How Old is the Earth?
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.”
-Exodus 20:11
I know there are those that will read this article and declare, “who cares how old the earth is. Me knowing this doesn’t determine my eternal salvation does it?”
Not if you’re truly born again, but we have an obligation to seek out the truth if it’s available, and regarding this matter it is available (Proverbs 4:7).
How much more should we seek and fight for the truth when this matter has been under vicious attack for over 200 years?
It’s time to set the record straight.
There are a wide variety of views on the age of the earth. If one is an evolutionist, then the earth is at least hundreds of millions of years old, and the universe is around 4.5 billions of years old or older.[i] Man is a result of some evolutionary “primordial soup”, and not the design of an intelligent creator. Basically the earth and everything in it was created by chance and the Big Bang theory. There are even Christians that believe in the “Gap Theory”. That is, there are those that believe there was a parenthesis between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 in God’s creative plan - there are those that purport (the writer did also years ago), there were millions of years that occurred between the two verses hence the “gap”. Many believe verse 1 deals with the initial creation of God, and verse 2 is dealing with a re-creation. This is because some believe the phrase was void in verse 2 should read became void which would imply something caused the earth to become void.
One would only ascribe to the latter phrase if they believe in the gap and re-creation theory.
Those who believe the first view, was void ( the correct view) recognize that when God made the heavens and the earth that was only the beginning. He still had to form the earth and fill it. Made and form are two separate things in the creation. God created the universe Ex nihilo that is out of nothing (John 1:3; Heb 11:3; 2 Peter 3:5). He didn’t use pre-existent materials.
But why do so many believe the evolutionary, gap, big bang and re-construction theories?
Because of the lies we have been told about ancient times by dishonest and ignorant historians and scientists. It’s assumed by many that there was a civilization many millions of years ago prior to Adam and Eve. That “old world” died in some worldwide cataclysm (i.e. the Lucifer flood some have called it). That old world was inhabited by dinosaurs along with pre-historic man; a primeval Pre-Adamite creature.
There is a belief that Lucifer (now Satan, the devil) was kicked out of heaven during this parenthesis in history because he rebelled against God.[ii] This is what may have caused this “Lucifer flood” of the earth before the birth of Adam they say. This is nothing more than horrible conjecture, a Frankenstein monster, myth, and urban legend.
These views have had devastating effects on the church and the integrity of scripture.
First of all, if there was a race of people before Adam and Eve, why didn’t God reveal them to us in scripture? Second, it’s impossible for disease, evil and death to occur before the original sin of Adam. Scripture clearly bears this out.
Original sin occurred when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit: “she (Eve) took of its fruit and ate and she gave to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6b). At that point mankind fell into sin and died spiritually. Man became the living-dead for the first time in history. What do I mean by that? Adam and Eve didn’t instantly die physically, but died spiritually (cut off from God) hence the term living-dead.
The Father forgave their sin. How? He slaughtered an animal, shed its blood and covered them with coats of skin (Genesis 3:20). This was the first Levitical act portrayed in the Bible. This was an ancient foreshadowing of God forgiving sin. Adam’s sin required a blood sacrifice, and something innocent had to die to atone for his sin and appease God’s wrath. Jesus of course is the ultimate fulfillment of this when He took away the sins of the world by the sacrifice of his own blood on the cross (John 1:29).
This is why it’s heretical to say that sin and death existed prior to the fall of Adam; it attacks the pre determined plan of God the Father to send the Son to die for the sins of his people and save them (Matthew 1:21).
It also undermines the biblical text.
Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore just as sin came into the world (for the first time ever) through one man (Adam), and death (italics added) through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”
I Corinthians 15:21-22 says, “For as by one man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Sin, disease and death could not have occurred before the sin of Adam, it’s also clear that life could not have occurred before Genesis 1:1. Genesis 1:2 is not a re-creation, but the only creation. There was never millions or billions of years of life prior to when God said, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” You can’t have a “beginning” before the actual beginning or else the beginning isn’t the beginning, it’s a continuing.
The millions and billions of years old earth lie did not come into being until the early 1800’s. Since then, geologists and clergyman have given this myth sinews, flesh, bone, marrow, eyes, limbs, a spirit, and teeth to rip up the truths of the biblical creation account from the minds and hearts of Christians and the unsaved.
While there is plenty more that can be said regarding the pointless efforts of evolutionists and gappists, I want to answer the question of this article. “How old is the earth?” The earth surprisingly is a little over 6,000 years old. Is this revelation shocking to you? The reason why I know this is because the Bible tells us.
So here is the bible timeline.
In Genesis 5 we read that Adam is 130 years old when his son Seth is born. Adam lives another 800 years and dies at age 930 (Genesis 5:4-5). This means the earth was 930 years old because Adam was the first man ever created. Seth was 105 years old and fathered Enosh. Enosh lived 90 years and fathered Kenan, etc.
Each time we read the age of when a man fathers a son in Genesis 5, we simply add the ages. By the time you get to Noah who’s 500 years old when he fathers Ham, Shem and Japheth, 1556 years of human history has elapsed. Adam at this time has been dead for 626 years. Noah is born 126 years after Adam dies. The year of the earth is 1056 when Noah is born. Noah is 600 years old when the flood came. So, from the birth of Adam to the flood of Noah is a total of 1656 years of human history that are in the books. Noah lives 350 years after the flood and dies at 950 years old (Genesis 9:29). The year of the earth is 2006.
Jesus Christ is born around 6 B.C. – right around the 4000th year of human history. We have an accurate time of Jesus birth because history tells us that King Herod the Great was born in 73 B.C. and dies in 4 B.C. when Jesus is two years old and has to flee to Egypt because Herod wants to kill him (Matthew 2:13).
According to the Gregorian calendar we use, we are now in the year 2013 A.D.
The world we live in is a young yet mature looking earth that was formed cataclysmically.
I know for some this may be hard to believe and accept, but this is the logical age of the earth not millions of years because geologists think the sedimentary rocks and fossils in the Grand Canyons and elsewhere in the world were formed in a very slow time frame. When God created the earth, he created it mature-with the appearance of age. Adam and Eve were full grown when they were created, not infants. Trees, land, sea animals, and birds were created mature in the first two chapters of Genesis. Nothing was in an egg or a seed that hatched a baby chicken and blossomed into a tree or plant respectively.
That command was given by God after he created everything initially to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22, 28). That’s when things were first conceived and then born; babies, plant life, and animals.
We need to submit to the biblical account of creation which God was an obvious eyewitness to and reject the mythological gap, re-creation, big bang, and evolution theories which no one witnessed because these events never took place.[iii]
To disbelieve the biblical creation account is to undermine the scripture and the existence of God which is what some have called “Deicide”, that is the murder of God (Psalm 14:1; Psalm 53:1). This view erases God as the benevolent intelligent designer of the universe which no one should ever do – especially believers. If we do not believe the earth was created in a literal six days (Hebrew word for day is Yom) as the Bible records, what other truths of scripture is one willing to compromise on - mainly the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ? If the creation account is false, then why believe any of God’s word?
We must stop listening to wicked men devoid of the Spirit of God to be the interpreters of scripture. These men are fools; they’re the blind leading the blind, and to them God is dead!
Please abandon the traditions and lies of men and let’s get back to trusting the more sure word of prophecy (II Peter 2:19-21).
Let God be true though everyone were a liar (Romans 3:4).
[i] The reader should be advised that the age of the earth continues to increase. The last report the writer read about is the earth is now 3.8 billion years old and the entire universe is 14 billion years old. This fluctuation in the age of the earth proves the scientists have no clue as to it’s correct age, but God does because he created it and placed his chronology on it. God has never changed his beginning story and age of the earth.
[ii] To discover the origin of Satan and what happened to him, please read Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. These passages describe the origin, splendor and beauty of Lucifer along with his horrific fall from grace.
[iii] For a comprehensive look at these matters the reader is encouraged to read, The New Answers Books 1-3. Kem Ham, general editor
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