{"id":4031,"date":"2014-07-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/for-thousands-of-years-genesis-chapter-one-has-been-understood-as-the-original-creation-of-the-universe-that-took-place-in-six-normal-but-majestic-days-within-the-last-two-centuries-many-have-been-500\/"},"modified":"2024-08-26T15:26:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T20:26:44","slug":"creation-and-the-age-of-the-earth-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apologeticspress.org\/creation-and-the-age-of-the-earth-500\/","title":{"rendered":"Creation and the Age of the Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

For thousands of years, Genesis chapter one has been understood as the original creation of the Universe that took place in six normal but majestic days. Within the last two centuries, many have been misled into believing that the billions of years required for evolution must fit somewhere within the first chapter of the Bible. For numerous \u201cBible believers,\u201d flawed evolutionary dating methods have become the tyrant of biblical interpretation. Therefore, we are told that God spent, not six literal days, but billions of years creating the Universe and everything in it. We frequently hear such statements as: \u201cGod is not bound by time;\u201d \u201cGod could have taken as much time as He wanted while creating the Universe and everything in it;\u201d and \u201cBillions of years could have elapsed within Genesis 1.\u201d To say that Creation did not<\/strong> last billions of years, supposedly, is to limit Almighty God.<\/p>\n

Every Christian readily admits that God is not bound by time. He is the infinite, eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator. He is \u201cfrom everlasting to everlasting\u201d (Psalm 90:2). The point, however, is not whether God is outside of time; the crux of the matter is: what has the all-authoritative, eternal Creator revealed<\/strong> to us about His Creation in His all-authoritative Word? God could have created the Universe in any way<\/strong> He so desired, in whatever order<\/strong> He wanted, and in whatever time frame<\/strong> He chose. He could have created the world and everything in it in six hours, six seconds, or in one millisecond\u2014He is, after all, God Almighty (Genesis 17:1). But the pertinent question is not what God could<\/strong> have done; it is what He said He did<\/strong>. And He said that He created everything in six days (Genesis 1). Furthermore, when God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments, He stated:<\/p>\n

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work<\/strong>, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days<\/strong> the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it (Exodus 20:8-11, emp. added).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This Sabbath command can be understood properly only when the days of the week are interpreted as normal days.<\/p>\n

The Creation of Man and the Age of the Earth<\/h2>\n

According to the theory of evolution, man is a newcomer to planet Earth, far removed from the origin of the Universe. If the Universe was born 14 billion years ago, as many evolutionists, theistic evolutionists, and progressive creationists believe, man did not \u201ccome along\u201d until about 13.996 billion years later. If such time were represented by one 24-hour day, and the alleged Big Bang occurred at 12:00 a.m., then man did not arrive on the scene until 23:59:58 p.m. Man\u2019s allotted time during one 24-hour day would represent a measly two seconds.<\/p>\n

If the Bible taught, either explicitly or implicitly, that man was so far removed from the origin of the Universe, Bible-believing Christians would have no reservations accepting the above-mentioned timeline. Just as a Christian believes that God parted the Red Sea (Exodus 14), made an iron ax head float on water (2 Kings 6:5), and raised Jesus from the dead (Matthew 28:1-8), he would accept that humans appeared on Earth billions of years after the beginning of Creation\u2014if<\/strong> that was what the Bible taught. The problem for theistic evolutionists and progressive creationists is that God\u2019s Word never hints at such a timeline. In fact, it does the very opposite.<\/p>\n

The Bible makes a clear distinction between things that took place before<\/strong> \u201cthe foundation of the world\u201d and events that occurred after<\/strong> the \u201cfoundation of the world.\u201d Jesus prayed to the Father on the night of His arrest and betrayal, saying: \u201cYou loved Me before <\/strong>the foundation of the world\u201d (John 17:24, emp. added). Peter revealed in his first epistle how Jesus \u201cwas foreknown before <\/strong>the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you\u201d (1 Peter 1:20, emp. added). Paul informed the Christians in Ephesus how God \u201cchose us in Him before <\/strong>the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love\u201d (Ephesians 1:4, emp. added). Before<\/strong> \u201cGod created the heavens and the earth\u201d (Genesis 1:1), He was alive and well.<\/p>\n

If theistic evolutionists and progressive creationists are correct, then man arrived on the scene, not before<\/strong> the foundation of the world (obviously), nor soon after<\/strong> the foundation of the world, but eons later<\/strong>\u201413.996 billion years later to be \u201cprecise.\u201d This theory, however, blatantly contradicts Scripture.<\/p>\n

Jesus taught that \u201cthe blood of all the prophets\u2026was shed from (\u201csince\u201d\u2014NASB) the foundation of the world<\/strong>\u2026, from the blood of Abel<\/strong> to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple\u201d (Luke 11:50-51, emp. added; cf. Luke 1:70). Not only did Jesus\u2019 first-century enemies murder the prophets, but their forefathers had slain them as well, ever since the days of Abel. Observe that Jesus connected the time of one of the sons of Adam and Eve to the \u201cfoundation of the world.\u201d This time is contrasted with the time of a prophet named Zechariah, whom, Jesus told His enemies, \u201cyou murdered between the temple and the altar\u201d (Matthew 23:35). Zechariah was separated from the days of Abel by thousands of years. His blood was not shed near the foundation of the world; Abel\u2019s was. Certain early martyrs, including Abel, lived close enough to Creation for Jesus to say that their blood had been shed \u201cfrom the foundation of the world.\u201d If man arrived on the scene billions of years after the Earth was formed, and hundreds of millions of years after various living organisms such as fish, amphibians, and reptiles came into existence (as the evolutionary timeline affirms), how could Jesus\u2019 statement make sense? Truly, man was not <\/strong>created eons after<\/strong> the beginning of the world. Rather, he has been here \u201cfrom the foundation\u201d of it.<\/p>\n

On another occasion when Jesus\u2019 antagonists approached Him, they questioned Him about the lawfulness of divorce. Jesus responded by saying, \u201cBut from the beginning of the creation<\/strong>, God made them male and female\u201d (Mark 10:6, emp. added). According to Genesis 1 and 2, God made Adam and Eve on the sixth day of Creation (1:26-31; 2:7,21-25). Jesus referred to this very occasion and indicated that God made them \u201cfrom the beginning of the creation.\u201d Similar to the association of Abel\u2019s day with \u201cthe foundation of the world,\u201d the forming of Adam and Eve on day six of the Creation can be considered \u201cfrom the beginning of the creation.\u201d<\/p>\n

[NOTE: Jesus is not <\/strong>suggesting that Adam and Eve were created at the beginning of day one of the creation week<\/strong>. The word \u201ccreation\u201d (ktiseos<\/em>) in Mark 10:6 is not used in the specific sense of the week <\/strong>of creation. (If that were the case, then Jesus would have said that the original couple were made \u201cat the end of the creation\u201d week.) Respected Greek lexicographers Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich noted that Jesus is referring to \u201cthe sum total of everything created;\u201d the \u201cworld\u201d (2000, p. 573). In other words, Adam and Eve were so far removed from the first century A.D. and the time that Jesus made this statement, that one could truly say that the first human beings were made \u201cfrom the beginning of the creation\/world\/universe\u201d (cf. 2 Peter 3:4).]<\/p>\n

If the 14-billion-year timeline of evolution were true, Jesus\u2019 statement in Mark 10:6 would be erroneous; Adam and Eve would have been nowhere close to the beginning of the Universe, but would have arrived \u201cat the end\u201d\u201413.996 billion years after <\/strong>it began. Simply put, the theory of evolution and Jesus\u2019 statement in Mark 10:6 cannot both be true.<\/p>\n

In the epistle to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul also alluded to how long man has been on the Earth. He wrote: \u201cFor since the creation of the world<\/strong> His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead\u2026\u201d (Romans 1:20, emp. added). Who<\/strong> on Earth can recognize the eternal power and divine nature of God? Man. [NOTE: Although some might suggest that angels can understand God\u2019s invisible attributes, the context of Romans 1:18-32 clearly refers to humans, not angels.] How long has man been aware of God and His invisible attributes? \u201cSince the creation of the world.\u201d How, then, could man logically have been \u201cperceiving\u201d or \u201cunderstanding\u201d God \u201csince<\/strong> the creation of the world,\u201d if he is separated from the creation of \u201cthe heavens and the earth, the sea,\u201d and so many of the animals (like trilobites, dinosaurs, and \u201cearly mammals\u201d) by millions or billions of years? Such a scenario completely contradicts Scripture. Yet, as David Riegle once observed, people (even \u201cChristians\u201d) will \u201caccept long, complicated, imaginative theories and reject the truth given to Moses by the Creator Himself\u201d (1962, p. 24).<\/p>\n

The simple fact is, one cannot logically believe in both evolution and the Bible. A choice must be made between the two. One can choose the ever-changing, man-made, unscientific theory of evolution (cf. Miller, 2013), or he can decide to believe the \u201cthe word of the Lord\u201d that neither withers nor falls away, but \u201cendures forever\u201d (1 Peter 1:24-25).<\/p>\n

God\u2019s Chronology of Creation vs. Evolutionary Theory<\/h2>\n

In addition to the theory of evolution contradicting the timeline of Creation, it further contradicts the precise chronology of Creation as revealed in Genesis 1. The omnipotent Creator could have created everything at the same moment. He could have created everything in the precise order that evolutionists theorize the Universe developed\u2014over 14 billion years of time. There are an infinite number of ways that God could have<\/strong> brought everything into existence. However, there is only one way<\/strong> that God\u2019s authoritative Word said He brought the Universe into existence, and that one way contradicts evolutionary theory. Consider some of the discrepancies between the chronology of evolution and Genesis 1.<\/p>\n

Which Came First\u2014the Earth or Sun?<\/h3>\n

Evolution alleges that the Sun and other heavenly bodies evolved millions of years before the Earth. However, according to Genesis 1, God created the water-covered Earth on day one (Genesis 1:1-5), while He brought the Sun, Moon, and stars into existence on day four (Genesis 1:14-19). So which is it? Was the Earth created three days before the Sun, or did it evolve millions of years after the Sun? One cannot logically embrace both accounts.<\/p>\n

[NOTE: Some Christians contend that God must have created the Sun, Moon, and stars in Genesis 1:1 and then \u201cset\u201d them (Genesis 1:16; Hebrew nathan<\/em>) in their precise locations in the heavens on the fourth day of Creation (see Thurman, 2006, p. 3). However, it was on day four of Creation that God not only \u201cset\u201d the heavenly bodies in place, but He literally \u201cmade\u201d (Hebrew asah<\/em>) them (1:16). Similar to how God initially made the land and seas void of animal life (which later was created on days five and six of Creation), the \u201cheavens\u201d were made \u201cin the beginning,\u201d but the hosts of heaven (which now inhabit them) were created \u201cin the firmament of the heavens\u201d on day four. What\u2019s more, similar to how God spoke light into existence on day one of Creation, saying, \u201cLet there be light<\/strong>\u201d (1:3), on the fourth day God declared, \u201cLet there be lights<\/strong> in the firmament of the heavens\u2026and it was so\u201d (1:14-15). As Gary Workman noted:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet there be lights\u201d (v. 14) is identical in grammatical construction with other statements of \u201clet there be\u2026\u201d in the chapter. Therefore the command can only mean that God spoke the luminaries into existence on the fourth day just as he had created the initial light on day one and the firmament on day two\u201d (1989, p. 3).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Keep in mind that \u201cthe Father of lights\u201d (James 1:17), Who is<\/strong> \u201clight\u201d (1 John 1:5), could create light easily without first having to create the Sun, Moon, and stars. Just as God could produce a fruit-bearing tree on day three without a seed, He could produce light supernaturally on day one without the \u201cusual\u201d light bearers, which subsequently were created on day four (see Miller, 2014 for more information on this subject).]<\/p>\n

Early Earth\u2014Dry or Water-Covered?<\/h3>\n

Evolution alleges that billions of years following the Big Bang, Earth evolved out of a massive cloud of dust that was billions of miles wide. What\u2019s more, there was no water on the surface of the early Earth, as bodies of water did not form (allegedly) for millions of years.<\/p>\n

Does this scenario sound anything like the Creation account? Certainly not. God spoke a water<\/strong>-covered Earth into existence on the first day of Creation (Genesis 1:1-5). On day two He divided the waters (1:6-8). It was not until the third day that God made the dry land to appear (1:9-13). Once again, God\u2019s chronology of Creation and evolutionary theory stand at odds with one another.<\/p>\n

Fruit-Bearing Trees\u2014Before or After Fish and Fleas?<\/h3>\n

Consider another frequently disregarded discrepancy between evolutionary theory and the Bible. Allegedly, \u201c[p]lants first colonised land in the Ordovician period, around 465 million years ago\u201d (O\u2019Donoghue, 2007, 196[2631]:38). \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until the evolution of trees 80 million years later<\/strong> that vegetation could spread around the globe\u201d (p. 40, emp. added). What\u2019s more, trees with roots, seeds, and leaves supposedly evolved nearly 100 million years<\/strong> after<\/strong> the first land plants (p. 40). There were fish in the seas (see Evolution<\/em>\u2026, 1994, p. 30) and \u201ctiny creatures such as insects\u201d on land (O\u2019Donoghue, p. 38), but according to evolution, seed-producing, fruit-bearing trees bloomed millions of years later.<\/p>\n

According to Scripture, the omnipotent God Who created everything with \u201cthe breath of His mouth\u201d (Psalm 33:6), said: \u201cLet the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth\u201d (Genesis 1:11). The Bible then reveals, \u201cand it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day\u201d (Genesis 1:11-13).<\/p>\n

It is really very simple. God made grass, herb, and tree, seed, spore, and fruit on the same day of Creation. There were no epoch-long, time-laden processes that turned plants into shrubs and shrubs into trees over many millions of years. God said<\/strong> He did it in one day, \u201cand it was so.\u201d Furthermore, He did it prior<\/strong> to His creation of any animal life. Although evolution says that fish and insects were around before fruit bearing trees, the Bible teaches otherwise (Genesis 1:20-25).<\/p>\n

In truth, the chronology of Creation as revealed in Genesis 1 completely contradicts evolutionary theory. A true Bible believer cannot reasonably hold to a theory that claims certain animals were around millions of years before<\/strong> trees, or that the early Earth had no water on its surface. The sooner evolutionary-sympathizing Christians acknowledge the clear contradictions<\/strong> between evolution and God\u2019s Creation account, the better. If evolutionary theory is true, the Bible is wrong. If the Bible is true, evolutionary theory is a lie. \u201cHow long will you falter between two opinions?\u201d (1 Kings 18:21).<\/p>\n

The Day-Age Theory<\/h2>\n

Christians who embrace the long ages of evolutionary geology must find some way to fit billions of years into the biblical record. One of the most popular theories concocted to add eons of time to the age of the Earth is known as the Day-Age Theory. This theory suggests that the days of Genesis 1 were not literal, 24-hour days, but lengthy periods of time (millions or billions of years). Is such a theory to be welcomed with open arms, or is there good reason to reject it? In truth, the available evidence reveals several reasons why we can know that the days mentioned in Genesis 1 were the same kind of days we experience in the present age, and were not eons of time.<\/p>\n

Interpreting the Word \u201cDay\u201d is Not Rocket Science<\/h3>\n

The singular and plural forms of the Hebrew word for day (yom<\/em> and yamim<\/em>) appear in the Old Testament over 2,300 times, making it the fifth most common noun in the Old Testament (Saebo, 1990, 6:13-14). The term is used in three basic ways. The first two ways are defined and limited: \u201cDay\u201d (yom<\/em>) can refer to a 24-hour period (e.g., Genesis 50:3), and it can refer to the part of the 24-hour period that is \u201clight\u201d (in contrast to the darkness\/night; Genesis 1:3-5). Day is also used in an extended way to refer to longer, less-defined periods of time in the past, present, or future (e.g., \u201cthe day of the Lord,\u201d Zechariah 14:1).<\/p>\n

Even today, we use the term \u201cday\u201d in different ways, but rarely<\/strong> do people have a difficult time understanding each other\u2019s use of the term, since the context and the way in which the word is used virtually always defines the word rather easily. Think about it: How often do you have to interrupt and question someone because you misunderstand how they are using the word \u201cday\u201d? Such questions are seldom, if ever, asked. Consider the following paragraph:<\/p>\n

In Abraham\u2019s day<\/strong>, God made a covenant with the righteous patriarch and his descendants, saying, \u201cEvery male child among you shall be circumcised\u2026. He who is eight days<\/strong> old among you shall be circumcised\u201d (Genesis 17:10,12). As long as it was day<\/strong> eight, it may not have mattered if Abraham and his descendants circumcised their young males during the day<\/strong> or night. In Moses\u2019 day<\/strong>, even if day<\/strong> eight fell on the seventh day<\/strong> (the Sabbath day<\/strong>), the Israelites were expected to circumcise their male children on this day<\/strong>, \u201cso that the law of Moses should not be broken\u201d (John 7:23).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How is the word \u201cday\u201d used in the above paragraph? It is used twice in reference to the two different general periods of time in which Abraham and Moses lived. It is used once to refer to the opposite of night. It is used six times to refer to literal, 24-hour days.<\/p>\n

Most Bible readers can easily and quickly understand how the inspired writers used yom<\/em> (day) throughout the Bible. Most people clearly comprehend if the word \u201cday\u201d is used in a defined manner (as a part of or an entire 24 hours) or in an undefined manner (e.g., \u201cin the day of the Lord\u201d). After the Flood, the Lord said, \u201cWhile the earth remains\u2026, winter and summer, day and night shall not cease\u201d (Genesis 8:22). \u201cDay\u201d is obviously used here in reference to a defined time period\u2014the part of a 24-hour period that is light (cf. Genesis 7:4; 29:7; Exodus 24:18). During the Flood, \u201cthe waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days\u201d (Genesis 7:24). Once again, \u201cdays\u201d (yamim<\/em>) is used in a defined sense, though instead of referring to the light period of the day(s), the emphasis is on the total 24-hour period(s)\u2014specifically, 150 24-hour periods. In Deuteronomy 31:17, the Lord foretold how the Israelites would break His covenant, and \u201cin that day\u201d many troubles would come upon them. The emphasis here is on a less defined period of time\u2014in the future, when the Israelites would begin worshiping the idols of the pagan nations around them.<\/p>\n

Days and Numbers<\/h3>\n

One of the easiest ways (though not the only way) to detect when the Bible is using the term \u201cday\u201d in a literal, 24-hour sense is if the term is modified by a number. Obviously, day eight<\/strong> (in the aforementioned sample paragraph) refers to the eighth literal day<\/strong> (not week, month, year, decade, etc.) of a child\u2019s life. Day seven<\/strong> refers to the seventh literal day of the week\u2014the Sabbath day. Who would mistake these \u201cdays\u201d for anything other than regular days? Interestingly, as Henry Morris once noted, \u201c[W]henever a limiting numeral or ordinal is attached to \u2018day\u2019 in the Old Testament (and there are over 200 such instances), the meaning is always that of a literal day<\/strong>\u201d (1974, p. 224, emp. added, parenthetical item in orig.). Indeed, just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days<\/strong> (and not 3,000 years), and just as the Israelites marched around Jericho once a day for six days<\/strong> (and not six long, vast periods of time), we can know that God created everything in \u201csix days\u201d (Exodus 20:11; 31:17), not six billion years. About each day of Creation, Moses wrote: \u201cSo the evening and the morning were the first day\u2026second day\u2026third day\u2026fourth day\u2026fifth day\u2026sixth day\u201d (Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31).<\/p>\n

Days with Evenings and Mornings<\/h3>\n

Another indicator throughout the literal, non-prophetic language of Scripture that yom<\/em> refers to a limited, defined time of 24 hours or less [i.e., whether it is used to refer to (a) daylight hours of a 24-hour period or (b) the 24-hour period itself], is if the words \u201cmorning\u201d and\/or \u201cevening\u201d are used to describe the particular day. The words \u201cmorning\u201d (boqer<\/em>) and \u201cevening\u201d (\u2018erev<\/em>) appear 348 times in the Old Testament. (Boqer<\/em> appears 214 times and \u2018erev<\/em>\u00a0134 times; Konkel, 1997, 1:711,716.) Again and again throughout the Old Testament these words are used in reference to specific, defined portions of regular 24-hour days.<\/p>\n