I do not recall anywhere in the bible saying that the Earth is 6, 000 years old. And in fact, it says the opposite. It says this:
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And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth
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Websters defines that as - To build up again
Furthermore, if you actually study the origional Hebrew, in which it was written, there is a complete seperation between sections in Genesis. In other words.
In the beginning God Created
is seperate from
And the Earth Was Without Form Or Void
What am I saying. Its simple. The earth was without form or void, because it was inhabited before, God, in essense re-created, or really build the earth back up. This is actually very, very, very clear. Why, because the Bible clearly states that before man was made, God had created the angels. In fact you find Satan in Genesis. Satan was certainly not created along with man, nor were the fallen angels.
The point is simple. The earth was without Form or void for a reason. The angels fell. Do you believe they left gently? Obviously not. One can assume, that the massive devistation we find in Genesis, when the earth was without form or void, was a result of this falling out. Its no different then revelation. At the end of revelation, the earth will be unrecognizable. Why would it be any different here? God is the same yesterday, tommorrow, and today.
We also know, that along with the angels, which were created who knows how long before our current species, that
God had created several other creatures, many of which are mentioned in the bible. I cannot tell you what was here before us. But I can tell you that when God says:
Going back
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And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth
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That there was something here before. and all the fossil evidence points toward this, as does the bible. Otherwise why would the bible say. " Replenish.
Lets analyze this a bit more though in depth. Through the hebrew. First lets take the first statement in genesis.
In the beginning;; that is a beginning which you cannot date. You can estimate it as billions of years, and I think you would be accurate, but who knows how many? Certainly man does not know, we can only estimate. It says no where, 6, 000 years ago. Not one place. That is a misinterpretation of what is written. Now lets look at the Hebrew word that was used for create. It is
bara - To create out of nothing.
This word, the Hebrew word that is, is only used 3 times in Genesis! Why? Because it records the only 3 acts of creation.
(1) The creation of something from nothing: ;In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.; (2) The creation of life: ;And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth ; (v. 21). That;s animal life of all kinds. (3) The creation of man: ;So God created man "
Now, after this( god created the heavens that is), there is a pause. We are not sure what happened. But we know that the earth ended out being without form or void. It also states
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;Darkness was upon the face of the deep;
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Which would indicate that it was without God at the time. However, going back to without form or void. The origion Hebrew word is
tohu - In ruin, or in ruins
Right, there, looking at the origional text would point to my origional thought. Ruin in Websters is stated as
Ruin - the remains of something destroyed
or physical, moral, economic, or social collapse
Again, we know that before man, God had created many other things. This is biblical. Here we find the earth, ruined, or the remains of something destroyed. I believe this can be connected with the fall of the angels. Which would be fitting, seeing how Satan was found here. And again, he was clearly created before mankind. And in fact, a clear establishent and order was way before man. Otherwise, what would have Satan and the other angels fallen from? They certainly were not created fallen, or they would have fallen from nowhere. This would stand to reason, that in all the creations we see in the Bible, God creates numerous creatures. Again, pointing to the fossil evidence that we see in the earth. That goes right with the biblical account.
The word void, in Hebrew is bohu which means emptiness, or vaccant. In Isaih we have;
;For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else; (Isa. 45:18)
In other words the Earth was created to be inhabited. We find it in ruin, and vacant, and God says " replenish it. "
As far as creating everything else. There is nothing mentioned in Genesis about that in the recreation. The fact that God said, let there be light, does not indicate that is the time he created the Sun. If the earth were without form or void, it was probably so screwed up, that barely any of the suns rays could reach the ground. It was in ruin, and without void. If you go to LA you can see how disgusting the sky can look with all the polution. Let alone, if an entire catatrophy happened that left the Earth ruined had taken place. he simply cleared things up, he did not create them. The word bara is not accosiated with this. It is a recreation and a replenishment, according to the terminology used.
There is nothing unscientific about Genesis. And the fact that the earth was in ruins, is shown throughout the whole recreation. For example:
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And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good [Gen. 1:9&11;10].
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Now there is a horizontal division made of the waters. First the waters above were separated from the waters beneath. Now the water is separated from the land, from the earth. May I say to you, there is nothing unscientific about this. According to science every spot on topside of this earth on which we live today was covered with water at one time. That was evidently a judgment that had come upon the earth way back sometime in the distant past, and we know practically nothing about it. Anything we say is speculation. God has really told us very little here. But He has told us enough so that we can believe Him, that;s all.
And in fact. The Bible is not even centered around creation. That is not God's point. The entire theme from Genesis, to revelation. Is the fact that man fell, and the redemtion that must take place after that fall. After which, Jesus is profesied in every book from Genesis on. For example in Isaih
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Isaiah 53: 1 - 12 -
1 Who hath believed our report ? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded F243 for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid F244 on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison F245 and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; F246 because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
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That literally tells the entire story of Jesus life countless years before he even came! And there are profesies like this throughout the bible from Genesis on. That is the theme of the book, not creation. But no where does it say that everything was created in 6, 000 years.
again ;In the beginning; that is a beginning which you cannot date. You can estimate it as billions of years, and I think you would be accurate, but who knows how many? Certainly man does not know, we can only estimate. It says no where, 6, 000 years ago. Not one place. And In fact, God says this to Job:
God asked him the question: ;Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding; (Job 38:4). In other words, God is saying to man, ;You talk about the origin of the universe, but you dont;t even know where you were when I created the earth!
Here are my feelings. As far as how much does man know about life. How many of you have lost loved ones from sickneses and could do nothing about it? That is how much we understand life and its complexities. If you ever get a chance to look at a cell through an electron microscope you will understand the compexity of life. One cell, even according to an atheist. Is more complex than the most complex machine ever created by mankind. It is an entire world taking place in even the most basic of cells. Let alone trillions of those cells working in unision in an organizm. Our brians are more powerful than any computer ever designed. I feel that says something about who created that brain.
However, we still would have to have faith
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: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
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And yet, even if you look at the most basic life form you can see, a machine so complex that it boggles the mind.
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Romans 1:19-22 ( KJV )
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21
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Life is so complex, so amazing. In addition, God is not seperated by science, if you believe in him, you believe he created what we see, and the physical laws that surround us.
Those are just my thoughts. My real point however was simple. Its not biblical that everything was created 6, 000 years ago. The main biblical message is Jesus. Not a time frame of when we were created, or by what means God created us.
