Words of Truth

A few weeks ago Bill Nye incorrectly stated that the Bible says the earth is 6000 years old. Ken Ham correctly pointed out that since the Bible was completed about 1900 years ago, it would be silly for there to be a verse stating “The earth is 6000 years old” because it would now be incorrect. However, we can determine based on the genealogies in the Bible an approximate age of the universe.

A few years ago I did an exercise where I attempted to plug in all the details I could regarding the age of the earth, according to the Bible. Given the recent debate on the science of those who hold the biblical view of Creation, I felt it might be helpful for me to publish my exercise here on my blog. I am not stating that this list is 100% accurate, because I am a fallible human being. However the Bible is infallible in its original autographs, and the Bible is the source of my figures. Any error made is mine alone.

Genesis 1:26 says that God created Adam on the sixth day of creation. In other words, Adam has existed for five days less than the rest of the universe. Genesis 5:3 states that Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born. From this we can determine that Seth was born 130 years after the creation of the universe. Chapter 5 gives the age of each father when his son was born, and how long he lived, all the way to Noah. Doing the math, I determined several facts: Noah was born 1056 years after Creation. Adam lived to see the birth of every man in this chapter except for Noah. Adam was the first of these men to die, even though he lived 930 years. When Noah was born, Adam, Seth, and Enoch were the only patriarchs not on earth. Methuselah and his son Lamech both died the year of the flood.

EDIT: Lamech died five years before his father Methuselah (Methuselah was 187 when Lamech was born and lived 969 years total. Lamech lived 777 years).

My spreadsheet from Creation to the Flood. Click to embiggen.

As we investigate further in Genesis, we see that the flood happened when Noah was 600 years old (Genesis 7:6), meaning that the flood happened 1656 years after Creation. Genesis 11 gives the continuation of the chronology, stating that Shem’s son was born two years after the flood when Shem was 100 years old. From this we can determine that Shem was born when Noah was 502 years old. The chapter then gives the age of each person when their son was born, all the way down to Abraham. This means that Abraham was born 297 years after the flood.

From that point, it’s a little harder to determine the exact timeline, because the verses are scattered, but it is by no means impossible. For your convenience, I will list the relevant sections here. Genesis 12:4 says Abraham was 75 when he moved to Canaan. Genesis 21:5 says Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born. Genesis 25:26 says Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born. Genesis 47:9 says Jacob was 130 when the Hebrews moved to Egypt. Exodus 12:40-41 says the Hebrews were in Egypt for 430 years to the day. This means that we can show biblically that the Exodus happened 2673 years after the Creation. I Kings 6:1 states that Solomon’s temple was started 480 years after the Exodus, in the 4th year of Solomon’s reign. We know from ancient texts (and this is the only part of my evidence that isn’t biblically based) that Solomon reigned in Israel from about 970 to 931 BC. That means the temple was started in 966 BC, and adding 480 years to that gives us the date of the Exodus: 1446 BC.

Flood to Solomon’s Temple. Click to embiggen.

Now that we have connected the date of the exodus with the Biblical chronology, we can do some quick math and determine that Creation happened in 4119 BC. Add in the 2014 years since, and we can state the age of the earth (give or take a few years) is 6133 years. At least according to God, who was there, so He should know.

Postscript: Some interesting points that the Bible doesn’t emphasize: Abraham died when Jacob and Esau were 15 years old, so they likely knew their grandfather. Noah’s son Shem outlived Abraham by 30 years. Abraham was the 9th descendant of Shem, and all of his paternal ancestors were still alive when Abraham was born, including Noah. As a matter of fact, Noah didn’t die until Abraham was 53 years old.

If you had any doubt as to the biblical illiteracy of mainstream America (especially the media), look no further than this article on CNN.

The author, Joel Baden, makes two statements about the Bible that are simply not true.
1. He states that Genesis says Methuselah lived to be 900 years old. Actually, it was 969 years.
2. He states “…the Dead Sea is created from the backward glance of Lot’s wife.” This is just not true, and what’s more, the Bible never makes this claim. She was turned into a pillar of salt. Period. That’s it.

Another problem with this piece is that it’s sensationalistic. The title leads you to believe that this camel thing is a smashing blow against the veracity of the Bible. But in the article, the author admits, “For those who believe the Bible to be fundamentally true, this is hardly going to change any minds. For those who believe it to be entirely false, this is surely not the most damning piece of evidence.”

The crux of this article comes down to the issue of “were camels used in the 20th century BC?” According to the article, they found camel bones that they radiocarbon dated to the end of the 10th century BC (about 1000 BC). The Biblical Chronology states that Abraham was born around 2166 BC. So here we have the age old question: what do you do when our current understanding of the world conflicts with what the Bible says? Those who believe in the truth of the Bible state, “Well, if the Bible says X is true, and secular science says X is false, then these secular scientists must be wrong.” Those who don’t believe in the Bible say, “See? Scientists have proven that the Bible is false!”

You won’t believe what happens next, though. In one fell swoop, the author states that the patriarchs “imagined” the whole story of Abraham, Isaac, etc. He believes, as do many liberal scholars, that the Bible wasn’t written until 1000 BC, so we must admire these writers who revealed their humanity by crafting the biggest lie in the history of the world. I have no words for the lack of logic in this statement. This is like awarding the Pulitzer Prize to James Frey, the man who became famous when his autobiographical book “A Million Little Pieces” was revealed to be severely exaggerated in its details, prompting a live confrontation on the Oprah Winfrey Show, where he admitted to making up a great deal of it. One of the claims he made in the book was that he had spent 87 days in jail, when in fact he had only spent a few hours there. Should we celebrate his “imagination,” Mr. Baden?

The biggest shocker: Joel Baden is an associate professor of Old Testament at Yale School of Divinity. So the guy who you are paying to teach you about the Bible is teaching you that the Bible isn’t true. If I had gone to Yale, I would ask for a refund.

Professor Baden says the biblical account is false. Shame on you, Professor, for calling God a liar. Shame.

….unless you are this guy, that is.

When I was a pre-teen, I only needed to shave about once a week, and that was just to get rid of the peach fuzz. I can’t really remember, but I’m pretty sure I used plastic disposable razors (you know, the cheap ones). Around my sixteenth birthday, I received a box in the mail from Gillette. I opened it to find a Gillette “Sensor” razor, with TWO (count them: 2) blades! Free razor, thought I! Hooking a customer, thought Gillette.

And that’s how it worked. I bought nothing but Gillette razors for the next 23 years. When it came out, I started buying the blades for the Sensor Excel (it had a comfort strip!), and then the Mach 3 (guess how many blades it had!). I declined to step up to the “Fusion” razor, in which you would take a razor with FIVE blades, start it vibrating, and run it across your face. Sounded like a recipe for disaster. I would have had to change my first name to Styptic.

This is for those of you who didn’t get the joke.

About a year ago I ran out of cartridges for my Mach 3. We were short on cash, and the $15 price for five cartridges was too much, so I started using the cheapos that I got as stocking stuffers the previous Christmas. You know the ones. Two blades, non-movable heads, throw the whole thing out when you’re done. And that’s what I’ve been using ever since.

Well, my last cheap razor gave up the ghost last week. By that I mean that the blade was so dull that it actually hurt to shave. So I threw it out. A few months ago I had read about a push for men to go back to “wet shaving” with actual razor blades instead of these disposable knockoffs. So I did some research. And there are three positives to this “wet shaving.”

1. COST:
Just before my last cheapo died, my new Merkur Model 180 Long Handled Safety Razor came in the mail. It cost me $30, and came with one double edged razor blade. That’s more money than I would have paid for a package of the cheap ones, but this is an investment. You see, a package of six cheapo razors would last me about two months, and cost me about $4, not including the $5 per month I’d spend in shaving cream. Total annual cost: $84.

My new razor.

The new razor cost me $30 up front, but it’s all metal, and should last for years if not for the rest of my life. The replacement blades cost anywhere from $8 for 10 German blades, down to $1.29 for 5 blades on Amazon.com. The ones in my local grocery store cost $3.29 for 10 blades. Now keep in mind that these blades are double sided, so each “blade” is actually two blades. I figured the price of the $1.29 blades to be about 12 cents per blade. The pricey German ones are 40 cents a blade. Compare that to what I was paying for the cheapos, and it’s already a savings. But then I read that if you use a shave set with a brush, a bowl, and shave soap (as opposed to the shaving cream in an aerosol can), that saves even more money. I had an up-front charge of $9 for a ceramic bowl, one disc of shave soap, and a boar bristle shave brush from Wal-Mart. The badger hair shaving brushes are supposed to be better, but they cost more, so I’m starting with the boar bristle.

My shaving kit.

The soap is supposed to last anywhere from a month to several years, depending on how often you use it. Since I only shave about every other day, I’m thinking mine will probably last about a year. So let’s add up what I’ve spent so far on my new shaving system: $30 for the razor, $1.29 for enough blades for the year, and $9 for the shaving kit (soap, brush, bowl). That’s $40.29 for THIS year. Next year I will probably have to replace my soap disc for about $1, and pay $1.29 for the new blades for the year. Total annual cost: $2.29. Compare that to the $84 I was spending before, and I can now buy half a tank of gas. Ha!

2. ENVIRONMENT:
I am not an environmentalist. Those people drive me crazy. I AM, however, a conservationist. I believe that we should not make the world worse than we found it. We should clean up our mess and try to take care of what we have been given by God. We are stewards of this planet, and as such, we should use it, but not abuse it.

I said all that to say this: My old method of shaving added to the landfill the following every year: approximately 12 empty, pressurized cans emptied of shaving cream, and 36 cheapo razor blades (or cartridges). Let’s not even talk about the possible environmental damage caused by the manufacturing process, as well as the use of aerosol and plastic.

My new method: The ceramic dish should last pretty much forever (unless it breaks, in which case….hey! It’s clay: biodegradable!). The brush should last for several years, and is comprised of wood and hair: biodegradable! The soap is straight up biodegradable. The razor should last a very long time, and the blades are stainless steel: Recyclable! So it’s obvious that wet shaving is better for the environment.

3. FEEL
I can’t tell you how much better my face feels after just a few days of using this razor. And that’s the best part about the whole thing.

And so I encourage all of you to investigate this method of shaving, and try it for yourself. You can buy a cheaper razor that uses the disposable double-edged blades (I paid $30 but there are ones you can get for less than $10). I will give one caveat however, read up on how to do it, and watch a few YouTube videos before you try it, because you can seriously cut up your face if you don’t know what you’re doing. Here is a really good article that tells you how.

Oh, and keep the blades away from the kiddos.

I’m seriously considering moving to a straight edge razor and a strop at some point, since that would save even more money (and it’s sustainable!), but this is radical enough for now. Now I’m off to go spend the money I saved. Wait, I guess I have to wait about six months before I break even. Oh well.

I saw the above cartoon on Facebook today. It disturbed me, because it portrays Right-wing Christians as using their Bibles to beat up a gay person. I am against homosexuality because I believe (based on the Bible) that God is offended by it. However, does that mean I hate homosexuals? Absolutely not. I love them, just like God loves them. It bothers me to think that some feel I don’t love gay people just because I don’t approve of their lifestyle. And so that made me think: what is love?

God showed his love by sacrificing His Son: an unpleasant thing that hurt Jesus very much. Did God stop loving His son? No, absolutely not! So we can learn from this that sometimes we do hard things to those we love because we love them. Love is not always defined as “being nice.” Love is doing what is best for the object of your love, whether it hurts them or not. Sometimes we have to do something unpleasant to our loved ones to prevent them pain in the future.

Drug interventions are like this: it’s not fun for an addict to hear from their loved ones that the activity they enjoy is harmful and they should stop doing it before it destroys them.

We discipline our children (which is unpleasant and sometimes painful for them) because we love them and want to prevent future pain. We smack their hand away from the garbage disposal for a very good reason: a smack is better for them than a mutilated hand.

Sometimes we say nice things to those we love. Sometimes the loving thing to do is warn them away from doing things that are bad for them.

As a born again Christian, I believe the Bible says that there are two destinations for all people. We are all imperfect beings, unable to live up to God’s holy standard of perfection. We are all born, and we all die. Where we go after we die is determined by where we place our faith. If, as a reasoning human being, you trust in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for your sins, then you go to heaven. If you do not, then you will go to Hell, to suffer for eternity.

All that being said, I should have two approaches to every human being on earth. For those who do not trust in Christ, my sole concern for them should be that they get that one thing right with God. It doesn’t matter to me that they smoke, that they dress funny, that they are “living in sin” with their girlfriend or their gay partner, or that they are committing adultery. None of that matters, because there will be plenty of people in hell that did their best to follow God’s rules. There are millions of people in hell right now who were heterosexual nonsmokers who never cheated on their spouse. The mission that Christ gave me on earth is not to make imperfect people less imperfect, it’s to help imperfect people realize their complete inability to save themselves, and their need of Jesus Christ. Without Christ, none of the rest matters.

The second approach is to those who are trusting in Christ already. My concern for them is to help them become more Christlike, even as they should be helping me become more Christlike. We are to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” We are to correct those who go wrong . (Galatians 6:1)

People like to quote Matthew 7:1 “Judge not lest ye be judged” to somehow justify any decision they make with which you disagree. Getting a tattoo on their face? Don’t judge me! Getting drunk? Don’t judge me! But what these people don’t understand is that the context of that verse reveals that we ARE supposed to judge our brothers. Verses 3-5 do warn about the hypocrisy of the crackhead judging the drunk, but if you read it, it’s clear that the intent is for us to deal with our problem, and THEN help our BROTHER deal with his. You should stop committing adultery before you criticize someone for looking at pornography.

That is why, if you are a believer, I will confront you about your sin. Because I am better than you? Absolutely not. It’s because I care about you, and I would expect you to do the same for me, if you saw me doing something wrong.

Love means warning people about hell, telling them how to get to heaven, and telling them when you see them in danger of offending God with their behavior.

If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t say anything.