When the girls were little and we lived in Romania, one of our coworkers had the animated film series Land Before Time. Once you got past the first monologue, it was a really cute series of cartoons. Up until 2016, there were 14 movies.
The monologue, and I think it was the same for every film, at the opening of the movie said this: “Once upon this same earth, beneath this same sun, long before you… before the ape and the elephant as well, before the wolf, the bison, the whale, before the mammoth and the mastodon in the time of the dinosaurs.”
Satan is extremely insidious. Through this series of animated films as well as a host of others, as well as books and magazines, Satan influences our children to believe that the earth is billions of years old (according to the American Museum of Natural History – 4.543 billion years old) and that man has come along about 2 million years ago and man as we know him (Homo sapiens) is about 300,000 years old.
If that is true, then the Bible is false. If the Bible is false, then Jesus is false. If Jesus is false, there is no resurrection. If there is no resurrection, then we are of all men most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:19). It is unfortunate that many Christians have drank from the Kool-Aid of men in white lab coats and decided that the earth is billions of years old and Jesus is also our Savior. The problem is that you can’t take both positions and be honest with God’s word. Jesus places the creation of mankind at the very beginning of the world: Matthew 19:4. Paul refers to Adam as the “first man” (Romans 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45).
For “theistic evolutionists” to want to accept the idea that the earth is billions of years old and Genesis is not literal history but to also accept Jesus’ teachings is illogical, irrational, and inconsistent. Jesus put the creation of man at the beginning of the creation; either Jesus:
1) Was a liar.
2) Was ignorant and did not know Genesis was not literal history.
3) Accommodated Himself to the false beliefs of the Jews of His time (who believed Genesis was literal history) – but in the process, He perpetuated a false concept.
Do you really want to take either of those positions?
We do not have time to do a thorough discussion of the age of the earth, but I direct your attention to an article on Apologetics Press’s website: “21 Reasons to Believe the Earth is Young:” https://apologeticspress.org/21-reasons-to-believe-the-earth-is-young-5641/
DOES IT REALLY MATTER?
Of course it matters! Anything that undermines our confidence in the word of God is a tool of Satan. Why should I believe what the Bible says in Genesis 12 if I can’t believe what the Bible says in Genesis 1?
The whole Christian faith is built on three teachings: the existence of God, the deity of Christ, and the inspiration of the Bible. Suggesting that the earth is billions of years old and that mankind is hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of years old undermines our conviction that the Bible is God speaking to us about His creation, its origin, its purpose, and its destiny.
The earth was created for man (Isa. 45:18) to form us into the image of Christ (Gal. 4:19) so that we might be worthy of heaven (2 Thess. 1:5). Let’s trust God’s voice when it comes to its age, its purpose, and its destiny (2 Peter 3:10).
Paul Holland
