I have stated my opinion that time did not start until earth and the heavens were created. I don't think scripture tells us when TIME began but in my mind only humans need "time". We know that time exists in the universe but is God bound by this universe?
It loses all meaning to say that God is bound/limited/subject to His creation, to call Him the Creator/Maker.
What is above the heavens?
Psalm 148:4 - Praise Him, you heaven of heavens and you waters above the heavens!
Is the third heaven outside of the universe?
2 Corinthians 12:2 - I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows
Hebrews 4:14 - Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession
Deuteronomy 10:14 - Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it
I don't know if scripture refers to a first or second heaven but it does refer to the third. I think the first is the atmosphere and sky and the second heaven is the stars and firmament. Then we have scripture that says "above the heavens"
I guess my point (if I have one), is that time seems pointless in the third heaven, therefore "time" is irrelevant BEFORE creation. That does not automatically mean that we have no memory of events that happen(ed) in time nor does it mean that God could not exist before time began. Again, I come to the notion that "time" is only necessary for mankind, we measure time because we need to.
Which is the anthropomorphic position, that the scriptures only talk about time in relation to God in order for us to have some clue as to what He is like.
I keep beating the "noun" drum because that's really all that's needed to answer the question about God and time, whatever time is or is not, it is simply linguistically impossible for God to be subject to, or limited by, or bound by time, because otherwise, time is God, and God is something else.
Stephen Hawking once said, that for all intents and purposes, gravity is God, because (he said), all that's required to explain the existence of the universe is gravity. The same linguistic analysis proves this notion wrong, since gravity also is a noun, and God is subject to no noun. Nobody ever proposes that God is subject to gravity, or to space, which is another noun, and for me the same principle applies. Time is either a useful fiction, or it is nonfiction, but in either case, God cannot be bound by time, and remain God. So therefore, He is not bound by time.
:idunno: