Drew said:
Interesting question. I think it is valuable and informative to restrict the poll to Christians.
I voted no - I do not believe in the 24 / 6000 idea. My view is based in part on stuff I learned at University, particularly in the area of cosmology -the big bang, etc.
This proves my point.
You don't allow God to tell you what He did, you must allow man to tell you what to believe, then you go to the Bible and try to make it fit what the world tells you.
unred typo wrote
I’m not sure if you would count the book of Jasher as a “non-biblical thing†but it is mentioned in the Bible as a reliable historical source.
Well, I was specifically talking about the so-called "modern science" that tells us that there is no God and everything is here because of random chance.
cubedbee wrote
The Earth is not 6,000 years old, nor does the Bible say it is. The Earth is billions of years old, and this can be known with certainty by studying God's creation, which is a witness to us by him. The belief that the Earth is 6,000 years old is only supported with a distorted and incorrect reading of the Bible, much like racism and geocentricity were supported in the past.
God tells us that the earth was created by Him around 6,000 years ago. It is written in Genesis and the rest of the Bible. Just add up the geanologies and you will see what I am talking about.
Drew wrote
It is simply naive to think that there is a single literal interpretation of the Bible.
The truth doesn't change because of someone's intrepretation, does it?
Say Calvinism for example. Some people believe it to be true while others don't. People's belief doesn't change the fact that it isn't true.
In the same way, we need to allow God to tell us what He did and leave it alone and not try to tell Him what He did.
The problematic examples are too numerous to list. Do you believe that the mountains will literally "clap their hands" (I forget the Scripture reference) or that we are supposed to "pick up snakes", etc? Should I really pluck out my eye when my gaze lingers on a bikini clad woman for too long (maybe I should, but I really doubt that this is God's will)? Where do we draw the line between literalness and interpretation?
The Bible does say "be holy for I am holy" doesn't it? :wink:
It is a simple fact of the world that information delivered to us in the form of words is necessarily subject to interpretation.
If you stopped by my house and wanted directions to Atlanta, I would tell you to take the highway south to the interstate and head east until you get to the city.
How likely would you get there if you doubted my directions? Say you wanted to believe that I meant to go north and then go west, how long would it take you to get to Atlanta?
You wouldn't get there because I spoke to you in a specific language and gave you precice directions and it is your problem if you didn't understand them.
Besides, I think that when God hits us over the head with empirical evidence about the age of the world, we need to "take what we are given". To me, the evidence is clear - the earth and universe have been here for billions of years.
Again, what you are doing is putting confidence in people instead of God's Word.
Have you ever done the studies yourself or have you just read in books or elsewhere that the current theory in the secular scientific community says it is billions of years old?
Please tell me exactly how interpreting Genesis 1 as myth invalidates the reality of the gospel?
Ok. It is simple.
Romans 5:14
“...death reigned from Adam to Moses...â€Â
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
1 Corinthians 15:45
“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul...â€Â
These three passages clearly state that Adam was the first person to ever live and we already know that there was no curse before Adam's sin.
Adam's sin caused the curse and that means death.
So to believe that the earth is old, you put death before Adam's sin, which means that God is the author of death instead of the author of life.
I know that you didn't want this answer, but it is the clear meaning of the Word of God.
The Barbarian wrote
The problem is that the Bible doesn't say that the Earth was created 6,000 years ago. Nor does it say literal 24 hour days.
YE creationism is not consistent with Bible-believing Christianity.
What? Add up the dates from Adam to Noah (about 1,565 years) and then from Noah to Moses and then from Moses to Christ. It adds up to 4,000 years and it has been 2,000 since then, thus it is 6,000 years.
Genesis 1 uses the term "evening and morning the first day" and so on, telling us it was an ordinary day.