Old Or Young - Make Up Your Mind

Is the created universe young, or old? By young I am meaning something on the order of 10,000 years and by old I am meaning the 13-15 billion years that the evolutionary scientists would have us believe. I believe in a young age, for reasons I will expound upon in a moment. But first it is important to note that this question, and the answer thereof, is of minimal significance in the overall scheme of things. Of vastly more importance is the answer and response to the question of Christ’s significance to my life.

Nevertheless, why do I believe in a young age? Here are my reasons:

1. One of the first principles of Bible study is to just accept the written word at face value. If we do that, the immediate conclusion drawn is that the record of history included in the Bible only covers a few thousand years. This is not a compelling argument, but it is a simple one that is easily understood.

2. Some would say that the 6 “days” of creation do not refer to 6 periods of 24 hours duration. My counter to this is that each “day” transitioned to the next one via an evening and a morning. When one has to rely on a convoluted argument to prove that the simple, plain text interpretation or understanding of the Bible is not correct, I begin to have a problem. And the simple understanding in this case is that a 24-hour period, as we know it today, is being described.

3. Various passages of Scripture refer to God having brought the universe into being by speaking it.
“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry hosts by the breath of his mouth.” Ps 33:6
“For he spoke, and it came to be.” Ps 33.9
It seems incredible (as in, not credible) to me that God only spoke the time-space continuum into being and then stepped back to allow natural interactions, in accordance with physical laws set by Him, to deliver this present age some 15 billion years after His first cause.

4. Closely coupled with argument #3 is the struggle I have with accepting that God would require the passage of time to lay out the universe as we see it. This concept seems to imply that God isn’t up to the challenge of directing the uncountable number of physical interactions that occur every moment throughout the universe, so He had to rely on large quantities of time to give Himself the appropriate statistical chances that things would turn out. This flies in the face of the idea that God has a plan, that He is actively directing the course of history.
“according to the plan of him who works everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” Eph 1:11

5. The creation account in Genesis does not follow what would be expected of a naturalistic, evolutionary process. For example, it wasn’t until the 4th day that the sun, moon and stars were created. This is completely out of line with a naturalistic explanation. Believers who attempt to find common ground with evolution would have to discard this whole day in the account. And once you start picking and choosing what you will believe you really have no credible position any longer.

As you can see, my reasons have little to do with scientific evidence and everything to do with the declarations of the Bible. I think it is important to pause and think about that distinction. Each person must decide where their ultimate truth will come from, the wisdom of man or the wisdom of God.
“in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him” I Cor 1:21

Personally, I’d rather start with believing God and then wait for the understanding to come that allows man’s knowledge to match up. This is a key point, and I will linger for a moment to explore it further. Consider this,
“since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Rom 1:19-20

In the movie “Expelled” one of the Darwinists was asked what he’d say to God if it turns out that God really does exist. The answer was something along the line of “Why did you hide yourself?” Quite clearly the exact opposite is true. God is not in hiding, that which may be known about him is plain to see. In fact, even his invisible qualities are knowable. They are evident in the very creation, the very STUFF that the Darwinists claim as their only source of knowledge!
“The heavens declare the glory of God.” Ps 19:1
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?” Job 12:7-9

How is it that so many supposedly wise men have come to a completely false conclusion? The Bible has words to describe the current situation,
“their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” Rom 1:21-22

I don’t expect that these few words will convince anyone about the age of the universe. That isn’t my intent. I’m more interested in getting you to think about the source of the claims that you ascribe to as truth. Are you relying upon the wisdom of man, or the wisdom of God. In the case of the question before us, I’d much rather say simply that I don’t know how old the universe is, but I do know that God created it, he has directed it according to his plan from the very beginning and it will reach fulfillment some day when he brings “all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” Eph 1:10