Frank Turek is mistaken. The earth is not old. The Bible teaches that the earth is young:
1) "The Heavens and the Earth" in Genesis 1:1 and Exodus 20:11
Gen 1:1 - In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Ex 20:11 - For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
"The heavens and the earth" is the same Hebrew phrase in both Genesis 1:1 and Exodus 20:11. Moses wrote both. There was no gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:3. God made all creation in six lunar days.
2) Light predates and postdates the sun
A. God created light on the first day and the sun on the 4th day (Gen 1:3; Gen 1:14-19).
B. Psalm 104 is the 7 Days of creation in poetic form. And Ps. 104:1-2 corresponds to the first day of creation, arguing that God wraps Himself in light like a garment.
C. The Bible begins with God being the light and the Bible ends with God being the light. Revelation 22:5 - "And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever."
3. The generations of the heaven and the earth
Genesis 2:4 - "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens."
The Hebrew word "generations" is taken as literal time throughout the rest of Genesis, and therefore should be taken as seven literal days in Genesis 1:1-2:4:
Genesis 5:1 – The book of the generations of Adam
Genesis 6:9 – The generations of Noah
Genesis 10:1 – The generations of the sons of Noah
Genesis 10:32 – "...according to their generations, in their nations"
Genesis 11:10 – The generations of Shem
Genesis 11:27 – The generations of Terah
Genesis 25:12 – The generations of Ishmael
Genesis 25:13 – "...by their names, according to their generations"
Genesis 25:19 – The generations of Isaac
Genesis 36:1 – The generations of Esau
Genesis 36:9 – The generations of Esau father of the Edomites
Genesis 37:2 – The generations of Jacob
4. The Testimony of Theological Liberals:
A. Julius Wellhausen, popularized the Documentary Hypothesis for the Pentateuch. He wrote about the author of Genesis:
“He undoubtedly wants to depict faithfully the factual course of events in the coming-to-be of the world, he wants to give a cosmogonic theory. Anyone who denies that is confusing the value of the story for us with the intention of the author.”
B. Hermann Gunkel, the father of form criticism, argued,
“People should never have denied that Genesis 1 wants to recount how the coming-to-be of the world actually happened.”
C. James Barr, one of the most distinguished modern liberal Old Testament scholars, wrote,
"To take a well-known instance, most conservative evangelical opinion today does not pursue a literal interpretation of the creation story in Genesis. A literal interpretation would hold that the world was created in six days, these days being the first of the series which we still experience as days and nights…In fact, the only natural exegesis is a literal one, in the sense that this is what the author meant.”
James Barr also wrote elsewhere,
“So far as I know there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1-11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience; b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provide by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to the later stages of the Biblical story, and, c) Noah’s flood was understood to be worldwide, and to have extinguished all human and land animal life except for those in the ark."
D. Geerhard von Rad, maybe the foremost Old Testament theologian of the 1900s, wrote about Genesis 1,
“Everything that is said here is intended to hold true entirely and exactly as it stands.”
“Everything that is said here is to be accepted exactly as it is written; nothing is to be interpreted symbolically or metaphorically."
“The seven days are unquestionably to be understood as actual days and as a unique, unrepeatable lapse of time in the world.”
5. Psalm 104 corresponds to Genesis 1
A. Day 1:
Gen 1:1-5 - "Let there be light."
Ps 104:1-2 - "You are clothed with splendor...covering yourself with light."
B. Day 2:
Gen 1:6-8 - "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters."
Ps 104:2-4 - "He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters."
C. Day 3:
Gen 1:9-13 - "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together" "dry land appear," "earth sprout vegetation"
Ps 104:5-18 - "The waters stood above the mountains...you set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth"
"You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate"
D. Day 4:
Gen 1:14-19 - "lights in the expanse...for signs and seasons" "the greater light to rule the day" "the lesser light to rule the night"
Ps 104:19-23 - "He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting."
E. Day 5:
Gen 1:20-23 - "waters swarm...with living creatures" "let birds fly above the earth"
Ps 104:24-26 - "birds...sing among the branches" "sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable"
F. Day 6:
Gen 1:24-31 - "bring forth living creatures" "let us make man in our image"
Ps 104:27-30 - "young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God" "Man goes out to his work and to his labor"
G. Day 7:
Gen 2:1-4 - "God rested on the seventh day and made it holy"
Ps 104:31-35 - "may the Lord rejoice in His works"
H. Chiastic Structure of Psalm 104 corresponding to the 7 Days of Creation:
i. Introduction: v.1a – Bless the Lord, O my Soul!
ii. Day One: v. 1b-2a – O LORD (YHWH) my God
iii. Day Two: v. 2b-4 – emphasis on the wind, spirit, or breath (Heb. ruah, two times)
iv. Day Three: v.5-18 – emphasis on the deep, sea waters, and the springs
v. Day Four: v.19-24 – moon, sun, and climactic exultation
iv. Day Five: v.25-26 – emphasis on the sea and its moving things
iii. Day Six: v.27-30 – emphasis on the spirit or breath (Heb. ruah, two times)
ii. Day Seven: v.31-35a – theophany and praise, O LORD (YHWH) my God.
i. Conclusion: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”*
SOURCE: This post is a summary of several arguments made in The Genesis Creation Account and the Old Testament edited by Gerald Klingbeil
Today, I respond to some claims about the biblical account of creation from popular Christian apologist Frank Turek.
Watch Frank Turek’s full video for yourself:
youtube.com/watch?v=EbXuRHkK…