How old is the earth? And does this matter?

Since the sun we use to measure a day was not created until the 4th day, I tend to observe the creation time period similar to eternity style time period it's like a programming loop with a condition to /end when certain conditions are met.

it is said in the bible that the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love, so through this lense I appraise applications of said knowledge. Maybe it matters .. maybe it cannot matter, God knows.

zackredsox said:

So I'm not sure if I believe the earth was created literally in 7 or really 6 days and it's only like 6000 years old. I think it could be possible that God just took his time to make earth perfect for his perfect creation (well that was until they ate the apple) and maybe the bible supports what modern science tells us after all. Well me thinking this brought up another problem after I said this to my girlfriend. Now she's telling me I'm not a christian and I'm basically going to hell even though I absolutely believe that God created everything and Jesus died for our sins. Should things like this really matter what Christians believe as long as they believe God created Heaven and Earth,believe Jesus Christ died for our sins and live our lives to be as much like him as possible?

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The 1st day was the declaration Let there be Light. This is the Big Bang that manifested matter from antimatter as scientists would have us believe. The trigger was the declaration and the night and the day were basically the light sources in the cosmos and the dark voids of space.

The 2nd day God started to form the atmosphere of the heavenly bodies and to separate the firmament from the outside cosmos to the local atmosphere.

3rd day a further separation from the waters to the land that started to appear as the waters subsided and plant life started to appear.

Many stumble on the following verse.

Genesis 1:14
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

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Many think that the Sun was created on the 4rth day when this is not what the author is saying. The Sun was created on the 1st day. Here the author using a concrete functional language is trying to convey the functions of the already created Sun and Moon as related to the functions of seasons and years. The author expresses the language in present tense participle but the language used is implying a function in the present tense participle but the objects were past tense participle with reference to the 1st day.

What this means is the author is now highlighting that the earth started to be tuned to correct settings for seasons and years as compared to before where it was probably revolving at a greater speed that may have had a different gravitational influence (centrifugal forces) that required the firmaments to be quickly separated in a speedy manner and for the land to appear quickly on day 3.

On the 5th day once the revolution of the earth was fine tuned then biological life forms (animals) were created within that optimum gravitational environment that sustained biological life forms. These biological life forms could not survive at the greater centrifugal forces on day 3 and not before plant life was made available for the biological life forms to eat and survive.

Day five was the creation of airborne creatures and then progressed to land based animals in day 6. It appears that towards the end of day 6 man is created and his counterpart Eve.

I believe that the Bible is written in a manner that a child can understand it. And once a child is able to determine that words can often be used to specify things that are NOT literal, then it becomes apparent that the use of the term 'day' in creation is NOT 'literal'. It is FIGURATIVE. It is meant to signify a TIME PERIOD, not a literal DAY.
Science has proven without a doubt that the earth is MUCH older than ten thousand years. Heck, there is evidence that MEN lived in NORTH America over 16,000 years ago.
So the idea of a six thousand year old earth is LUDICROUS. We know that animals that men hunted became extinct over 12.000 years ago. And we also KNOW that man and dinosaurs NEVER lived together at the same time. If they did, then the layer of their bones would also be scattered with the bones of MEN as well. The idea that the flood killed the dinosaurs is therefore completely fabricated. For there would be evidence of MEN found right beside the dinosaurs if they ALL died together in the flood. Since there are NO human remains found beside the dinosaurs, they did NOT live together.
It took BILLIONS of years for this earth to be READY to support MEN. God is TIMELESS. So time isn't a factor in His existence. He is certainly not confined to the rotation period of a planet that HE created.
In the NT it is stated that a day to God can be as a THOUSAND years. It could also be stated that a day to God could be as a BILLION years. For He is OUTSIDE of time. He is TIMELESS.
Blessings,
MEC

Berean777 said:

The 1st day was the declaration Let there be Light. This is the Big Bang that manifested matter from antimatter as scientists would have us believe.

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Not according to the bible.

Note Genesis 1:1 says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.+"

This is the beginning of the universe.

Verse two then turns our attention to the earth and its preparation for human habitation. It is with regards to the earths preparation that God says "Let there be light".

Genesis 1: 2,3 Now the earth was formless and desolate,* and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep,*+ and God’s active force*+ was moving about over the surface of the waters.+3 And God said: “Let there be light.” Then there was light.+

The sun was created along with all the other stars in verse one, "in the beginning". In verse two the light from the sun was not penetrating the "darkness" (Verse 2) that was enveloping the earth and so God said "Let there be light". Evidently God gradually bagan to remove the cause of the darkness that was enveloping the earth at this time so the the light from the sun could penetrate to the surface of the earth. Evidently this was diffused light because not until the fourth day could the source of the light, the sun, be seen in the then clear sky.

Genesis 1: 14-19 "Then God said: “Let there be luminaries*+ in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night,+ and they will serve as signs for seasons and for days and years.+ 15 They will serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God went on to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day+ and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars.+17 Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth 18 and to dominate by day and by night and to make a division between the light and the darkness.+Then God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day."

God put them in the expanse at this time in that by now he had fully cleared away the cause of the darkness. From a human perspective on the earth the luminaries could now be seen, as if now put in the sky.

LightBearer said:

Not according to the bible.

Note Genesis 1:1 says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.+"

This is the beginning of the universe.

Verse two then turns our attention to the earth and its preparation for human habitation. It is with regards to the earths preparation that God says "Let there be light".

Genesis 1: 2,3 Now the earth was formless and desolate,* and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep,*+ and God’s active force*+ was moving about over the surface of the waters.+3 And God said: “Let there be light.” Then there was light.+

The sun was created along with all the other stars in verse one, "in the beginning". In verse two the light from the sun was not penetrating the "darkness" (Verse 2) that was enveloping the earth and so God said "Let there be light". Evidently God gradually bagan to remove the cause of the darkness that was enveloping the earth at this time so the the light from the sun could penetrate to the surface of the earth. Evidently this was diffused light because not until the fourth day could the source of the light, the sun, be seen in the then clear sky.

Genesis 1: 14-19 "Then God said: “Let there be luminaries*+ in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night,+ and they will serve as signs for seasons and for days and years.+ 15 They will serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God went on to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day+ and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars.+17 Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth 18 and to dominate by day and by night and to make a division between the light and the darkness.+Then God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day."

God put them in the expanse at this time in that by now he had fully cleared away the cause of the darkness. From a human perspective on the earth the luminaries could now be seen, as if now put in the sky.

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The context to let there be light, is to God's presence and the initial declaration.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

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Although the earth is our planet, though the heaven encompasses the cosmos.

Imagican said:

I believe that the Bible is written in a manner that a child can understand it. And once a child is able to determine that words can often be used to specify things that are NOT literal, then it becomes apparent that the use of the term 'day' in creation is NOT 'literal'. It is FIGURATIVE. It is meant to signify a TIME PERIOD, not a literal DAY.
Science has proven without a doubt that the earth is MUCH older than ten thousand years. Heck, there is evidence that MEN lived in NORTH America over 16,000 years ago.
So the idea of a six thousand year old earth is LUDICROUS. We know that animals that men hunted became extinct over 12.000 years ago. And we also KNOW that man and dinosaurs NEVER lived together at the same time. If they did, then the layer of their bones would also be scattered with the bones of MEN as well. The idea that the flood killed the dinosaurs is therefore completely fabricated. For there would be evidence of MEN found right beside the dinosaurs if they ALL died together in the flood. Since there are NO human remains found beside the dinosaurs, they did NOT live together.
It took BILLIONS of years for this earth to be READY to support MEN. God is TIMELESS. So time isn't a factor in His existence. He is certainly not confined to the rotation period of a planet that HE created.
In the NT it is stated that a day to God can be as a THOUSAND years. It could also be stated that a day to God could be as a BILLION years. For He is OUTSIDE of time. He is TIMELESS.
Blessings,
MEC

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100% agree

Matter?
It doesn't. Fossils exist and are dated to whatever they are as billions of years old evidence of creation past.
Why would it matter that the earth is billions of years old?
When we have found a galaxy that is 30 billion light years from earth, why would I have a problem with earth age?

zackredsox said:

So I'm not sure if I believe the earth was created literally in 7 or really 6 days and it's only like 6000 years old. I think it could be possible that God just took his time to make earth perfect for his perfect creation (well that was until they ate the apple) and maybe the bible supports what modern science tells us after all. Well me thinking this brought up another problem after I said this to my girlfriend. Now she's telling me I'm not a christian and I'm basically going to hell even though I absolutely believe that God created everything and Jesus died for our sins. Should things like this really matter what Christians believe as long as they believe God created Heaven and Earth,believe Jesus Christ died for our sins and live our lives to be as much like him as possible?

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antletems said:

100% agree

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A child uses adjectives to describe functions of action and not so much describing verb in motion with time. The functional concrete language of the day describes the functions of God to what he did. Notice no subject is named or described. We don't even know what Adam looked like, his hair and eye colour.

Clearly you haven't given the the scriptures quoted due consideration.

Genesis 1: 2,3 Now the earth was formless and desolate,* and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep,*+ and God’s active force*+ was moving about over the surface of the waters.+3 And God said: “Let there be light.” Then there was light.+

After the creation of the universe, the stars and so forth including the planet earth in verse one, God turns his attention the the preparation of the earth for human habitation. Though light already existed in the universe from the stars that had been created, verse two states that the earth was in darkness at this time. For life to exist on earth this darkness or the cause of this darkness had to be resolved, probably an atmosphere that blocked direct light from getting through to the surface. It was with regards to this that God said "let there be light", let there be light on the earth.

Let there be light is declaring God's presence.

Almost no one was reading long ages into Genesis before man developed the theory of an old earth. God created the plants on day 3 and the sun on day 4, which should immediately tell you that the wisdom of man is foolishness to God. There wouldn't be any Christians who believed in long ages today if it wasn't for the scientific establishment feeding this idea to the public for the last 100 years. A young creation does not conflict with true science. You can find scientific explanations for a young world, and refutations of deep time on these websites:

http://creation.com/
http://michael.oards.net/
http://creationrevolution.com/
http://www.creationwiki.org/Main_Page
http://www.trueorigin.org/
http://crev.info/
http://www.creationeducation.org/cer/search.asp?offset=1
http://www.coresci.org/celd/
http://www.ancientdays.net/
http://www.biblearchaeology.org/

God can bend time and space and we see this throughout our galaxies that time and space as we know it is vastly different to our time and space. You could be in a portion of space that has light almost stagnant as if time which is a fucntion of light is almost at a standstill. So if you go there one day could represent 1000 days here on earth.

Time is not inform in space and so do people assume that time was the same in the creation story as it is today. In fact the centrifugal forces exhibited to separate space from our sky and our sky from the water required almost a spin cycle in a washing machine.

God accelerated events like fast forward by bending time and space and then he made adjustments along the way by tuning our earth's seasons and yearly cycles as to have the right gravitational forces to permit biological life forms, otherwise we would be walking with our heads on glued to our feet. Just kidding hehehe.

Berean777 said:

Let there be light is declaring God's presence.

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Clearly not. It is as scripture states, regarding the light reaching the surface of the earth.

Genesis 1: 3-5 And God said: “Let there be light.” Then there was light.+4 After that God saw that the light was good, and God began to divide the light from the darkness.5 God called the light Day, but the darkness he called Night.+ And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

The light of which God said "Let there be" is reaching the revolving earth and as a result being divided into "Day" and "Night".

You are clearly expressing personal opinions and not what the bible actually teaches.

None of us were there to witness the creation. God did it, I have faith that He did it perfectly to His plan. God is great. How do we relate ourselves and our understanding of time to our timeless Creator?

LightBearer said:

Clearly not. It is as scripture states, regarding the light reaching the surface of the earth.

Genesis 1: 3-5 And God said: “Let there be light.” Then there was light.+4 After that God saw that the light was good, and God began to divide the light from the darkness.5 God called the light Day, but the darkness he called Night.+ And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

The light of which God said "Let there be" is reaching the revolving earth and as a result being divided into "Day" and "Night".

You are clearly expressing personal opinions and not what the bible actually teaches.

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Let there be light follows the statement the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. It is obviously declaration his Devine presence? Yes/No

Also let there be light is actually saying let there be life as the source of life declares his presence.

The details of who said this is explained in John.

Jn 1:1 — Jn 1:5
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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thesunisout said:

Almost no one was reading long ages into Genesis before man developed the theory of an old earth.

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And the only reason for that was to accommodate the theory (myth?) of evolution. All these measurements that we read about could be completely off, since they are all INDIRECT.

What we know for a FACT is that all creation was created in six literal 24-hour days (Exodus 20:8-11), and the Year of Man (Anno Hominis) began on the 6th day of creation. Using Adam as the starting point, we have approximately 6,000 years (using strictly the chronology of the Bible itself). If the Ten Commandments confirm the creation account as stated in Genesis, then that should be the basis of our belief.

So does it matter? Yes and No. The age of the earth is NOT a critical doctrine. The creation account is indeed a critical doctrine, since it has spiritual repercussions. Just as Evolution is a myth, Theistic Evolution is equally a myth. We either believe the Bible as it is written, or we dismiss it altogether as mythology and fables. There is no middle ground.

Job8 said:

And the only reason for that was to accommodate the theory (myth?) of evolution.

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Wrong. Evidence for an ancient earth came about before the theory of evolution.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_geology

zackredsox said:

So I'm not sure if I believe the earth was created literally in 7 or really 6 days and it's only like 6000 years old. I think it could be possible that God just took his time to make earth perfect for his perfect creation (well that was until they ate the apple) and maybe the bible supports what modern science tells us after all. Well me thinking this brought up another problem after I said this to my girlfriend. Now she's telling me I'm not a christian and I'm basically going to hell even though I absolutely believe that God created everything and Jesus died for our sins. Should things like this really matter what Christians believe as long as they believe God created Heaven and Earth,believe Jesus Christ died for our sins and live our lives to be as much like him as possible?

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Young Earth Creationism is a minority belief amongst Christians throughout the world. Plenty accept the evidence for an ancient earth and universe while maintaining ones faith. Don't let her words get to you

Your a christian regardless of what age of the earth you accept.

AmericanChristian91 said:

Young Earth Creationism is a minority belief amongst Christians throughout the world.

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In any situation the majority generally resorts to the "mob mentality", so for a view to be a minority view is not necessarily bad. Christianity was originally regarded as "the sect of the Nazarenes". A minority view, and something to be condemned by the majority. And today Bible Christianity is indeed a minority view. So what? Does that automatically establish that it is wrong? Or does that prove that the majority are prepared to accept the "cultural norm" rather than challenge it?

To be a consistent Bible-believing Christian is to hold to Young Earth Creationism. Any other view is full or holes. And this view was in fact the view of ALL conservative Christians until Darwin came along and pushed the Creator out of His creation. Bishop Ussher in the 17th century calculated the date of Adam's creation from Scripture (4004 BC), and it was generally accepted by Christians of every persuasion. Even today, except for a minor adjustment of 20 years to Ptolemy's chronology, it is quite acceptable.