STUDY IN GENESIS: PART 6
- Feb 8
- 21 min read
MILLIONS OF YEARS?
Part 6 of our Genesis series continues building a clear, biblical foundation for what we believe—and why.
This message takes a deeper look at common questions around the age of the earth, radiometric dating, and scientific claims about millions and billions of years. You’ll hear how assumptions shape conclusions, and why it’s important to filter everything through the truth of God’s Word.
We also step into Day 6 of creation—where God creates land animals and forms man in His own image. This isn’t just about origins. It’s about identity, purpose, and understanding who you are in relation to your Creator.
If you’ve ever wrestled with science vs. Scripture, or wondered how to respond when your beliefs are challenged, this message will give you clarity and confidence.
KEYWORDS
Genesis
Creation
Age of the Earth
Young Earth
Radiometric Dating
Dinosaurs in the Bible
Apologetics
KEY POINTS
Radiometric dating methods make numerous unverifiable assumptions and have proven unreliable (Mount St. Helens example showing 10-year-old rock dated at 350,000 years)
Carbon-14 dating actually supports a young earth rather than millions of years
Land animals, including dinosaurs, were created on Day Six alongside mankind
Dinosaurs likely became extinct due to Noah's flood, post-flood climate changes, and human hunting
Humans are uniquely created in God's image with distinct attributes not found in animals
Woman was created from Adam's rib as a suitable helper, not through evolutionary processes
Knowledge of God's word is essential for defending our faith and answering skeptics
Getting God's word into our being requires hearing it, reading it, and speaking it regularly
BIBLE VERSES
Genesis 1:24-28 Creation of land animals and mankind
Genesis 2:7 God forming man from dust and breathing life into him
Genesis 2:21-22 Creation of woman from Adam's rib
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How does understanding the Hebrew word 'Yom' as a literal 24-hour day impact your interpretation of Genesis and your overall view of God's creative power?
In what ways have you experienced God's strength carrying you through difficult times, and how does this relate to trusting His Word over human wisdom?
Why do you think there is such a strong conflict between creation and evolution, and what does this reveal about humanity's relationship with God's authority?
DEVOTIONAL
Study In Genesis Part 6: Science, Scripture, and Identity
Day 1: Where Is Your Foundation?
Reading: Genesis 1:1; Psalm 11:3
Devotional:
Everything in your life is built on something.
Your beliefs.
Your decisions.
Your direction.
If your foundation is built on shifting ideas, it won’t hold under pressure. But when your foundation is built on God’s Word, it stays steady—even when life isn’t.
You don’t need every answer.
You need the right foundation.
When questions come, don’t run from them. Let them drive you deeper into truth.
Reflection Questions:
What is your belief system currently built on?
When your faith is challenged, where do you turn first?
Day 2: Not Everything That Sounds Scientific Is Truth
Reading: Colossians 2:8; 1 Timothy 6:20
Devotional:
Not every “fact” is actually proven.
Many conclusions are built on assumptions:
“It’s always been this way”
“Nothing has changed”
“We can measure the past based on today”
But assumptions aren’t truth.
God never asks you to ignore reason—but He does call you to test everything against His Word.
Truth doesn’t change based on culture, opinion, or trends.
Reflection Questions:
Have you ever accepted something as truth without questioning it?
What helps you discern truth from assumption?
Day 3: You Were Created on Purpose
Reading: Genesis 1:26–27; Psalm 139:13–14
Devotional:
You are not random.
You are not an accident.
God formed you intentionally—and placed His image inside of you.
That means:
You carry purpose
You carry value
You carry responsibility
The world will try to reduce you to biology.
God defines you by identity.
When you understand that, it changes how you live.
Reflection Questions:
Do you live like you were created on purpose?
How does being made in God’s image change how you see yourself?
Day 4: Truth Requires Humility
Reading: Proverbs 16:18; James 4:6
Devotional:
Pride resists truth.
It says:
“I already know.”
“I don’t need correction.”
“I’ll decide what’s right.”
But truth requires humility.
Sometimes the reason people reject truth isn’t lack of evidence—it’s unwillingness to admit they were wrong.
God gives grace to the humble.
Not the stubborn.
If you want to grow, you have to stay teachable.
Reflection Questions:
Is pride ever blocking you from receiving truth?
Where do you need to be more teachable?
Day 5: Fill Your Life with the Word
Reading: Romans 10:17; Joshua 1:8
Devotional:
You don’t grow strong in your faith by accident.
You grow by:
Hearing the Word
Reading the Word
Speaking the Word
What you consistently take in will shape what comes out.
If your mind is filled with truth, your life will reflect it.
If not, the world will fill that space for you.
You decide what gets in.
Reflection Questions:
How often are you intentionally engaging with God’s Word?
What practical step can you take to be more consistent?
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
in me that's what gives me the strength to get through the day and get through life life is tough it can be tough and so we have jesus to give us strength give us wisdom give us boldness give us the fire that we need to get through
problems of life that we're guaranteed are going to happen i mean you're going to have issues and problems it's so much nicer and easier to have god at our side carrying us leaning us walking beside us whatever the trial is uh you've had those times when he's been out in front and he's been beside you and you've had those times when he's had to carry you because you've been so weak but he's always been there he has never not been there
for you to have strength in him and i'm thankful for that today i want to continue this series that i began this month and this second our third time actually that i have gone through this series over the last 10 years and i felt that it was necessary you know we have a lot of new people in our church and a lot of you are getting getting some things out of this and and some real nuggets of information and that
because knowledge they say is power and not that we want to have power over anyone but we want to have the knowledge that we need in order to give as the Bereans did in the New Testament give an answer for why we believe what we believe and and so I am giving you those tools
so I begin in the book of Genesis because that is the foundation of the entire Bible and it is important for us to have a strong foundation in our walk on this earth and so it begins in the book of Genesis to this point in this current series God through Moses described the first five days of creation we have learned that the word Yom is a word for what
day and it means a 24-hour day it's the hebrew word for day used in genesis and it means 24 hours we have also learned that the fight between creation and evolution is actually a fight between
God's word and man's word.
The book of Genesis clearly teaches that the one true God is sovereign over all that exists.
Can someone give me a hearty amen on that statement today?
He is the one that is sovereign over everything.
Darwin didn't invent evolution, he just made the idea possible.
that was desperate for a life without God.
We learned that there are three heavens that are mentioned in scripture.
And as you read the Bible, those heavens are mentioned, all right?
We learned that on the third day, God separated the waters from dry ground and he brought forth vegetation.
by his spoken word what a powerful mouthpiece god has that he spoke things into existence we also learned that the platypus was created poor thing you may think he's cute and others think he's ugly but it's all in the eye of the beholder and everything was created by
look exactly like it does it is not a mistake or an evidence of macro evolution it is actually degenerated from its ancestral platypus according to the fossil records found both in south america and in australia we learned that the earth is roughly six thousand
And we get that figure from the genealogy sections that are found within the Bible.
Matthew begat Tom, and Tom begat Bob.
And, you know, I know Tom and Bob are not in the Bible, but if they were, you have that section that we generally skip over.
That's where we come up with the 6,000 years.
We find those generations.
add up to 6 000 years roughly day four gives the account of god creating the lights within our day and our night sky and then on day five god spoke into existence the birds of the air and the animals of the water these included the the dinosaurs of the air and the dinosaurs of the water
I want to share with you just for a moment information about radiometric dating.
And I believe that this is where things really get into the weeds as it pertains to millions and billions of years and scientists coming up with those figures.
Dating does not prove that the earth is millions of years old.
Actually, most dating techniques point to a very young earth.
Only a few of the radiometric dating methods suggest an old earth.
Secularists look at something that no one looks at in order to come up with an answer.
and that is isotopes so they look at isotopes and secularists look at ratios and they look at conversions of those isotopes in the present and they make a whole lot of assumptions that are not biblical and of course not neutral and work their to make a guess about an age of a rock or an age of a mountain or whatever it may be a fossil as i said there are many assumptions that are made
one is that we see uh is what we see going on in the world today is the way that it has always happened so what they see in the world today they say you know it will make assumptions about what we visualize in the world today so uniformity uniformitarianism that's a long word that's a long uniformitarianism say that about three times in a row and see if you can keep it straight all right is the idea that the present is
They wrongly assume that the isotope rate of decay for objects, say over the past 100 years, is the same as it was for millions and billions of years.
That's a huge assumption.
Mount St.
Helens, many of you were alive during its eruption.
early 1980s and the rock from inside cooled and solidified in 1986 thus beginning the radiometric time clock the cooled lava was tested in around 1990 so you know nine or ten years later the age of the rock at what around ten years of age correct it died it doesn't take a whole lot of math
between 1990 and early 80s, around 10 years, okay?
All right, around 10 years, just say yes, okay?
Yet the dating information that was taken from the dating system, the information came back at 350,000 years old.
I'm going to give you a web address.
Feel free to take out your phone and take a picture of this, all right, because that's a long address.
When you get home or later on in your phone, if you want...
Follow that address.
And that is actually the Answers in Genesis website.
And they have the Mount St.
Helens information there that goes even deeper into explaining radiometric dating and what goes into it and how.
policy that it doesn't accurately give an age to anything okay and so i encourage you to go and look at that website i'm gonna leave it up for a few more seconds and then i'm gonna i'm gonna carry on if isotope dating cannot be trusted when dating known okay 350 000 years old and it was 10 years okay how can it be trusted when dating rocks of unknown age
All right, so if we knew the age of the rock that came out of the volcano, okay, the isotopes, for those of you that aren't very familiar with science, and I barely know enough to be dangerous, okay?
Those isotopes, you have a parent and you have a daughter, okay?
And when those isotopes come out as lava, that begins, and they begin to cool, that begins the time clock.
Because they're at time zero when they come out of the volcano.
I only know that because I asked you.
how do you know that the rock inside that melted and became molten wasn't already of age it's because in the science community they have all agreed that at that molten state that is time zero so that's how we know that when the rock formation and lava came out of mount saint helen
down within that 10 year period that the rock should have been dated what 10 years old but it was dated 350 000 years and because that knowing that was only 10 years old can you imagine how off they are on rocks that we don't know how long they have been here they could have been here 2 000 years and they'll date them million years we don't know but
It is not a true, accurate way of dating rocks and fossils within our world.
Can you turn that up, brother, please?
The primary dating method is what is called radioisotope dating, or radiometric dating.
Now, this is a reliable method for measuring absolute ages of rocks and the age of the Earth, right?
Huh.
First off, many scientists now regard the age of the Earth to be between 4.55 and 4.6 billion years old.
Okay.
So if this method is reliable and accurate, why the 50 billion years?
That seems like a lot.
But let's get into some details here and see what's going on.
Keep in mind, there's all kinds of scientific jargon on this topic, and so we'll just present a very straightforward, simplified version of the process.
Radiometric dating is the process of estimating the ages of rocks based on the decay of radioactive elements in them.
Basically, there are certain kinds of atoms in nature that are...
...continuously decay into other kinds of atoms.
For instance, uranium will radioactively decay through a series of steps until it becomes the stable element called lead.
The original element is called the parent element, and the end result is called the daughter element.
Radioisotope dating is commonly used to date igneous rocks, rocks which formed when hot molten material cooled and solidified.
clock started when the rock cooled.
During the molten state, it is assumed that the intense heat forced any gaseous daughter elements to escape.
It is assumed that once the rock cooled, no more atoms escaped and any daughter element now found in the rock is a result of radioactive decay since that rock formed.
The decay rate is measured in terms of half-life.
time it takes half of the remaining atoms of a radioactive parent element to decay.
Now, of course, that can be measured in a laboratory, and it is assumed that since we know the decay rate, we can calculate backwards and come up with the age of the rock.
But, is that all there is to it?
Here's where it gets tricky.
It's true, we can measure a decay rate using observational science, but there's another
...required to accurately calculate dates for rocks, and that is what we call historical science.
Historical science deals with the things in the past, and therefore cannot be repeated and tested.
Dating methods require both types of science, because in order to get accurate rock dates, one would have to accurately know both the decay rate and the initial conditions of the rock sample, right?
Since radio iso... ...both types of science, we can't directly measure the ages of rock.
There are assumptions involved.
For instance, how do we know what the initial conditions were in the rock sample?
How do we know the amounts of parent or daughter elements now in that sample haven't been altered by other processes in the past?
How does someone know the decay rate has remained constant since the rock formed?
The answer is they simplify here and talk about a typical hourglass.
Let's say you walk into a room and you see an hourglass with sand at the top and sand at the bottom and some sand sprinkling from the top chamber to the bottom.
Well, observational science would allow us to see and measure the sand, and then calculate how long the hourglass has been running, right?
We could make our sand measurements and then calculate when the hourglass has been running.
Well, those calculations could be wrong, because we may have failed to consider some major assumptions.
Like, was there any sand at the bottom when the hourglass was turned over?
Has any sand been added or taken out of the hourglass?
Has the sand always been falling at a constant rate?
Since we did not observe the initial conditions when the hourglass started, and we haven't been watching the sand all day,
We must make assumptions.
All three of those assumptions can affect our time calculations.
Now, of course, there's more to understanding all of this, but enough said.
I've seen a few of your eyes go... That's a lot of information.
In a nutshell...
A lot of assumptions that are made in order to come up with millions and billions of years.
Would you agree?
I've always, even if you don't know the scientific logical answers to radiometric dating and all these other things, just the common sense question of, there wasn't any, I mean, millions of years ago, there wasn't nobody here.
and yet we as people take that at face value and and we'll believe that over god's word we'll believe that and we'll say well that has to be real because that's okay who makes it real who makes it real it it may it becomes real when you believe it's real yeah to you but what makes it real
doesn't mean that it is real, okay?
We must be in a place where we can have answers from God's word to counter these things.
And, you know, I'm gonna move on because there's a lot of information.
This is one of the reasons I had people ask me, how come you make them so short each week?
Well, this week's a little longer.
How can you make them?
Because I seen the eyeballs.
You're gonna be like you were in school.
You know, I had those classes, let me tell you.
But I wanna make sure that I get this information to you because it is vital, it is important, and that which you miss, you can always go back on YouTube, go to our website, and you can review the message, all right, and get the information.
Carbon dating is an example of radiometric dating, all right?
Carbon-14 is an unstable element that is found in the atmosphere.
It is absorbed by plants and then it is consumed when humans and animals eat.
When an organism dies, it causes, it ceases, excuse me, it ceases to take in carbon-14.
Carbon-14 being unstable will change into nitrogen-14 fairly quickly because of its rapid decay rate.
It decays so quickly that 100,000 years after the organism's death,
there are no detectable carbon-14 elements left in the organism's remnants they get that from mathematical equations that are far above my head some of y'all in here may be able to get those equations i cannot and that's how they are able to come up with that not that carbon-14 dating is
but a method that is used by those who believe in millions and billions of years.
It disproves what they believe in.
In fact, coal and diamonds and all rock layers contain large amounts of carbon-14, which, if they're millions and billions of years, should have no carbon-14.
It should all be...
still contain it this would suggest according to a humanist that the earth is only thousands of years old and not millions so if there is still carbon 14 that would mean it is young it is still relatively young because the carbon 14 in the object
And to a humanist or an evolutionist, if they look at the science, if they look at that, they would have to admit that it is young, that this is a young earth, that it is not millions and billions of years old.
But what keeps somebody from admitting that?
Pride.
Pride would keep someone from admitting the truth.
Let me show you just a few slides here.
This is 1994.
A hole was bored in Australia, went pretty deep.
went through the sand and clay let me go back just one slide through the sand and clay and they went down as far as to a basalt layer and what they found there was some trees some stumps some wood that they found down there that was entombed at the bottom
flow all right and this bath salt is 45 million years old and the wood that they took out they dated it and it came up to 44 to 45 000 years old can anybody see the discrepancy here how old should the wood have been how old should the bath salt been 44 to 45 000 years old all right can you see the discrepancies all right
Well, that is what goes on when these things begin to happen and they take logic and throw it out the window.
It's 2020 when they wanted to tell all of us to wear a mask and to be distance and do all this stuff.
But now in certain cities like Minneapolis, we don't want the government to tell us what to do.
Do you kind of get the hypocrisy?
know a little bit of current events and stuff of what's going on i don't care what your your and all that is i don't care where you stand and on this particular subject that's not what i'm getting to it doesn't matter to me what i'm trying to show you is there is a hypocrisy in the science community one says that when i observe something it's real then others just say well when i observe it then well if i add this and this
make all kinds of assumptions to me that is not real that is not truthful something you know one of the the scientific things is something can't come from nothing but yet your big bang folks will say exactly that something came from
It's a great assumption to go to that length.
I believe it takes more faith to believe that than it does to believe the word of God, to believe that God created the world and created the universe in six days and created mankind and created...
and everything that we see in society today and things that we don't see the fossil records that what what we don't see and those things were all created by god within that time frame god could have done it in six seconds god could have done it in a sixth if he wanted to
And some people, I've heard preachers say, I don't know why he took so long, 24 hours, six days.
Why did he take so long?
Just do it quickly.
And it's just comical, all right?
Because God can do whatever he wants to do in whatever timeframe he wants to do it in.
Genesis chapter one in your Bible, if you would, chapter one of Genesis, we're gonna look at 24 and 25, verse 24 and 25.
And God said, let the earth bring forth
living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.
And it was so the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.
Anytime you talk about creation and time pass, a question will always arise.
When did they live?
When and how did they become extinct?
The Bible states clearly that land animals were created on day six and this would include the dinosaurs.
Initially, there was no death and there was no suffering, there was no disease.
Everything was vegetarian.
About 2000 years passed before Noah's flood happened.
Within that time, some of the beasts of the field could have grown very large and in fact, humans probably were a lot bigger than what we are today because they didn't have the limitations of the UV rays that come from the sun and everything was a lot different in the beginning.
Also, the earth would have been more subtropical in temperature and that would have been a perfect environment for large plants to grow, to help support
larger animals and when noah's flood happened the dinosaurs along with many other animals and humans were completely destroyed only the dinosaurs humans and other animals that noah took on the ark and those that are found in the oceans i i was watching a program the other day and they explored more of space outer space than we have our oceans
We don't know what's in the waters beneath the boats.
And I still like going on a cruise ship.
I don't wanna swim with the sea creatures, but I like riding on top of them.
All right?
I'm good.
Because when it goes down, man, Lord, swallow me up.
Have a fish swallow me up like Jonah.
Protect me for a few days, you know?
Praise God.
We don't know what's in the oceans.
And...
They were saved and Noah and his family repopulated.
God gave us a second chance.
I am so thankful that God gave us a second chance.
I'm glad that we serve a God of second chances.
Now, when we leave this earth and leave this timeframe, there are no second chances, okay?
So you must make the right choices now.
Serve Jesus now, praise God.
The dinosaur is a young word though.
It is a young word, and it was invented in 1841.
Now, that seems like a long time ago, but that wasn't that long ago, really.
And it was invented by this gentleman here, Sir Richard Owen.
He actually came up with the term dinosaur.
At that time, that word didn't even exist, all right?
And there's many reasons as to why the dinosaurs don't exist in today's world as they once did.
i'm going to share only three of them all right three reasons why number one is the flood when you flood the in there's not very many uh animals that can withstand that that can live through that number two let's go back one slide if you would please back there in the back the post flood ice age i will explain what that is and more
When I speak about Noah's flood, when I get into Noah's flood here in about two weeks, I'll be talking more about that.
How about being hunted by men?
Buffalo of the West were wiped out practically overnight when the Westerners came in and started hunting and shooting them.
In fact, they had to become protected in order for them to come back in population.
so you got to know that after the fall of man that uh people were hungry and people wanted to have sport and so they hunted these creatures and killed them so reasons uh that i was able to come up with that we don't see them today however genesis chapter 1 verses 26 through 28 here's what it says
God continues, he says, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them.
And God blessed them.
And God said to them, be fruitful.
and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
That word dominion there in the Hebrew means to rule or subjugate, to rule or subjugate.
I found that in the Strong and Han Strong's lexicon in 1995.
Genesis 2.7, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.
And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
So God creates man in the image of God, breathing life into his being through his nostrils.
What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
Attributes such as love, self-awareness, justice, grace, and mercy are contained within the Godhead and are unique and distinct from attributes assumed
with animals.
Fluffy does not have all of those attributes.
May have a couple, but not all like man has, like human beings have.
These attributes, though not comparable to what God possesses due to sin, can be found at work in people's minds all over the world today.
Then continuing in Genesis 2,
Verse 21 and 22, but for Adam, no suitable helper was found.
So the Lord God caused a man to fall into a deep sleep.
And while he was asleep, he took one of the man's ribs and placed with flesh.
Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib that he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man.
I heard a preacher years ago say, I had someone that came up to me and said, ha ha,
There, right there proves isn't true and that we did evolve from monkeys because we all have the same amount of ribs.
Men and women have the same amount of ribs.
He said, did you read the scripture?
The scripture says he took a rib from Adam.
Come on, y'all.
He doesn't take a rib from a woman all the time.
Aren't you thankful?
Praise God.
Ain't touching that, don't touch that.
Leave that alone, brother.
He took the rib from Adam.
So Adam had one less rib, but we have all of our ribs, okay?
One removed or beat out of you or something, I don't know.
Not finished with creation, God forms a suitable helpmate for Adam and he brings them together.
My prayer and my desire
is that you will realize that when a person begins and builds their thinking on God's word, questions we have desire will be answered because the answers are found within God's word.
It is imperative that we as people of God get God into our being.
And the way we get that into our being is by hearing it and by reading it and by speaking it.
You know, one of the things that I do is I have a link to Bible Gateway on my computer.
will go to bible gateway and i will pull up the scriptures that i am reading and i will have the person audibly speak those scriptures while i'm looking at it in my bible then that way i'm getting it into my ears and my eyes into my mind and i would encourage you to do the same thing you can even get god's word animated what does that mean
The demon sections really kind of freak me out a little bit.
Because when the demons begin to speak, they speak like this.
It gets animated.
It's different people speaking, different dialects, and different voices.
And I love God when God comes on in the animated version of the Bible, and he says, I am God.
I can't get this deep as a guy.
They enhance it.
I gotta tell you, they enhance it.
And it's so cool.
I would encourage you to do that.
That will help get the Word of God into your spirit and into your flesh and help to put your flesh into the subjective power of the Word of God.
We need to subject our flesh under, you know, if anything needs to be a slave, it needs to be our flesh to the Word of God.
A slave to the Word of God.
because there's nothing greater than serving Jesus and the word of God.
Amen, would you stand this morning?
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