#914 God’s Decision and Act of Creation
November 17, 2024Dr. Craig, in your discussions about God's creation of the universe, you argue that God's act of creation is a timeless event that brings about the beginning of time itself. However, if God’s decision to create is eternal and timeless, doesn’t this imply that God is eternally creating the universe? How do you reconcile this with the idea that creation happens "once-for-all" and that the universe has a definite beginning in time? How does God’s eternal decision not lead to the idea that creation is an eternal, ongoing process?
Mohamd
Saudi Arabia
Dr. craig’s response
A
Thank you for your question, Mohamd! This is one at least on which Christians and Muslims can agree.
The key to answering the question is to distinguish between God’s act of creation and God’s decision to create. Given God’s eternality and omniscience, God’s decision to create is truly “eternal and timeless,” as you say. It is metaphysically impossible that God should make up his mind after a period of indecision. But it does not follow that “God's act of creation is a timeless event.” As my colleague J. P. Moreland has argued,[1] in addition to God’s timeless will to create there must be an exercise of God’s causal power to bring creation into being. That exercise of causal power plausibly occurs at the moment of creation, the first moment of time, for it represents the very first event. Such an exercise of causal power is an act of libertarian free will and therefore does not require antecedent determining conditions, as al-Ghazālī saw. It is for that reason that I have argued that God is timeless sans creation and in time since the moment of creation.
[1] J. P. Moreland, “Libertarian Agency and Craig/Grunbaum Debate,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 71/4 (1997): 539–54.
- William Lane Craig