How Old is the Earth? All Truth is God’s Truth!
February 21, 2024
Not long ago I heard a speaker in Wednesday night Bible study of Genesis 1-2 state that the earth was a few thousand years old. I don’t agree with him and wrote this letter explaining why:
Dear Speaker,
I sat listening to your explanation of creation last Wednesday night and saw a person truly convicted that his views were correct. I respect you for your convictions, but I must confess I have different convictions regarding the explanation of creation. Simply stated, you have a young earth view, and I have an old earth view. I know you haven’t gotten to the Fall yet, but I presume you will interpret in a way that supports your claim that the earth is only several thousand years old and that nothing died before the Fall.
What is already clear though is that you give no credence to what science has to say. I’m not talking about what atheist-scientists say but what the scientific facts themselves say. A well-known scientist, who is a Christian, said that God has two books – scripture and creation – and each must inform the other. In other words, all truth, whether from scripture or from science, is God’s truth. I’m not talking about unproven scientific theories but proven fact. Since all truth is God’s truth, we need not fear where the truth from scientific discovery leads; It will lead back to God.
Scripture itself encourages us to observe and learn from creation/nature/science. Let me quote some verses. From Romans 1:20 we have, ”For, since the creation of the world, [God’s] invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature , have been clearly seen , being understood through what has been made…” From Job 12: 7-9 we have, “But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you; and let the fish of the sea declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?” And Psalms 19:1-3 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”
God wants and expects man to observe and learn about His creation. The more man learns the more he is amazed at the being God must be to have created it – His unimaginable intellect, His boundless creativity, His unbelievable power, etc. These scriptures use words like understand, see, be taught (learn), obtain knowledge regarding what creation is telling you, is declaring to you, is revealing to you. God has done a wonderfully marvelous thing – creation – and He wants us to understand its magnificence because it brings glory to Him.
Therefore, sticking one’s head in the sand and ignoring what science has discovered about creation and the universe is wrong. Why do some do it? I believe it is because they believe that some truths claimed by science contradict what scripture says. No doubt, there are seeming contradictions. But both “books” – scripture and creation – are from God. So, turning one’s back on one of God’s books is not a viable option. What is one to do then? Well, like seeming contradictions within scripture itself, you do your best to work it out. You don’t throw away part of scripture to reconcile a seeming contradiction. And, it is possible we will not be able to work through some of the seeming contradictions down here. But we don’t lose faith. We know God has it worked out.
So, what is the most obvious scientific truth you ignore when you state the earth is only a few thousand years old and that nothing died before the Fall? It is carbon 14 dating of something that used to be alive – plant or animal. It shows some fossils to be millions of years old. You can find short understandable explanations of carbon 14 dating on the internet. But here is a short explanation. All living things have certain percentages of regular carbon and carbon 14, which is radioactive. As long as the thing is alive, life keeps the percentages constant. When the thing dies, life stops keeping the percentages constant and the carbon 14 radioactive decay starts to reduce the amount of carbon 14 (it changes to nitrogen 14 when it decays). The rate of decay of a radioactive element is measured in half-life. That is how many years it takes to deplete itself down to half of what it was. The half-life of carbon 14 is 5700 years. While the carbon 14 keeps declining, the regular carbon stays the same. So, by comparing the amount of regular carbon to the amount of carbon 14 left in the fossil, one can calculate how much carbon 14 has decayed and thus how old the fossil is.
For example, if only half of the “at death” carbon 14 is present, the fossil is 5700 years old. If only a fourth is left, then the fossil is 11,400 years old. By this testing method, like I said above, some fossils have been determined to be millions of years old. This shows that the earth is more than a few thousand years old. As for man, he didn’t begin showing up in the fossil record until about 200,000 years ago, and since some fossils have been decaying for millions of years, life on earth died before man was here and thus before the fall.
Carbon 14 dating is not a theory – it is a fact, a truth of God’s creation. So, if you consider both of God’s books, you have to have a different explanation of creation in Genesis 1-2.
Sincerely,
Dennis Christian
