How Old Is the Earth? (Genesis 1:1-2)

Many Christians believe that the earth is about 6,000 years old. But most scientists say the earth is more than 4.6 billion years old. Who is right?

In the last lesson I told you that many scientists don’t really like the Big Bang theory, because it shows that the universe had a beginning, just like the Bible says. But they have to believe it, because there isn’t any other theory that fits the evidence.

Many Christians also don’t like the Big Bang theory, but for a different reason. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe is more than 13 billion years old. Many Christians say that contradicts the Bible. So today let’s take a look at what the Bible says about the age of the earth.

I will read the first five verses of the Bible. This is Genesis, chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

And the earth was empty and desolate, and darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God spread out on the surface of the waters.

And God said, “Let light be.” And light was. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated between the light and the darkness. And God called the light “Day,” and the darkness He called “Night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—day one.

As you can see, the Bible says that God created everything in the beginning. Then this chapter describes a sequence of six days. The Bible says that Gid created humans on the sixth day.

Then, in chapter 5 and chapter 11, we find lists of names and the number of years that passed between each generation. If you add up all the numbers in these lists of names, you will see that the Bible claims that the first humans were created about 6,000 years ago.

That is why many people who believe the Bible think the earth is about 6,000 years old.

But that isn’t what the Bible says.

Notice here in the first chapter of the Bible, that the first two verses are separate from the rest of the chapter. Let me read it again from the beginning.

Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Verse 2:

And the earth was empty and desolate, and darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God spread out on the surface of the waters.

These first two verse give background information before the story starts. God created everything sometime in past, but then, here the earth is, empty and desolate, covered with water and darkness.

Then the first day of the story begins in verse 3:

And God said, “Let light be.” And light was. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated between the light and the darkness. And God called the light “Day,” and the darkness He called “Night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—day one.

As you read through the rest of the chapter, you will see a very clear pattern. Each day begins with the words, “And God said…,” and each day ends with the number of the day.

But the first two verses of the Bible are outside of this daily structure. So God created the universe and the earth before the first day. And because the earth was created before the first day, we don’t know exactly how old it is. It could have been a very long time ago.

Also notice that in verse 2 says:

…the earth was empty and desolate…

The earth is actually described in some kind of dark and ruined state.

The Bible describes the earth in the exact same way in a prophecy about the end the age. You can read that prophecy in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 4, verse 23. The prophecy is about a future time when the earth will be almost totally destroyed. Then, after that, God will repair the earth for the final phase of His plan.

Now back in the very beginning of the Bible, what we see is an initial creation, then the earth is in a ruined state, and then God repairs the earth six days. When you read this chapter with this understanding, then it actually makes sense.

It also matches up with what we learn from geology and other sciences, which show that the earth is very old and that there have been many periods of time in the earth’s history when the earth was in a ruined or destroyed state. There have been meteors, floods, ice ages, and volcanoes that have left the earth in a ruined state.

So how old is the earth? The Bible doesn’t say. So someone tells you that the Bible is unscientific, because it says the earth is 6,000 years old, now you can explain what the Bible really says about the age of the earth.

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That is all for today. In the next lesson we will solve a mystery that has confused most people who read the Bible. I will see you there.