Encyclopaedia Britannica: supporting a young earth!
by Russell Grigg
This is Plate XXXV in the 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica. It is labelled: ‘Noah’s
Ark, floating on the waters of the Deluge’.
Among those Christians who promote the idea that the earth is billions of years old, some claim that the concept of recent creation and a
young earth is a modern phenomenon.1 Is this claim valid?
Dr Jonathan Sarfati, in his book
Refuting Compromise, has shown conclusively that most of the early Church
Fathers believed that the days cited in Genesis 1 were 24-hours long, and that the earth was young.2 But what did scientists
believe, before the promotion of uniformitarian (i.e. long-age) ‘science’
by Lyell, Darwin, Huxley, and others in the 19th century?
Prior to then, it seems, scientists believed that the earth was only thousands of
years old. At the same time, most people in Europe and North America had a Christian
or biblical worldview.
How do we know? One way is by reference to the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest English-language general encyclopedia, which was first published as a 3-volume set, in Scotland, in 1771.3
A young earth
Under the heading ‘Astronomy’ on page 493, the 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica
has a table of world events that begins with the creation of the world in the year 0, i.e. at the beginning of creation, which they dated at 4007 years before Christ,
as follows:
| A Table of remarkable Eras and Events |
Year of the World |
Before Christ |
| 1. The creation of the world |
0 |
4007 |
| 2. The deluge, or Noah’s flood |
1656 |
2351 |
| 3. The Assyrian monarchy founded by Nimrod |
1831 |
2176 |
| 4. The Birth of Abraham |
2008 |
1999 |
| 5. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah |
2110 |
1897 |
| [Etc.] |
… the most memorable was that called the universal deluge, or Noah's flood, which overflowed and destroyed the whole earth, and out of which only Noah, and those with him in the ark,
escaped.—Encyclopædia Britannica
A worldwide Flood
Under the heading ‘Deluge’ on page 414, the 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica
says: ‘… the most memorable was that called the universal deluge, or
Noah’s flood, which overflowed and destroyed the whole earth, and out of which
only Noah, and those with him in the ark, escaped.’
Notice that the scientific belief of 1771 was not only that Noah’s Flood did
occur, but also that it was worldwide.
Conclusion
The concept of billions of years for the age of the earth was unknown to science
(or to the church4) before the rise
of uniformitarianism in the 19th century. This is strong evidence that
modern long-age views of creation do not originate in Genesis, but are a misguided
attempt by some Christian leaders to try to reconcile what God has said with the
atheistic pronouncements of evolutionary ‘science’.
Readers’ commentsMark B., United States, 14 March 2012
Wahoo! Countering an argument from 1994 (Hugh Ross) with a text from 1771.
Rick J., United States, 14 March 2012
NBC National TV news reported March 13, 2012, that Encyclopædia Britannica will no longer produce the Encyclopedia. The publication of the 1771 set probably was for the purpose of generating revenue. I enjoyed this article.
Jonathan M., Canada, 14 March 2012
@Mark, how else would you answer a historical argument but with a historical document? Thank you for all the great research and resources.
Joe K., United States, 20 May 2012
I grew up in a very prejudiced area of the country in southwestern VA. When I came to know the Lord through my wife, CMI helped us understand that One Blood, as we read in Acts 17:26, promotes the truth that all humans have been created equal.
This is just another piece of evidence proving God's word to be true, and that going back to Genesis is the only true answer to the problem of racism! |
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References and notes
- For example, Hugh Ross says, ‘A majority of those who
wrote on the subject rejected the concrete interpretation of the Genesis creation
days as six consecutive twenty-four-hour periods,’ Creation and Time,
Navpress, Colorado Springs, USA, p. 24, 1994. Return to text.
- Sarfati, J., Refuting Compromise, chapter 3, ‘The History of Interpretation
of Genesis 1–11’, Master Books, Arkansas, USA,
2004. Return to text.
- The set contained 2,459 pages and 160 copperplate engravings.
Encyclopædia Britannica has recently released a facsimile edition, on which
this article is based. This first edition used old English spelling. For ease of
reading, modern spellings are used in this article. Return to text.
- As is comprehensively documented in ref. 2, ‘[T]he vast
majority of exegetes, from the early church fathers through the Reformers and up
to the early 19th century, believed the creation days were 24 hours long.
Even those who did not accept literal days erred in the opposite direction from
Ross, by allegorizing the six days into an instant.’ Return
to text.
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