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?
READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse and More
https://avoicereclaimed.com
A Lawyer's Prayers 
This makes perfect sense to me. Thanks for this balanced and helpful perspective, Anna. [Grateful for my 3 years of Hebrew classes many years ago]
What a gift Prof. Lennox has been to the Church in recent years! Such a gracious witness to the living God.
Yes, John Lennox is quite wonderful, in my view. When I think of how Christians have argued w/ one another over this subject, it breaks my heart.
Oh this is really great stuff Anna! Looking forward to more!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Ron. Two more posts will follow. 🙂
Hmm, I choose to disagree with the good professor.“The universe isn’t young because its creation occurred an indefinite period before the days.”Within the creation “days” is the creation of the lights of the sky, including the sun, moon and stars. Curiously these “light-bearers” were created AFTER light was already in the universe (Genesis 1:14-18).That light existed BEFORE the light bearers may give the “impression” that radiance from Alpha Centauri originated 4.34 light years ago (although “light years” is actually a measure of distance, not time), the light between AC an Earth already existed.
Old-earth theories are based on fossil records incorrectly dated by a pseudoscience of carbon-14 dating which is only valid for a few thousand years. See https://www.neurobioresearch.com/posts/the-carbon-time-warp-why-your-radiocarbon-date-isnt-a-calendar-year. This dating method assumes C-14 always decayed at the same rate, an unprovable guess.Most dating of fossils starts with a theory of how old something is based on previous discoveries, and then forces the C-14 dating into a preformed chronology.
Most importantly, old-earth theorists surmise that death was occurring on earth for billions of years, whereas the Bible teaches that “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12) meaning death would have predated Adam.Will we believe theorists who deny the accuracy of Scripture or will we believe the Bible means what it says?😉
All that said, Father is amazingly merciful and will straighten out us all (including me) when we gather round His throne… if we even care about such things then.😇❤️&🙏, c.a.
I find this an enormously interesting discussion, and am happy to consider arguments on both sides. Like you, I expect that God will one day enlighten us all. 🙂
Good discussion, Anna! I also really enjoy John Lennox.
Something we don’t really teach as a church as much anymore is the nature of secondary issues. We have a few foundational issues around the nature of the gospel where we don’t compromise and then we have everything else, dinosaurs, nephilim, aliens, young/old earth, baptism sprinkles versus immersion, end times, etc. The key words there being “everything else.” We refuse to divide over “everything else,” which is going to be most things, because all those things are often clouded in mystery and just can’t be fully known.
I mentioned dinosaurs because I had a little girl in Sunday school once who had a stuffed dinosaur and someone had told her couldn’t be a Christian if you liked dinosaurs. Grown ups can get just as tangled up in that kind of confusion.
You are so right.