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Article by Jack Wellman
Jack Wellman is a father and grandfather and a Christian author and pastor of Heritage Evangelical Free Church in Udall, KS & also a Prison Minister. He did his graduate work at Moody Theological Seminary. His books are include: “Teaching Children The Gospel/How to Raise Godly Children,“ “Do Babies Go To Heaven?/Why Does God Allow Suffering?,“ "The Great Omission; Reaching the Lost for Christ," and “Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?, Empirical Methodologies & the Bible."
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This was a great explanation Jack. I didn’t realize that God created everything in 6 literal days. That is amazing! This is the first time I have actually read this fact. I am with you. It doesn’t matter how old the earth is. What matters is that we trust God at His Word. Well done brother! God bless!
Thanks brother. I pray this article does not become a stumbling block for Christians as my intent was to say that the Bible is not a book about the heavens but about how to get there and that the age of the earth is a non-essential issue but eternal life in Christ is. Thank you friend.
Great article, Jack,
My only question about God creating everything in six days is, “Why did He take so long?” (Just kidding). The God of the Bible, the God who sent His Son to pay the penalty for my sins, and the God who loves me enough to draw me to Him, is certainly capable of creating everything in exactly the amount of time He wanted to. Wonderful article, brother.
Yours in Christ,
Robert
Jack,
The first word in Genesis 1: 2 is “and” not “now”.
There are several points to think about vis avis the earth being millions of years old. Most scientists are not philosophers but evolution is what it was called back in Darwin’s day: Natural Philosophy. The main reason for millions, billions of years is to allow time for everything to happen by chance. Hey! Need more time? Tack on another billion. A statistical study of of the DNA molecule proved it was so complex that 14 billion years wasn’t long enough for it to happen by chance. Remember that is only one thing necessary for evolution. How about millions of others also necessary for life?
A great Christian book, Science Speaks, contained the results of a project to calculate the odds of Bible prophecies coming true by chance. If there is one chance in a thousand of of a prophecy coming true by chance, one chance in ten thousand for another and one chance in one hundred thousand of still another, what are the odds on all three coming about by chance? you have to multiply these fractions by each other. For just what I’ve mentioned you start getting astronomical odds. On the day Christ died, 33 Biblical prophecies came true. This gave us odds of 10 to the 11th power. Imagine a giant cube made up of dimes, ten miles on edge with one marked dime. But this was only 33 prophecies. The human body has 200 body parts by no means simple, for all this to come about by chance, the odds would be trillions times trillions. What makes it worse is the concept of ecology which includes symbiosis. Plants and animals don’t just live by themselves but in a complex environment, all this has to come about by chance. Six days makes a lot of sense when you consider coherence. Herbivores might have trouble waiting millions of years for their dietary plant life to evolve.
There is a place in the Bible where we are told to disregard time tables, for they have no bearing on what is to come, or what has passed. These things will happen and have happened as God wills it. However, I can see where there is debate on the age of the earth, and how there could be room in Genesis to theoretically claim time may have passed between God’s moving upon the face of the water, and the creating of light and dark. Ultimately, I’d like to believe that our God is all powerful as declared by believers, therefore could He not have created a “prefabricated” earth so to speak, that was primed and ready for the end of time? To argue and say that this is too old, or this couldn’t have happened in this time frame, is to say He is not capable. Surely if you believe God created everything that is, then you can also believe he is capable of aging the earth, so it is fit for the future generations of man and the paths we have taken as a people. We are able to age wine, meat, and other tangible goods artificially, in other words without the wait, therefore is our Holiest Father not capable of the same feat on a much greater magnitude? Faith in and acceptance of Christ is the ONLY thing that matters.
Well said Trevor. You’re spot on by saying the conclusion of all things is having “Faith in and acceptance of Christ is the ONLY thing that matters.” I totally concur. As my own conclusion said, “Let us not debate about a young earth or an old earth but give glory to God as Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. That’s the most important thing there is.”
I used to defend a young earth with blind faith. Then I realized I was just sticking my fingers in my ears, following the fundamentalist code. Statements like, God could “age” the earth are the typical self deception required to deny what is so blatantly obvious. If a woman was “super aged” to look and act like 90….is she not 90?
Its a difference that makes no difference and a maniacal construct designed to preserve a nice neat theological package that is completely unnecessary to the fact Christ Is exactly who he said he was. Adam was the first human with the breath of God in him. But I knew all along I was completely full of crap defending the fundamentalist literal version which virtually no learned Christian accepted throughout history before unlearned men got a hold of the bible and read it like a cookbook. Its one of those self deceptions that you Must lie to yourself.
Letting go has changed nothing(about 15 years now). I didnt decend into the abyss. In fact I realized how weak my faith was by needing to believe it was literal. Maybe some people cant handle the truth. Some need special days, rosery beads, hail marys, teachers in costumes, food laws, repetitive prayers, or pet doctrines like secret raptures, calvinistic dead men walking, soul sleep, burning fire, it goes on and on but it does so because we are weaklings. Not many strong on our team otherwise Christianity wouldn’t be littered with division.
Anyway, rant over
Love ya. Great site
Thank you John…I am in agreement with you brother. Well said sir.
Hello Sir,
Greetings from a fellow brother in Christ.
I have a question. You mentioned in article that, ” We can not impute a time into or between verses one and two. It is impossible to say just how long of a period of time occurred because there is the statement “in the beginning” and “now.” ”
is this to mean that it is possible that a gap of an unknown amount of time exist between verses 1 and 2 in Genesis one?
If so, how do you explain Jesus words when he said ” From the beginning he made them male and female”, which is also quoted in your article. If there is no time gap between the verses then it makes sense. God cased the beginning, created and a few days later made a male and female. if there is a gap of a great amount of time, and we use the biblical genealogies, wouldn’t that mean mankind did not show up at the beginning, but more toward the end, and this would in turn make Jesus incorrect?
I do not want the earth’s age to be a dividing factor, but I do want the bible, my authority to be rightly divided. So, it is with respect I ask these question to gain a deeper understanding of the God I know and love.
Thank you James.
thank you James for your critique of the article. If you have read it carefully, you can see that I do not say that I believe in the gap theory but only presented it as what other Christians hold to. You are right, God, from the beginning made them male and female but this had nothing to do with what happened in Gen 1:1 and 1:2. Mankind was created on the sixth day, not “in the beginning” but I still appreciate your comment and so with respect as well, thank you and I ask you to comment again sometime but not inferring upon the author’s what you feel the said when if fact, they didn’t (as with this article).
I’m sure you are very busy, so I do appreciate you taking time to reply.
Thank you
Dear Jack,
I really enjoy reading your articles. Do you have one on the existence of aliens. I personally don’t believe in them but I was speaking with someone and they suggested that if there was something else out there, they are demonic beings. Do you have an article about such things? I would be very interested in reading it…Thank you and God bless
Hello Laurie and thank you for the encouraging comment. If there is other life out there, nothing changes about the Bible or our standing before God. Even if they do find life on Mars, God still created it. So if there are aliens out there, it should not surprise us, but more likely, even Satan can appear as an angel of light and if he can get people to believe in aliens, then they won’t have to believe in God. Aliens may be of demonic source, in other words. We just don’t have enough evidence and even if there are aliens, nothing changes for believes (Rom 8:38-39). Here is more this subject: https://www.gotquestions.org/aliens-Christian.html
It took him 7 days to make Earth, not 6
Hello friend. I am afraid you are wrong. Please read Genesis 2:2 which says “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” so am I to believe you or am I to believe God? God for sure. Please study this better my friend. Apparently you have not read Genesis 1 & 2.