If God can't be contradictory, then he can't create time before there was time to create time. IOW, to say "God created time" is actually a contradiction. God never claims to create time, He does claim to create the heavens and the earth, which exist within space and time. Time must be eternal and only God is experiencing eternal space/time, we are experiencing linear time and 3D space because we are the creation and God is making His creation to be like Himself.
Again, to say "God transcends space and time" is a contradiction. Either God eternally exists in a state where there is no space and time to do anything or He eternally exists in a state where there is space and time to do anything that is possible to do.
I have to use past tense words like "created" since I am a temporal being. It did happen in
my past, so it isn't a contradiction in that sense. And no, The Bible doesn't say God created space and time, but it depends on how seriously you want to take the concept that God is unchanging. If it just means His nature doesn't change, then it works. But in order for Him to not change at all, it requires Him existing outside of time. For instance, at one point in time He is a being that has foreknowledge that He will create the world, at a later point in time he is a being that has a memory of creating the world. The other problem shows up if we decide whether God can travel backwards in time. If He can, then can these two Gods I just mentioned meet and talk to each other?
Now to understand how it could be possible without it being a contradiction, you have to think about time as just another dimension such as length, and height, and depth. Mind you, this doesn't prove that it is the case, but it shows how it is non-contradictory.
Imagine that God is a three dimensional being, and we are merely two dimensional beings. He can exist outside of us because He can essentially move in a totally different direction that we can't even perceive. Imagine Him looking at a piece of paper. However, He can still interact with out little two dimensional space by sticking in a finger and swirling it around. He could have created the piece of paper that we live on and it would have no effect on the depth dimension that only He is privy to.
I find all of this super interesting, and I love to talk about concepts like this, but it isn't on-topic, so feel free to disregard the previous section as it isn't integral to proving my point. What
is integral is this:
The latter understanding is inline with scripture.
Matthew 19:23-26
"23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.
24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “
With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Now my improper phrasing aside, God is able to do many things simultaneously, even cause and effect relationships. Which means that the flow of time is not pertinent to the steps involved in a process. In reality, He can only be constrained by the "ingredients" as it were.
For instance, it isn't that He needs to develop a soul to the point that it is repentant. What is more accurate to say is that He can't bestow a perfectly good nature on something that is unrepentant. The amount of time that flows is irrelevant to God, He just can't effect a change in something without it possessing the necessary qualities first. He can only affect a limited amount of change to something based on its current qualities. But those qualities can change instantaneously.
Now here is going to be a big crux of my argument. If God can do something in a certain way once, there is no reason that He cannot do that same thing in that same way every time. All things being equal, meaning all the ingredients have all the necessary qualities, He can do that same thing every time, and the exception can be the rule.
So when we consider a baby who has passed away and went to Heaven, the amount of time that the child lived for is irrelevant. The only pertinent quality of the child is that he never
didn't choose God even though he never
did choose God. Therefore God is capable of affecting a change in the child which gives him a perfect, sinless nature without ever choosing God. So, considering any being that God creates, He is capable of affecting a change in it that gives it a perfect, sinless nature right up until the point that said being chooses
not God.
As we've established, God has a perfect, sinless nature, and everyone in Heaven has a perfect sinless nature, and all of them have free will. So God is capable of creating a life, and in the same exact moment, before that life has a chance or even the conscious ability to reject God, He can affect a change in that life which gives it a perfect, sinless nature and still never hinder its freewill.