Why Should Christians Accept Millions of Years?

Answers in Genesis seems to be doing good but it is sending many once faithful down to hell. It portrays as if it is scientific but yet it uses a flawed/pseudo-science. I had reviewed all evidence myself and I find Answers in Genesis not being honest on what they say which does not reflect Christ in their behaviour. It is better for them to take Science out of Faith than to manipulate Science to fit into their version of Faith.

Here, we will address all the points mentioned in, Why Shouldn’t Christians Accept Millions of Years? by Answers in Genesis. First of all, accepting millions of years does not mean accepting evolution and I do certainly reject evolution. In this blog, we will only address the ‘millions of years’ and see what the Bible really had to say.

1. The Bible clearly teaches that God created in six literal, 24-hour days a few thousand years ago.

The Bible clearly teaches that God created in six literal, 24-hour days a few thousand years ago. The Hebrew word for day in Genesis 1 is yom. In the vast majority of its uses in the Old Testament it means a literal day; and where it doesn’t, the context makes this clear.

Gen 1:5a God called the light Day.

God called light as “Day” and it has nothing to do with 24 hours. Who are these people to reject God’s direct spoken words?

2. The context of Genesis 1 clearly shows that the days of creation were literal days.

The context of Genesis 1 clearly shows that the days of creation were literal days. First, yom is defined the first time it is used in the Bible (Genesis 1:4–5) in its two literal senses: the light portion of the light/dark cycle and the whole light/dark cycle. Second, yom is used with “evening” and “morning.” Everywhere these two words are used in the Old Testament, either together or separately and with or without yom in the context, they always mean a literal evening or morning of a literal day. Third, yom is modified with a number: one day, second day, third day, etc., which everywhere else in the Old Testament indicates literal days. Fourth, yom is defined literally in Genesis 1:14 in relation to the heavenly bodies.

Gen 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;

God created sun, moon and stars for ‘days’ and ‘years’ only on the fourth day of creation. These new ‘days’ and ‘years’ using sun, moon and stars are created on the fourth day of creation. If God said the newly created days using the sun, moon and stars are for the use of ‘days’, why do these people use it to define what God did not say, i.e., a Creation Day?

3. The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 make it clear that the creation days happened only about 6,000 years ago.

The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 make it clear that the creation days happened only about 6,000 years ago. It is transparent from the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 (which give very detailed chronological information, unlike the clearly abbreviated genealogy in Matthew 1 and other chronological information in the Bible that the Creation Week took place only about 6,000 years ago.

Gen 5:1-2 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.

Genealogies of chapters 5 and 11 do not make it clear that the creation days happened about 6000 years ago. But rather, it only shows Adam was created by God about 6000 years ago.

4. Exodus 20:9–11 blocks all attempts to fit millions of years into Genesis 1.

Exodus 20:9–11 blocks all attempts to fit millions of years into Genesis 1. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:9-11).This passage gives the reason for God’s command to Israel to work six days and then take a sabbath rest. Yom is used in both parts of the commandment. If God meant that the Jews were to work six days because He created over six long periods of time, He could have said that using one of three indefinite Hebrew time words. He chose the only word that means a literal day, and the Jews understood it literally (until the idea of millions of years developed in the early nineteenth century). For this reason, the day-age view or framework hypothesis must be rejected. The gap theory or any other attempt to put millions of years before the six days are also false because God says that in six days He made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. So He made everything in those six literal days and nothing before the first day.

Heb 4:4-10 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterwards have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

If God rested on the seventh day and we are yet to enter into His rest, which day are we living in? Why do these people teach contrary to the Bible and deceive the weak?

5. Noah’s Flood washes away millions of years.

Noah’s Flood washes away millions of years. The evidence in Genesis 6–9 for a global catastrophic flood is overwhelming. For example, the Flood was intended to destroy not only all sinful people but also all land animals and birds and the surface of the earth, which only a global flood could accomplish. The Ark’s purpose was to save two of every kind of land animal and bird (and seven of some) to repopulate the earth after the Flood. The Ark was totally unnecessary if the Flood was only local. People, animals, and birds could have migrated out of the flood zone before it occurred, or the zone could have been populated from creatures outside the area after the Flood. The catastrophic nature of the Flood is seen in the nonstop rain for at least 40 days, which would have produced massive erosion, mud slides, hurricanes, etc. The Hebrew words translated “the fountains of the great deep burst open” (Genesis 7:11) clearly point to tectonic rupturing of the earth’s surface in many places for 150 days, resulting in volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Noah’s Flood would produce exactly the kind of complex geological record we see worldwide today: thousands of feet of sediments clearly deposited by water and later hardened into rock and containing billions of fossils. If the year-long Flood is responsible for most of the rock layers and fossils, then those rocks and fossils cannot represent the history of the earth over millions of years, as evolutionists claim.

While Noah’s Flood did happen, it is not necessary that it must produce exactly the kind of complex geological record we see worldwide that proves the earth is very old. That is simply not being honest with the evidence. Using Varve Chronology, one can easily prove the earth is very much older. Doesn’t telling a lie or manipulating an evidence against God? Who do these people do these things boldly and call themselves Christians?

6. Jesus was a young-earth creationist.

Jesus was a young-earth creationist. Jesus consistently treated the miracle accounts of the Old Testament as straightforward, truthful, historical accounts (e.g., creation of Adam, Noah and the Flood, Lot and his wife in Sodom, Moses and the manna, and Jonah in the fish). He continually affirmed the authority of Scripture over men’s ideas and traditions (Matthew 15:1–9). In Mark 10:6 we have the clearest (but not the only) statement showing that Jesus was a young-earth creationist. He teaches that Adam and Eve were made at the “beginning of creation,” not billions of years after the beginning, as would be the case if the universe were really billions of years old. So, if Jesus was a young-earth creationist, then how can His faithful followers have any other view?

Mark 10:6 “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’

The beginning of creation is in context with the creation of man for what He is referring to. He is by no means referring to any other creation like light, plants etc.

7. Belief in millions of years undermines the Bible’s teaching on death and on the character of God.

Belief in millions of years undermines the Bible’s teaching on death and on the character of God. Genesis 1 says six times that God called the creation “good,” and when He finished creation on Day 6, He called everything “very good.” Man and animals and birds were originally vegetarian (Gen. 1:29–30, plants are not “living creatures,” as people and animals are, according to Scripture). But Adam and Eve sinned, resulting in the judgment of God on the whole creation. Instantly Adam and Eve died spiritually, and after God’s curse they began to die physically. The serpent and Eve were changed physically and the ground itself was cursed (Genesis 3:14–19). The whole creation now groans in bondage to corruption, waiting for the final redemption of Christians (Romans 8:19–25) when we will see the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21, Colossians 1:20) to a state similar to the pre-Fall world, when there will be no more carnivorous behavior (Isaiah11:6–9) and no disease, suffering, or death (Revelation 21:3–5) because there will be no more Curse (Revelation 22:3). To accept millions of years of animal death before the creation and Fall of man contradicts and destroys the Bible’s teaching on death and the full redemptive work of Christ. It also makes God into a bumbling, cruel creator who uses (or can’t prevent) disease, natural disasters, and extinctions to mar His creative work, without any moral cause, but still calls it all “very good.”

Gen 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Bible never said anything about Adam and Eve dying spiritually and slowly physically. While they did die eventually, that is not what God told would happen. God said they will die on the same day. Adam and Eve were created on the 6th day. As we saw earlier, we are still on the 6th day and yet to enter into His rest. Hence, God warned Adam and Eve about dying on the 6th day and not entering His rest.

It is also wrong to say there was no death in pre-fall because God was not warning Adam about something that he had no idea what it was.

8. The idea of millions of years did not come from the scientific facts.

The idea of millions of years did not come from the scientific facts. This idea of long ages was developed by deistic and atheistic geologists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These men used antibiblical philosophical and religious assumptions to interpret the geological observations in a way that plainly contradicted the biblical account of creation, the Flood, and the age of the earth. Most church leaders and scholars quickly compromised using the gap theory, day-age view, local flood view, etc. to try to fit “deep time” into the Bible. But they did not understand the geological arguments, and they did not defend their views by careful Bible study. The “deep time” idea flows out of naturalistic assumptions, not scientific observations.

Pseudo-science from the 18th century was already eliminated and so far there are no scientific observations contrary to Bible which shows the earth is very old. Millions of years are not anti-Bible and it doesn’t require any theories. It is written in plain language even by New Testament authors, that we are still on the 6th day and yet to enter into His rest which is on the 7th day.

9. Radiometric dating methods do not prove millions of years.

Radiometric dating methods do not prove millions of years. Radiometric dating was not developed until the early twentieth century, by which time virtually the whole world had already accepted the millions of years. For many years creation scientists have cited numerous examples in the published scientific literature of these dating methods clearly giving erroneous dates (e.g., a date of millions of years for lava flows that occurred in the past few hundred years or even decades). In recent years creationists in the RATE project have done experimental, theoretical, and field research to uncover more such evidence (e.g., diamonds and coal, which the evolutionists say are millions of years old, were dated by carbon-14 to be only thousands of years old) and to show that decay rates were orders of magnitude faster in the past, which shrinks the millions of years to thousands of years, confirming the Bible.

Radiometric dating actually proves millions of years. It may be acceptable if there is only one dating method and no other. However, radiometric dating can be corrected and complemented using other dating methods.

Conclusion

Christians should stop believing in a lie that world is only 6000 years old spread by people who call themselves Christians and yet use dishonest methods in the name of our God while thinking they bring people into Faith, but rather destroy the Faith of those who are scientific. Bible plainly supports a very old earth that is definitely not 6000 years old. It is better to preach the Faith as it is, just like how Christ’s disciples and apostles did, rather than lying about scientific evidence. Do not be deceived.

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