Since the conversation is spinning a little from the main topic, I am willing to talk a little more about the age of the world. I think we've sorted out that since the creation of the world (on day one), it went six normal 24-hour days, and that Adam was created on the sixth day. This of course does not harmony with science, who talks about
- a "Big Bang",
- the age of the earth should be millions of years (proven by the C14-method), and
- that we come from the apes,
but still - we are christians, and believe on the Bible - more than some scientifical methods. I will here present to you how the Bible itself shows us the age of the world. To get this answer, I used ChatGPT, so the numbers
can be a little inaccurate, but I think you get the idea.
The world is only about 6000 years old.
Not 13.8 billions. And this can be calculated with the Bibles own words, plus secular history (which we know the real dates of).
My question to Chat-GPT:
Calculate the age of the world, looking at the ages of the fathers in Jesus' bloodline in the Bible.
The answer:
The age of the Earth, according to a literal interpretation of the biblical genealogies, is typically estimated to be about 6,000 to 10,000 years. This estimate is based on adding up the ages of the patriarchs from Adam to Jesus, using figures from the Bible. Bishop James Ussher, a 17th century Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, is particularly well-known for this kind of calculation.
According to Ussher, the world was created in 4004 BC. He calculated this based on the genealogies in the Old Testament books of Genesis, Exodus, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles, along with other historical information.
Here is a simplified example of how such a calculation might work:
- From Adam to Noah's father Lamech: Genesis 5 provides a list of patriarchs from Adam to Noah's father, Lamech. By adding up the ages at which each patriarch had his son (Adam was 130 when Seth was born, Seth was 105 when Enos was born, and so forth), we get 1,656 years.
- From Noah to Abraham: Genesis 11 gives a similar list from Noah's son Shem to Abraham's father Terah, adding another 390 years (when using the Masoretic Text).
- From Abraham to the Exodus: Genesis 21:5 tells us that Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born. Exodus 12:40-41 says that the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years.
- From the Exodus to Solomon: 1 Kings 6:1 says that Solomon began building the temple in the 480th year after the Exodus.
- From Solomon to the Babylonian exile: 1 Kings and 2 Kings give the lengths of the reigns of the kings of Judah up to the Babylonian exile, which total about 345 years.
- From the Babylonian exile to Jesus: The dates for these events are a matter of secular history. Roughly speaking, there are about 600 years from the Babylonian exile to the birth of Jesus.
Add all these periods together and you get a total of 1,656 + 390 + 100 + 430 + 480 + 345 + 600 = 4,001 years from Adam to Jesus. If you add the years from Jesus to the current year (2023), you get around 6,024 years.
PS (from me): If someone would want to make the days of the creation longer than 24 hours (and thereby also the age of the world older), just to fit their thinking with the scientist, they would make God a liar (by saying the Bible's word is incorrect), and that would be a sin. Those people would also not believe in
everything the Bible has to say, and would only listen to the words that "itches in their own ears", but not listen to the words that "don't itch that good to me":
2. Tim 4,3:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
