Introduction To Earth's Timeline

We find extensive geneologies in Genesis chapters 5 and 11 and we know they aren't there to bore us with pointless details about how long certain people lived. As we study we begin to discover that God is giving us all the information we need to build a timeline of history. With this information we can know the exact year of Creation.

We must keep in mind that the events of this world, right down to their very timing, do not ocurr outside of God's control. There was a specific predetermined time when Christ would be born:
"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" (Galatians 4:4)
We can find numerous statements in the Bible indicating that the specific timing of events is not outside of God's control. For example,
"And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51)
"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation" (Acts 17:26)

We will first establish some rules for interpreting these geneologies accurately. Then we will use those rules to determine the date of Creation, as well as construct a timeline of events. In the Christian community the earth is commonly thought to be about 6,000 years old, but this is based on inaccurately assuming that the word "begat" always implies an immediate father-son relationship. If we construct a timeline based on this assumption we will run into contradictions in the Bible and some of the pieces just won’t fit quite right. We will examine this in detail at the end of this study. We will begin our study with this word “begat”.

Through this study we will discover that the earth is a little over 13,000 years old. We will also discover that we can know very accurately when certain events took place. For example, we know the Flood took place in 4990 BC and the Exodus took place in 1447 BC.

Defining Terms