Have you ever wondered what God was doing before He created the universe? It’s a question that comes up a lot, and it might seem like a tricky one to answer. But according to Christian apologist Ken Ham, the answer is actually simple: “There was no before.”
At first, that might not make sense. After all, we live in a world where everything has a past, present and future. But Ham explains that our whole concept of time itself was created by God.
“In the beginning—that’s time. God created the heaven—that’s space. And the Earth—that’s matter. Space-mass-time continuum. That’s when He created time.”
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In other words, before creation, time didn’t even exist. And if there was no time, then asking what God was doing before He created is kind of like asking, “What’s north of the North Pole?” It’s a question that assumes something that isn’t there.
Of course, that’s hard for us to wrap our heads around. After all, we’re created beings, living within time. But the Bible tells us that God isn’t like us—He is eternal. As Ham puts it, “He’s the Alpha and Omega.” When Moses asked for God’s name, He answered, I AM. Not I was or I will be, but I AM.
Now, some people argue that the Earth must be billions of years old because otherwise, what was God doing all that time? But Ham pushes back against that logic: “It doesn’t matter how old you say the Earth is—five billion years, ten billion, a zillion—you could keep going back forever. It just doesn’t make sense.” That’s because time itself only began when God spoke creation into existence.
And what about those who say the days of creation weren’t really six days? According to Ham, the Bible makes it clear: “The Hebrew word for ‘day,’ when it’s qualified by evening, morning, number, or night, means an ordinary day.” He points to Exodus 20:11, which says, “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth.” Ham argues that “that’s where we get our seven-day week from—the six days of creation and God’s rest on the seventh.”
So, how old is the universe? The Bible doesn’t come out and say, “The universe is 6,000 years old,” but Ham explains that it does give us enough information to calculate it. “From Genesis 1:1 all the way through Genesis chapter 1, everything was made in six days. Then you have Adam, who lived 930 years. At 130, he had a son, Seth. Then you follow the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11, all the way to Abraham, then from Abraham to Christ, and from Christ to today—it adds up to about 6,000 years.”
This, of course, raises another question: If Jesus said He would return, why hasn’t He yet? Ham points to 2 Peter 3:8, which says, “A day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day” to God. “He’s outside of time—He doesn’t experience it like we do,” Ham explains. And as for the delay? The Bible tells us, “It’s not His will that any should perish.” In other words, “He’s giving people more time to repent.”
So, what was God doing before creation? The answer, according to Ken Ham, is simple: “God is.” He is eternal, existing outside of time. And while we may not fully understand that, we can trust that the Creator of the universe knows exactly what He’s doing.
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James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
