Genesis 1:31 says, “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
Every time Scripture uses a number alongside the Hebrew word for day—“yom”—it refers to a literal 24-hour day. Thus, the plain interpretation of Genesis 1 is that God created everything in six, 24-hour days about 6000 years ago.
This is utterly rejected and ridiculed by the non-Christian world, with scientists who confidently assert that nothing exploded by itself and evolved over billions of years into everything. Talk about faith in the illogical.
Tragically, many Christian leaders, churches, colleges, seminaries, and organizations side with some or most of evolutionary theory, especially that the earth is millions of years old and that the fossil record of death and decay preceded Adam and Eve (if as some say, they were even real).
Other Christians say, “The young earth vs. old earth debate is a divisive and secondary issue, not relevant to the primary issue of Jesus and the gospel.”
But is that true? Is an accurate interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis really that important? What are the ramifications of an old earth viewpoint by Christians?
Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, joins us this weekend to discuss how the young earth position is the only one that answers man’s oldest problem of sin and separation from God.