I have a question...
I don't understand how people use the bible to justify that the earth is only 6000 years old? I've talked to some people that tell me it's "verified" that even dinosaurs are only thousands of years old instead of millions. And that they died in the Noah's flood.
I just wanted to hear if anyone out there has a rational arguement for the earth only being 6000 years old. I personally, think it's a crock

Jill,

This is a major dilemma for me. A 121 million-year-old bird embryo fossil was found in China. I am a Christian that is trying to figure out the time line with all of this.

Is it possible to be a Christian without believing the world is only 6000 years old?

I hope so.

I'm not trying to knock anyone's religion, I don't like mine knocked. I'm just trying to get an understanding of what's behind this belief... when so many facts prove otherwise.
That and I just like to debate

J.P. Moreland

"Now, when it comes to the days of Genesis...I'm of the view on this that while we ought not allow science to dictate to us our exegesis of the Old Testament, nevertheless, if there is an interpretation of the Old Testament that is exegetically permissible-- that is, and old age interpretation; that is to say, if you can find conservative, inerrantist, evangelical Old Testament scholars that say that the interpretation of this text that treats the days of Genesis as unspecified periods of time, and that is a completely permissible thing to do on exegetical grounds alone, then my view is that that is a permissible option if it harmonizes the text with science because that option can be justified exegetically, independent of science.

Now...I'm not a Hebrew exegete. But I will tell you that two of the best-known exegetes of the Old Testament in the American evangelical community are Gleason Archer at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Walter Kaiser at Gordon Conwell. Walter Kaiser and Gleason Archer are respected in the entire United States as being faithful expositors of the Old Testament. Both of them know eight to ten Old Testament languages, and they both have spent their entire lives in Hebrew exegesis. Both of them believe the days of Genesis are...vast, unspecified periods of time, and are in no way required to be literal twenty-four hour days."

Jill,

I'm trying to understand it too. I have to explain it to my child.

Nubby I knew you'd come

Yes mam.


"Many of the early church fathers and other biblical scholars interpret the creation days of Genesis 1 as long periods of time. The list includes the Jewish historian Josephus (1st century); Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, apologist and martyr (2nd century); Origen, who rebutted heathen attacks on Christian doctrine (3rd century); Basil (4th century); Augustine (5th century); and, later, Aquinas (13th century), to name a few. The significance of this list lies not only in the prominence of these individuals as biblical scholars, defenders of the faith, and pillars of the early church (except Josephus), but also in that their scriptural views cannot be said to have been shaped to accommodate secular opinion. Astronomical, paleontological, and geological evidences for the antiquity of the universe, of the earth, and of life did not come forth until the nineteenth century."

I personally believe they are perieds of time for many reasons. My bible points this out in the commentary, I have the archeological Bible by Zondervan among others. If it was meant to be taken literally, I would.

Good to hear from you Jill.

Just a thought...In order for the dinosaurs to die in Noah's flood, people would have to existed BEFORE dinosaurs, and therein lies part of what I believe is a big issue for Christians. The theory of Evolution. Based on that theory, dinosaurs came first, and evolved into many of the animals we currently have now (birds are actually a long distant relative of dinosaurs for example, and horses were once the size of a cat). So if you believe animals and reptiles evolved over time, does it not make sense that PEOPLE also evolved, and no devout Christian religon I am aware of beleives that man evolved from apes or any other primate. Therefore, they would rather say man has only been here 6000 years, from Adam and eve, not evolution. And no disrespect to anyone's beliefs, I just favor science.

The six days of the Day-Age view are understood in the same sense as "in that day" of Isaiah 11:10-11—in other words, as periods of indefinite length and not of 24 hours duration. The six days are taken as sequential but as overlapping and perhaps merging into one another. According to this view, the Genesis 1 creation week describes events from the point of view of the earth, which is being prepared as the habitation for man.

Sorry, but to me it seems that the "Indefinite Length" days is just another "truth" that was made up because science has proved it wrong, and beaten the dead horse into glue. . .

The religious community has been very busy trying to merge the bible with science. After all, they have to, otherwise eventually the bible just won't be able to keep up with the questions science will raise.

No, the early church fathers agreed.

I've not heard of that before. What you've said is interesting, btw.

The word yom in the Hebrew can mean a indefinite period of time as well as a 24 hour day.