Board Thread:Bible Questions/@comment-32443038-20181121083341/@comment-1777104-20181130214331

There is a lot of discussion on this, with basically two camps among Christians: those who believe in a "young" earth, and those who believe in an "old" earth. The latter cannot be found in the clear text of the Bible. Since it is the intent of this wiki to treat the Scriptures with utmost respect, our source on all matters is the Bible itself.

Given that Bible indicates that Jesus Christ is a trustworthy witness, it is our position to take Him at his word. He speaks of Adam and Eve being "at the beginning of the creation" on or soon after the sixth day of creation. After that, Adam is said to be 130 years old when his son Seth was born, and the pattern continues to Abraham's father Terah via Noah. Some ambiguity enters with the exact date of Abraham's birth, but from his son Isaac through his great grandson Joseph it continues, though a bit harder to figure.

Through the lists of kings, and events mentioned from the exodus and the conquest, dates can be figured before and after the destruction of the temple. At that point, secular dates can be used to show a correlation between the Bible and the rest of history. All of these dates put the sack of Jerusalem at about 3500 years after the time of Adam. Counting forward, we see Jesus to have been born somewhere around 4000 years after Adam.

The difference of interpretation between Bible students comes down to the way the accounts in Genesis are treated. The six days of creation seem to be confirmed as days of normal length by God Himself in the giving of the Fourth Commandment (see Ten Commandments, so the Earth is Biblically dated along with Adam. That point in time was a little over 6000 years ago within a margin of error of 5% (about 300 years of ambiguity).

However, many see a problem based on what modern science seems to have shown concerning the speed of light and distant places in space. Through use of assumptions based on wavelengths of light and unprovable hypotheses concerning how the universe came to be the way it is, the "age of the universe" seems to be growing longer the more it is studied. This is where the billions of years comes in. Therefore, for the most part, those findings are not considered in interpreting the Biblical record.