The Genesis Debate

Ever since Darwin there has been a serious debate going on. How old is the earth? The Darwinist view is of millions and billions of years whereas the Bible claims a measly thousands of years. And over the years the non-Christian world at large has bought into this idea of billions of years rather than thousands of years for the age of the earth.

But there is a bigger problem. We can expect the world outside of the Church to be deceived and led astray by every whim of doctrine or as the ESV puts it, "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." But there are many who call themselves Christians who also believe in the older age of the earth and that the Genesis account should be read with a grain of salt so to speak. Those days were actually thousands of years. They think evolution is true and that we need to look at Genesis as how you would explain it to those who wouldn't understand that if you told them that, so we use a story to represent it.

I don't debate the topic with a non-Christian because its a distraction by Satan. I'll give my point of view and briefly describe why, but very few are convinced of Christ as Savior by debating the age of the earth. But I will debate it with brothers and sister in Christ whom are deceived by this worldly claim. And here is where I normally start.

If the age of the earth is millions or billions of years and evolution is true. Then Adam must not have been an actual man, but a metaphorical representation of mankind. Most would agree with me on this who claim an evolutionary christian perspective. And most would also agree with me that Abraham was an actual man and not just a metaphorical representation having had children by the names we have recorded and being of a historical nature. So then I move backwards.

Abram's father was Terah and was born when his father was 70 years old.(found in chapter 11). Nahor was the father of Terah when he was 29 years old. Serug was the father of Nahor when he was 30 years old. Reu was the father of Serug when he was 32 years. Peleg was the father of Reu when he was 30 years old. Eber was the father of Peleg when he was 34 years old. Shelah was the father of Eber when he was 30 years old. Arpachshad was the father of Shelah when he was 35 years old. Shem was the father of Arpachshad when he was 100 years old.

If we add those together it was:
70+29+30+32+30+34+30+35+100 = 390 years from the birth of Shem to the birth of Abraham.

Then we go further back, and guess what? There are numbers there too!

Noah was the father of Shem when he was 500 years old(chapter 5). Lamech was the father of Noah when he was 182 years old. Methuselah was the father of Lamech when he was 187 years old. Enoch was the father of Methuselah when he was 65 years old. Jared was the father of Enoch when he was 162 years old. Mahalalel was the father of Jared when he was 65 years old. Kenan was the father of Mahalalel when he was 70 years old. Enosh was the father of Kenan when he was 90 years old. Seth was the father of Enosh when he was 105 years old. Adam was the father of Seth when he was 130 years old.

Lets add these up:
500+182+187+65+162+65+70+90+105+130 = 1556 years from the "birth" of Adam to the birth of Shem. Putting that together it was only 1946 years from Adam to Abraham. Certainly not millions or billions of years.

So the question I always ask is if Adam was a metaphorical man and not a historical one, at what point did these metaphorical men father historical men? Which one was it, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, etc.? The problem is if you take the Genesis 1-3 account as metaphorical and not historical, then you have to throw out the genealogies, and therefore the rest of Genesis as at best misguided and mythological(which is bad enough) or accept them as full on lies. And if that is the case then you might as well throw the whole Bible out.

I think there is plenty of room for debate in the scientific community concerning this issue to take down the lies that Darwinism has started and spread around like a virus, but it truly bothers me that Christians will take their faith and try to fit it into a worldly worldview. But people claiming to be followers of Christ have been doing such things from the very beginning, after all Satan is the father of all lies and seeks to undermine our work in the world to make Christ known.

But with this issue of Darwin vs the Bible, there really isn't any middle ground. They are completely opposing.

For His Glorious Name,
Jason