Anthony L. Edridge's Blog

Christianity is somewhat divided over the age of the earth, whether it is a few thousand years young or billions of years old. While scientific evidence is used with differing degrees of success to support each position, the Bible is also used in attempts to provide scriptural support or even proof for the age of the earth.

But does the Bible really provide such information? Certainly the genealogies in Genesis indicate that the Flood occurred within several thousand years, and Adam was created not long before. My belief, however, is that the Bible is ambiguous about the earth’s age, with the length of each creation day not explicitly stated. Arguments for creation days that were either literally 24 hours each or millions of years long do not seem to be sufficiently persuasive to convince most Christians one way or the other, indicating that the Bible is probably ambiguous about the age of the earth.

Consider the text of Hebrews 4:4-7, (NKJV) formatted below to reveal the argument of the author:

For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way;                                  [1] “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”.                                                  [2] And again in this place; “They shall not enter My rest.”                                                 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,                                                                [3] again He designates a certain place, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

[1], [2], and [3] have been added to the text to show each of the three OT quotations used by the author of Hebrews,. Also, the reference phrases for each are given in bold text. (No chapter and verse numbers existed for hundreds of years.)

Each of the three OT quotations concern the subject of the first line, “the seventh day”. This means that these three events, the day God began to rest in Gen 2:4, the event when the Israelites disobeyed God as mentioned in Ps 95:11, and the exhortation by the Psalmist in Ps 95:7-8 to enter God’s rest, are all part of the seventh day, which continues today so that believers can enter God’s rest.

The seventh day is therefore several thousand years long. The six creation days, however, are not necessarily so. Nevertheless, the length of the seventh day affects the interpretation of Ex 20:11. Because the seventh day is thousands of years, the command to work six days and rest on the seventh, cannot refer to copying 24-hour days, but must be to copy the pattern of days established by God during creation. Another example of copying a divine pattern was when God commanded Moses to built the tabernacle.

An interesting result of the seventh day continuing for as long as humanity can enter God’s rest, is that the Bible describes all of time in terms of just three days:

1.Day of Creation – Gen 2:4; “…in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”

2. Day of Rest – Heb 4:4-7; this seventh day continues until the Holy Spirit leaves the earth.

3. Day of the Lord – Many passages throughout the Bible, involving several events during the end times.

I will examine other scriptures in later posts.

Creation topics fascinate many people; most of us have a desire to know where we come from. Even evolutionists want to know our origins, perhaps without the sense of purpose that creation provides.