Creationists and Age of the Earth?

Question

In 2 Peter 3:8 we read, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

If thats the case, then couldnt the idea that Earth is older that creationist think be true?

Thinking out loud. If one day is a thousand years, and God created the world in 6 days, that would be 6000 years, ON TOP OF the 6,500 years old creation says we are. So, we would be AT LEAST 12,500 years old. Adding more to it, noone knows how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden, we know they would not die while in the Garden, so could that not ALSO make it just as old as Science says it is, making it possible to believe God spoke of his time for days, and the Earth is Millions of years old, and that it would still fit into Creation? You dont have to negate Creation, to believe in scientific facts of the age of the Earth. (NOT talking about Evolution here)

Answer 1

Genesis 1
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light

Between the time God created all things to the time he caused order to replace chaos could have been millions of years and this would not go against biblical principles.

Answer 2

The verse you cited says, "One day with the Lord is AS a thousand years". "As a thousand years" or like a thousand years, meaning the Lord can do more in a day than people can do in a thousand years!

You cited the verse, and then you asked, "If one day IS a thousand years..." This is not what this verse said.

Now, the days of creation.

Genesus says an evening and morning was a "day". The Hebrew word translated as "day" always means a day when used in conjunction with a number in non-prophetic scripture, as in Genesis 1.
It is clear in Exodous 20 that God meant days when he said remember the Sabbath day that the world was created in 6 days and on the 7th He rested. They understood the sabbath came once every 7 days.
If this was millions of years, then consider this, God made the plants on day 3. He placed the sun and moon on day 4. How did these plants survive millions of years without the sun.
Also, some plants require inscets or other animals to carry on reproduction. Inscets and animals were not created until days 5 and 6. How did these plants survive millions of years without these animals?

Also Genesis 1:14 talks about "days", "seasons", and "years". If a day was millions of years, then what was a season or a year? What was an "evening and morning"?
I believe God is strong enough to do it exactly the way (time period) His word says it happened.

Moses understood it was six days.(Ex 20:11) (Do you know more than this inspired writter did?)

Answer 3

According the Hebrew texts, the word CREATED in Gen 1 can also mean RE-created. Jewish writings and tradition says that before Adam there was something else here on Earth. It's obvious that dinosaurs roamed the Earth at one time, but were wiped off the planet by the meteor that hit Mexico.

We can't be sure till we get to Heaven and ask, but what if Earth was once an unbeleiveably beautiful place? When Satan fell, he started to ruin the planet, especially after he found out that God was going to create Man to have more authority than Satan, himself. God RE-created Earth to be sinless and without death at the time of Adam to support mankind. According to anchient Jewish writings, this is very well what happened and it still fits Biblically. Christianity is only concerned with the time after God created Man, about 6000 years ago.

Just so you know, there are different words in Hebrew for DAY. One means "an era, an unspecified amount of time" and the one used in Gen 1 where it sayd God RE-created the Earth in 6 days literally means 24 hours.

Answer 4

Please go back and read 2 Peter 3:5-7 and then you will have the true answer to your question.

When God created the Earth, possibly some 5 billion years ago we who now live in this second Earth Age were in spiritual bodies. Then, the Katabole. The overthrow.
When did this happen? Don't know. but one thing is certain, that Earth age was destroyed and a new Earth age began.

There is much more to the story to be gleaned by those who desire to know the truth. Its in the Word of God.><>

Answer 5

Er, the Earth IS older than creationists think it is (well, than the thousands of years old that some creationists believe). In fact the Earth is a couple of billion years old.

Turning the creationists' 6000 years into 12,500 years doesn't really help the young Earth creationist claims at all. They're still off by billions of years.

Answer 6

Congratulations on your train of thought.
In Esdras the archangel Uriel tells him that ''A day with God is as a thousand years, and a thousand years but a day''. This adds to the reasoning that Gods concept of time is not the same as ours and that the simily may not be literal. If we look at the timescale involved here and accept, for the purpose of discussion, that the thousand years as being literal and not merely illustrative then we have roughly six thousand years of Gods creation (six days) God created Adam and Eve last, (on the sixth day).
On the seventh day God rested and presumably admired his handywork.
We don't know how long Adam and Eve were in the garden, but it was on the evening of the seveth day that God looked for them and found them hiding as they now realised they were naked because they had lost their innocence by eating the fruit of the tree of knowlege. so we have roughly six thousand years of Gods creation and approaching a thousand years of God resting.
Now there could be a mirror to all this because accoprding to biblical geneology there is four thousand years between Adam and Christ, and roughly two thousand years have passed since Christs birth, making six thousand years, and we know that there will at the end be the 'millenic reign' when God comes to dwell among us for a thousand years this will make the second 'week' as it were, six thousand years of Gods creation, followed by six thousand years of mans destruction. Remember we are not talking about the age of the planets as such, but only really the age of Gods greatest creation......... Man.
Also it is worth remembering that the creation story, Genisis, was attributed to Moses, and as he wasn't there at the time. A certain ammount of licence was involved.
He put the most important things, as far as he was concerned, first. The earth, which gave him food, the amimals, which gave him food also, then the sun and moon, which gave him light, the only part he really got right was that we came last. he really did very well, its not so very long ago that peaple thought the earth was the centre of the universe and everything else revolved around it, and there is still a flat earth society!
One last thought to throw at you, scientists favour the 'Big Bang Theory', in a way so does God.
In Genisis he says''Out of nothing I created something'' mathematically two equal and opposite factors equal nothing (-1+1=0).
We know anti-matter exists, scientists have found it, so if God split nothing into two equal and opposit parts, matter and anti-matter, we have the 'Big Bang', the doppelganger theory.....................the possibilities are endless!!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

2 Peter 3:8 is most likely using figurative or symbolic lanugage- not LITERALLY a thousand years per day. And if it was true, read in Genesis: plants were created before the sun was created. Reasonably speaking, how many plants can survive even one week without sunlight exposure? There are some other arguments against long-day creation, but I can't remember them right now. :-/

Answer 8

Though I am an evolutionist who believes the Earth is millions of years old, I have to point out an inaccuracy in your question. The quote doesn't have to do with evolution or creation. It simply means that God is not bound by time. The rest of what you said is accurate.

Answer 9

The bible says how old Adam was. The reason Christians say the earth is so young is because it's possible to use the geneology of the bible to establish a timeline.

They just choose to ignore all the REAL evidence that refutes their calculations.

Answer 10

Science is speculating on the age of the earth. No one knows for certain, of course, but I have provided you a link you may find interesting. Good luck!