The Thousand Year Old Man

Did man really once live to be nearly 1000 years old? The bible says in Genesis chapter 5 that Adam lived to be 930 years old. His son Seth lived to be 912 years old. His grandson Enosh: 905 - his great grandson Kenan: 910 - his great, great grandson Mahalelel: 895 - his great, great, great grandson Jared: 962 - his great, great, great, great grandson Enoch was an exception. He lived for 365 years but that’s only because God took him up into heaven before he actually died. Adam’s great, great, great, great, great grandson Methuselah lived to be the oldest of any recorded man - 969 years.
What’s amazing is that Adam lived so long that he actually was alive for 243 of the 969 years of his great, great, great, great, great grandson Methuselah’s life! With that being said, Methuselah could have learned of creation first hand from Adam and actually passed it on to Noah because Noah was Methuselah’ grandson and their lives overlapped by an incredible 600 years.
Now how could man actually live that long? Perhaps the pre-flood conditions such as a unique atmosphere and environment contributed to long life, or possibly the type of air or humidity made a difference. After all, we know that things were different before the flood because it never rained until the flood came. Or could it be that they lived that long because of their type of diet? Maybe their food was made up of nutrients that are not available in today’s world. What ever the case, exceptionally long life actually once existed, especially before the flood.
Why don’t we live that long now? Perhaps it’s because of this post-flood environment that we live in. Or could it be that sin and its consequences began taking a toll on human life, gradually reducing man’s life span? After Noah, who lived 950 years, we see man’s lifespan diminishing. In later times, Abraham lived to be 175 and later Moses lived to be 120.
Another possibility why we don’t live so long today may be due to the fact that God simply decided to ultimately reduce our life span because of our sin and our shortened life is not because of the flood at all! Genesis chapter six indicates that man’s wickedness caused God to not only wipe out almost all of mankind with the flood, but also to limit man’s lifespan to 120 years.
The extreme long life span exemplified by Adam and his immediate descendants is truly remarkable. To live nearly one thousand years is amazing. However, some contend that one thousand of their years was not the same as one thousand of ours. For example, what if one thousand years was really one hundred of our years? What if Methuselah’s 969 years was really 96.9 years? Sounds like a reasonable argument until you think of it this way: Mahalelel, Adam’s great, great grandson, had a son of his own at age 65 but then lived to be 895 years old. If one thousand years was one hundred of our years, then Mahalelel would have had his son at age 6.5! Impossible. Likewise, if Metheselah lived to 96.9 instead of 969, then Moses lived to only age 12 instead of 120.
Since their ancient years were basically the same length as our years, then their ancient days were basically the same length as our days - 24 hours. What does that say for the days of creation? Did God create everything in 6 twenty-four hour days and rest on the seventh? An evolutionist would say this is crazy. On the other hand, the creationist says it is not only possible, but probable.
Consider this section of scripture: Exodus 20:8-11. ["Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”]
In this passage, God is talking to Moses and tells him to ‘remember the Sabbath day’. He is referring to a 24 hour day. God again talks of a 24 hour day when he says, “six days you shall labor.....” and “...the seventh day is a Sabbath..” And here’s the kicker: God continues to use the same terminology when he says, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth......” In this whole passage of scripture God is using the term ‘day’ all in the same context. A day is a day is a day!
So yes, God is powerful enough to create everything in six days (or less if he wanted to). And man once lived to be almost 1000 years old. Wow.