The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-3, titled "Questions and Answers" --  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

I have been following the Bible Science Panel and they spoke of the age of the earth in different years.  By analyzing the "so and so begot so and so" and all of that, how old does the Bible say that the earth is?

Answer

One of the things that we have passed down to us was what was known as "Ussher's Dates," there was a man named Ussher, and he did some calculations based upon the genealogies of Genesis, and many of those genealogies early in Genesis tell us how old people were.  He figured that all out and estimated therefore, that everything sort of began in 4,000 BC and it's 6,000 years old.  The problem with that is: the genealogies are not necessarily comprehensive genealogies.  In other words, it may say, "So and so was the son of so and so" and skip three generations, in other words, he is really a great-grandson.  So we can't isolate the chronological history of the world down to the specifics of the genealogies, because there are definitely points at where the genealogies skip.  But even with genealogical consideration we wouldn't be anywhere near beyond 10,000 years.  Because, as I said, Ussher's date came down to 4,000 just using the genealogies, and if you expand them a little bit, it won't be much beyond that.