How old is the earth biblically

[Abdull]

I am intrested in what the bible say about the age of our planet and humanity. your help would be most appreciated my brothers

[Jayne]

Well, the Bible doesn't say, "Hello there, the earth is about x amount of years old."  If it did, the each year afterward, it would be wrong. 

It would be like asking a child, "how old are you".  The child says "I'm four years old!".  The next time  you see him he is graduating from high school.  Someone asks you, "how old is that young man."  You say, "Well, he told me he was four.  

The Bible doesn't give the earth an age, but it does give clues with the genealogies - although some do not count those as correct or sufficient.

I generally do.  I believe in a young earth based on the genealogies of the Bible.  And just for the sake of argument, if the earth WERE millions and billions of years old, the Great Flood would have wiped out any evidence of that.  I don't believe in the millions and billions of  years.

You are going to get varied answers here. 

Adding the ages of the people in the Bible via the genealogies- it's about 2,000 or so years from Adam to Abraham.  Abraham to Jesus - about, not exact, but about 2,000 years.  And the same - about 2,000 or so year from Jesus to present day.  This is according to genealogical record of the Bible and extra-biblical historical records.

So, for those of us who believe in a literal young earth - about 6,000 or so years.  Give or take a few years.

 

 

[TheBlade]

Yeah like Jayne said.. not written. I think mans measurements are off but.. I've shared this before my dad (not saved at the time) loved to take this rock pig skull that they said was 6million years old to the SDA that lived behind us. Since they believe the earth is 6000 years old. I think man is 6000 but the world could be older or the same.. never bothered me.  

[The_Patriot21]

Like has been stated nowhere in the Bible is an exact age given, however if you follow the genealogies and accept the Biblical account of creation, you arrive at around 6000 years. The biggest unknown variable is how long adam and eve were in the garden pre fall, but its unlikely to be that long.

Nowhere in the Bible are you ever going to find millions of years. The evolutionary theory is entirely incompatible with the Bible. 

Its not a salvation issue, you can believe in long earth and Jesus, but it can affect your witness, because satan-and the world knows the two theories are incompatible with each other, and pretty much everything in the Bible hinges on Genesis being true. Without Genesis we dont have sin, without sin we dont need a saviour. If you can discredit Genesis you can discredit the rest of the Bible. 

Hence why it was pushed out of schools long ago.

[Mick70]

Just to digress slightly, scientists say the earth is billions of years old, but if that's so, why hasn't all that molten stuff inside it cooled down by now?

[Deborah_]

The Bible doesn't give us enough data to calculate the age of the earth.

You can add up the ages of the people in the genealogies - but you can't assume that there are no gaps. (Look at Matthew's genealogy Jesus in Matthew 1 - there are three generations missing in the middle section!) In fact, seeing that there are a suspiciously tidy  and symmetrical number of names in the first two genealogies in Genesis (10 in each), I would say it's almost a certainty that there are (lots of) gaps.

17 minutes ago, Mick70 said:

Just to digress slightly, scientists say the earth is billions of years old, but if that's so, why hasn't all that molten stuff inside it cooled down by now?

Because of its enormous mass, plus it's insulated by the solid crust. The Sun is even older, but shows no sign yet of cooling down. 

[Justin Adams]

19 minutes ago, Mick70 said:

Just to digress slightly, scientists say the earth is billions of years old, but if that's so, why hasn't all that molten stuff inside it cooled down by now?

It may be that the earth is a giant engine. It seems to be a huge renewal project that just keeps on ticking. Check out the 'ring of fire' documentary by the BBC. Quite illuminating. The earth is not a stagnant entity like the moon. It appears to be a dynamic machine.

[one.opinion]

A literal reading of the Bible certainly suggests that the earth is about 6,000 years old from the birth of Cain and Abel (since this suggestion is based on genealogical records). What is not so clear in the Bible is the  period of time before those events.

The evidence God has left us in His creation suggest that the earth - and life in the planet - are orders of magnitude older.

[Starise]

While we could split hairs over the little things like saying we don't know the exact age of the planet, because well, the planet is still aging, I don't think this is what the poster is mainly asking.

None of use were here when the earth was created. All we have to go on are the less than scientific things the Bible says about it and science. Science has proven itself to be both helpful and unreliable in giving a specific answer all depending on the subject, the 'expert' giving the info and later found data. 

There are two main camps on this as far as I can tell

- The Young Earthers- Those who think the earth is somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 years old.

-The Old Earthers- Those who for one reason or another feel the earth itself is much older.

There are also those who attempt to eke out explanations using currently known science that may fall in between a created earth and an older  planet.

Young earthers often use biblical lineage and genealogy to determine the time from Adam to calculate the age of the earth. Their arguments against the earth being older are often opposed to the processes old earthers think prove the earth is older. According to them geologic strata could have been laid down very fast instead of in millions of years. They lean most on the bible and least on science.They see skeleton dating as a very imperfect science. They strongly oppose the explanations given by evolutionists as to the origin of species.

Christian old earthers often try to fit their theology into their concept of earth age. Many of these people are convinced scientists whose lines of study  have been involved with geology or fossil recovery and dating. Others who are educated in biology whose educational backgrounds were basically founded on an evolutionary model.

Those educated in these things will often attempt to take a high ground based on what they are convinced they know. After all, they are the experts right? The sometimes condescension coming across to students of the bible often causes arguments and rifts.

Then we have the 'tag alongs' or those who don't know enough to formulate their own opinions, so they follow along with whatever explanation seems to make the most sense to them.

Most of the time each side sees things in either black or white. I see very little willingness to entertain other possibilities. These discussions go on almost endlessly in the scientific portion of the forum. Probably where this should be posted.

Young earthers see this as an attack on the bible while old earthers sometimes lean just a little bit too much on what they think they know about science. I don't claim to have all the answer but I do see the answers as somewhere in between. What that is exactly I can't say. I wasn't there, I'm not a scientist, and the Bible is not primarily given to us to understand the science behind the creation of the earth, as such, it makes a terrible reference on the subject. My.00000002 worth.

[Hobie_]

14 hours ago, Abdull said:

I am intrested in what the bible say about the age of our planet and humanity. your help would be most appreciated my brothers

Well, since the Garden of Eden at Creation its nearing six thousand years, but the mass that was there in a void we are not told.