It seems that multiple people in this forum have claimed that the Bible does not indicate that the earth is about 6000 years old. It appears that they make this claim based upon a couple trains of thought:
1) The Bible does not give a specific date as if we should expect to find a passage saying, "The Earth was created on Sunday the 21st of October, 4004 B.C., at exactly 9:00 A.M., because God liked to get work done early in the morning while he was feeling fresh."
2) There is some nebulous, non-specificity to the timeline in the Bible.
I say that while the Bible does not give a specific date, it does give a specific timeline which, through a process of simple addition, we can use to come up with a total amount of time for the existence of life, the universe, and everything. If we can then hook this timeline on an actual date, we can then determine exactly how old everything is supposed to be.
Genesis 1 gives the six, literal, 24-hour days of creation from "the beginning" through to the creation of the first human.
Genesis 5 counts up the generations from the first human, Adam, to Noah which gives 956 years.
Genesis 8 says that Noah was 601 when the flood was over (1557 years total).
Genesis 11 has the generations of Noah to Abraham (292 years from the end of the flood to Abraham or 1849 total).
Genesis 12 tells us Abraham was 75 when god made his covenant with him (1924 years)
Galatians 3 says that the Exodus happened 430 years after the covenant (2354 years).
1 Kings 6 says that the building of the Temple of Solomon was begun 480 years after the Exodus (2834 years).
It is generally considered that the Temple of Solomon was begun in 956 BCE so this means that life, the universe, and everything is about 5800 years old from "the beginning."
Has there been a problem with the math? 956+601+292+75+460+480+956+2009 != 5799?
Now, I know there will be some people who claim that the six days of creation mentioned in Gen 1 aren't literal, 24-hour days, but let's just for the sake of argument say that they are. Is this not what the Bible says with regard to the timeline? Was an event skipped? The event listed in Galations 3 is not the same as the event listed in 1 Kings 6 and thus they cannot be linked? If we assume that these direct statements for how many years passed between one event and the next are to be believed, how is there a fault in adding up those years to come up with an amount of time between "the beginning" and now?
So, some very simple questions:
Is this the timeline listed in the Bible?
Are these events actually linked from one to the next such that all we have to do is add the years up to get the timeline?
Assuming that the days mentioned in Gen 1 are literal, 24-hour days, would this not be indicative of life, the universe, and everything being less than 6000 years old?
Arguments about how Gen 1 isn't referring to literal, 24-hour days is not allowed. We are assuming just for the sake of argument that they are. Clearly if the "day" listed in Gen 1 isn't actually a day, then any amount of time could be claimed.
Too, ICANT's insistence that the events of Gen 1:2-Gen 2:3 do not immediately follow chronologically from "the beginning" event described in Gen 1:1 and that Gen 1:1 isn't referring to "the beginning" are automatically rejected.
I simply want to know if there is a break in this timeline and if so, where it is.
Rrhain
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