How old is the earth? (Reformed Calvinists Only)

JM said:

Reformed Calvinists only please!
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How old is the earth? Is the account of creation in Genesis literal?

Yours in the Lord,

jm

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I'm not a Reformed Calvinist so please forgive me but

It's not how old the earth is, it is how old is the space around earth?

Some serious hermeneutical hopscotch is needed to deny the literal meaning of days in Exodus 20:11.

- The ordinance of the Sabbath is now doubtful if six days is not literal.
- If the first Adam is allegorical, then the second Adam is, too?
- A literal Adam is required in Romans.
- The Apostle clearly described Adam as the first human sinner—not whatever millions of human-like beings in the presumed evolutionary chain.
- Death came through Adamic sin, an explanation from Scripture that is cast aside in the notion of millions of years of death and destruction prior to Adam assumed by evolution.

Depending upon how one counts genealogies in Scripture (esp. concerning Peleg at Gen. 10:25, immediate son of Eber or not?), the earth is somewhere between 6,000 - 13,000 years old.

While I realize that Camping was rife with nonsense and oddities, his work assessing genealogies should not be ignored. Camping's effort is at least a good starting point for someone wanting to do their own analysis as relates to the age of the earth using Scripture. So just mine the gold and ignore the tin therein:
http://frfounders.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/adam_when.pdf

Here is a summary of Camping's timeline:


See also:
Why Does the Universe Look So Old? (Albert Mohler)

Biblical chronogenealogies - creation.com

JM said:

Is the account of creation in Genesis literal?

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Did Jesus lie when he referred to Adam and to creation?
Was he really sinnless?

Jesus taught that the OT was the word of God and that none of it would be errased.

That means God created the universe, the world and everything on earth in 6 days of 24 hours.

The OP asks two separate questions, what is the age of the earth, and do we interpretation creation literally. I'm not going to answer personally, but I looked to see what conservative Presbyterian denominations say. The statements I found from both the OPC and the PCA said that the creation account was to be taken literally, but that it was acceptable to say that the 7 days lasted a very long time. There are several schemes that do this. I agree with AMR that this looks like hermeneutical hopscotch, but there are certainly people in the community who take this approach.

JM said:

How old is the earth?​

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Some people look at it as purely a Scientific question, but they make certain assumptions about Science and Scientists and dare not go against ad popullum. I think it is perfectly fine to simply say; "I don't know", which I do not. I also think it is perfectly fine to not have absolute confidence in all methodologies called "Scientific" in the area of stamping a date to an artifact of the past. Again there are baseline assumptions behind those as well. I say this not in the vein of being skeptical of all that is called Science, but to not be a mindless drone about it either, to realize Science is ever changing, errors have been made in the past, and will likely be made in the present and future, if the past is any kind of gauge for the future.


Yes, it is historical narrative, Adam and Eve were real people, and I do believe genealogies in Scripture alone demand it to be the consistent case. Otherwise the door to speculations is opened wide, and doubt can be cast upon all the names throughout the genealogies of Scripture...and I think we both know where such an approach would lead up to moving past the genealogies in the Old Testament, to the genealogies in the Gospels. Even beyond the genealogies in the Gospels, the Apostle Paul refers to Adam several times, Romans 5:12-14, Romans 5:19, 1 Corinthians 15:22 etc.

JM said:

Reformed Calvinists only please!
​

How old is the earth? Is the account of creation in Genesis literal?

Yours in the Lord,

jm

Click to expand...

I dealt with this for years, big Creation/evolution debater. All we know about the age of the earth and the universe is that it was 'in the beginning', the timeline from the first century to Adam is another issue entirely. Genesis, not just the first chapter, is written as an historical narrative, you don't get the option of it being figurative, you believe it or you don't.

I've poured over this, not that my studies have been exhaustive but certainly intensive and over many years. I harbor two rather unconventional views among my Calvinist peers and cohorts. One, the age of the earth is ambiguise in Genesis 1 and irrelevant to the doctrine of creation, it could be billions of years old and it could be 6000, the issue is the creation of life. I also think the sun, moon and stars were created before creation week started, the language of day 4 suggest God was working on the firmament to make them more clearly seen from the surface of the earth over the earlier days of creation culminating in them being set in the heavens, the word for creation is not used in connection with day 4.

Bear in mind the original creation describes the earth covered in water and thick clouds, utter darkness and the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the deep. My advice, such as it is, as someone who has taken this seriously for a long time. Watch the subtleties of the language carefully and bear in mind, the emphasis is on the creation of life which has profound implications for the New Testament witness.

Grace and peace,
Mark