Creation: How long did it take?

God created the heavens and the earth. Many of us agree on that point. Many people don’t so they are gone already. I hope they change their minds. How long did all this take? Wow, a Big Huge subject and more of us will disagree. Mainstream science thinks it took a long time. Many of us who believe “God created” also believe he took a long time. It was His choice after all. I know your Bible says days, but the Hebrew word there is “yom or yowm”. As with all things Old Testament, “yom” must be taken in Hebrew context and arguments are convincing that consider “yom” a long period of time. A Jewish view of creation is interesting. Jesus, after all, was Jewish, as were most of the Bible writers. This discussion has, itself, been going on for a long period time. So we can’t blame everything on Carl Sagan (just to pick a nemesis).

Atheists find this all quite wonderful and write articles such as “How Hubble Killed God”. They don’t get it at all but they are having fun and sounding smug, smart, informed, logical and objective. Good luck with that.

Why the big deal? I sort of agree, although it would be nice to be close to what actually happened. I lean toward the longer time periods because the science of it is overwhelming and I think the Bible possibly leans that way as well, perhaps directly stating it. The big panic is some people are all hung up on “original sin.” Death came with Adam. Take a peek under the “motives” behind young earth and this is the issue. If a bug died before Adam’s sin then God is evil because DEATH existed with that bug, and Adam had not yet sinned and caused all this evil. OK, the Bible clearly says death of man started with Adam. Man not bugs, get over it. And if you are hung up on the death of some dinosaur or bug as being sin and therefore destroying the integrity of Scripture, you need to join those P.E.T.A. people and start picketing somewhere. But I love you anyway, just don’t send me any signs or donation requests.

Evolution is particularly terrifying to Young Earth followers. Let's not give old Crow Magnon enough time to become somebody. Mr. Magnon has more trouble than time, but that is for another post.

I’m not saying there are not real, live, breathing scientists on the Young Earth side. But they are so undone by the prospect of any death before Adam’s sin that they torture the science relentlessly, possibly to prove their point, but at least to cast doubt on Old Earth. Their trick (perhaps unkind) is to take any scientific anomaly (there are within many measurement systems and theories anomalous errors) and puff them as proof. Great stuff for Joe Christian but never effective on the informed because these anomalies are well known and understood. Oh well, it takes all kinds and I wish them the best. God seems not to take offense at this and probably gets a kick out of it. Reminds me of the “straining at a gnat,” quote in Jesus time. I daresay the Lord is more concerned about how these two sides are treating each other than the right or wrong of specific points. I believe these people are all good people and trying to do the right thing so God Bless them, and perhaps they are correct after all.

If it turns out God did choose to do all this in six 24-hour periods, one wonders why all the scientific evidence to the contrary. I will enjoy a good laugh with God however, if that is what He did. He surely had them all fooled. God is not humorless after all, but I don’t see the trick here.

Is there any hope for the young earth people. Not much, but Australian scientists Barry Setterfield and Trevor Norman claim a decrease in the velocity of light over time. This would make everything much younger than it appears. They swim upstream in the scientific community but that does not make them wrong, just less likely right. Science is so convinced in the speed of light constant it would take much to convince. The Barry Setterfield interview is interesting.

I have heard it said there is more evidence for a flat earth than a young one. The discussion gets downright mean at times.

I find it all interesting but irrelevant to my walk with or belief in the God of the Bible. An old trick of Satan may be operating here, his first and best trick in fact. He persuaded Eve to add to God’s words. Or maybe it is simply our nature to add and Satan takes advantage of it.

Gen 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

God did not say they could not touch it. One can imagine Satan persuading Eve to touch the tree (how bad can that be) and, hot dog, she did not die. See, God was wrong. We need to be certain of what God actually said or we end up in BIG HUGE TROUBLE.

Did God say six twenty four hour periods?

Maybe he did but s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d time: Age of the Universe Gerald Schroeder, Ph.D. Ancient Jewish scholars lean toward 24-hour periods. This time dilation is my personal favorite. God did carve in stone that it was six days "for in six days" Ten Commandment style. But from who's viewpoint is the question. It allows God 6 days and me 15 billion years.




One should mention the Gap Theory. I'm not taken with it, you may be.

If you have decided this subject is much more complicated than first thought, you would be correct. I believe God wants us to view it as 7 actual days for prophetic reasons. I am sure they were literal days in some way.

Has Science Discovered God? (Fantastic presentation I viewed on EWTN, a home school must have)

You can listen to an excellent discussion on this by Chuck Missler.

Some very smart people question Einstein (Gasp)! Here is Mr. Flanders on Gravity. Without relativity, many concepts change. Even Big Bang has some problems (Gasp2)! More BB problems.

By BigHugeThing