February 3
Some would have us believe it is absurd to suggest God actually created the heavens and earth in six, twenty-four hour periods. They quote I Peter 3:8, which tells us, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” In typical fashion, completely ignoring the context, these incredibly inept, self appointed interpreters completely ignore the fact that Peter was refuting the false doctrine of those that were trying to convince the church Jesus was not going to come back as He promised. After all, the evidence was clear. Several decades had passed since Jesus’ promise that He would return. Peter was assuring those reading his letter that God was not going to return until all whom He intended to enter His kingdom were born, lived full lives, and got regenerated and glorified. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
Suggesting God is unable to create the heavens and the earth and all that was inhabiting them in six, twenty-four hour days is a direct challenge to His omnipotence. If He is God, He could have done it in a moment of time. He could have spoken it all in existence in one sentence. My best guess is, He took so long doing it (six days rather than six seconds) so He could explain, in detail, the things about each of the items created in a way that would be meaningful to us. My take on the topic is, rather than suggesting it actually took thousands of years, is to understand the handicap God was working under knowing He wanted to communicate the process to our finite brains. The kicker is the repeated phrase, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” (NASB highlighting mine; 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31) This is the only place I take issue with the translators of the NASB. Most translations more accurately translate the two words I highlighted, “the first day.”
Old earth theorists want us to believe the earth is 93 billion years old, thus, they want us to believe one day is actually referring to one age of time, i.e., the stone age, the iron age, the bronze age, etc. All one has to do is count the ages of each of the patriarchs when they had their first child from Genesis to Jesus’ birth to come to the more accurate conclusion the earth is now 6, 150 years old. Of course I’m kidding. I have come to that figure by doing the math. But I’m not the greatest mathematician on the planet, so I could easily be a few hundred years off. By my calculations, the flood came about 1,500 years after creation. From the end of the flood to the coming of the Messiah took about 2,500 years. We are now in the year 2010, so the earth is about 4,000 years old (Old Testament years) plus 2010 years (New Testament years) equaling roughly 6,000 years total.
This young earth theory is being propounded, and is naturally better documented, by an ever growing, highly respected and competent group of men and women who are PhDs in archeology, biology, geology, and history. I’m confident the only reason people like Darwin were ever able to convince the ignorant masses the earth was millions of years old was because they began making up terminology to explain their unprovable theories the masses couldn’t understand. To avoid appearing as ignorant as they believed they must have been, those masses, who knew nothing about science, nodded their collective heads as if they understood, and voila! Everyone decided it was better to believe the thousands of unprovable theories evolution scientists claimed they had proven than to appear stupid. Actually, one does not have to compromise anything the bible says to accommodate the tens of thousands of false presumptions being made by those who would have us believe it is not entirely accurate. Archeologists are regularly making discoveries that confirm time and again the biblical record is accurate. Tomorrow we’ll explain why man lived so long before the flood, and why he seldom lives to be a hundred years old today. Until then, go find someone to tell what great things God has done for you.
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