MZA Earth Not 6000 Years Old
From BluWiki
Text from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MensaZA/message/33297
Allow me to categorically disprove that the earth is 6000 years old using the bible. To do this, I will use two separate lines of reasoning.
Firstly, it is widely acknowledged that the Hebrew word rendered "day" can mean a number of things including "a long time; the time covering an extraordinary event." (Old Testament Word Studies, Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1978, W. Wilson, p. 109) This means that each creative day could have been thousands of years long, as has already been established. Now Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 records the end of the first SIX creative days, where it concludes each day with the phrase "And there was evening and there was morning", the next day begins (New American Standard Bible). However, on the seventh day, the day of God's rest, it does not conclude it with this phrase. We can, therefore, comfortably assume that this seventh day is still ongoing. This is confirmed at Hebrews 4:1-10, where Paul indicates that this seventh day was still continuing in his time, more then 4000 years after the seventh day began. Add the 2000 years since Paul's day to that, and this seventh day is currently a good 6000 years long and still going. It is fairly safe to assume, since the same Hebrew phrase is used to close and introduce each day, that each of them is of the same length, which makes the creative "process" at least 36 000 years in length. Truly, as A Religious Encyclopaedia (Vol. I, p. 613) points out: "The days of creation were creative days, stages in the process, but not days of twenty-four hours each."
The second line of reasoning relates to the aforementioned creative process. The account of creation in Genesis 1:3-31 discusses, not the creation of the universe, but the preparation of the earth for life and the creation of plant, animal and human life. But look closely at Genesis 1:1-2:
New World Translation:
1 In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon
the surface of [the] watery deep; and God's active force was moving to and
fro over the surface of the waters.
New International Version:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
King James Version:
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Notice that all the translations are fairly explicit with one thing: the heavens and the earth were created BEFORE Genesis 1:3. Sure, they were dark and formless and waste, but the universe as a whole EXISTED by the time the first creative day started. Also, there is no amount of time given for this "in the beginning" statement, which would confirm what science has demonstrated: the universe is at least millions of years old.
