Where Is All The Sediment?
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How old is the earth? Billions of years or just thousands of years?
Where is all the sediment? Wind and water erode about 20 billion tons of sediment into the oceans every year. The average thickness of the sediment in the oceans is 1300 feet. That much would accumulate in just 12 million years. That's the maximum age of the earth based on ocean sediment. A few million years not billions of years.
And 12 million years is just the upper limit for the time to accumulate 1300 feet of sediment. It is based on the assumption that the erosion rate has always been the same as today. If we take Noah's flood and the sediment that would result from the flood into account, the amount of sediment we see in the oceans today is consistent with a 6,000 year age for the earth. On the other hand, if the earth is billions of years old, there should be a lot more sediment on the ocean floor. A LOT!
In addition, mountains should not exist. The continents are estimated to be 2.5 billion years old. At the current rate of erosion and uplift (landmass being added), a thickness of 93 MILES of continent would have eroded in 2.5 billion years. It has been calculated that the North American continent should have been eroded down to sea level in ten million years. So the question isn't just, "Where is all the sediment?" An even bigger question is, "Why are the continents still here?"
The Sands of Time: A Biblical Model of Deep Sea-Floor Sedimentation (ICR Paper)
Sea Salt, Erosion and Sediments (AIG / ICR)
Sea-Floor Sediment and the Age of the Earth (CMI Monograph Review)
Before you get the good news, you need to know the bad news. It's about you. God says:
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. - Romans 3:23
Sin means disobeying God, aka breaking God's law. God is perfect and perfection is required to enter heaven. It's a standard none of us can achieve. We all fall short. For example, compare yourself with just one of the Ten Commandments. Have you ever told a lie?
All liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. - Revelation 21:8. Or what about:
Have you ever taken something that does not belong to you, no matter how small? Have you ever looked at another person with lust? In Matthew 5 Jesus said:
Everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.' Have you done that?
You have broken God's laws. You have sinned. There must be justice, and that means eternity in hell, the lake of fire, the second death. Unless...
Unless there was someone willing to pay that penalty on your behalf. Someone who will take on themselves the consequences you deserve. And there is. There is one person who can and will do that. That person is Jesus Christ. If you trust this is true (believe), and repent (turn away from disobeying God), Jesus' death is applied to your account and you are freed from the penalty of sin to be with God forever.