Bible Question: "If the universe is truly 13-14 billion years old as scientists say, is this congruent with what the Bible tells us?"

Bible Answer: In a word, no. The Bible says in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," and goes on to describe the creation as occurring in seven days.

Some Bible scholars agree that God created everything, but say the length of the days described by Moses in Genesis 1 could have been thousands, millions or billions of years each.

If that is so, why does Gen. 1:5 say, "God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day"?

The day referred to here had both daylight hours and night hours, so how can we interpret that to be more than 24 hours?

As to the age of the earth, Bible scholars have added up the years from Genesis through the Old Testament and come up with about 4,000 years, and our own calendar attests to the 2002 years since Jesus was born, bringing us to a total of 6,002 years.

As to the billions of years cited by scientists, let me quote Dr. Gary Parker, a scientist and staff member of the Institute for Creation Research. He has a doctorate in biology and is a former believer in evolution who has become a creation science expert.

"In one graduate class, the professor told us we didn't have to memorize the dates of the geologic systems since they were far too uncertain and conflicting. Then in geophysics we went over all of the assumptions that go into radiometric dating. Afterwards, the professor said something like this, 'If a fundamentalist ever got hold of this stuff, he would make havoc out of the radiometric dating system. So, keep the faith.'"

The "faithÓ he was referring to is the faith in evolution.

"The Genesis Flood" and "Scientific Creationism," both by Henry M. Morris, are the two most famous books on creation science, making a persuasive case for a young universe and the Genesis flood as the major geologic event which created fossils.

You can find a host of creation science resources on a young universe by searching at google.com for "creation science."

Christians have been ridiculed as idiots for believing in creationism vs. evolution at least since the days of the famous Scopes monkey trial in Tennessee in the 1920s. But the theory of evolution is at best just that, a theory, and believers in evolution are exercising faith in it, just as Christians choose to believe what the Bible says about creation as a matter of faith.

I seriously doubt this issue will ever be settled to the satisfaction of most scientists who choose to believe in evolution.

But as for me, I choose to believe what God says in the Bible, and when I stand before Him on judgment day, I firmly believe that choice will be proven right.

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)