Theologian John Whitcomb writes: In the first place, to stretch the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 to cover a period of over a hundred thousand years is to do violence to the chronological framework of all subsequent biblical history. By means of biblical analogies, it is indeed possible to find gaps, especially in the genealogies of Genesis But those very analogies serve to limit our time scale for Genesis The gap between Amram and Moses was three hundred years, not thirty thousand cf.
And the gap between Joram and Uzziah in Matthew was fifty years, not five thousand. In the second place, only three of the ten patriarchs listed in Genesis 11 - Rue, Serug, and Nahor - are available for spanning the vast period of time demanded by these anthropologists, for the patriarchs listed before them preceded the Tower of Babel judgment and the scattering of mankind cf.
And yet the clearest suggestion of a time gap in Genesis 11 occurs before this judgment between Eber and Peleg, because of the sudden drop in life span. In the third place, it is impossible to imagine that Reu, Serug, and Nahor, to say nothing of Lamech, Noah and Shem, were savage illiterate cave dwellers of the stone-age period. The fourth chapter of Genesis, with its clear indication of cultural achievement, including the forging of "all implements of bronze and iron" vs.
Or are we to suppose that in some tiny pocket of civilization, nearly swamped by an ocean of human savagery, an unbroken chain of saintly men some who lived for centuries perpetuated the Messianic line of Shem and handed down the knowledge of the one true God for hundreds of thousands of years?
Theoretically, creationists are able to work with an old earth or a young earth. Though Scripture gives us no clear evidence as to the precise age of the earth, it suggests that man has appeared on the scene rather recently. The idea of an earth that is billion years old is nowhere taught in Scripture. Old Testament authority Oswald Allis wrote: We need to remember that limitless time is a poor substitute for that Omnipotence which can dispense with time.
The reason the account of creation given here is so simple and so impressive is that it speaks in terms of the creative acts of an omnipotent God, and not in terms of limitless space and infinite time and endless process Oswald T.
How Old Is The Earth? What do we know for certain? Contrary to popular belief, there is no certain or unequivocal evidence that the earth is older than a few thousand years. Written records only take us back a few thousand years. What happened before this time is based on conjecture. Henry Morris writes: Prior to written history, of course, chronologists are forced to rely on various changing physical systems e.
Such calculations must always be based on the various assumptions of uniformitarianism e. The radiocarbon method, for example, is now known to be so unreliable that many archaeologists have abandoned it altogether Henry Morris with Gary Parker, What is Creation Science? Different Quality Of Time Some scientists believe that there was a different quality to time before the fall.
Lambert Dolphin writes: I personally think time as we know it now began with the fall of man and that time had different qualities before the fall. The fact that the creative activity of God took place in a time sequence from Day One through Day Seven indicates that time was "flowing" in its usual sense through the present towards the future.
Neither Satan nor Adam had fallen, there was yet no sin. Unable To Find Out The Bible hints that we may not be able to resolve this issue: He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also he has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning Ecclesiastes , emphasis added. This passage may indicate that the issue of the age of the earth may be beyond our finding out. Summary The theory of evolution demands that the earth and universe be old while special creation can have either a young or old earth.
Though the Bible does not us give an exact age of the earth, there is no indication in Scripture that the earth is very old.
The genealogies in Scripture do not allow an unlimited amount of time between Adam and Abraham. Scientific evidence has been brought forward that would indicate the earth may be young after all but there is no consensus among Christians.
Most scientists, Christian and non-Christian, believe the earth and universe are old. The age of the earth is not an issue that has been settled among believers. Scientist Paul Zimmerman writes: Thus the evolutionist needs a very old earth. His theory is utterly hopeless if the earth is young. On the other hand the creationist can operate with a young earth or a very ancient one.
The creationist does not need millions of years to make his theory workable. For the believer in creation the question is a different one: 1 What does the Bible say about the date of creation? These questions the creationist seeks to answer. Actually neither the scientist nor the creationist can fix the date of the beginning. The Bible permits certain general conclusions, but it does not give the age of the earth.
The scientist in turn can make certain interesting calculations, but his computations are often interlarded with slippery assumptions, and the results are beclouded by serious questions that rise in the research P. Zimmerman, ed; St. Louis: Concordia, , pp. It is also possible that time had a different quality before sin entered the universe. This would make it impossible for us to pinpoint the time of creation.
Concerning the age of the earth, Mark Twain wryly commented: In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. This is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian period just a million years ago next November, the lower Mississippi river was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing rod.
And, by the same token, any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now, the lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along with a single mayor and a mutual board of Alderman. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns out of such a trifle investment of fact Samuel L.
Old Testament authority Ronald Youngblood offers a fitting conclusion: No one knows for certain, of course, when the beginning was. But the Old Testament is far more interested in the fact of creation than the time of creation, and the simple truth that Gods creative activity took place during an indeterminate time known as "the beginning" was joyfully celebrated by poet Ps. Donate Contact. Blue Letter Bible is a c 3 nonprofit organization.
APA Format. Chicago Format. They are convinced by radioisotope dating, perhaps, or maybe the molecular clock of mutation rates, or some other line of thinking, but not from Scripture. Scripture teaches a young earth, and the time has come for Christians to stop twisting Scripture to fit the evolutionary and uniformitarian speculations of some scientists about the unobserved past. We suggest it's time for such Christians to stop calling themselves "Bible-believing" Christians and start using some such name as "world-believing" Christians.
Cite this article: John D. Morris, Ph. Skip to main content. More Days of Praise. God My Personal Savior. In a Moment of Time. The Latest. A team of evolutionary scientists from the U. Evolutionists went to the ant, not to learn Animal migrations occur all over the earth among many types of creatures, with some winged creatures birds and insects making the most extreme and lengthy I understand the world was infected by the sinfulness of mankind.
I understand that there was a time when rain was unnecessary, for a mist went up from the earth. There was a flood. Once more, the very constitution of the earth and life on it changed. Things were too different. I have the genealogy. I trust that. But when I returned to the founding of the world in six days, I have God asking me if I was there when he created everything?
He is challenging the presumption of man to explain what God did before he ever created man. I will tell you what I do know about the history of the world. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that all of time is centered in one transformative event in the world: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Everything that has happened before and everything that has happened afterward, or will occur, is marked by the central act in cosmic history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I might not know how old the earth is, but I know the One who made it. I place my trust in Him.
I have absolute certainty that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has changed everything. There is one final cataclysmic event that will happen in the earth and the cosmos: the second coming of Jesus Christ, the judgment of the world, and an extraordinary molecular rearrangement of all things that will bring about a New Heaven and a New Earth.
And here is the most important thing I could write: your faith or unbelief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ determines whether you will be part of that New Heaven and New Earth. I cannot date the age of the earth because so many things have changed. But I can say with certainty that because Christ is risen from the dead so we will rise again from the dead. We will live with him in a new heaven and new earth forever.
I do not fully understand even that. But that's the whole point, isn't it? At the end of every great question in the Bible whether about the age of the earth or a mysterious doctrine — as in Romans 9 and predestination , the Holy Spirit appeals to the incomprehensible divide between man's finite existence and God's infinite reality Romans In short, God is God and we are not.
Trust in God. The creation of the world was a miracle of Almighty God just as the resurrection of Jesus Christ was divine intervention. I do not fault those who struggle to affirm a specific dating of the earth's age. But as for me, I am content in knowing that God knows, that God cares, and that He will provide for me what I need to know with unquestioned clarity. This I know:. God loves us so much that he sent His only begotten Son to live the life we could never live and die the death that should've been ours.
And on the day that I confessed that truth, God created a new person in me. The earth began for me on that day. A Presbyterian minister PCA, ARP , Milton has penned more than thirty books, hundreds of articles in journals, magazines, opinion columns, and newspapers. As president of the D. His work has been cited on numerous national media outlets as he provides historic Christian insights into faith and life in a changing world.
Milton's record of ministry includes seminary chancellor, president of three seminaries, senior minister of one of America's historic churches, founder of three congregations, and a Christian academy. Learn more at michaelmilton. Share this. How Old Is the Earth?
0コメント