Creation Corner: The Age of Earth?
- Adam Fink
- Oct 6
- 5 min read
So how old is the Earth anyway?
Last time, we discussed the science that the secular world believes; evolution, the Big Bang and the 14-billion-year timeline. You might be wondering, “Adam, if the world is not 14 billion years old, how old is it?”
Well, the truth is we don’t know exactly. But we can get a pretty good idea. How? Well, the Bible does a pretty good job in explaining. In Matthew 1: 2-16, the genealogy of Jesus is given, connecting Jesus all the way back to Adam. Christian scholars have been able to look into this genealogy and use Biblical sources, logic, world events and some basic math to reach a reasonable estimate that Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden about 4000 years before Jesus was born. Since we are around 2000 years after Jesus, the means Adam and Eve left the Garden around 6000 years ago. This is a far cry from the 14 billion years of the secular scientist.
However, this does get more complicated in Christian circles as not everyone agrees that this is a reasonable estimate. As it turns out, there are two types of Creationists – those who believe in a Creator rather than the evolution of man. There are Old Earth Creationists and Young Earth Creationists.
The timeline that I described above is the belief of the Young Earth Creationists and the one I will try to educate you is the more Biblically accurate.
The concept of Old Earth Creation is based in the concept that God could create the starting conditions for putting the world in play and then allow time to take its course. Meaning that the Big Bang was true (and the work of God) and that the evolution of the species and man would be a correct process for how the first chapters of Genesis took place. Man would have developed through evolution, with God having started it off, leading to Adam and Eve, developing from apes.
This belief suggests that the 7 days of Creation were not literal days, but instead were vast spans of time, perhaps millions or billions of years.
I find there are several issues with this concept.
First, if we remember the discussion from the last blog, time is the answer to the secular scientist. It is the replacement for God. Evolutionists NEED time. Nothing works if we must rely on what is observable. Since nothing of evolution can be seen, it MUST take a great deal of time. Time is needed for evolution, but it’s not needed for an all-powerful creator God.
God doesn’t need billions of years. God has the power to speak the world into existence in a day.
Old Earth Creation is problematic in that it attempts to usurp the incredible power of God. Those who try to suggest the “days” of Genesis are millions or billions of years are failing to simply accept the Bible as written.
But is the Bible really saying literal days? Is that the original intent or is that translation?
The original Hebrew word for day is “Yom.” Yom is used many times throughout the Old Testament. As Justin has
often told us, scripture supports scripture. If Yom means 1 literal day elsewhere in the Bible, we should assume
it means 1 literal day in Genesis 1.
The Bible describes the actions of Creation as having evening and morning each day. A literal day has a morning and an evening. Eons do not. The context of Genesis provides that the literal days of creation are indeed literal days.
The people of Israel patterned their time after the days of Creation. They had 6 days of work and then the Sabbath – the day on which God rested.
The described actions of the days of Creation require literal 24-hour periods. Let’s take a look at the text.
“Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kind.’ And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and morning – the third day.” - Genesis 1:11-13
So, the plants of our world were created on day three. You might be reading this and wondering, “So what? Why does that matter?” Let’s look at day four.
“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.’ And it was so. God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on earth.” - Genesis 1:14-17
Now, this is really something. It may have been a while, but do you remember high school biology class and photosynthesis? Plants require light to grow and produce fruit, nuts and leaves. Day three, plants exist but no sun until day four? These days of creation absolutely cannot be millions or billions of years, as every plant on earth would have died without light. Creation, as described, requires literal 24-hour days.
Now that that is settled, we have one more topic to discuss. Could Adam and Eve have been in the Garden for millions of years?
The answer is... possibly, but I really don’t think so. Here’s why. In Genesis 1:26, God says over his Creation,
“Be fruitful and increase in number:…”
God’s command is that the creation should reproduce. When Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, they have yet to produce children. Now we realize that often this is not an immediate process in our world, but Adam and Eve were, well…better than us. They were perfect. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were the perfect specimens of humanity. The perfect man and the perfect woman, created of God and completely healthy. Infertility, complications, miscarriages all would have been non-issues for them. God has directly commanded them to do this. God’s blessing was upon this action.
Frankly, I don’t think Adam and Eve made it long. Months at best; weeks or days at worst. For one final reason, we know that the marriage between Adam and Eve would have been absolutely hated and (as we know) targeted by Satan.
Why would Satan allow Adam and Eve to serve God and worship Him in bliss for millions of years
before trying to upset this process?
In the end, we don’t truly know exactly how old the earth is, but I do think we can say with some certainty that the answer is not billions or even millions of years. God didn’t need the time. Let’s take his word as it is written and have faith in his plan.
Thanks for reading and until next time, so long,
Adam Fink
Deacon of Discipleship
