Hi ,
In the last 2 weeks, we looked briefly at some of the points in a letter I received (anonymously, of course) in which the writer was attempting to point out my "error" in my belief that the age of the earth can be accurately gauged as being thousands of years old, not billions.
We looked briefly at several of his points. Here are the last two...
* Too much happened between the creation of Adam and the creation of Eve for it to have been a single day.
This reason is another old one. This claim is made because of the events listed in Genesis chapter 2, the details of day #6. On that day, God makes Adam, puts him in the garden, tells him what to do and what not to do, He brings certain animals to Adam to name them, and He makes Eve. What's the problem? Is he saying that God couldn't have done these things in a day? Think of the miracles Jesus did when He walked on the earth.
They were instantaneous and perfect. Why would His creative acts be any different, especially given that we have an excellent description of creation found in Psalm 33:9? - "For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm." Note that it does not say, "He commanded, and it eventually came to be..."
Furthermore, there are some who claim that it would have taken Adam many days - even weeks - to name all of the species of animals. But, that's NOT what the Bible says. It says that Adam named the KINDS of animals, and only those He brought to him to name. The animals would not have speciated yet, so that dramatically reduces the numbers Adam had to name.
* Since the Hebrew for "father" can mean "ancestor", "grandfather", etc., it follows that there were many generations not listed in the Scriptures.
Actually, this is purely an assumtion. It would only "follow" that some might be missing. In any event, yes, the Hebrew for "father" can indeed mean "ancestor", and there might indeed be some generations not listed. However, even in a worst case scenario given the clarity of the context and other comparitive scriptures, a person might possibly add several thousand years - at the most! Not
billions.
