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How the Bible Impacts Real Earth’s Age

How old is the Earth according to the Bible? I bet a few of us have ever gone thoroughly into the question. Let me sort out some bare facts for you. We have always been taught the concept of the young Earth as an integral part of the ministry by the Institute for Creation Research. The age of Earth according to the Bible has never been set as the Bible itself does not provide us with the precise date, does it? As a result, most of Bible scholars who ever tried to get to the root of this issue ended up with slightly different results. What if all the necessary information is just in front of us, but we are blind to read it right?

Several honest attempts have been made to determine more or less exact dates based on a deep commitment to the inerrancy of God’s Word. Thus, a span of just a few years has been calculated, dated close to 6000 years since Creation. Somewhere 15000 years or so are the largest figures to be estimated by a trustworthy scholar even though they sound way too long ago.

Such genealogical data as given in Genesis, I & II Chronicles, the Gospels, as well as the records from Judges, I & II Kings, Daniel, Acts, and other not least valuable sources are crucial to finding out how old is the Earth in the Bible. Any information about the time of David will also come in handy as many Biblical events refer to the reigns of individual kings.

The creation of Adam initiates the genealogies, but the question of time before Adam remains. As a matter of fact, the six days of Creation Week must be of the same length as our days. The only hitch is that the Hebrew word Yom can be translated in different ways apart from a “day”, but also as an indefinite period of time, or even billions of years.  

To find out the real meaning of Yom we need to refer to the context. It turns out to be that the first time Yom is used, it is defined as a solar day, and then a total day/night cycle.

What is more, Yom is modified by “evening and morning and an ordinal number (first, second, etc.), which is equivalent to a literal day. According to the fourth out of the Ten Commandments regarding the Sabbath rest, the six days of creation are equal to the six days of our work week. Keep in mind that the use of a numeral to modify “days,” in this case “6”, is again reserved for a literal day in Hebrew, as is the use of the plural word “days.”

Still, you might be repeating your question: “So how old does the Bible say the Earth is?” Indeed no one knows for sure as Scripture places Creation much longer ago than a few thousand years. However, some express other opinions convinced by radioisotope dating or the molecular clock of mutation rates, or some other beliefs not from Scripture.

If you are really willing to get a decent answer on how old is the Earth according to the Bible, firstly, you should stop twisting Scripture to fit the scientific evolutionary assumptions about the past. Secondly, stop calling yourself “Bible-believing” Christians, and start accepting yourself as “World-believing” Christians. You have to acknowledge that according to the Bible, the true mystery about the Earth’s age may never be revealed. There are so many questions and so few answers about our vast and awesome world… 

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