The precise age of the earth has baffled scientists and geologists down the centuries, ranging from 6000 to 4.5 billion years. Not only that, many Christians cannot agree on the exact age of the earth either. Does scripture allude to an ancient cataclysm which predates Noah’s flood? Could this calamity have something to do with Lucifer? Interestingly, the Books of Job and Jeremiah cite mysterious passages, which extrapolate Lucifer as the custodian of an ancient civilization, prior to his fall. Interested to find out more? Join Carl now…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast…(below)
In scripture there are some things that are categorically true, hands down they are undebatable. We know Jesus was born of a virgin; he died for our sins, he rose on the third day, appeared to more than 500 and because of this we are most assuredly confident in our salvation. Also, we know the Trinity is real, Jesus is coming back soon, we believe in the rapture of the church, with the only issue being exactly when He will return. But just like the timing of the rapture, there are some doctrines that fall into what I consider to be the contentious category. Like I said before, we believe in the pre-tribulation rapture and that is the most accurate hermeneutic of the scripture in my opinion and the traditional view of the Apostles, Early church fathers and the uncompromising church throughout the millennia.
However, we should not be divisive toward believers who take a different stance on the timing of Jesus return or any other contentious part of God’s word. We should remain in fellowship with all Christians despite our differences of opinion. So today friend we will discuss one of those golden nuggets, just like the dinosaurs that sometimes call the Christian faith into question and that is, “what exactly is the age of the earth upon which we stand?” …Now traditional Christians will state firmly that the earth was created in 6 days and any suggestion to the contrary, is an apostate view. And of course, when you look at the creation account of this current world, it was completed no doubt in 6 literal days as the bible says. More on this current world shortly.
But friend, if you’ve listened much to me much on the radio, by now, you know that we are conservative in our view of scripture. We hold closely to Sola Scriptura and the literal interpretive view of God’s word and we aren’t changing any time soon. Yet the age of the earth has always been mysterious to me because the word of God has much to say about it, particularly if we study the Hebrew language behind the Old Testament. And along these lines I would like to share some of my findings with you today, asking you to keep an open mind, albeit I’m sharing my opinion on these matters and not doggedly declaring them to be irrefutable. But know this friend; none of the following information will impact your salvation or your firm belief in Christ Jesus. We can speculate till the cows come home as to how old the earth may or may not be but no-one can assertively prove whether we are living in the young or old earth model, this debate rages on.
However, these insights will help you to reach your own conclusions. Now according to scientists, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, based on radiometric data fragments from the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite…ok but they also claim they could be off by + or minus 50 million years, so no big deal. Why not = or minis 1 billion? Truth is, no-one was there to see it, so no-one really knows right? Now what got my attention when I first became a believer is the mention of “replenishing” the earth. If you’ll recall, God commanded Adam and Eve to replenish the earth with an inference in the text that they were repopulating an earth that was once inhabited in a prior time-frame, lets read it now:- Genesis 1:28 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
Now if you look up this word in the Hebrew, the term replenish is ‘maw-law’ which can have a double meaning. It can mean simply to ‘fill up,’ and replenish as the scribes wrote in the King James, so to be honest we cannot firmly say that there were races prior Adam based on this scripture alone. Secondly, we have the mention of previous worlds later on in Genesis, let me read Gen 2:4 for you now, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” Clearly the word generations in this passage is plural, once again with an inference; there were two creative events not one. We know certainly according to the biblical record Adam and Eve came on the scene nearly 6000 years ago, yet there were more than one generation of heavens and earth in days gone by, according to the Genesis account. A famous work that expounds upon this is a book entitled, Bible Genesis and Geology by Gaines Johnson. And of course Gaines’s problem was reconciling the age of the earth in light of his Christian world view and being an accomplished Geologist himself, he was internally conflicted with the diametrically opposing views of old and young earth. The thing is, when we consider the dinosaurs and the fossil record, the carboniferous fuel deposits deep within the earth, geology and archaeology, everyone of these areas point toward a very ancient earth, much older than the 6000 years that most creationists propose.
So further intrigue is offered in favor of an older earth when we study a mysterious statement in 2 Peter 3:5-7, 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment..” Once again, the takeaway is that Peter mentions the heavens of old, where the earth stood out of the water and in water and he refers to the world “that then was,” meaning not the world in which we currently live. That is a world that perished with water. Now most people of course, will say this is referring to Noah’s flood, when God destroyed mankind with a great deluge and I certainly thought this myself when I first read it, but notice it says “the world that then was,” and of course we’re still living in the same world of Noah’s flood, so I don’t believe it refers to Noah’s flood but again points to a world in ages past.
So, is there a passage in scripture that points to an ancient cataclysm of an old world in ages past? Well you may or may not believe it but the first two passages of Genesis allude to a time when the world was surrounded in darkness and water, potentially reeling in a time of judgment. Let’s read Gen 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The first obvious conclusion of this passage is that when God makes something he does a bang up job, in other words when he created the heavens and earth they would be complete and perfect, lacking nothing.
In verse two however we see the result of some cataclysm, where the earth is “without form and void.” If we look at the word “form” here, it is ‘tow-hoo‘ meaning, wilderness, empty, or wasteland.’ The question then becomes, why would God create a wasteland? The answer is He didn’t. In verse two, many old earth proponents claim that the earth being “without form and void” is the direct result of some cataclysm that occurred earlier in the distant past, and they postulate this is the byproduct of Lucifer’s rebellion, judgment, and downfall. This uprising is spoken of in Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28, and you may study this yourself in your own time. So are there any other scriptures that mention this earth of ours being ‘without form and void’? Yes there is friend and now we go further down the rabbit hole. Ha! The prophet Jeremiah makes a fascinating statement in his fourth chapter, verse 23, he says:
“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void;
And the heavens and they had no light.
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled,
And all the hills moved lightly.
I beheld, and, lo, there was no man,
And all the birds of the heavens were fled.
I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness,
And all the cities thereof were broken down
At the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.”
Friend, this statement is tantalizing to say the least. Jeremiah apparently witnessed in a vision the state of the earth before it was formed into its present state. He describes the earth as a fruitful place, becoming a wilderness, just like Gen 1:1-2. He saw the earth without form and void, he saw the heavens having no light before God said, let there be light; he saw the mountains tremble and Jeremiah confirmed the earth to be a wilderness in verse 26, even suggesting there were cities destroyed in the ages past because of God’s fierce anger and judgment of this prior world. Now some of you are like, tell me more Pastor, tell me more, well to be honest friend I have barely touched upon this topic better known as “Gap theory” and I may well discuss it again on air, in the near future. But friend there is one thing I am sure of, angels were created long before man and were witness to the creation of the world in its current state and I will give you scripture for it, Job 38:4-13, verse:
“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?
Or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?
Or who laid the corner stone thereof;
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?“
The sons of God here are ‘Bene Elohim’ in the Hebrew, mentioned six times in the Old Testament and in every case, they refer to angels not man. From this passage it is only a logical conclusion that because the Angels of God were present, that would include Lucifer, also known as Satan, that Old Serpent and dragon, the nawkash. He is described as a Cherub, of the highest angelic order and witness to God’s glory. He too would have looked on with all the other angels when God laid the foundations of the earth, long before man came upon the scene. Some scholars then surmise that it was Lucifer himself, who was the cause of the downfall, and was ruler of these cities laid waste in the ages past, described by the prophet Jeremiah. Don’t forget also, that nowhere in the six-day account of the current creation, does it say that God laid the foundations of the earth.
This was not some observation that the angels made during the six-day creation account of this current world but had to be an earlier time-frame. But once again friend, this is mere speculation and cannot be proven emphatically from scripture although it is very interesting. The truth is, we can debate scriptures all day long and whether or not there was a pre-Adamic race and whether Lucifer ruled nations before Adam and Eve but to be honest these discussions often cause more division than unity in the Body of Christ. Everyone can have their own opinion but the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing, and that is Jesus Christ, is the only way, truth and life; no-one comes to the father but by Him. As long as this is our focus and we love our neighbor and witness to others when God grants us opportunity, then all is well and good.
These endless debates over prophecy or the timing of the rapture or the age of the earth can be fun to discuss but at the end of the day God is not explicit on such matters, it’s almost as if He’s left some things deliberately obfuscated in some departments of His word. Right now we have 38,000 Christian denominations according to Christianity today and I don’t want to cause any further splits by being dogged over the age of the earth by saying y’all are wrong sorry, I’m right and I can’t fellowship with you anymore because of our difference in opinion, regarding the minutia of God’s word. Nonsense, I’m not going to do that friend and neither should you. Let’s stick to the red letters in our bible, not the gray areas, and stand upon that which we are confident and leave the rest to the Theologians.
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