Written July of 2014
Back on December 12th of 2012, because there were so many figures (millions/billions of years) floating around about the age of the earth, I decided to use the Creator’s own book, the Holy Bible*, to calculate a more accurate figure. Here’s what I found:
A quick look through the Bible reveals there are:
Ten generations from Adam thru Noah with an average lifespan of 858 years and with an average generation timespan of 155 years. (Genesis 5)
Ten generations from Noah thru Abraham with an average lifespan of 317 years and with an average generation timespan of 49 years. (Genesis 11)
Forty-two generations from Abraham thru Jesus (Matthew 1:17) with an approximate average lifespan of 80 years. **
Totaled there are 62 (10+10+42) generations from Adam to Jesus.
Doing a bit of basic mathematics with those numbers, we find:
We have the total generation timespan from Adam thru Abraham to be 2040 years ([10×155]+[10×49]). We can calculate the total generation timespan from Abraham thru Jesus to be 1134 years (42×27). The total generation timespan from Adam to Jesus then is 3,174 years (2040+1134).
To determine the age of the earth and creation from Adam to today, we must add the figure of earth-age from Adam to Jesus (3174) to the figure for the number of years from Jesus to now, which is 20 centuries plus 14 years, or 2014 years. (I am quite aware of the issues surrounding when the use of Anno Domini began. For our purpose here, such a consideration is well within round-off error).
Therefore, we can conclude, based on God’s Word (His Holy Bible), and by application of basic mathematics, that the earth and therefore, all of creation is about 5,188 years old, which, rounded to the nearest thousand, yields 5,000 years as the approximate age of the earth, and by extension, the age of all creation.
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* The Bible chronicles the creation of the earth and the universe by God in six days – to His Son’s birth, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension – ending with the follow-on work of Jesus’ disciples.
** The lifespan of people from Abraham thru to Jesus’ time was shorter than the early man lifespans. The Bible makes reference to a man’s age being three score and ten and even 80 years for a strong person. I use 80 as the figure for lifespans from Abraham’s time to Jesus’ time. Now, the timespan for a generation is roughly one-third of a lifespan. A man who lives to 80 years of age will produce children starting about age 27. (If any reader wants to rework this calculation with more rigor, I welcome it.)
COMMENTS:
Some may say this is not right. Then bring me a more accurate figure. It is entirely conceivable that as a flawed mortal man, I have made some mistakes in retrieving generational data from the Bible. My figures are based solidly on the one source of Truth in all of creation – God’s Word. You can (and sadly many will) dismiss the Bible with a sweep of the hand – but that won’t change what God’s Word shows us about His created universe.
Look at it this way for a moment, why would God falsify any of the numbers in His book? He doesn’t need to. His very nature as a Holy, Righteous God prevents Him from even thinking about giving us erroneous information. So forget that idea and realize that we are dealing with the Truth of God as revealed in His inspired Word to us. He can be trusted absolutely on this whereas man’s theories cannot be trusted, because such theories all depend on unsupportable assumptions.
God’s Truth stands immutable – whether we believe it or not…
