If God is Omnipotent (All Powerful) Why Did He Need to Take Six Days to Create the Universe?

Introduction

If God can do anything (if He is truly omnipotent), why did He take six days to create the universe, when He could have done it instantly? Astronomical data indicates that the universe began 13.8 billion years ago,¹ but the earth was not formed until 4.5 billion years ago.² Why would God wait 9.2 billion years after creating the universe to create the earth? And why would He wait another 4.5 billion years to create humans, if we are really God's ultimate reason for creating the universe? Are the atheists correct in asserting that the whole thing was an unplanned accident? The Bible actually addresses many of these issues and provides answers that tell us why God created the universe the way He did.

Does time matter to God?

The main problem with the question is that it makes some assumptions about God that just aren't true. Many skeptics assume that instant creation demonstrates the power of God more decisively than creation over a period of time. One problem with this assumption is that the element of time is irrelevant to God. In fact, the Bible says that God created time along with the universe.³ Therefore, God is not bound by time, so that six days, six minutes, or six trillion years mean nothing to Him. It's not like He had to wait around for things to happen, since He is not subject to time.

Advantages of creating over time

Even though God is not bound by time, one could say that creating instantly would be preferable to creating over a period of time. However, any astronomer asked the question would prefer that the universe be created over time. Curiously, astronomers would be out-of-business if God had created the universe instantly. This is because the universe is expanding at nearly the speed of light, so that we can see back in time nearly to the creation event itself. If God had created everything instantly (but kept the universe the same size), and placed all plant and animal life on earth a few thousand years ago, we would see nothing of the heavens, other than the solar system and a few stars.⁴ However, Psalm 19 says that the heavens declare the glory of God,⁵ so it seems likely that God wanted us to see the entire universe. If He had created it instantly, this would not be possible.
The same logic can be used for the creation of the earth and life on it. Besides indicating that the heavens declare the Glory of God, Psalm 19 says that the firmament shows His handiwork. The biological history of the earth is preserved in the rocks so that we can see the creative handiwork of God in producing life's history. If the universe and earth were created instantly, there would be no history of life to examine, and God's glory would not be visible to us.

Why did God wait 9 billion years to create the earth?

The main reason why the earth was not created until billions of years after the creation of the universe involves the nature of the universe at its creation. The initial Big Bang creation event resulted in a universe that consisted almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Obviously, rocky planets are not possible in such a universe. Heavier elements (including carbon, oxygen and metals) were formed in the nuclear furnaces of stars (hence Carl Sagan's famous line, "We are star stuff."). Really large stars burn quickly and end their lives in spectacular explosions, which distribute these heavy elements throughout the local vicinity. So, rocky planets (and living organisms) were not even possible during the first few billion years of the universe's history. Even now, most stars are metal-poor compared to our Sun (determined through spectroscopy). So, the earth was created at one of the earliest possible times in the history of our universe. Although many stars may be surrounded by planets, rocky planets are likely to be at least somewhat rare in the universe (although we are just beginning to collect data to answer this question).

Why did God wait 13.8 billion years to create human beings?

Why did God wait an additional 4 billion years before creating human beings on earth? It turns out that we were created at the ideal time to observe the glory of how God created the universe.⁵ If we had been created earlier in time, we would have been unaware of dark energy,⁶ leaving in question the ultimate fate of the universe (allowing atheists the out of claiming that the universe might undergo eternal cyclic expansion and contraction). If we had been created later in the history of the universe, Hubble expansion would be unobservable, along with cosmic background radiation, and Big Bang nucleosynthesis.⁶ In the future, scientists will be unable to determine how the universe came into existence, but would assume that it was eternal and static:

The remarkable cosmic coincidence that we happen to live at the only time in the history of the universe when the magnitude of dark energy and dark matter densities are comparable... Observers when the universe was an order of magnitude younger would not have been able to discern any effects of dark energy on the expansion, and observers when the universe is more than an order of magnitude older will be hard pressed to know that they live in an expanding universe at all, or that the expansion is dominated by dark energy. By the time the longest lived main sequence stars are nearing the end of their lives, for all intents and purposes, the universe will appear static, and all evidence that now forms the basis of our current understanding of cosmology will have disappeared.⁶

So, cosmologists were created at the optimal time to observe how the heavens reflect God's glory.

The purposes of creation

In order to determine why God created the way He did, we need to understand the purposes for which God created the universe. Atheists and certain religious sects assume God created the earth for mankind to give us a perfect place to live that is designed for our enjoyment. However, nowhere does the Bible indicate that God created the earth for our pleasure or enjoyment. In contrast, the Bible indicates that the earth was established to accomplish the purposes of God.⁷ What are the purposes of God regarding this creation? First and foremost, the creation is designed as a place where evil can be conquered.⁸ Jesus Christ, through His sacrifice on the cross, provided a sacrifice to remove the evil we have committed and reconcile us to God and each other.⁹ Our role in this purpose is to choose between good and evil.¹⁰ By choosing good, we participate in God's purposes and bring glory to Him.¹¹ According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, "Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."¹² This creation is not the ultimate purpose of God, since it will be destroyed¹³ and replaced with a permanent, perfect creation,¹⁴ in which we can live with God forever. So, by necessity, this universe must be temporary and subject to the laws of thermodynamics.

Why an ancient earth?

Although there are good reasons why God would have created the universe billions of years ago, are there any good reasons why God waited 4.5 billion years before creating humans on earth? One obvious reason is to allow the earth to produce abundant topsoil through weathering processes. However, this process would not require billions of years (millions of years would probably suffice). Although humans require only good soil and plant life to survive, God's purposes for humans are not restricted merely to human survival. In fact, God wants human beings to participate with Him in proclaiming the gospel of His Kingdom.¹⁵ What does this have to do with the fact that the earth is billions of years old? The ability to proclaim the gospel is directly dependent upon technology. At minimum, there must be good roads, so that preachers can get from one place to another. It is a curious fact that Jesus arrived at exactly the time during which the Roman empire was building roads all over the civilized world. God's timing couldn't have been better! In order to build roads, technologies such as metallurgy are required. These technologies would have never developed except that the earth has large deposits of metallic ores. These ores were produced through the actions of bacteria throughout the entire history of the earth, which resulted in concentrated deposits of specific metals. Without these deposits, it is very unlikely that humans would have ever developed beyond the Stone Age. In addition, the key to the development of technology occurred when fossil fuels were first exploited during the industrial revolution. The formation of these readily available energy reserves occurred through the lives and deaths of countless billions of plants and animals over the course of hundreds of millions of years of earth's history. Without earth's long history of life, the spreading of God's message would have been much more difficult.

Conclusion

Both the universe and earth must be ancient in order for God's purposes for humanity to be fulfilled. An extremely large universe that declares God's glory is only possible if it is ancient and expanding at nearly the speed of light. Likewise, the earth must be ancient in order to aid in the development of technology to facilitate the spread of the gospel throughout the world. Why did God create the universe in the manner He did? Here is a summary of some of the constraints that God used in designing the universe to accomplish His purposes:

Purpose for Creation	Constraint
Display God's Glory	Universe must be very large Entire universe must be visible to us Universe must be old Universe must be expanding at nearly exactly the speed of light Earth must display God's handiwork Earth must be old Earth must display a long history of God's creatures
Evil must be limited	Evil must exist Human choices for evil must be limited through Subjecting all actions to the law of cause and effect (time must exist) Expressing evil requires work and produces consequences (Second law of thermodynamics must exist) Restricting humans to a small part of a large universe stars and galaxies are separated by large distances gravity must exist to restrict space travel Complete separation of humans from God's domain (i.e., heaven) during the time that they can choose to commit evil deeds Limited human lifespan (death must exist) Complete, permanent separation of humans who refuse to choose good over evil (i.e., hell)
Humans must choose	Humans must have free will to choose Good choices must exist Evil choices must exist Humans may choose to participate in spreading God's message Human language must exist Technology must exist, requiring large deposits of metallic ores (produced over long periods of time) large deposits of fossil fuels (produced over long periods of time)
Universe must be temporary	Requires the first and second laws of thermodynamics Requires the existence of time