I am an English major so I’ve always been very interested in language and words. Since I have been a Christian since I was eight years old and grew up Southern Baptist, I have always been surrounded by many strong Christian influences. Every single one of them believes that our Earth is young and I never had reason to question that. But when I started college I began to study different authors, genres of books, and their origins. That led into a study of individual languages which is where I took an interest in Hebrew. As I’ve spend time studying the language I’ve come to realize that English has words that allow for much more in depth descriptions of things. For example, the word “yom” actually translates to day, or a long period of time. I had always been taught that yom in Hebrew meant a literal 24 hour day. Some of my own personal studies have suggested otherwise...based on the language in scripture alone.
For example, John 5: 16-18 says: “So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working.’” I believe that this verse suggests evidence that the seventh day is an ongoing rest period. Jesus’ is trying to tell them that He is honoring the Sabbath in the way that God does. “That is, His Father works “to this very day” even though “this very day” is part of His Sabbath rest. (H.Ross, 74 A Matter of Days) It goes on to say that God honors the sabbath by resting from creating things. Going along with this point is that after creation days 1-6, God always says, “And there was evening and there was morning, the _____ day”. After creation day 7 all He says is, “...God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done” (Genesis 2: 3).] This leads me to believe that the seventh day is an ongoing period of time; from the moment God stopped creating things up until this moment. So if the seventh day suggests a period of at least several thousand years that must also suggest that days 1-6 aren’t literally 24 hour increments.
I also spent some time studying early writers such as Augustine, Philo, and Josephus. It’s amazing that these men (Philo lived as early as 45 years prior to the crucifixion of Jesus) believed that the Earth is much older than what young earthers believe it to be today. Philo expressed that he believed that the days were a figure of speech that were a metaphor for order and completeness. A quote by Philo:
“It is quite foolish to think that the world was created in six days or in a space of time at all. Why? Because every period of time is a series of days and nights, and these can only be made such by movement of the sun as it goes over and under the earth; but the sun is a part of heaven, so that time is confessedly more recent than the world. It would therefore be correct to say that the world was not made in time, but that time was formed by means of the world, for it was heaven’s movement that was the index of the nature of time. When, then, Moses says, ‘He finished His work on the sixth day,’ we must understand him to be adducing not a quantity of days, but a perfect number, namely six”.
Augustine in The City of God, wrote, “As for these ‘days’ it is difficult, perhaps impossible to think -let alone explain in words-what they mean”. He also writes “But at least we know that it [the Genesis creation day] is different from the ordinary day with which we are familiar.” He also states later, “Seven days by our reckoning after the model of the days of creation, make up a week. By the passage of such weeks time rolls on, and in these weeks one day is constituted by the course of the sun from its rising to its setting, but we must bear in mind that these days indeed recall the days of creation, but without in any way being really similar to them” (The Literal Meaning of Genesis).
The bible often uses the phrase, “...in the day of the Lord” which does not refer to a specific 24 hour day but instead means a period of time. The Hebrew word used here to describe day is Yom, the exact word used to describe the creation days.
These are just some of the evidence I’ve found based solely on language, scripture and writings of early church writers. I have also been very impressed with how recent scientific discoveries have backed up scripture. I believe God reveals himself to us daily in and throughout nature and He tells us this in the Word.
Job 27; 7-10
Psalm 19; 1
Romans 1; 20 (my favorite)
And here are some links to my favorite websites where I read up on new scientific discoveries which continue to back up the theory of the earth being much older than believed. I love that recently astrologers have been able to look back in time to observe the earth moments after it was created. The scientists have taken measurements of how far the light has traveled over a certain period of time and applied that to trace back to earth’s beginning. I’m not great at explaining things in scientific terms...I can read it and understand it but trying to explain it to someone else trips me up. Here is a link to one article on what I’m trying to share (http://www.faithfromevidence.org/is-the-universe-designed.html).
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