There are several reasons chronologists have different dates, 7 but two primary reasons: JonesĪs you will likely note from table 2, the dates are not all 4004 B.C. Chronologists’ Calculations According to Dr. 3 Whether Christian or secular, most scholars would agree that Abraham lived about 2,000 B.C. If we add up the dates from Adam to Abraham, we get about 2,000 years, using the Masoretic Hebrew text of Genesis 5 and 11. The age of the earth can be estimated by taking the first five days of creation (from earth’s creation to Adam), then following the genealogies from Adam to Abraham in Genesis 5 and 11, then adding in the time from Abraham to today.Īdam was created on day 6, so there were five days before him.
Let’s do a rough calculation to show how this works. From there, we can begin to calculate the age of the earth. Genesis 1 says that the earth was created on the first day of creation ( Genesis 1:1–5). In essence, He gave us a “birth certificate.” For example, using a personal birth certificate, a person can calculate how old he is at any point. But we wouldn’t expect an all-knowing God to make that kind of a mistake. Of course, the Bible doesn’t say explicitly anywhere, “The earth is 6,000 years old.” Good thing it doesn’t otherwise it would be out of date the following year. The difference is immense! Let’s give a little history of where these two basic calculations came from and which worldview is more reasonable when answering the question, "how old is the earth?" Where Did a Young-earth Worldview Come From?
Old-earth proponents (secular age of the earth of about 4.5billion years and a universe about 14 billion years old) 2.Young-earth proponents (biblical age of the earth and universe of about 6,000 years) 1.How old is the earth? The question of the age of the earth has produced heated discussions on internet debate boards, TV, radio, in classrooms, and in many churches, Christian colleges, and seminaries.