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The first human to set foot on another world has died. Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong was 82.
There is so much that can be said about this man, from
to his notorious shying away from the spotlight. He had history thrust upon him, and performed in a way that will be an inspiration to generations of explorers.
I’ve said many times that we can divide all of history into two parts: before humans landed on the Moon, and after. It was not just an important moment, it was the moment, a defining, crystallizing slice of time that confirmed that we humans had become a space faring race. One world could not and would not contain us, and the sky itself was no longer the limit.
We have had our missteps since that one small step, and we can argue about the directions we are or should be taking. But given what we’ve done, and what we are capable of, I have the spark of hope that the future will look back at July 1969 and recognize it for what it was: the dawn of a new era. The end of homo sapiens terrestrialis and the birth of homo sapiens cosmos.
Neil Armstrong was the human who literally stood at that dividing line.
And I wonder… will there someday be a holiday in his honor? In my mind’s eye I can see people lining the streets, watching parades, talking about that day, smiling and laughing… and all the while, through a quartz window in the dome, the crescent Earth will be hanging in the black sky above them.
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Registration only takes a few minutes to complete.Can You Be a Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?
Can You Be a
Christian and Believe in
an Old Earth?
&&& Yes, you can!
There is no verse in the Bible which causes you to accept a young
earth as the only answer. The Bible does not say, &Thou shalt
believe in a young earth.& The fact is, no verse in the Bible makes
any claims as to the age of the earth. All the so-called verses that
young earth proponents point to can be interpreted by the reader to
mean old or young. Also, the key doctrines of the Bible are not
affected by either interpretation.
&&&& If you need further proof, read on. Otherwise, feel
free to go back and start reading the articles on this website.&&
We have over 1,300 articles explaining the bad science used by young
earth creationist ministries.
---------------------------------------------------------
(The material below is compiled from various articles on this site)
&&&& Many young earth believers will claim that old earth
belief is incompatible with Christianity.& The reasons for this
belief vary, but there are several overlying principles underneath
this argument.
Death, Disease Before Sin
2:17 is God's direct instructions to Adam.& God told Adam...
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
&&&& Using a
common, literal interpretation, when Adam ate the fruit, he should
have died physically that day.& Did Adam die the same day he ate the
fruit?& No, he did not.& There are three possibilities.& First, God
lied to Adam.& We know that God cannot lie, so this cannot be the
&&&& There are two other possible
alternatives from which you must choose.& The first is that God did
not mean physical death at all, but spiritual.& When Adam ate the
fruit, he sinned, which caused separation between him and God, or
spiritual death.& The other alternative is that although the sin did
not bring about instant death, it did bring about gradual death,
making man susceptible to death.&
Adam and Eve, by their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, became
vulnerable to death.& Another viable alternative is that Adam did die
that day.& A day to God is different than a day for us.& The six
creation days were millions of years long.& After the creation, God
entered His rest...the seventh day, and we are still in that day.&
Thus, Adam and Eve died on the seventh day.
&The Bible teaches that death is the
penalty for sin.& The young earth proponent carries it one step further
than the Bible teaches by adding their own belief that there was no physical
death before sin.& However, when Adam and Eve sinned, spiritual death was
introduced, not physical death.& It is clear from the fossil record that
animal death has existed for a long time.& True, Adam's sin did subject
humanity to death, but it did not introduce physical death to the world.& This mistaken belief is due to a
misinterpretation of the Bible.
&&&& Why do they misinterpret this key
fact?& Let's look at the key verses.
Genesis 1:29-31
&And God said, Behold, I have given you
every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree, in the which is the fruit of
to you it shall be for
meat.& 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the
air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, where-in there is life, I
have given every and it was so.& 31And God saw
every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.& And the evening
and the morning were the sixth day.”&
Romans 5:12
&Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.&
&&&& Yes, Adam introduced death..two types. He definitely
introduced spiritual death, and indirectly introduced physical death
to the human race. Consider these key points:
1. God said creation was &very good& (Gen 1:31). Young earth
proponents claim it can't be &very good& if it contained disease and
death. They fail to realize that God created a thriving, renewing
ecosystem. Death and regeneration are crucial to the working of
God's creation. It was specifically designed this way. If it were
not self-renewing, it would not last very long, and then God's
creation would indeed not be &very good.&
2. The Bible says that God gave the green plants to all animals to
eat. Young earth proponents claim that since the animals ate grass,
there was no death due to carnivorous activity. However, the Bible
does not say that animals &cannot& eat meat...it only says they were
given grass to eat. God created many animals to eat meat...without
meat, they would die.
for a more
expansive treatment of this subject.
3. The Garden of Eden was a special place. We know that God planted
a garden in the east, and put Adam in it, therefore we know it was
different than the rest of the world. Many believe that in the
Garden of Eden, everything was perfect. It is possible that in the
Garden, the animals could only eat grass...but what about outside
the Garden? Perhaps all the meat eaters were outside the Garden.
4. Spiders are wondrous creatures. They spin their silk webs in
order to ensnare their victims before consuming them. How would they
have survived in a pre-death world? Would their webs have been used
to catch falling leaves? No, they could just simply go into a tree,
or to the ground, to feast on the leaves. Spiders were created with
only one diet in mind...a dead insect.
&&&& Also, why were some spiders created with venom? What is
the purpose of this venom? They didn't need to poison the leaves, or
whatever else they were supposed to eat in the Garden. And, it could
not have been for self-defense, since there were no predators in the
Garden? In fact, the same thing goes for venomous snakes. Venom only
has one purpose...to kill. Even venoms that incapacitate are for the
same thing in the end, for once the creature is incapacitated, it is
&&&& The only logical conclusion is that God created venom
to kill. Venom serves no purpose in a calm, friendly Garden with no
death. If God did create venom, according to the young earth model,
then His creation was not perfect, as the venom served no purpose.
5. It is obvious from the Bible that spiritual death is
theologically much more important than physical death. Can physical
death separate you from the love of Christ? Paul says no. Physical
death has no sting. However, spiritual death separates you from God.
6. Young earth proponents claim that sin and suffering entered the
world after the Fall of Man. They claim that disease is a result of
sin. However, what is disease? It is sickness caused by viruses,
bacteria, etc. Did these microorganisms exist before the fall of
man? If you listen to young earth proponents, they could not have
existed before the fall. However, they had to. To imply that they
came about as a result of the fall of man, is to imply that God
created them after Adam sinned. But, since God is in His seventh day
of rest, and the creation is already 100% complete, he could not
have created them after the fall. They had to be created sometime
during the six days of creation.
&&&& Here is conclusive proof that bacteria existed before
the fall. How do we know this? Because Adam and Eve were normal
human beings, and as human beings, they required the aid of bacteria
for the breakdown of foods in the human digestive tract. Right now,
as you read this, millions of bacteria cells are in your colon,
breaking down your foods into waste products. (Perhaps the
young-earth proponents will argue that the bacteria and viruses we
have today mutated from this original bacteria source. Their
response would be interesting).
7. The rock record, through its fossils, indicates that death
existed for millions of years. By young earth models, all
-bearing rock layers must be laid
down after the fall of man. The mechanism they point to is the Flood
of Noah. For a discussion on why the Flood can't produce all these
rock layers, . Bottom
line...if the Flood can't do it, then there must have been physical
death before sin.
Despite the claims of young earth creationists, and their
interpretation of the Bible, there is no reason why there must be no
death before the Fall of Man.
What is Time?
&&&& The other major stumbling block for young earth
objections is time. Here we will
first is God
and time, and second, a .
&&&& Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that the earth is
young. The Bible does not say &the earth is 6,000 years old.& Nor
does it say &the earth is 4.5 billion years old.& The fact is, the
Bible makes no claims as to the age of the earth. We must interpret
the age of the earth from science and the Bible. (If the Bible does
not tell us, it must not be important. For more on this concept, see
&&&& Young earther's will make a defense of the &days& of
creation being literal 24-hour days. The truth is, there is no claim
in the Bible that states the length of these days. The &day& as we
know it didn't even begin until the fourth day of creation, when the
sun and the moon were created (according to young-earth
interpretations). The saying I like to use is, “If you are God, and
you are in outer space, a million miles away from any stars or
planets, then how do you mark the passage of time? As God, you do
not sleep, you do not need rest, therefore time has no meaning.”
When we get to heaven, we will spend eternity there. Are we going to
have clocks in heaven? Wow, there goes another million years! It
won’t matter to us, just like it doesn’t matter to God.
&&& Should finite man limit infinite God to a twenty-four hour
day? It is finite man that has imposed his interpretation of the
word &day& onto an infinite God. Well, our rules of time don't apply
to an infinite, everlasting being. Just look at the creation. God
rested on the seventh day. In fact, he is still resting, and we are
still in the seventh day! If this day has lasted for over 6,000
years, then who are we to impose time limits on the other days of
creation? The use of the word day is just so that man can have some
type of framework to understand creation, and does not imply 24-hour
&&&& The Bible says in II Peter 3:8, “…that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” God
does not see time the same way we do! To him, one second could be a
million years. Therefore, no matter what the interpretation is of
the original Hebrew for the word “day,” it does not apply to an
infinite God. The early church fathers, including Justin Martyr,
believed the days of creation were a thousand years long. Literal
days were not even considered until the fourth century, and it did
not become a major theologic issue until the 19th century.
&&&& One more point to ponder. Old-earth creationists say
the earth is 4.5 billion years old. Was God here 4.5 billion years
ago? Obviously, the answer has to be yes. Think about it.
&&&& Our second major concept concerning time is a weak God.
&&&& One of the claims by young-earth creationists is that
the old-earth theory waters down, or weakens, Gods powers, by in
effect saying that if God could not create the earth in six days,
then he must not be as powerful as the Omnipotent God of the young
earth believer.
&&&& Here again, simple logic will prevail. It doesn't
matter how long the period of creation is, God's power is beyond
comprehension, beyond anyone else's capabilities, and He remains
omnipotent no matter how long creation lasted. I could say “An all
powerful God could have created the world in six seconds. Why did it
take him six days…he must be weak.” This obviously is not true.
&&&& To prove this, here is the simple argument. I challenge
any young-earth creationist to do this...starting right now, I
challenge you to create a brand new world, complete with new plant
and animal species, complete with a thriving ecosystem, complete
with coal beds, fossils, oceans, etc. And, I'll even be generous and
give you 20 billion years to do it. Can you do it? Of course not.
But the all-powerful, omnipotent God that we worship can, and did do
&&&& Could He have done it in six days? Sure, if He wanted
to. If He wanted to, He could have done it in 6 seconds. Is the God
of the six-day creation weaker because He didn't do it in 6 seconds?
Of course not.
Conclusion
&&&& What then are we to conclude? Spiritual death, with the
eternal possibilities of heaven and hell, began with Adam and Eve.
They were the first humans to have this option. But physical death
for the animal kingdom has been here long before Adam ever walked
the earth. Adam introduced mankind to physical death through his
&&&& Concerning age, the creation itself testifies to its
age. Job 12:8 says &Speak to the earth, and it will teach you.&
Fortunately, none of the objections of young earth proponents
carries any weight. You can be 100% confident that you can be a
Christian, and believe in an old earth.
For more information on
old earth belief systems, view our
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