Before Creation

            Throughout the Scriptures, God provides man some of the details of His existence before the creation event.  He discloses His purposes and plans for the creation before He created it.  The following are 10 things we know existed or were planned by God before the creation event took place.

1.     Before creation, the Godhead existed as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

See the 'Who Created?' section of this document.

Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.^[1]”

John 1:1&2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

Hebrews 9:14 “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God”

2.     Before creation, God knows the beginning to the end and is outside of time.

Isaiah 48:12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last.”

Revelation 1:8 “"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty".”

Revelation 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

3.     Before creation, God the Father loved God the Son.

John 17:24 “for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

4.     Before creation, the Father and the Son shared glory.

John 17:5 “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

5.     Before creation (or during?), God prepared a kingdom for the Saints.

Matthew 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:”

6.     Before creation, God planned secrets to be revealed to His creation by Him personally on the earth as the Christ and through His church.

Matthew 13:35, Jesus stated “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”

1 Corinthains 2:7 “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory”

Romans 16:25 “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began”

Ephesians 3:9-11 “and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; ¹⁰to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, ¹¹according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

Colosians 1:26 “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.”

7.     Before creation, God promised the Son the elect for eternal life.

Titus 1:2 “in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,”  No one was around “before time began”, except the Trinity.  Therefore, this is best understood as a promise from God the Father to God the Son.

8.     Before creation, God chose the saints for salvation.

Ephesians 1:4&5 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,”

2 Thessalonians 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth”

2 Timothy 1:9 “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,”

9.     Before creation, the saint’s names were written in the Book of Life (as apposed to those whose names were not, as shown in the following verses).

Revelation 17:8 “And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world,”

Revelation 13:8 “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

10.            Before creation, God’s creative plan included the cross.

Acts 2:23 “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;”

Acts 4:27&28 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together ²⁸to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.”

1 Peter 1:19&20 “but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. ²⁰He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you”

Revelation 13:8 “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

 

 

Illustration: God is outside of time, space, & matter; the creation is His plan

 

            The circle represents everything God created – time, space, matter, & light.  God is not bound to time, space, or matter.  He was before all we see or comprehend.  God has and still is revealing His plan to us through His written Word and the events that are still to come.

 

            Amazingly, God demonstrates He is an extreme God of love.  God determined before He created that He would demonstrate His love to His creation through the sacrifice of the cross!