Carbon 14 Dating and Creation.....

[JerryNumbers]

I believe in an old world, its been many years since God created this earth in 6 days them rested on the 7th day as laid out very plain for us in Genesis.

[no name joe]

I really do not see the point in debating an old earth v. young earth theories. It is not central to the message of the gospel fo Jesus Christ. I don't see believing in an Old Earth v. Young Earth really making a difference in our everyday faith. It is fun to think about and ponder. It amazes me when I think of the beauty of the earth and universe. The study of science is fascinating. Even if God created it in 6 days, I guarantee you he spent millions of millions of years planning this wonderful place we call earth.

The point is that God is the Creator of it all. As our creator, he deserves are worship and praise, especially considering he put into action, or forthought a plan of action to redeem us after are inevitable fall.

No, I don't have scales on my eyes. I have studied the Bible extensively and know it fairly well, though I'd like to know it better. I don't believe we evolved from apes, but I do beleive in an old earth. Even if God created it in 6 days, there is no record of how long Adam and Eve was in the garden in a pristine condition before the fall....for all we know it could have been millions of years. When did "time" actually start? Was it upon creating the world? Was it upon the fall? I don't know, but things to think about. Prior to the fall, there is no reason to count time.....time and the calendar were done so farmers knew when to plant crops, etc. Prior to the fall, all they had to do was pick fruit off the trees. No need to count years because they would never die. It was not until post fall that they started aging and marching towards an inevitable death...so perhaps they started counting time then. I don't know, and I do not think anyone really knows.

But I digress. The point is that God is the Creator and that God likes to bring order from disorder. The same is true of our lives. What a beautiful thought.

[John81]

Of course it makes a difference. Either Scripture is true from beginning to end or it's not. Either God created the world just as He says in Scripture or Scripture is flawed or God is a liar.

God tells us in Scripture just how he created the world and the amount of time He spent doing so. Scripture also gives us a timeline through the geneologies that lets us know the approximate age of the earth today, which would be 6,000+ years old.

[no name joe]

[quote="John81"]Of course it makes a difference. Either Scripture is true from beginning to end or it's not. Either God created the world just as He says in Scripture or Scripture is flawed or God is a liar.

God tells us in Scripture just how he created the world and the amount of time He spent doing so. Scripture also gives us a timeline through the geneologies that lets us know the approximate age of the earth today, which would be 6,000+ years old.[/quote]

A couple of points:

Not all Scripture is literal. You have to look at the type of liturature being written. For example, the Psalms are poetry, Proverbs is wisdom literature. Are these books completely literal? No, they are not. Poetry is not meant to be literal, but is a method to convey emotion and meaning. "The Lord is my Shepherd." Is God a literal shepherd? No, he is not, but the imagery conveys how he relates to us. The Proverbs are not promises, and are not always true, but rather it is a book of wisdom that gives general principals that are good to live by. Revelation is another example. Apocolyptic literature is not meant to be literal, but uses powerful imagery to convey a message.

That brings us to Gensesis chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1 is clearly poetic in nature. There is poetic form and structure in this passage. Is this intended to be a literal narrative of how God created the world? Or is it a poetic method to convey the message that God created? Or is it both? There are good arguemnts both ways. Looking at the type of literature and deciding whether to interpret it literally or as poetry does not make God a liar. It does not discount the message of the Bible. It is interpreting Scripture as the author intended it to be read.

As far as a time-line goes, when does this "time-line" begin? Does it begin when God created the world? When God created man? When the fall of man occurred? There is biblical evidence that many, many many many years passed between creation and the fall. When Cain was damned to be a wanderer of the earth by God, he was scared of the other people in the world and that they would kill him. Who are these other people? When did they come into existance? This indicates to me Adam and Eve had many, many children....and they had children, etc. etc.....enough time had passed that other civilizations had arisen. How many years? There is no record in Scripture.

As mentioned before, there was no need for time as we know it prior to the fall, so I believe time and years were not counted until at some point until after the fall, when people needed to develop a calendar to know when to plant their crops, harvest their crops etc.

This does not discount the Bible at all. It does not make God a liar. It is merely looking at the literary form, and deciding whether a given passage is to be interpreted literally or figuratively. Another examples....the parables of Jesus were stories....he likely made up a story to convey a moral message. That is why it is a parable...it is not intended to be historical. The literary devise is a parable, and the truth in it is a moral message.

So that brings me back to my original point....is Genesis 1 a poem or a narrative? How is it to be interpreted. Reasonable people can come to different conclusions on this, and these conclusions have no impact on the rest of the message of Scripture.

[heartstrings]

The Bible, our KJB, is absolutely true from beginning to end. The danger comes when we just assume someone elses interpretation of it is true, without really studying it for ourselves.

For instance.....
How many songs and how many sermons say "Street[size=150]s[/size]" paved with gold? How many streets does the Bible say?
What damage was (and still is) caused by teaching that black people were slaves because of the "curse of Ham".
What about teaching ridiculous fairy tales like... angels "cohabiting" with women? Does that further the cause of Christ?
And how many false teachers in IFB circles, are teaching TULIP theology and claiming that is biblical as well?

I still have questions........
Why are the vast majority of dinosaur remains fossilized...turned to stone? Why can we find present-day creatures which ar NOT fossilized back to, say 6,000 years, but no dinosaurs? How can we log time back to 9,000 even 10,000 years with dendrochronology if the earth is only 6,000 years old? Why does Genesis 1:2 say "without form and void"? How long was the first day, if the sun wasn't created until day 4? You knw what? these things fascinate me, but they are not essential to my salvation or walk with the Lord. I'm just going to say He created everything in six(6) days, just like the Bible says. How ever long a day was then, I don't know. I'm not going to put a time period on earth's history because I simply don't know.

[Truthseeking]

[quote="heartstrings"]The Bible, our KJB, is absolutely true from beginning to end. The danger comes when we just assume someone elses interpretation of it is true, without really studying it for ourselves.

For instance.....
How many songs and how many sermons say "Street[size=150]s[/size]" paved with gold? How many streets does the Bible say?
What damage was (and still is) caused by teaching that black people were slaves because of the "curse of Ham".
What about teaching ridiculous fairy tales like... angels "cohabiting" with women? Does that further the cause of Christ?
And how many false teachers in IFB circles, are teaching TULIP theology and claiming that is biblical as well?

I still have questions........
Why are the vast majority of dinosaur remains fossilized...turned to stone? Why can we find present-day creatures which ar NOT fossilized back to, say 6,000 years, but no dinosaurs? How can we log time back to 9,000 even 10,000 years with dendrochronology if the earth is only 6,000 years old? Why does Genesis 1:2 say "without form and void"? How long was the first day, if the sun wasn't created until day 4? You knw what? these things fascinate me, but they are not essential to my salvation or walk with the Lord. I'm just going to say He created everything in six(6) days, just like the Bible says. How ever long a day was then, I don't know. I'm not going to put a time period on earth's history because I simply don't know.[/quote]

I like the way you put everything. Well written. Like you things like this fascinate me too.

[Guest Guest]

[quote]Not all Scripture is literal. You have to look at the type of liturature being written. For example, the Psalms are poetry, Proverbs is wisdom literature. Are these books completely literal? No, they are not. Poetry is not meant to be literal, but is a method to convey emotion and meaning. "The Lord is my Shepherd." Is God a literal shepherd? No, he is not, but the imagery conveys how he relates to us. The Proverbs are not promises, and are not always true, but rather it is a book of wisdom that gives general principals that are good to live by. Revelation is another example. Apocolyptic literature is not meant to be literal, but uses powerful imagery to convey a message.

That brings us to Gensesis chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1 is clearly poetic in nature. There is poetic form and structure in this passage. Is this intended to be a literal narrative of how God created the world? Or is it a poetic method to convey the message that God created? Or is it both? There are good arguemnts both ways. Looking at the type of literature and deciding whether to interpret it literally or as poetry does not make God a liar. It does not discount the message of the Bible. It is interpreting Scripture as the author intended it to be read.
[/quote]

Is Exodus not supposed to be literal either? Interesting that God would use the exact same hebrew word for day when he says "six days shalt thou labour" and when he says "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth" if he didn't mean it literally. If you don't count exodus as "literal" either, by the time you finish re-defining books of the bible as non-literal, you will not have anything left. :wink What is to stop someone else from saying that the resurrection of Christ, or any other miracle isn't literal? Not one thing...



[color=#0000FF]"Exodus 20:9-11 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: [u]For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.[/u]"

"Exodus 31:15-17 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: [u]for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.[/u]"[/color]

:hijack:
[quote]
The Proverbs are not promises, and are not always true, but rather it is a book of wisdom that gives general principals that are good to live by.[/quote]

So how do you decide what is true and what isn't? Personal Opinion right? :bonK: We try to be bible believers here, so we try not to go that way to much. :Green

[color=#0000FF]"Psalm 119:160 [u]Thy word is true from the beginning[/u]: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever."

"Proverbs 30:5 [u]Every word of God is pure[/u]: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him."[/color]

I take it that the passage from psalms is not literal and that last "proverb" is one that is "not always true" otherwise you would be wrong. :frog

[color=#0000FF]"Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged."[/color]