Blog 2023-08-23
CF: Why is earth's AGE important to you? [∞]
The issue of the age of the earth is not as critical to me as it used to be for this reason: Jesus said that all the scriptures speak of him. If you are concerned about a literal creation, Adam, Noah, and Abraham, you are not reading the Bible that Jesus did. This is made embarrassingly apparent in the sensus plenior debates of the last century when the most prominent Christian scholars agreed that they could not read the Bible the way that Jesus and the NT authors did.
Jesus did not deny the historical record was true, so I am still a young-young earther, believing that creation happened outside of time. The record in Ge 2:4 states that all seven days happened in a single day.
If it is a literal historical record AND it all speak of Christ, then the literal-historical record is written in layers where the real people are like actors on stage telling us of Christ.
How do you hide things in plain sight? Riddle. "Pr 25:2 ¶ [It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter." If the prophetic riddle is hidden in the literal-historical, then it is a hostility against the word to obfuscate Christ in the scriptures by denying that Paul's 'mystery, hidden from the beginning' exists. Certainly those confessing that they cannot read the scripture the way Jesus did are not qualified to make such assessments.
Why would God hide it? This is the same question as to why Adam was not allowed to eat from the Tree of Life, why some prophets sealed up the prophecies, and why Jesus taught in parables. Jesus did not teach in parables so that ignorant farmers and shepherds could understand. He said he taught in parables so that they would not understand, would not believe, and would not get saved.
If he taught in such a way that they could believe and get saved, then the cross would not be necessary. But the cross is the culmination of the revelation of the invisible Father, and without it, teaching is insufficient. He had to hide the real teaching of the cross until after the cross.
After the cross he could make the teaching known. From the beginning of the church there have been murmurings about the secret teaching of Jesus. All of the teaching of the gospels were his secret teachings, and men STILL do not understand because they deny the genre of the scripture as prophetic riddle and insist on a literal-historical interpretation.
So what do I get out of Genesis 1? The word 'day' 'yom' יום means 'God י made to be understood ו by the finished work of the Son ם.
Each day is a picture of a different way that Christ finished the work. The first day is called 'Day one'. The others are second, third fourth, etc. This is because is speak of all creation from the beginning of time to the end as one day. Each day refers to a portion of scripture, like a table of contents pointer, and we are living in the Sixth Day, when Christ and his bride are fruitful by the fruit of the Spirit and multiplying by teaching.
Day One speaks of God's character: he is Holy and Love.
The second day speaks of his word which was divided to speak of his Holiness through law and judgement, and of love through patience and the sacrifices. Who is the Word? Second person of the God head. This is a picture of teh Father and Son being separated. No wonder it was not a 'good' day'.
The third day speak of his work in preparing the stage for man. He set up a system where you reap what you sow, tribulation represented by herbs. He created the foundation of his teaching, represented by the herbs, and he made a plan for the lamb to be slain, represented by the tree.
The fourth day speakד of him making us holy; the lights in the firmament to testify of His holiness.
The fifth day tells how his word (water) gives life to those in the flesh (fish) and those in the Spirit (birds).
The sixth day speaks of mankind in the animals and of Christ and his bride in the man and the woman.
So the literal may be incidentally interesting, the prophetic riddle is so much more. I have not attempted to make the case for this summary. It is not free-for-all allegory. The meaning comes from the Notarikon of the the words.
On the OP. So I believe that the earth is seven days younger than young-earthers if we speak concerning the illusion of time. But that there is only one day. It is the NOW. The past is a memory, and the future is a hope or fear.
