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One of the simplest arguments for an earth much older than a few thousand years comes from starlight. Light travels outward from its source at a large but finite rate - 186,000 miles per second, or about 6 trillion miles per year. In fact, astronomers define a distance unit, the light-year, as how far light travels in one year.
THE ARGUMENT
If the earth were only a few thousand years old, we would expect to see no objects more distant than a few thousand light-years away. But, as a matter of fact, we do see objects much further away than this. Most of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are further, up to nearly 100,000 light-years away. The nearest large galaxy beyond our Milky Way is the Andromeda Galaxy, about 2 million light-years distant. The furthest galaxies we see are several billion light-years from us. And the most distant objects which we can observe, called quasars, range up to 10 billion light-years away (Pasachoff, 1989, chs 5 & 15). Thus the universe is most naturally understood to be greater than 10 billion years old.
This argument depends on several assumptions which we need to consider in order to have some feeling for how compelling the argument is. There are three such assumptions we should consider. Each is a very natural assumption, but it is possible that one or more of these is mistaken. Let us look at each in turn.
See the following to access the complete article: http://www.ibri.org/Tracts/lttmetct.htm
Equating the above factors to the Bible, there is credence to an unspecified amount of time between Gen.1:1-2 and verse 3 NIV: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."
Unspecified time between verses 1 and 2 - and there is nothing more found in the following six day creation narrative revealing when the creation of the heavens and earth took place in verses 1-2 - [10 million years? 4 billion years? What difference does it make since God created it all, regardless of the time involved ? - and:
"God said, " let there be light"....day one of Gen.1:3. That is not all, the sun, moon and stars did not appear until on day 4: "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark the seasons and days and years...'"
From the above Scriptures it appears as though the earth was created before the sun, moon and the stars. Or are we unable to see the recovery from major cataclysmic events, with a restoration of the original , by clearing away the results of dense smoke from meteor strikes, enormous volcanic action and global flooding? The term "created" or "create" is not seen after Gen.1:1 again until the 5th and 6th days, when God created the fish and fowl on day 5 and the animals and Adam on the 6th day.
More evidence is found in Pr.8:23-24 NIV: "I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water;" But you will recall in Gen.1:2, the earth was standing in the first global flood [Not the second flood of Noah]. Confirmed by David in Ps.24:2 and Peter in 2 Pet.3:5.
Therefore the evidence is strong that we live on a very old earth that could not possible be only 6,000 years old.
See the following: [Sorry, it is no longer online]
Quasar92
THE ARGUMENT
If the earth were only a few thousand years old, we would expect to see no objects more distant than a few thousand light-years away. But, as a matter of fact, we do see objects much further away than this. Most of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are further, up to nearly 100,000 light-years away. The nearest large galaxy beyond our Milky Way is the Andromeda Galaxy, about 2 million light-years distant. The furthest galaxies we see are several billion light-years from us. And the most distant objects which we can observe, called quasars, range up to 10 billion light-years away (Pasachoff, 1989, chs 5 & 15). Thus the universe is most naturally understood to be greater than 10 billion years old.
This argument depends on several assumptions which we need to consider in order to have some feeling for how compelling the argument is. There are three such assumptions we should consider. Each is a very natural assumption, but it is possible that one or more of these is mistaken. Let us look at each in turn.
See the following to access the complete article: http://www.ibri.org/Tracts/lttmetct.htm
Equating the above factors to the Bible, there is credence to an unspecified amount of time between Gen.1:1-2 and verse 3 NIV: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."
Unspecified time between verses 1 and 2 - and there is nothing more found in the following six day creation narrative revealing when the creation of the heavens and earth took place in verses 1-2 - [10 million years? 4 billion years? What difference does it make since God created it all, regardless of the time involved ? - and:
"God said, " let there be light"....day one of Gen.1:3. That is not all, the sun, moon and stars did not appear until on day 4: "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark the seasons and days and years...'"
From the above Scriptures it appears as though the earth was created before the sun, moon and the stars. Or are we unable to see the recovery from major cataclysmic events, with a restoration of the original , by clearing away the results of dense smoke from meteor strikes, enormous volcanic action and global flooding? The term "created" or "create" is not seen after Gen.1:1 again until the 5th and 6th days, when God created the fish and fowl on day 5 and the animals and Adam on the 6th day.
More evidence is found in Pr.8:23-24 NIV: "I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water;" But you will recall in Gen.1:2, the earth was standing in the first global flood [Not the second flood of Noah]. Confirmed by David in Ps.24:2 and Peter in 2 Pet.3:5.
Therefore the evidence is strong that we live on a very old earth that could not possible be only 6,000 years old.
See the following: [Sorry, it is no longer online]
Quasar92
