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Our Young Earth: Arguments for Thousands of Years

At stake in the question of the earth’s age is faithful exegesis of the biblical text aligned with a faithful interpretation of the scientific data. Because no one but God was present at the beginning, and because the Bible is God’s inerrant word, Scripture holds highest authority in answering questions of time and space. Scripture’s teaching on a subject must bear guiding weight in assessing all matters related to the created sphere.

Let us be clear: God’s role as creator, his purpose for creation, and the historicity of Adam and Eve as the first parents are non-negotiable for Christian belief. Furthermore, evolutionary creationism (i.e., theistic evolution) of any form is unwarranted biblically. Nevertheless, while there is much at stake, the age of the earth is not among the central doctrines that should divide. Conservative Christianity has remained broad enough for both young-earth and old-earth creationism (akin somewhat to credo- versus paedo-baptism or varying millennial views). I remain a convinced young-earth creationist because of the overwhelming biblical data. However, there is no single silver-bullet biblical or scientific argument for my position, and old-earth creationists can craft legitimate, thoughtful responses to each of my claims. The weight of my case is cumulative, and I question whether every argument I make can be legitimately falsified.

Humanity in the First Week

Argument 1: Genesis 1:1–2:3 places the creation of humanity within the first week of creation. The most natural reading of the Bible’s introduction points to a young earth.

The use of Hebrew yôm (meaning day) with the refrain “there was evening and there was morning” (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31)—along with the mention of light and darkness, day and night, and the one-week structure—strongly suggests that the communicator of this revelation was portraying the equivalent of 24-hour calendar days, even though the sun is not created until day four (Gen. 1:14–19). Mankind is here portrayed as being created on day six of God’s first workweek. The day-age theory (wherein God created all of physical creation out of nothing in a chronological progression of ages spanning an indefinite period of time) does not seem to fit this context. And the gap theory (which posits a very long span between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2) does not appear to be allowed by the Hebrew text.

While later meditations on creation (e.g., Ps.104) never refer to the “days,” the fact that Yahweh built Israel’s 6+1 pattern of life upon the pattern of the creation week (Exod. 20:11) seems best understood only if Israel was already aware of the 6+1 pattern of the creation week (see Exod. 16:23–29; compare Gen. 7:4, 10; 8:10, 12) and viewed it as an actual reality as opposed to figurative or analogical reality. Specifically, Israel’s call to keep the Sabbath is grounded in God’s original workweek, which is difficult to read analogically (Exod. 20:10–11): “The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.”

In the Beginning

Argument 2: The New Testament closely associates the history of Genesis 2–4 with the beginning of the world. Old-earth models require either that mankind’s creation be separated from the “beginning” by millions or even billions of years (Gap Theory), or that the Genesis 1:1 “beginning” stretched out for a period of time massively longer than all the time that has followed (Day-Age Theory). The former discounts the New Testament link between the “beginning” of Genesis 1:1 and the creation of mankind in 1:26–28, and the latter forces a strange use of the term of “beginning,” wherein what happens in the ninth inning is still the “beginning.”

In the New Testament, we read that Jesus saw the institution of marriage as being closely linked to the beginning of creation (Mark 10:6; cf. Matt.19:4, 8; see Gen.2:21–25). He declared that Satan’s murderous activity (not just his tendencies) through his deception of Eve was closely associated with the beginning of creation (John 8:44). He linked this murderous, sinful activity with the promise that the offspring of the woman would stand in friction with the serpent and his offspring (1 John 3:8; cf. Gen. 3:1–6, 15). He saw the first human experience of tribulation as being located near the beginning of creation (likely referring to Cain’s killing of Abel) (Mark 13:19; cf. Matt. 24:21; see Gen. 4:8). He placed the martyrdom of Abel near the foundation of the world (Luke 11:49–50; cf. Matt. 23:35; see Gen. 4:8).

The writer of Hebrews also considered the “foundation of the world” to be the conclusion of the sixth day, placed humanity’s rebellion (for which Jesus suffered) very near this time, and contrasted this foundation with the “end of the ages” realized in the work of Christ (Heb. 4:3–4; 9:25–26).

Linear Genealogies

Argument 3: The linear genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 point to a recent humanity. While some biblical genealogies are clearly selective (e.g., Matt. 1:1; 1:2–17), the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 are so specific that they resist a selective reading and thus require that humanity has existed for a relatively short time.

The linear genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 are unique in all of Scripture with respect to the age detail they provide (see, e.g., Gen. 5:3–11). Even if “son” at times means grandson or great-grandson (as can happen in Scripture), the specificity of the ages counters the likelihood of gaps. Moreover, a number of the seemingly “father-son/grandson/great-grandson” relationships are shown elsewhere to be just that—e.g., Adam with Seth (Gen. 4:25), Noah with Ham, Shem, and Japheth (6:10), Terah with Abraham (11:31).

A solid explanation for the presence of specific ages in these genealogies is the messianic and missiological purposes of Genesis. Moses seems to have gone out of his way to show that God preserved the line of hope in every generation from Adam to Noah, from Shem to Terah, and from Abraham to Israel. The specified years all highlight the faithfulness of God to preserve his line hoping in the offspring promise of Genesis 3:15. As such, leaving out generations would have gone against the apparent purpose.

Adding the ages in the genealogies points to humanity being around 6,000 years old.

Climax of Creation

Argument 4: Adam’s high role as head of the first creation and mankind’s station as the climax of creation and image of God both support a young earth. It makes less sense to think that God allowed the bulk of creation to exist for millennia without its overseers.

Genesis 1:1–2:3 associates all major “rulers” of the first creation with humanity. The luminaries separate day and night and establish the earth’s calendar (Gen. 1:14), but they also serve as “signs” for humans that stress the surety of God’s promises (Gen. 15:5Jer. 33:22). Humans are called to “fill the earth and subdue it” and to “have dominion over the fish . . . birds . . . and every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

Humans are the climax of creation and sole representatives of God on the earth, with some being chosen “in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, having been predestined in love for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ . . . to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph. 1:4–6). Only on the sixth day is the definite article “the” added to the day-ending formula (“a first day, a second day, a third day, . . . the sixth day”). Day six gets the most literary space and includes the longest speeches. Only at the end of day six does God declare creation “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Only at day six does God declare something he makes to be “in his image,” giving humanity oversight in the world. Scripture portrays the first man, Adam, as representative covenantal head over the first creation (Gen. 2:15Rom.5:18–191 Cor. 15:45).

In addition, God’s oversight, provision, and protection of animals (Pss. 104:14, 21, 24, 27; 145:14–16; 147:9Matt. 6:26Luke 12:24) is significantly manifest through mankind (Gen. 1:28; 2:15Ps. 8:6–8[7–9]).

Animal Suffering and Death

Argument 5: Scripture usually portrays the suffering and death of living creatures, including animals, as part of the curse, so millions of years of animal death and suffering pre-fall seems unlikely. God initially curses the world on account of human sin, so death and suffering in land animals and birds most likely resulted from mankind’s fall and were not present before it, as all old-earth models require.

The principal consequence of humanity’s garden rebellion was human death both physically and spiritually (Gen. 2:17; 3:16–19Rom. 5:12). Humanity’s sin in the garden brought negative consequences not only on humanity, however, but also to the created world at large: God cursed the animals (Gen. 3:14). God cursed the ground (Gen. 3:17–19). God subjected the whole world to futility (Rom. 8:20–21).

Scripture regularly associates animal death with curse and animal life with blessing. Both realities suggest that death and suffering in land animals and birds would have resulted from the fall and not been present before it.

First, the fact that the serpent is cursed “more than/above” (= Hebrew min of comparison) all livestock and beasts of the field implies that the land animals were indeed impacted directly and negatively by humanity’s fall (Gen. 3:14; cf. 3:1).

Second, the curse on the ground (Gen. 3:17) shapes the backdrop to Noah’s birth (Gen. 5:29), and the judgment curse of the flood includes the death of all beasts, birds, and creeping things (Gen. 7:21–23), save those on the ark, which were set apart to preserve non-human land creatures after the flood (Gen. 6:19–20; 7:3).

Third, eight of the ten judgment plagues on Egypt included animals becoming pests to humans or the mass suffering and death of livestock in a way that negatively impacted human existence (Exod. 8–12).

Fourth, the penal substitutionary blood of the Passover lamb alone secured the lives of Israel’s firstborn among both humans and beasts (Exod.12:12–13).

Fifth, under the blessings of the Mosaic (old) covenant, mankind would live in safety from animal predation (Lev. 26:6) and cattle and herds would flourish and increase (Deut. 7:13–14; 28:4, 11). In contrast, under curse, humans would stand in fear of animal predation (Lev. 26:22), cattle and herds would languish (Deut. 28:18), and dead human flesh would be the food of beast and bird (Deut. 28:26). These realities are all affirmed in the prophets (e.g., Jer. 7:20; 12:4Hag. 1:9–11Mal. 3:9– 12; 4:6).

Sixth, in the context of his wars of judgment, Yahweh called Israel to slaughter everything that breathes, including the animals (Deut. 13:15; 20:161 Sam. 15:3).

Seventh, the Preacher in Ecclesiastes associates the death of animals with that of humans (Ecc.c3:19–20) and unhesitatingly connects the reality of both deaths with the curse at the fall: “All are from the dust, and to dust all return” (see Gen. 3:19–20). This link strongly points to the death of both animals and humans as beginning at the same time.

Old-earth creationists struggle to clarify what actually changes in the non-human world at the curse, for they believe an extended period (even millions of years) of animal suffering and death already existed pre-fall. In contrast, Scripture points to God’s curse of the world as a decisive turning point and then commonly associates animal death with curse.

Eating Meat and the Curse’s End

Argument 6: The limiting of animal death in the eternal state as a restoring of Eden suggests that all terrestrial death began after the fall. Specifically, because eating meat likely symbolizes Jesus’s victory over the curse, the limiting of animal death in the eternal state to redeemed humanity’s consuming of meat likely signals the restoring of Eden rather than an escalation beyond it and suggests that all terrestrial death began after the fall and that, therefore, the earth is young.

Scripture explicitly connects sin, suffering, and death in all its forms only to the fall (Gen. 3:14–15; Rom. 1:24, 26, 28; 8:18–23). It also highlights Christ’s death and resurrection as the only solution to the problem of human rebellion and its consequences, which appears to include all earthly evil, both natural evils like cancer and car accidents and moral evils directly related to rebellion against God. Specifically, the Bible teaches that Christ’s work was designed to restore all things (Acts 3:21), to unite all things (Eph. 1:10), to reconcile all things to God (Col. 1:17), to do away with death, tears, and pain (Isa. 25:8Rev. 21:4), and to eradicate the curse and all that is unclean (Rev. 21:27; 22:3).

This eternal redemptive reality is portrayed both as restoring the garden of Eden (pre-fall) and as escalating beyond it by completing what the first Adam failed to secure. This new/re-creation will bear elements that are similar to the original creation pre-fall (Ezek. 36:35Isa. 51:3Rom. 8:20–21Rev. 2:7; 22:1–5, 14, 19), but it will be absent of any past or potential influence of evil or curse (Rev. 21:27; 22:3), save the sustained reminder of the former rebellion of the elect in order to sustain their awe of the saving work of King Jesus. Examples of such reminders will include lament over sin (Ezek. 36:31), the presence of salt in the bogs around the once-Dead Sea (47:11; cf. Gen. 13:10; 19:24–26), the presence of transformed multiple tongues rather than a single language (Zeph. 3:9Rev. 5:9; 7:9; cf. Gen. 11:6–9), and the visual identification of Christ as both sacrificial and conquering Lamb (Rev. 5:5–6, 12–13; 7:10, 14; 17:14; 19:9; 21:22–23; 22:1, 3).

In such a context of restoration, reconciliation, and eradication, it is important to recognize that predatory activity among the animal kingdom will cease and that death will be present only in relation to humans eating meat. In the present fallen age, animals’ predatory activity is part of God’s revealed purposes (Ps. 104:21Job 38:39–41), so long as it does not threaten humans (Ps. 104:23Deut. 7:22Judg. 14:52 Kings 17:25) or domesticated animals (1 Sam. 17:34–35Isa. 31:4Amos 3:12). Only after mankind’s fall and the global curse did humans become a target for animal predatory activity and did God grant people permission to consume animal meat, partly in order to cause the animals to fear them (Genesis 9:2–3; cf. 1:30). In this cursed world, eating meat affirms mankind’s call to reflect, resemble, and represent God by exerting dominion (1:26, 28; cf. Ps.8:6–8[7–9]), and it also testifies to God’s curse-overcoming power.

Specifically, from the earliest days after God exiled humanity from the garden, humans distinguished clean animals from unclean ones (Gen. 7:2–3, 8). After God allowed humans to consume animal flesh, he allowed his people to eat only the clean (Lev. 20:25–26). Scripture treats as unclean all animals that in some way symbolically look like the serpent in the garden—whether due to their crafty, predatory, killing instincts (Gen. 3:1–5 with 2:17; cf. John 8:44; 10:10) or due to their dust-eating association with death and waste (Gen. 3:14). And it is because Christ overcomes the evil one at the cross (Eph. 2:16Col. 2:15; cf. Luke 10:18John 12:31Rev. 12:9) that all foods are now clean (Mark 7:19Acts 10:10–15, 28Rom. 14:14, 201 Tim. 4:4). That makes the eating of all foods a testimony of Christ’s curse-overcoming power.

In view of the full redemptive work of Christ, the restored new creation and new covenant will extend to the beasts, birds, and creeping things, resulting in global safety (Hos. 2:18Isa. 35:9), as the once-predatory animals (perhaps a picture of hostile nations) become vegetarian and dwell peacefully alongside lamb and the child king, so that no creature need fear them (Isa.11:6–9; 65:25; cf. 9:6–7). In that day of consummation, God will put down all enemy oppression, abolish all human disease, suffering, and death, and make an end of the curse (Isa. 25; 65:17–25Rev. 21:3–5; 22:3). In the new heavens and new earth, humans will never fear predators, and terrestrial creatures will not be the diet of one another. These realities are part of Christ’s fixing what went wrong at the fall and help identify the return to the pre-fall state rather than an escalation beyond it.

Furthermore, as a sustained testimony that Christ has fully overcome the curse, humans will continue to eat animals in the new heavens and new earth (e.g., Isa. 25:6, 8Ezek. 47:9–10Matt. 22:2–4Luke 22:15–18, 29–30Rev. 19:7, 9; 21:1, 4, 10; cf. Luke 24:41–43John 21:12–13). Because God allowed humans to eat meat only post-fall, and because eating that meat testifies to Christ’s curse-overcoming victory, which culminates in Jesus’s triumph over the unclean serpent at the cross, the restriction in the eternal state of animal death to redeemed humanity’s meat-consumption points to the absence of animal death before the fall and, therefore, to a young earth.

Conclusion: Young Earth

The biblical data supports the belief that the earth is young. We see this (1) in the way Scripture portrays creation as a literal work week, (2) in the way the New Testament links the early history of mankind with the beginning, (3) in the unlikelihood that there are time gaps in the linear genealogies of Genesis, (4) in the way the Bible consistently portrays humanity as head of terrestrial creation, (5) in the fact Scripture regularly associates animal death and suffering with curse and makes it unlikely that such was happening before the fall, and (6) in the way human meat consumption in the eternal state testifies to Jesus’s curse-overcoming work.

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at Desiring God as part of a larger friendly debate between young-earth and old-earth creationism. It has been republished here with kind permission.

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This post originally appeared at Christ Overall All.

Podcast: Relating Moses’s Law to Christians

Theology for the Church

I recently appeared on the Theology for the Church podcast. Caleb Lenard and I discussed a progressive covenantalist perspective on how Christians should apply Moses’s law today. We discuss whether the tripartite division of the law should be adopted, what laws apply to Christians today in what ways, how to read the law through the lens of Christ’s fulfillment of it, and more. Listen to the podcast here.

Does the Law of Moses Matter for Christians Today?

Delighting in the Old TestamentInstruction through the Lens of Christ

Moses matters for Christians, and yet he spoke in a context that’s very different from our own. The old covenant is not the covenant we’re under. We are under the new covenant. So all of Moses’s instruction matters but only through the person of Christ. That is, none of Moses—none of the laws—are directly binding and guiding for Christians, but all of Moses’s laws guide and direct us through the person of Christ.

We have to consider how Jesus actually fulfills the law in order to understand how particular laws apply to us. Sometimes Jesus’s fulfilling of Moses’s law means that he maintains that law in much the same form that it looked like before. “Don’t commit adultery” stays “Don’t commit adultery.” It’s a maintaining of the law through Jesus’s fulfillment. But other laws get transformed.

With a firm grasp of the progress of salvation history, this accessible guide helps Christians interpret the Old Testament, see how it testifies to Jesus, believe that Jesus secured every divine promise, and understand how Moses’s law still matters.

“Keep the Sabbath.” Jesus ultimately comes, fulfilling the Sabbath. Six days plus one, six days plus one—that’s how Israel lived. They lived for the goal of seeing Sabbath rest realized not only for themselves but also for the whole world, just like it was at the original creation. Jesus comes as Israel and fulfills the Sabbath. He brings the rest to all who are in him. He declares himself the Lord of the Sabbath and he says, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And in Jesus that rest is realized, not just one day a week but seven days a week.

And we gather often on Sunday because that was the definitive day that Sabbath went public, that rest became realized. So Jesus transforms the Sabbath, not that we’re keeping the Sabbath one day a week (we gather for worship one day a week) but to remind ourselves what he has given us seven days a week. The law has transformed.

And then we get laws like “Don’t eat pork,” and then we have “Delight in your bacon as victory food.” He annuls other types of laws. So Jesus maintains, he transforms, and he annuls. And so we need to consider at every stage and with every single law—when we’re asking, How does Moses matter for us?—we ask it in light of what the New Testament clarifies about Jesus’s person and work. And then we take the essence of what the law was pointed to and we apply it in a new redemptive context this side of Jesus.

This article originally appeared on Crossway’s blog.

Book Announcement: Delighting in the Old Testament

All Christians can enjoy Jesus and the hope of the gospel in the Old Testament. I argue this in my book, Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and for Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024). Here is a basic overview of the book:

Introduction: Ten Reasons the Old Testament Matters for Christians
Part 1––READING WELL: HOW JESUS HELPS CHRISTIANS INTERPRET THE OLD TESTAMENT
Part 2––SEEING WELL: HOW JESUS’S BIBLE TESTIFIES ABOUT HIM
Part 3––HOPING WELL: HOW JESUS SECURES EVERY DIVINE PROMISE
Part 4––LIVING WELL: HOW JESUS MAKES MOSES’S LAW MATTER
Conclusion: Tips for Delighting in the Old Testament read more…

10 Reasons the Old Testament Matters to Christians

Is Christ really part of the Old Testament message? Should I, as a believer in the twenty-first century, claim Old Testament promises as mine? Do the laws of the Mosaic covenant still matter today for followers of Jesus? In short, is the Old Testament Christian Scripture, and if so, how should we approach it?

To understand the Old Testament fully, we must start reading it as believers in the resurrected Jesus, with God having awakened our spiritual senses to perceive and hear rightly. As Paul notes, Scripture’s truths are “spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14) and only through Christ does God enable us to read the old covenant materials as God intended (2 Cor. 3:14). This, in turn, allows our biblical interpretation as Christians to reach its rightful end of “beholding the glory of the Lord” and “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:14–18). Thus, we read for Christ.

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4 Ways Jesus Fulfills Every Old Testament Promise

When Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Law and Prophets, he is actualizing what Scripture anticipated and achieving what God promised and predicted (Matt. 5:17; 11:13Luke 16:16; 24:44). Truly every promise in Scripture is “Yes” in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20), and in him God secures every blessing for believers (Gal. 3:14Eph. 1:3).

Yet Jesus fulfills the Old Testament’s promises in more than one way, and this means Christians cannot approach Old Testament promises all in the same manner. Believers must claim Scripture’s promises using a salvation-historical framework that has Jesus at the center. Christ is the lens that clarifies and focuses the lasting significance of all God’s promises for us.

With a firm grasp of the progress of salvation history, this accessible guide helps Christians interpret the Old Testament, see how it testifies to Jesus, believe that Jesus secured every divine promise, and understand how Moses’s law still matters.

read more…

Help! I Don’t Enjoy Reading the Old Testament

Nurturing Delight

The Old Testament (OT) is big and can feel daunting, especially because it is filled with perspectives, powers, and practices that seem so far removed from Christians today. While we know that the psalmist found in it a perfect law that revives the soul, right precepts that rejoice the heart, and true rules that are altogether righteous (Ps. 19:7–9), we can struggle to really see how spending time in the initial three-fourths of the Christian Scriptures is really “sweeter than honey and dripping of the honeycomb” (Ps. 19:10). How can we nurture delight in the OT? read more…

The Story of God’s Glory in Christ

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son” (Gal. 4:4), and now we are living at “the end of the ages” (1 Cor. 10:11; cf. Rom. 13:11). Jesus opened his ministry by “proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’ ” (Mark 1:15). Isaiah anticipated the good news of God’s end-times reign through his royal servant and anointed conqueror (Isa. 40:9–11; 52:7–10; 61:1–3), and Jesus saw his own ministry realizing it. His kingdom message continued after his resurrection (Acts 1:3) and was shaped by the testimony that to faithfully “understand the Scriptures” means that we will see the Old Testament forecasting the Messiah’s death and resurrection and his mission to save the nations: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45–47; cf. Acts 1:3, 8; 3:18, 24; 10:43).[1]

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A Month in Deuteronomy

Over the next several weeks, the GearTalk Biblical Theology podcast will enjoy A Month in Deuteronomy. Hands to the Plow’s Creative Director, Mark Yaeger, has also designed some great cover art that may serve your ministry as you teach through this amazing book. Deuteronomy occurs in the Bible’s first division (= the Law), so the first gear is in blue in the first speech balloon; yet all Scripture’s gears (= Law, Prophets, Writings, Gospels and Acts, Epistles, and Revelation) influence or draw on Deuteronomy, which is why all the gears are colored in the second speech balloon. read more…

Fathers Discipling Children

God calls Christian dads to do our part in making our children disciples of Jesus––followers who love God with all their heart, being, and substance and who view reality and live lives in light of Christ’s supremacy over all things. Discipleship in this sense is not restricted to “spiritual” matters but encompasses all of life. Discipleship is about education in its most ultimate sense––the act of shaping a proper world-and-life view and passion that glorifies God. This is my goal as a father.

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Where DeRouchie serves as Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology

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See DeRouchie's Academia.edu Site