Our Bible question for this week is, What does the Bible say about how old the earth is?
I am reminded of the guide who worked in the Carlsbad Caverns. Someone asked him how old the caverns were. He replied that they were 20 million and 15 days old. When he was asked how he could be so specific, he explained, “When I first started working here they told me they were 20 million years old. That was 15 days ago. Now they are 20 million and 15 days old.”
That is a cute story, but no one really knows.
Some have estimated it to be around 4.54 billion years old. This age has been determined through various scientific methods. For example, if the nearest star(other than our Sun) is 4.24 light-years away from us, then since we can see its light then it must have taken more than 4 years to get here. Some stars are billions of light-years away so the universe must be at least that old.
Some also
Some Bible students believe that the Earth is around 6,000 to 10,000 years old. They base this on a literal interpretation of the Bible’s genealogies and the belief in a six-day creation. This view is often referred to as young earth creationism.
There are 2 things to consider when looking at these two views.
1. God could have made the earth and all the stars with the appearance of being old. People will ask, “When God created Adam and he was only 3 days old, how old did he look?” the Bible presents Adam as being created as a grown man. Could God have done this? Yes. Did God do this? Nobody knows for sure.
2. Could our universe be billions of years old/ Yes. Those who believe that the Bible teaches a 6,000-year-old earth do not take account of Genesis 1.
Verse 1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The next verse says, “Now the earth was formless and empty…” How much time passed between verse 1 and verse 2? The Bible does not say. Could it have been one hour? I don’t know. Could it have been 5 billion years? No one knows.
So finally, how old is the earth? It is not important. That God created it is the important issue.
Lonnie Davis