What Are The Ages In Scripture
Within the context of the 7,000 years alluded to by the seven days in Genesis 1:1â2:3, Scripture makes it very apparent that only two ages exist. The first 6,000 years are covered by one age, and the latter 1,000 years are covered by the other . Begin with Matthew 12:31 and 32 to comprehend this within the context of the Bible. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who has been sick and now is well again. He took food as usual day after dayâeating what common people eatâbut he did not take care of himself.”
We can see from this passage that sickness is not an eternal condition but rather something that comes and goes. When someone is sick, they are not always sick when they get better, they do not remain sick forever. This shows that sickness is a temporary condition that will be resolved one way or another. Either the person recovers or they die.
So Christ’s statement in Matthew 12:32 can be interpreted as saying that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who is sick now and will be healed later on. Or perhaps more clearly, it says that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who was born into sin and will one day be saved from its effects through faith in Jesus Christ.
About Article Author
How Old Is The Earth According To The Bible
I preferred to start with the Bible and go out from there. When I read Scripture, I realize that the history of the world is not an unbroken linear succession of years but is rather broken up into catastrophic events that altered everything in the world. This is what the Apostle Peter meant when he said that in the last days there will be scoffers claiming that things have been as they have always been .
These mockers say that there will not be a cataclysmic in-breaking of the kingdom of God in the second coming of Jesus Christ because, they would say, “Look at history! Everything is just the same as it has always been from the beginning.”
Now, the Bible, and observable data, conflict with anyone who might be tempted to join the scoffers. Those who hold to the biblical record, and the observable record in Creation, are those who hold to catastrophism. The scoffers who dont believe in a flood, in Peters epistle, hold to a philosophy of earth history called uniformitarianism.
The Bible teaches us that there was creation, which was a rather catastrophic rearranging of chaos, and then there was the fall. The earth was without form, and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters .
The New Answers Book 2
People complain about The New Answers Book. They say that its so good at giving short, substantive answers that they want more. Well, we listened! In The New Answers Book 2 youll find 31 more great answers to big questions for the Christian life. Many view the original New Answers Book as an essential tool for modern discipleship. Both of these books answer such questions as: Can natural processes explain the origin of life? Can creationists be real scientists? Where did Cain get his wife? Is evolution a religion? and more!
Don’t Miss: Who Said Pray Without Ceasing
Orphans Displaced And Refugee Children And Children Living In Poverty Need Special Care
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor Zechariah 7:10
Children are vulnerable even in good circumstances, but when theres poverty or violence, kids can suffer real damage. The Bible singles out orphans for us to help. Those without fathers are close behind orphans. And children living as refugees or displaced by conflict or living in extreme poverty are also vulnerable. There is no social or financial safety net for them no one to provide for their nurture or needs. God asks people who worship him to help take care of kids in such vulnerable places.
How Old Is The Earth As Per The Bible
6,000 years approximately Concerning the age of the Earth, the Bible’s genealogical records, combined with the Genesis 1 account of creation, are used to estimate an age for the Earth and universe of around 6000 years, with some uncertainty on the completeness of the genealogical records allowing for a few thousand years more. This estimate is based on the assumption that living things appeared on the Earth immediately after the global flood described in the book of Genesis. If this assumption is not made, then the age of the Earth will be even less.
Some Christians believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old because it says so in Genesis 1:1. However, most scientists agree that our planet is at least 4.5 billion years old based on geology and other evidence from all over the world.
The Earth has been through many changes over time, including sea changes and climate change. All evidence points to the fact that life on Earth has had plenty of time to evolve and adapt, so it can certainly handle another few hundred thousand years or more.
According to the Bible, God created the Earth in six days and rested on the seventh. Since that day marks “the beginning of the heavens and the Earth”, it can be assumed that God created all of space and time in addition to the Earth itself. This would make the Earth about 6,000 years old.
Recommended Reading: What Does The Bible Say About Loneliness
History Of The Age Of The Earth
As indicated earlier, the Bible does not fix the age of the earth, contrary to the claims of Answers in Genesis.1 Historically, their claim comes from the work of James Ussher, Bishop in the Church of Ireland, from 1625 to 1656. Archbishop Ussher took the genealogies of Genesis, assuming they were complete, and calculated all the years to arrive at a date for the creation of the earth on Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C.2 Of course, even assuming the method was valid, such an exact date is not possible from the genealogies of the Bible . There are a number of other assumptions implicit in the calculation. The first, and foremost, assumption is that the genealogies of Genesis are complete, from father to son throughout the entire course of human existence. The second assumption is that the Genesis creation “days” were exactly 24-hours in length. It turns out that both assumptions are false.
What Can We Know
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? Faith is trusting in God the things we cannot see: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen .
At the end of every great question in the Bible , the Holy Spirit appeals to the incomprehensible divide between man’s finite existence and God’s infinite reality .
You May Like: What The Bible Says About Loneliness
One Event To Measure All Else By
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?
Faith is trusting in God the things we cannot see: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” .
At the end of every great question in the Bible , the Holy Spirit appeals to the incomprehensible divide between man’s finite existence and God’s infinite reality:
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this ?
God loves us so much 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.
The Origin Of The Old
Prior to the 1700s, few believed in an old earth. The approximate 6,000-year age for the earth was challenged only rather recently, beginning in the late 18th century. These opponents of the biblical chronology essentially left God out of the picture. Three of the old-earth advocates included Comte de Buffon, who thought the earth was at least 75,000 years old. Pièrre LaPlace imagined an indefinite but very long history. And Jean Lamarck also proposed long ages.11
However, the idea of millions of years really took hold in geology when men like Abraham Werner, James Hutton, William Smith, Georges Cuvier, and Charles Lyell used their interpretations of geology as the standard, rather than the Bible. Werner estimated the age of the earth at about one million years. Smith and Cuvier believed untold ages were needed for the formation of rock layers. Hutton said he could see no geological evidence of a beginning of the earth and building on Huttons thinking, Lyell advocated millions of years.
From these men and others came the consensus view that the geologic layers were laid down slowly over long periods of time based on the rates at which we see them accumulating today. Hutton said:
The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. . . . No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.12
Table 5. Summary of the Old-earth Proponents for Long Ages
Also Check: Do Not Dwell In The Past Bible
How Old Does The Bible Say The Earth Is
How Old Does The Bible Say The Earth Is. Upon doing this, they are able to count out 6000 years. We also need to assume that the genesis account is accurate, that the six days of creation were literally 24 hours, and that there were no unknown or vague gaps in the chronology of genesis.
And the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the waters . This is at least 300 years before aristotle suggested, in his book on the heavens, that the earth might be s sphere. The bible record, however, is silent regarding exactly how old is the earth. The universe was created mature, in the sense that it was complete and functional by the end of the sixth day Vernon mcgee say that the earth could actually be millions or even a few billion years old.
Mount St Helens: Chilling Audio Of 1980 Eruption Revealed
Mount St Helens entered a period of intense activity in 1980 that killed more than 50 people.
Although tragic, Young Earth Creationists believe the eruption has highlighted a flaw in attempts to date the planet’s age.
According to Professor Meyer, attempts to age the newly formed cap on the volcano using Potassium-argon dating have proven “far from accurate”.
The method and its supposed shortcomings were famously highlighted by Young Earth Creationist Dr Steve Austin and the Institute for Creation Research , when they analysed samples collected from the volcano in 1986.
This has even led to the Mount St Helens Creation Information Center being established “for the purpose of witnessing to the truth of God’s Word in Genesis”.
Professor Meyer said: “The severe faultiness of the dating method should cause everyone who adheres to the belief that the earth is 4,600,000,000 years old to reconsider that belief.
“According to the Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal , using the conventional K-Ar dating methods, the porphyritic dacite which solidified on the surface of the lava dome six years after the eruption dates to 50,000 to 350,000 years old.
DON’T MISS…
“Also, the mineral concentrates from the dacite which formed in 1986 gave K-Ar ages of 60,000 to 2,800,000 years old this pyroxene concentrate was only six years old at the time they tested it.
You May Like: What Does God Say About Being Lonely
Why Is This Subject Important For Religion And Ethics
This subject has a number of implications for religious beliefs and ethics.
In the US and UK, significant groups of Christians believe that evolution is an unproved theory which may devalue religious belief, and want schools to teach pupils that creationism or intelligent design are alternative theories that should be considered.
The Word Is Rarely Used In The Bible And Found In Just 3 Places Job 2: 14 Proverbs : 27 And Isaiah : 22
Some people think the bible says it was created about 6,000 years ago. Vernon mcgee say that the earth could actually be millions or even a few billion years old. So how old is the earth? We believe one can hold to old earth creationism and still adhere to the core doctrines of the christian faith. Don stoner looks at the age of the earth from a scientific and biblical perspective. It is a young earth after all! We also need to assume that the genesis account is accurate, that the six days of creation were literally 24 hours, and that there were no unknown or vague gaps in the chronology of genesis. We all know that there are those who believe the earth is billions of years old, and there are those who believe the earth is approximately 6,000 years old. And god said, let there be light, and there was light. The earth was without form, and void The word it comes from, 02328, is used just once in job 26:10 . In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. The bible never says that the earth is 6000 years old.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. The bible teaches us that there was creation, which was a rather catastrophic rearranging of chaos, and then there was the fall. So from where do they get it? The bible tells us that god made the earth in six days. The book of isaiah was written sometime between 740 and 680 b.c.
Read Also: What Does The Bible Say About Domestic Abuse
It Looks Old Yet We Believe That The Earth Is Not 45 Billion Years Old As Claimed By The Evolutionists
The most obvious example of this is in matthew 1.1 where it says jesus was the son of david who was the son of. It is a young earth after all! Second, the bible does not say, and no serious christian teaches, that god created the earth with fossils embedded in the rocks to fool unbelieving scientists. But this is not the same as age.. First, the bible does not put a date on the creation of the universe. And the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the waters. He presents much more evidence that is not presented in creation and time. We have never put an absolute date on the age of the earth. The institute for creation research has always taught, as an integral part of its ministry, the concept of the young earth. The concept of a 6,000 year old earth is based on the fact there have been roughly 6,000 years since the formation of adam. The word is rarely used in the bible, and found in just 3 places, job 22:14 , proverbs 8:27 , and isaiah 40:22 . Prior to the 19th century, almost every significant biblical commentator thought the bible spoke to the age of the earth in a definitive way. And the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the waters .
How Old Does The Kjv Bible Say The Earth Is
about 6,000 years oldSome Christians believe that the Earth is about 6,000 years old. This outlook is largely due to James Ussher , the Anglican Archbishop of Ireland. The vital clue is a London publisher, James Guy, who combined Ushers dates with his version of the King James Bible, published about 1675.
You May Like: What Does The Bible Say About Mary Magdalene
What Does This Mean
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.