Why do some Christians believe a very young Earth?

Question

AFAIK, some Young Earth Creationists (YEC) believe that Earth was created less than 10000 years ago; that is a relatively small interval before the creation of human beings.

However, I also perceive that most creationists do not have a problem with a "huge" (i.e. light-years) Universe since this is in sync with God's attribute of infinity.

I am wondering how can YEC's deal with a very "big" God and space, but restrict the time dimension so much. Intuitively, an infinite God is somehow in contradiction with such small time spans (thousands of years).

Question: Why do some Christians believe in a very young Earth?

Answer 1

1. Prior to the birth of Christ, most Jewish scholars assumed the genealogies in the Bible were accurate and complete and the account of creation was literal history, hence attributed an age to the earth in the thousands of years.

2. Jesus, speaking with the authority of God, endorsed the accuracy and divine authority of the Bible. Mark 10:6 says: “But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.”

3. The early church adopted such views, with a few dissenters.

4. Many Reformation leaders taught that the earth's age could be inferred from Scripture and also taught that its age was in the thousands of years.

5. The advent of modern science challenged the religious beliefs of millions. Some accepted theories born of this science and rejected the idea of a young earth.

6. Other people place a higher credence in the words of scripture and reject attempts to import ideas not apparent in the original text based solely on human scientific theories.

7. As this deepening fissure widened both outside and inside the church, four tendencies arose:

   a) Change Biblical hermeneutics to permit an older age for the earth and make the creation story allegorical.

   b) Seek scientific evidence that contradicts the Big Bang, evolution, radioactive dating, and related ideas and techniques, as well as explore phenomena indicative of a younger age for the earth.

   c) Accept the Bible on faith because of the powerful evidence of its divine nature demonstrated to them by the indwelling Holy Spirit and the miraculous events that He produces in their lives, without making a significant attempt to investigate the scientific ideas and how they are seemingly in conflict with the Biblical account.

   d) Reject the Bible and Christianity altogether.

The people who have taken path 7b (the subject of your question) are in the minority. They have credible answers to many of the objections of the scientific community, but the problem posed by our ability to see distant starlight has proven to be the most difficult to answer. Russell Humprehys has a white-hole cosmology, while another has offered the effects of adopting an Anisotropic Synchrony Convention when interpreting General Relativity as a possible answer.

Answer 2

Besides what the Bible says, there is also more scientific evidence to support a young Earth than most people would think. Some examples of this are the Sun getting hotter and the oceans getting saltier respectively over time. If this were to continue across billions of years, life on Earth would be drastically different if not completely gone today. You find more Christians who believe in a young Earth because they tend to be more well versed in these sciences since they align with what they are taught nonscientificly.

Answer 3

You know those collages of pictures where each picture is a theme, maybe families, maybe in black and white; but as you stand back you see the BIG picture created by all of them? Well this is why a young earth is what the bible teaches. God starts off the book with 7 days of creation, but this is the zoomed in view.

There are 7,000 years of time given in the bible, and in 2nd Peter 3:8, Peter wrote: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." So each 1000 years is one day with the 1000 year Sabbath at the end.

The 7 days of creation mirror the 7,000 years of the Bible. On the first 2 days God divided light and darkness. But isn't this what happened at the flood? After 2,000 years The flood happened, and the 3rd day/millennium started, and dry land formed. The SUN is created on the 4th day, and in the 4th millennium Jesus is born. The 5th and 6th days are all animals with souls "For the life of the flesh is in the blood" Lev 17:11. At the end of the 6th day man is created, which mirrors the promise of redeemed bodies before the Day of the Lord. And finally on the 7th day God rested, and in the millennium, we rest.

To believe that the bible is the word of God, is to believe the whole picture, and young earth is what it shows. And by that standard we should hold what the world tells us up to that light. In other words, I believe God first.

...the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. Rev 12:9