The age of the universe

"Dear Ray I have a question for you, considering God made the world and the universe in six days and considering He created Adam in about 4004 BC why is it that scientists say that the most distant planets are over 20,000 light years away. This means that the light from these planets has been traveling in space for 20,000 years, far longer than the universe has existed even if you count a day of creation as a 1000 years?"

I have no idea of the exact date in which God created the universe or when He created man. However, I believe that Adam was made as a mature male, with fully developed and working eyes, strong muscles, a full-size heart, robust lungs, and eight pints of life-giving blood. In other words the first man was created in a state of adulthood with an appearance of age. To the casual observer, the ten-minute old Adam may have looked like a 30 year-old man.

Another thought is that when God created the Garden of Eden, He made it with beautiful trees. Ten minutes after He created it, a casual observer may have looked at the tall trees and understandably estimated that they were 30 or 40 years old, when in truth they had only existed for ten minutes. It would be the same case with a rock a geologist may have picked up minutes after creation. Scientifically speaking he may understandably have estimated that it is thousands or even millions of years of age, when in truth it had just been created by God.

If God had the ability to speak the sun into existence, He also had the ability to cause its light to instantly shine upon the earth. The Bible doesn’t say, "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was four minutes of darkness as the light from the sun traveled 93,000,000 miles to the earth . . . and there was light." It would seem that the very instant God spoke light into existence, it was manifest. So it’s very easy for me to reconcile the Scriptures with the findings of science.

When Atheists argue about the existence of God, they forget that someone who has been born again knows God. So there is no argument about His existence for those that know Him. You may as well write to me day after day telling me that my wife doesn’t exist. I could give you her background history, but because I know and love her, every argument you raise about her non-existence is senseless and meaningless.

The fact of Sue’s reality has no bearing at all on you or the way you live your life. But if you deny God’s existence, the fruit of that willful ignorance is that you will live your life without reference to His requirements. That will be to your eternal detriment, and that horrifies me beyond words.