Is a young earth essential? Is it both certain and important?
Is it certain? After carefully studying the language of Genesis 1 and the Bible as a whole, along with theological analysis by comparing scripture with scripture, most evangelical Christian scholars have decided that an old-earth view of creation is satisfactory. They think an old-earth view is theologically justifiable, maybe even preferable, or they adopt an age-neutral “framework” interpretation of Genesis 1, so believing in the truth of the Bible does not require believing a young earth. Most evangelical scholars have concluded that neither view (young or old) is clearly taught, so humility is appropriate. For example, in 1982 the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy decided (by agreement of all members except Henry Morris) to not include a 144-hour creation as an essential component of a fundamentalist belief in inerrancy. They recommended using information from nature (interpreted by science) to help us interpret the Bible, when they affirmed that “in some cases extrabibli
