How old is the creation?

[thomas t]

Hi,

let me ask this question after two brothers have already presented thier views favoring a Young Earth Creation in the other thread. They said that God had sped up the aging process due to the fall. Gerald argued that, in my words, if this were to be true, nature would tell fairy tales about the ages of things and living creatures.

I agree with Gerald, as I don't see any biblical support for the hypothesis that God sped up the process instead of just limiting the age of humans after the fall, as the Bible says.

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” Gen 6:3

Young earth creationists, to my knowledge, usually argue that the six days mentioned in the first three chapters of Genesis are to be taken literally. A day, however, can be mesured differently according to where you are, as several brothers and sisters argued in the thread George has started recently ().
The Bible supports the latter view on daytime, I think, as for God a day can mean a thousand years (Psalm 90:4).

The other argument YECs use to support their views, to my knowledge, is to simply count back years in Jesus' genealogy. Some argue that all fossile record presenting anything different needed to be understood as fairy tale.

While I thoroughly agree that Adam was the first human in the biblical sense, let my explain why I think that the fossile record doesn't necessarily contradict scripture. Let's have a look on what actually a human in "our kind" could mean in the biblical sense:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Gen 1:26

I regard the phrase which begins with "so that..." as being an explanation of what "in our image" means. God spoke on the psycological level, I think. In my views, we are similar to God in that we are able to lead.

When science finds fossils of homo sapiens, this might be true, even if they didn't find the fossils of humans in the biblical sense. This is because a homo sapiens hasn't necessarily possessed the ability to lead, I think. The Bible might have placed him into the category of the animals God has made before. This is at least my interpretation of it.

Let me add one more idea. Following this interpretation the understanding of this one...

I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. Gen. 4:14b

... as to determine who the "whoever" is, would be a lot easier, in my opinion: the other types of homo sapiens running around at that age.

Have a good time,
Thomas

[~candice~]

Hey Thomas

 

I am not a YEC. Do you believe there was death before the fall?

[thomas t]

Good day Candice,

 

some Christians think there was no death before the fall. I wouldn't sign this, although I won't propose the reverse, either. In my opinion, Gensis is not clear about this.

 

I'm just browsing my bibleserver to see what other scripture says.

We have..

 

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 1. Cor 15:21

 

However, the formulation "death came", in my opinion, doesn't rule out that death existed before, it only came at that moment. Maybe, it is meant here that death came to man at this occasion.

 

There are many Christians who interpret death as mentioned in Gen. 2:17 as spiritual death. This is certainly true, I think, but could this interpretation also apply to the verse mentioned above? Maybe. I'm not so sure about it.

 

 

Thomas

[other one]

I beleive there have been about 6,000 years since Adam and Eve, but we don't really know what might have been here before.

[MarkNigro]

Just want to point out a verse from the Holy Bible. God spoke this once and twice wrote it in stone with His own finger.

 

Exodus 20:11

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

 

This is saying that from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:1 took 6 days. Since the Jews who heard and read this knew that a day is 24 hours, it means 144 hours.

 

Now look in Genesis 1 at what was created during that 6 days. It is more than just Adam and Eve.

[Guest]

I believe there have been about 6,000 years since Adam and Eve, but we don't really know what might have been here before.

 

 

~

 

Six Days To Start

 

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Genesis 2:1-3

 

One Instance To Re-Due

 

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. Revelation 20:11

 

Is Jesus Great

 

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: Ephesians 3:9

 

Or What

 

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

[Guest]

There are many Christians who interpret death as mentioned in Gen. 2:17 as spiritual death. This is certainly true, I think, but could this interpretation also apply to the verse mentioned above? Maybe. I'm not so sure about it.

 

 

~

 

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:26

[thomas t]

Hey Thomas

 

I am not a YEC. Do you believe there was death before the fall?

Candice,

let me add my current consirderation of the verse, I presented above in my first answer. We read the same thing in Romans 5:12 ... but this time, in my interpretation, Paul says that through sin death came into the entire world not only to man.

Some could argue that Paul in Romans spoke on the spiritual level only, just as Genesis did in 2:17.

But I dislike this interpretation a bit, because resurrection, on the other side, is to be understood in a corporal level, too, I think.

In my opinion, neither the passage in 1.Corinthians (see above) nor Romans rule out that death has entered the world or say parts of it before.

Maybe God simply pushed him back when he made the garden, because he wanted things to be as beautiful as they ever could. However, we don't read about it.

But when man fell, death entered the world - perhaps again. However, (this time) as an enemy, as Joe pointed out.

Thomas

[MarkNigro]

What's interesting to me is that the Genesis creation account, which was written by Jews and for Jews, is understood by most modern Jews to not be indicative of young-earth creationism.

But not all Jews.

 

Christians have had the text fro 2000 years also.

 

Obviously there is a difference of opinion among Jews.

Obviously there is a difference of opinion among Christians.

 

I have studied the Holy Bible extensively. 

 

It clearly says everything created in 6 days about 6,000 years ago.

[Leonard]

I TEND to be a young earth creationist, and I TEND to believe that micro-evolution has occured at least since the Flood.

Paul tells us the whole universe is 'wearing out.' Even light velocity has slowed something like 8% (I think it is) in the last 200 years!

Rates of radioactive decay may not have been static throughout the ages either......

Too many questions for me to abandon a very literalist view of Genesis!