Who Likes Wine?

Suzanne and I enjoy a glass of wine occasionally, and there are many references to drinking wine in the Bible. While not "wine snobs", we certainly know enough about good wine to know that the older it is the better it gets.

So let’s have a look at the story from the Bible where Jesus turned water into wine. This is the very first miracle performed by Jesus recorded in the Bible.

As was the habit in those days (and probably continues today) the best wine was served first, then cheaper wine was served later. At this particular feast they actually ran out of wine, so Jesus performed the miracle of turning six large stone water jars of water into wine.

When the “master of the banquet” tasted the wine, not knowing from where it had come, he remarked, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

Do you think anyone who tasted a wine served immediately after it was made would normally remark, “…you have saved the best till now” unless it actually tasted very old and mature? The fact is that the wine which had only minutes beforehand been “made” by Jesus from water, obviously had the “appearance” (sight, smell, taste) of a “very old” wine.

My Bible notes for this Scripture say that, "This miracle showed his (Jesus') power over nature."

We know from scripture that Adam was not a baby when he was “formed”, and was in fact very much a man. How old a man was Adam when he was formed we don’t actually know, and it’s not important. The point is that on Day Six of Creation when Adam was formed, he already had the “appearance” of a grown man.

Now from Day Six of Creation when Adam was formed let’s go back five days earlier to Day One.

If you can accept, albeit temporarily, the miracle of Jesus instantly turning water into a wine with the “appearance” of a wine many years older, and the miracle of God making a man from dust with the “appearance” of a full grown man; why then does it take such a great leap of faith to believe that God, on Day One of Creation, created an earth with the "appearance" of something much older.

We know that God is Triune ie. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So the same God who showed His “…power over nature” at the Wedding Feast of Cana, and showed His power over nature in creating man, also showed his power over nature five days earlier when He created the earth in an instant.

If you cannot accept the Young Earth concept (the earth was formed on Day One of Creation), then there is no point proceeding because the Biblical age of the earth is based on this very fact.

If on the other hand you can indulge me for the moment on the Young Earth concept, and also that man (Adam) was born on Day Six of Creation, then determining the age of the earth from that point on is simply a matter of Mathematics.

Adam lived 130 years then had his son Seth, and Seth lived 105 years before he became the father of Enosh, and so on and so on. If we add up all these years between generations up to Noah, we arrive at a figure of 1056 years (you can check if you like). Noah was 500 years old (v 32) when he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth, or 1056 + 500 = 1556 years after Creation.

In Genesis 7:6 the Bible tells us that Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. So the great Flood took place at 1056 + 600 or 1656 years after Creation. Note that this is the figure accepted by the King James Version of the Bible. To make things easier lets round it off to 1700 years.

According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Irish archbishop and chronologist James Ussher, Bible historians, and most conservative Christian scholars, the Flood of Noah's time occurred between 2500 BC and 2300 BC. From our research of Christian websites this timeframe seems to be generally accepted as being the case.

So if we know that the Flood of Noah’s time was approximately 1700 years after Creation, and that it occurred between 2500 BC and 2300 BC, then we can see that the earth was created around 4200 to 4000 BC. Add 2010 years up to now and we have the age of the earth at around 6000 to 6200 years; certainly nowhere near billions of years.

But let’s look to see if we can narrow it down even further.

According to this genealogy there were 390 years between Noah’s son Seth, and Abraham (1556 + 390 = 1946), so Abraham was born 1946 years after Creation. According to my Bible notes Abraham was born in 2166 BC. Add these two figures together (1946 + 2166) and we arrive at 4112. Plus 2010 years and we get around 6120.

Irish archbishop James Ussher calculated that Creation took place in 4004 BC, so 4004 + 2010 = 6014 years. If 1656 is deducted from 4004 then the worldwide flood of Noah's time was around 2348 BC.  

An important belief of Young Earthers is that the flood of Noah as described in the Bible happened around 2349 BC. It covered the entire earth and created many of the geological features we see today. The Creation belief system is mainly promoted by people who believe that Bible authors were inspired by God to write text that is inerrant (free of error). Most of them believe that creation took only six days, or 144 hours.

From our research there appears to be many references to the Biblical age of the earth, and while these may vary from the figures given above by anything from a few years to up to a couple of hundred years, there should be no disputing the fact that the accepted age is around about 6000 years.

27Sep09

(Updated 26Nov10)