Young Earth
Position
Lately, I've invested considerable time discussing
via e-mail, Intelligent Design vs Evolution. In doing
so, I discovered that AnswersinGenesis.org
has expanded their web site. This encourages
me to share one response, answering the question,
"Are you a "young earther"?
Note: This origional
page, 6/20/08 has additional updated paragraphs in
red.
I grew up getting most of my opinions regarding
evolution from my Dad, a well read conservative
Christian. He held the popular conservative position
of the time that there was a time "gap" of
unknown length in:
Genesis. 1:1-3,
"In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth
was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface
of the deep, (here's the gap) and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let
there be light," and there was light."
This "gap" could account for the billions
of years that some scientists insist is the age of
the earth and the universe.
The "gap" theory goes like this: The earth
and the heavens were created way back in time when
the earth (and possibly heaven) was, or became,
"formless and void", for any number of
years, posssibly resulting from the earlier
"fall" of Satan and his angels. (See Isaiah 14:12-17 and Ezekiel
28:11-19 for the record of Satan's fall).
Then the rest of the Genesis creation account was
seen as a "re-creation" of the earth, being
done in six literal 24 hour days. You may be aware of
this gap theory.
Anyhow, this theory satisfied the dating of billions
of years that the scientists claimed for the earth
and the solar system. It even accounted for the age
of the fossils which could have lived and died in
that "formless and void" period etc. giving
:"evidence" of great age too.
I held and taught this until in the 1950's I came
across the early "John Morris" writings, http://www.christiananswers.net/creation/people/morris-j.html
about the "young earth" possibilities. It
included, how fossils resulted satisfactorily from
the world wide flood etc.. This was the first time
that I realized the "gap" theory was
challenged with the truth of :
Romans 5:12,
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world
through one man, and death through sin, and in this
way death came to all men, because all sinned—
"
This declares that "death" (implying
"death" for all life forms), resulted from
the "fall" of Adam. It had not occurred to
me and many others that this had serious implications
against the "gap" theory. It rules out the
ancient deaths supposedly ocurring during the
"formless and void" period ahead of the
fall. John Morris called attention to this as he
explained the "young earth" concept.
So, as I worked through the "young earth"
concept with the "created apparent age"
explanations, admitting this was no problem for the
Creator, I saw it as a solution.
If God could create a full grown man, apparently with
"adult age", and trees, (which would
obviously have growth rings indicating
"age"), to populate His garden, He could
create "age" into anything He chooses to
create.
Of course when you speak of "created apparent
age" to evolutionists, they retort that this
made God a liar for deceiving the scientists! But the
same could be said for any Biblical miracle that
upsets the scientist. It's just not fair of God to do
things that man cannot understand or doesn't fit into
his rules!
I don't know about you, but I believe in the mind
boggling miracles that are throughout the Bible. I
just read the 3rd chapter of Daniel this morning
about the "fiery furnace" that the three
Hebrews survived etc. God
divided the Red Sea. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
etc. Believers do not require "scientific"
processes for these events. We let God be God!
God who can do this can also "speak" the
heavens and earth into existance, and in His way,
build in "apparent age" to accomodate the
millions of light years that measure the
"apparent age" of the universe. In fact
that is exactly what the Bible declares He did:
Psalm 33:6-9,
""By the word of the LORD were the heavens
made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth. 7 He
gathers the waters of the sea into jars ;
he puts the deep into storehouses. 8 Let all the
earth fear the LORD;
let all the people of the world revere him. 9 For he
spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm."
But, the evolutionist
retorts that the creationist must furnish an
acceptable explanation for the "millions of
light years" that measure their age of the
universe. This seems to be the big, if not the main
objection to the "Young Earth" position.
Well, here is one
explanation found in Trumpet Ministries web site,.by
Carl Sanders: "Decay of the Speed of
Light:"
"Two Australian
scientists have produced some impressive data
indicating the speed of light is not constant as we
have all been taught, but is actually decreasing. The
speed of light may have been ten million times faster
at one time. Thus, the light from the most distant
star may have arrived the same afternoon God made it.
Further, because radiometric dating methods are
physically tied to the speed of light, recalculation
of these dates using a decaying speed of light
results in data that clearly indicates a young earth.
As Daniel reveals, in the end times, knowledge will
increase. (Daniel 12:4)"
Here is an extensive
discussion of five explanations that have been
offered by various "Young Earthers" with a
new suggested explanation, titled, "A new
cosmology: solution to the starlight travel time
problem", http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v17/i2/cosmology.asp the introductory paragraphs follow:
"I propose a new model
of type 3. During Creation Week, all clocks on Earth,
at least up to Day 4, ran at about 10–13 times
the rate of astronomical clocks. Actually the rate is
a parameter of the model. All astronomical clocks in
the cosmos run at the same rate that we would measure
any normal clock today. They have always done so
except under special circumstances where they might
have been affected by gravity. During this time the
rotation speed of the newly created Earth was about
10–13 times the current rotation speed as
measured by astronomical clocks, but normal by Earth
clocks. By the close of Day 4 the clock rates on
Earth rapidly speeded up to the same rate as the
astronomical clocks. All of this was maintained under
God’s creative power before He allowed the laws
of physics to operate ‘on their own’ at the
end of Creation Week.
An ‘observer’ on Earth at this time looking
at the heavens would have seen apparently accelerated
motions. Conversely, an ‘observer’ outside
our solar system would observe apparently very slow
advance of time on Earth clocks. In fact, only in an
extra-solar system frame of reference would Earth
clocks appear to be running slow. This effect would
allow millions and billions of years to pass in the
cosmos, while only a few 24-hour days pass on Earth.
Hence the light from the most distant stars traveling
at the normal speed, c, would have plenty of time to
get to Earth. Of course, I am not suggesting there
were any such observers, except the Creator, but He
doesn’t live within time."
These explanations brought an almost instant retort
that such was ridiculous, referencing, an article by
W.T. Bridgman titled, "Issues on Barry
Settlefield's Claims of a Recently Decaying Speed of
Light", http://homepage.mac.com/cygnusx1/cdecay/cdecay_e2d1.pdf "where Settlefield proposed
that the speed of light was much higher in the not so
distant past." Bridgman then procedes to take
that issue apart.
The "Old
Earth" Concept has its Problems too!
The
light-travel–time argument cannot be used to
reject the Bible in favour of the big bang, with its
billions of years. This is because the big
bang model also has a light-travel–time
problem." The following article developes the
big bang's problem, which is not trivial, "
Light-travel time: a problem for the big bang", http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v25/i4/lighttravel.asp
More
Evidence of "Old Earth" Problems! http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v21/i4/oldearth.asp
Evidence I submitted,
brought a response that we were guilty of
"bending the facts". I responded with an
article, titled, "Responses to an Evolutionist
who accuses Creationists of "bending the
facts"
http://www.ablesoftexchange.com/evolutiontwists.html There is a lot of "bending the
facts" out there!
So, those who
believe and trust a GREAT God, are "safe"
from the wise guys of evolution, and perhaps,
sincerely wrong, "Old Earthers", and can
bask in our faith! God is capable of doing the
miraculous and we will soon get His explanation of
"huge light years" in the creation, when
attending His heavenly "night school". I
expect to get answers to other questions too! It's
pleasant to be one of the "simple ones"!
We know that
"saving" faith is a gift of God's grace:"For by grace you have been
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that
no one may boast.", Ephesians 2:8-9 In a similar way, believing
God's Word is a gift of His grace.
Here is a page from "AnswersinGenesis.org",
http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/bios/
that has a huge list of scientists who are believers,
many being "youmg earthers". Scroll down
toward the bottom of the list, where they are
segregated by interests etc. There is a section where
many give testimony that scientists and professors
holding "Intelligent Design", are being
"black balled" from many institutions.
There is a Q&A section along with two
excellant streaming DVDs: Scroll down the
left hand column for: DVD Creation Astronomy, part 1
and DVD Creation Astronomy part 2,These two live
videos are much better than my simple explanations -
- -
Note: I just viewed
these videos again and they are good! He has a great
"dry" sense of humor!
Here is a site map for AnswersinGenesis.org to see
what great territory they cover: http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/sitemap.asp
If evolutionists would look around they would see a
multitude of equally knowledgable scientists who
easily gave up the flawed evolutionary theory, for
the obvious that the universe, from the galaxies down
to the tiniest cells, require a Designer.
Here's another crowd
of scientists, mostly Creationists: http://www.rae.org/index.html
Click on "Essays" in
left hand column.
The wise ones then realize that the Designer is also
their Saviour or future Judge!
"Therefore God exalted
him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.", Phil. 2:9-11
Speed the day!
Duane Gilchrist, 6/20/08, updated
7/5/08