The problem is that God is outside of time and yet he chose a very particular point in time 13.8 years ago to create the universe. No one knows why He would choose that particular point in time?
The 13.8 billion years applies to the world, not to God. The world, indeed, began to exist 13.8 billion years ago, but God
willed the creation of the world
at His own duration, which is eternity, not at the world’s time. In other words, from eternity God willed that the world should exist in time, but time itself only began to exist when the world existed.
I think it is important to understand the exact difference between
time and
eternity. Time and eternity are two ways of persisting in being, which I call
duration. Material beings do not merely exist, but they also
endure. For example, we see a stationary body at time t1, then later at time t2, then later at time t3. The body does not disappear during the interval between t1 and t3. It continues to exist; it endures. But obviously, the body does not simultaneously exist at all three instants. It exists first at t1, then later at t2, then later at t3. In fact, it always exists only in the “now.” It exists from instant to instant in a successive fashion. But when it exists at any instant, then it no longer exists at the instant before it, and it does not yet exist in the instant after it. This means that it continues to exist only
by successively losing existence and acquiring it again. This is the kind of duration that we call “time.” It is measurable and divisible.
Eternity is different. Eternity is also a kind of duration, or a way of persisting in being. But an eternal being does not persist in being by successively losing existence at one instant and acquiring it again in the next instant. That kind of duration is a mark of imperfection that cannot be allowed in an Infinite Being. Unlike a body that exists at t2 (assuming it is the “now”), but no longer exists at t1 and not yet at t3, an eternal Being possesses infinite existence at one indivisible instant: the eternal NOW. The NOW in a way comprehends all instants of time
simultaneously. There is no past or future in eternity, because the so-called “past” and “future” are simultaneously present in the NOW.
When we speak of “13.8 billion years ago,” we are speaking of a time when the world began to exist. But God’s act of creation did not happen in time but in the eternal NOW, which is not measurable nor divisible into months and years.
