young earth or old earth?
young earth or old earth: do answers exist?
young earth or old earth: answers do exist
We have concluded that God does reveal truth to man so that he can know it. Now the question is, Has God revealed the truth of the age of the earth?
There are two basic methods God uses to reveal truth. The first is through His word. In His word, God tells us that which we need to know, which we would not be able to learn about Him otherwise. The Word is further subdivded into the written Word, and the incarnate Word. Both the written Word, the Bible, and the incarnate Word, Jesus and His life, deeds and words, reveal truth. Jesus even goes so far to say that error comes in when one or the other, either the written Word, or the manifest Word, is not taken into account.
The second way God reveals truth is through His world (and here). Man can learn what is true about the physical universe by observation and repetition, otherwise known as science.
There are other disciplines which study the broad subject of truth. Philosophy asks the question What is true? Science asks the same question of the natural world, therefore it is a subset of philosophy with a much more limited scope. Science, by its nature, cannot answer all questions (although naturalists often seek to remove these limits on science by denying the existence of other or greater purview). Theology asks the same question of the spiritual world. Mathematics and Logic are also disciplines which deal with truth in expression; mathematics with numerical expression, logic with linguistic expression.
It is important to note that it is a universal law that truth does not contradict. If something is true in science, then it is true in mathematics, or logic, or even theology. Truth and its nature is really an expression of God’s consistent, unchanging, and non- contradictory character, of which man’s study of the disciplines of truth are a dim reflection in a dark mirror.
So we have this sort of cosmic check and balance system with truth: if we think something is true of science, let us test it with mathematics; if the mathematics do not work out, then that is a clue for us that we have got something wrong in our science somewhere (assuming our math is correct), so back to the drawing board. If we think something is true of philosophy, let us test it with logic or theology; if the theology does not work out, then that is a clue for us that we have got something wrong in our philosophy (assuming our theology is correct). All truth disciplines can be tested by the other truth disciplines, with one exception.
This is really the debate, in a nutshell. Some truth disciplines (science) do not want to be tested by the others (theology), not understanding the nature of truth: that if something is in fact true, it is illuminated more clearly by testing. And if the testing shows something to be false, then do not all parties wish to know that? Not always.
Continued in young earth or old earth revealed, part two