How Does One Estimate the Age of the Earth Using the Bible?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
R

ROSSELLA

Guest
#1
I've read every verse in the Bible at least once and, while I don't pretend to remember every verse, I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth using the Bible. I want to be clear: I am not saying the Earth isn't young. Nor am I saying that it isn't old. Simply that I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth by reading the Bible. Many genealogies don't list every single person in the family. They're not necessarily incomplete; just a different type of genealogy than we'd use today. We also don't have the age at death of everyone listed in a genealogy. So how do people estimate the age of the Earth using the Bible?
 

Bladerunner

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2016
3,076
59
48
#2
I've read every verse in the Bible at least once and, while I don't pretend to remember every verse, I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth using the Bible. I want to be clear: I am not saying the Earth isn't young. Nor am I saying that it isn't old. Simply that I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth by reading the Bible. Many genealogies don't list every single person in the family. They're not necessarily incomplete; just a different type of genealogy than we'd use today. We also don't have the age at death of everyone listed in a genealogy. So how do people estimate the age of the Earth using the Bible?

Right now through Hebrew calculations we are in the year 5777. Yes, if you study the Bible carefully, the genealogies will give you the correct time periods and if added up.....Wellll

God's speed in you studies and God Bless
 

Huckleberry

Senior Member
Aug 25, 2013
1,698
96
48
#3
Genealogies and numbers of years lived are documented all the
way back to Adam, the first man, who was created in the beginning.
As someone (Billyd?) astutely pointed out in a recent similar thread,
the 930 documented years Adam lived could have been after The Fall,
in which case we would have no way of knowing when exactly the beginning was.
 
Dec 17, 2016
95
5
8
#4
Kent Hovind does a good break down of this, if you can find the right video on Youtube
 

Dino246

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2015
24,680
13,366
113
#5
I've read every verse in the Bible at least once and, while I don't pretend to remember every verse, I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth using the Bible. I want to be clear: I am not saying the Earth isn't young. Nor am I saying that it isn't old. Simply that I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth by reading the Bible. Many genealogies don't list every single person in the family. They're not necessarily incomplete; just a different type of genealogy than we'd use today. We also don't have the age at death of everyone listed in a genealogy. So how do people estimate the age of the Earth using the Bible?
We don't need to know anyone's age at death... it's irrelevant to this question. What is relevant, and what is provided in Scripture, is the age at which each man had his son (at least for the first few thousand years). According to Genesis 4, Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born; Seth was 105 when Enosh was born, etc. So add up the years: 130 + 105, etc. There are a few different passages to put together to get the whole story. Consider also that most people who use this method assume that Adam was actually formed on day 6 of year 1, rather than after some indeterminate time. After the kings of Judah, the genealogies don't keep giving this kind of information, but there are other relevant pieces of information such as years of captivity and Daniel's prophecy.
 

EarsToHear

Senior Member
Jan 14, 2016
340
8
0
#6
There was an age before this one, this one, and one yet to come.


Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.


There are two bodies mentioned in this verse; the heaven and the earth. It simply stated a fact and left the time factor out. The verse not only did not say when, but left it totally to our imagination, as to the eternal span of time, and how the creation took place.


2 Peter 3:8 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.


That means one week is 7,000 years, and we are coming to the Sabbath of that week very shortly, which the common name for the next thousand years is the "Millennium age".
 

stillness

Senior Member
Jan 28, 2013
1,257
211
63
69
Walk trough the valley
#7
Hi Rossella i agree with you. The begining of creation apeard to be before the acount of the first day, where God seperated light from darkness. Then there was evening and morning, the first day began: with an ending of formless and void earth and new begining. There was a rebelion in Heaven that may have caused the void. Also Peter tels us not to forget that with the Lord a day is has a tbousand years and a thousand years as one day. And it apears that from the fall of man there was a new bening as well to restore us: to enter into rest in God, seperated in 4 days before Jesus and 2 days since and a prophesy that Jesus reings for a thousand years on the Last day with those who followed Him in His sufferinv and death.
 
Last edited:

stillness

Senior Member
Jan 28, 2013
1,257
211
63
69
Walk trough the valley
#8
Continued from previous post: From the time Jesus died and rose in the year 33 until now: 2017 - 33 = around 1,984 years. What Jesus fulfilled in our time, in His own body, as the head of the Church, has to be fulfilled in us in God's time. "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in 3 days." "Now we are the body of Christ" Two or three years before Jesus died He said, "Today and tomorrow, I heal the sick and cast out devils and the third day I shall be perfected, so that the days of rebuilding of His temple may have began when He spoke this word: began His ministry in the year 30. "Its not for you to know the times that the Father has kept in His own Power." We are also told, "we will not be unaware of the times." A prophesy in the old testament, "Come let us return to the Lord... after two days He will raise us up, and the third day we shall live in His sight."
 
Feb 7, 2015
22,418
413
0
#9
Why is the age of the Earth important? Is someone planning a birthday party for the Earth, and need to put a number on a cake?
 
N

NoNameMcgee

Guest
#10
Why is the age of the Earth important? Is someone planning a birthday party for the Earth, and need to put a number on a cake?
I'd say, knowing (generally) how old the Earth is makes certain lies obvious....


Like evolution.
 
S

Sully

Guest
#11
I'd say, knowing (generally) how old the Earth is makes certain lies obvious....


Like evolution.
Can it explain de-evloution? Kinda seems like that's what we're experiencing...
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,395
113
#12
The bigger question that gets swept under the rug......based upon....1 year, 47 years, 5777 years, 9874652435 years or 21 hours.....all are irrelevant because......

What does it matter? ;)
 
S

Sully

Guest
#13
I think it all gets real when the 70th week begins.
 

Ahwatukee

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2015
11,162
2,380
113
#15
Why is the age of the Earth important? Is someone planning a birthday party for the Earth, and need to put a number on a cake?
Because it will be the end of all human government in accordance with Dan.2:31-45 and when the Lord returns to the earth to establish his kingdom on this earth according to scriptures.
 

Huckleberry

Senior Member
Aug 25, 2013
1,698
96
48
#16
There was an age before this one, this one, and one yet to come.


Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.


There are two bodies mentioned in this verse; the heaven and the earth. It simply stated a fact and left the time factor out. The verse not only did not say when, but left it totally to our imagination, as to the eternal span of time, and how the creation took place.


2 Peter 3:8 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.


That means one week is 7,000 years, and we are coming to the Sabbath of that week very shortly, which the common name for the next thousand years is the "Millennium age".
Genesis 1:1 isn't mentioning specific "bodies".
It is declaring that there was a beginning of all space and matter in the universe.
Note the lower-case "h" and "e", then compare with
verses 8 and 10, which are referring to specific bodies.
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
24,347
12,869
113
#17
I want to be clear: I am not saying the Earth isn't young. Nor am I saying that it isn't old. Simply that I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth by reading the Bible.
You might want to begin by studying The Chronology of the Old Testament by Martin Anstey who has dealt with this issue very thorougly and biblically, using the Year of Man (Anno Hominis) as the starting point.
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
36,645
13,120
113
#18
2 Peter 3:8 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.


That means one week is 7,000 years
No, it doesn't. Peter quotes Psalm 90:4, which says a thousand years to God is both 'like' a day or a watch in the night, which is 3 hours.

So why don't you write 8,000 years = 1 day?
That's the same verse!

Because Psalm 90:4 is not giving us an unit conversion equation. It's telling us that God, the Creator of time, is not confined by it, does not consider it like humans do and does not have a patience limited by it.

This Psalm is not written in order for us to set dates, but so that we would know to fear and stand in awe of Him who is beyond time itself.
 
J

jaybird88

Guest
#19
i asked forest gump how old the earth was and he said it has been around since his grand pa's grand pa's grand pa had come across the ocean about a thousand years ago or something like that.
 

OneFaith

Senior Member
Sep 5, 2016
2,270
369
83
#20
I've read every verse in the Bible at least once and, while I don't pretend to remember every verse, I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth using the Bible. I want to be clear: I am not saying the Earth isn't young. Nor am I saying that it isn't old. Simply that I don't understand how anyone can estimate the age of the Earth by reading the Bible. Many genealogies don't list every single person in the family. They're not necessarily incomplete; just a different type of genealogy than we'd use today. We also don't have the age at death of everyone listed in a genealogy. So how do people estimate the age of the Earth using the Bible?
I've estimated the geneology close enough to know that the earth is definitely not more than 15,000 years old. It can be hard to imagine, especially with scientists telling us our whole lives- when I was a kid they said millions of years old, now they say billions. But look how far we've come in just the last hundred years, and look how much God did in just the first week.