ScripturalEvidence for an Old Earth
Robert C.Newman
BiblicalTheological Seminary
Introduction
In the area of origins the major point ofdispute among evangelical Christians today is probably the age of the earth. Is our planet only a few thousand yearsold, as most people think the Bible teaches? Or is it some billions of years old, as most people thinkscience teaches?
In handling the available data relevantto this problem, young‑earth creationists tend to construct their modelson origins from the Bible alone, and then interpret scientific data within thisframework. Theistic evolutioniststend to construct their models from science alone, and then interpret theBiblical data within this framework. As an old‑earth creationist, I suggest we should construct ourmodels using both sets of data taken together. Ockham's razor should not be applied to choose the simplestmodel when only one of these sources has been used as the data base.
Special & General Revelation
As a Bible believer, my reason for thissuggestion involves a distinction made in Scripture between two kinds ofrevelation, traditionally called special revelation and general revelation.
Special revelation is God's disclosure tomankind of Himself, His world, His plans for mankind, etc., by means of direct(or supernatural), usually verbal, information. This information was
conveyed to His prophets and subsequentlywritten down in the Bible (see, e.g., Deut 18:14‑22; Ps 19:7‑11; Ps119; 2 Tim 3:14‑17).
Deut 18:14-22 (NIV) The nations you will dispossesslisten to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORDyour God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The LORD your God will raise up foryou a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of theassembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God norsee this great fire anymore, or we will die." 17 The LORD said to me:"What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like youfrom among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tellthem everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words thatthe prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 But aprophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him tosay, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put todeath." 21 You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a messagehas not been spoken by the LORD?" 22 If what a prophet proclaims in thename of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORDhas not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid ofhim.
Psalm 19:7-11 (NIV) The law of the LORD is perfect,reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise thesimple. 8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. Thecommands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of theLORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure andaltogether righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. 11 By them is yourservant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
2Tim 3:14-17 (NIV) But as for you, continue in what youhave learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom youlearned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, whichare able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 AllScripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting andtraining in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equippedfor every good work.
General revelation, on the other hand, isGod's disclosure to mankind of Himself, His world and the nature of mankinditself by means of indirect (i.e., providential, or nonsupernatural), non‑verbalinformation. This information isconveyed to all mankind externally through the universe and internally through humanconscience (e.g., Ps 19:1‑6; Eccl; Rom 1:18‑2:16).
Psalm 19:1-6 (NIV) The heavens declare the glory of God;the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forthspeech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech orlanguage where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all theearth,
their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens hehas pitched a tent for the sun, 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth fromhis pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at oneend of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden fromits heat.
Rom 1:18-20 (NIV) The wrath of God is being revealed fromheaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truthby their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them,because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the worldGod's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have beenclearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are withoutexcuse.
Questions regarding origins involveinformation from both general and special revelation. Therefore both should be used together in constructingaccurate models of what happened.
Harmonization of Revelation
How are both of these to be used inconstructing such models? Anexample of harmonization within special revelation from Biblical interpretationmay help. I count myself amongthose who
accept the Bible as an accuraterevelation from the God who cannot lie. Therefore, when I see apparently divergent accounts in the Bible of whatseems to be the same incident, I proceed as
follows. First of all I consider whether the accounts do indeed recordthe same event. If I am satisfiedafter investigation that the accounts do refer to the same incident, I willthen interpret the accounts in such a way as to harmonize with one another, yettrying not to ignore or twist what either account says.
For instance, accounts of Jesus castingout demons into a herd of swine are recorded in Matthew 8, Mark 5 and Luke 8.In each Gospel this incident occurs after Jesus stills a storm. All record that it took place E of theSea of Galilee; that the demon‑possessed had lived in tombs; that thedemons recognize Jesus as Son of God; that they seek permission to enter the swine;that the swine all drown; that the herdsmen flee to the city; and that thepeople beg Jesus to leave the area. It is therefore most likely that the same incident is in view.
This being so, I attempt to harmonize theapparent discrepancies regarding number of demoniacs (2 in Matthew, 1 in Markand Luke) and the place (Gedara, Gerasa). In this case, it is suggested that there were actually twodemoniacs, but that one was probably in a less serious condition than the other(perhaps fewer demons?) or took less part in the dialog. Therefore Mark and Luke, inconstructing a condensed account, eliminated reference to him. The location I take to be on the Eshore of the Sea, slightly N of the middle, at a geographically suitable siteknown today as Kursi. The term "Gerasa" is probably intended torepresent this place rather than the distant Decapolis city of that name 40 miSE. The reference to Gedara, about 10 mi away, may indicate that Kursi was inGedara's city territories. Orperhaps this was the nearest town Mark and Luke thought their Gentile readerswould be familiar with.
With regard to the creation account ofGenesis one and scientific theory regarding the origin of the earth, I find a similarsituation. In my book GenesisOne & The Origin of the Earth (IVP,1977; 2nd ed., IBRI, 2007), I point out a strong correlation thatexists between the events of Genesis one and the scientific sequence for theorigin of the earth, as follows:
Biblical Material ScientificTheory
In beginning God created Abeginning, the big bang?
Earth without form, void Earthamorphous, tenuous nebula
Darkness on face of deep Aftersome contraction, cloud becomes dark within
Spirit of God moves on (Providentialoversight with
faceof waters occasionalintervention)
Let there be light Furthercontraction causes cloud to glow
Light divided from darkness Planetarymaterial thrust outside glowing cloud
Light = day, darkness = night Planetcondenses from planetesimals; sun,
rotationgive day/night sequence
Waters burst forth from Earthis heated within by pressure, radioactivity,
wombof earth (Job 38); drivingout water & gases to produce atmosphere
firmamentappears &oceans
Division of waters above Presenceof atmosphere allows both surface & atm. water
&below firmament
Gathering of water, dry Continentalmaterial develops
landappears fromsub‑oceanic by vulcanism & erosion
Earth brings forth vegetation Landvegetation appears
Lights appear in sky to Photosynthesisby vegetation replaces carbon dioxide with
markoff days, seasons; oxygen,clearing atmosphere so sun, moon, stars
sunto dominate day; visible;also prepares atmosphere for animals, man
moonto dominate night
Such a correlation leads me to believethe two accounts are talking about the same event; hence I seek to harmonizeapparent discrepancies. The mostserious of these would be how long ago
these things occurred and how long theytook to happen.
In this paper I am not considering thescientific evidence for an old earth and a long period of creativeactivity. Some helpful workstreating this subject are: Daniel Wonderly, GodŐs Time Records in AncientSediments (CrystalPress, 1977); Davis Young, Christianity & the Age of the Earth (Zondervan, 1982); and Alan Hayward, Creation& Evolution (SPCK,1985).
Scriptural Evidence for an Old Earth
Does the Bible really teach that theearth is only a few thousand years old and only a few days older thanmankind? This is the primafacie view, but it seemsto overlook certain Biblical evidence that points in another direction.
First of all, there are indicators inScripture that the period from Jesus' ascension to His second coming is veryshort on a time-scale that takes all of history into account. For instance, the book of Revelationspeaks of His return as "soon" (Rev 1:1; 2:16; 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20).The apostles Peter (Acts 2:17), Paul (2 Tim 3:1) and Jude (18, ref to 2 Pet3:3) consider themselves to be already in the "last days" or"last time." John evensays we are in "the last hour" (1 John 2:18), though it has now been nearlytwo thousand years since he penned these words. If we suppose the figure involved in John's words viewshuman history as a day, then we are carried back far beyond Ussher's 4004 BC tosomething like 20,000 BC. If we view his reference to the "last
hour" as part of a year, we increasethis period to hundreds of thousands of years. On such time scales, the second coming of Christ will indeedbe soon, even if it should still be several
thousand years in the future (which Idoubt).
Something of the same sort appears inreferences to God's view of time. He sees a thousand years as a day (Ps 90:4; 2 Pet 3:8) or even as awatch in the night (Ps 90:4). Suppose we ask,
"Against what background of a largerunit of time we are to view these figures?" Some will claim they are to be viewed against a week (so onetraditional view, with human history lasting only seven thousand years). But the context of Ps 90 is notprimarily the creation week (though creation is mentioned) but the human lifespansince the fall, never more than a thousand years, and by Moses' times reducedto 70 or 80 years. If we use thiscontext, then we could say that God's "lifespan" since creation orthe fall is seventy or eighty years of thousand‑year days, i.e., 20
or 30 million years. If we use the watch in the night as theunit for a thousand years (3 per night, or 6 in 24 hours), this increases thespan by a factor of six, to about 100 million years. If we take God's "lifespan" as patriarchal (athousand such years), then the time back to creation would scale up to half abillion to several billion years, depending on whether the unit representing athousand of our years is a day or a watch.
Something similar is obtained if weconsider Ps 102:25‑27, where the decay of heaven and earth is compared tothe wearing out of a garment. [Note that the Bible does not consider the
heavens a permanent, changeless realm,though this idea came into medieval Christian theology via Greek thought.] The rate at which a garment wears outwill vary depending on its quality and
the type of use it receives, but it isnot unreasonable to think of a typical garment lasting some years. Since it is God who is "wearing"and changing this garment, we use His time scales,
getting hundreds of thousands to millionsof years, not a few thousand.
The point here is not that we cancalculate the time of creation from these figures. Rather, they warn us not to be so sure that the Biblerequires a young earth. And theyhint that the Bible is compatible or harmonizable with an old earth.
There are other such hints. The last plague of Revelation is a greatearthquake. "No earthquakelike it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was thequake" (Rev 16:18).
Why not "since the earth wascreated"? Perhaps becausethere were worse earthquakes earlier in geologic history, before man wascreated.
Scriptural Evidence for a LongCreative Period
Did the events of creation occupy onlyone week as we humans measure them? This is certainly the traditional view of the matter, but again thereare hints that point in a different direction.
The most obvious of these hints involvesthe enormous activity that must have taken place on the sixth day according tothe traditional scheme. Thisscheme assigns all activities mentioned
between day n and day n +1 to the latter of these two days. Thus the events of day six aredescribed in Gen 1:24‑31, between the reference to day five in Gen 1:23and the reference to day six in 1:31.
From Genesis one we learn that both theland animals and mankind (male and female) were created on this day. Turning to the more detaileddescription of creation in Genesis chapter two,
we see that the events of this day wouldinvolve the following: (1) God created the land animals; (2) God created man;(3) God put man in a garden which He had grown for him, with instructions totake care of it; (4) God brings before man all the birds and land animals inorder for Adam to name them; (5) Adam names them all, finding no helpersuitable for himself; (6) God puts Adam to sleep; (7) God makes Eve from Adam'sside; (8) Adam awakes, sees Eve, and says, "At last! This is bone of my bones and flesh of myflesh!"
Now many of these things were done by Godand therefore might occupy Him for as much or little time as He pleased, thoughthe use of the term "caused to grow" (Gen 2:9) suggests some longer periodof time. But Adam, being neitheromnipotent nor omniscient, needed considerable time to name the animals, particularlyin view of the Biblical idea that names are not arbitrary, but tell somethingabout the one named. Thus Adam wouldpresumably not just rattle off a series of nonsense syllables, but would observeeach kind of animal to choose an appropriate descriptive name. It is hardly likely that the orginalcreated kinds were so few that Adam could study and name them in just one day.
In addition, we get the impression, bothfrom God's own remark that it is not good for man to live alone, and fromAdam's "at last!" (theliteral force of the Hebrew word happa`am in 2:23),
that Adam had had sufficient time tobecome lonely between his own creation and that of Eve. [For a more detailedtreatment of this argument, see R. John Snow, "How Long is the SixthDay?" an appendix in my book Genesis One & The Origin of the Earth.] All this indicates that the events of1:24‑31 took longer than one day, so that either the days of creation arelonger than regular earthdays or the days do not follow one anotherconsecutively. [This latteralternative is my own personal preference here.]
In addition, the Bible intimates that theseventh day either has not yet occurred or is still in progress, neither ofwhich is consistent with the idea that the days of creation were earthdays
immediately following one after theother. In Hebrews chapters threeand four, we are told that at the time of David and in the first century AD(and presumably, still today) it was possible to
enter into God's rest, which isidentified in Heb 4:4 as the rest of Gen 2:2. So apparently the seventh day iseither still going on or hasn't yet started.
Conclusion
It seems to me that the Bible providesinternal hints that the creation account is not to be read simply as narratinga recent event occurring some few thousand years ago which lasted no more
than a week of our time. Instead, using the same procedures of harmonizationbetween general revelation and special revelation that evangelicals commonlyuse within special revelation, we
obtain an old‑earth view in whichGod intervened at various points to prepare our earth over a span of timeconsistent with the generally accepted findings of modern science. In fact, a
stronger correlation between Genesis andscience is obtained by this procedure than is the case with the interpretationsof either young‑earth creationism or theistic evolution.
[Since this paper was prepared some timein the 1980s, David Snoke has prepared an excellent book, A Biblical Casefor an Old Earth (Baker,2006), which contains a number of other congent arguments for an old earth.]