Quote from GoFish:
Then you are completely and utterly contrary to your faith. The Bible is very clear that the Earth and the rest of the universe are exactly the same age: 6000 years old.
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My reply:
I just told you that there are two problems with getting the age of the universe from the bible. I’ll start with the first problem once more. Don’t you recall that the sun, moon, and stars as we know it did not give light to the earth until day 4. God created the heavens and the earth, and then after that, He said let there be light. He referred to the light and darkness that He called into existence as day and night, well before the sun and moon ever had been made to shine upon the earth from its surrounding heavens. What gave light and how long each day and night were before the 4th day of creation is not identified. Also, keep in mind that the heavens and the earth were created before God even said, “Let there be light.” There would have been no day before light came into existence. We know for a fact that the earth was dark and void when it was first created, because God said it was so. So light did not exist the same time the earth was created. How can anybody know how long the earth existed in that dark state? It was only after God called light into existence that the day and night began to be a dividing line between each of God’s interventions in His creation. How, can you assume, given the word of God in Genesis, that the earth was only 5 - 24 hr. days old before Adam was formed from its dust. How can anybody derive from the word of God the age of the universe, unless they choose to ignore exactly what the scripture says? I look at Genesis and get a lot of information, but I do not get the age of the earth or of the universe. I tend to believe that the earth and the universe are the same age, because God said in the beginning He created the heavens and the earth. But how old they are, I have no idea by reading the bible. God clearly identified the progressive stages of His creation until He got to man. Only on the 4th day, can we feel reasonable that 24 hr. days might have begun. Much of these stages are captured in man’s theory of evolution, as if Charles Darwin was the first to figure this progression out. God gave us the order of His creation in Genesis, long before Charles Darwin was ever born. I can see from Genesis and on throughout the bible, that mankind is the most precious thing to God out of all His creation. I see how man was created from the dust of the earth, and I see the reason that we all must die and return again to dust. God gives us a record in His word of the individual phases of how the world and life came into existence, and the order that things were created, but He gives us no record of the actual age of the earth or of its surrounding universe. I believe too often people read the bible with preconceived ideas, and they never really pay close attention to what it actually says.
I don’t believe God gave us the revelation in Genesis of His creation as a means of determining the age of the universe. It was only intended to let us know that He created it and the order that all was created. However, the 2nd reason I gave you is further evidence that we can’t use the bible as a source of determining the earth’s age. There is a clear problem in trying to calculate the age of the earth by going back through each generation of man from Adam, and calculating an approximate age of the earth by the record of how long each generation lived. I strongly believe that Adam’s age given would not have been a record of how long he lived from the day that he was first created, because there would have been no reason to keep up with his age until the countdown till death became an issue for him. I strongly believe Adam’s age is a record of how long he lived after he first sinned, because that is the first time the remaining days of his life would have had any reason to be numbered. Adam would not have died had he not sinned. Who cares how old you are if you are going to live forever? Look at the following first mention of age given to Adam.
Ge 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
Now, if you start counting the age of Adam from the day that He was created and not from the day that he first sinned, then you are going to have to make Adam’s fall and awfully quick thing. He wouldn’t have much more been in the world until he sinned and was cursed to die if that was the case. Adam walked with God and talked with Him on a daily basis. God brought all the animals that He created to Adam to see what he would name them. At some point in time, God took one of Adam’s ribs and created a woman as a companion for Adam, because He said that it was not good for man to be alone. To say that Adam lived only one hundred and thirty years from the day he was first created, until the day that Eve was made, and until the day they sinned and were cast out of the garden, and finally until the day that Eve had her first child by Adam, is making everything happen pretty doggone fast. If that was the case, Eve got in an awful rush to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree and get things topsy-turvy for poor ole Adam and herself. I strongly believe that the age given to Adam at the time his first son was born would have been the years he had lived from the day that he and Eve had first sinned, and not from the day that he was created. Only after his sin, would his remaining days have any reason to be numbered. It wouldn’t surprise me if Adam and Eve lived a million years or longer before Satan set things in motion to make them doubt God’s word. If Adam’s age is from the day he sinned, and not from the day that he was created, and if the earth was created before light was in existence and it was not until later that the sun, moon and stars were in its heavens, then how can we determine that the earth was only created 5 – 24 hr. days longer than the given age of Adam?
You might consider this verse also:
2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
If the age of the universe is all that you have as proof that evolution is true, and that God doesn’t exist, then you have nothing. I’m getting my information directly from the bible. Where are you getting yours?
My friend, just because somebody tells you something that the bible says is so, doesn’t make it so. The pope in the day of Columbus said the earth was flat. The bible does not say that. I have learned a long time ago not to believe everything I hear. I put my trust in the bible as the final authority on what God has to say about a matter, and I thank God that I can read and study it for myself, and not have to depend on what others tell me it says. I suggest you read it for yourself sometime. You might be surprised what you will discover.