Do the Ages of the Earth and Mankind Really Matter?
The impact of Charles Darwin’s theory of organic evolution has made tremendous inroads into the thinking of many people who ostensibly identify themselves as Christians. What is true of the community of “Christendom” is no less true of the churches of Christ. One area of considerable compromise is in the realm of evolutionary chronology. Evolutionary scholars are adamant about the fact that “time is the hero of the [evolutionary] plot.” If there are not billions of years to play with, there is no evolutionary process whereby all living organisms have descended from a common ancestor. Conversely, if one destroys the Darwinian calendar, the entire system crumbles. Unfortunately, our people generally have never comprehended this truth. To many, therefore, the issue of the age of the earth really is immaterial. But is it? Evolutionary chronology dates the commencement of the Universe at 20-30 billion years ago. Supposedly, the earth was born about 4.5 billion years ago, and modern man, a “
