Revelation, the age of the earth, and other difficulties

I grew up in the church. I heard many pastors over the years speak firmly about all sorts of different topics. Each time the message was simple: “I’m teaching this because it’s true, it’s obvious, and all Christians agree with it.” After I grew up and read on my own, I found that much of what they said was absolutely true and fully backed by other thoughtful Christians. But there were other biblical topics that I found out weren’t so clear cut.
Let’s start with the age of the earth. When I was young, I heard no other position advocated besides a young earth, meaning 24-hour days of creation going back only 6,000-10,000 years. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I discovered another world of sincere Christians who argued for an old earth, one that has been here billions of years with God creating over an extended period of time.

Then there is the church doctrine of the “Rapture.” Every church I sat in, every pastor I heard, every commentary I read—all treated the “Rapture” as an obvious part of church doctrine. But a few years ago I was amazed to find out that this idea did not come about until the 1830s. For nearly 2000 years no one had seen or advocated such a concept in the New Testament.

Of course, there’s the magical mystery tour of the future as conducted by Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye. These two are the most prominent proponents of a very popular view of biblical prophecy that I heard growing up. Using references from Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, these individuals confidently tell us what is going to happen in the future. Again, I have been surprised to find out that there are many other legitimate ways to interpret these biblical passages. Many biblical scholars, for example, believe a majority of prophecies were fulfilled at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

There’s a pretty simple lesson here for all of us. Whenever anyone attempts to deal with areas of biblical controversy, it would be helpful to admit that not all people agree and that what is being proposed is simply one person’s opinion. We should all encourage one another to do the hard work of studying, praying and coming up with our own conclusions.