Dr. 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? Muhammad from Saudi Arabia. Thank you for your

question, Muhammad.

This is at least one 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. Morland has argued, 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-Hazali saw.

It is for that reason that I have argued that God is timeless sans creation and in time since the

moment of creation.