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![The Ages of the Earth
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© July 19, 2015
www.pastorkennedy.com
The book of Ephesians tells us about mysteries that God had kept from the beginning of Creation. As a Simplified History Timeline was previously shared with you, the question of the “day age theory” came up and how that relates to the age of the earth. Did God create the basics of the world and then allow evolution to reform life to be what it is today using millions/billions of years; or, did God create the world as recorded in Genesis 1&2?
Why is it important for the Biblical Christian to believe how God created us? If we discount the first two chapters in the Bible, are there other verses or chapters that we conveniently set aside, if they become politically incorrect?
Today I would like to share several key aspects relevant to those who seek to be Biblical Christians regarding “The Ages of the Earth”. Before I do, let’s take a few minutes to review the Simplified Historic Timeline below:
Review: A Simplified Summary of the History of the Earth – from a Biblical Perspective
Creation: Adam and Eve
From Creation to the catastrophe of the fall – (Unknown timeline)
Created Perfect  Catastrophe
Adam and Eve: Gen. 1-3
1. Creation: Perfection and Unity with God.
2. Catastrophe: Mankind’s sin against God Irreparably Severed Relationship between God and mankind – Depravity.
3. Messiah: The Promise of a Redeemer from Sin (Gen. 3:15; Isaiah 53; Col. 2:13-15).
The Antediluvians (pre-flood inhabitants of the world)
Godly Line  Catastrophe
The Antediluvians: Gen. 4-8
The first 2,000 years (approx.) after the Fall
A Godly Line
• Abel, Seth, Enoch... and Noah – known to seek and “call on the Name of the LORD” (Gen. 4:26). Extremely long lives.
The Evil Generations
When the population began to exponentially grow (Gen. 6:1-2), depravity increased exponentially. “The Nephilim” race (Gen. 6:4-5), formed by intermarriage of either the godly line of Seth…or the appearance of fallen angelic beings (2 Peter 2:4-5; Jude 6-7) further defiled the growing population, with gross violence and degenerate sexual depravity.
Genesis 6:3–8
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever”….
5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Catastrophe: Through the Flood, God’s Judgment on sin destroyed everything on earth except Noah and his family, and that, which was on Noah’s ark.
The Jewish Nation
Chosen People  Catastrophe
The Jewish Nation: Genesis 9 – “the Gospels”
The 2,000 years (approx.) following the Flood: The Jewish Nation was conceived and flourished, revealing to the pagan world once again, a consistent view of the Creator God of heaven, His Law, and through them, the Messiah and Redeemer: Genesis 9 – “the Gospels… Matthew, Mark, Luke and John”.
1. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
2. Egypt’s Slavery
3. God’s Deliverance and His worship established
4. God’s Law given
5. The Promised Land
6. Jewish Kingdoms
7. The Messiah Born, Lived a Messianic Life (John 20:30-31), and Sacrificed as Redeemer and Savior (Is. 53; John 3:16), but He is Raised Again from the Dead (Matt. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20; 1 Cor. 15).
8. Catastrophe for Israel: Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple, by Rome, AD 70
The Church Age
“And this Gospel of the Kingdom
will be preached in the whole world
as a testimony to all nations,
and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:14
Church Age  Conclusion
The Church: Acts – Rev. 3
The current 2,000 years (approx.) began at Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection and extends until this Present Day: This Age is Identified as “the Times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:25; Rom. 11:25), also known as “The Church Age” for those who are believers in Christ: Acts – Rev. 3.
God has now given the Gentile nations (together with believing Jews) 2,000 years to hear, respond, and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, just as God had given the family of Israel 2,000 years to become a Nation, proclaim the Creator God, receive the Law, and be given the Messiah.
Matthew 24:14
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
“The Church Age” had already begun during the writing of the New Testament, but it had just begun. Now, 2,000 years later, we may be nearing the conclusion of “the Church Age”.
In the past 2,000 years since Christ’s Resurrection there are now some Two Billion Christians (according to 21st Century statistics*)…2,000,000,000! That would seem to me a healthy continuing fulfillment of Christ’s words in Matthew 24:14.
*Who’s Bigger? Where Historical Figures Really Rank, by Steven Skiena and Charles Ward (published by Cambridge University Press) (http://www.whoisbigger.com)
God gave the Apostle Paul an understanding of “the Mystery” (Eph. 3:1-12), that we now know would unfold in the next 2,000 years following Paul’s life...that God was calling those from the Gentile nations to also be in His Kingdom with believing Jews, and together they would share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world. “Then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14).
In each of these Ages…these (from our limited understanding) seemingly 2,000 year epochs, God is calling out for Himself those for whom He is preparing His Eternal Kingdom.
In the Ages of the Earth…
• God has “prepared the ground” for His Kingdom
• God has “planted the seed” for His Kingdom, and
• God is “reaping the harvest” for His Kingdom –
May each of us be and do, as God has called us, to accomplish His eternal purposes!
Now, let’s go back and address a question about “other” ages of the earth.
The Ages of the Earth
A question arose regarding “real time” years or “Day-Age” years – “one day as a thousand years”. Let’s address the dynamics of time from a Biblical viewpoint as quickly and reasonably as possible. If we do not address this topic in church, who will address it from a Biblical context?
There are at least three Premises on which Theories of the Age of the Earth are Proposed and each of the Theories are based on the person’s fundamental belief system: on whether or not there is a God, and if that God or gods allowed Evolution to supplement Him (or it/them) in creating the world; or, if God created the world by speaking it into existence as recorded in Genesis 1 & 2.
1. There is No God, the earth and everything and life form in it was formed at random chance from nothing
2. There were impersonal creator(s), or God, or aliens, who formed the universe and seeded the earth with life and allowed the earth to evolve over millions or billions of years until we have the earth, as we know it today.
3. There is a Personal God who created the earth according to the written account in Genesis 1 and 2.
Depending on their belief of one of these three premises, a person, a family, an institution, or a government will structure their concept of the age of the earth.
A congenial Christian, based on what our teachers have taught us in school and/or what our peers, or society expects us to believe, this Christian may try to structure a combination of belief between some form of politically correct science while holding on to some parts of the Bible.
A combined position is a difficult position to hold, if you are a Biblical Christian.
This is why I am taking the time to present the alternatives opinions today – so we can clearly understand what we believe, in a world filled with blurred lines, dogmatic science, and hollow theories.
Let’s look at these three points more specifically.
Theories about the Age of the Earth
1. There is No God. The earth with every life form in it was formed at random chance from nothing...[or from a “god particle”? …Which originated from where?]
Old-Earth Theory:
Evolution, according to the theory, took Billions and Billions of years for life to become what it is today, through time and chance – and is “proof” of this politically correct position of “modern science”.
• The Geological Table was drawn based on these evolutionary premises:
o Strata dates fossils
o Fossils date strata
• Unfortunately for the Evolutionary Theory, there are No certifiable evolutionary transitional creatures – billions of transitional creatures, over millions of years, would be essential for this theory to be accurate.
o To be consistent with the evolutionary theory, presupposing millions and billions of evolutionary years, layers upon layers of transitional fossils should be found everywhere on the planet in support of the theory, but there are none (0) – only what are contrived, and they are very limited.
o Instead of transitional creatures, God formed all creatures into “Species”, which, by definition, are families of animals, insects, fish, or birds, unable to reproduce outside of their unique “family”. There are millions of species on our planet today. None of them can cross specie DNA boundaries to reproduce. They die first, or the offspring is sterile. That is why we have the extinction of that specie, and there is an uproar if a particularly popular specie is “endangered”.
• The Cambrian Explosion
o It is interesting that the appearance of creatures on the earth can be established in a relatively short period of time, which evolutionist call the Cambrian Explosion (instead of “creation”).
o Problems rising from the Cambrian Explosion:
"Animals appeared suddenly without evidence of transitions, and stayed the same without evolving."
• Current old-earth methods of dating the earth:
“Radiometric or Radioisotope dating methods” (Carbon dating methods supposedly cannot be used to date material over 1 million years old, so Radiometric methods are used instead when millions, or billions of years are required to be dated.)
Information from the US Geological Survey (USGS) “Age of the Earth” Article
“The ‘best’ age for the Earth is based on the time required for the lead isotopes in four very old lead ores (galena) to have evolved from the composition of lead at the time the Solar System formed, as recorded in the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite. This ‘model lead age’ is 4.54 billion years….” *
“As radioactive Parent atoms decay to stable daughter atoms (as uranium decays to lead) each disintegration results in one more atom of the daughter than was initially present and one less atom of the parent. The probability of a parent atom decaying in a fixed period of time is always the same for all atoms of that type regardless of temperature, pressure, or chemical conditions. This probability of decay is the decay constant. The time required for one-half of any original number of parent atoms to decay is the half-life, which is related to the decay constant by a simple mathematical formula…..” *
*From: The Age of the Earth USGS: How do we know the Age of the Earth?; Radiometric dating http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/gtime/ageofearth.html
[note: “‘probability’ of decay is the decay constant”.]
The radioactive parent elements used to date rocks and minerals by USGS or other natural scientists are:
Parent / Daughter / Half-life
Uranium-235 / Lead-207 / 0.704 billion years
Uranium-238 / Lead-206 / 4.47
Potassium-40 / Argon-40 / 1.25
Rubidium-87 / Strontium-87 / 48.8
Samarium-147 / Neodymium-143 / 106
Thorium-232 / Lead-208 / 14.0
Rhenium-187 / Osmium-187 / 43.0
Lutetium-176 / Hafnium-176 / 35.9 (*ibid.)
~~~
Young-Earth alternative view, by geologist Andrew Snelling, Ph.D.
“Most people believe that when the different radioisotope dating methods are used on the same rock unit they all yield the same age. However, the radioisotope dating of these Grand Canyon rocks clearly demonstrates that the disagreement, or isochron discordance, is pronounced. Even when the calculated error margins are taken into account the different radioisotope dating methods yield completely different ‘ages’ that cannot be reconciled—1240±84 Ma (Rb-Sr), 1655±40 Ma (Sm-Nd), and 1883±53 Ma (Pb-Pb). None of the obtained isochron "ages" corresponds to the ‘date’ for any recognized event, neither the original lava eruptions nor the subsequent metamorphism. And the K-Ar model ‘ages’ are so widely divergent from one another (ranging from 405.1±10 Ma to 2574.2±73 Ma), even from very closely spaced samples from the same outcrop of the same original lava flow, as to be useless for ‘dating’ any event….” **
“These discordant results could easily be dismissed as an isolated aberration, perhaps due to the uncertain effects of metamorphism and any subsequent alteration, especially during erosion and weathering. However, they are confirmation of the repeated failure of all the radioisotope ‘dating’ methods to successfully date Grand Canyon rocks.7,8 Furthermore, papers in the general geological literature are also reporting discordant radioisotope "dates" when all the methods are applied to the same rock unit,9 but tenuous ‘explanations’ are given to account for the anomalous amounts of daughter products, and avoid the inescapable conclusion that the radioisotope methods simply do not yield reliable absolute ages….” **
“The radioisotope methods, long touted as irrefutably dating the earth's rocks as countless millions of years old, have repeatedly failed to provide reliable and meaningful absolute ages for Grand Canyon rock layers. Irreconcilable disagreement within and between the methods is the norm, even at the outcrop scale.” **
**“Radioisotope Dating of Grand Canyon Rocks: Another Devastating Failure for Long-Age Geology” by Andrew A. Snelling, Ph.D. http://www.icr.org/article/42/275
The “dating system” of rocks comes down to the veracity of whether or not the Radiometric/Radioisotope system and analysis of dating methods are, without doubt, the most appropriate way of accurately measuring the age of the earth.
• Were there critical and legitimate historical markers overlooked in formulating opinions of age?
• Were there catastrophic variables, such as the Genesis flood included in analysis, or are such catastrophes considered only as multiple traditional fables? Extreme volatile water destabilization, with possible tectonic plate movement, severe earthquakes, and multiple volcanic activity were likely inherent during the Genesis flood.
• The record of extremely long life as recorded before the flood, reflects enhanced carbon variables in the ecosystem at that time, which could affect modern day conclusions of both carbon dating and radiometric dating.
If there had not been the same conditions in the antediluvian world in which we measure the carbon or isotopes today, how can we be certain of the reliability of the measurement methods on which we dogmatically establish our opinions and theories? No one has been around a billion years to authenticate our theories and substantiate our inconsistent tests. Do we use the inadequacies of the tests we create to authenticate our belief systems?
We must also understand that the Creator God made everything perfect from the moment of creation: “It was very good” (Gen. 1:31). God “Spoke” plants and trees into mature existence, birds immediately flew in the air – they were not created originally as primordial ameba or pre-embryonic tissue; “great sea creatures” and every living thing that swarms in the sea” were created on the fifth day of creation. In the Garden Adam “gave names to livestock, birds and every beast of the field”; light from the stars was brought into existence to “give light upon the earth,” (from trillions of miles away). Celestial light was called into existence, and it was created to immediately be visible on the earth – “and it was so” (Gen. 1:15). Man and woman were created and formed as adults…not infants. God spoke and each aspect of our unique earth was created, “and it was very good”.
Have you experienced a birth recently and held a newborn in your hands? Birth is a miracle that UNICEF says happens 353,000 times a day on our planet, before the world’s very eyes! What makes the miracle of each life and birth today substantially different from the miracle of creation?
Was the miracle of original creation any more daunting to God than the miracle of life today? Where does the dynamic of DNA and life originate today in our fragile world? God is still creating!
If one is insistent on supporting his or her view of “no God needed”, then one must resort to alternative reasoning at all costs, even if unreliable.
2. Day-Age Theory:
There were impersonal creator(s), or God, or aliens, who formed the universe and seeded the earth with life and allowed the earth to evolve over millions or billions of years until we have the earth, as we know it today.
Two verses of Scripture are used by Day-Age Theorist to promote the possibility of God beginning the process and Evolution taking over from there, are as follows:
Psalm 90:4
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
2 Peter 3:8
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Look at the context of these verses. Do they in any way agree with Day-Age theory?
Psalm 90:1–6
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
What are the verses in Psalms speaking about?
“God is Everlasting and we are not!”
Let’s look at the context of the second verse:
2 Peter 3:8
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Does the context, in any way, agree with the unrelated topic of God allowing the earth to evolve over billions of years?
2 Peter 3:3–13
3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
What are the verses in 2 Peter speaking about?
The Patience of God…willing to wait for as long as possible…even thousands of years to accomplish His purposes, not wishing any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
What does the Bible say about the Age of the Earth and Creation?
3. There is a Personal God who created the heaven and the earth according to the written account in Genesis 1 and 2.
The Bible clearly declares that God is Almighty and can do anything He chooses to do, any way He chooses…including the Creation of the world. The time God allocated for creation not only brought about the best pattern for creation of the earth and those on it, but it reveals other aspects of who God IS, such as His example of “rest”, and the redemptive concept of “Salvation Rest”.
Genesis 1:1–28
The Creation of the World
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
If a Believer in Christ is intent on seeking to resolve the gaping and incontrovertible differences between Creation and Evolution then one must find some Scriptural backing for such a position. I believe that God IS, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). I do not find any resolution through disbelief in God, nor in trying to combine flagrant inconsistencies and incompatibilities in politically correct “scientific” views involving evolution.
The 10 Best Evidences from Science that Confirm a Young Earth
The following is from:
https://answersingenesis.org/evidence-for-creation/the-10-best-evidences-from-science-that-confirm-a-young-earth/
[Additional footnotes and other key information are available at site.]
#1 Very Little Sediment on the Seafloor
For Additional Information:
The Sands of Time: A Biblical Model of Deep Sea-Floor Sedimentation
The Sands of Time: A Biblical Model of Deep Sea-Floor Sedimentation (pdf)
“Sea Salt, Erosion, and Sediments” from Earth’s Catastrophic Past1 (pdf)
If sediments have been accumulating on the seafloor for three billion years, the seafloor should be choked with sediments many miles deep.
Every year water and wind erode about 20 billion tons of dirt and rock debris from the continents and deposit them on the seafloor. Most of this material accumulates as loose sediments near the continents. Yet the average thickness of all these sediments globally over the whole seafloor is not even 1,300 feet (400 m).
Some sediments appear to be removed as tectonic plates slide slowly (an inch or two per year) beneath continents. An estimated 1 billion tons of sediments are removed this way each year. The net gain is thus 19 billion tons per year. At this rate, 1,300 feet of sediment would accumulate in less than 12 million years, not billions of years.
This evidence makes sense within the context of the Genesis Flood cataclysm, not the idea of slow and gradual geologic evolution. In the latter stages of the year-long global Flood, water swiftly drained off the emerging land, dumping its sediment-chocked loads offshore. Thus most seafloor sediments accumulated rapidly about 4,300 years ago.
Where Is All the Sediment?
Dr. Andrew Snelling holds a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Sydney and has worked as a consultant research geologist in both Australia and America. Author of numerous scientific articles, Dr. Snelling is now director of research at Answers in Genesis.
#2 Bent Rock Layers
For Additional Information:
Rock Layers Folded, Not Fractured
“Soft-Sediment Deformation Features” from Earth’s Catastrophic Past2 (pdf)
“Megasequences of North America” from Earth’s Catastrophic Past3 (pdf)
In many mountainous areas, rock layers thousands of feet thick have been bent and folded without fracturing. How can that happen if they were laid down separately over hundreds of millions of years and already hardened?
IF THE EARTH’S FOSSIL-BEARING SEDIMENTARY LAYERS WERE LAID DOWN OVER 460 MILLION YEARS, THEY COULD NOT BE BENT WITHOUT BREAKING.
Hardened rock layers are brittle. Try bending a slab of concrete sometime to see what happens! But if concrete is still wet, it can easily be shaped and molded before the cement sets. The same principle applies to sedimentary rock layers. They can be bent and folded soon after the sediment is deposited, before the natural cements have a chance to bind the particles together into hard, brittle rocks.
The region around Grand Canyon is a great example showing how most of the earth’s fossil-bearing layers were laid down quickly and many were folded while still wet. Exposed in the canyon’s walls are about 4,500 feet (1,370 meters) of fossil-bearing layers, conventionally labeled Cambrian to Permian. They were supposedly deposited over a period lasting from 520 to 250 million years ago. Then, amazingly, this whole sequence of layers rose over a mile, around 60 million years ago. The plateau through which Grand Canyon runs is now 7,000–8,000 feet (2,150–3,450 meters) above sea level.
Layers Laid Down Quickly and Bent While Soft
Think about it. The time between the first deposits at Grand Canyon (520 million years ago) and their bending (60 million years ago) was 460 million years!
#3 Soft Tissue in Fossils
For Additional Information:
Two: Those Not-So-Dry Bones
More Soft Tissue in “Old” Fossils
Ask the average layperson how he or she knows that the earth is millions or billions of years old, and that person will probably mention the dinosaurs, which nearly everybody “knows” died off 65 million years ago. A recent discovery by Dr. Mary Schweitzer, however, has given reason for all but committed evolutionists to question this assumption.
IF DINOSAURS LIVED OVER 65 MILLION YEARS AGO, WHY DO SOME DINOSAUR FOSSILS STILL CONTAIN WELL-PRESERVED SOFT TISSUES?
Bone slices from the fossilized thigh bone (femur) of a Tyrannosaurus rex found in the Hell Creek formation of Montana were studied under the microscope by Schweitzer. To her amazement, the bone showed what appeared to be blood vessels of the type seen in bone and marrow, and these contained what appeared to be red blood cells with nuclei, typical of reptiles and birds (but not mammals). The vessels even appeared to be lined with specialized endothelial cells found in all blood vessels.
Amazingly, the bone marrow contained what appeared to be flexible tissue. Initially, some skeptical scientists suggested that bacterial biofilms (dead bacteria aggregated in a slime) formed what only appear to be blood vessels and bone cells. Recently Schweitzer and coworkers found biochemical evidence for intact fragments of the protein collagen, which is the building block of connective tissue. This is important because collagen is a highly distinctive protein not made by bacteria. (See Schweitzer’s review article in Scientific American [December 2010, pp. 62–69] titled “Blood from Stone.”)
Some evolutionists have strongly criticized Schweitzer’s conclusions because they are understandably reluctant to concede the existence of blood vessels, cells with nuclei, tissue elasticity, and intact protein fragments in a dinosaur bone dated at 68 million years old. Other evolutionists, who find Schweitzer’s evidence too compelling to ignore, simply conclude that there is some previously unrecognized form of fossilization that preserves cells and protein fragments over tens of millions of years. Needless to say, no evolutionist has publically considered the possibility that dinosaur fossils are not millions of years old.
#4 Faint Sun Paradox
For Additional Information:
The Young Faint Sun Paradox and the Age of the Solar System
Evidence now supports astronomers’ belief that the sun’s power comes from the fusion of hydrogen into helium deep in the sun’s core, but there is a huge problem. As the hydrogen fuses, it should change the composition of the sun’s core, gradually increasing the sun’s temperature. If true, this means that the earth was colder in the past. In fact, the earth would have been below freezing 3.5 billion years ago, when life supposedly evolved.
The rate of nuclear fusion depends upon the temperature. As the sun’s core temperatures increase, the sun’s energy output should also increase, causing the sun to brighten over time. Calculations show that the sun would brighten by 25% after 3.5 billion years. This means that an early sun would have been fainter, warming the earth 31°F (17°C) less than it does today. That’s below freezing.
But evolutionists acknowledge that there is no evidence of this in the geologic record. They even call this problem the faint young sun paradox. While this isn’t a problem over many thousands of years, it is a problem if the world is billions of years old.
Dr. Danny Faulkner is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of South Carolina Lancaster. He has written numerous articles in astronomical journals, and he is the author of Universe by Design.
#5 Rapidly Decaying Magnetic Field
For Additional Information:
The Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Young
The Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Age of the Earth
“The Earth’s Magnetic Field” from Earth’s Catastrophic Past4 (pdf)
The earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that protects living things from solar radiation. Without it, life could not exist. That’s why scientists were surprised to discover that the field is quickly wearing down. At the current rate, the field and thus the earth could be no older than 20,000 years old.
THE EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD IS WEARING DOWN SO QUICKLY THAT IT COULD BE NO MORE THAN 20,000 YEARS OLD.
Several measurements confirm this decay. Since measuring began in 1845, the total energy stored in the earth’s magnetic field has been decaying at a rate of 5% per century. Archaeological measurements show that the field was 40% stronger in AD 1000. Recent records of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, the most accurate ever taken, show a net energy loss of 1.4% in just three decades (1970–2000). This means that the field’s energy has halved every 1,465 years or so.
Creationists have proposed that the earth’s magnetic field is caused by a freely-decaying electric current in the earth’s core. This means that the electric current naturally loses energy, or “decays,” as it flows through the metallic core. Though it differs from the most commonly accepted conventional model, it is consistent with our knowledge of what makes up the earth’s core. Furthermore, based on what we know about the conductive properties of liquid iron, this freely decaying current would have started when the earth’s outer core was formed. However, if the core were more than 20,000 years old, then the starting energy would have made the earth too hot to be covered by water, as Genesis 1:2 reveals.
#6 Helium in Radioactive Rocks
For Additional Information:
Helium Diffusion Rates Support Accelerated Nuclear Decay
Young Helium Diffusion Age of Zircons Supports Accelerated Nuclear Decay
The Age of the Earth’s Atmosphere Estimated by its Helium Content
“Helium in Rocks and in the Atmosphere” from Earth’s Catastrophic Past5 (pdf)
During the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium contained in rocks, lots of helium is produced. Because helium is the second lightest element and a noble gas—meaning it does not combine with other atoms—it readily diffuses (leaks) out and eventually escapes into the atmosphere. Helium diffuses so rapidly that all the helium should have leaked out in less than 100,000 years. So why are these rocks still full of helium atoms?
While drilling deep Precambrian (pre-Flood) granitic rocks in New Mexico, geologists extracted samples of zircon (zirconium silicate) crystals from different depths. The crystals contained not only uranium but also large amounts of helium. The hotter the rocks, the faster the helium should escape, so researchers were surprised to find that the deepest, and therefore hottest, zircons (at 387°F or 197°C) contained far more helium than expected. Up to 58% of the helium that the uranium could have ever generated was still present in the crystals.
The helium leakage rate has been determined in several experiments. All measurements are in agreement. Helium diffuses so rapidly that all the helium in these zircon crystals should have leaked out in less than 100,000 years. The fact that so much helium is still there means they cannot be 1.5 billion years old, as uranium-lead dating suggests. Indeed, using the measured rate of helium diffusion, these pre-Flood rocks have an average “diffusion age” of only 6,000 (± 2,000) years.
These experimentally determined and repeatable results, based on the well-understood physical process of diffusion, thus emphatically demonstrate that these zircons are only a few thousand years old. The supposed 1.5-billion-year age is based on the unverifiable assumptions of radioisotope dating that are radically wrong.
Another evidence of a young earth is the low amount of helium in the atmosphere. The leakage rate of helium gas into the atmosphere has been measured. Even though some helium escapes into outer space, the amount still present is not nearly enough if the earth is over 4.5 billion years old. In fact, if we assume no helium was in the original atmosphere, all the helium would have accumulated in only 1.8 million years even from an evolutionary standpoint. But when the catastrophic Flood upheaval is factored in, which rapidly released huge amounts of helium into the atmosphere, it could have accumulated in only 6,000 years.
Quick Escape of Helium
Radioactive elements in rocks produce a lot of helium as they decay; and this gas quickly slips away into the atmosphere, especially when the rocks are hot. Yet radioactive rocks in the earth’s crust contain a lot of helium. The only possible explanation: the helium hasn’t had time to escape!
#7 Carbon-14 in Fossils, Coal, and Diamonds
For Additional Information:
Carbon-14 in Fossils and Diamonds
Carbon-14 Evidence for a Recent Global Flood and a Young Earth
Measurable 14C in Fossilized Organic Materials: Confirming the Young Earth Creation-Flood Model
“The Pitfalls in the Radioactive Dating Methods—The Radiocarbon Dating Method” from Earth’s Catastrophic Past6 (pdf)
“Carbon-14 Dating” from Thousands . . . not Billions7 (pdf)
Carbon-14 (or radiocarbon) is a radioactive form of carbon that scientists use to date fossils. But it decays quickly.
Carbon-14 (or radiocarbon) is a radioactive form of carbon that scientists use to date fossils. But it decays so quickly—with a half-life of only 5,730 years—that none is expected to remain in fossils after only a few hundred thousand years. Yet carbon-14 has been detected in “ancient” fossils—supposedly up to hundreds of millions of years old—ever since the earliest days of radiocarbon dating.
IF RADIOCARBON LASTS ONLY A FEW HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS, WHY IS IT FOUND IN ALL THE EARTH’S DIAMONDS DATED AT BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD?
Even if every atom in the whole earth were carbon-14, they would decay so quickly that no carbon-14 would be left on earth after only 1 million years. Contrary to expectations, between 1984 and 1998 alone, the scientific literature reported carbon-14 in 70 samples that came from fossils, coal, oil, natural gas, and marble representing the fossil-bearing portion of the geologic record, supposedly spanning more than 500 million years. All contained radiocarbon. Further, analyses of fossilized wood and coal samples, supposedly spanning 32–350 million years in age, yielded ages between 20,000 and 50,000 years using carbon-14 dating. Diamonds supposedly 1–3 billion years old similarly yielded carbon-14 ages of only 55,000 years.
#8 Short-Lived Comets
For Additional Information:
Comets and the Age of the Solar System
Kuiper Belt Objects: Solution to Short-Period Comets?
More Problems for the ‘Oort Comet Cloud’
A comet spends most of its time far from the sun in the deep freeze of space. But once each orbit a comet comes very close to the sun, allowing the sun’s heat to evaporate much of the comet’s ice and dislodge dust to form a beautiful tail. Comets have little mass, so each close pass to the sun greatly reduces a comet’s size, and eventually comets fade away. They can’t survive billions of years.
Two other mechanisms can destroy comets—ejections from the solar system and collisions with planets. Ejections happen as comets pass too close to the large planets, particularly Jupiter, and the planets’ gravity kicks them out of the solar system. While ejections have been observed many times, the first observed collision was in 1994, when Comet Shoemaker-Levi IX slammed into Jupiter.
Given the loss rates, it’s easy to compute a maximum age of comets. That maximum age is only a few million years. Obviously, their prevalence makes sense if the entire solar system was created just a few thousand years ago, but not if it arose billions of years ago.
#9 Very Little Salt in the Sea
For Additional Information:
The Sea’s Missing Salt: A Dilemma for Evolutionists
“Sea Salt, Erosion, and Sediments” from Earth’s Catastrophic Past (pdf)
If the world’s oceans have been around for three billion years as evolutionists believe, they should be filled with vastly more salt than the oceans contain today.
AFTER 3 BILLION YEARS, WE WOULD EXPECT TO SEE 70X MORE SALT IN THE OCEAN THAN WE SEE TODAY.
Every year rivers, glaciers, underground seepage, and atmospheric and volcanic dust dump large amounts of salts into the oceans. Consider the influx of the predominant salt, sodium chloride (common table salt). Some 458 million tons of sodium mixes into ocean water each year, but only 122 million tons (27%) is removed by other natural processes.
If seawater originally contained no sodium (salt) and the sodium accumulated at today’s rates, then today’s ocean saltiness would be reached in only 42 million years—only about 1/70 the three billion years evolutionists propose. But those assumptions fail to take into account the likelihood that God created a saltwater ocean for all the sea creatures He made on Day Five. Also, the year-long global Flood cataclysm must have dumped an unprecedented amount of salt into the ocean through erosion, sedimentation, and volcanism. So today’s ocean saltiness makes much better sense within the biblical timescale of about six thousand years.
Salt in the Sea
The Numbers Just Don’t Add Up
#10 DNA in “Ancient” Bacteria
by Dr. Georgia Purdom on October 1, 2012; last featured January 15, 2013
For Additional Information:
Bacterial Life in Ancient Salt
Scientists were surprised to find that DNA was still intact after a supposed 250 million years.
In 2000, scientists claimed to have “resurrected” bacteria, named Lazarus bacteria, discovered in a salt crystal conventionally dated at 250 million years old. They were shocked that the bacteria’s DNA was very similar to modern bacterial DNA. If the modern bacteria were the result of 250 million years of evolution, its DNA should be very different from the Lazarus bacteria (based on known mutation rates).
In addition, the scientists were surprised to find that the DNA was still intact after the supposed 250 million years. DNA normally breaks down quickly, even in ideal conditions. Even evolutionists agree that DNA in bacterial spores (a dormant state) should not last more than a million years. Their quandary is quite substantial.
However, the discovery of Lazarus bacteria is not shocking or surprising when we base our expectations on the Bible accounts. For instance, Noah’s Flood likely deposited the salt beds that were home to the bacteria. If the Lazarus bacteria are only about 4,500 years old (the approximate number of years that have passed since the worldwide flood), their DNA is more likely to be intact and similar to modern bacteria.
Conclusion
Why is it important for the Biblical Christian to believe how God created us? If we discount the first two chapters of the Bible, are there other verses or chapters that we conveniently set aside, if they become politically incorrect?
How does it affect us if we begin believing that we simply evolved, without God’s specific creation authority? What happens when we begin making myths of creation and the calamity of God’s judgment of the world’s sin in the Genesis Flood?
Knowing this first of all,
that scoffers will come in the last days
with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming?
For ever since the fathers fell asleep,
all things are continuing as they were
from the beginning of creation.”
For they deliberately overlook this fact,
that the heavens existed long ago,
and the earth was formed out of water and through water
by the word of God,
and that by means of these
the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist
are stored up for fire, being kept until the Day of Judgment
and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness,
but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish,
but that all should reach repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, a
nd the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved,
and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved,
what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved,
and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
But according to his promise we are waiting
for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 Peter 3:3–7](The_Ages_of_the_Earth_files/shapeimage_2.png)
