Young earth or old earth: day age theory

Previously: Young earth or old earth: the gap theory, part two

Our question is, Has God revealed the age of the earth? We are on this series because of a message my pastor gave at church, saying that the answer could not be known, and that anyone who says they have the answer is lying. I disagreed with him, and decided to look at the question through each of the truth disciplines, to see if the answer has in fact been revealed, and what each of the truth disciplines says about it.

We began with what God has revealed through theology (we will get to science and mathematics and logic and philosophy, and history, a truth discipline I failed to mention in my first post on the subject), and so far, the results have not been encouraging for an old earth. The plain reading of Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments, come down in favor of a young age of the earth. Throughout the history of the Church, its theologians have come down in favor of a young earth; in fact, the old earth question is a recent one, not arising because of theological concerns, but in attempt to accomodate an old age theory proposed by science.

The theories so far proposed to address the theology of an old earth are theistic evolution, the gap theory, and the day age theory. We have discovered that theistic evolution does such violence to the Gospel, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is taught in the New Testament must be discarded wholesale if theistic evolution is accepted as true. We have discovered that the gap theory ultimately does the same violence to the Gospel that theistic evolution does.

As Christians have come to realize that neither theistic evolution, or the gap theory, can be viable theologically, they have sought another answer, and many, probably the majority, have settled on the day age theory, or progressive creation, popularized by Hugh Ross as the answer to the puzzle.

As a new visitor to Hugh Ross’ website, Reasons to Believe, I had a difficult time finding a succinct explanation of day age theory to link to. However, on their Myths page, they do state that Reasons to Believe accepts that:

the earth is of old age;
an old age creation of the earth does not compromise the inerrancy of Scripture;
the days of creation were not 24- hour days;
the ‘universal’ flood of Noah was not global;
plants, animals, and homonids did experience death before Adam;
their deaths are not a contradiction of Romans 5:12.

Not finding a clear and brief explanation of day age, or progressive creation theory on Reasons to Believe (this is not clear, but it is the only posted summary I could find), here is the brief summary according to Answers in Genesis.

On the age of the earth, by Reasons to Believe.
On the age of the earth, by Answers in Genesis.

To be continued ...

Age of the Earth

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