This statement presupposes one very important thing--that God was before the beginning of time. For this to be so, we must also assume that He is neither within time nor bound by it.
This knowledge--though in its magnitude it is beyond the grasp of the limited human mind--explains so many otherwise difficult scriptural concepts. For example, God says (Isaiah 46:9-10) "I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done."
If one assumes God's distinction and superiority over time, it becomes far easier to understand His ability to foresee the things that have not yet taken place. For God, viewing any event--past, present, or future--would be no more difficult than viewing points on a timeline.
Furthermore, for one to disbelieve God's transcendence of time and space is to deny His deity. If He can be bound by time, He is neither eternal nor omnipresent. He, then, could not be omniscient, for He would be limited by the present moment and the present circumstances.
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It would be difficult to support the notion that any two areas of Holy Scripture have been more maligned, more attacked and more doubted than Genesis and Revelation. I believe this phenomenon to be easily explainable. For, to believe in the miracles of Genesis, one must inwardly accept and acknowledge the reality that God is who He says He is, in all the power and glory described in scripture. Here is God, who can speak universes into being. Here is God, who can boggle the human mind in His vastness and immensity. To acknowledge His greatness in all His magnitude is to acknowledge the seeming futility of our own abilities and cognition.
Likewise, to acknowledge the reality of the book of Revelation, in light of the way He revealed Himself in Genesis, one can only conclude that the God who has power enough to speak universes into being, flood planets with a word, open the maw of the earth and swallow the unholy, is now calling us to account for our lives, choices and activities.
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Thus begins the saga of all creation; of all that is seen and heard. Thus, also, begins the man-made controversy. For man, in his now-fallen state, wallows in the same sense of self-aggrandizement as did Lucifer when He presumed to be able to "be like the Most High." Therefore, in order to attempt to bring himself to the level of God, he must logically explain away the miracle power of his Creator. Though the Word of the Lord is settled in heaven and is beyond the feable efforts of man to ignore, man's attempts continue. Therefore, it behooves the believer to educate himself in the scriptures and the sciences of the physical world.
"...the heavens and the earth."
After an earthquake, a journalist commented: "There is no greater betrayal than when the very earth beneath one's feet moves from its rightful position." The strongest, largest, and most powerful thing we can touch with our hands is the earth. The most massive and mind-boggling thing we can see with our eyes is the universe--the heavens. Yet God created these symbols of strength with the power of His will. The obvious implication of this is His infinite power and ability to bring substance from nothingness. If He is truly stronger, more powerful, and more vast than those things in which the natural man places his greatest trust, He surely must be worthy of our faith and devotion. He was when there was nothing else: no time, no space, and no matter.
As the talent is not in the art, but in the artist, one does not speak words of praise to the statue, but the sculptor. In the same way, the amazing beauty of the earth and the complexity of the universe point us to the skill and majesty of the Creator. As David said, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork." (Psalm 19:1)
In this verse is a complete acknowledgment of belief in God. This acknowledgment begins the well-known creed by calling God the Father the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth. To make this statement is to acknowledge His power and transcendence.
The name of God in this statement is 'Elohiym, which, from its derivation and use, signifies "strong, mighty." Moses chose this word because it exemplifies the awesome might and power displayed in the creation of the vastness of the universe.
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