Age of the Earth

1. Age of the Earth Patrick Zukeran Pacific Apologetics Center Bible Institute of Hawaii

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5. Age of the Earth Patrick Zukeran Pacific Apologetics Center Bible Institute of Hawaii

6. Young earth creationism

7. Young Earth CreationDefinition • Definition: Young-earth creationism teaches that God supernaturally created the universe and life on earth in six literal 24 hour days nearly 6,000–12,000 years ago.

8. Young Earth CreationDefinition • Based on a straightforward literal reading of the Genesis creation account. • The days in Genesis 1-2 are literal 24 hour days. • God created the universe with the appearance of age. • Pain, suffering and death are the results of the Fall in Genesis 3. • The surface of the earth was radically rearranged by Noah’s Flood.

9. Young Earth CreationGenesis Creation Account • YEC interprets Gen. 1-3 literally. • Gen. 1-3 is a historical account • Genesis 1-11 has the same characteristics of a historical narrative as in Gen. 12-50, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, etc….. • Jesus and the Apostles treat Genesis 1-11 as historical.

10. Jesus and Genesis • Adam and Eve (Mt. 19:4-5) • Cain and Abel (Lk. 11:51) • Noah and the Ark (Mt. 24:39) • Sodom and Gomorrah (Mt. 10:15) • Mosaic Authorship of Pentateuch (Lk. 24:44)

11. Apostles and Genesis • Adam (1 Cor. 15:22, 1 Tim. 2:13) • Eve (2 Cor. 11:3, 1 Tim. 2:13) • The Serpent (2 Cor. 11:3) • The Fall (2 Cor. 11:3) • Enoch (Jude 14) • Cain and Abel (Heb. 11:4) • Noah and the Flood (2 Peter 2:5)

12. Young Earth CreationGenesis Creation Account • YEC interprets Gen. 1-3 literally.. • Gen. 1-3 is a historical account • “Day” (yom) in the context of Gen. 1-3 refers to a literal 24 hour day. • When used with a number (one day, second day, etc…) it signifies a regular day. • The phrase “evening and morning” signifies a literal day. • 1:14 is used in relation to the movement of the heavenly bodies.

13. Young Earth CreationGenesis Creation Account • YEC interprets Gen. 1-3 literally.. • Gen. 1-3 is a historical account • “Day” (yom) in the context of Gen. 1-3 refers to a literal 24 hour day. • God created things with apparent age. • Adam and Eve were created fully mature • Plants and animals were created fully mature • Jesus miracles (water to wine) confirm instant maturity.

14. Young Earth CreationGenesis Creation Account • YEC interprets Gen. 1-3 literally.. • Gen. 1-3 is a historical account • “Day” (yom) in the context of Gen. 1-3 refers to a literal 24 hour day. • God created things with apparent age. • Exodus 20:8-11 refer to a 7 day week. .

15. Exodus 20 • Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.… For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. • Exodus 20:8-11

16. Young Earth CreationGenesis Creation Account • YEC interprets Gen. 1-3 literally.. • Gen. 1-3 is a historical account • “Day” (yom) in the context of Gen. 1-3 refers to a literal 24 hour day. • God created things with apparent age. • Exodus 20:8-11 refer to a 7 day week. • Genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11.

17. Young Earth CreationGenesis Creation Account • YEC interprets Gen. 1-3 literally.. • Gen. 1-3 is a historical account • “Day” (yom) in the context of Gen. 1-3 refers to a literal 24 hour day. • God created things with apparent age. • Exodus 20”8-11 refer to a 7 day week. • Genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11. • Global flood was responsible for producing most (but not all) the geological rock layers and fossils.

18. Young Earth CreationDarwinian Evolutionary Theory • Reject Darwin’s theory as an explanation for the origin and diversity of life. • Macro-evolution (formation of new organs or body parts creating a new species) : NO • Micro-evolution (changes within a species): Yes

19. Young Earth CreationismCritique • Strengths • Most common reading of the text • Emphasizes literal reading of Genesis and God’s active hand in creation. • Explains the origins of pain, suffering and death entering creation. • Flood catastrophism explains some anomalies in the fossil and geological records.

20. Young Earth CreationismCritique • Weaknesses • When did Satan Fall? • 6th Day problem • Flood catastrophism does not explain all the evidence of an old earth • Scientific evidence does favor an old universe and earth • When does apparent age become deception?

21. YEC Websites

22. Theistic Evolution

23. Theistic EvolutionDefinition • “The belief that God used the process of evolution to create living things, including humans.” • Ted Davis, “Science the Bible and Theistic Evolution: Part 1,” Biologos Forum, biologos.org

24. Theistic EvolutionDefinition • The Bible is NOT a reliable source of scientific knowledge about the origin of the earth and the universe. • The Bible IS a reliable source of knowledge about God and spiritual things. • Scientific evidence is irrelevant to the Bible • The Genesis creation account is intended to refute pantheism and polytheism, not to tell us how God actually created the world. • The Bible tells us THAT God created, not HOW God created.

25. Theistic EvolutionGenesis Creation Account • Genesis 1-3 is interpreted as allegory or myth. • The Genesis creation account is a “pre-scientific” account. • The Genesis account was intended to refute the worldviews of pantheism and polytheism. • The intent was not to tell us how God created but that He did create and is ruler over creation.

26. Theistic EvolutionGenesis Creation Account • Adam and Eve • Genetic evidence shows that humans descended from a group of several thousand individuals who lived about 150,000 years ago. • Cain after killing Abel was afraid that others would kill him (Gen. 4:14). • Where did the other people come from?

27. Theistic EvolutionGenesis Creation Account • Adam and Eve • Genetic evidence shows that humans descended from a group of several thousand individuals who lived about 150,000 years ago. • Cain after killing Abel was afraid that others would kill him. • Option 1 - Adam and Eve were a historical pair living among many 10,000 years ago, chosen to represent the rest of humanity before God. • Option 2 - Genesis 2-4 is an allegory in which Adam and Eve symbolize the large group of ancestors who lived 150,000 years ago. 

28. Theistic EvolutionDarwinian Evolutionary Theory • Accepts Evolution (Darwinian or variations of the theory) as a valid explanation for the origin and diversity of life. • Macro-evolution: Yes • Micro-evolution: Yes

29. Theistic EvolutionCritique • Strengths • Evolution is widely accepted in scientific world - few conflicts with scientific community. • Has few problems with the scientific evidence of an old earth and universe. • Acknowledges God’s role in all of the universe through creating the natural laws. • We must be cautious not to read the text through modern lenses only but also through the lenses of the culture it was written in.

30. Theistic EvolutionCritique • Weaknesses • Reduces Genesis creation account to myth or allegory • Darwinian Evolution seems to go against God’s nature. • Is often scientifically indistinguishable from naturalism, and deism.

32. Old earth creation

33. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Definition • God supernaturally created the universe and life upon the earth but over a long period of time.

34. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Definition • Genesis 1-3 is a literal account of God’s creation. • God miraculously created the universe from nothing (ex nihilo). • God created life from non-life, and progressively intervened in history to supernaturally create new species of life. • After God created the “heavens and the earth,” He created life over six successive “days,” which in Hebrew may be literally interpreted as six distinct periods of time.

35. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Definition • God miraculously created Adam and Eve, humanity’s historical parents. • Earth’s geologic features formed over long ages through both gradual and catastrophic processes. • The age of the earth has no bearing on the creation of life and an old earth does not equate with Darwinian evolution.

36. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Definition • Different forms of Old Earth Creationism • Gap Theory or New Gap Theory • Day Age Theory • Intermittent Day Theory • Framework Hypothesis

37. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Genesis Creation Account • Genesis 1:1 Creation out of nothing (Bara)

38. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Genesis Creation Account • “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep…” • Genesis 1:2 • “…without form and void…” (tohuwabohu) • TohuWabohu can indicate judgment (Jer. 4:23, 19:7) • Is there a “Gap”? ?? Between verse 1 & 2? • Gen 1:3 “Let there be….” (Asah)

39. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Genesis Creation Account • Genesis 1:1 - Creation out of nothing (Bara) • 1:2 - “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep…” • Gen 1:3 - “Let there be….” (Asah)

40. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Genesis Creation Account • “Days” in Gen. 1-3 used in several different ways. • “Day” (yom) can refer to an extended period of time. • Archer and Geisler also point out that no definite article (“the”) appears with yômon days one through five in Genesis one. • Archer says the absence of “the” implies a more vague meaning than 24 hours—an indefinite but literal sense of time or age.

41. Old Earth Creation (Progressive) “Days” used in several different ways • Genesis 2:4 “…in the day that God created the heavens and the earth.” • Psalm 90:4 “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by …(Moses) • Hosea 6:2 “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day.” • Isaiah 4:2, Zech. 14:6-8

42. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Genesis Creation Account • The problem of the “6th day” • Land animals created • Garden of Eden created • Adam created • Adam tends Garden of Eden • Adam studies and names the animals • Adam feels lonely • Adam’s response to seeing Eve “at last!” (Happa’am)

43. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Genesis Creation Account • The 7th day • 7th day does not state, “evening and morning” • Hebrews 4:1-11

44. Hebrews 4:1-11 • Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it…. “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.”… Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

45. Old Earth Creation (Progressive)Genesis Creation Account • God’s eternal nature is compared to the age of the earth • Psalm 90 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” • Psalm 93:2-3 “Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.” • Prov. 8, Eccl. 1:4, 7, 10, Micah 6:2

46. OEC and Darwin • Old Earth creationists believe that Darwinian evolution is unbiblical, biologically untenable, and not supported by the fossil record. • Reject the Darwinian concept of common descent • Macro-evolution: No • Micro-evolution: Yes

47. Critique of Old Earth Creationism • Strengths • Takes the Genesis account literally • Little problem with the scientific data of an old universe and earth • Recognizes the Big Bang as beginning of the universe • Accepts data for old universe

48. Critique of Old Earth Creationism • Weaknesses • Implies pain, suffering, and death before the fall. • Some difficulty explaining the sequence of events in Genesis 1-2 with a large extent of time. • There are gaps in the genealogical record but 100,000 years?

49. OEC Organization

50. Guidelines