Young or Old Earth

Consequences of Belief in and Old Earth:
Authority of Scripture

Do I need to believe in a young earth to be saved? How old is the earth, anyway, and really, for the sake of Christian unity, why on earth (pun intended) does it matter? Who cares if it is 6000 years or 4.6 billion years? I mean, we are all about the Gospel, the Old Testament looks ahead to Christ, we look back to Christ, being New Testament believers. So as long as we truly trust in Christ and His work on the cross, why make a big deal on how old the earth is?

Well, first, take a look at three bible verses:
1 Corinthians 15:17, John 3:3 (and 3:7), Romans 10:9-13. Clearly, none of these speaks to a young or old earth belief. And there are many other verses that are similar. So the short answer to the first question is “No,” one does not need to believe in a young earth to be saved.

Over time, many different theories of creation have developed, such as the gap theory, the day-age theory, theistic evolution, and so on. Newer ones include framework hypothesis (where Genesis is viewed entirely as poetry and allegorical) and progressive creation (big bang, creation “days” of long eras, local Flood, and creation of new species as extinction occurred). And these are NOT beliefs held by non-believers, but by believers, and the latter two are the most popular today in our seminaries and bible colleges.

However, believing in the age of the earth to span millions and billions of years has very severe consequences.

At the top of that list of consequences is the authority of Scripture. It was man who came up with millions of years, and so they attempted to fit those long time periods into the Bible somewhere, and the beginning of Genesis was very convenient. In essence, they took the authority of man’s teaching and place it above the authority of God’s Word. The vast number of Bible scholars, using sound interpretive methods (good hermeneutics), realize that the Hebrew text does not allow for the days of creation being anything but literal 24-hour days. But since “science” has purported to show otherwise, these same scholars are left to reinterpret the words, or to add a human concept to the meaning.

In doing so, they have undermined God’s authority, and thus opened the door to compromise. The danger is that subsequent generations will take that door and push it open further. In our country today, there has been a major loss of Biblical authority, because the church has not stood its ground.

Already, Christians debate whether or not Adam and Eve were real, historical people, or if they were simply an allegorical example of God working in humans once they evolved as such. This is a direct outcome from compromising on God’s literal account as written.

The time to take a stand is now. A young earth is an essential, foundational Bible truth. Simply believing what God said has never really been a cause for popularity. But as I take today and the next couple days to discuss why this earth age topic is serious, I pray that you will find renewed strength to continue the battle we face in this world, defending our Savior, as we point others to Him in our daily lives.

Holding fast to the name of our Creator

Reference: http://www.answersingenesis.org