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ANV
Guest
Supposing he did.
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Della
Guest
He hasn’t revealed that about himself, so we cannot know. Sorry, for the short answer, but sometimes a short answer is the best–simply because it’s true. 
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drac16
Guest
I don’t know. Perhaps He created other things like stars.
He hasn’t revealed that about himself, so we cannot know. Sorry, for the short answer, but sometimes a short answer is the best–simply because it’s true.
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Todd977
Guest
One thing we know the three persons of the Trinity did before creating the world was they loved each other.
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Wesrock
Guest
Saint Augustine had thoughts on this, and the teaching of theologians has agreed.
newadvent.org/fathers/110111.htm
Starting at Chapter 10 (chapters in ancient documents were usually only a few paragraphs).
But to ask of before God created is seen as essentially a nonsense question. There was no time, no change, no duration or moments prior to creation, nor does God experience duration in a sequence like we do even now.
But Augustine’s own words are educational. The linked translation is a little archaic (and Augustine himself was writing in common Latin, which was the vulgar tongue, and nothing fancy), but still readable.
newadvent.org/fathers/110111.htm
Starting at Chapter 10 (chapters in ancient documents were usually only a few paragraphs).
But to ask of before God created is seen as essentially a nonsense question. There was no time, no change, no duration or moments prior to creation, nor does God experience duration in a sequence like we do even now.
But Augustine’s own words are educational. The linked translation is a little archaic (and Augustine himself was writing in common Latin, which was the vulgar tongue, and nothing fancy), but still readable.
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Tim_D
Guest
The classical answer to this question is “he spent His time creating a special place in hell for people who ask such questions.”
Stop thinking that God behaves as a human being or that you can conceive of Him in any truly meaningful way.
Stop thinking that God behaves as a human being or that you can conceive of Him in any truly meaningful way.
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Crusaderbear
Guest
I always wondered if this creation was his first try…I’m willing to wait a while to find out though!
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Pat_Albertson
Guest
He existed, or at least that is what I think logic would suggest, but other than that I do not know.
meltzerboy
New member
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revert_jen
Guest
Assuming that by “the world” you mean “the entire universe,” the question, as others have mentioned, only makes sense if God is in time, which He is not. But God created time when He created the universe, so even if God were subject to time (which He isn’t), the question still wouldn’t make sense. “What did someone do before time existed?” is not a question that can possibly have an answer, because the word “before” only applies inside time.
If you didn’t mean “the universe,” the question should be asked of a scientist. Certainly elements, energy, the sun, and other stars would be part of the answer.
–Jen
If you didn’t mean “the universe,” the question should be asked of a scientist. Certainly elements, energy, the sun, and other stars would be part of the answer.
–Jen
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truetofaith
Guest
Genesis 1 says : “In the Beginning, God created the heavens & the earth.”
It doesn’t mention what God did for the eons of time before our universe was created, so wait until you get to heaven to find out.
It doesn’t mention what God did for the eons of time before our universe was created, so wait until you get to heaven to find out.
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Della
Guest
From what God has revealed to us in Sacred Tradition, of which Scripture is a part.
To further answer the OP’s question, and add to Todd977’s good reply, God loved. God is love, and therefore he has loved (before creating the universe and us) and he loves and he will love. God is. Period. He doesn’t have a before or after. That’s hard for materialists to accept, and hard even for people of faith to grasp, but God, being simple, just is. That we can’t fully understand is our limitation, not God’s. He didn’t have to create anything to be complete. He created the universe we know out of love. That’s where understanding what the universe is and who we are begins–and ultimately where it will end.
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Todd977
Guest
From what Jesus said in John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me in thy love for me before the foundation of the world.”
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Richca
Guest
God enjoyed his own infinite beatitude or happiness and divine life in the communion of the three divine persons of the Trinity. God is Life, Truth, Happiness, Goodness, Reality, and Being or Existence. The intimate life of God involves the operations of his intellect and will from which proceeds from God the Father the two processions of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. By the Father perfectly comprehending and knowing his infinite being proceeds from the Father’s intellect God the Son who is the image of God the Father. And from the love the Father and the Son have for each other proceeds the Holy Spirit from the will of the Father and the Son. The participation in the eternal divine life of God is what he has called every single human being to share in with Him and which constitutes heaven. In heaven we shall know and love God as He knows and loves himself.
God does not have to do anything extraneous to himself to be happy, fulfilled, or more perfect. He is of his very nature the ultimate and infinite Reality, Life, Truth, Goodness, Being, and Beatitude or happiness. God of himself is perfectly and infinitely content and at rest by himself alone in the communion of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity as the non-eternity of God’s creation and creatures bears out. For before God created anything, he alone existed from all eternity. Since God is eternal, there is no before and after in him, however, there is a before and after in what is not God, namely, creation and creatures as creation is not eternal but had a beginning. Before God brought forth creatures into being, they were not, they didn’t exist, God alone existed and that from all eternity. God created not to increase his own happiness and perfection but to communicate his goodness and happiness to creatures especially to rational creatures such as human beings and angels who can participate in God’s beatitude and divine life.
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Della
Guest
There’s an aspect to this that’s important to understand. And that is that time itself is only a part of creation. Time hasn’t always existed. It’s only the movement of space and matter gives us the perception of “time” passing by.
Without the physical universe there is no such thing as time. The void beyond the universe, if there is anything beyond it, was there before the universe was created–nothingness, where time does not exist.
God is. Period.
He makes himself a part of time when he interacts with his creation, but he is not subject to it nor lives/has his essence from it.Therefore, he simply was before time was created. As another poster said, he loved and was loved, which was sufficient for him. But, in his love, he wished to share it with others outside himself–outside his triune being. And so he created the universe, and man to wonder at it, to occupy it, and gives him thanks for it.
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