Is the Earth as old as the secular scientists say it is at 4.6 billion years or is the Earth a young planet of about 6,000 years. The Bible does not give a specific date when the Earth was created in the beginning. The trouble or problem is too many scholars of the time we live in want to make the Earth old to fit there prehistoric scenarios and fit the dinosaurs and other ancient creatures into there long geological eras. Bible scholars have their scenarios to fit these long ages using the Day-Age Theory, Gap Theory, Theistic Evolution and Progressive Creationism. But these are just theories. God never used theories in the Bible. God created “time” for man. Time has no boundary with God. He is eternal. There is no beginning or ending with God. When God created the heaven (universe) and the Earth in the beginning. there is no room for any “gap” or billions of years. The Scripture says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
The six days of creation started with the first verse and ended with verse thirty-one of Genesis chapter one when God said His creation was “very good”. Exodus 20:11 says it only took six days from the beginning to complete creation. So how can a “gap” be between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. How can you fit long ages of the geologic column within the “gap”? But actually the geologic column was laid down within a year during the worldwide flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 6-9). The sedimentary layers turned into rock encasing the fossils we find today. It is a proven fact that sedimentary materials such as sand, limestone, and shale can turn to stone in a short period of time.
Case in point, scientists found rocks forming from the mudflows that were produced by Mount Saint Helens volcanic eruption of 1980. These rocks did not take millions of years to form. Plus man has the ability to make artificial rock. Just look of all the structures that are made out of cement and concrete by man.
By faith, I believe what God said in Genesis 1:1-31, that it took only six literal 24 hour days to complete Creation without “gaps”. No where in Scripture does it talk about a “gap” between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, or long ages within this “gap”. These are philosophical man-made doctrines or theories and God does not use these anywhere in the Word of God. A matter of fact Christians are warned and must beware of such. “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)