Christian Study - The Age of the Earth

GENESIS and GEOLOGY THE AGE OF THE UNIVERSE

Regarding the age of the universe or the age of the earth, there are several theories I reject because they contradict scripture. One I reject is the "Gap Theory," which says there is a long gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. There is no scriptural support for it. Another I reject is the "Day-Age Theory," which says the days of Genesis 1-3 are long periods of time. If the days are really years, what are the years? Too, there is a botany problem for the sun and seasons would have been created millions of years after grass, etc. But I want us to look at the question of the age of the universe from a view indicated by scripture. It has been called Pro-chronic or ideal time.  Morris in THE GENESIS FLOOD, talks of it as the "appearance of Age" theory. Let us explain it.

APPEARANCE OF AGE THEORY

To get us thinking about it, one might ask the age-old question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Of course the answer is: the chicken! Genesis 1:20 says he made birds, and those old enough to fly. They were old enough also to obey the command "multiply" (Gen. 1:22). Not only that, God made grass and herbs, not merely seeds (Gen. 1:11). The herbs were old enough, however, to yield seed. Further, God did not make seeds for trees; he made trees. Actually, however, they were "fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof..." (Gen. 1:11). So Genesis says these things were full grown. Let's go further. Some ask these questions: (1) Did Adam have a navel? (2) Did the trees in Eden have tree-rings? After reflecting on it, most might suppose that Adam would be created to be as every other human, and that his appearance would reflect that of any other man. The same would be true of the trees. If one would have been cut down it probably would have had the appearance of age. In fact, as Ramm explained (though he doesn't accept the view), everything made by God would have two ages. There is that age which is before time; pro-chronic. Then that age which consumes time is present: dia-chronic. It is more clear perhaps to think in terms of real age and appearance of age. Adam after he was created had a real age of perhaps one minute. But he had also an apparent age of let's say 30 or 40 years. Adam surely had marks of age. He is called a "man" (Gen. 1:27); 2:18). It is not reasonable to believe he was full grown with baby teeth. He would have had appearance of age, even though he was only one minute old regarding real time, and he may have even had wisdom teeth. Now the question is, what about the universe and particularly the earth? God made animals full grown. He made grass full grown and able to bear seed. He made full grown trees, old enough to have fruit with seeds in it. He made a full grown man and woman. What about the universe and the earth? Did God make a baby earth, a middle-age earth, or a full grown earth. Sometimes someone will ask how, if the universe is only a few thousand years old, can we see light from distant galaxies millions of light years away from us? If light from that galaxy takes millions of years to reach us, how can the universe be only a few thousand years old? The answer is, God created the universe with apparent age, enough so that the light from those galaxies was created as having already reached us. Again we ask the question, did God create a baby universe, a middle-age universe, or a full grown universe? Did he create a universe with light having already expanded to a great extent? I believe God created the universe and the world with apparent age. In fact, it would be unrealistic to suppose otherwise. As Morris said: If God actually created anything at all, even the simplest atoms, those atoms or other creations would necessarily have an appearance of some age. Someone may ask what the apparent age of the earth and the universe is. Did God, six or eight thousand years ago, create a 4.5 billion year old universe? The answer is, I don't know the apparent age of the universe, and the current dating techniques are so flawed that man may not perfect them before Christ returns. But one thing seems reasonable, based on the Genesis account: God made things with the appearance of age reflected on them. Now let us test the idea.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE SYSTEM

One may argue that this notion lacks empirical evidence. Yet, we are not convinced that it does lack evidence, and God may have left signs of recency in the world and on the universe. But Whitcomb (THE EARL YEAR TH, p. 36) argues that if you must have empirical evidence, you have to reject, without investigation, all the miracles of the Bible. You would have to have empirical evidence that Jesus was born of a virgin and that Lazarus was really dead. In fact, we would have to duplicate each miracle in each generation, if we had to walk by empirical evidence. But we are thankful that we walk by faith and not by sight (l Cor. 5:7). And we might notice, this faith is not a blind faith. It is the type faith we operate on every day. It is faith based on evidence and testimony. We believe there is a Peking China, though we have never been there to analyze it. A second objection is this: the doctrine of apparent age makes God a deceiver of man. If the doctrine is true, it makes out that God fools us and deludes us. Yet think for a moment about Jesus turning the water into wine (John 2:1-11). The miracle produced wine without grapes, fermentation, etc. As any miracle, it suspended natural laws. But revelation reveals that. So, there is no deception. But this objection argues that since it was wine, it deceived those who thought it came by natural processes. Yet those who heard of the inspired account learned better. So there was no deception. From that we only need to remember that creation was a large miracle, a miracle by God as it is revealed in the Bible. Things in Genesis, we learn from the Bible, were created with an apparent age. The real answer to the argument that God deceives is to flatly state "I'M NOT DECEIVED!" The fact is, the Bible reveals that God made things with the appearance of age fixed on them. This is amply indicated by the Bible.

Why gravel before geology? Why compromise? The universe came into existence suddenly, by the word of God, not long ago, but evidently possessing, as did Adam, an apparent age.

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