16. Age of the Earth—Luke’s Testimony

(1 Minute Read)

Luke’s genealogy of Jesus supports the time frame indicated by Genesis.

Dr. Luke was the author of two New Testament books, the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. As a world-class historian he investigated everything carefully from the beginning and recorded his findings so that his readers could know the exact truth about Jesus (Luke 1:1-4).

This included grounding Jesus in humanity and history by giving His full genealogy in Luke 3:23-38.

This genealogy traces the ancestors of Jesus, father by father, all the way back through King David, Abraham, and Noah to Adam. Luke recorded 55 generations for the 2,000 years from Jesus back to Abraham. This averages about 35 years per generation, a completely reasonable value.

Luke listed 20 generations preceding Abraham. Is it reasonable to stretch those 20 generations over evolutionism’s 3 million years?

Is it reasonable to think Luke suddenly switched from accurate historical detail in his genealogy of Christ following Abraham to an absurdly rough summary before Abraham — with no indication he switched? Did Luke switch from listing every generation to only listing one for every hundred thousand generations?

Such a hypothesis is ludicrous and totally without foundation in the text. Luke confirms the overall time span indicated by the Genesis chronogenealogies.

Click the graphic below to enlarge and view the genealogies of Jesus recorded by Luke and Matthew. The indications of Mary’s & Joseph’s lines on the chart are mistakenly switched. Look at the upper line giving Luke’s genealogy of Jesus and notice that it ends with Mary. (The chart is from Activation Church; mouse over the chart to see the credit.)

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the 16th in a series of blog posts on the Age of the Earth. I began with the Biblical testimony that the earth is 6,000 years old, because the evidence from nature should be interpreted and understood in the light of clear Biblical truth. The prequels considered the issue’s importance and what Jesus thought. Current posts are analyzing the Genesis genealogies. Future articles will survey the historic teaching of the church and discuss scientific evidence on the age of the earth, explaining fallacies of radiometric dating methods and giving examples of scientific methods which yield short ages.

Read the prequels:
1. How Old Is the Earth?
2. Why Is the Age of the Earth Important?
3. Earth: Young or Old?
4. Age of the Earth—Jesus’ View
5. Age of the Earth—Jesus Interpreted OT Literally
6. Age of the Earth—What Did Jesus Say?
7. Age of the Earth—What Did Jesus’ Contemporaries Think?
8. Age of the Earth—Genealogies
9. Age of the Earth—What Does Begat Mean?
10. Age of the Earth—Interlocking Genealogies
11. Age of the Earth—Any Gaps in Genealogies?
12. Age of the Earth—No Gaps in Genealogies
13. Age of the Earth—Any Missing Generations?
14. Age of the Earth—Scriptural Confirmation (Adam to Noah)
15. Age of the Earth—Scriptural Confirmation (Noah to Abraham)

Read the sequel:
17. Age of the Earth—Luke & Cainan Puzzle

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Monday August 4, 2008 A.D.

And Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of a son. Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one shall give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed.” Then Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 5:28-32 NASB)