FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Age of the Earth
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This page is based on an answer to a question submitted to the FAIR web site, or a frequently asked question.
Question
- The Bible dictionary says the Earth is 7,000 years old. Doctrine & Covenants say the 7 seals of the Earth represent 1,000 years. Yet human kind, scientifically speaking, is thousands of years old...way before 4,000 BC. Can you explain the contradcition, if there is one?
Answer
The Bible Dictionary does not represent Church doctrine
Regarding the Bible Dictionary, at least, the Church has been explicit that it is not to be taken as a statement of revealed Church doctrine. The heading to the Bible Dictionary includes the following statement:
- [The Bible Dictionary] is not intended as an official or revealed endorsement by the Church of the doctrinal, historical, cultural, and other matters set forth.
Robert J. Matthews, who was part of the committee in the late 70's to create the LDS editions of the scriptures, including the study aids, said:
- The new Bible dictionary is not intended as a revealed treatment or official version of doctrinal, historical, cultural, chronological,
and other matters found in the Bible.[1]
And lastly, Elder McConkie had this to say.
Regarding "the Joseph Smith Translation items, the chapter headings, Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, footnotes, the Gazeteer, and the maps [,]
None of these are perfect; they do not of themselves determine doctrine; there have been and undoubtedly now are mistakes in them. Cross-references, for instance, do not establish and never were intended to prove that parallel passages so much as pertain to the same subject. They are aids and helps only." – "The Bible- A Sealed Book" in Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie, 290.
Endnotes
- [note] Robert J. Matthews, "Using the New Bible Dictionary in the LDS Edition," Ensign, June 1982, 48.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
FAIR web site
- FAIR Topical Guide: