Creation and the Age of the Earth — Trusting the Word Over the World

“And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.”

— Hebrews 1:10

The Question That Divides Faith and Science

When it comes to the age of the earth, the question isn’t just about time—it’s about trust. Whose word will we believe: God’s or man’s?

The Bible clearly teaches that God created the heavens and the earth “in the beginning.” Yet everywhere we turn, we’re told the Earth is billions of years old. The media, textbooks, and scientific institutions treat this view as an unquestionable fact. But the real conflict isn’t between faith and science—it’s between man’s interpretation and God’s revelation.

Both creationists and evolutionists look at the same evidence—fossils, rock layers, and geological formations. The difference lies in their starting point. Evolution begins with man’s reasoning; creation begins with God’s Word. Actual science depends on observation and repeatability, but creation cannot be observed or repeated—it happened once, by the power of God.

Ultimately, the question of the earth’s age is a matter of faith—faith in the theories of man or faith in the inspired record of Scripture.

The Biblical Record: Six Literal Days

Genesis 1 opens with a simple, definitive statement: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Hebrew word for “create” (bara) means to make something from nothing—a divine act of bringing existence out of nonexistence.

The Bible teaches that creation took place over six literal days. God could have created everything instantaneously, but He chose to take His time to establish a divine pattern—a week of work followed by a day of rest (Exodus 20:11).

Some try to stretch these “days” into long ages to accommodate evolutionary theories, but Scripture interprets itself. Genesis 1 defines a day as “evening and morning,” the same phrasing used throughout the Old Testament to mean a normal, 24-hour day. When God told Israel to sacrifice the Passover lamb on the “fourteenth day” or gather manna in the “morning,” the meaning was literal—not symbolic.

To deny the plain reading of Genesis undermines the foundation of all biblical interpretation. If we cannot take God at His word in Genesis, how can we trust Him in the Gospels?

Tracing Time Through Scripture

If we accept the Genesis account as literal, we can determine a timeline using the genealogies in Scripture.

From Adam to Noah, the Bible records 1,656 years (Genesis 5). From the flood to Abraham, another 352 years (Genesis 11). From Abraham to the construction of Solomon’s temple, roughly 1,200 years. From the temple to the time of Christ, about 997 years.

Adding these together gives us an approximate age of the Earth at around 6,000 years. The earth is not billions of years old—it is young, created by the direct hand of God.

The Problem with Evolutionary Dating

Evolutionists rely on radioisotope dating (such as carbon-14 or potassium-argon) to support their claims of a billion-year-old Earth. Yet these methods rest on assumptions—not observable facts. Scientists assume the rate of decay has always been constant, that the original composition of materials is known, and that nothing has altered the process.

These assumptions collapse under scrutiny. When rocks formed by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens were tested, radiometric dating gave them an “age” of 2.8 million years—even though their actual age was less than a decade.

The same flawed reasoning appears when studying the moon and the Earth’s magnetic field. The moon drifts away from the Earth by about 1.5 inches per year. If the Earth were billions of years old, the Moon would once have touched the Earth’s surface—an impossibility. Likewise, the Earth’s magnetic field has been decaying rapidly; if it were billions of years old, the field would have long since disappeared.

These examples reveal the inconsistency of man’s science and the enduring truth of God’s Word.

Why It Matters

Does it really matter whether the Earth is 6,000 years old or 6 billion? According to Scripture—yes, it matters greatly.

First, it concerns the authority of God’s Word. Psalm 138:2 declares, “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” To compromise Genesis is to question the very integrity of God.

Second, it affects the doctrine of sin and death. If the world existed for billions of years before Adam, then death existed before sin. Yet Romans 5:12 teaches that death entered the world through Adam’s sin. To place death before sin undermines the gospel itself. If death is natural, then Christ’s sacrifice was unnecessary. But the Bible teaches that death is the result of sin—and that through Jesus Christ, we are freed from its curse.

Conclusion: Whose Word Will You Believe?

At the heart of the debate over the age of the earth lies a deeper question: Who do you trust—man or God?

Science changes; Scripture does not. Theories fade; truth endures. God’s Word declares that He created the heavens and the earth in six days, that He made man in His image, and that He saw everything He had made, and it was “very good.”

To believe the Bible is not to reject reason—it is to embrace revelation. Faith doesn’t ignore evidence; it interprets it through the eyes of truth.

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”— Hebrews 11:3