Why I No Longer Believe in the Idea of a Literal Biblical Chronology

The harm it does, why it's not actually biblical, and how I came to realize this

The earth is only around 6000 years old. Noah’s flood completely covered our entire planet. One can determine the exact date of the exodus by using the number in 1 Kings 6:1. And above all, true Christians take the Bible literally, unlike those progressive nutjobs who dilute the gospel by making it more palatable to atheists, right? Well, I used to think so.

I was raised in a conservative Baptist household where such things were taught. And for the majority of my life, I wholeheartedly believed them. As you can probably tell by the title of this post, I no longer think that way. Here, I will explain how it all happened and why exclusively promoting literalistic interpretations of Scripture does more harm than good.

What I was taught

When I got home from school one day many years ago (I believe I was in grade two), I told my mom that my class had learned about dinosaurs and it was so cool that they had lived long before humans. She replied, saying that was false because God created humans and dinosaurs on the same day, and there were even instances of human and dinosaur footprints found together. I was somewhat skeptical of the footprint part, because surely, if these were real, then scientists would change their mind. However, I accepted the rest of it without question.

Whenever my family went to museums or other places that spoke of the earth being millions of years old, my parents pointed out that such was not actually the case. Clearly, the Bible teaches that the earth is much younger than scientists say. And because the Bible is the Word of God, whatever it says must be true. If only those stubborn scientists had not been corrupted by their anti-Christian bias, we would not have to put up with all this “millions of years” nonsense. So, I fully believed that the earth was only around 6000 years old and continued to do so for many years to come.

Another big influence on my thinking was a poster on display at my church that showed the chronology of the Bible according to literal dates. It taught the early exodus, the old ages of people in Genesis, and a young earth. My fascination with all things maps, charts, and lists led me to spend a lot of time staring at this poster over a few years, and I took it as gospel truth.

The Bible Time Line at my church

There were a few times I remember hearing about Christians who had other views on the early chapters of Genesis. One happened during a Sunday school class at my grandma’s church while I was staying at her house. The video we were shown mentioned that some people interpreted the days of Genesis as longer periods, and it neutrally presented this view. I had never heard such a thing before and was not convinced of it, though I remember thinking it was a valid position and it made sense why some Christians would believe that.

Becoming more entrenched in my views

I went to Bible college when I was seventeen years old and attended for two school years. In my first semester, I was required to watch parts of the documentary Is Genesis History? for a course and was amazed by the evidence for a young earth. The film gave me a new passion for defending Young Earth creationism and I began consuming content from YEC organizations online. These resources provided me with an inflated sense of confidence in the accuracy of my views, especially given that I had never engaged with materials from the other side.

It was also during this time that I developed a fascination with biblical archaeology, especially relating to the exodus and conquest. My biggest influence was the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), an organization that seeks to use archaeology to confirm the truth of the Bible and the 15th-century BCE exodus date in particular. I was convinced of this position, also known as the early exodus date, because of all the “evidence” I found online and in a few books. But a large part of why I so vehemently opposed the 13th-century BCE late date was because it went directly against my view that all the numbers in the Bible needed to be taken literally.

The primary Bible passage used by early exodus daters to support that position is 1 Kings 6:1, as this is where they get their early date from. It gives the year that the exodus took place as being 480 years before the completion of Solomon’s temple, which we know from other sources and the established chronology to be 967/966 BCE. To me, this was an undeniable biblical confirmation of the early exodus date, and I was extremely committed to believing it.

I continued being a firm young earth creationist and early exodus dater for quite some time and only became more confident in my views as I learned more. My research led me to discover many arguments in favour of the late date, but none were good enough for me. One of these was the YouTube video “Exodus Rediscovered: Documentary” by InspiringPhilosophy. I honestly did not pay much attention to the arguments in the video when I initially watched it because I was burning with rage the entire time and even left a thumbs down. The truth is, I was much too stubborn then and needed more time to wrestle through my views and let go of some of the beliefs I had adopted from my parents without question.

Realizing I might be wrong

Then, things slowly began to change when I found the YouTube channel Ancient Egypt and the Bible in late May 2022, shortly after completing my first year of Bible college. In a number of his videos, egyptologist Dr. David Falk, who is also a Christian, provides real evidence of a historical exodus and speaks about when it took place. Admittedly, I was disappointed when I found out he believes in a 13th-century BCE exodus during the reign of Rameses II, but I kept watching content from the channel.

Part of me thought it dangerous to keep watching those videos, as I was scared that I would be convinced of a position I believed to be unbiblical. Yet I reasoned that if I wanted to have the best case for the early date, I would need to know all the strongest arguments from the other side. At this point, I realized there was a robust case for the late exodus date. But I still was not convinced. Some months went by, and I did more research. Throughout the summer, my confidence in the early date gradually deteriorated, and by the end of August, I was seriously questioning if it was really true.

Then, in late September and early October, I read Dr. Falk’s book, The Ark of the Covenant in Its Egyptian Context. A segment of the book is devoted to discussing the exodus date, presenting a strong and persuasive argument for the late date. Reading this almost caused me to change my position. Almost. All of my arguments had been destroyed. I knew that the early date could not stand up to scrutiny. To be honest, I do not think I even believed in it anymore. But I would not admit it.

The biggest thing preventing me from adopting the late date was that it went against the things I had always been told. To take that position means you must acknowledge that the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 should not be taken literally, and must instead be a symbolic number. This idea of a “biblical chronology” constructed by adding up the numbers in the Bible was so ingrained in my mind. Finally, toward the end of October, I decided I could no longer support the early date.

On October 22, 2022, I wrote this in my diary:

I finally admitted it. I’ve officially switched my position on the exodus date, now placing it in the reign of Rameses II. This has been a long time coming, yet I’ve been resistant to it for a while. It all started back in the spring while working at [redacted] that I found the YouTube channel Ancient Egypt and the Bible run by the Egyptologist David Falk that I really started to realize the weaknesses of the early date. Honestly, it was manipulation and almost cultist beliefs that I’ve been freed from. I truly feel so much freedom in this decision and it’s hard for words to express how glad I am to have accepted the evidence. It’s been a year of me researching archaeology and believing in the early date, but I’ve realized that I’ve been wrong the whole time. There is so much more archaeological evidence for the late date and I just can’t believe in the literal 480 years anymore. All the arguments for the early date are so manipulative and I’m done.

After that, I retained my belief in young earth creationism for a while, though I became less and less passionate about that view and stopped believing it entirely in early 2023. Since I no longer believed that all biblical dates should be taken literally, I saw no reason to retain my belief in an earth much younger than what nearly all the evidence seemed to point to.

The biggest thing that convinced me to abandon this position was the problem of the pyramids and the flood. For those unaware, this refers to the problem that arises when many (but not all) young earth creationists date the flood to a time after some of the ancient Egyptian pyramids had already been built. A common defence of this is to play around with Egyptian chronology and place the construction of the pyramids at a later date than what has been established by Egyptology, though this causes more problems than it solves. I could not see any way around it, so I had to acknowledge that the flood took place further in the past than I had always assumed.

What I think now

I certainly do not claim to have it all figured out, but I have learned a lot these past few years. In terms of the exodus, I honestly do not think a good case can be made for the early date. From what I have seen, all the available evidence favours a 13th-century BCE date.

Is There Any Evidence for the Historicity of the Exodus?

On some other things, I do not have such strong views. How old the earth is, I do not know, though I would say it is significantly older than what organizations like Answers in Genesis claim. Additionally, I am somewhat more inclined to believe in a local flood than a global one. I still believe in a historical Adam and Eve, but it looks like other people who were not descended from them were living at that time. While I do not think macroevolution is incompatible with Christianity, I am not convinced of the theory.

If you had told me two years ago that I would drastically change my mind on these things, I would not have believed you. I had tied my identity to the beliefs I held and did not think I would ever be persuaded otherwise. Many things are still very much unknown to me. I do not have qualifications in any related field; I even failed my Bible college program! Truly, I am just a nerdy person trying to understand the Bible better and interpret it correctly.

Why pushing literal biblical chronology is a bad idea

The whole idea of taking all the numbers in the Bible at face value and exclusively using them to establish a chronology is problematic. We must understand that numbers were used differently in an ancient Near Eastern context and symbolic usages were prevalent. Accepting this fact does not negate the truth of the Bible, nor is it incompatible with biblical inerrancy.

I am glad that I was able to change my opinion and learn to read the Bible in a different way from what I was taught. The truth is, many people raised on those types of beliefs do not. They tend to either remain as Christians afraid to question what they were told or they end up leaving the faith entirely after not having their questions satisfactorily answered. Is it any wonder that several people who were told they had to believe in nine hundred-year-old humans and recent dinosaur life to be a Christian become atheist or agnostic while in college?

Additionally, exclusively teaching young earth creationism and the early exodus date can foster a sense of pride in people who believe in them. This is not true of all such people, but it was true for me. I saw myself as a true, biblical Christian while those who disagreed with me were terribly mistaken and had liberalized the Bible. It creates an us versus them mentality, leading to more division in the church and helping no one.

Insisting on a literal reading of Bible passages that Christians disagree on does not help anybody. There is a long history of Christians debating these issues and holding various positions. I am so thankful for the Christians who helped me see that Christianity is not incompatible with the beliefs I now hold and who have given me the courage to admit that I was wrong.

What I wish was different

I wish all Christians would be more open to hearing interpretations from the Bible that differ from their own and realize that there is much to be learned from other viewpoints. We should not be afraid of scholarship that goes against what we believe. Many of the things people learn as children stick with them through to adulthood, and letting go of these false beliefs can be very challenging, as it was for me.

My hope is that more and more, Christians (and everyone else) will stop treating the Bible like a science textbook by reading modern scientific knowledge into it. The Bible is an ancient document written to ancient people who had a vastly different understanding of the world than we do now. I wish I could have understood these things sooner, and I want more people to understand them too.