Why a Commitment to Inerrancy Does Not Demand a Strictly 6,000-Year-Old Earth: One Young Earther's Plea for Realism (Part 1)

From Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal (DBSJ) 2013. Used by permission (first appearance at SharperIron in 2014).

The young-earth creationist community is in the midst of an identity crisis relative to the age of the earth. Some within the community aggressively defend a strict 6,000-year-old creation and chafe even at minimal deviation on this point. For these, a rigid terminus a quo for the age of the universe is the simplest and best arbiter for establishing one’s young-earth creationist credentials. Conceding even a slightly older universe is for this group equal to (1) discarding or at the very least compromising biblical inerrancy¹ and (2) granting philosophical independence to the sciences, whether astronomy, geology, biology, or archeology.²

This rigidity has not always existed in the young-earth community. John Whitcomb, patriarch of young-earth creationism and co-author of the groundbreaking work The Genesis Flood, defended a span of 3,000 to 5,000 years between the Flood and Abraham, offering a probable date for the original creation of between 6,700 B.C. and 8,700 B.C.³

While Whitcomb and others of his generation held tenaciously to a young earth of thousands rather than billions of years,⁴ the sine qua non of their movement was not a rigid date, but adherence to other interpretive factors, including:

• Belief in a recent and immediate creation of the universe in six literal, successive, 24-hour days.
• Belief in a catastrophic global flood as the principal dynamic for explaining the geological and fossil records.
• Belief in a literal, historical, and immediately created Adam, prior to whose fall death was absent in the universe.⁵

These factors, early young-earth creationists agreed, together insulated Genesis 1–11 from the philosophical threats of modernism and uniformitarianism that threatened biblical authority. Viewing the earth as young was important to these pioneering modern creationists, but an exact identification of the earth’s age was neither necessary nor even possible—the Bible simply did not supply this level of precision. And so, irrespective of whether they favored a 6,000-, 10,000-, or 25,000- year-old earth, proponents of this new movement readily set aside this minor quibble in the interest of a united front against the ridicule and arguments of scientists, archaeologists, and scholars from other disciplines who argued for “deep time.”

This article is a plea for the young-earth creationist community to return to this older standard of fellowship. It proceeds on the assumption that there are evangelical stances on the age of the earth that do not honor the bedrock principle of biblical inerrancy. However, it also argues the possibility of affirming, without abandoning a clear and normal reading of the text or surrendering to the dictates of uniformitarianism, something other than a strict 6,000-year-old earth. In short, this article is a warranted request for the young-earth community to recognize and make unqualified place in its ranks for the excluded middle of young-earthers who argue, based on (1) commonly accepted exegetical techniques and (2) other non-uniformitarian grounds, for a modest relaxation of the 6,000-year benchmark for the age of the earth.

THE BASIS FOR THE INFLEXIBLE 6,000-YEAR-OLD EARTH THEORY

The centerpiece of the argument for a 6,000-year-old earth is the identification of the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 as gapless “chronogenealogies.” Proponents argue that the precise numbers and calculations unique to these two genealogies reveal unmistakably the divine intention to supply a meticulous and comprehensive timeline of the world from Adam to Abram.⁶ While a modest relaxation of this stance might not immediately upend the young earth model, proponents argue, even the slightest tinkering with the numbers represents the proverbial camel’s nose in the tent—a slippery slope upon which misadventurers tend to slide into the yawning chasm of biblical errancy and “deep time.”

It is not my intention to detail all of the arguments for gapless chronogenealogies. Proponents have long since made their case and have offered little by way of new arguments for years. But I do not intend, either, to denigrate the gapless chronogenealogy theory. Instead, I simply wish to create reasonable doubt concerning this theory—doubt reasonable enough to allow modest dissenters full membership in the YEC guild.

THE CASE FOR REASONABLE DOUBT ABOUT THE INFLEXIBLE 6,000-YEAR-OLD EARTH THEORY

The 6,000-year-earth position may be questioned on several grounds, some more substantial than others. I would like to suggest, though, that while all of the arguments developed below are load-bearing, the intertextual-exegetical arguments take pride of place in the ensuing material.