How old do you think the earth is?
"The beginning of time, according to our chronology, happened at the start of the evening preceding the 23rd day of October, 4004 BC." Boldly asserts James Ussher in his illustrious history, The Annals of the World, published in 1658. I don't know if I would be that confident. For me, the age of the earth is not a hill to die on; I know many Christians who believe the earth is young, about 6000 years old, and many others who believe the earth is 4.5 billion years old. I don't have a problem with people holding either viewpoint because I am not qualified to make such assertions, nor do I believe that anyone but God truly knows the answer to the earth's exact age.
I tend to lean toward the young earth viewpoint for the same reasons that James Ussher held it, and that is simply because the Bible itself doesn't seem to talk about the earth being old. My biggest problem with old-earth theories is that you often have to take the word of God to be figurative or understand things that the text does not plainly affirm to draw those conclusions. To me, it seems like a reactionary belief system. Some scientists say the earth is billions of years old, and therefore some theologians feel they have to reconcile that with the Bible. Many have done the same with evolution; because some scientists believe that evolution is a fact, theologians have invented theories like theistic evolution (God created evolution) to reconcile their beliefs with current scientific views. I think this is the wrong way to interpret the Bible.
Plainly reading the Bible, you wouldn't get the impression that millions or billions of years had passed from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 1:31. I suppose if you asked a child how much time had passed, they might boldly say "six days." Jesus considered the Genesis account as literal when he argued that Adam and Eve were made at the beginning of creation Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6. Paul also references Genesis 3 and builds his argument on a literal Adam and Eve in 1Timmothy 2:13&14.
Even when current science did not, the Bible has always had it right. It seems that people accept things as fact just because they are printed in books and prominent scientists or professors teach them, but when scientists are completely honest, they will often admit that they could be wrong. One example of this is a quote by the famous Atheist Robert Jastrow. He said, "For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."
Science always seems to be catching up with the Bible. For instance, in the 15th century, the prominent view by scientists was that the world was flat and was sitting on top of something. The Bible said that the earth was round, Isaiah 40:22 and that it sits in open space Job 26:7. The Bible also presupposes relativity and that time is a dimension, 2 Peter 3:8. These discoveries have only made it to the scientific world in the last few centuries, thus the quote by Robert Jastrow.
The thing that we must remember is that time itself is a created thing. According to the Bible, God created time for this specific creation and more specifically for man, Isaiah 45:18. The idea that things are old or young is a nebulous concept in terms of relativity and divine forces that we do not understand. When God said, " Let there be light, " what type of force, pressure, heat, and mass acceleration took place? What seemed like a day on earth could have been millions, even billions of years in comparison to a universe that was being stretched out many times the speed of light.
We want to limit God acting in creation to the size of our intellect, but this is foolish; Romans 11:33, Isaiah 55:8 & 9. The Bible tells us that God does not live inside of time as we do but rather lives outside of time, observing the beginning from the end; Isaiah 57:15, Revelation 22:13. So I can't put an age on the earth. I cannot know if its actual age reflects relative age. I do not know how the earth needed to be created in order for it to sustain life, but I suspect that that is what God has done. When we are standing before Jesus with front row seats to see the old earth pass away, and we have the privilege of observing Jesus creating a new heaven and a new earth, it will all make much more sense to us. I don't doubt we will all clap our hands and shout for joy.
"Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
Job 38:3-7 NKJV