First of all, I wanted to thank you for all your help. Your site has definitely helped me get closer to God.<\/p>\n
Now, onto the question: When atheists look at the timeline it goes back billions of years or whatever, and it seems like everything falls into place over the course of that long period of time, such as historical events. As a Christian, I know that the earth is more or less 6,000 years old. Now I’m in an advanced social studies class where my teacher is trying to explain to us that everything that happened can’t happen in the time span the Bible gives, like even things such as China’s dynasties, or the origins of Hinduism. A lot of historical events are said to go back at least 10 thousand years. My question is: when do all the historic events happen in the time span the Bible gives. It seems like a lot of stuff to happen for only 6 thousand years. Now, it may sound like I’m against the Bible but I’m only trying to get a better understanding.<\/p>\n
Thank you again, Mr. Hamilton!<\/p>\n\t
Let’s start with a simple fact: A claim doesn’t create reality. The claim that the recorded events in history can’t fit into a time scale given by the Bible is a claim without evidence in that we can’t go back in time and see if the claim is proven or not. People do get things wrong because they expect answers and discount any evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n
For example, David Rohl has examined the Egyptian dynasties and noted that the standard listing causes problems with other historical documents and evidence, the Bible is one of them. But he noted a flaw in the dynasties. The standard listing assumes there were no overlaps in the reigns of kings. However, there is historical evidence that kingships did overlap either geographically or even generational (a son taking kingship before the father died). He then proposed an alternative listing that had overlaps that matches the known historical information, including the Bible, and everything fits. (See: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Chronology_%28Rohl%29). Whether Mr. Rohl has everything correct or not isn’t the main issue. The point is that it is possible that there are overlaps and there is supporting evidence for overlap that causes the standard list to collapse. By the way, there are a number of good videos on Mr. Rohl’s work that can be found on YouTube, which are easy to understand.<\/p>\n
I would suspect that the same problem exists in the Chinese dynasties. China, after all, is a large territory; there can be a geographical overlap of dynasties. And the overlap of succeeding kings would not be unusual.<\/p>\n
In regards to the origins of Hinduism, just because someone dates the religion as being X number of years old, it isn’t proof that it really was that old.<\/p>\n
It is very easy to get into a mode of thinking that if a teacher states something then it must be correct. It is reinforced by teachers who do not like to be challenged on what they are teaching. But the fact remains that people can and do get things wrong. Therefore, it behooves the student to analyze what is being said, checking the facts. Just as the Bereans did with Paul: “Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so<\/em>” (Acts 17:10-11).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: First of all, I wanted to thank you for all your help. Your site has definitely helped me get closer to God. Now, onto the question: When atheists look at the timeline it goes back billions of years or whatever, and it seems like everything falls into place over the course of that long…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[83,279],"class_list":["post-41699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-age-of-the-earth","tag-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9161,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-adam-eve-and-the-bible-come-into-existence\/","url_meta":{"origin":41699,"position":0},"title":"When did Adam, Eve, and the Bible come into existence?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My girlfriend and I were discussing things in the Bible, and we were wondering when did Adam and Eve come into existence, and when did the Bible come into existence? We were just wondering. I have heard this question asked before in other people's conversations and didn't get a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2015,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-old-is-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":41699,"position":1},"title":"How old is the world?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 28, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How old is the world? Is the scientific way correct? In science, the world is around 40 billion years old. How old is the world in the Bible? Answer: Dating in the Bible is a bit difficult because, for the span of time that the Bible covers, a universal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29829,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-no-such-thing-as-prehistoric-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":41699,"position":2},"title":"Is there no such thing as prehistoric times?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Bible times start from the beginning of time. The Bible is recorded history and prehistoric means before recorded history. Dinosaurs were in the Bible, and dinosaurs are often referred to as prehistoric, but they were recorded, so does all this mean that there is no such thing as prehistoric\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37776,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/there-seem-to-be-reasons-to-believe-the-earth-is-older-than-6000-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":41699,"position":3},"title":"There seem to be reasons to believe the earth is older than 6,000 years","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been considering the question of the age of the Earth and universe for many years. For a long time, I believe the Earth was only a few thousand years old based on the Bible. However, I have come to consider many other factors that don't seem to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25025,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-know-the-year-jesus-was-crucified\/","url_meta":{"origin":41699,"position":4},"title":"Do we know the year Jesus was crucified?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding the sermon outline\u00a0Three Days and Three Nights: \u201cAmen.\u201d\u00a0 Excellent work in putting this subject together. \u00a0Appreciate the spreadsheet \u201cvisual\u201d at the bottom.\u00a0 Three somewhat related questions: Do we know what year the crucifixion took place? Would a Jubilee year be in Jesus\u2019 ministry years? Does Jesus\u2019 anointed year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62752,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-old-is-the-world-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":41699,"position":5},"title":"How Old Is the World? (Sermon)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Job 38:1-11 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The assumption that our world is billions of years old appears everywhere in our culture. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is so prevalent that few stop and question whether it is true. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But as God pointed out to Job, man wasn\u2019t there at the beginning (Job\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}