Can We Know How Old The Earth Is?

Q

First let me say that I enjoy reading the articles, as well as the questions and answers on your website. I have learned so much from you and thank God for your teachings.

My question deals with the age of the earth. Is there any way to know for certain according to scripture just how old the earth really is?

Thanks and God bless you for your work!

A

I don’t think you can make a bullet proof case for Earth’s age from Scripture alone. I think that a strict translation of Genesis 1:2 will lead to the conclusion that something happened between the first two verses of the Bible that caused the previously perfect creation to become an uninhabitable ruin. Isaiah 45:18 and Jeremiah 4:23 lend support to this idea. Then Genesis 1:3 marks the beginning of its restoration, or re-creation. No one knows how much time might have elapsed between verses 2 and 3, but it could have been considerable. As a result, we can’t be certain that the age of man is the same as the age of the Earth, nor can we determine from Scripture just how old the Earth is.