Young Earth vs Old Earth

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Let's open up to Genesis chapter 1, Genesis chapter 1, and tonight we're going to be looking at the creation account.
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In particular, the question between young earth or old earth.
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So how old is the earth? There's basically two positions among Christians.
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Number one, there's the literal reading of the Bible, which would lead you to believe that the earth is about 6 ,000 years old, maybe 6 to 10 ,000 years old.
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The second view is that people try to harmonize the Bible with scientific theories.
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So one view says the earth is 6 ,000 years old. The other view says basically what all the modern scientists are saying, that the earth is very, very old, probably four to 5 billion years old.
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So let's look at Genesis. We're going to try to find some answers tonight. Genesis 1, 1 and 2 says, in the beginning,
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God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water.
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So we'll come back to this in just a moment. Obviously there's no statement in the Bible that says, you know, flat out, uh, here's how old planet earth is.
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So you have to kind of, uh, put the pieces together a little bit.
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Uh, the creation account, most people know it as what the, how many days of creation?
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Yeah. The six days of creation. And then the seventh day, uh, God rested.
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We do know some things. We know who created the earth. Heavens and the earth were created by God, right?
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Genesis one says that John chapter one tells us that God created through, uh, his word,
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Jesus Christ, uh, Jesus is the word of God made flesh. John one, one through three and verse 14,
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Psalm 33, verse six says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth.
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So we know God created, but we're not told exactly when he created, uh, why did
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God create for his own glory? Revelation four 11 says thou art worthy, oh
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Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
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So that much is not really disputed, but again, the age of the earth is, uh, is something that Christians, uh, debate and argue about who has made up their mind and thinks they know about, you know,
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I know there's Bishop was a Bishop Usher who came up with the exact age of the earth, like 6 ,345 years and he had it narrowed down to a particular date.
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I, that's, I'm not even going there, but who has their mind made up about six to 10 or very old?
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Who, who thinks they know the answer? Who says, I don't, I don't know.
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Well, I have my mind made up, but I don't know. So we're going to talk about this.
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I actually think there is an answer. Matter of fact, I am, well, how should
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I put this? I am as I want to say certain, but as convinced about this as I'm convinced about any other of the major Christian doctrine, like in my mind,
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I have no doubt about this. So I'll reveal that to you, uh, in a moment, but we're going to look at the age of the earth.
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What does the Bible say? What doesn't it say? We're going to look at the so -called gap theory. Some of you know what the gap theory is, and we're going to talk a little bit about what is called theistic evolution, because this is kind of the big thing, right?
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Kids are taught, everyone is taught in the school system that the earth is billions of years old.
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There's the big bang. And then on earth, you know, life came about through evolution.
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Well, evolution is something that atheists believe in. Unbelievers believe in evolution. It is their religion.
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It's part of it. Yeah. But there is now this thing called theistic evolution where people like Pope Francis, there's basically two sides, right?
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People like Pope Francis on the Catholic side, people like Tim Keller on the Protestant side, they say that God used evolution to bring
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Adam and Eve about. So they're, they're the old earth people, guys like, uh,
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Hugh Ross. That's another name might be familiar with Hugh Ross, Tim Keller, Pope Francis.
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These are professing Christians who say that the earth is billions of years old.
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It's very, very old. On the other side, you have men like John MacArthur, RC Sproul, Ken Ham from answers in Genesis.
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They all are very firm that the earth is young, about 6 ,000 years old.
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So you have professing Christians on both sides. And I don't mean to imply, you know, professing that these people are not
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Christians. I mean, Pope Francis, you know how I feel about that. But, um, I think you can be a believer in fellowship with God and be wrong about this or not right or not, not know that this isn't a gospel issue in the sense that someone's salvation hangs on this question.
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However, that doesn't mean it's not important. Now in full disclosure, I feel like I should bring this up.
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Um, I hold to the young earth position. It's going to come out.
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Uh, I, I am unable, I probably could, but I'm not going to,
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I'm, I feel like I'm unable to give an unbiased presentation about this because again, it's, it, in my mind, it's so very clear.
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And the reason why I'm younger, the reason why I believe the earth is about 6 ,000 years old is because it tells us that God created the heavens and the earth.
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Just read through Genesis one and it says that's day one and then evening and morning were the first day and then day two of creation.
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So there's six days of creation and then Adam was created on day six.
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So you have six days, Adam is created. Then we have, uh, it mentioned how old
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Adam was and then how old his kids were. And then you have the genealogy of Adam going all the way to Jesus.
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So to me it's six days plus the time of Adam to Jesus. So it's, it's, it's spelled out to me.
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Um, so I take the young earth position because I'm convinced that's what the
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Bible says. Now, if someone takes the older position, you know, feel free to challenge me on this.
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Okay. I will not hold it against you. I promise. Uh, but to me this is a settled, uh, issue because if you take the allegorical approach that'll, that'll lead you in another direction,
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I think. Yes. Marcus. Interesting to me, especially that the Hebrew calendar this year is 5779.
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Okay. All right. Now, let, now let me say this.
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I have no problem with somebody saying that the earth appears to be old.
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I have no problem with somebody saying the earth, matter of fact, the earth appears to be very, very, very old.
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Um, why is that? It's sort of like the chicken and the egg thing, right? Um, which came first, the chicken or the egg, the chicken.
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And we say that because God didn't create an egg. He created a chicken full, full grown.
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Right? So when God created Adam, Adam was one day old and he probably looked about 20, 25, 30 years old.
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So God, we know that God created everything with signs of age. God created everything mature.
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So the earth may appear to be four billion. I don't know how you really gauge that.
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I mean, we have nothing to compare it to. We don't know what 44 billion years looks like, but I have no problem with someone saying that the earth looks very old because God created everything with signs of age.
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But the question is, is it actually that, that old? And again, the bigger question, uh, what does, what does the
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Bible say? Can anyone think of a verse that teaches an old earth?
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Now to me, this, this is, this is why it is clear because something in Joe, well we've got to do better.
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To me, there, there is no verse that teaches an older and you say, well, yeah, but what verse teaches younger?
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Why? I told you six days of creation plus Adam's life plus the genealogies.
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It adds up to about 6 ,000 years. So I think you have some biblical evidence for that, but a not for older, it's just not in the
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Bible. Uh, now I brought up theistic evolution. Who knows what theistic evolution is?
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Yeah. You want to give a definition? Theistic evolution, as far as I understand it, is that God created everything as it says in Genesis.
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However, that first day could have been billions of years old because to God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand, this is the first day,
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Paul. Um, and then it's, so each of those days were not necessarily a 24 hour day as we understand it.
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But it took billions of years for what God did to happen. Yeah. Yeah.
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So that's the main argument. And we'll get into that more in a moment. They'll say the Hebrew word yom translated day in Genesis one does not necessarily mean a 24 hour day.
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So that's one of the big arguments. Now I said theistic evolution. Let me just tell you a little story.
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Years ago, I was the Sunday school director here and I was looking through all the material and I came across a book from the
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Yale divinity school. I've told you about this before. So Yale divinity school.
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So I kind of knew this wouldn't really line up with what we believe here. Uh, so what it said, it said that they believe in theistic evolution, that God used the evolutionary process to bring about, uh,
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I don't know if it was Neanderthal man, but basically the, the, the short of it is that there was this caveman type creature, half man, half ape, and God reached down and touched him or breathe the breath of life into him.
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And this ape like caveman creature became Adam. So God used evolution to bring about this man like being, and then
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God intervened and made him human and breathe then.
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Now, to me, that's, uh, that, that seems ludicrous, preposterous.
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These are a few words, but one thing I can say for certain that is not in the
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Bible. Someone might believe that it's just not in the Bible. Yeah.
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Right. And if you were to believe that you would have to deny that Adam was created from the dust because it can't be both.
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All right. So that would require a denial of the scripture. Okay. Marcus, something else.
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All right. He used his hands too. Everything else he created by speaking, but he used his hands to create man.
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So that's theistic evolution. And really, if you believe in an old earth, most people who believe in an older believe in theistic evolution, not everybody.
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Now let's move to another theory that I mentioned. This is called the gap theory.
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Let's read Genesis one, uh, one and two again. And the whole idea of the gap theory is that there is a huge gap in between Genesis versus one and two.
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So Genesis one, one says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth period.
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They say there's this huge gap of time, maybe billions of years went by. And then verse two, the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep.
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And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. So do you understand the gap theory that there is a gap of time, millions, billions of years old in between Genesis one, one and one two.
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Okay. Uh, who has heard of the gap theory? To me, this is another, another problem.
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It's like the theistic evolution where God breathed into the caveman, you know, that's not in the
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Bible. Guess what else isn't in the Bible. You may believe there's a gap in between verses one and two, but it doesn't actually say that you have to read that into the text.
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Larry, they use the argument that says that God saw verse 31, everything that he made in the indeed it was very good, but how is formless and void good?
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Right. Yeah. Well, I, and I don't know, I, I'm not going to argue from other positions.
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I don't, I don't believe that obviously, but that's the idea. And then they move to this next thing where you see the word day, like it's day one of creation day two, day three, day four.
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So the Hebrew word is Yom translated day. And it's true. If you look up the word
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Yom, it doesn't necessarily mean a 24 hour period. Just like when we use the word day, usually we refer to a normal day, 24 hours, but we use the word day in other ways.
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We say, well, you know, back in my day or, you know, in today's day and age, you know, we can use the word day to represent a long period of time.
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Right. So that's normal. It's like that with Hebrew. It's like that with English doesn't necessarily mean 24 hours, but I have a reason why
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I think that it is 24. Yes. The day of the Lord is probably seven years, the seven year tribulation.
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Right. So I grant that day that doesn't prove it, but let's keep reading verse three.
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Then God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good.
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And God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day and he called the darkness night.
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Now if you say day doesn't represent like a normal day and you say it represents billions of years.
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Well, what does night represent then? That's my first question, but it's this next phrase that to me is the proof.
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I mean, this ultimately is why I believe in a young earth. So the evening and the morning were what you see this repeat us like with evolution.
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I believe God knew full well that evolution would be taught in the 18, 19 hundreds, 20th century.
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And because God knew that, I believe that he wrote it in the Bible that everything reproduces what after its own kind.
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And he keeps repeating after its own kind. Why does he keep saying after its own kind? Because evolution is not true.
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Everything reproduces after its own kind. Well, it's the same thing here. You see this phrase repeated in the evening and the morning where the first day in the evening and the morning where the second day in the evening and the morning where the third and just keeps repeating this.
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So if you say that day represents millions or billions of years, well, how can a billion years have an evening and a morning?
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Now again, if you believe in an old earth and you want to explain this to me, that's, that's fine, but it's just so obvious.
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The evening and morning gives context that this is an actual day the way we think of it.
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All right. Any questions on that? Do you at least understand what I'm saying? Even if you, even if you don't agree with it, you understand what
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I'm saying. Okay. Questions or comments on that? Yes. Dad. Yeah.
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One of the reasons that the gap theory had so much popularity in school was the fact that if you don't have the gap theory, where did all these dinosaurs come from?
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Right. And the idea with the gap theory is that all the dinosaurs, the unicorns, all that stuff, all the fossils that we discovered were all fitted into the gap.
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And that is an easy, very convenient way to get out of that question.
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Sure. Yeah. Now the dinosaurs,
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I mean, that's, that's, you know, we don't have time to get into that. I would direct you towards Ken Hand.
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He has answers for the dinosaurs, but yeah, that'll, that'll just take up too much time.
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But you're right. That, that's an easy answer for some people. So one last thing about the idea of a day meaning a long stretch of time, that's fine.
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But to say a day means millions or billions of years, that's stretching the word a little too much in my opinion.
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So that's why I believe in a young earth. You have six days of creation,
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Adams genealogy. It's all, it all adds up to about 6 ,000 years.
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So the gap theory, it's an argument really from science. And if you look at it, what happened in the 1800s, the theory of evolution was on the rise as was theological liberalism.
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So among the people in the pew back in the 1800s, early 1900s, most
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Christians believed in a young earth, but many pastors and theologians were taught at the universities where evolution started, you know, coming in.
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And that's why it started sort of from the top down this other belief of an old earth.
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And because the gap theory made it into the Schofield reference Bible, which the
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Schofield reference Bible, I think up until, you know, a few decades ago, it was the best -selling
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Bible of all time or the best -selling reference Bible. So that note of the gap theory made it into this
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Bible that, you know, everyone back in the seventies had a Schofield reference Bible. So that's how this idea made it in to the local churches, but it just wasn't something people believed before the 20th century, you know, by and large.
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So this idea that the, that the earth is, I'm not saying nobody believed it up until that point, but most
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Christians took Genesis at face value. Let's turn to Romans chapter five, because, you know, a question someone might have, you know, why, why does this matter?
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And again, I don't think someone's salvation hangs on this issue.
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So in some people's mind, if it's not a salvation issue, then it really isn't a big deal.
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But how we handle the Bible, first of all, truth matters. Okay. So whatever the truth is that we should care about truth, but how we handle
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God's word is really what's at stake. And here's maybe the theological reason why
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I believe in a younger. Here's here's the reason why let's read
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Romans chapter five, verse eight says, but God demonstrates his own love toward us.
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And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood.
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We shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
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And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
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You can see the context of this passage is the gospel itself, right?
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You're seeing that. Okay. So this is the good news of God's salvation found in Jesus Christ salvation from what from sin and it's penalty, which is death.
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And we're not even going to talk about hell tonight, but death, right?
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Sin salvation from sin and it's penalty, which is death. The very next chapter,
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Romans six 23 says the wages of sin is death.
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Here's the problem. If you hold to an old earth with all these fossils that you say were there for millions of years, what's the obvious problem?
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You had death existing on the earth for millions or billions of years.
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You have death before sin. So people who hold to an older, they believe in Adam and Eve again, if someone rejects
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Adam and Eve, they don't think Adam was a real person. I would say that person's an unbeliever. They don't believe the Bible, but people who hold to theistic evolution, you know, the
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Tim Kellers of the world, they believe in an old earth. They believe Adam was a real person who sinned about 6 ,000 years ago.
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But in that system, you had death before sin. That is a major issue.
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Okay. Does everyone understand why there would be death before sin in the older position?
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So that raises a lot of questions because the Bible comes right out and says this, look at verse 12.
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Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sin.
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So Paul comes right out and says that the reason why people die, the reason why death exists is because of sin.
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Well, again, the older position says that's not the case. So it really totally disrupts the whole concept of being either in Adam or in Christ.
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I mean, this, this is a salvation issue. All who are in Adam die.
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All who are in Christ shall be made alive. But if there was death before sin,
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I mean, first of all, Paul is wrong. He's saying that death is the result of sin. Paul's wrong.
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And then what else is Paul wrong about? He's wrong in chapter five. Is he also wrong in chapter four when he's talking about justification by faith?
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So there's that problem. But it also throws into question if death is part of the natural order of things from the very moment
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God created, then Jesus really didn't conquer death because it's always been there and it continues to be there.
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You understand the problem with Romans chapter five. All right, now let's turn to Matthew chapter 19.
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So I would say it's, it's the basic issue and I really hope I'm explaining this well enough.
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Right on. It's, it's the literal translation of Genesis chapter one where it literally says day, evening and morning.
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There's that. There's the issue with Romans chapter five. And I think
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I can demonstrate that Jesus himself took a literal translation of the book of Genesis.
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I mean, if you were to try to convince me that Jesus believed in evolution, I mean that'd be, that'd be a hard sell, right?
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So as Christians, we want to believe whatever Jesus believed. I believe Jesus took Genesis literally.
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Look at why I say that Matthew 19 four and five, Jesus speaking and he answered and he said to them, have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female.
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And he said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
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So when Jesus references he who made them at the beginning, who is he talking about?
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Who was made at the beginning? Male and female. He's talking about Adam and Eve. Does everyone agree?
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Jesus is referring to Adam and Eve. Okay. This is proved
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Jesus believed in Adam and Eve. I mean, that really shouldn't be a surprise, but also in Luke chapter three, you don't have to turn there, but you can look at that later on if you want.
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We have the genealogy of Jesus that goes from Adam all the way to Jesus Christ.
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A lot of these old earth people, they say that Genesis one and Genesis two, it's poetry.
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It's an allegory. It's not to be taken literally. So it's an allegory. Well, how many of you have an allegory in your family tree?
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Because Jesus in his family tree, in his genealogy, he has Adam. So Adam is not an allegory.
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Adam was a real man. Jesus believed in Adam and you could stretch that further.
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Matthew chapter 24, Jesus affirms Noah was a real historical figure and he also affirms the flood account.
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So Jesus of Nazareth believed in a literal translation of Genesis. Does anyone deny that?
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I mean, there are people who would deny. Usually people would say, well, Jesus, he just didn't know.
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Most people, even in, you know, the progressive churches probably wouldn't say that Jesus, you know, believed her.
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He didn't believe it. They would just say, he didn't know he was a man. He didn't know. Well, I thought he was the creator.
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Didn't we establish he was the creator in John 1 .1? So I'm just saying, as soon as you take the old earth position, if you're going to be consistent, serious matters concerning the gospel start breaking down, you know, that Jesus was wrong or he didn't know, or like I said, death comes before sin.
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And this is really problematic potentially for the gospel itself. Let's just one more thing.
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Let's turn to Exodus chapter 20, but there's a lot of people we've been going through the book of revelation on a
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Wednesday night. And we all know there's plenty of Christians and I would say, you know, sincere believers, good brothers in Christ.
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They're sincere. I think they're sincerely wrong. They just, they think revelation is allegorical.
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It's symbolic. They just, they don't take the book of revelation literally. So it's usually not always, but almost always it's the same crowd that doesn't believe in a literal view of revelation.
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They're the same ones who believe in an old earth and they don't take a literal view of Genesis either. So think about it.
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If you don't take Genesis one and two, literally, you don't take the beginning of the Bible. Literally.
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You don't take the end. Literally. I mean, you really have to wonder like how much in between do you take, uh, seriously or is that all symbolic?
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So again, it's kind of the slippery slope. All right. Exodus chapter 20. One more thing.
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Uh, what's okay. Six days of creation, the seventh day. What happens on the seventh day?
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And what's based on God resting on the seventh day, the
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Sabbath, right? So the Jews observed the Sabbath day because it's the day that God rested.
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Well, if God rested for millions or billions of years, I mean the whole concept of the
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Sabbath day kind of breaks down. If the seventh day was actually millions of years, just throwing that out there.
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But let's read. There's something more important than that. Exodus 20 verse eight, uh, the
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Lord says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
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But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God in it. You shall do no work.
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You nor your son or your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is in within your gates.
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Look at verse 11 for in how many days? For in six days, the
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Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day.
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Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and how it is. So the whole concept, um, or the thing that's being said here in verse 11 is
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God created everything in, in six days. That's what it says. So if someone's going to say that six days again is millions or billions of years, is that what the
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Bible says? So one last point, I believe in the doctrine of solar scriptural, okay?
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That the Bible alone is my authority. Every pastor I know says they believe in the doctrine of solar scriptural.
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I've never met an evangelical Christian who says they don't believe in solar scriptural.
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So if scripture alone is truly your authority, my authority, if it's truly our authority, if we're going to answer the question, what's the age of the earth, where are you turning?
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Solar scriptural, the Bible is the authority. The Bible says God made everything in six days.
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That's what it says. And then Adam, again, his age genealogy, all the rest people.
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And I say this with all due respect, people who believe in an old earth, they're not getting that belief from the
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Bible. Where did they get that idea that the earth is 4 billion years old? They got it from the atheistic scientists.
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It's being taught in the school. That's where people learn it. They're not learning it from the
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Bible. So I'm going to close with this. I'm going to hang my hat on Genesis 1 and Exodus 20 verse 11.
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God made everything in six days. And I believe the Bible is authoritative to answer this question.