The Age of the Earth: Thousands or Millions?

[Music] in 1 chronicles 12:32 we read about the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times and I want to ask us do we have understanding of the times do we know what is happening in our Western world we see the collapse of the Christian fabric the collapse of the Christian worldview why is that because a foundation has been removed and the structure is collapsing what foundation the foundation of the authority of the word of God it's about time God's people went out there unashamedly uncompromisingly stood in the Word of God and said this is what it's all about proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ show that we can defend our faith if we start standing on the Word of God that's what's gonna change this nation well good afternoon I feel like saying amen every time I hear that particular provo well welcome my name is Brian Osborne welcome to the 12 o'clock session here at Answers in Genesis now this particular session is a hot-button issue when I love talking about for a lot of reasons is the issue of the age of the earth and as well see ultimately this issue is a matter of whose word do you trust do we trust the Word of God the infallible perfect being the creator of all things or the words of fallible men whose word do we put our faith in and we're going to see that play out as we go through this particular talk now understand that our passion in this issue as we dive into the age of the earth it's not about winning arguments or winning the baits it's rather about defending biblical authority to proclaim the gospel effectively saying they own God's Word from the beginning unashamedly defending God's word of what it clearly says from the very first verse that's why our passion comes from so we can proclaim the gospel clearly but why are the secularists so passionate about this particular idea because they really really are well I think here's one of the fundamental reasons their calls for evolutionism to be true if you want to believe in that you have to believe in some pretty unscientific things like everything coming from nothing and life from non-life and information from nine thinking matter order from disorder etc etc and all those things well they violate known laws of science so if you still want to believe in evolution then who is your hero they'll come in and save the day for your theory from all this contrary observable evidence and the answer is time time is their hero and this is why the secularist are so passionate about this issue of the age of the earth this Nobel Prize winner put it well talking about evolution he said this time is in fact the hero of the plot what we regard as impossible on the basis of experience here is meaningless given so much time watch this the impossible becomes possible the probable the impossible probable and the probable virtually certain one only has to wait and time itself performs and the miracles I hope you caught that at the end they need a miracle to save their naturalistic theory timers their hero but as we think about this remember the story of the woman who kissed the Frog and got the prince remember that story now it doesn't happen that often in real life at least I hope not right now I'm kind of curious how many of you ladies out there watching got your husband by kissing a frog hopefully of nobody okay so it doesn't happen in real life but according to evolution this is a fundamental tenet in their thinking about history because in evolution you see life came from non-life and evolved into the first simple single-celled organism no such thing is a simple single-celled organism but it evolved into a frog over time and eventually it evolved and to well in the prince it's the same fairy tale with one little different big difference difference and that is this if the fall turns into the handsome prince very quickly well we know that's a fairy tale but if the fraud turns into the handsome prince very slowly that is modern secular science the difference a super-duper magical ingredient called millions of years time itself performs a miracle and that's why I believe is one of the main reasons the secularist and the sake of the world is so passionate about this issue of the age of the earth in the universe so how old do they think it is who are going to secular estimates there at this roughly 4.5 billion years old and universe is roughly 14 billion years old but that's based on man's word a man's interpretation what if we start with a radical idea that we trust the eyewitness account of the creator himself if we do that the plain straightforward reading of the biblical text is that God created in six days roughly six thousand years ago and actually the vast majority of the early church and church fathers believed that very clear reading of the biblical text up until the early 1800s we'll see why that changed later all he was about how do we know this is the Bible explicitly say the earth is 6,000 years old and it does not but it gives us something better it gives us a birth certificate of sorts a way to calculate the Earth's age based on the data we find in God's Word in particular I'm talking about those biblical family trees in the Bible so and so begat so so it begins also those things you love to read at night when you're trying to go to sleep they work better than melatonin right they'll just knock you out and as some of those family trees he gives you the age of the father when he has his son and then it gives the sons age when he has his kid and that kid days when he has his kid and keeps going down the line and we can add these ages up it's not hard to do to get a good general age for the earth so doing that we know from Adam to Abraham was roughly 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus is roughly 2,000 years and from Jesus to us today is roughly 2,000 years you put that all together the earth is around 6,000 years of age we put another way God made everything the earth universe roughly around 4000 BC now we don't think you be exact and say 4004 BC dat o'clock in the morning we do know that Adam was made in the afternoon because it was just before Eve but other than that you can't be dogmatic and some would say oh okay Brian that makes sense for then wait a minute how do you know those days in Genesis our regular 24 hour that's a good question and here's a good answer in a word x2 Jesus and this is how we're supposed to read God's Word exegetically it means to read out of it means you read a text in its context because context determines meaning that's a common function of language no it's so often asked of us here at Answers in Genesis well couldn't God have used many viewers who couldn't God have done this or couldn't God had done that and fundamentally that's really not the right question the question is what did God clearly say he did and do we believe it so if we read the Bible in context and read the word day the Hebrew word for days y'all from read that in context then what does the word day meaning the context of Genesis chapter 1 well we got recognized most words have two or more meanings and dust Noah the word day is no exception to that for example look at this one sentence back in my father's day it took 10 days to drive across America during the day you got the word day three different times with three different meanings and you know it means something different each time it's used based on the context right context determines meaning common function of language so here's the question when does the context in the Bible in the Old Testament particular here always demand that the word day be understood as a literal 24-hour a day like we now experience well guys anytime we see one of these contextual clues in the Bible it's always a literal 24-hour day so anytime we see the word day that's accompanied by a number like on the first day or during the second day over 400 times it's always a literal 24-hour day any time we see evening and morning without the word day or with the word day over 60 times it's always a literal 24-hour day any time we see night with day over 50 times it's always a literal 24-hour day so when does the word day mean a regular 24-hour day well remember anytime we see any one of these contextual Clues just one time it's always a literal 24-hour day so with that being said how is it written in Genesis chapter 1 is it clear or is it unclear based on the context surrounding the word day and I'll let you decide as we look at this remember these clues here we go Genesis chapter 1 the days of creation verse 5 first day of creation says this so the darkness he called night so the evening and the morning were the first day clear or unclear if we're being honest that's really really clear right and notice for every day of creation evening morning number day evening morning number day evening morning number day I think I'm noticing a theme there all right guys think about it it's literally contextual overkill it's like God knew we would struggle with this later wrong he's given us some help all right multiple times based on multiple contextual Clues these are regular 24-hour days plus on top of this there are lots of really good Hebrew words that mean an indefinite period of time that the author who's God could have use that that's what he wanted to say he used none of those he used the word day based on the context a literal 24-hour day and this idea is reaffirmed throughout scripture by the biblical authors by Jesus himself and throughout other biblical accounts and biblical books for example in Exodus 20:11 and says this for in six days Lord made heaven the earth the sea and how much all that is in them the text is really really clear and actually God worked that on a rock with his own finger alright the text is clear so with that being said if the text is so clear then why don't so many Christians today myself for a long time if I'm confessing here and so many Christian leaders say why don't they believe what the text clearly says in context and I think we're being honest because this idea of billions of years has so saturated our cultural thinking email own thinking we've embraced it not really recognizing we're really trusting man's ideas over God's clear word I think it's really what's happened and some would say okay Brian we'll wait I mean as a science proved in millions of years with things like radiometric dating Starlite and rock layers etc etc and the short answer is no please bear mine you cannot scientifically prove millions of years why because you cannot observe or repeat millions of years in a laboratory that's really important to understand but the more fully grasp what I'm saying here let's define what we mean by the word science because word science comes from two Latin words means to know or to gain knowledge and for most of us when we think of the word science we think of the scientific method right a method that we use to accumulate knowledge and then make stuff or do stuff but that can really be broken out into very broken down into two very different distinct categories about how we accumulate this knowledge and the first category will be this something some will call observational or operational or experimental science I sometimes call this here-and-now science like a friend of mine says this type of science is what we think of when we say the word science it's done in the present it's observable testable repeatable and falsifiable and actually it's only possible because the Bible is true but think about you know it's an example someone in a laboratory they mix chemical a with chemical beep get results see and they repeat the process and they accumulate knowledge and then use that knowledge to have the meaning of our world and use it for God's glory and man's good hopefully and through this sort of science we have amazing technologies and smart phones and computers and satellites and medicines no conflict whatsoever between operational science and the Bible actually pretty much every major branch of modern-day science was started by a Bible believing Christian it's true who recognized these guys recognized that we can and should do science because the biblical worldview on is true it only makes sense within the dublicate worldview but guys here's the key this is really important to grab ahold of you see operation does not explain origination origination where something comes from that's more of a historical question that's a different process with different parameters around it because here's the thing when you're doing historical science or origin science this type of science is very very very different from operational science why well because you're trying to figure out what happened in the unseen past but the past it's gone watch this the past is not observable testable repeatable or falsifiable this is this makes historical science very different than operational science you see what the storable science you're gonna do this again interpret present-day clues with a worldview a set of assumptions about the unseen past built on one of two major foundations God's Word or man's and guys here is the key this is simple but it is profound here's the key if you start with the wrong assumptions you'll most likely get the wrong conclusions and this is why have some really smart secular scientists can be so wrong about particular things like the age of the earth and rock layers and dinosaurs etc why they're starting with the wrong assumptions about the unseen past they're trusting man's ideas over God's clear revealed word about history wrong assumptions wrong conclusions reminder the story of a little boy in the doctor's office with his mom and they're waiting in the waiting room as her wedding in the waiting room the boy looked across the room he saw a very pregnant lady so you walked over her like little boys do and said excuse me miss but why is your belly so big and she kind of laughed she said well I'm having a baby and the boys confused and the baby's in your tummy she said oh yeah and the boy said was he a good baby she said oh yeah he's a real good baby to wish the boy responded in horror well then why did you eat him not quite right right wrong assumptions wrong conclusions and keep that thought in my foundationally this is why so many secular scientists get this so wrong so with that in mind let me show you where the idea of millions of years actually originated from this is really helpful and we use this textbook to help us out on this this textbook says this that before radiometric dating was available many people thought the earth was just thousand years old it's true but then in the late seventeen hundreds james hutton did you realize and this is a radical ball for most people today that up until the early 1800s essentially most scientists believed the bible and thought the earth was only thousands of years old it's true so what did they discover that particular time to change our minds reject the Bible instead of believed in millions of years what do they find well give you some hints they did not find any new rocks for any new fossils they are the same rocks and the same fossils it was not radiometric dating that changed their minds that comes in the early 1900's and is wildly inconsistent so what did they find to change their minds the answer is nothing at least nothing tangible but what they did find was a new world view a new way to interpret the same old evidence let me show you what happened we continue in the textbook but in the 1702 James Hutton estimated the earth was much older he used the principle of uniformitarianism big word bold print that'll be on the test and this principle states that the that the earth process is occurring today are similar to those that occurred in the past in other words the way things happen now long slow gradual natural processes only is way it's always happened in the unseen past and he observed that the processes that changed the rocks and land around him will very slow so he inferred now the good word there might be assumed they've been just a slow throughout Earth's history he then hypothesized another the good word for that would be guessed it took much longer than a few thousand years to form the rut layers of rock in the inter or the mountains around him so guys please notice Hudson got his conclusion of millions of years watch this not based on any new evidence he had the same rocks in the same fossils but he got had a different interpretation based on different worldview that started with the assumption that God's Word a supernatural creation global flood that history is wrong and that man's ideas about the past or better starting points based on a principle of uniformitarianism that the present is the key to the past way things happen now long slow gradual natural processes only ways always happen in the unseen past and guys that fundamental assumption is based in the world view and the religion of naturalism humanism atheism which basically says matters all that is this and you can and must explain all things through only natural processes and these are religious assumptions he was not being neutral neutrality is impossible either God's Word is true or it's not either some of God's Word or you're trusting man's ideas there is no such thing as neutrality and notice religion wasn't kicked out of science at this point it was just changed to a different religion naturalism humanism became the new dominant religion and his work had a huge influence on a guy named Charles Lyell who became the father of modern day geology Alaia applied uniformitarianism to the rock layers and fossils and he basically argued we don't need Noah's Flood to find all the rock layers and all the fossils he said we can spend all those rock layers and all those fossils with only and all the canyons with only natural processes if we just give those natural processes enough time same basic ideology based on naturalistic worldview and what was his motivation similar to Hutton's and this shift away from God's Word to man's were being a foundation for understanding of history well I'll said it well in a letter to a friend his goal was to free science from Moses get God out of science because ultimately we must really realize this ultimately this is not a head issue it's a heart issue that becomes a worldview issue as a result the heart issue a battle over the will trust God's Word or you become as God and Trust man's word instead I'm so we see this shift starting really in a powerful way in the modern era and the late 1700s early 1800s away from God's Word Hutton causes Minnie to doubt the need for creator and a creation roughly six thousand years ago based on naturalistic ideology al applies it to geology and it causes people to doubt the need for a global foot to subscribe to Genesis six through nine and then along came another guy and this guy loved Charles Lyell's work and he loved the idea of uniformitarianism and this guy had dropped out of medical school he was actually in school to become a clergyman but before kind of finalizing that this guy took a trip on the Beagle as a naturalist and solid Galapagos Islands and many other things and it took Lyle's book with I mean he applied uniformitarianism to biology and who was that man you probably guessed it Charles Darwin and Darwin argued we don't need a creator to explain the diversity of life just give natural processes enough time and we see kind of this clear progressive rejection of God's Word on all things historical especially about origins and now it's the point today we're pretty much in every set in every scientific field the secular mindset dominates and the secular worldview has permeated and gotten dominates every secular scientific field every scientific field and they look at all things through that naturalistic lens I can show you a thousand quotes like this one here a couple quick ones dr. Scott Todd put it like this from Kansas State University you said even if all the data all of it pointed to an intelligent designer if it all pointed to God such a guess is excluded from science why it's not naturalistic or this famous Harvard geneticist put it like this he said it's not that science compels kind of paraphrase it by the way it's not that science compels us to believe in materialism naturalism atheism rather it's our prior commitment to materialistic causes that lead to materialistic explanations and guys please notice this there's the heartbeat he's coming from and this materialism bottom sentence is absolute why we cannot allow a divine foot-in-the-door not a head issue say heart issue and because this mindset guys this mindset right our textbooks we see our textbooks say stuff like this all the time science is restricted to a search for natural causes for natural phenomenon supernatural explanations are outside the bounds of science why because naturalism naturalism has become the new dominant religion of our world today especially the Western world but actually the entire world in different ways and you know Hitler said this Hitler said if you tell a lie loud enough and long enough the people will start to believe it we see it happening right before our very eyes so kind of putting all this together we really see this foundational shift starting in the eighteen hundreds away from God's Word - man - it has the ultimate authority and now that that secular ideology dominates the scientific community today they have in a sense have been brainwashed with that world view about the past and so guys we should not be surprised that secular scientists get such radically different conclusions about the unseen past and the age of the earth etc they're starting with radically different starting assumptions about the unseen past they're trusting man that is we should be trusting God's Word and guys today this naturalistic worldview dominates the scientific community is applied to every observation that they look at today including things like radioisotopes so give you a quick example I found these assumptions are applied today with ISTEP dating I will show you this particular quick little video from the DVD check this out you'd use three minute summary a very mature dating and as you watch this hold on tights a lot of stuff but really catch the big picture message wrong assumptions wrong cook wrong conclusions your worldview really matters there you go nearly every textbook in science magazine teaches that the earth is billions of years old and the primary dating method used for determining this is what is called radioisotope dating or radiometric dating now this is a reliable method for measuring absolute ages of rocks and the age of the earth right first off many scientists now regard the age of the earth to be between four point five five and 4.6 billion years old okay so if this method is reliable and accurate why the 50 million year discrepancy that seems like a lot but let's get into some details here and see what's going on keep in mind there's all kinds of scientific jargon on this topic and so we'll just present a very straightforward simplified version of the process radiometric dating is the process of estimating the ages of rocks based on the decay of radioactive elements in them basically there are certain kinds of atoms in nature that are unstable and spontaneously decay into other kinds of atoms for instance uranium will radioactively decay through a series of steps until it becomes the stable element called lead the original element is called the parent element and the end result is called the daughter element radioisotope dating is commonly used to date igneous rocks rocks which formed when hot molten material cooled and solidified the dating clock started when the rock cool during the molten state it is assumed that the intense heat forced any gaseous daughter elements to escape it is assumed that once the rock cooled no more atoms escaped in any daughter element now found in the rock is a result of radioactive decay since that rock formed the decay rate is measured in terms of half-life that is the length of time it takes half of the remaining atoms of a radioactive parent element to decay now of course that can be measured in a laboratory and it is assumed that since we know the decay rate we can calculate backwards and come up with the age of the rock but is that all there is to it here's where it gets tricky it's true we can measure a decay rate using observational science but there's another kind of science that is required to accurately calculate dates for rocks and that is what we call historical science historical science deals with the things in the past and therefore cannot be repeated and tested dating methods require both types of science because in order to get accurate Rock dates one would have to accurately know both the decay rate and the initial conditions of the rock sample right since radioisotope dating uses both types of science we can't directly measure the ages of rocks there are assumptions involved for instance how do we know what initial conditions were in the rock sample how do we know the amounts of parent or daughter elements now in that sample haven't been altered by other processes in the past how does someone know the decay rate has remained constant since the rock formed the answer is they don't let's simplify here and talk about a typical hourglass let's say you walk into a room and you see an hourglass with sand at the top and sand at the bottom and some sands sprinkling from the top chamber to the bottom well observational science would allow us to see and measure the sand and then calculate how long the hourglass has been running right we could make our sand measurements and then calculate when the hourglass was turned over right well those calculations could be wrong because we may have failed to consider some major assumptions like was there any sand at the bottom when the hourglass was turned over as any sand been added or taken out of the hourglass as the sand always been falling at a constant rate since we did not observe the initial conditions when the hourglass started and we haven't been watching the sand all the time since then we must make assumptions all three of those assumptions can affect our time calculations now of course there's more to understanding than this but hopefully you got all that sly information I understand but getting the big picture perspective notice this all secular dating methods are based on observations in the present and assumptions about the past nothing comes with a label on it Radio isotopes all have a label rock layers Bonsall combo labels you must interpret them with a worldview and again wrong assumptions wrong conclusions and this is why the second list are so wrong on this issues notice the secularists before they engage the evidence they assume the Bible's history is not true they assume there was no supernatural creation there was no global flood they explain the only things with only natural processes before they engage the evidence they're not being neutral Ameri mind the evidence does not speak it must be interpreted with a worldview and a person speaks based on the worldview in their interpretation so all that being said even if radiometric dating worked perfectly it would not prove millions of years but goes to the faulty secular assumptions that drive their wrong interpretations the guise is the opposite of perfect I could show you hundreds of examples of the inconsistencies of radiometric dating here a few good quick examples for the sake of time using carbon-14 dating part of a mammoth was dated to be 29,000 years old another part of the same mammoth dated to be 44,000 years old and that is a very slow birth freshly killed seals dated over thirteen hundred years of age with carbon-14 dating that's off by more than a thousand percent looking at other dating methods like potassium-argon dating this was often used to date igneous rocks and that's lava flows have occurred they've cooled and turned into stone and this one is a good one to test why because we know when in history when certain lava flows occurred when they cooled and turned into stone so we can date those rocks a historical known age when the method to see if it's somewhat accurate here are a few examples I could show you literally hundreds of time permitted for example rocks have formed back in 1972 lava flows occurred cooled we saw it we recorded it the rocks formed in 1972 they were dated with potassium-argon dating to be two hundred ten thousand to four hundred and ninety thousand years old actual known age at the time they were dated was roughly thirty rocks are formed back in 1954 over in New Zealand were dated between 3.3 and 3.7 million years old actual age at the time of the dating was around 50 rocks have formed back in 1959 over Hawaii we're dated between 1 and 15 million years of age actual known age was roughly 40 and noticed a huge margin of error or maybe you remember Mount st. Helens erupted him back in 1980 and from that eruption rocks formed and subsequent eruptions these rocks formed back in 1980 and past that those rocks were dated with potassium-argon dating to be roughly 340 thousand to 2.8 million years old now notice that's a 700% margin of error and also realized that if you can remember that event you must be older than you thought you were all right these rocks were actually twelve years old when they were dated and I could just go on and on and on and then on top of this did you realize that pretty much the large the vast majority of dating methods watch this even using the secularist own assumptions of uniformitarianism and naturalism still confirm a very young earth consistent with the biblical worldview and impossible for evolution few examples of this comments are big muddy snowballs out in space and even the biggest comments will the longest orbit shouldn't last more than a hundred thousand years okay well then the question then comes why are comets still literally everywhere because according to secular thinkin comets formed with our solar system roughly 4.5 billion years ago and guys there is no observed source of replenishment they should been gone a long time ago yet they're still all over the place makes sense in biblical worldview does not make sense in evolutionary thinking or the moon we are losing a moon around two inches per year due to tidal friction and other issues now if the moon is moving away from us that means in the past it used to be closer right now if you go back a few million years in time the moon will be so close to the earth it will destroy the earth twice a day I think once would be enough right and you go back around a billion years ago the moon will run into the earth but a few thousand years will be no problem whatsoever toward the Earth's magnetic field we've measured this consistently for the past 150 years all over the globe one of the best dating methods you could possibly use it's decreased by 10% over the past 150 years now if it's decreasing in strength that means in the past it used to be stronger now if you do the calculation so apply this and go backwards in time roughly 7,000 years ago it would be roughly 32 times stronger than it is today which would be most likely good for us for a whole bunch of reasons but keep going back in time do the exponential increase and a million years ago the magnetic field would be so strong it would vaporize of the earth and I'm pretty sure that would be bad all right core carbon-14 dating some people say all this proves here at this millions of years old ironically it's one of the best evidences of a young earth you say really yeah watch this is really neat so carbon-14 forms at our atmosphere and it is at unstable elements it changes back to nitrogen 14 fairly quickly by radiometric standards and then here's the thing the plants absorb the carbon 14 animals eat plants we eat animals and plants so all living things contain some carbon 14 inside of them actually all of you watching have some carbon 14 inside of you that means all of you are slightly unstable right some more than others you can argue about that amongst yourselves but here's the thing when a creature dies it stops taking in carbon 14 and the carbon 14 it does have starts to decay back to nitrogen 14 now the carbon-14 decays so quickly that within a hundred thousand years after the creatures death there should be no detectable carbon-14 so anything over a hundred thousand years of age should have no detectable carbon-14 so this is another really good test right what do we find again and again and again and again and pretty much all organic remnants and all the rock layers guys we find large amounts of carbon-14 and pretty much all of those remnants and all those rock layers top to bottom we find the carbon-14 in all the major coal seams upper middle and lower we find carbon-14 and diamonds all the time and that really blows the secularist mind because diamonds are thought to be billions of years old and there's no way to contaminate a diamond how is carbon-14 still inside right answer they're just not that old if I call fourteen of dinosaur bones all the time great confirmation of the biblical timescale or other observations we can measure how fast a desert grows based on present-day observations based on uniformitarianism again the secular so in worldview a based on the current rate of growth the largest desert in the world is roughly four thousand years of age now I've got a question why is the largest desert in the world plausibly four thousand years of age I've got a good theory about that I'll come back to the here in a moment or the Great Barrier Reef over in Australia part of this was destroyed back in World War two part of the reef was destroyed and some scientists watched that reef grow back for 20 years which had to be boring right but it grew back actually so quickly they said Wow at this quick rate of growth this entire reef based on this rate we observed today could have grown in less 4,200 years huh why is the largest coral reef in the world plausibly only 4,200 years of age I got a theory about that I'll come back to it it's worth the Sequoias over in California maybe you've seen those before gorgeous magnificent majestic it's an amazing thing to see if you get a chance to check those out someday you really should there's me my wife over the Sequoias and then here's me being a tree hugger that's as close as I get by the way to being a tree hugger but the Sequoias are huge and they have no natural enemies except man and really huge natural catastrophes yet none of them even by secular dating methods are over 4,000 years of age why is that why do you find carbon-14 and diamonds why is the largest desert possibly four thousand years of age where comets still around what is the magnetic field the strength that is that right now why do we observe all these observations consistent with the biblical worldview guys here's my theory I think around 6000 years ago God made everything as his word clearly says and around 44 4,500 years ago there was a global flood that wrecked this world destroyed this water reset all those things things and then they begin to form like deserts and reefs after the flood at real science observations confirms that again and again and again and again and guys here's why and please grab this this is so important the secularist the second the world this shouldn't be surprising to us the secular world is wrong you see the present is not the key to the past you know what is God's Word God's Word is the key to the past the present and the future God's Word gets everything right-winger trust all that it says but it is perfect and infallible from our perfect infallible creator God and again real science confirms us but you won't hear about this why because the secularists must have their hero to save evolution from all this con cherry evidence time is their hero I think what's happened can be summarized nicely but a little story of three boys three brothers all of whom who love to have bananas in their cereal and one morning the youngest brother he got it first and he got the last banana and he was so happy because he'd finally kind of pulled one over on his older brothers but if you're out there and you've got older siblings then you know they don't ask you for anything do they they either trick you and take it somehow or they beat you up and just take it by force and these two older brothers said they said hey brother is that the last banana it's like yeah and I got it she was so happy but then they said to their brother hey little brother do you even know how bananas are made he said no they said well little brother you see there are these spiders over in South America and when they die their legs fold down and mold grows all around their legs and really bananas are old moldy spider legs he said no they're not you guys are lying to me you just want my banana but they said no brother it's true if you cut the banana open you'll see the black spots where the legs used to be me the clever right because they understood if you want to sell a lie the best way to sell a lies to incorporate some truth and that's what we do with rat poison rat poison is 99.995% good food it's the point zero zero five the rat really should be worried about and guys in a very similar way there's lots of really good operational science making amazing advances in technology and medicines and the world around us today but hear me it is the poison of uniformitarianism based in the worldview of naturalism that's causing so many today to get the wrong conclusions about the unseen past based in a secular ideology Oh guys here's the thing let's be fair and clear don't we expect a secular world to have a secular mindset that's really not that surprising right so we should not be surprised that they've embraced that secular ideology that's their foundation of course but here's the bigger problem infinitely bigger problem and that is this many Christians today and now for multiple generations have swallowed that same poison and the results have been catastrophic you see let me show you what happened in the early 1800s when the idea of moon tears became very popular and science says your if there's millions of use old million theologians at that time probably with really good intentions started to say Wow okay well scientists proven it well then somehow we got to squeeze this idea into God's Word aside in the noise of years and many theologians really starting over in England and Europe and trip around the world to America after that started doing something called eisegesis and guys this is how we are never to read the Bible isogenic this means to read into this is to take an idea that's not natural in the text but you try to squeeze it into the text because you think the text should say that idea that is I said Jesus I mean we get to do that do that with millions of years in the early 1800s and so they began to reinterpret that word day in Genesis and so maybe those days and Genesis aren't regular 24-hour days despite the context maybe they're just long periods of time to make it square with millions of years and you get something called a day Age theory you probably heard this before this came along in the early 1800s because that's what many years became popular in our modern incarnation of it and so became popular then and typically the biblical evidence quoted for this particular view is verses like this one 2nd Peter 3:8 or it says this don't forget this one thing beloved that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and so many people jump on that bandwagon and I did for a long time in my younger years and say see a day is like a thousand years maybe those days aren't real literal periods time back in Genesis but now today we encourage people to read the rest of the verse and a thousand years is as one day kind of cancels that right out doesn't it and guys notice please please notice the context of this particular verse this verse literally in context has nothing to do with how we understand the word day especially back in the book of Genesis this word is about God and his patience and his patience wait for those to be saved who will be saved and that he's not bound by time because he lives outside of time it's about his patience and his attributes this verse here me has nothing whatsoever to do with how we understand the word day especially way back in the book of Genesis and then here's my bigger question why is it that so many Christians today only apply that sort of thinking a day is like a thousand years to Genesis chapter one why don't we apply that idea to other biblical events right a days like a thousand years what about Joshua marching around Jericho he marched around for seven days eight days like a thousand years maybe march around the city for thousands or millions of years alright or Jonah in the belly of the great fish he's in there for three days two days like a thousand years he's there for 3,000 years alright or oftentimes you're quoting that New Testament verse let's apply that New Testament of verse to a New Testament event a day is like a thousand years apply this for thinking - how about the resurrection Jesus is in the tomb for three days a days like a thousand years he's still in the tomb no that is ludicrous right we only do it in Genesis why if I might be so bold I said Jesus trying to squeeze man's ideas in to God's Word and this doesn't work for so many reasons and particularly the de-age theory if those days and Genesis are different long periods of time you got multiple problems for example the Bible says this that God made plants on day three but if day three is a long period of time here's the bigger problem well the Sun wasn't made until day four and that's going to be a problem for the plants so they force another long period of time you got plants for many viewers without the Sun that's gonna be a problem also the birds and the bees we're not made until a day five to pollinate the plants that's another era of time you would have to make up for plants living without those that's physically impossible lots of problems related to the gap or the day age theory on that issue and then you get other ideas well someone say okay maybe those days are literal days well maybe there's a gap of time somewhere in there in Genesis there many different versions of the gap Theory the traditional view was admitted by Thomas Chalmers in the early 1800s again when the million views forgetting popular trying to squeeze this idea into God's work many different variations but the traditional one is that there's a gap there in Genesis chapter one between verse 1 and between verse 2 no see there's a gap between verse 1 in the beginning God created heavens and the earth and verse 2 the earth was without form and void now rightly understood in context and the Hebrew rightly translated in English verse 2 describes verse 1 they're not separate events verse 1 he made it verse 2 this is what it looks like no separation same event just a description of it but the gap theorist says no there should be a separation they say the word was should be translated as became the earth became without form of what had got destroyed how well in the traditional view the gap there suggests this is when the devil fell and corrupted a pre-adamite race of soulless hominids there will be your eight men more or less and gots in a Luciferian flood not noah's flood but the devil's flood uh since to wipe the world at that time that's why he puts you millions of years millions billions of years and then after that God begins to reform and refill the earth problems with this idea are legion first the word in Hebrew for was it's rightly translated as was and cannot be became in context also notice these ideas right here are nowhere in scripture nowhere but that is what happens when you try to squeeze man's ideas into God's Word and also you make a really good argument that the devil fell most likely after a day seven and then of course X is 20 slanted or on the gas theory foreign si days were made heaven the earth the sea and all that is in them and then someone say but ok well maybe just God used evolution alright maybe we just add billions of years to the biblical text to make the Bible's creation account square with evolution but you can't do that at all the order of events and creation they contradict the order of events of evolution at least 30 different points they're really going in opposite directions just adding billions of years to the biblical text doesn't make a square with evolution a few examples of these contradictions according to the Bible God made the earth before the Sun according evolution of the Sun way before the earth according to the Bible God made the earth covered in water according evolution the earth sort of sort as a hot rock according to the Bible God made plants before the Sun evolution has plants but as the Sun rather before plants if we could just go all and all and all but I'll stick to the big picture for this particular talk notice with every one of these Old Earth ideas and there many others progressive creation framework I potus's cosmic temple and many others there have one major common factor what is that common factor a common factor is this they're trying to import ice ajit the idea of millions of years in to God's Word every single time and there's also another commonality we have found with these Old Earth ideas as we talk to theologians and pastors around the world and seminary professors as we travel and give lectures on this issue we engage Christian leadership on this issue we've found those common factors we talked to the scholars on these issues that the majority would actually agree around the world that yes the plain straightforward or reading of the text in context in Genesis 1 is that God created in six days roughly 6,000 years ago they'll agree that's what the text does seem to clearly say in context but then many will go on and say this today sadly the majority most likely would say this but that cannot be what it means why because of millions of years essentially every single time and guys watch this if we say this is what this book mean this is what this book says but that's not what it really means we have just said this work is fallible contains errors and cannot be trusted if you can't trust the first chapter of this book why trust any other chapter if you can't trust Genesis 1:1 why trust John 3:16 or the book of Revelation this is an authoritative issue of God's Word I want to show you a few examples of Christian leaders who have compromised on this issue that's causing so many others to compromise as well and guys please hear me on this as I share these examples I'm not trying to attack these men I think all these guys are about to quote they love God they love his word they love the loss but they're missing it here and there cuz of so many others to stumble and what we are tacking is a calm provide compromise to view that's causing so many to stumble and undermine Biblical Authority and let's recognize this truth as I as we do this exercise there's a quote these men to show these clips every single person me you every pastor every theologian we are all held accountable to the ultimate theologian which is God in accordance with his word that's what we're doing here so here a few examples of this dr. Gleason Archer well-known scholar did many wonderful things for the key no doubt you probably recognize his name if you have done any theological studies but he said this a superficial reading of Genesis 1 will give the impression that creation took place in 6 24-hour days this seems to run counter though to modern scientific research indicates the earth is billions of years old or a more present-day example dr. William Lane Craig has done some great things for the kingdom just some good apologetics in other areas like the resurrection and so forth and so on but he's missed it in many areas this is a major area he has just dropped the ball on listen to what he says here how old is the world it's best estimates today are around 13.7 billion years or so now this is good you see this is a position I can embrace because there are people who will sit here and say no it's six-and-a-half thousand years old that that is not a tenable position I don't think it's plausible the the arguments that I give are right in line with mainstream science I'm not bucking up against mainstream science and representing these arguments where I'm going with the flow of what contemporary cosmology and astrophysics supports he's going with the flow of a secular interpretation of present-day observations that's what he's doing really recognizes it or not he's really dropped the ball on this issue there's well many others as many others dr. John Wallace said many things here as he's being interviewed by by logos theistic evolutionists place be very wary of them listen to what he says here my book I've tried to show that the the account in Genesis Swann is not intended to be an account of material origins if that's so the Bible has no narrative of material origins and if that's so then we don't have to defend the Bible's narrative of material origins against a a scientific narrative because the Bible doesn't offer one in that case we can say well if the Bible doesn't offer us a narrative we can look to science for the narrative so many problems with the sort of thinking it doesn't give a narrative with a how come all biblical authors and Jesus quote Genesis as real history Adam and Eve as real people Noah's Ark and flood a real event if you look at the genealogies for Jesus over in Luke Jesus's genealogy is traced back to what man Adam a real man in real history our real representative first had the first human of all humans goes back to that real history and by the way his books and his thinking permeates our seminaries and Bible colleges today or a person you might be more familiar with John Piper who's done many wonderful things for the kingdom no doubt but he's missed it here listen nobody's us and this interview or he might take say lemurs view which is where I feel at home namely that what's going on here is all of creation happen to prepare the land for men in in first one beginning he made the heavens in the earth that's everything and then you go but day by day and he's preparing the land he's not bringing new things into existence he's preparing the land and causing things to grow and separating out water and earth and then when it's all set and prepared he creates it puts man there and so that that has the advantage of saying that the earth is billions of years old if it wants to be whatever so it says it is it is notice whatever science says it is it is the guys again science does not speak scientists because they interpret evidence with a worldview about the unseen past I think one more example I show you a clip of this pastor you might recognize him his name is Andy Stanley pastor of a pretty big church over in Atlanta I think roughly 30,000 people with all these satellite campuses for his particular church he has a huge influence on many pastors around the world today and I want you a couple of quotes from Andy Stanley on these issues and before I share other quotes I've watched all six sermons in this series of to copious notes on all the sermons these clips are in context you look up more later on if you like but here the clips are from Andy Stanley we really believe whether you take it literally or figuratively whatever if we really believe that God is the creator of the universe that all time space and matter all time space and matter were created by God and we take seriously what science has told us that it all began with a singularity that's what it's referred to right before there's not such thing as before the Big Bang because before is time and time began so if we go to the singularity that was the big bang that unfurled the universe that continues to expand so it's basically saying we can embrace the Big Bang in the Bible and squish them together isogenic aliso and the listen to what he says here and the moment your theology conflict conflicts with the discoveries of science you have a theological problem not a science problem let that sink and and by the way to be fair to him that's what every other person you heard before him said they said the same thing he just said it a bit more boldly and concisely my guys there's so many reasons squeezing mint of years into the Bible does not work first the text and grammatical structure Genesis it doesn't allow for millions of years the biblical authors and Jesus allow for millions of years the evidence rightly understood does not allow for millions of years and guys most importantly of all the Bible's theology and the gospel indirectly does not allow for millions of years you say what do you mean we'll follow me on this this is so important the Bible is clear that it was man's sin that brought death the enemy into God's perfect creation see Genesis 3 Romans 5 verse Corinthians 15 revelation etc but here's a problem if we try to squeeze millions of years into God's Word no matter how you try hear me you'll put death before sin and death before sin is theologically impossible for a whole bunch of reasons here if you first and justice 129 and 30 and the original perfect creation got to Adam Eve they were to eat root and the animals they were to eat plants originally all things were vegetarian which I know sounds weird to us today but makes really good biblical sense because there was no death in this world until after Adam sinned which means you can't eat meat until after they sinned originally all things argit area it's not - after the flood that god told noah just as it gave you plants to eat now you can eat everything so you can't eat filet mignon wrapped in bacon or whatever okay post flood but why is this a problem here's why it's a problem if we reject the clear biblical teaching and its implications that God made a perfect creation but then man sinned bringing death and suffering into this world and then there was a global flood that they'd done most the rock layers and fossils we see today if you reject that and you instead embrace the secular idea that the rock layers of fossils well they were laid down slowly over millions of years by natural processes only they lay down slowly over millions of years before ever existed and thus before sin well and those rock layers supposedly laid down before men before sin we find lots of evidence of animals eating each other but the Bible says before man sinned all things were vegetarian we find diseases in the fossil record things like brain tumors and cancer and author itis but before men sinned we find that the Bible says god looked down all day six before man sinned - caught everything very good surely he would not call millions of years of death suffering bloodshed cancer coronavirus very good all right if he did it would not be a very good God and guys if this were true it makes God the author of death and he used death as part of his creative process that's not the biblical God we found thorns in the fossil record supposedly millions of years old but the Bible is clear thorns came after the curse their result of the curse their symbol of the curse thus why Christ wore the crown of thorns he bore the curse on our behalf and then most important of all if we try to squeeze millions of years into the Bible it does not matter how you try de-age Theory gap Theory progressive creation theistic evolution framework apophysis whatever they are all put death before sin and watch this logically and theologically if there's death before sin that would mean death is not the consequence or the payment for sin it's just always been part of God's original very good creation and if death is not the payment for sin then Jesus's death cannot does not pay for our sin debt and we just annihilated the foundation for the Gospel through Christ's atoning work on the cross world we meant to or not and at best at best made this event in history on necessary hey guys can I tell you something dis is why we care so much it's also passionate about this particular idea again it's not fundamentally about winning a debate about the Earth's age or the universe's age rather defending biblical authority and the gospel rooted in that authority that's why this matters so much and hear me I'm sure that many of you like myself for a long time had the best of intentions when you try to squeeze many degrees into God's Word you had really good intentions my guys can't we as Christians have really good intentions I still get really bad consequences I can't write and we tell you a little story I'm good take me a little bit long but you'll enjoy the story it's a true story about good intentions bad consequences many many years ago I was a childcare director for a little bit a particular place and one day I came into the building with the kids and the kids saw me like hey mister I was born they were so excited to see me and I kind of realized at that moment I didn't really know these kids and I wanted to bond with the kids I was my motivation my intention so I thought let's go to the park and so I can kind of play and bond with the kids a little bit so say let's go so they're all happy we all go to the park the leaders go with me and of course chocolate director we get there and then when we get there some kids see me and they see a merry-go-round now this was 20 years ago and so these merry-go-rounds had no governors no Stoppers there's nothing to slow them down these were real merry-go-round and say hey mr. Osborn will you push us on the merry-go-round I thought perfect I can bomb with the kids yes papa so I start pushing the merry-go-round and the first words out of their mouths was of course faster right so I'm pushing it faster and faster and eventually they are just hanging all for dear life now that's just for dramatic effect in the picture but what they'd actually done is they had caught up to the middle part of May around holding on to the inner bars never doing that back in the day all right hold onto inner bars and they weren't saying a word just clinging for dear life I didn't true story as I'll spin the merry-go-round a thought occurred to me I guess just because I'm a guy my motivation shifted away from bonding with these kids - how fast can I make this thing go and I started giving that merry-go-round everything I had after a few moments it was moving and I was impressed with myself but then a thought hit me can you spin this thing fast enough to where the force of the spin would suck those kids out of the merry-go-round no sooner had I thought that one kid starts to lose his grip he shoots out of the merry-go-round and coming out a bar hits him on the head on the way out he spins like helicopter top towards my knees I jump over this poor kid I looked back he skips on the ground like a rock on water doomed it to him I look up one kid shoots out that way hits the ground hits a tree there's one kid left I'm thinking I gotta save at least the last once I thought my hands into the mayor go out that I did it to my girl finally stops this last kid is crying all right I think one gets one quick second to gather myself I think to myself okay that's it I've had a really good run in this life I am now going to jail I've just killed two kids there's no way they're still okay here right so I ran to check on the kids I learned a couple of important things that day I'm sure you guys have learned in your lives in different ways I learned this you can have some really good intentions too so get horrific consequences now the kids were fine even when I get hit in the head had a big bump of course but he was okay they're all fine I learned that kids are amazingly tough and I learned that you can have some really good intentions to still get horrific consequences and guys when we compromise God's word with man's ideas even with the best of intentions we'll get the worst of consequences and we truly much of the church to today it saddens me to say but we have an ice of Jesus problem trying to squeeze man's ideas into God's Word and it is about time that we recognize where the attack is happening today and stand firm on God's Word from the very first verse this echo would have said in Proverbs that every word of God is pure don't add or take away from his words lest he rebuked you I love this verse I read the other day psalm 138:2 that God has exalted his name and his word above everything else his word is perfect and let us say with Joshua let's choose this day who we will serve as from me and my house we will serve the Lord and trust in his word whose word do you trust God's or man's that's really what this is ultimately about now to be fair on this particular talk we're covering so many issues related to the age of the earth we're skimming the surface you can dive so much deeper or any one of those categories we cover today so go to the website Answers in Genesis org there are thousands of free Oracle's one two free videos on that website to give you more answers to deal with all these issues and death tons of books that are great on this the book six days kind of gives you all this information I focus on this issue more depth really powerful read great to share with people who are struggling with this as well for a shorter book old Earth Creationism own trial but dr. Jason Lisle Tim Chaffee they do a great job on this book is a quick rebuttal of Old Earth ideas for more deaths theologically speaking this book coming to grips with Genesis general editor dr. Jay Morton done many talks with us part of Answers in Genesis great speaker great writer great editors well great book on this issue check that out for the gap theory check out unformed enough filled great powerful biblical rebuttal that wrong idea and then why this stuff matter so much be sure to check out the book the lie that really kind of gets down to the core issues of why this is so important defending biblical authority from the beginning and for quicker answers the answers books one through four they're all phenomenal dealing with so many different questions roughly thirty questions per book profoundly powerful books to have in your arsenal in your homes in your churches to defend the faith what about the rock layers geology is typically tied to the age of the earth how we understand that from a biblical perspective with a young earth well this is a great book on that issue and therefore really quick answers get the book quick answers to tough questions I'm biased towards that book it's my book that gives you very quick concise answers to all these issues including Ag earth and what about carbon-14 dating etc etc also have the quick answers to social issues new book using answers to the social issues of our day check both those out online answers for kids are we got those just an hi we got tons of these resources for example answers for kids books one through four geared towards kids 5 through 11 years of age really well done you know one question from a kid with a paragraph answer kids love them adults love them as well they're very bite-size very understandable it gives you good answers for your family and then what the age you're at the dinosaurs how do you explain down source within a biblical framework great books on that for kids and adults here's one for kids you can check that out online and then tons of DVDs out there for my a DD friends okay then help you in all these issues answers DVDs quick answers to tough questions and that DVD I'll cover the age of the earth carbon 14 dating the starlight very quickly very concisely amongst many other issues so many great resources i dr. take more sense a great DVD called millions of years where the idea originated from and more depth than we covered in this talk really good book and the dive deeper theologically I encourage this DVD biblical creation strengthening your defenses powerful information could you check that out be aware of this there's free shipping on all orders over $50 right now take advantage of that and don't forget about the magazine comes out bimonthly deals with current biblical authority issues and science and morality so well done Swan so many awards when top-selling Christian magazines in the world has a kids section in it and you get the digital version as part of the subscription check out the master's class and you buy that four night all six classes for $19 roughly $300 value phenomenal deal and it's knotted for the answers insider our newsletter comes out monthly online when you do so you can download kynapse testimony for free and then be aware starting May 4th the day after my birthday we have a new set of new schedule for our live programs so be aware of that it was changes a bit still tons of programs coming your way but a different schedule be on the alert for that also be aware that today at 3 o'clock we have Ken talking about camels with Korea and then 7 o'clock there's a very special announcement I'm excited about Ken's going to give about the ministry it's really good news it's a powerful thing you will love it check that out of 7 o'clock tomorrow at 10 o'clock you got Roger doing live science doing a great job with that and that 12 o'clock dr. David mitten fearfully and wonderfully made you will love that talk stay tuned for that you can donate to the ministry here any amount as you seek out working through Answers in Genesis be a part of that and we pray to you we'll just think about that pray about that and then you can find me on Facebook or Twitter if you want to engage me there dive deeper on these issues I'd be glad to help in any way that I can and I'll leave you with this one last verse Colossians 2:8 I think you kind of summed up well what we talked about today and really so many other issues that we talk about here at the ministry Colossians 2:8 says this we're warned by God through Paul see to it that no one takes you captive through Hollow and deceptive philosophy depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ let's be sure we're not taking captive by the secular ideology of our age let's stand firm on God's Word F in the faith to proclaim the gospel effectively to his glory in our eternal joy you guys have a wonderful day we'll talk later all welcome to our amazing adventures I'm your host buddy Davis and we have an exciting program for you today we're on our way to the Florida Everglades a million and a half acres of wilderness what a swamp that is but there's all kinds of critters that live in and around the Everglades let's see if we can find something hold your hat here we go [Music] but in the venture this is gonna be so come along with me let's go [Music] you

Channel: Answers in Genesis

Views: 30,702

Rating: 4.856997 out of 5

Keywords: Biblical authority, Creation Museum, Answers in Genesis, truth, animals, age of the earth, how old is the earth?, uniformitarianism, 6000 years, deep time, Lyell, Bryan Osborne

Id: qmM8Ne9e9-o

Length: 69min 58sec (4198 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 30 2020