How Old Is the Earth?

The Bible begins with these words:

(1) In the beginning, God created the skies and the earth.

(2) Now the earth was empty and desolate, and darkness covered the surface of the ocean, and God’s spirit spread out over the surface of the water.

(3) And God said, “Light, appear!” And light appeared. (4) And God saw that the light was good. And God separated between the light and the darkness. (5) And God named the light Day, and the darkness He named Night. And there was evening and there was morning—one day.

In the last lesson, you learned that science has confirmed that the universe had a beginning, just like the Bible has always said.

But there is an important question that many people don’t agree about: How old is the universe?

Scientists say the universe is about 13 billion years ago.

Most people think that the Bible says God created the universe about 6000 years ago.

Which is correct? Science, or the Bible?

Warning: That is the wrong question!

Do you believe that the Bible says the universe is 6000 years old? If so, why? Did you read that in the Bible yourself? Or did someone tell you that is what the Bible says, and you just believed it, without checking?

Here is the first key for understanding the Bible: Don’t believe anything anyone tells you about the Bible.

Don’t believe me. Don’t believe anyone else.

Why not?

Because many, many things people say about the Bible aren’t true.

That is why there are hundreds of different churches that all believe different things about the Bible.

So don’t believe what you hear about the Bible. Read the book for yourself. Check every claim to see if it is true. When you read the Bible yourself you will be surprised to find—again and again—that the Bible teaches things that are very, very different than what most people think it says.

How old is the earth according to the Bible?

The Bible doesn’t say how old the earth is. Look from the beginning to the end. You won’t find anything in the Bible that says God created the earth 6000 years ago.

The idea that the earth is only 6000 years old is an interpretation of the Bible. Let me show you why many people believe the earth is 6000 years old, and why the Bible doesn’t make this claim.

Genesis is the first book of the Bible. This book describes the history of mankind from the time God created the first man Adam, until the death of Joseph. In Genesis 5, 11, 21:5, and 25:26 we find a list of Joseph’s ancestors, and the ages of their fathers when they were born. By adding these numbers together we can see that the book of Genesis records a little more than 2000 years of history. The Bible records almost 2000 more years of history from the end of Genesis to the time of Jesus Christ. And about 2000 more years have passed from the time of Jesus until today. So according to the Bible, about 6000 years have passed from the time God created the first man in Genesis 1 until now.

But how much time was there between when God created the universe, until God created the first man?

Genesis 1:3-31 describes six days of God’s creative activities. Most people assume that God created the universe on the first day. But that isn’t what the Bible says!

In Genesis 1, the description of each day of activity begins with the words, “And God said…” and each day ends with the words “And there was evening and there was morning—[one, a second, a third…] day.”

The description of the first day starts in verse 3. The events in verses 1 and 2 happened before the first day.

So the Bible doesn’t say how old the universe and earth is.

Read the first two verses of the Bible again, and notice what they actually say.

Verse 1:

In the beginning, God created the skies and the earth.

This creation was “in the beginning,” sometime in the past.

Verse 2:

Now the earth was empty and desolate, and darkness covered the surface of the ocean, and God’s spirit spread out over the surface of the water.

This is a description of the earth right before the first day. Notice that before the first day the earth already existed, and it was “empty and desolate.”

Isaiah 45:18 states that God didn’t create the skies and the earth in this “empty” state but “formed it to be inhabited” (the same Hebrew word for “empty” is used in both places). That implies that there may have been life on earth in the past, and that somehow the earth was destroyed and became “empty and desolate” before God recreated the environment and life on earth in six days.

We find a description of cycles of extinction and recreation described in Psalms 104:27-30:

These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good. You hide your face: they are troubled; you take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust. You send out your spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the earth.

Does this describe previous periods of life on earth, like the time of the dinosaurs? Perhaps.

The Bible says the earth will become “empty and desolate” one more time at the end of this age, when God will punish the world with plagues that will kill all life in the oceans and almost destroy the earth (Jeremiah 4:23; Revelation 8 and 16). After those plagues, God will recreate what was destroyed, transforming the earth into a paradise again (Ezekiel 47:8-9; Isaiah 65:17).

The six days of creation described in the first chapter of the Bible actually describe a renewal of a ruined earth.

Since the Bible does not say how old the earth is, science might be right about the age of the earth and the universe.

Even if science is correct about the age of the earth, that doesn’t mean scientists don’t make mistakes. They do. And many scientific theories have been proven wrong. But you shouldn’t just reject science because it doesn’t agree with your interpretation of the Bible. It could be that science is showing you that your interpretation of the Bible is wrong.

In this way, the Bible and science can help balance each other. The Bible and science both claim to be sources of truth. If they don’t agree, then one must be wrong—and you need to figure out which one is wrong, and which one is right. Your life now, and for eternity, may depend on the answer.