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Is It Really About the Age of the Earth?

A few months ago, a well-known apologist who believes in an old earth but had visited the Ark Encounter mentioned me and his visit to the Ark on his podcast and said that young earth creationists (like myself) should be willing to discuss the issue of the age of the earth and not refer to old earth creationists as “compromisers.” So why do I, and the Answers in Genesis ministry as a whole, continue to stand boldly on a young earth and assert that old earth teachings are indeed compromising God’s Word?

It’s because the issue isn’t really about the age of the earth at all (that’s why we do not primarily call ourselves a young-earth creation ministry). The issue we’re on about is biblical authority.

You see, ideas regarding evolution and millions of years don’t come from the text of Scripture. Just starting with God’s Word and no outside influences, you won’t find a hint of long ages or evolution! Those ideas come from outside the text, and then Genesis is reinterpreted in light of those ideas from outside Scripture. So the issue really is “Who is your authority?” Is God and his Word your authority, or is man your authority and Scripture gets reinterpreted in light of man’s ideas?

Now, many people don’t like being told they’re compromising God’s Word because of what they believe or teach. But they are! When someone accepts millions of years or evolution, they are making man—not God—the ultimate authority, and that is compromising biblical authority. And it just leads to more compromise!

I’ve had Christians tell me we should not use the word compromise when talking about those Christians who accept an old earth of millions of years. But the reason they don’t want us using that word is because they don’t want to acknowledge it is a biblical authority issue. So many want us to concede that people can have different views—but there’s only one correct view, and that is God’s view as clearly outlined in his Word.

It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that those who compromise the Bible’s clear teaching on marriage, sexuality, gender, abortion, race, and more have already compromised Genesis in regard to the age of the earth and creation. They’ve already reinterpreted God’s clear Word, so why stop there? After all, what we as Christians believe about marriage, sexuality, gender, abortion, race, and so on are all grounded in . . . Genesis! So if Genesis is not literal history, why should we trust what it teaches about the morality that’s grounded in that history?

And if we can start outside of God’s Word with man’s word about the age of things, why not start outside of God’s Word with man’s view of sexuality and marriage, etc.? Once the door is unlocked to reinterpret God’s Word with man’s fallible word, it puts one on a slippery slide of compromise throughout Scripture.

So the reason we talk about the age of the earth isn’t because of the age of the earth itself—it’s a consequence of our stand on biblical authority!

by Ken Ham on May 3, 2024
Featured in Ken Ham Blog

Just pitting the Truth of God against the lies of men.

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ElwoodBlues · M

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CLOCKS

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Visit any limestone cave. Stalactites grow at a rate of about 1mm per 10 years. So a 10 meter stalactite has been growing about 100,000 years. And close examination of cross sections shows the year by year layering (where rainfall is seasonal). These stalactites can be found all over the world. The ages are corroborated by radiometric carbon dating.

Tree rings are clocks. The oldest living tree goes back about 4800 years. But wood from dead trees can contain records of volcanic events, thus extending the record back much farther.

Originally developed for climate science, the method is now an invaluable tool for archaeologists, who can track up to 13,000 years of history using tree ring chronologies for over 4,000 sites on six continents.

The ages are corroborated by radiometric carbon dating (establishing age by measuring ratios of radioactive vs stable isotopes).

Seasonal snowfall on glaciers accumulates to form countable layers. Greenland ice sheet layers can be counted back about 110,000 years. The ages are corroborated by radiometric dating. Other glaciers go back as far as 700,000 years, but on those the older data is mostly radiometric dating.

Salt flows from rocks into lakes and the ocean. If no salt left the ocean, that would give an age of 50 million to 70 million years. However, various geologic processes cause salt to leave the ocean at about the rate it's entering, so 50 million to 70 million years becomes a minimum estimate of the age of the earth.

Layering of sedimentary rocks - such as in the Grand Canyon - forms a series of clocks. These layers correspond to different stages in the evolution of life on the planet. The layers can be dated by positional order (bottom layer formed first), sedimentation rate, age of fossils found in the layer, and of course, radiometric dating. There are five main isotope pairs used for dating sedimentary rocks as well as the 'fissile track' method; you can read about it all here:
https://australian.museum/learn/minerals/shaping-earth/radioactive-dating/

Then there's all the fossils of extinct animals found in the rock layers. They're not exactly a clock, but they are an indicator of the vast amounts of time over which evolution occurs.

Of course outer space offers many clocks. Accumulation of craters on airless bodies like the Moon forms a clock. Shells of glowing gas left over from novas and supernovas form clocks (the Lambda Orionis Ring is about 1 million years old). The redshift of light from galaxies billions of light years away form clocks. The Hubble expansion of the universe forms a clock. The frequency shift of big bang radiation to form the cosmic microwave background is a clock.

No one clock is perfect, but they all corroborate each other pretty well, and they ALL give life FAR MORE than 6000 years to evolve.

If you argue "God hid those dinosaur bones (and all the isotopes used for dating) in the rocks" I can't disprove it. If you argue "God built all those layers into the glaciers and into stalactites, made the nova remnants appear millions of years old, etc." I can't disprove it. But you've got to ask yourself, why would God put all these inter-corroborating clocks all over the Earth and all thru the galaxy if they were all false???

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@ElwoodBlues The problem is that you can offer the creationists al the science you like but they refuse point-blank to learn anything that rattles their cosy little beliefs. They do not want to know - and I think some are frightened to know.

While missing the irony of using the Internet to insult scientific learning.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@ElwoodBlues @ArishMell

Visit any limestone cave.

So?

ElwoodBlues · M

@GodSpeed63 But you've got to ask yourself, why would God put all these inter-corroborating clocks all over the Earth and all thru the galaxy if they were all false???

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@ElwoodBlues

But you've got to ask yourself, why would God put all these inter-corroborating clocks all over the Earth and all thru the galaxy if they were all false???

They are true, you're just see them as false because you have to keep within your boundaries of perception without God. Those inter-corroborating were put in there by God in their places for mankind to receive the Truth about the age of the earth and the universe which is 6000 years old and not millions as supposed by evolution scientists.

ElwoodBlues · M

@GodSpeed63 The many natural "clocks" say the Earth and stars are Billions of years old. And yes, the clocks are true.

The Bible is figurative about the four corners of the Earth; it's also figurative about the seven days of creation. Or are you really gonna argue that the Earth has four corners??

DocSavage · M

@GodSpeed63
And yet, everything we have in the world today is a product of the lies of man.
It’s not god’s word that lights your house, or keeps you warm in the winter. It’s not god’s word that gives you your computer or iPad. It’s not god’s word that made the vaccines that fight Covid or the flu, or other diseases. People still go to doctors more than faith healers when it matters.
You can deny science, when it suits you, but you wouldn’t survive a month without the modern benefits it provides. All without any help from god.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@ElwoodBlues

The many natural "clocks" say the Earth and stars are Billions of years old. And yes, the clocks are true

I don't put my trust in clocks. The man made ones break and the natural ones are true but your interpretation of them is way off. I put my trust in the One who made those natural clocks who say the heavens and the earth are only 6000 years old.

ElwoodBlues · M

@GodSpeed63 You put your trust - you trust your life - in cars, planes, electricity, medicines, a safe food & water supply, etc etc multiple times per day.

It's frankly silly to use a multi-billion transistor device communicating over giga-bit per sec optical fibers and microwave relay to tell us you don't trust science and technology🤣😂🤣😂

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@ElwoodBlues

You put your trust - you trust your life - in cars, planes, electricity, medicines, a safe food & water supply, etc etc multiple times per day.

I put my trust in the One who able to keep me safe - in cars, planes, electricity, medicines, a safe food & water supply, etc etc multiple times per day. Never put your trust in man and the things that he made, they'll let you down ever time. Put your trust in God who will never let you down.

sree251 · 41-45, M

@GodSpeed63

An example of a natural clock is the movement of the sun across the sky. This clock never break. It is useful and relevant to the practical living of our lives. Rings of trees and layering of rocks are make-beliefs.

ElwoodBlues · M

@sree251 Wrong! According to Scripture, the motion of the Sun is NOT a reliable clock!

Joshua 10:13 KJV:
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

sree251 · 41-45, M

@ElwoodBlues

Wrong! According to Scripture, the motion of the Sun is NOT a reliable clock!

I said according to the sun! My sun is neither according to scripture nor to science.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@sree251

An example of a natural clock is the movement of the sun across the sky. This clock never break. It is useful and relevant to the practical living of our lives.

That natural clock was created by God in the beginning like the Scriptures say.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@ElwoodBlues

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher?

Get the name right. Why don't you read the whole chapter instead of cherry picking?

ElwoodBlues · M

@GodSpeed63 I quoted the book of Joshua from the KJV verbatim. I prefer the KJV because it reads like Shakespeare.

Why don't you read the whole chapter instead of cherry picking?

Is there something else in the chapter that will refute or repudiate the " sun stood still" assertion? Or are you just trying to change the subject away from a problematic passage??

And, speaking of problematic passages, there are at least four passages that specifically mention "the four corners of the earth." You keep ducking my question, but I'm gonna ask it again.

Does the Earth actually have four corners? Or is the Bible being figurative, non literal, about the four corners?

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@ElwoodBlues

Is there something else in the chapter that will refute or repudiate the " sun stood still" assertion? Or are you just trying to change the subject away from a problematic passage??

According to you, why did the sun stop?

ElwoodBlues · M

@GodSpeed63 The sun didn't stop. It's yet another Biblical parable or analogy, like "the four corners of the Earth." BTW, why do you keep ducking the opportunity to comment of the four corners. According to you, does the Earth have four actual corners? Or is the text being figurative on that point??

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@ElwoodBlues LOL! The Roulette-Wheel Model of the Earth...

The Sun and Moon symbols on antennae, remind me of the "Deely-Bopper" head ornaments popular among children a few decades ago.

What stops the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from flowing down into the trench and drowning South America and Africa? (Can't be "gravity" because many Flat-Earthers think that's a hoax.)

It's notable Ferguson made the USA the centre of his imaginary world, and you really have to study the picture hard to make out the Holy Land that would logically be centre-stage in something for which he claims based on the Bible.

Reputedly, probably apocryphally, Mediaeval monks debated how many angels could dance on a pin-head. "Prof." Ferguson evidently thought angels are really some four or five thousand miles tall. That'd need a handy-sized pin.

The spandrels on which the angels stand are oddly empty. Had the world's cats knocked everything off the edge?

.

Orlando Ferguson was no "professor" of anything.

He was a grocer turned hotelier in Hot Springs, making his living from visitors to the spa town, but apparently he sold quite a number of those silly tracts. How many buyers took them seriously and how many bought them as a comic novelty, of course, we cannot know.

I wonder though.... The picture and text are so barmy I wonder if we do Ferguson a disservice by ridiculing him? Did he produce this pamphlet to satirise the flat-Earthists and religious bigots of his own time?

......
Incidentally I did seek out Hot Springs' on-line tourist brochure, and though obviously the local tourist board will show only the highlights, it does look an interesting and attractive town surrounded by beautiful countryside.

GodSpeed63 · 61-69, M

@ElwoodBlues

The sun didn't stop.

How do you know? Were you there when it happened?

ElwoodBlues · M

@GodSpeed63 You continue to divert and distract in an effort to duck the "four corners of the earth" question. You keep ducking, but I'm gonna keep asking it.

Are you really gonna argue that the Earth has four corners? Or will you continue to duck the question??

DocSavage · M

@GodSpeed63
Were you ?
Natural law and physics are constant. It would take a Hell of a lot of effort to stop the sun in the sky, without disrupting the rest of the conditions.
Such an event would leave physical evidence. Do you have any showing that the event happened or do you just have an old book of fairytales?