If one
believes what the actual scripture actually says in the actual, exact wording, they will realize one day (or many will) that scripture does
not say nor even allows any guess from what it says about how old the Earth is, since it does not say how much time passed in verse
1 before the wonderful moment that happened later, in verse 2:
Look and see:
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The entire Universe comes into being in verse 1.
Without any suggestion anywhere of how much time is passing. Or passes.
I think this is because it is ultimately trivial. Would it matter if it were zero time, 9.1 billion years or 196 million years,
for God?
No.
For God, we learn later in scripture (through Peter), a thousand years are as if only a day.
For us, that kind of time passage, a thousand years, is frightening on some level. We know we have a lot less time than that. Far less.
As a poet wrote, and then was rephrased, and became well known:
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls....
....it tolls for thee."
For us, for our bodies, a thousand years is death. How much more a million years...a billion -- they are on some profound level to our bodies...
frightening.
But for God, any time is as if...only the passing of a day. Time is utterly elastic for Him. A thousand years like a day, and a day like a thousand years. In a way, time is nothing, for Him. We might wonder if He moves through any amount of time as easily as a fish flicks itself through water. Effortlessly.