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Is the age of the earth important?

A short response to a vital question

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Recently, I (Dr Tas Walker) received the following message about the age of the earth from a Facebook friend:

Hi Tas, can I ask you a question about the importance of the age of the earth? I thought it was important but apparently some of my Christian friends don’t think so. AB

Hi AB,

The age of the earth is a very important issue, not just for Christians but for everyone. In fact, it is a gospel issue, central to the teaching and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is also essential to the character of God and the credibility of His Word.

The big issue is the origin of sickness, death, suffering, and disease. According to the philosophy of evolution, these have been present in the world for hundreds of millions of years.

Fossil dinosaurs supposedly 100 million years old have cancer tumours in their spines, the same as cancer tumours in modern humans. Modern humans (Homo sapiens) have supposedly been around for 300,000 years, and we have the skulls of multitudes of such humans that have suffered and died. Neanderthals, which are basically a variety of modern humans, have supposedly been around for around half a million years and we find their dead remains in many places around the world.

If we accept these long ages then we must accept that sickness, death, suffering, and disease were in this world long before Adam and Eve sinned. In other words, God is responsible for them.

That is if there even is a God that created. The philosophy of evolution has been devised to explain how the world and everything in it came about through natural processes without God. In that philosophy there is no need and no room for the supernatural. However, it is a philosophy that does not work.

That is just a small explanation for why the age of the earth is vital. Millions of years destroys the gospel, it destroys the credibility of the Word of God, and it destroys the character of God.

You may be able to help your friends see the problem they have embraced by asking them questions about how they explain the sin-death-gospel issue.

The first 11mins 15 seconds of this video about radioactive dating briefly explains why the age of the earth is vital. The rest of the video explains how the million-year ages are not observed facts, but interpretations of facts based on assumptions that go against the Bible. They are just a story. No scientist accepts any of these dates if they do not agree with what he thinks they should be. We shouldn’t either. Do not be taken captive by this clever and deceptive philosophy (Colossians 2:8).

In summary, it is vital to accept that the world is about 6,000 years old, just as the Word of God says. God created everything supernaturally in six days “very good”, but the world was broken by man’s sin. Death, disease, suffering, and sickness entered as a result; they have not been present for millions of years. Death is an enemy. Jesus Christ paid the penalty of sin, redeemed mankind, and conquered death through his resurrection—all in just three days.

Dr Tasman Walker

Published: 3 July 2021

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