Does the Age of the Earth Really Matter?

The following has been excerpted from my book (which you can order here).

I have a feeling that the majority of Christians who believe the world to be millions of years old don’t know what Charles Lyell, the man who popularized the belief that the earth is millions of years old, believed about the Bible. In his own words, Mr. Lyell believed himself to be "the spiritual savior of geology, freeing the science from the old dispensation of Moses." His goal was to divorce the field of geology from Moses (i.e., the Bible). Allow that to sink in for a moment!

Charles Lyell actively sought to destroy Christian thought in the realm of geology. In a private correspondence with a fellow geologist, Mr. Lyell even explained his method of attack. Instead of outright attacking any essential doctrines, Charles Lyell came up with a different strategy. To avoid drawing offense (and thereby alarming discerning Christians of his true intentions), he instead focused on developing an alternative view of history that would contradict the biblical account of origins. That way, he could slowly chip away at the Bible’s historicity without raising too many eyebrows in the process.

Sadly, his plan worked as he was able to worm his ideas into undiscerning and biblically illiterate Christian circles. The reason that an old Earth is so devastating to the veracity of the Bible is because according to the old-earth worldview, death came before sin! Traces of diseases like cancer have been found in dinosaur bones that are supposedly millions of years old. If this timeline is accurate and dinosaurs truly did live long before mankind, then this would mean that death and disease existed before sin. The Bible, however, teaches that death is a consequence of sin:

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3:19).

According to the old-earth worldview, thorns and thistles have existed for many, many years. According to the Bible, thorns and thistles arose after man’s sin (Genesis 3:18). In fact, the character of God is totally undermined by an old earth because death (from an old-earth perspective) is not a consequence of sin!

Remember, God called everything that He had made "very good" after the six days of creation concluded (Genesis 1:31). Would God call blood-drenched cycles of death, disease, and suffering "very good?" Of course not! 1 Corinthians 15:26 teaches that death is an "enemy" that will one day be destroyed and gone for good! If death is good, if death is not a consequence of sin, then why would death be called our "enemy?" It doesn’t make sense because this is an idea that doesn’t come from the Bible.

Furthermore, the Lord Himself confirmed that the earth is not millions of years old when He taught on the subject of marriage and divorce (Mark 10:1-9). When the Lord spoke of Abel as one of the prophets whom God had sent to proclaim truth and godly wisdom, He confirmed that Abel’s blood was shed "from the foundation of the world" (Luke 11:50). If millions of years had occurred between the formation of the world and the arrival of the first man, Adam, how could the Lord say that Abel was killed at the very beginning of the world? This revelation from the Lord is a silver bullet to the concept of an old Earth.

Thanks for reading,

Angel