Dr. William Lane Craig doesn’t hold my perspective on time and he doesn’t hold most of any position that I hold. He and I are on different sides of the theological pendulum. But even he sees that the Bible teaches that the creation event is the beginning of time. So, I’ll quote one of his works:
Defenders of divine timelessness might suggest that the biblical authors lacked the conceptual categories for enunciating a doctrine of divine time-
lessness, so that their temporal descriptions of God need not be taken literally. But Padgett cites the first-century extra-biblical work 2 Enoch 65:6-7 as evidence that the conception of timeless existence was not beyond the reach of biblical writers:
And then the whole creation, visible and invisible, which the Lord has created, shall come to an end, then each person will go to the Lord’s great judgment. And then all time will perish, and afterward there will be neither years nor months nor days nor hours. They will be dissipated, and after that they will not be reckoned (2 Enoch 65:6-7).
Such a passage gives us reason to think that the biblical authors, had they wished to, could have formulated a doctrine of divine timelessness. Paul Helm raises a more subtle objection to the inference that the authors of Scripture, in describing God in temporal terms, intended to teach that God is temporal.6 He claims that the biblical writers lacked the “reflective context” for formulating a doctrine of divine eternity. That is to say, the issue (like the issue of geocentrism, for instance) had either never come up for explicit consideration or else simply fell outside their interests.
Moreover, it must be said that the biblical data are not so wholly onesided as Padgett would have us believe. Johannes Schmidt, whose Ewigkeitsbegriff im a/ten Testament Padgett calls “the longest and most thorough book on the concept of eternity in the OT,”8 argues for a biblical doctrine of divine timelessness on the basis of creation texts such as Genesis 1:1 and Proverbs 8:22-23.9 Padgett brushes aside Schmidt’s contention with the comment, “Neither of these texts teaches or implies that time began with creation, or indeed say [sic] anything about time or eternity.” 10 This summary dismissal is all too quick. Genesis 1:1, which is neither a subordinate clause nor a summary title, 11 states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” According to James Barr, this absolute beginning, taken in conjunction with the expression, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day” (v. 5), indicating the first day, may very well be intended to teach that the beginning was not simply the beginning of the physical universe but the beginning of time itself, and that, consequently, God may be thought of as timeless. 12 This conclusion is rendered all the more plausible when the Genesis account of creation is read against the backdrop of ancient Egyptian cosmogony. 13 Egyptian cosmogony includes the idea that creation took place at “the first time” (sp tpy). John Currid takes both the Egyptian and the Hebrew cosmogonies to involve the notion that the moment of creation is the beginning of time.t4
Certain New Testament authors may be taken to construe Genesis 1:1 as referring to the beginning of time. The most striking New Testament reflection on Genesis 1:1 is, of course, John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” Here the uncreated Word (logos), the source of all created things, was already with God and was God at the moment of creation. It is not hard to interpret this passage in terms of the Word’s timeless unity with God-nor would it be anachronistic to do so, given the firstcentury Jewish philosopher Philo’s doctrine of the divine Logos (Word) and Philo’s holding that time begins with creation. 15 As for Proverbs 8:22-23, this passage is certainly capable of being read in terms of a beginning of time. The doctrine of creation was a centerpiece of Jewish wisdom literature and aimed to show God’s sovereignty over everything. Here Wisdom, personified as a woman, speaks: “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. From everlasting I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth” (NASB). The passage, which doubtless looks back to Genesis 1:1, is brimming with temporal expressions for a beginning. R. N. Whybray comments, It should be noted how the writer … was so insistent on pressing home the fact of Wisdom’s unimaginable antiquity that he piled up every available synonym in a deluge of tautologies: res’Jit, beginning, qedem, the first, me’iiz, of old, me ‘oliim, ages ago, mero’J, at the first or “from the beginning” (compare Isa. 40.21; 41.4, 26), miqqad’ me’are:f, before the beginning of the earth: the emphasis is not so much on the mode of Wisdom’s coming into existence, … but on the fact of her antiquity. 16 The expressions emphasize, however, not Wisdom’s mere antiquity, but that there was a beginning, a departure point, at or before which Wisdom existed. This was a departure point not merely for the earth but for time and the ages; it was simply the beginning. Ploger comments that through God’s creative work “the possibility of speaking of ‘time’ was first given; thus, before this
time, right at the beginning, Wisdom came into existence through Yahweh [the LORD].” 17 The passage was so understood by other ancient writers. The Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament renders me ‘o/iim in Proverbs 8:23 as pro tou aionios (before time), and Sirach 24:9 has Wisdom say, “Before the ages, in the beginning, he created me, and for all ages I shall not cease to be” (cf. 16:26; 23:20). Significantly, certain New Testament passages also seem to affirm a beginning of time. This would imply just the same sort of timelessness “before” the creation of the world which Padgett sees in 2 Enoch “after” the end of the world. For example, we read in Jude 25, “to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever” (pro pantos tau aionos kai nun kai eis pantas taus aionas) (emphasis added). The passage contemplates an everlasting future duration but affirms a beginning to past time and implies God’s existence, using an almost inevitable de par/er, “before” time began. Similar expressions are found in two intriguing passages in the Pastoral Epistles. In Titus 1:2-3, in a passage laden with temporal language, we read of those chosen by God “in hope of eternal life [zoes aioniouJ which God, who never lies, promised before age-long time [pro chronon aionion] but manifested at the proper time [kairois idioisJ” (author’s translation). And in 2 Timothy 1 :9 we read of God’s “purpose and grace, which were given to us in Christ Jesus before age-long time [pro chronon aionion J, but now [nun] manifested by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus” (author’s translation). Arndt and Gingrich render pro chronon aionion as “before time began.” 18 Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 2: 7 Paul speaks of a secret, hidden wisdom of God, “which God decreed before the ages [pro ton aionon] for our glorification.” Such expressions are in line with the Septuagint, which describes God as “the one who exists before the ages [ho hyparch6n pro ton aionon]” (LXX Ps. 54:20 [Ps 55:19]). Expressions such as ek tou aionos orapo tonaionon might be taken to mean merely “from ancient times” or “from eternity.” But these should not be conflated with pro expressions. That such pro constructions are to be taken seriously and not merely as idioms connoting “for long ages” (cf. Rom. 16:25: chronois aioniois) is confirmed by the many similar expressions concerning God and His decrees “before the foundation of the world” (pro kataboles kosmou) (John 17:24; Eph. 1:4; 1Pet.1:20; cf. Rev. 13:8). Evidently it was a common understanding of the creation described in Genesis 1:1 that the beginning of the world was coincident with the beginning of time or the ages; but since God did not begin to exist at the moment of creation, it therefore followed that He existed “before” the beginning of time. God, at least “before” creation, must therefore be atemporal. Thus, although scriptural authors speak of God as temporal and everlasting, there is some evidence, at least, that when God is considered in relation to creation He must be thought of as the transcendent Creator of time and the ages and therefore as existing beyond time. It may well be the case that in the context of the doctrine of creation the biblical writers were led to reflect on God’s relationship to time and chose to affirm His transcendence. Still the evidence is not clear, and we seem forced to conclude with Barr that “if such a thing as a Christian doctrine of time has to be developed, the work of discussing it and developing it must belong not to biblical but to philosophical theology.” 19
Craig, William Lane. Time and Eternity: Exploring God’s Relationship to Time (Crossway) (pg.15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
Craig gives a good case for the biblical evidence for divine eternity. I would also add that the author of the letter to the Hebrews teaches that Christ is the creator of all the ages:
The Council 