Is Earth Young?

Absolutely NOT!

The earth is OLD, about 6,000 years old, according to the Biblical records.

Creationists often call the earth young. What does this mean? Young relative to what? Young relative to evolutionists’ age for the earth of 4.6 billion years? But why use evolutionists’ speculation for the reference point?

Nothing is older than the earth. It’s the oldest thing there is—older by three days than the sun, moon, and stars; five days older than Adam and Eve.

Since everything is younger than the earth, the earth should be called old. If the earth is young, then nothing is old. To say the earth is young removes all meaning from the word old.

6K Creationist

To say the earth is young presumes the general validity of the evolutionary framework of long ages of time. It’s only the unrelenting propaganda of “billions of years” that causes people to think the enormous time span of six millennia is young and that old has to mean billions of years.

I don’t call myself a young-earth creationist. Instead I identify myself as a Biblical creationist who believes the earth is 6,000 years old based on Biblical testimony. I’m a 6K Creationist, not a young-earth creationist.

Old in the Bible

Calling the earth old is Biblical. But what time span does the Bible mean by old? Thousands or millions or billions of years? The Bible uses old to mean only hundreds or thousands of years old as can be demonstrated by the use of the term throughout Scripture.

Hebrew and Greek words are translated ancient or of old about 70 times. For example, genealogical records of the tribe of Judah are called ancient some 1500 years later (1 Chronicles 4:22). Joshua (24:2) referred to the time of Abraham 500 years earlier as ancient. Isaiah (63:11) called the time of Moses 750 years earlier of old. Amos (9:11) called David’s day 250 years earlier of old. Micah (7:20) called Abraham’s day 1400 years earlier of old. Nehemiah (12:46) called the days of David (500 years earlier) ancient.

In New Testament times, the days of Elijah and the prophets at most 900 years earlier were called of old (Mark 6:15; Luke 9:8,19). Peter identified Moses, Samuel, and successors as “holy prophets from ancient time” through whom God spoke at most 1500 years earlier (Acts 3:21-24). James referred to “ancient generations” reading Moses at most 1500 years earlier (Acts 15:21).

Thus for Biblical authors, ancient and of old meant hundreds or thousands of years, never millions or billions.

Moses and Peter used these same Hebrew and Greek words to call Noah’s world of old and ancient (Genesis 6:4; 2 Peter 2:5). Moses also called the mountains ancient (Deuteronomy 33:15). Job (20:4) called the creation of man of old. The Psalmist (102:25) called the creation of earth of old. Hebrews (11:2-4) identified “men of old” going all the way back to Adam’s son Abel, near the beginning.

Thus it’s reasonable to think the Biblical authors had the same time scale of only thousands of years in mind for the terms ancient and of old when they applied them to Noah’s Flood and Creation. Compared to human lifetimes, thousands of years is ancient.

“Millions of years” is nowhere in the Bible. That notion has been imposed on the Bible within the last two centuries by those who want to force-fit the Bible into scientism’s naturalistic worldview.

Thus it’s Biblical to see the earth as old or ancient, provided old means thousands, not billions, of years. Earth is actually very, very, very ancient. In fact, it’s 6,000 years old.

How Old Does Earth Look?

But someone may object, “Earth looks much older than 6,000 years.” But how could anyone know what a 6,000-year-old earth or a 4-billion-year-old earth looked like?

Five Generations

People estimate ages based on experience. But nobody has the experience needed to estimate earth’s age.

Children find it difficult to estimate ages because they have little experience. Adults can validly say someone looks in his 50s based on experience. No one has experience estimating earth ages. Everyone has only been on one earth for a brief time.

How old the earth looks depends on the worldview glasses you look through. One person may think it looks billions of years old. I think it looks like a flood-damaged globe that’s thousands of years old.

A 6,000-year-old earth blows Evolutionism out of the water. This is the real reason for the relentless attacks on the Genesis genealogies. People estimate ages based on experience. But nobody has the experience needed to estimate earth’s age.

Questions to Ponder

1. What term should be used to describe those who believe the earth is only about 6,000 years old? Is there a better choice than 6K Creationist?
2. What other terminology has crept into believers’ speech through infection from a godless, faithless framework?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Supplemental Material
Here is a series of six cogently-argued articles defending an age for the universe of about 6,000 years and countering the claim that the universe is 15 billion years old:
Age of the Earth 1 — Essentials
Age of the earth estimates are usually based on interpretations of physical evidence, not on direct observation. Interpretations are driven by worldviews. Dependable answers to age questions require eyewitness testimony. The only record of eyewitness testimony for the creation of the earth is Genesis which specifies heaven and earth were created about 6,000 years ago.
Age of the Earth 2 — Jesus’ View
How would Jesus answer the question, “How old is the earth?” Jesus would have interpreted the genealogical and chronological texts literally and historically, just as He did with other Scriptures, and just as His contemporaries and His apostles did. Therefore Jesus would have answered the question with “Have you not read Moses and the Prophets? It’s about 4,000 years old.” Jesus believed in an age of only thousands of years for the earth — not millions or billions. It is incumbent upon those who follow Jesus as Lord to accept His view as their view and to reject fanciful interpretations which violate the literal sense of Scripture.
Age of the Earth 3 — Genealogies
Scripture is filled with chronological information. Chronology anchors Scripture solidly in real-world history and underscores its authenticity. The Genesis chronogenealogies record an unbroken line of descent from Adam to Abraham and provide a solid foundation for constructing a reliable chronology. Grammar and context support this, and numerous other Scriptures confirm it. The Genesis chronogenealogies show that Adam to Abraham covered 2,000 years.
Age of the Earth 4 — History’s View
What have scholars through the ages taught about the age of the earth? Throughout history the great preponderance of scholarship regarding the Biblical records and the unanimous testimony of cultures worldwide is that the earth is only thousands of years old. This was also the historic teaching of the church until the ascendancy of the theory of evolution in the 19th century. The push in the last two centuries to increase the age of the earth was motivated, not by evidence, but by evolution’s requirement for long eons of time.
Age of the Earth 5 — Radiometric Dating
Is it conceivable that today’s scientists are dead wrong about the age of the earth? What are radiometric dating methods? The reliability of radiometric dates hinges on the validity of three questionable assumptions. If radiometric methods are wrong for rocks of known age, why trust them for rocks of unknown age?
Age of the Earth 6 — Scientific Dating Methods
Is there positive scientific evidence supporting the Biblical time-frame of thousands of years? Hundreds of different processes have been used to estimate the age of the earth. Scientific evidences from many fields dispute evolutionary timescales but cohere with Biblical chronology. The weight of the scientific evidence is that the earth is thousands, not billions, of years old.

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday October 29, 2014 A.D.

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)