How old is the Earth?
How old is the earth?
What an important question, especially given the teaching that pervades this Western scientific culture. What does the Bible say about how old the earth is? What does science say about the age of the earth? I will contend that the testimony of God’s Word is absolutely affirmed by science.
Let’s look at what the Bible has to say about this matter.
The testimony of the Bible is that God created all that we see in a matter of six days—that is six actual solar days. On Day One, the Lord made matter and light. On Day Two, He made the firmament and the Heavens. On Day Three, He made the dry land and the plants. On Day Four, He made the stars and the planets. On Day Five, He made the birds and the sea creatures. Finally, on Day Six, He made the land animals and humans.
It is clear from the testimony of God’s Word that God made actual humans. He did not make creatures that evolved into humans—no, He made an actual man and named him Adam and made an actual woman and named her Eve (Genesis 1:26-31, 2:18-25). Any testimony other than this is not Christian. The Bible does not say it took millions of years for man to evolve into his current form. God’s Word says that God made man.
There are theories out there that try to synchronize the Bible’s testimony with supposed scientific facts that the Earth is billions of years old. One such theory is known as “The Gap Theory.” This is the teaching that there is a gap of indefinite time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. As I said, this is an attempt to harmonize the thought that the Earth is billions of years old. The modern worldview is that the Earth is about 15 billion years old.
There is another theory that also tries to harmonize the Biblical testimony with an Old Earth stance, and it is known as “The Era Theory.” This is the teaching that the “days” that are mentioned in Genesis 1 are representative of indefinite periods of time. This is similar to The Gap Theory. Proponents of The Era Theory use passages like 2 Peter 3:8 which says, ‘But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” They also use Psalm 90:4 which says, “For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” Their understanding is that since God is not affected by time, nor is He subject to time, that for Him the “days” of Creation could actually be billions of years each, not twenty-four hour days.
However, to contend against these theories I propose (with many others) that the days of Creation were actual 24-hour solar days—meaning they had morning and evening same as today and yesterday.
Let’s look at the text. The Hebrew word for day is “yom.” It is used over 1900 times in the Hebrew Bible and is almost always used to mean an ordinary 24-hour day-night cycle. On the few occasions where it is used figuratively to mean an indeterminate period of time it is always clear from the context that it means something other than a literal 24-hour day (i.e., “the day of trouble, the day of the LORD, the day of battle, etc.” Also, whenever “yom” is used with an ordinal (number) it always means a specific day—that is, an ordinary 24-hour solar day. Of the 200 plus occurrences of “yom” with an ordinal all mean 24-hour solar days. Of the 700 plus occurrences of the plural of “yom”, “yamim”, all mean 24-hour solar days. Thus is it correctly and accurately argued that the Biblical testimony is that the Days of Creation were literal 24-hour solar days—not indefinite periods of time that could account for billions of years.
Furthermore, the language of Genesis 1 appears to have been crafted so that no reader would mistake the word use for anything other than literal 24-hour days. Notice that the light portion of the Days of Creation are called “day” and the dark portion is named “night.” Then the linguistic formula of “and there was evening and there was morning” for each day places great emphasis on that formula. It would seem strange to say the least that with that kind of emphasis the Author would actually have intended His words to be taken as allegorical, figurative, or analogous—something other than a literal 24-hour day. Also, the Hebrew words “evening”, “ereb” and “morning”, “boqer” fall under the same description that “yom” does in terms of meaning definite periods of time.
Some might now ask, “What about the geological records then?” “What about the dinosaurs?”
Everyone has been taught in school that the dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and that the fossil record has to mean that the world is billions of years old. But let’s look at the actual scientific record.
A great website for you to go to study more in-depth scientific data concerning Creation is www.icr.org, which is the website for the Institute for Creation Research.
Let me draw your attention to two articles on www.icr.org. First is concerning the Iceman known as “Otzi the Iceman” which was a once-frozen natural mummy found in the Alps in 1991. A magazine called Livescience called the Iceman’s blood cells the “world’s oldest blood cells.” It should be noted that few scientists at that time expected to even find blood cells due to a process called autolysis where the oxygen in red blood cells reacts with and fragments the proteins that comprise the cells. What the scientists found was a number of intact red blood cells in which they were actually able to glean much information from, including DNA.
In 1992, researchers assigned Otzi the Iceman to the European Copper Age after the Stone Age. In reality, “He probably lived only a few thousand years ago after the post-Flood ice age. Remember, few scientists expected Otzi to have any intact red blood cells, and when they found them they said he could only be a few thousand years old because of this. Now, in 1990 there was a bone marrow from a Tyrannosaurus Rex found in Montana, and upon inspection there were, to the astonishment of the scientific community, red blood cells! This is the testimony as recorded in Earth magazine:
The lab filled with murmurs of amazement, for I had focused on something inside the vessels that none of us had ever noticed before: tiny round objects, translucent red with a dark center. Then a colleague took one look at them and shouted ‘You’ve got red blood cells. You’ve got red blood cells!”
Remember what you learned in school—the Tyrannosaurus Rex lived tens of millions of years ago! As the ICR articles says, “Any red blood cells should have long since disintegrated. The Otzi study even verified that his blood cells had lost much of their integrity by comparing the Raman scans with those of modern blood samples. But not only did the dinosaur bone marrow results show clear pictures of red-colored, round disks inside blood vessels, they also detected hemoglobin. Why are these not the rightful record-holders for oldest blood cells? Since the dinosaur fossils formed as a result of Noah’s Flood, which produced the Alps mountain range that Otzi later walked upon, the dinosaur red blood cells are older than Otzi’s by perhaps a millennium or two. In order to maintain belief in millions of years, those who insist that Otzi’s are the oldest blood cells must ignore the dinosaur data.”
We would be wise to believe the testimony of God concerning the world He made. Another article to be considered is ICR’s on Human and Giant Mammal Coexistence. In this article they detail that at a site in Vero Beach, California there are mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloth, and human fossils. “The problem is that humans were not yet supposed to have been there, according to the standard story told to generations of archaeologists.” It certainly seems that in the world’s scientific community that true science is actually suppressed when it does not support the anti-Biblical secular worldview. This is exactly what Paul wrote about in Romans 1:18-19, “For the wrath God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”
It is a myth and a lie that the scientific data does not back up the Biblical testimony of Creation. It is not true science that denies Creation; it is faithless and rebellious sinners who call God a liar.
So how old is the Earth? A loose interpretation of the Bible’s genealogical record would land you somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 years old. A conservative interpretation would land you more around 6,000 years old. With the testimony of God’s Word being that the Earth is not billions of years old, but rather thousands, I will contend that the Earth is relatively young compared to the secular worldview.
But you may ask, “What about places like The Grand Canyon” that obviously took millions years to be formed?” At least, that is what you have been taught to think by the world. This is the question that you should ask, “How old does a newly created Earth look?” Now, that’s an appropriate question, because the answer is that the Created Earth looks and functions as old as the Creator made it to be. We know that God created Adam as a man, not a baby. We know that God made trees, not just seeds. We even witnessed Jesus turn water into wine in an instant and the host of the feast said it was the best wine (John 2:1-10)! Now we all know that the best wine is aged wine, so you can see that Jesus has the power to age things even in an instant. Why? Because He is God.
The testimony of the Bible is the Earth is much younger than the secular worldview would espouse. I could contend that the Earth is probably somewhere around 6,000 years old.
What an important question, especially given the teaching that pervades this Western scientific culture. What does the Bible say about how old the earth is? What does science say about the age of the earth? I will contend that the testimony of God’s Word is absolutely affirmed by science.
Let’s look at what the Bible has to say about this matter.
The testimony of the Bible is that God created all that we see in a matter of six days—that is six actual solar days. On Day One, the Lord made matter and light. On Day Two, He made the firmament and the Heavens. On Day Three, He made the dry land and the plants. On Day Four, He made the stars and the planets. On Day Five, He made the birds and the sea creatures. Finally, on Day Six, He made the land animals and humans.
It is clear from the testimony of God’s Word that God made actual humans. He did not make creatures that evolved into humans—no, He made an actual man and named him Adam and made an actual woman and named her Eve (Genesis 1:26-31, 2:18-25). Any testimony other than this is not Christian. The Bible does not say it took millions of years for man to evolve into his current form. God’s Word says that God made man.
There are theories out there that try to synchronize the Bible’s testimony with supposed scientific facts that the Earth is billions of years old. One such theory is known as “The Gap Theory.” This is the teaching that there is a gap of indefinite time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. As I said, this is an attempt to harmonize the thought that the Earth is billions of years old. The modern worldview is that the Earth is about 15 billion years old.
There is another theory that also tries to harmonize the Biblical testimony with an Old Earth stance, and it is known as “The Era Theory.” This is the teaching that the “days” that are mentioned in Genesis 1 are representative of indefinite periods of time. This is similar to The Gap Theory. Proponents of The Era Theory use passages like 2 Peter 3:8 which says, ‘But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” They also use Psalm 90:4 which says, “For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” Their understanding is that since God is not affected by time, nor is He subject to time, that for Him the “days” of Creation could actually be billions of years each, not twenty-four hour days.
However, to contend against these theories I propose (with many others) that the days of Creation were actual 24-hour solar days—meaning they had morning and evening same as today and yesterday.
Let’s look at the text. The Hebrew word for day is “yom.” It is used over 1900 times in the Hebrew Bible and is almost always used to mean an ordinary 24-hour day-night cycle. On the few occasions where it is used figuratively to mean an indeterminate period of time it is always clear from the context that it means something other than a literal 24-hour day (i.e., “the day of trouble, the day of the LORD, the day of battle, etc.” Also, whenever “yom” is used with an ordinal (number) it always means a specific day—that is, an ordinary 24-hour solar day. Of the 200 plus occurrences of “yom” with an ordinal all mean 24-hour solar days. Of the 700 plus occurrences of the plural of “yom”, “yamim”, all mean 24-hour solar days. Thus is it correctly and accurately argued that the Biblical testimony is that the Days of Creation were literal 24-hour solar days—not indefinite periods of time that could account for billions of years.
Furthermore, the language of Genesis 1 appears to have been crafted so that no reader would mistake the word use for anything other than literal 24-hour days. Notice that the light portion of the Days of Creation are called “day” and the dark portion is named “night.” Then the linguistic formula of “and there was evening and there was morning” for each day places great emphasis on that formula. It would seem strange to say the least that with that kind of emphasis the Author would actually have intended His words to be taken as allegorical, figurative, or analogous—something other than a literal 24-hour day. Also, the Hebrew words “evening”, “ereb” and “morning”, “boqer” fall under the same description that “yom” does in terms of meaning definite periods of time.
Some might now ask, “What about the geological records then?” “What about the dinosaurs?”
Everyone has been taught in school that the dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and that the fossil record has to mean that the world is billions of years old. But let’s look at the actual scientific record.
A great website for you to go to study more in-depth scientific data concerning Creation is www.icr.org, which is the website for the Institute for Creation Research.
Let me draw your attention to two articles on www.icr.org. First is concerning the Iceman known as “Otzi the Iceman” which was a once-frozen natural mummy found in the Alps in 1991. A magazine called Livescience called the Iceman’s blood cells the “world’s oldest blood cells.” It should be noted that few scientists at that time expected to even find blood cells due to a process called autolysis where the oxygen in red blood cells reacts with and fragments the proteins that comprise the cells. What the scientists found was a number of intact red blood cells in which they were actually able to glean much information from, including DNA.
In 1992, researchers assigned Otzi the Iceman to the European Copper Age after the Stone Age. In reality, “He probably lived only a few thousand years ago after the post-Flood ice age. Remember, few scientists expected Otzi to have any intact red blood cells, and when they found them they said he could only be a few thousand years old because of this. Now, in 1990 there was a bone marrow from a Tyrannosaurus Rex found in Montana, and upon inspection there were, to the astonishment of the scientific community, red blood cells! This is the testimony as recorded in Earth magazine:
The lab filled with murmurs of amazement, for I had focused on something inside the vessels that none of us had ever noticed before: tiny round objects, translucent red with a dark center. Then a colleague took one look at them and shouted ‘You’ve got red blood cells. You’ve got red blood cells!”
Remember what you learned in school—the Tyrannosaurus Rex lived tens of millions of years ago! As the ICR articles says, “Any red blood cells should have long since disintegrated. The Otzi study even verified that his blood cells had lost much of their integrity by comparing the Raman scans with those of modern blood samples. But not only did the dinosaur bone marrow results show clear pictures of red-colored, round disks inside blood vessels, they also detected hemoglobin. Why are these not the rightful record-holders for oldest blood cells? Since the dinosaur fossils formed as a result of Noah’s Flood, which produced the Alps mountain range that Otzi later walked upon, the dinosaur red blood cells are older than Otzi’s by perhaps a millennium or two. In order to maintain belief in millions of years, those who insist that Otzi’s are the oldest blood cells must ignore the dinosaur data.”
We would be wise to believe the testimony of God concerning the world He made. Another article to be considered is ICR’s on Human and Giant Mammal Coexistence. In this article they detail that at a site in Vero Beach, California there are mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloth, and human fossils. “The problem is that humans were not yet supposed to have been there, according to the standard story told to generations of archaeologists.” It certainly seems that in the world’s scientific community that true science is actually suppressed when it does not support the anti-Biblical secular worldview. This is exactly what Paul wrote about in Romans 1:18-19, “For the wrath God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”
It is a myth and a lie that the scientific data does not back up the Biblical testimony of Creation. It is not true science that denies Creation; it is faithless and rebellious sinners who call God a liar.
So how old is the Earth? A loose interpretation of the Bible’s genealogical record would land you somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 years old. A conservative interpretation would land you more around 6,000 years old. With the testimony of God’s Word being that the Earth is not billions of years old, but rather thousands, I will contend that the Earth is relatively young compared to the secular worldview.
But you may ask, “What about places like The Grand Canyon” that obviously took millions years to be formed?” At least, that is what you have been taught to think by the world. This is the question that you should ask, “How old does a newly created Earth look?” Now, that’s an appropriate question, because the answer is that the Created Earth looks and functions as old as the Creator made it to be. We know that God created Adam as a man, not a baby. We know that God made trees, not just seeds. We even witnessed Jesus turn water into wine in an instant and the host of the feast said it was the best wine (John 2:1-10)! Now we all know that the best wine is aged wine, so you can see that Jesus has the power to age things even in an instant. Why? Because He is God.
The testimony of the Bible is the Earth is much younger than the secular worldview would espouse. I could contend that the Earth is probably somewhere around 6,000 years old.
