An anonymous reader asks:

What do I have to know to be baptized?

Baptism, or immersion, is an outward public declaration of your inward acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal savior. You need to know that Jesus died to pay the debt owed because of your sins, and that he was resurrected that you could have eternal life through Him (John 3:16).

Water baptism is an essential step of obedience toward Christ. He has commanded us to be baptized (Mat 28:19, Acts 2:38), and is an important declaration of your submission to Christ as your Lord.

Maddie Asks:

How old is the world?

Science’s Answer

By measuring the abundance of certain radioactive materials in matter and their relative amounts, through a radiometric dating process, scientists have extrapolated how old the rocks must be by assuming their natural abundance. Using this method, they have backdated the age of the rocks in the earth to approximately 4.55 billion years +/- 50 million years.
This assumption relies on a principle in physics known as Uniformity. Uniformitarianism states that every process, everywhere, is constant, except entropy (Newton’s second law of thermodynamics, which they cannot explain in any way shape or form) and always has been except for the event of matter’s initial creation. Obviously this is a very big assumption since evidence has been uncovered even in our earth’s own history that lends itself to Catastrophism. Catastrophism, is the view that the Earth has been affected by short, violent events in its past that have changed it. It really throws a wrench into the works of radiometric and radiocarbon dating.

The Bible’s Answer

The Bible points towards catastrophic events which have shaped our earth to what it is today. Creation, The Flood, and the destruction of the universe at the end of the age are all catastrophic supernatural events. They cannot be explained by modern scientific theories, and as such the scientific community must reject them for their other theories to hold any water. The Bible does not, however, provide a detailed chronology of the planet where we live. The Old Testament, in fact all gears itself towards the coming of Jesus Christ. Even the chronologies that are preserved are used to show the lineage of Jesus. Using the genealogies to back-date Earth has produced some varying answers. Since establishing an accurate timeline was not their original intention, there is a spread of +/- 2000 years when backdating to Adam & Eve. Most believe this to place the age of Earth (and the universe) at approximately 6000 years. If the Bible is not interpreted literally, interpretations become wild speculation, and other views lose their basis.

You can read more information about the processes described in this article at the following sites:
http://www.bible.ca/tracks/dating-radiometric.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_date.htm

Welcome to the new blog home for the Teen Messengers group at Union Baptist Church of Rio Vista, California!

Here you’ll find a place you can freely ask questions, and more importantly get answers, to any questions that might hit you at any time. If you have a question about the Bible, life, God, or anything associated, please ask! We aim to be truthful and thorough in all answers and comments we give, so please do the same!

E-mail your questions to (teenquestions@ubcriovista.org) teenquestions (at) ubcriovista (dot) org, or submit them from the Ask a Question page.

Truly,

Your Leaders