Rick Baugh Supporter Follower of Christ cleverly disguised as a software engineer

I'll assume you are asking whether scripture provides a good idea how long ago God created all things. Scripture does provide quite a bit of information, such as in Genesis 5 and many others, enough so that pre-historical events can be tied to later historical events that have broad evidences as to when they happened.

Archbishop James Usher conducted what was likely the most thorough analysis ever done of scriptural dates in conjunction with broad historical records. He published his "Annals of the World Deduced from the Origin of Time and continued to the beginning of Emperor Vespasian's Reign" in 1658, originally in Latin. This was far more complicated than simply counting stated years, as often scripture events are dated as "In the eighteenth year of Jehosaphat" type dates, basically just placing a span of years between other events. So this paints like a jigsaw puzzle of having to "fit" all the events together. Plus he had to convert between the various calendar systems used in the past: today's Gregorian calendar versus the Julian, Hebrew, or even ancient Babylonian calendars.

The bottom-line of Archbishop Ussher's work was to place The Creation in what would be in the Autumn months of what would be 4004 B.C. in the Gregorian calendar. That would be 6027 year ago.

Can we say this is the "true" age of the world? Not absolutely, as many aspects of his work have been debated over the years among biblical scholars. Such as when scripture says something like "And Enoch lived sixty five years, and begat Methuselah", was Enoch just barely 65, or 65 and 1/2, or about to be 66? So there is a degree of uncertainty in what scripture says that is at least +/- 1 year per generation, unless more specific info was also given.

These uncertainties mean, per scripture, the world could a little less than 6000 years old, to just shy of 6100 years old.

January 01 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

John Appelt Supporter

There is no way to determine precisely when God created the universe, but a rough idea can be calculated. The best way is to use mostly Scriptural information, to construct what someone has called a “pure Bible chronology.” But this chronology challenges many of the “accepted” dates.

The method used here is to go from the time of Christ, which is closest, and work backward with the use of seven basic blocks of time. In this way, one is not bogged down with small details, but get an overall view. 

The starting place is the baptism of Christ, which was in His 30th year, Luke 3:23, the 15th year of Tiberius, Luke 3:1-2, which makes it AD 27. This was the beginning of His ministry when He was recognized as the Messiah, John 1:17, 1:41, the one “anointed,” Luke 4:18-21, Acts 10:37-39. 

The first block of time is Daniel 9:25, that bridges the time from the appearance of the Messiah back to the command to restore and build Jerusalem. The edict that fits this is the one issued by Cyrus, II Chronicles 36:22-23, Isaiah 44:28. The 69 weeks (or seven years), which equals 483 years, takes one back to 457 BC.

Then, there is the 70-year captivity, Jeremiah 29:10, Daniel 9:1-2, which goes back to 527 BC, when Jerusalem was destroyed. 

The next time indicator is a huge span using the 49-year Jubilee cycles, Leviticus 25:10. It is known from Jewish records that 14 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel 40:1, was the 17th Jubilee, which would be 512 BC. Going back 834 years (820 + 14 years), takes one to 1347 BC, when Israel under Joshua entered into Canaan, Leviticus 25:2. 

The Exodus was 40 years before that, Acts 13:18, which dates it to 1387 BC. 

430 years before the Exodus was when Abraham entered Canaan, Exodus 12:40-41, which makes it 1817 BC. 

Then, there is the connection between Abraham and the Flood. Acts 7:4 says Abraham left Haran when his father was dead. This father was not Terah, but Noah, his 10th generation father, who died 350 years after the Flood, Genesis 9:28-29. This places the Flood in 2167 BC, when Noah was 600 years old, Genesis 7:6. 

The final step is to use the literal father-to-son genealogical account in Genesis 5. Each age of the father when the son was born refers not to how many full years he lived, but to the year of life he was living in. Months are not considered into the calculations. So, the added total from Adam to Noah’s 500th year of 1,556 years, could be less, perhaps 1,548 years. The Flood came 100 years later, so the total time from Adam to the Flood (or Adam to the death of Methuselah) is about 1,648 years. 

The totaling of these seven spans of time gives the approximate year of creation as 3815 BC. At the time of this writing, 2023, this would mean creation was about 5,838 years ago.

January 24 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report