Statements such as “God created time” or “God exists outside time” are quite common.  The justification for these statements comes from just a couple of verses.

2Ti 1:9  who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time [chronos] began [aionios],

Tit 1:2  in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time [chronos] began [aionios],

At first sight these verses indicate that time had a beginning, and as God is the creator of all things created, surely He must have created time.  However, on deeper reflection, time cannot be something that God created.  Existence requires time as something cannot exist without the passage of time.  Since God is eternal and has no beginning, time also has no beginning.

The two verses above are rather badly translated.  The phrase “time began” is translated from the Greek chronos aionios.  The word chronos means time.  But aionios means eternal, everlasting, without beginning or end.  Various translations have “ages of time”, “eternal times”, or “times eternal”.  It just means a long time ago.  The above verses tell us that God’s plan of salvation goes back a long time ago.

Humans measure time using the motion of the sun, moon, and earth, as well as mechanical, digital, and atomic clocks.  These things are all part of God’s creation.  So, rather than “God created time” we have “God created the things by which we measure time” and rather than “God exists outside time” we have “God exists outside of our measurement of time”.

Perhaps the best way to describe God’s relationship with time is how God explains it in Isaiah.

Isa 57:15  For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: …

God inhabits eternity.