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Importance of the Age of the Earth to Christians

Supporters of long ages are often frustrated at the way biblical creationists defend the young earth, and some even make the false claim that we claim belief in recent creation to be a requirement for salvation. To sidestep those sidewinders, we occasionally need to go on record: believers in an old earth as well as theistic evolutionists are not automatically excluded from the grace of Christ. Further, belief in recent creation is not a salvation issue, nor is acceptance of the Ussher chronology of biblical lineages. You savvy?


Age of the earth is an important issue for Christians
Credit: Freeimages / Petr Wija
There are folks who will call us "science deniers", but there's a problem in that the age of the earth is in no wise a proved scientific fact. For one thing, it is historical in nature, and not something that can be repeated and verified. Also, there are many different age-determining methods that yield different results. These methods rely on certain assumptions which determine the interpretations of the data. Essentially, we do not deny any scientific facts, but rather, the interpretations and opinions of secularists.

But so what? Why should a Christian care about the age of the earth? The main reason is that a young earth is in keeping with the teachings of Scripture. In fact, Jesus believed in a young earth. More than that, an old earth does violence to the gospel message itself, and implies that God is a liar. I'll give you a "teaser" about deep time: the Bible describes death as an enemy. Death will be removed at the final restoration. But there is a serious conflict if death was a means of God's creation, and existed before Adam's sin because what, exactly, is God restoring? Death and sickness are clearly not in our future. We cannot pick and choose which parts of the Bible to believe based on our personal preferences or liberal theology, old son.
From time to time, we meet people who reject evolution and would call themselves ‘creationists’, but who, nevertheless, accept that the earth and its rocks are millions of years old. In some cases, they feel that identifying as ‘young earth creationists’ would cause them to appear foolish and that this would undermine the credibility of their Christian witness. In responding to this, I believe that it is a mistake to begin with science. Instead, I find a better approach is to talk about God, His nature and glory, His original, perfect creation and how this changed due to our sin. This helps people to see why an ancient earth cannot be reconciled with the Bible’s teaching.
To read the rest, click on "The age of the earth and why it matters". I suggest that you take a look-see at the "Related Articles" afterward, too.