yet He didn’t create the
universe until just six thousand years ago.” Apparently, he was worried
that God once had a lot of time on His hands with nothing to do.

I then went on to explain that because God has always existed, then it is
meaningless to ask, “What was God doing all that time before He created?”1 No
matter how far you were to go back in time, you would still have an infinite
amount of time before He created! So even if the universe were billions or trillions
or quadrillions of years old, you could still ask the same question. I then told him,
“You are missing the fact that there was no time before God created.”2

Saint Augustine had two answers to those who asked what God was doing before
creation. Jokingly he said, God was preparing Hell for people who ask such
questions.3 On a serious level, he noted there was no time before God created and

1
Cfr. St. Augustine, Confessions, Book XI, Chapter XII (12)
2
Cfr. St. Augustine, Confessions, Book XI, Chapter XIII (13)
3
Cfr. St. Augustine, Confessions, Book XI, Chapter XII (12)
hence the question is meaningless.4 When God created the heavens and the earth
He also created space and time. Before time began there was only eternity. God is
a timeless being and time only began with His creation of the universe. Hence time
is actually a created entity.

The first verse of the Bible reads: “In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth”.5 A study of this verse reveals that God created time, space, and matter
on the first day of Creation Week. No one of these can have a meaningful
existence without the others. 6 God created the space-mass-time universe. Space
and matter must exist in time, and time requires space and matter. Time is only
meaningful if physical entities exist and events transpire during time. “In the
beginning . . .” is when time began! There was no time before time was created!

Yet, we should not assume that God was inactive prior to creation. The Bible
speaks of God loving and planning before the earth was created. Jesus, in His
prayer to the Father before His betrayal, said:

Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am,
that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me
before the foundation of the world.7

4
Cfr. St. Augustine, Confessions, Book XI, Chapter XIII (13)
5
Genesis 1:1.
6
Cfr. Brian, GREENE, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the texture of reality. Alfred A.
Knopf, New York 2004. P. 219.
Cfr. Stephen, HAWKIN, A brief history of time: from the Big bang to Black holes, The
phenomenal International Bestseller, updated edition. Chapter 2.
Cfr. Albert, ENSTEIN, Relativity: The special and general theory. Methuen &Co Ltd, 1916. P
15.
Cfr. Brian, GREENE, The Elegant Universe: Supertstrings, Hidden dimensions, and the quest for
the Ultimate Theory, Part II.
7
John 17:24.
The Apostle Paul spoke of God's eternal plan:

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love8.

In another place, Paul spoke of the promises of God.

In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time
began.9

This brings up an interesting question. If the world had not yet been created, then
to whom was the promise of eternal life made? The promise was made among the
different members of the Trinity (the Father to the Son or to the Holy Spirit)
because at this particular point, that is, before the world was created; there was no
one else to whom to make the promise. The different members of the Trinity love
and communicate with each other. Hence, communication occurred within the
Godhead before the creation of man and woman.

The Scripture, therefore, speaks of God making plans both before the beginning
and after the beginning. Before creation there was communication, planning, and
love within the members of the Trinity. After creation that communication and love
was directed toward humanity

So before He created the universe, God experienced absolute satisfaction in

Himself. God dwelt joyfully alone in eternity as the Trinity. These three were
together in fellowship with one another from all eternity. They loved each other.
Hence before creation, God was in the state of joy and act of loving among the
Three Persons.

8
Ephesians 1:4.
9
Titus 1:2.
Also creation itself is the fruit/ outcome of God’s love, for he loved the universe
and all its creatures first, for they existed in the mind of God before being created,
and then he decided to create what He loved.