Does age matter....

Tellyontellyon said:

But does it really matter from a Christian point of view?
Would it change your Christianity if you changed your opinion of the age of the earth?

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As I said before on this topic, no. It doesn't affect any major doctrine or creed, for anybody except some Fundamentalist Protestants.

Nope. It really doesn't matter but I err on the side of caution and take a literal approach to the Bible when it comes to things that are debatable so to speak.

Tellyontellyon said:

The scientists say that the world is far far older than could ever be the case from a literal reading of the Bible....
On the other hand, God can do anything he likes and make things appear as he wishes, for his own mysterious reasons.

Christians I've met seem to have a range of views as to the age of the earth. Some say thousands, some say hundreds of billions...

But does it really matter from a Christian point of view?
Would it change your Christianity if you changed your opinion of the age of the earth?

Click to expand...

There is no defined teaching within Christianity on the age of the earth. Origen wrote in 220 AD that based on the wording of Genesis it cannot be taken as six literal days of creation.

You are free to hold whatever beliefs you want on the age of the earth.

Pavel Mosko said:

As I said before on this topic, no. It doesn't affect any major doctrine or creed, for anybody except some Fundamentalist Protestants.

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To the op, no.

What are these major doctrines or creeds differences? (I consider myself a fundamentalist Protestant.)

Tellyontellyon said:

The scientists say that the world is far far older than could ever be the case from a literal reading of the Bible....
On the other hand, God can do anything he likes and make things appear as he wishes, for his own mysterious reasons.

Christians I've met seem to have a range of views as to the age of the earth. Some say thousands, some say hundreds of billions...

But does it really matter from a Christian point of view?
Would it change your Christianity if you changed your opinion of the age of the earth?

Click to expand...

No

Tellyontellyon said:

The scientists say that the world is far far older than could ever be the case from a literal reading of the Bible....
On the other hand, God can do anything he likes and make things appear as he wishes, for his own mysterious reasons.

Christians I've met seem to have a range of views as to the age of the earth. Some say thousands, some say hundreds of billions...

But does it really matter from a Christian point of view?
Would it change your Christianity if you changed your opinion of the age of the earth?

Click to expand...

Not to me, but for those Christians who are opposed to the theory of evolution and claim a young Earth, it's completely a matter of the truth of Holy Scripture which seems, according to a literal reading of the Genesis account, to say that everything, including Earth, was created in the space of a week.

God said in the beginning, and that's good enough for me.

sandman said:

God said in the beginning, and that's good enough for me.

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Exactly, in the end, it doesn't matter. God created everything. How He did it is how he did it and we can discuss this until the cows come home, it won't change a thing.

OldWiseGuy said:

To the op, no.

What are these major doctrines or creeds differences? (I consider myself a fundamentalist Protestant.)

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I'm saying the Age of the Earth was a nonissue for Christians historically speaking. Church Fathers assumed a young earth as a rule, but this was never any issue as far as Church teaching. In the past, people were concerned with the nature of God, the nature of Christ, Salvation, Sanctification etc. It is only with the Scopes Monkey trial in 1925 where this became an issue for some Protestants, where they made young earth creationism etc. a big deal, to the point of a defacto dogma. I took an American Church History class in 96 or so and we studied that, but here is an article from Christianity Today.


The Monkey Trial and the Rise of Fundamentalism: Christian History Timeline

It doesn't matter to me. But the scriptures do say, on multiple occasions, that our time and God's time is not the same.

No matter how hard someone tries to understand Christianity without faith being part of the mosaic, Doubt is standing by awaiting the next dance.

Albion said:

Not to me, but for those Christians who are opposed to the theory of evolution and claim a young Earth, it's completely a matter of the truth of Holy Scripture which seems, according to a literal reading of the Genesis account, to say that everything, including Earth, was created in the space of a week.

Click to expand...

FWIW, I believe in a young earth, and the literal six day account in Genesis, and I don't believe the 'Theory of Evolution', but it wouldn't change any doctrine I believe in if it could be proven me that the Theory of Evolution was true and that the young earth is mistaken. They are not essential, I don't even call the literal six day account in itself a doctrine, as such.

But, also, FWIW, I think both a billions of year creation and the six day account can be true, without God lying. We humans seem to have such a foundation in our understanding of time that we can't allow God to do as he pleases with it —God, First Cause, Omnipotent, The One who invented time, and that for his own purposes. Even science tells us time is relative.

Tellyontellyon said:

The scientists say that the world is far far older than could ever be the case from a literal reading of the Bible....
On the other hand, God can do anything he likes and make things appear as he wishes, for his own mysterious reasons.

Christians I've met seem to have a range of views as to the age of the earth. Some say thousands, some say hundreds of billions...

But does it really matter from a Christian point of view?
Would it change your Christianity if you changed your opinion of the age of the earth?

Click to expand...

Why do you follow a false Religion?

When the choice was set before you, (True, False) you chose False, why?

Does it really matter to a Buddhest whether or not he believes the truth?

Mark Quayle said:

FWIW, I believe in a young earth, and the literal six day account in Genesis, and I don't believe the 'Theory of Evolution', but it wouldn't change any doctrine I believe in if it could be proven me that the Theory of Evolution was true and that the young earth is mistaken. They are not essential, I don't even call the literal six day account in itself a doctrine, as such.

But, also, FWIW, I think both a billions of year creation and the six day account can be true, without God lying. We humans seem to have such a foundation in our understanding of time that we can't allow God to do as he pleases with it —God, First Cause, Omnipotent, The One who invented time, and that for his own purposes. Even science tells us time is relative.

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1,000 years is a day to God, according to scripture, if not literally, then to paint the picture that how we view time is incomparable to how God views time. So really no theory is good other than we know God is creator.

Space Monkey said:

1,000 years is a day to God, according to scripture, if not literally, then to paint the picture that how we view time is incomparable to how God views time. So really no theory is good other than we know God is creator.

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Well said. "Let God be true and every man a liar".

Pavel Mosko said:

I'm saying the Age of the Earth was a nonissue for Christians historically speaking. Church Fathers assumed a young earth as a rule, but this was never any issue as far as Church teaching. In the past, people were concerned with the nature of God, the nature of Christ, Salvation, Sanctification etc. It is only with the Scopes Monkey trial in 1925 where this became an issue for some Protestants, where they made young earth creationism etc. a big deal, to the point of a defacto dogma. I took an American Church History class in 96 or so and we studied that, but here is an article from Christianity Today.


The Monkey Trial and the Rise of Fundamentalism: Christian History Timeline

Click to expand...

Wasn't the seven day creation actually an unspoken matter of dogma, i.e. the only belief, before the "Monkey Trial"?

As a point of interest I am a fundamentalist Protestant, however I believe in Old Earth Creationism, specifically Gap Theory.

OldWiseGuy said:

Wasn't the seven day creation actually an unspoken matter of dogma, i.e. the only belief, before the "Monkey Trial"?

As a point of interest I am a fundamentalist Protestant, however I believe in Old Earth Creationism, specifically Gap Theory.

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FYI - a dogma is a mandatory teaching so no. Yes they assumed it, but it was never an issue in the sense of "you must believe this" like something like the Virgin Birth of Christ, the Trinity, Salvation through Christ etc. where if you don't believe it you are a heretic.

I believe this cite has the major Christian dogmas as part of it's terms of service to be a official Christian who can post on the "Christian" boards. (I'm talking about all the stuff that Catholics, Orthodox, and orthodox/historical Protestants believe in common and not "dogmas" unique to Roman Catholicism like Transubstantion, certain Marian beliefs etc.)

Tellyontellyon said:

The scientists say that the world is far far older than could ever be the case from a literal reading of the Bible....
On the other hand, God can do anything he likes and make things appear as he wishes, for his own mysterious reasons.

Christians I've met seem to have a range of views as to the age of the earth. Some say thousands, some say hundreds of billions...

But does it really matter from a Christian point of view?
Would it change your Christianity if you changed your opinion of the age of the earth?

Click to expand...

No as I certainly don’t know how God did it other than The Word.

Tellyontellyon said:

The scientists say that the world is far far older than could ever be the case from a literal reading of the Bible....
On the other hand, God can do anything he likes and make things appear as he wishes, for his own mysterious reasons.

Christians I've met seem to have a range of views as to the age of the earth. Some say thousands, some say hundreds of billions...

But does it really matter from a Christian point of view?
Would it change your Christianity if you changed your opinion of the age of the earth?

Click to expand...

It would not change my belief in Jesus Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection. As far as the Genesis narrative on the amount of time between the very beginning (as in: "In the beginning God") and the next point in time when God first said "Let there be light." it is simply not explicitly clear.

Genesis 1:1-2. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."

Full stop after waters. Then verse 3 begins with "And God said", without informing the reader when it was that God said what God said. The question then is this: at what point in time after the beginning of creation did God first speak light into existence? The Bible doesn't say. Some are staunch 6 back-to-back 24 hour days from the beginning, but the the scripture does not explicitly say so.

I believe in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and all that is in it no matter if it was 6 literal 24 hour days, or if was an unspecified time (hundreds, thousands, millions, or billions of years) in which God worked to create all that HE created between the six yoms.