Is the Age of the Earth Unrelated to Salvation?

This is the assertion of Greg Koukl in his book, “Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions” I loved the book, but stumbled on something he said toward the end of it. In chapter 21, he seemed to urge his readers to stay away from certain topics like the age of the earth and end-times. To illustrate, he shared a recollection of a man on a plane rigorously witnessing to passengers on either side of him. While Koukl commended the man, he felt he delved into areas he shouldn’t have.

On the way to sharing about the cross, our Christian passenger ranged from young earth creationism to Armageddon. Now that’s a lot to have to chew on to get to Jesus! The basic Gospel is challenging enough and generally you’ll have to deal with a few obstacles that come up, but if the listener is interested, why complicate things with controversial issues unrelated to salvation? Remember, you want to put a stone in his shoe, not a rock pile.

In general, I agree there are times we go further than we should. The man on the plane may indeed have gone too far (I wasn’t there, so can’t say for certain). The point is, I’m not critiquing that per se, but rather Koukl’s assertion that the age of the earth (and end-times) are irrelevant to the Gospel. “Why complicate things with controversial issues unrelated to salvation?” I think he’s mistaken on this.

Challenge Evolution, Not Age?

Interestingly, Koukl does suggest engaging in the topic of evolution. If you’ve listened to Greg for any length of time, you know he’s an old earth creationist, meaning he rejects the naturalistic view of evolution, but accepts the evolutionary timeline (millions/billions of years). In his book, therefore, you’ll find several suggestions on how to challenge evolution, but nothing to challenge the deep time which is so vital to the rest of the theory. This makes sense since he affirms the modern scientific view of deep time, and even sees the Big Bang as an apologetic asset.

I would challenge him on this, however. I believe Mr. Koukl and old earth creationists have this exactly backwards. Deep time (millions of years) is actually much more deleterious to the Gospel message than evolution. Let me explain.

History Matters

When people tell me the age of the earth doesn’t matter, I’ll usually acquiesce with a small clarification. I might respond, “Precise age doesn’t matter, but the precise history does! Do you agree with me that the history of the earth, as revealed in the Bible, matters?”

Hearing it framed this way, most genuine Bible-believing Christians will backpedal. Many balk at the importance of age, but few at the importance of history, particularly biblical history. The Bible, after all, is an inspired record of history. I, then, explain that those of us who hold to a relatively young earth are not so much focused on age, but rather the sequence of historical events. Sequence matters. I’ll, then, make the case that it’s impossible to inject a naturalistic timeline into the Creation account, without also altering its history. This matters, because biblical history, particularly of the Fall and its effect on the world, is foundational to the Gospel message. Stay with me.

The Biblical Sequence

A Good World

The Biblical sequence is straightforward. First, God created a good world. Six times we’re told in Genesis chapter 1 that God’s creation was good, in addition to a final summary statement that it was very good.

Gen. 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

This summary statement is made at the end of the creation process and, therefore, includes everything God made, up to that point. It includes all vegetation (day 3), all air and sea creatures (day 5), all land creatures and man (day 6). Everything up to the creation of Adam and Eve was very good. This seems to strongly imply things like death, pain and struggle were not part of the original creation, up until that point.

Original Sin

Second, Man (Adam) sinned, disobeying God’s clear command regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam was warned he would die if he disobeyed God.

Gen. 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

As we know, Adam did not listen. He took the fruit from Eve, his wife, and ate. Sin, for the first time, had entered into the good creation.

A Cursed World

Therefore, third, God cursed the world. God cursed the creatures of the earth, the snake above all others (Gen. 3:14). He multiplied birth pain for women (Gen. 3:16) and then, most, significantly, he brought death and struggle into the world (Gen. 3:17-19). He spoke this final portion of the curse directly to Adam, whom He directly warned.

‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

Death, pain and struggle were then added to the original creation, and remain to this day.

The Whole Creation in Bondage

This, by the way, includes death, pain and struggle for all creatures. God said to the Serpent, “…You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field;…” The implication is that all creatures are cursed, and the snake most of all.

Have you ever watched Nat Geo Wild? It’s not easy to be a creature in the postlapsarian (post-fallen) world at the bottom of the food chain or even the top. If you’re at the bottom, you’ll likely die a violent death and end up a meal for another (or many others). If you’re at the top, you’ll grow old and weak, which will move you to the bottom. Paul addressed the scope of Curse in his letter to the Romans.

Rom. 8: 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption….

It’s not only men who are trapped in the bondage of corruption. The whole creation suffers, and awaits deliverance, from the time of the Curse until now.

Rom. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Vegetarianism Before Fall

Don’t forget, however, this was not so, initially. Before the Fall, all creatures, human and animal, were living in peace and not preying on one another. We know this, because, in the beginning, God gave all creatures a vegetarian diet. Read carefully what God said at the completion of the creation week.

Gen. 1:29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.

Meat consumption and predation were not part of the original design. The suffering we see in the world today was born out of sin (Adam’s sin), and we’re all feeling those birth pains until now.

Foundational Context to the Gospel

Why is this important? It’s all valuable context to the Gospel message. The good news is that Jesus came into the world to undo what Adam did. This is why Christ is called the last Adam (1Cor. 15:45).

1Cor. 15:45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Jesus came to fix a problem rooted in history, which is why we need to be careful not to distort that history. That, however, is exactly what naturalistic timelines do. They distort history by altering the sequence of important events.

A False History

In the evolutionary naturalistic scheme, the universe began at a big bang event 13.7 billions years ago. The earth formed much later, about 4.6 billion years ago, and the first simple life forms about 3.8 billion years ago. The first complex forms that we might call the first animals came much later, about 570 million years ago. Plants developed long after this, about 480 million years ago. The first spiders developed about 420 millions years ago, while tetrapods (land fish creatures) about 400 million years ago. The first trees and forests developed about 380 millions years ago. About 375 millions years ago, the first amphibians developed. Crabs appeared about 360 million years ago, followed by reptiles 320 million years ago. Dinosaurs developed about 230 million years ago, and small mammals about 200 million years ago. Then came birds 150m, flowers 130m, bees 100m, and snakes 90m ago. Then we have the unfortunate extinction of the dinosaurs about 65-70 million years ago. About 20 million years ago, the first apes began to appear, which gave rise to the first human-like hominids about 300 thousand years ago. (source) Got that all down?

Death Before Sin?

Illustration by Answers in Genesis

All of this happened, ostensibly, before modern humans like Adam came to be. That’s a long stint of life, struggle and death before the first man or first sin came into existence, and therein lies the problem. If the days of Genesis are not literal, but rather long eras of time, as most old earth creationists claim, Adam cannot be responsible for the millions of years of death that preceded him. If he came after the first hominids, which appeared at the very end of biological history, sin has nothing to do with death.

Even old earth creationists who believe in a literal created Adam, don’t believe he was responsible for the horrors that preceded him. How could he be?

Death, Very Good?

They also believe death, at least animal death, in some sense, is good. Animal death, if it existed before Adam, can’t be the result of the Curse, and therefore, must have been created by God from the very beginning. It must, therefore, have been “very good,” as Gen. 1:31 clearly states everything through Adam’s creation was “very good.” If pain, death, killing, disease, struggle, suffering, extinction, etc. all preceded Adam, they must be good. Problematic? I think so.

Only Human Death Caused by the Fall?

Old earth creationists are also forced to limit the Curse of death to human death, since animal death existed prior. I see 3 major problems with this.

First, what about the vegetarian diet given to animals at the very end of the creation week?

Gen. 1:30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.

Why would God mention this after Adam’s creation, if animals had already been engaged in predation and meat consumption for millions of years?

Illustration by Answers in Genesis

Second, what about Paul’s words in Romans 8:20-22, that the whole creation suffers and awaits a future redemption?

Rom. 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. ….. 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

If death and suffering are the norm and even “very good,” why would the creation long for a remedy? Why change “very good”?

Third, what do we do with prophecies speaking of the restoration of animals? Isaiah, for instance, spoke of a time when the “Rod from the stem of Jesse” (the Messiah) would come and restore God’s creatures to a peaceful coexistence and a vegetarian diet.

The Peaceable Kingdom painting by Edward Hicks

Edward Hicks (1780–1849): The Peaceable Kingdom

Is. 11:6 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

Cows grazing with bears? Lions eating straw with oxen? This future restoration makes perfect sense if the beasts of the earth were originally vegetarian (Gen. 1:29-30), not preying on one another, and only later turned to meat to survive in a cursed world.

It makes little sense, however, if predation and death were part of the “very good” creation. Why would very good need to be fixed?

The point is, history matters and, by extension, age matters. Naturalistic theories of deep time, even when coupled with creation, distort important history which is foundational to the Gospel message. It’s a big problem that Christians and Christian leaders need to confront.

And here’s an irony you may not have considered before. Evolution, by itself, without deep time, is quite harmless. Indulge me for just a little longer.

Evolution (without time) Not a Big Problem

Koukl and other old earth creationists believe evolution is a major issue of our day, while the age of the earth is not. Ironically, the opposite is true.

Let’s say, hypothetically, Koukl reversed his position. What if he believed that creatures currently do have the ability, over long periods of time, to change drastically from their original form? Suppose, for instance, that new scientific discoveries proved mutations could indeed create new information, resulting in macro changes over millions of years. Would this, in and of itself, harm the Gospel? Not really—not without the assistance of deep time.

As long as one rejects millions of years and accepts biblical history, no significant theological problems arise. Evolutionary macro-changes could only manifest in the distant future. They could not have occurred in the past, as there hasn’t been enough time. Universal common ancestry (Darwinism) would definitely be off the table, as earth has only been around a few thousand years. Only creation, as described in Genesis 1, could explain the diversity we see today, and only the Flood, which happened after the Fall, could explain the fossil record (See: Fossils—Evidence of the Flood).

Evolution without time, is like a bullet without a gun. It’s next to useless.

Deep Time is the Real Threat

The point is, deep time/millions of years is a bigger threat to theology and the Gospel. History matters and is by no means unrelated to salvation. I’m not saying Koukl is wrong for challenging evolution. I’m with him on this. I don’t believe mutations will ever create new information resulting in animals changing from one kind to another. I’m merely stating that, if the main concern is salvation and the Gospel, evolution is not the primary threat. We have to confront the false secular histories of our age, which specifically undermine the historical context of the Gospel, and shipwreck the faith of many. The best example might be Charles Templeton.

A Shipwrecked Faith

Charles Templeton was a talented evangelist and close friend of Billy Graham’s. Many, at the time, believed he was the more talented of the two.

Templeton, however, bought into the lie of deep time, which ultimately shipwrecked his faith. It forced him to harmonize his theology with a false history, making God responsible for the “carnival of blood” he saw everywhere.

Why does God’s grand design require creatures with teeth designed to crush spines or rend flesh, claws fashioned to seize and tear, venom to paralyze, mouths to suck blood, coils to constrict and smother—even expandable jaws so that prey may be swallowed whole and alive? . . . Nature is in Tennyson’s vivid phrase, “red in tooth and claw,” and life is a carnival of blood…

Notice he’s specifically speaking about animal suffering, and attributing their suffering to their Designer.

Ultimately, he rejected this version of God, and never truly came to know the true Creator and Savior of the world. Buying into a false history, he missed an important truth I tell my kids often. God did not originally make the world this way, and He will not leave it this way. History and eschatology matter!

This is not to say true Christians can’t be wrong about the age of the earth. I believe most old earth creationists are my brothers. I just believe they underestimate the damage old earth theories can do. They, themselves, may have avoided a shipwreck, but others, like Charles Templeton, haven’t.

Tactics

All this said, I enjoyed Koukl’s book and still recommend it. It might, in fact, be my favorite read of the year. Koukl is trying to get Christians to reason from Scripture, and perhaps get away from cookie-cutter Gospel presentations that come off rehearsed and inauthentic. He offers great question-asking tactics that I believe are game changers. Despite my disagreement in one paragraph, in one chapter, the rest of the book was a blessing. It’s definitely equipped me to discuss my convictions better.

I would simply add, don’t shy away from history, or end-times discussions. People need to hear the truth about our origins and future. If God opens that door for you, walk through it.