“Has God indeed said . . . ?” Genesis 3:1
These very words, spoken by the Deceiver to Eve in Eden, started mankind on the path to sin. Today, similar doubt has been cast upon Scripture itself, especially Genesis 1–11. One of the points of contention regarding biblical authority is evolutionary deep time. Conventional science tells us Earth is 4.6 billion years old. But the genealogies and chronologies in Genesis and other parts of the Bible provide an age of about 6,000 years. Both ages cannot be correct.
Where did this age originate? Prior to the late eighteenth century, all Christian churches and nearly all Christian scientists held that the earth was about 6,000 years old, following the chronology of James Ussher (1581–1656) in 1650.1 Along came Scottish naturalist, James Hutton (1726–1797). His observations at Siccar Point, Scotland, in 1788 provided the “proof” of an old earth he had been seeking.1 He wrote at the end of the 1788 edition of Theory of the Earth, “The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,—[sic] no prospect of an end.”2 He dismissed the biblical timescale with a stroke of his pen.
By 1830, geologist Charles Lyell (1797– 1875) had a clear agenda to free science from the writings of Moses, writing in a letter, “I am sure you may get into Q. R. [Quarterly Review] what will free the science from Moses, for if treated seriously, the [church] party are quite prepared for it.”3 How correct he was—not just with the church, but with science also.
By the start of the twentieth century, the church began to cave on Earth’s 6,000- year age.4 Henry Morris wrote that theologians and Christian scientists alike admit a “straightforward” reading of Genesis suggests the earth was created in six 24-hour days.4 But, it was argued, such a view “denied and belittled the vast amount of scientific evidence amassed to support the theory of natural selection and the antiquity of the earth.”5 Therefore, many placed the authority of “science” ahead of the Word of God.
The role of “science” in theology expanded in the twenty-first century. Oxford’s John Lennox questioned the 24-hour days in Genesis 1 by rationalizing that there are many meanings to the word “day.”6 Biblical scholar C. John Collins wrote, “The days are God’s workdays, their length is neither specified nor important, and not everything in the account needs to be taken as historically sequential.”7 But the days’ lengths are specified! Each day of creation is identified by “morning and evening” and its number. How much clearer could it be written? The length of a day is important, like all Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16). That’s why the Lord wrote with His own hand, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them [emphasis added]” (Exodus 20:11). He could have written, “six long time periods.” But He didn’t.
Christians should never question the perspicuity (clarity) or authority of Genesis by allowing modern scientific philosophy to trump God’s Word. First Timothy 6:20 reminds us, “Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge,” which has included ideology passed off as science. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me” (John 5:46).
References
- Repcheck, J. 2009. The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of Earth’s Antiquity. New York, NY: Basic Books.
- Hutton, J. 1788. Theory of the Earth. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 1: 209–304.
- Lyell, C. 1881. Chapter XI. In Life, Letters and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart, vol. 1. K. M. Lyell, ed. London, UK: John Murray, 268.
- Morris, H. M. 1989. The Long War Against God: The History and Impact of the Creation/Evolution Conflict. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 102–104.
- Pun, P. P. T. 1987. A Theory of Progressive Creationism. Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation. 39: 9–19.
- Lennox, J. C. 2021. Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science, 10th anniversary ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 63.
- Collins, C. J. 2006. Genesis 1–4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 124.
Stage image: Siccar Point, Scotland
Stage image credit: Dave Napier
Dr. Clarey is the director of research at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in geology from Western Michigan University.
