T.T. 61 - How old is the earth?
T.T. 61 - How
old is the earth?
The only way that anyone could know
the age of the earth would be if they were present when it was being formed. As
only the Creator Himself was present, He is the only one who could tell you when
He made it. Although the Bible doesn't tell us exactly when the earth was
created, by a careful reading of its recorded events and time spans between
them, we can conclude that the earth is about 6,000 years old. It may possibly
be slightly older than this, but not by much.
Contrary to what some people
believe, Science cannot tell us how old the earth is This is because scientific
experiments can only be performed in the present, and not the past. Therefore,
as no human was present when the earth was first formed, we cannot look to any
human to give us a definitive answer.
There are, however, numerous ways in
which people can try to estimate the age of the earth. (For a more
detailed revue, see the Creation Ministries International web site).These
estimates vary from just a few thousand years (which are close to the age
derived from the Biblical record) to about five billion years! However,
all these methods depend upon many assumptions, mainly that the change
processes that we can presently observe happening on the earth having
always occurred at the same rate. No-one can know this.
The fact that different methods of
estimating the earth's age, and indeed different scientific laboratories using
the same method, come up with very different answers, suggest that conditions on
the earth have not always been the same and demonstrate how unreliable such
findings are.
Which earth age-estimation methods a
person chooses to believe will depend on their world view. Biblical Christians
will obviously accept the "young earth" estimates, whereas Evolutionists will
choose to accept the "old earth" estimates. That is because for evolution to be
even remotely possible it would require aeons of time for all the necessary
changes to take place as we evolved from chemicals to a living single cell, and
then into man, not to mention all the many different life forms we find
today.
Most of these methods actually
conclude that the earth is "young", usually giving values of between about 5,000
to 1 million years. The only earth age-estimation methods that give answers of
billions of years are the radiometric dating methods in which the rate at which
one type of chemical element is changed into another is measured. For example,
if we know that element A in the earth is slowly changing to element B, then by
measuring the present rate of change, and the amount of A and B presently in the
sample, we can calculate how long the process has been occurring, and thus how
long ago it was first formed. However, apart from assuming that the rate of
change has always been constant, we need to assume that there was no "B" present
at the beginning, and also that no "B" was leached out of the sample over the
supposed billions of years that this was taking place. This no-one can possibly
know!
Does it really matter whether we believe that the
earth is "young" or "old"?
I believe it does because if we
doubt the accuracy of the very first part of the Bible, what justification have
we foe believing other parts of it, such as when it talks about the resurrection
of Jesus and the means of obtaining eternal life through Him?
T.T. 60 - God's Diary.
T.T. 60 - God's
Diary.
Diaries can be very useful. We can use them to
record things we have done that we might like to remember, or as a way to remind
us of future important dates like birthdays or holidays. We would all agree,
however, that some events in our lives are more important than others. I think
that is also true for God. I think that if He had a diary, six events would
stand out as being the most important of all in his relationship with us. By
talking about these, we can give a summary of the entire Bible
message.
As you talk about each event, you could show a
simple 6-page book, entitled "God's Diary, each page having the name of that
particular event written on it.
1. Creation. In the
beginning God spoke and the earth was formed. (You could illustrate this with a
thumb tip (Object Lesson 77, Newsletter 89). The earth was perfect, and people
were God's greatest creations made in His own image and for friendship with him.
But the very first people disobeyed God, and that act resulted in sin coming
into the world and spoiling it all.
2. God became a man.
God still loved the people of the world, and so He became a man Himself. We
called him Jesus. By doing this, God was able to more fully reveal his nature to
us and demonstrate how passionately He loves us. While Jesus was here on earth,
he was totally human. For example, he could only be in one place at a time and
got tired, hungry, thirsty, etc, just like us. He was still God, but left his
divine (Godly) qualities behind in heaven. Jesus did heal the sick and perform
miracles, but through the power of the Holy Spirit (See Newsletter 80 - "Can
Christians perform miracles?).
3.He died for us. Jesus
didn't die of a disease, accident or old age. No. He died as our Substitute. He
allowed Himself to be crucified by wicked men so that He could pay the price for
our sins by being punished instead of us. (You could illustrate this by telling
the story of the Judge and his friend "A free pardon", Newsletter
41).
4. He rose again. On the third day,
Jesus rose victorious from the dead, demonstrating that He had beaten the power
of death, sin, sickness and every form of evil. The good news is, He didn't do
it for himself. He did it for us, and invites us to share in His victory.
The difference between Christianity and other religions is that
our Leader is alive! Moslems or Buddhists, for example, could take you to the
graves of their leaders and tell you that great or good as they were, their
bones ore now rotting away under the ground. On the other hand, Christians could
take you to a cave just outside Jerusalem and say "Our leader, Jesus died and
his body was placed in that cave. But He is not there now. He rose from the dead
and is alive for evermore!"
5. He returned to heaven. Six weeks
after he rose from the dead, Jesus returned to heaven. That's where he is now,
praying for us and preparing a home for us. However, He still works through His
followers to carry on his work of defeating evil and making this earth perfect
once more. The good news is that in this war against evil, WE WIN - because the
decisive battle has already been fought and won by Jesus when He rose from the
dead.
6. He is coming back again. This is the
only one of the six major events in "God's Diary" that is still to happen. But
as God knows the future and always keeps His promises, it is just as certain to
take place as the first five. One day, Jesus will return to earth for all his
followers. He will instantly change us by giving us a new spiritual,
everlasting, body that will never get hungry, thirsty, tired, sick, etc. And
then He will take us to be with Him in heaven for ever. What a wonderful future
we have to look forward to!
Expiry date.
Just as our diaries have an expiry date on them (Usually
December 31st.), so does God's. One day, God will say "Time up" and the world as
we know it will come to an end. That is why it is so important to make sure that
we are trusting in Jesus, and to tell others that God offers them a free pardon
and eternal life through Jesus Christ. (You could conclude the lesson by telling
the story of George Wilson, and how a free pardon must be accepted, Newsletter
36).
