THE AGE OF THE EARTH

Thomas H. McDonald

INTRODUCTION:

     The Age of the Earth is a topic that is discussed a lot now days.  Atheists believe that the Earth is billions of years old.  Although to argue with them on this matter you could pin them on the choice of whether the Earth is older or younger than what they think.  It forces them to either admit that they are wrong or to just not say anything at all, which is exactly the same as admitting that they are wrong, and that is something they will not do. 

     The Atheists do not want to admit that the Earth is too old because it doesn’t fit inside of their theory and they don’t want to admit that it’s to young because it still doesn’t fit inside their theory.  Now that being said, the Atheist’s would rather have someone take their word for it than try to prove it. 

DISCUSSION:

     Question, How long is a day?  Is it 1000 years or is it 24 hours?  The answer is simple really.  It is 24 hours.  It was stated in Genesis chapter 1 because of the way that the first chapter was written.

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

2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6  And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13  And the evening and the morning were the third day.

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:

15  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21  And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23  And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24  And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25  And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 

Each day, here, is said to have an evening and a morning which indicates that it was one literal day.  Plus not to mention the fact that when God did something miraculous it happened right then.  Take for example when Jesus brought back the little girl from the dead or brought back Lazarus.  Did he have to wait for a year for that to happen?  No!  In both cases they rose just like that as if they had been awakened from sleeping.  So its pretty plain to see that when God was speaking the world into existence that everything happened in REAL TIME just exactly as He spoke it.  He said let there be Light and as soon as the words left his mouth light appeared and lit the whole planet. 

     Point 1:  The Old Earth Creationists want us to believe that the 6 days were not literally 24 hours by Figurative Language.  The Old Earth Creationists had the belief that there were 6 long periods of time between the time that God made something.  So they do not believe that six 24 hour days were possible.  So they work to prove their beliefs on the grounds that they say that the 6 days were figurative speech.  Only problem is they cannot prove that it is figurative speech.  There are two rules to figurative Speech.  The first rule is:

The sense of the context will indicate it----As before said, nothing should be regarded as figurative unless such a demand is made by the meaning of the immediate context, or by the evident meaning of the passage as a whole.   The second rule is: A word or sentence is figurative when the literal meaning involves an impossibility----Jer. i. 18 it is said:  “For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and Brasen walls against the whole land.”  Literally we know that such was not the fact.  God had made this man to resemble these things in some respects:  he should be strong and immovable like them, hence the comparison” (Hermeneutics, p.195). 

Another author by the name of Lockhart wrote: 

“When a word has been appropriated by usage to one thing and is transferred to another, it is said to be used figuratively.  When a word is used in its primitive or usual meaning, it is said to be used literal.  A figure, therefore, is a departure or deflection from the primitive or usual meaning of a word, or the usual manner of expressing ideas” (Principles of Interpretation, page 157). 

So therefore the Old earth Creationists cannot possibly be correct because they cannot prove that the 6 days were figurative, so they must have been actual 24 hour days.

     In Exodus 20:9-11 Moses wrote:

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Moses used the creation days to set up the Jewish work week.  This shows that the creation days were literal days.

     Point 2:  The Field of Botany shows us that the Genesis days were literal 24 hour days.  Another way of showing the creation days were just 24 hours is by the Field of Botany.  Otherwise known as plant life.  Guy N. Woods had this to say about Botany. 

“Botany, the field of plant life, came into existence on the third day.  Those who allege that the days of Gen. 1, may have been long geological ages, must accept the absurd hypothesis that plant-life survived in periods of darkness through half of each geological age, running into millions of years!”  (Questions and Answers Open Forum, Freed-Hardeman College Lectures, p.16).

So now how is it that the plants could have survived if each day was years apart.  The answer is simple without sunlight the plants would not have survived the billions of years that the atheists claim that had happened.  So therefore the only logical choice would be that the days were literally 24 hours.  The plants could survive if the day was only 24 hours,  b ut impossible to survive if the day was billions of years apart from the next day.  Still don’t believe me?  Fine, then my last point is this.

     Point 3:  Oceanography-The Real World Evidence shows us that the Genesis days were literal 24 hour days.  How Long does it take a reef to grow?  That is the name of an article that deals in proving that the world is only a few thousand years old.  How is this possible you ask?  Well lets take a look at that shall we.  How long does it take a Coral Reef to grow.  Well one way to tell is that it was established that the thickness of Eniwetok Atoll could have been formed in less than 3,500 years.  Which shows that it takes years for Coral reef to grow. 

CONCLUSION:

     Thus by just looking at the Bible, and real world evidence we can see that the Earth can be no more than a few 1,000 years old. 

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