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Monday, March 5, 2012

A Question For the Ages

I am mentally exhausted.  Yesterday I made the time wasting error of stopping to think about a claim in the Christian and creationist Quick Study publication called The Discovery Letter.  I read a familiar claim, as the genealogies in the Bible do indeed support, that the age of the earth is 5,770 years.  I then went online to do a little research; thus the exhaustion.  Secular science ages the solar system and the earth at 4.5 billion years old. One has to admit that the difference in the estimation is quite simply staggering.  I began to read mind boggling reasons, observations, theories and postulations on both sides of the argument.  When I became a Bible believing Christian, I made a promise to myself, that as best as I could, I would continue to research and to question everything that I read, in the Bible or out of the Bible.  After several hours of reading both sides of the argument, I am no further ahead.  Even as a Bible believing and born again Christian, I have an admission to make.  I have no idea how old the earth is.  I suspect strongly that I am not alone.  Does it matter to my faith?  Does it interfere with my personal relationship with Jesus?  Does it make me doubt the veracity of the Bible?
It certainly does not!  The words in Genesis 1:1 make that assertion all so clear. 
1* ¶ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
I must admit that despite wanting to know exactly how old the earth is and whether or not man walked with dinosaurs, referred to, as some assert, as dragons in the Bible, I do not need to know the exact number of years to have rock solid faith.  For reasons we will not understand in this life, God has not told us in a definitive manner exactly when He created the earth.  No matter what creationists and evolutionists claim to know and to prove, I need to know only one thing. God created the earth and us “in the beginning” and continues to watch over us now and into eternity.  In times of doubt, we have only remember the words of Paul written for times just like this in 2Corinthians 13:12.  I love the King James Version translation of this very wise statement.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
It is as if, now in the very real present on this side of eternity, that we look into a very poor quality mirror in  order to make some sense of this world that surrounds us.  We perceive  partially reflected images, but the picture is always somewhat incomplete.  When we finally triumph and enter into heaven, we will know the truth even as we see Him who saved us for heaven as clearly as He sees us now and forever.
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2 comments:

  1. I remember all the energy my daughter put into taking a stance for creation with her senior biology teacher. The exercise exhausted her and to some extent discouraged her. As her dad I suggested that the effort would be better spent in sharing Christ rather than becoming preoccupied with proving creation. The gospel message is far more important than trying to debate those things that God has seen fit to keep from us.

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  2. Hi Mark:
    Great comment about a subject where there is much heat and little light for many of us. Learning to distinguish between what is essential from what is trivial or what is central from what is peripheral is so important. If we succeed we shall put our best efforts into what the Lord really wants us to concentrate on during our journey through life.

    The "old converted slave trader" as John Newton described himself put it well when he wrote:
    What think ye of Christ, thats the test, to try both your state and your scheme.
    You cannot be right on the rest unless you think rightly of Him.

    Blessings,
    Gordon

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