Young Earth vs. Old Earth, Part 1 – An Indefinite Period

There are many who view Christians as ignorant, even willfully blind, for believing what is written in the Book of Genesis is true.  Christians, in fact, argue among themselves over the question of how the Six Days of Creation described in Genesis can be reconciled with scientific findings as to the age of the universe. 

This is the Young Earth/Old Earth Controversy.

Renowned Prof. Emeritus of Mathematics at Oxford, author, and Christian apologist, John Lennox, has addressed the subject at Socrates in the City (the lectures hosted by Eric Metaxas) and elsewhere.

The posts in this series are excerpts from a Question and Answer Session in which Lennox participated at Rice University (first aired by Jesus & Science Films on April 15, 2025).

“‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’  And then you’ve a sequence of days.  Remember that?  Six days and a day of rest.

Now, here’s the interesting thing.  In the Hebrew language the first statement ‘In the beginning were the heavens and the earth’ and the earth was this and that is made on one Hebrew past tense.  The tense changes to another past tense for the description of the days.  You can establish that…

And what does that mean?  Well, Prof. Jack Collins who was a scientist and is now the chief translator for the English Standard Version of the Bible…says, I quote, ‘It means that the first statement occurred at an indefinite period before the second.’ 

What does the Bible say about the age of the universe and the earth?  Absolutely nothing. 

So why fight about it, folks?  Why?  I meet people…who have been put off the Gospel because they say there’s a flat contradiction.  But there isn’t.  There is only a contradiction between it and the dating given by cosmology these days on the basis of a certain interpretation of the Bible.

Now, I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God.  I don’t believe that every interpretation of it is.  And we’ve got to separate between those two things.

So linguistically it seems very clear that we cannot be dogmatic here. 

Now, there’s a lot more to be said.  But people say, ‘Look.  The word “yom” means a day.  A 24 hour day.  And that’s the finish of it.’  But just a moment.

You see, what I’ve just told you is quite subtle.  Because it means that no matter what you think the days are, the universe isn’t young because its creation occurred an indefinite period before the days.  So the interpretation of the days is not affected by the question of the age.”

This series will continue next week with Part 2 – A 24 Hour Day or Something Else?

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