(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) So, the reason I wanted to read this chapter in 2 Peter is because what I'm going to be preaching on actually is calculating the age of the earth. I want to show you how you can calculate how old the earth is by using the Bible. Now obviously there comes a point where we have to go into modern dating because the Bible stopped being written back with the New Testament. But I want to show you how you can go from creation up to a certain point and then you get into modern history and you can see how old the earth is based off the Bible. But why I wanted to read this passage in 2 Peter chapter 3 is because this is something that's scoffed at and in the last days there's going to be scoffers and particularly in the last couple hundred years because if you think about evolution, Darwinism, and all that stuff you're talking back in the 1800s where basically everybody started increasing the age of the earth. You know it didn't just go to millions of years. It started with them saying well it's more like 80,000 years or it's in the 100,000 range as far as the universe being created and all this stuff and they just kept increasing it because they're listening to man and they're listening to people that don't believe the Bible that it reprobates on how they should date the earth. And so I want to show you that if you believe your Bible and you believe that it's accurate and that there's no error in it then you're going to have to come to the conclusion that the earth is only just over 6,000 years old but I want to prove that to you using the Bible that that's what the Bible shows us but people scoff at this and so anybody that's an atheist or an evolutionist is going to scoff at this sermon. They're going to scoff at the fact that I believe the earth is only just over 6,000 years old but the Bible predicted that. They said they were going to be willingly ignorant of the fact that there was a flood and isn't that the case? They're willingly ignorant of the fact that the Grand Canyon was made within a matter of hours probably compared to millions of years with a stream that's on the bottom of it and so they're willingly ignorant of the fact of what has happened in history even though there's overwhelming evidence that there was a flood. There's overwhelming evidence that the earth is not as old as it is and they always point to carbon dating and all that stuff. It's interesting because the half-life of the carbon-14 which is radioactive carbon, the half-life of it is 30,000 years and it's still decaying. That alone puts that to bed that even by their own standards with the carbon-14 in the atmosphere that would prove that the earth is less than 30,000 years old. I believe it's less than that but it's definitely not millions of years old and so all this stuff that they try to throw at you, none of it holds water. They try to throw out stuff and see if it sticks. It never sticks but the Bible's true. The Bible's without error and the Bible teaches that the earth is less than 7,000 years. It's actually just over 6,000. I gave some of you guys sheets on Genesis 5. This kind of prompted me to do this sermon because we did Genesis 5 which is a genealogy of Adam to Noah. Does anyone have their sheets still as far as their sheets, their timelines? If you do, then you don't need another one obviously. Brother Joseph, would you mind passing these out? Take one for yourself as well. I got some more in here if we need them but go to Genesis chapter 5. That's where we're going to start here. So we've got to start with Adam because when was Adam created? On the sixth day of creation. So Adam's the beginning to this and in the end I have a summary of all the timelines but I'll give this to you when we get down to that point because I don't want you to get too involved. I feel like if I gave you this you'd all zone out and just be looking at these timelines but I just want to go through and show you, I'm going to put it into parts as far as how we calculate this. And so the first is what we did in Genesis 5 so I don't want to go too far into this because I already taught this in Genesis 5 on Wednesday but you can figure out when the flood happened from the creation by adding up generations so to speak. So in Genesis chapter 5, notice what it says in verse, let me find the verse I want to look for here. Verse 3. So Genesis 5 verse 3, this is where we start with this. It says an Adam lived in 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth. So how we start this off, we don't look at how long they lived all together because that's not how it's going to give us the information, is that we're looking at how old was he when he had his son and then how old was Seth when he had his son and then how old was Enos which we'll go into, how old was he when he had his son and what you add up is those dates as far as, Adam was 130 so that's what we start off with, 130 years after creation. If you want to say 130 years and 6 days, fine, but we're not getting that minute with the details here because we're going to be in a plus or minus range with this, not by that much but it's going to be, what you've got to understand is if I told you I'm, back in January, in the beginning of January I would have said I was 32 years old, right? But you know that I'm closer to 33 so when they say they were this age, they probably didn't have all their children on their birthdays, okay, just the fact of the matter is that's the case. That happens every once in a while but that's usually not the case and so you're usually like somewhere in that realm, okay, so when we look at how old they were, they're probably a little older than that if we were to go off our standards on how we say that, right? So know that it can be a plus or minus a little bit here but we're not talking millions of years here, you're not going to fit millions of years with that plus or minus a year when you're dealing with these genealogies. So Adam was 130, when you go down to Seth, and I'm just going to kind of blow through this part of it because we already went through this, so that timeline shows you how long they lived but then also how long they lived until they had the son that goes into the next genealogy. Now they had a whole bunch of sons and daughters after that but what we care about is the lineage pretty much of Jesus because that's the one that is particularly pointed out in the Bible and so with Seth, he was 105 when he had Enos, Enos was 90 when he had Canaan, Canaan was 70 when he had Mahalaleel, Mahalaleel was 65 when he had Jared, Jared was 162 when he had Enoch, Enoch was 65 when he had Methuselah, Methuselah was 187 when he had Lamech and Lamech was 182 when he had Noah. So what you do at that point to figure out how much time had gone by until Noah was born is you add those numbers up. What that comes out to be is 1056. So the earth at that point when Noah was born was 1056 years old. And so to get to the flood which you can go from Noah and then go to Shem but we want to see how old was the earth when the flood came upon the earth. Well Noah, if you go to Genesis chapter 7, Genesis chapter 7 and verse 6, and again I know we already went through this so I'm going to try to go through quick on this, but Genesis chapter 7 and verse 6 it says, and Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. So Noah was 600, so if the earth was 1056 years old when Noah was born, all you do is add 600 years to when the flood came. So now you have 1656 years, 1656 years. This is our first date that you want to look at here as far as we're going to add these up later on and we're going to look at, but these are just different events so in the end I'll give you a sheet and I'll show you that the creation was 4,237 B.C. and we'll see how you figure this out. So that's our first date is from creation to the flood. From Adam to the flood was 1656 years and so where do we go from there? Well go to Genesis chapter 11. So now we're going to go, so we have from creation to the flood, now we're going to go from the flood to the birth of Abraham and obviously you can have your stopping points wherever you want them because this is an unbroken chain all the way until you get down to the captivity of Judah with Babylon. So you can stop this wherever you want. I'm just kind of looking at big events. The flood obviously is a big event and Abraham is a main Bible character so we want to look at that's kind of a main event is when he was born. So go to Genesis chapter 11. There's another genealogy and Genesis chapter 10 definitely goes through like different sons and stuff but this genealogy actually gives us how old they were when they had their children so we're dealing with the same thing that we dealt with in Genesis chapter 5 where it says so and so was this old when he had this son and then that son was this old when he had this son and so that's how we get these dates. So we start here because we're starting from the flood and it says in verse 10 there so Genesis chapter 11 verse 10 it says these are the generations of Shem, Shem was a hundred years old and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood. Now you can obviously go back and figure out how old Noah was when he had Shem and just kind of go off that obviously you can do that but we're already at the flood so when was Arphaxad born two years after the flood so you just put two years as far as even though Shem was a hundred years old you know we just put that two years in there that's what we're starting off of so Arphaxad was born two years after the flood so you just add that to the 1656 right so but we're just looking at from the flood to the birth of Noah or birth of Abraham and so Shem we would put beside him two years because it was two years after the flood. Arphaxad was 35 years old when he begat Salah, Salah was 30 years old when he begat Eber, Eber was 34 years old when he begat Peleg and Peleg was 30 years old when he begat Reu and Reu was 32 years old when he begat Serug and Serug was 30 years old when he begat Nahor and Nahor was 29 when he begat Terah. Now here's where it gets a little more complicated with trying to figure out how old Terah was when he had Abraham because notice in verse 26 there it says so Genesis 11 verse 26 it says and it's Terah Terah whatever you want to call it Terah Terah whatever lived 70 years and begat Abraham, Nahor and Haran now they weren't triplets remember that's what they said with Noah begat Shem, Ham and Japheth and we proved on Genesis 5 that that's not the order of birth and they weren't triplets so it just meant that that's when he began to have these sons and so he was 70 years old when he had Abraham, Noah and Haran but Abraham actually wasn't born when he was 70 years old so we had to figure out okay well how old was was Terah when he had Abraham and so remember why is it listed like that you would say well Abraham wouldn't he have been the first then if he's named first well no it's based off importance why was Shem named first because he's more important out of those three sons right because he is in the lineage of Christ and who's in the lineage of Christ here Abraham so he's named first so Abram or Abraham and so how do we figure this out well if you go to Acts chapter 7 I want to show you something here first before we get into Genesis 12 and so we got to do some kind of we have to do some calculating here as far as figuring out how old Abraham's father was when he had him so Acts chapter 7 you're like man I came here to hear the Bible I don't want to do math so but it's really not that it's simple math we're just dealing with adding and subtracting but we have to figure out how we get to that point so in Acts chapter 7 this is where Stephen's preaching a whole sermon about basically the history of Israel so he's starting off with Abraham but verse 2 there this is where he starts preaching to the Pharisees and it says and he said men and brethren and fathers hearken the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Karen and said unto him get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into a land which I shall show thee then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Karen and from thence when his father was dead he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell now that's the key so what's it saying here is that he left the Chaldeans he left the Chaldeans that's where Abraham came from right he left there and went to Karen and in the New Testament it says Heron so it drops that c and that's very typical when you're dealing with different languages and you have that hard h with the ch anyway that's not the point but anyway what we see here is that Abraham didn't depart into the land of Canaan until after his dad died so what we'll find is in Genesis 12 we know how old Abraham was when he left therefore we know how old he was when his dad died does that make sense and then in Genesis chapter 11 we know how old Terah was when he died so all we'd have to do is figure out okay if Terah died at this age Abraham was this age when he died simple math you just subtract that you know how old Abraham was from how old his dad was when he died therefore you have how old Terah was when he was born so I just want you to see this because it really confirms that his dad died when he went out of Heron or departed out of Karen and it's the same place so go to Genesis chapter 12 and verse 4 so that's why I took you to Acts chapter 7 is because I wanted to show you that this age of Abraham is how old he was when his dad died and so in Genesis chapter 12 and verse 4 it says Abram departed and if you know Genesis 12 this is where it says get thee out of thy country at the very beginning there so right after that he says so Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with him and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Heron so Abraham was seventy five years old when he departed out of Heron and he didn't depart out until his dad died does that make sense therefore he was seventy five years old when his dad died and so go back to Genesis chapter 11 the last verse there tells us how old Terah was when he died so Genesis 11 verse 32 it says in the days of Terah were two hundred and five years and Terah died in Heron makes sense it all lines up he was in Heron when he died and as soon as he died Abraham left and so all you do is subtract seventy five years from two hundred and five and you get a hundred and thirty so that's a big difference right between so he must have had one of the children at seventy years old and then he didn't have Abraham he could have been the youngest for all we know at a hundred and thirty and so obviously we see that back before the flood and just after the flood people lived a little longer right so having someone at a hundred and thirty is a pretty big feat nowadays right just living to a hundred and thirty is a big feat nowadays and so so we get a hundred and thirty so what's that give us so now if you add up all these dates from Shem just two years after the flood he had artifacts that and then you add up all these dates as far as this genealogy you get three hundred and fifty two years so from the flood to Abraham's birth we have three hundred and fifty two years so and I'll give you a I'm going to give you a summary of this and you can take home with you and look at it as far as all these different time lines there as far as but I want you to see how I got there okay so now so now we have from from the creation to the flood one thousand six hundred fifty six years from the flood to Abraham we have three hundred and fifty two years and now we're going to go from the birth of Abraham to the sojourning in Egypt okay so now we're dealing really with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and so go to Genesis chapter twenty one so we have to figure out how old was Abraham when he had Isaac and most people already know this but I'm going to show you anyway because it's a very well known story in the Bible that Abraham was a hundred years old when he had it was a miracle and and and Sarah was ninety years old so I mean it was a it was a miracle that they had so we we obviously are coming down the line where it's getting a lot harder for people to have children at that age and people are living less notice that back in when we're looking at the genealogies of Adam to know and how long people lived and how long people were alive to have children but then you look at the the generations in the genealogy in Genesis eleven notice it's like thirty twenty nine thirty is not what it is now like somewhere around there I had I had Claire at thirty yeah yeah two thousand fifteen so I had Claire at thirty I had I had Anna at thirty two so you can see how that today I mean and obviously people have younger ages in the twenties so I mean that's it's not not saying that that's the only thing but that's typical to where it's like twenties thirties forties is where you're having children okay and so anyway Abraham in verse so Genesis twenty one verse five it says Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him so very simple same thing we're dealing with this genealogy so Abraham lived longer than that but we're looking at how old he was when he had Isaac and so there's a hundred years and then if you go to Genesis chapter twenty five we need to figure out how old Isaac was when he had Jacob and Esau so Genesis twenty five we'll find this out Genesis twenty five and verse twenty six it says and after that I'm sorry and after that came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his name was called Jacob and Isaac was three score years old when she bare them so three score scores is twenty and so therefore three score would be sixty so he was sixty years old he was forty years old when they got married and she was barren for twenty years and so that's another story for another day when we get there so that's just a lot of hope obviously to people that have problem having children but he was sixty years old so there we have sixty for that genealogy now we need to figure out how old was Jacob when because we're not going to Jacob and the next son now this is where we stop with genealogies okay we're going to use some different ways to figure out the timeline here so now we're going to go from Jacob to when they started sojourning in Egypt and it's interesting because it just so happens that when he went into Egypt Pharaoh just asked him how old he was so I believe this is not a coincidence okay because God's giving us a way to figure out these timelines because once you get into Egypt there are genealogies of the people that are sojourning in Egypt but there's no like timeline as far as how old they were when they had so and so okay so at this point it would be once you get up to and I don't even know if it tells us how old he was when how old Jacob was when he had all it doesn't tell us like all his children how old he was so if you want to go to Judah I don't know you know so that's this is where the genealogy stop and we have to go to another way of figuring out the date and so in verse and Genesis chapter 47 this is where we get into this Genesis 47 we'll figure out how old was Jacob when they when they started sojourning in Egypt. So Genesis 47 in verse 9 there it says and Jacob said unto Pharaoh the days of the years of my pilgrimage are in 130 years. Few in evil have the days of the years of my life been and have not attained until the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. So we not only see that he was 130 when they started sojourning he just got in there with his with all his family and he's saying I'm 130 years old and he's saying they're few compared to my father's. See why that makes sense because the father his father's were living a lot longer because you know and especially before the flood they were living over 900 years old and so but 130 years so that gives us if you add up those dates Abraham was 100 when he had Isaac and Isaac was 60 when he had Jacob and Jacob was 130 when they went when they first stepped foot into Egypt him and his whole family that gives you 290 years. So now you have 290 we had 352 from the flood from the flood to Abraham's birth now we have 290 from Abraham's birth to when they go into Egypt. Obviously there's a reason why I stopped there because there's another way to figure out how long they sojourned in Egypt and so we can figure that out and so go to Exodus chapter 12 and this is actually this date that I'm going to show you here from the beginning of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt to their exodus this is one where if you were to look up a timeline they're going to get this wrong most all the time because they they misunderstand a passage or they're trying to fit a narrative to what they're trying to get this is why their their day to the earth is going to be less than what I'm going to say it is they're going to say it's more like 6,000. Remember I told you that cute little thing that they try to get in there where they say well Jesus is going to come back when it's 6,000 years exactly from the foundation of the world and then there's going to be a thousand year reign right and so they try to fit that in there to where it fits that like six day creation seventh day he rested and the seven the one thousand year reign is like that seven seven thousand that they're resting it just doesn't pan out okay it sounds cute that'd be cool if it if that was the case but it's not the case and so but this is the one that they mess up let's see what the bible says and so that should be our final authority as far as what the bible says how long they sojourn there Exodus 12 and verse 40 Exodus 12 verse 40 it says now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelled in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years and it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years even the self same day it came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt this not only tells you that it's four hundred and thirty years it says it's to the day so a lot of these you know some of these you could say well there's a plus or minus year not this one this one is literally exactly four hundred and thirty years there's no doubt because it says to the day and so you say well they put two hundred years here and you say goodnight what in the world why would they put two hundred years there so they take it back to they say well Abraham it's that four hundred and thirty years goes back to Abraham when he was born or when he left his country not when he was born but when he left his country and went into Canaan okay and they try to say that now it doesn't make sense because go to Genesis chapter fifteen Genesis fifteen and I'll show you there's a verse where they get confused and I'll show you how to explain it where they try to say that that four hundred and thirty years is back to Abraham but imagine that whether this would make sense go to Genesis fifteen and verse thirteen Genesis fifteen verse thirteen and it says and he said unto Abram Nova surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge and after afterwards shall they come out with great substance so this is clearly talking about them sojourning in Egypt now what they say now I'm talking about the scholars out there they say that this is talking about Abraham and his seed basically before this okay before they go into Egypt that this this affliction of four hundred years is not just in Egypt okay and so we say it says four hundred years and say four hundred thirty well they weren't always in deep affliction you know Joseph was the second to Pharaoh there when they came in so it's it makes sense that there would be a space of time before that that hard affliction would come upon them so they were sojourning for four hundred thirty years but the hard affliction didn't start coming until four hundred you know until thirty years in and so but go to Acts chapter seven so we're going back to Stephen's sermon actually Stephen's sermon is a great I mean just a great place to go to to get some confirmation on Old Testament stuff remember Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost when he gave this sermon so this stuff you can say well is Stephen talking yeah but he was full of the Holy Ghost when he when he was preaching the sermon so I have no doubt that what he was saying here was exactly accurate so notice what it says in verse so this confirms Genesis fifteen but Acts seven verse six it says and God spake on this wise that his seed sojourn in a strange land and that they should bring them into bondage and then treat them evil four hundred years so this is very consistent that they're going to sojourn in a land they're going to even treat them four hundred years but in Genesis fifteen it says that that God's going to judge them and afterward they shall come out with great substance isn't that exactly what happened they came out and they spoiled the Egyptians okay and so but I'm going to show you go to Galatians chapter three I'm going to show you where they get this confusion as far as or where they try I guess I don't believe this is where they got the confusion I think this is where that what they're trying to use to get their dating the way they have it to where it's four hundred thirty years from where Abraham left his country to to when they came out instead of the fact that it's when Jacob actually went in with his family and it's Israel now Israel is the one that was that was evil inflicted Israel is the one that was sojourning there not Abraham and it's it's weird to me to think that that four hundred thirty years of the Israel sojourning would apply to Abraham before Israel was ever born okay that's where it would just not make sense and but I'll show you where they go to and try to say this so Galatians chapter three Galatians chapter three look in verse fifteen it says brethren I speak after the man or men though it be but a man's covenant yet if it be confirmed no man this and all is there added thereto now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made he saith not unto seeds as of many but as of one unto thy seed which is Christ now this is where they get confusion and this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the law which was four hundred thirty years after cannot this and all that it should make the promise of none effect so what they're saying here is that the four hundred thirty years after is from when God gave this promise to Abraham you see how they're getting that but the key here is is that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ that's where we need to go to okay because remember it was it was confirmed by an oath to Isaac you know when they when he offered Isaac upon the altar he promised to Abraham he confirmed it by an oath but notice go to Genesis forty six and I'm going to show you what I believe is that this covenant was confirmed to Jacob when he was going into the land of Egypt and I'll prove that even further because it says that okay but I want to show you where I believe it happened so in Genesis forty six remember in Genesis forty seven is where make sure I'm not getting that wrong Genesis forty seven is where he was talking to Pharaoh so Genesis forty six is where he's taking his journey into Egypt and God speaks to him in a dream so in Genesis forty six and verse one it says in Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac and God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night and said Jacob Jacob and he said here am I and he said I am God the God of thy father fear not to go down into Egypt for I will there make of thee a great nation and I will go down with thee into Egypt and I will also surely bring thee up again and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes so I believe this is where he's confirming that oh remember that in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed and he said to Abraham I'll make of thee a great nation and he's confirming that to Jacob here pretty much right when he's going in okay so he's a hundred and thirty at this point when he's going in here and so but go to there's two places actually because first chronicles go to first chronicles sixteen the first chronicles sixteen is a psalm so some of it you know you look at the psalm sometimes are repeated you look at second Samuel there's second Samuel twenty two and psalm eighteen are the same okay and so this is a case two because psalm one oh five says the exact same thing so first chronicles chapter six sixteen I'm sorry first chronicles chapter sixteen and verse fifteen so first chronicles chapter sixteen and verse fifteen notice what it says it says be ye mindful always of the of his covenant the word which he commanded to a thousand generations even the covenant which he made with Abraham and of his oath unto Isaac and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant there you have the confirmation that it was confirmed before God and Christ four hundred and thirty years after the law came because that's exactly what happened it was confirmed to Jacob when he was a hundred and thirty years old going into Egypt and then four hundred and thirty years after they come out of Egypt and then they get the law that's exactly what it's saying and so but psalm one oh five says the exact same thing psalm one oh five verse eight it says he hath remembered his covenant forever the word which he commanded to a thousand generations which covenant he made with Abraham and his oath unto Isaac and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law and to Israel for an everlasting covenant do you think those words are there by coincidence that he made the promise the promises were made to Abraham and it says see he confirmed it by an oath and it says it was an oath to Isaac remember because he put Isaac on the altar so Isaac was a lad and he confirmed it to Isaac but he made an oath to Isaac but then he confirmed it to Jacob so he made the promise he made an oath and then he confirmed it to Jacob so it lines it still lines up perfectly the fact that it was confirmed to Jacob the moment they were going into Egypt and four hundred and thirty years after they got the law and so they sojourned for four hundred and thirty years all that to say is that the sojourning of Israel in the land of Egypt was four hundred and thirty years to the day so that one's a pretty hard line you know way of of seeing that so now we have that's another that's another amount of time that we can look at and so now where do we go from when they come out of Egypt we'll go to first Kings chapter six and there's another way that you would look at this but it would be there's a sermon that Paul preached where he said they had judges for four hundred and fifty years and it's one of those I'll get into that maybe one day and show you because it's a supposed contradiction in the Bible okay this is the narrator speaking first of all in first Kings chapter six and so I'll take the narrator over someone speaking in the Bible because we're talking about in Acts he's speaking we're not talking about him writing a letter when Paul's writing his all Paul's letters when he's writing that's under the inspiration of God everything he says is true but sometimes when people are speaking in a story even if they're a good guy they're not always right okay and so that's the way you have to look at that so but this way is definitive on on the time frame as far as when they came out of Egypt and when we'll get into Solomon's reign and so in first Kings chapter six I know this is deep I know we're going to a lot of Bible here but I just want to show you how you can find this out and so you can do this study on your on your own and see that this is true but first Kings chapter six verse one it says and then came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel in the month Ziph which is the second month that he began to build the house of the Lord so this time frame we see from Exodus from the Exodus out of Egypt to the construction of the first temple by Solomon the beginning of it was four hundred and eighty years and it seems pretty you know specific about this it says in the month of Ziph which is the second I mean it's basically giving you down to the month as far as when they did this and so and it gives you the fourth did the key to this is it gives you the in the fourth year of Solomon's reign so the next time frame that we're going to be looking at is dealing with Kings reigning okay so now we're not dealing with genealogies we're dealing with how long did each King reign and then another person took over and then they reign for this many years going down into the captivity and so we see that it's four hundred and eighty years that that time frame goes on and it's in the fourth year of Solomon's reign so we know from the Bible so go to first Kings chapter eleven and I'm not going to give you I'm going to give you references to these because these this this where we with this you're not just don't have a chapter where you have all the genealogies okay this one you actually have to go through you know either first and second Kings or second Chronicles to figure out this and go through the whole book and find these these times of their reign okay I'll give you references so if you want to write them down you can and so in first Kings chapter eleven we're looking at Solomon so we don't it doesn't really matter what David reign for forty years but we don't need that because this time frame goes up to Solomon's fourth year and his reign so in verse forty two so first Kings chapter eleven verse forty two it says in the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years so in order to get back on track to where we're going from the time frame of when the temple was built so now we're going on to the captivity of Judah when when Babylon took them over we need to subtract four years because it was in his fourth year of his reign that the temple was built so it wasn't when he first started raining so you take that forty and minus four years and you get thirty six years like we did with Shem when we're going from the flood we just put two years we tack two years on to him even though he wasn't two years old when he had Arphaxad we know that we're just trying to count down from a certain event and so Solomon knew you put thirty six years there because he was in his fourth year of his reign Rehoboam first Kings fourteen twenty one you don't have to turn to all these okay because I'm going to go through these pretty quick so if you want to write these down you can find these numbers that I'm going to give you here so Rehoboam was Solomon's son and he reigned seventeen years so you'll find that in first Kings fourteen twenty one Abijam reigned three years you'll find that in first Kings fifteen verse two Asa reigned forty one years you'll find that in first Kings fifteen ten Jehoshaphat reigned twenty five years you'll find that in second Chronicles twenty and verse thirty one Jehoram reigned eight years you'll find that in second Kings eight seventeen Aaziah reigned one year you'll find that in second Kings eight twenty six now after this Athaliah takes over so this is kind of a trickier one that you got to figure out here because Athaliah was the mother of Aaziah and remember she killed all of the the the seed ruler you know she killed everybody and except for Joash they saved Joash when he was a baby okay and so the way you figure this one out is you figure out how old was Joash because remember she was saying trees and trees and they killed her and you figure out how old is Joash then when he began to reign I'll tell you how long Athaliah was reigning in Israel or in Judah and he was seven years old so you put seven beside Athaliah so she was queen for seven years then Joash so he started when he was seven years old Joash reigned for forty years and you'll find that in second Chronicles twenty four one and actually you'll find all that information in second Chronicles twenty four one you'll find out that he was seven years old when he began to reign and then that gives you that that timeline for Athaliah. Amaziah was twenty, er, reigned twenty nine years and you'll find that in second Chronicles twenty five one and the reason I'm going to second Chronicles is because it's actually really easy you could find this in first Kings, second Kings and all that stuff but second Chronicles it seems like it's like chapter twenty four one, chapter twenty five one, chapter twenty six one so it's easier for you to find it and so Amaziah reigned twenty nine years, Uzziah reigned fifty two years you'll find that in second Chronicles twenty six three, Jotham reigned sixteen years you'll find that in second Chronicles twenty seven one, Ahaz reigned sixteen years you'll find that in second Chronicles twenty eight one, Hezekiah reigned twenty nine years you'll find that in second Chronicles twenty nine one, Manasseh reigned fifty five years you'll find that in second Chronicles thirty three one, Ammon reigned two years you'll find that in second Chronicles thirty three twenty one, Josiah reigned thirty one years you'll find that in second Chronicles thirty four one, Jehovah has reigned three months. Now this is where we're getting into the fact of like the Josiah and his brethren, or Winnie Jeconias and his brethren. So all these Josiah's children here. So Jehoah has only reigned three months. You'll find that in 2 Chronicles 36 2. You go down a few verses. Jehoiakim reigned 11 years. And you'll find that in verse 5. And Jehoiakim reigned three months. Now this is where the captivity happens. Because after this you'll have Zedekiah. They set up Zedekiah for 11 years and then he rebels. So we're not getting into all that. But we're going into this is where the captivity of Babylon happens. This is where they're taken away captive for 70 years. That's where we get into our next line here. But you can actually, I'm not going to go through this because I have another proof I want to show you. And so this wouldn't take enough time. But you can actually prove that this is actually 420 years or around 420 years. Because you've got three months and three months is a half year so you're dealing with like more 419.5 or whatever. So we're going to round up to 420 years that this is going on. From Solomon when that temple was being built from that point in Solomon's fourth year of his reign down to when they were taken away captive was 420 years. And so you can actually double check this because in Ezekiel there's a passage where Ezekiel's laying on his side for the transgressions of both Judah and Israel. Now Judah's transgressions he lays on his side less because the days are for years as far as that goes. Because he's going back to Manasseh because that's why Judah was taken into captivity because Manasseh he sacrificed his own son and he did all these abominations and stuff like that. So that's why Judah was taken away. Israel was taken away because of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. That was the very first king after Solomon. And so that if you look at that there's 390 days that he has to lay on his side and you can figure out when you look at the whole timeline there because it tells you the actual year of the captivity of so and so that he did this. And so you can figure out and actually the math works out 420. So it actually works out even if you use that as another marker to figure out that timeline of the captivity. And so that just kind of shows you that this does work out this is right. And so 420 years that goes on from the construction of the temple to the captivity of Judah. And with these numbers again you can stop and start this wherever you want. You can figure out once you have this timeline together you can figure out all kinds of things as far as how long this was. How long was Judah split for until they were taken into captivity. You just figure out when did Jeroboam start raining. So you just subtract you know the 36 years from that. So you can figure out a lot of different information you want to find out. How long was the Old Testament going on for. Actually one of ours will show that because you go from Exodus to yeah the Exodus which one. Anyway I figure there is a way to figure it out. You just go back to Exodus because BC you add 33 years when the Old Testament stopped you can figure out how long the Old Testament went on for. So you can figure out all these different things just by taking these dates and figuring out where you want to start and stop. And so now we're into captivity. Now where do we go from here. Well there's another marker we're looking for. When they start going into captivity and when Cyrus the king makes the decree to rebuild the temple. Now when we get to Cyrus making the decree to rebuild the temple that's where we have to go into modern history. And I'll show you there's a way to kind of check this a little bit because that's where it's kind of it's a broken chain so to speak. Because there is another timeline I'm going to show you but there's a it doesn't start where we stopped. Does that make sense. So there's a broken chain a little bit as far as taking that step. But I want to show you this. Go to Jeremiah chapter 25. I just want to show you the passages just to prove that there was going to be 70 years of the captivity of Babylon. So obviously the captivity of Ezekiel dealt with Daniel. Daniel was in this captivity and he gives you the kings you know as far as Nebuchadnezzar goes up to Cyrus the king. So we see Cyrus even in Daniel but they weren't in captivity at that point. Okay that's why when you read Daniel he's actually not in Babylon. He's actually just in the captivity of the king. And so they weren't in captivity at that point. Okay that's why when you read Daniel he's actually not in Babylon. He's actually just by the river. You know it's interesting because all the other places he was in the palace or he was in this place. When you get to Cyrus he was just by the river Hiddekel and he had this vision. And so it doesn't say that he was in captivity or anything like that. So anyway so Jeremiah 25 verse 11 notice what it says. It says in this whole land shall be desolate and in astonishment and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation said the Lord for their iniquity in the land of the Chaldeans and will make it perpetual desolations. Go to Jeremiah 29 verse 10. So we see there that's enough to show you that they're going to be in captivity of Babylon for seventy years. And so in verse 10 so Jeremiah 29 verse 10 it says for thus saith the Lord that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. So in Daniel chapter 9 you don't have to turn there right now but we will go to Daniel chapter 9 but go to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. And this is where but Daniel chapter 9 says that's where he's praying. He's basically saying that he would accomplish in seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem because seventy years have passed and he's asking God to bless them so to speak right. And so Daniel chapter I'm sorry 2 Chronicles chapter 36 this is where we get our marker as far as King Cyrus. So in 2 Chronicles 36 verse 21 it says to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill threescore in ten years. Now that's why they got judged for seventy years because he put a year for every Sabbath of years they didn't do. The children of Israel were supposed to let the land rest every seventh year was supposed to be a rest on the land and they didn't do it for four hundred and ninety years. Like four hundred and ninety years of time they obviously didn't do it because that would give you seventy years. And so he's explaining why they're in captivity for seventy years and why he chose that number. But anyway in verse 22 it says now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing saying thus says Cyrus king of Persia all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah who is there among you of all his people the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. So here's your decree it happened in the first year of Cyrus the king. And so this is where we had to get off into modern history. And if you look up Cyrus was king before this. OK. But this is when he took the seat of Babylon. OK. This is where he takes over Babylon. And obviously this is something that you know you're going to be off you're going to be different a few years. But everything that I looked up said that Cyrus became king in Babylon at 539 B.C. So 539. Now I'm going to do a little check here but not with Cyrus. So Cyrus was king of Babylon. He's the one that made a decree to rebuild the temple. But you'll find that in Ezra. Right. The first thing that starts off with Ezra is Cyrus king making this decree they're building the temple and all the troubles are having with that. Nehemiah is dealing with after the temple they wanted to rebuild Jerusalem and build the wall. Right. And so that was when Nehemiah was the cup bearer to Arctic Xerxes the king in Persia. And so that means that Cyrus isn't there anymore. This is a king down the line and if you look up Arctic Xerxes when he began to reign it was 465 B.C. Now let's see if that pans out because there's actually a way to figure this out as far as when he would have made that decree or when that king would have made that decree. Go to Daniel chapter 9. So you just want to see if you're in the ballpark. Right. You just want to see if this is somewhere in the region as far as obviously the Bible is right. OK. So this number of years that we're going to see actually goes up to when Christ is crucified. And so we can backtrack from that and figure out OK when was this decree made to rebuild Jerusalem based off that information and see if it's close. See if it's somewhere in the realm of that area. So Daniel chapter 9. This is where we get Daniel's 78th week that hasn't happened yet but it gives us this 70 weeks of years. And you can see how that would apply because isn't that how they judged Israel by 70 weeks. But it was really weeks of years. Right. And so because it was 490. And so anyway so let's read this real quick. So Daniel 9 verse 25 it says, Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. The streets shall be built again and the wall even in troubles times. So we see seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. What is that? Sixty nine weeks. So if you add those up you've got sixty threescore and two sixty two plus seven is sixty nine weeks. So we know and then it says in verse twenty six and after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. So it's basically saying after all that Messiah is going to be cut off. So that's sixty nine weeks from the commandment to rebuild the city and the wall is sixty nine weeks of years. Well what does that give you. Well four hundred ninety would be seventy weeks of years because seventy times seven is four hundred ninety. Just subtract seven years from that. Four hundred eighty three years. Now go to Nehemiah chapter two because the decree if we're going back I gave you that four sixty five BC which was when he became king. So he didn't make the decree when he became king. That actually gives us when he gave the decree and what year of his reign he was in. Go to Nehemiah chapter two and then I'm going to do some math and try to see if we're close. This is just a check. This is just to kind of see if we're in the realm because obviously Cyrus came before that. So you can see how four thirty nine BC Cyrus became king of Babylon and then there were some other successors after him and then four sixty five. Remember the years go down as you get to the you know before we get to AD. So but Nehemiah chapter two verse one there it says and it came to pass in the month Nisan in the twelfth year of Artaxerxes the king that wine was before him and I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. So if you know the story which we're not going to do for sake of time read this whole passage. He was sad and the king asked him why is your countenance sad you know all this stuff and he basically was talking about Jerusalem being desolate and that's where he makes this decree to go rebuild and he's saying how long are you going to take all this stuff right. So it's in this twelfth year though so it's not when he began to reign. So with that in mind that means that if you were to look at his reign you'd have to add twelve years to that. Now we're adding it because we're dealing with BC. I know it gets a little more complicated right because usually if you said well you know it's in his twelfth reign you would subtract years to figure out where he was at. But you'd add I'm sorry no you would subtract so I'm getting confused myself. You'd subtract twelve years from four sixty five to figure out when his twelfth year. He started in four sixty five but where was he when he was twelve years into that right. So you would be down at four fifty three okay when he made a decree. Now let's think about this. Let's say it's right that Christ was born at zero okay. You know you have that basically you have the fact that it switches over from BC to AD right. And let's say you know Jesus started his ministry when he was about thirty years old. There was the reason people say he was thirty three is because there was three Passovers that took place before he was crucified okay. So that's why they that's what the thinking behind that is why it was three years around there right. So he could have been a little older than that you know but it doesn't matter it's just for sake of argument that's why I'm saying this isn't going to be exact. But let's say it's thirty three AD is when Christ was crucified right. Take that four hundred eighty three years and subtract thirty three first of all to get us back to zero to where we're going to go back to BC right. That gives you four hundred and fifty BC. What did we say it was when we made a decree four hundred fifty three right. And so the same thing you could look at that as if you added the four fifty BC and add twelve years to that to get back to the original reign of when he started reign would be four sixty two BC. So the scholar you know when they say that they dated it you know that Artaxerxes began his reign at four sixty five BC. If you take thirty three AD as being when Christ was crucified it comes back to four sixty two. That's pretty close. Three years isn't a bad difference there because even with Cyrus there's like a you know some people say five thirty six. So and there's like this give or take in there. OK. Now obviously the Bible is right. And so whatever whenever Christ was crucified we don't care about the modern dating. It was four hundred and eighty three years from when he made that decree to when Christ was cut off right. There's no doubt about that. But what. But you see how that checks out. So that means that the modern history isn't that far off as far as when Artaxerxes was reigning and when and I'm sure when Cyrus took over Babylon. So we know we're pretty close. We're at least you know plus or minus like five years or something in there right. And so that's a good little check. And so you can see that there is another timeline there. But do you see the gap there. It goes from the captivity to Artaxerxes. And so there's a gap of time there you get more like a little over 70 years of gap. But think about this. So there's a 70 year gap from when Cyrus made a decree and when the decree was to build rebuild Jerusalem. How long did it take them to build that temple. Well if we go according to the Jews and again this is what they said in John chapter 2 it says forty and six years was this temple and building. Let's say that's accurate. OK. Well now you're dealing with just you know over 20 years of span. So you can see how he makes the decree. Do you think they started building that day the day that he made a decree. I'm sure they had to get supplies. They had to do all this stuff. So it makes sense that there would be this gap of time between that decree and building the temple and when they made a decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Because in Haggai and all this when it talks about rebuilding the temple it says you're going to have a city without walls. So you're building this temple. There's not going to be any walls to it. So the walls I don't believe we're starting to be built until after the temple is already done. And so that gets us to where we're at. OK. So now we have that timeline of 539. So go ahead and pass these out and Brother Charles if you don't mind passing on that side and Brother Joseph on that side. I may not have I think I just have 15 here or so. I can always print you off another one. Here's where we're at. This is the summary. Let's hear the conclusion of the matter. So let's figure out some time here. Because with that knowing that what we add up and we add up all our dates that we did from the Bible up to when they are in captivity and they return after 70 years of being in captivity we come to three thousand six hundred ninety eight years from the creation of the world. We add in that 539 to get us to zero right. Get us to where Christ comes on the scene where Christ is born. Does that make sense. So that's our gap. That's where we're getting up to modern history there. So that gives us from the creation of the world to when Christ was born of four thousand two hundred and thirty seven years. So then you go down there and you can see. So up here in the timelines you can see just a summary of all the stuff we've already calculated right. The one thousand six hundred fifty six years from the creation to the flood. From the flood to Abraham's birth three hundred fifty two years. Abraham to Israel and Egypt two hundred ninety years. Israel and Egypt to the Exodus four hundred thirty years. Exodus to the temple being built or starting the construction of the temple four hundred eighty years. Temple construction to captivity. That's where we go through all the kings. Four hundred twenty years and then they are in captivity for seventy years after that. And then we get into modern history with Cyrus the king in his first year. So we didn't have to do any subtracting there because it was in his first year. So that's how we get there. So now what's our timeline? Creation four forty two thirty seven B.C. The flood twenty five eighty one B.C. Abraham being born twenty two twenty nine B.C. Egypt when they when they when they went into Egypt. It was nineteen thirty nine B.C. The Exodus the day they went out of Egypt fifteen oh nine B.C. The temple the construction of the temple the beginning of that the first temple that is ten twenty nine B.C. them going into captivity was six oh nine B.C. and then they returned from their captivity in five thirty nine B.C. And therefore at the very end there how holds the earth? Well if creation to Christ's birth is forty two thirty seven add two thousand eighteen. We're in the year two thousand eighteen the year of our Lord. We come to six thousand two hundred fifty five years. That's how old the earth is. If the Bible is correct and I believe it is correct. So that obviously there's pluses and minuses in that we're taking modern history but it's not going to be that far out of the realm. It's not like OK we're in two thousand eighteen it's actually three thousand or four thousand. It's like that's ridiculous. I'm sure any historian would tell you're an idiot if you thought that. So obviously we had to go to modern history eventually to get the dating there. But that's a lot less than millions. And so that's where people come in and they say well you can't deny the fact that the Bible would say from Adam to now we're only just over six thousand years old. Therefore how do we fit millions of years and all this stuff. That's where you get into the day age theory. You get into the gap theory. You get into all this weird stuff to try to fit some pre-Adamite civilization into the Bible somehow and say well there was millions of years. That's where the dinosaurs were at. Even though the Bible mentions dinosaurs they just don't call them dinosaurs and they try to fit all this stuff. It's like a square peg into a round hole. But if you believe the Bible that everything that he created everything in six days like he said he did and that Adam was created on the sixth day. You can't deny the fact then that the earth is only just over six thousand years old. And so that's a way to calculate it. And so there are a little bit of tricky things in there that you have to do to figure out that next number. But it's pretty simple. You go to Genesis 5, Genesis 11. You figure out the genealogies and then some of these are just big numbers they give you. Like 430 years they're in Egypt. 480 years up to Solomon building the temple. And then you have I think the hardest one is going through all the first, second kings, second chronicles and figuring out all the reigns because that takes a little more. You have to go through each chapter and figure out that. But then you get into the captivity and then you have to get into modern history eventually. But I think with our check with Daniel chapter 9 it shows us that we are in the realm. It's not that far fetched to think that 539 of Cyrus being there it makes sense. It's not like it's saying Cyrus was there after Arctic Xerxes or something like that according to what the Bible is teaching. Does that make sense? So it fits. And so that's how you date the earth. I think it's a fun way to see the importance of these genealogies. So next time you're reading and you're saying oh they reign for this many years and you're like why in the world does that matter? Well here's one reason. Because you can figure out the whole age of the earth by that. And there's also other things that you can find out. But with that summary there you can figure out well how long did the Old Testament last? Just about over 1500 years. Right because you just take that number and add 33 years you know when Christ died on the cross. And you figure that out. And so you can figure out a lot of different things. You can figure out how long was the order of Melchizedek? How old was the Old Testament? You know so you just add those numbers where you needed to stop. And so Exodus is obviously where the Old Testament started and it stopped when Jesus died. That means the order of Melchizedek would go from the beginning of creation till Exodus. So you can figure out these timelines and play with it. Not play with it but you can kind of see some different things with that. But anyway in the last days you're going to be scoffers and you know they're going to I'm sure if anybody would watch this sermon or listen to this sermon would scoff at the Bible and say I can't believe you think the earth is only 6000 years old. I can't believe you think it's millions of years old based off no evidence. And you've been deceived. If you think there is evidence you've been deceived and you know I don't hate you for that but there's just no evidence. Show me the evidence. I challenge anybody out there to show me the evidence that the earth is more than 6000 years old. Now obviously I'm taking this by faith right. I'm not I can't prove tangibly to you that it's 6000 years old or 6255 years old but you can't prove to me it's otherwise. And so you know instead of me what they'll do is change the burden of proof and say you know prove to me that it's any more than that. And so all the evidence actually points the other direction. Actually most all the evidence is always pointing towards our direction that it's actually a lot younger than what they say it is. And so the big reason that they don't like this is because they don't want God. They don't like to retain God in their knowledge. And a lot of these people that are high up in the evolution and all this stuff they're a bunch of reprobates that God has given over to a reprobate mind because they worshiped and served the creature more than the creator. And isn't that a great definition of evolution and of evolutionists themselves. So anyway I thought that I hope you thought that was interesting. You know when I think of these sermons I do this stuff I'm like everybody's going to nod off you know when I start getting into these numbers and all this stuff so. But anyway deep I know in some of those cases but interesting. And if you have any questions on that come up to me and ask me. So let's end with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for this morning and pray that you'd be with us as we as some of us go out soul winning. And Lord just pray that you'd bless the time that we have together and Lord just give us safety on the roads. And Lord we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.