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Was this timeline understood as you note above to the Israelites in Exodus 20:11?Since your post is about the age of the earth, most of your ten points become worthless to a large degree since the things in the ten points all happened in the six creative days.
The Bible puts the age of the earth outside those days with a "1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. " Thus the point here as to the earth's age is about when this beginning was, and not about the six creative days at all.
In Micah we have another reference to a beginning, the point when our Lord came to be. Since this beginning is seen to be from "the beginning, even from eternity" it is not a short 6 to 10 thousand years.
Quoting my own research:
If this then is 4.5 billion years or something a lot less has not been revealed to us. We can then accept the scientific statement or just say that the age is very ancient but unknown.(French Louis Segond)Surely, the heavens being the throne of God as we are told, we see that the beginning mentioned in Micah is said to be “even from eternity,” not a mere 6,000 years. When in Genesis we are told, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” this has to be in harmony with the scriptures quoted here. We may understand that the earth is very old since it is included in these ‘heavens.’ That the earth may not be as old as other parts of the universe is a given with what we know from scientific studies, and from the continual process of creation we witness in the universe. Connecting the dots from 93:2 and 11:4, God’s throne, the heavens, are from of old, not a mere six days.
Michah 5:2 . . . Et dont l'origine remonte aux temps anciens, Aux jours de l'éternité.
English translation: whose origin goes back to ancient times, to the days of eternity.
(AB) . . . His goings forth were from the beginning, even from eternity.
And, Psalms 93:2: Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting. (ASV)
Psalm 11:4 Yahweh, is in his holy temple As for Yahweh, in the heavens, is his throne, His eyes, behold—His eyelashes test the sons of men. (Rotherham)
The logical conclusion of this permits extreme age for our earth and solar system. There need not be a disagreement between the Bible and whatever scientists' claim may be presently. However, we do not need to accept the claims of science either. Their claims cannot be verified and contain much to cause scepticism. In fact, the Bible's way of referring to extreme age is aesthetically preferable to what scientists use today, since any normal human, educated or not, may easily relate to it; after all, the claims of science tend to change from decade to decade, and people who live some 75 years cannot easily relate to ages of billions, or even millions, of years.
Here is my own research on the six creative days:
The six creative days, and the seventh - God's day of rest.
Not 24-hour days!
Let the Bible reader who takes the six creative days literally meditate on the following. Much work was done on the sixth day before God created Adam and Eve. Naturally, if this was about was God can do, there is no limit so that if he wanted to use six normal 24 hour days to complete the job, He would be able to do so. However, while remembering that, take a serious look at what God made Adam, a simple man, do on the sixth creative day.
Only the main points are being highlighted! After creating Adam, God brings the various species of animals to Adam so as to have him name them; next, we find that because Adam is solitary, God creates Eve and brings her to him.
Gen 2:19-22, And the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name. 20 And Adam called all the beasts by their names, and all the fowls of the air, and all the cattle of the field:
but for Adam there was not found a helper like himself. . . . a woman: and brought her to Adam. (DRC)
Adam’s work on the sixth day
Adam was being asked to observe and remain with each kind of animal long enough to become familiar with that kind's behaviour and name it according to that assessment. Consider carefully how long each animal kind had to be observed to know what name would fit! Taking the great number of animals he had to name, it is clear that the time required is not 24 hours. Even 24 hours may not be enough to name one single kind of animal !
Only when that work was finished, a deep sleep is induced upon Adam while God creates Eve.
Deep (long) sleep
By this reference, we can see that the sleep induced was not nocturnal, but perhaps of an extended period that lasted until the woman had been created and her organism became operational. Adam’s sleep could have lasted days.
Conclusion
If you have any inkling as to what can be done in a 24 hour day, you instantly must acknowledge that the Bible is talking about a creative day in the sense that is commonly used about time periods. Check any dictionary for this usage if you don't know how day may be applied to longer periods of time.
There is no way that the sixth day of 24 hours could include all that God did and all that Adam was supposed to do, including his deep sleep! How long did such a deep sleep last? Two minutes?! That is not what deep sleep means. Also, how much time is needed to name each of the animals God brought him?
Let logic and common sense rule here! Here the question is not what God can do - for to him nothing is impossible. The question is what is indicated, how long would it take Adam to accomplish the work God gave him! An unbiased examination gives clear indication that we are not speaking about 24 hour days of creation.
God’s rest period, the seventh day
Another affirmation that the seven days are of immense unknown length, not 24 hour days, exists! How do we know? In Genesis 1:27-32, Adam was created whereafter the end of the sixth creative day was reached. Next, we are told that the seventh creative day started and with it God's rest period!
Genesis 1:27,31, And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. . . . 31 And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day. (2:1-3) So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the furniture of them. 2And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. 3And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. (DRC)
Hebrews 4:1-6 1Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you might seem to have failed of it . 2 For indeed we have had glad tidings presented to us, even as they also; but the word of the report did not profit *them*, not being mixed with faith in those who heard. 3For we enter into the rest who have believed; as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest; although the works had been completed from the foundation of the world. 4For he has said somewhere of the seventh day thus, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works: 5and in this again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6 Seeing therefore it remains that some enter into it, and those who first received the glad tidings did not enter in on account of not hearkening to the word. (Darby)
The scriptural evidence from Hebrews is that the seventh day remains yet to be completed and in fact the implication is that the thousand year reign of Christ is to be part of it since the promised REST the Christians are expecting to enter into pertains to the fulfillment of their hope.
It is fairly well established by several denominations that Adam and Eve were created about, or a little more than, 6,000 years ago. Once the thousand year reign of Christ is added to that number by necessity because of Paul's statement in Hebrews, the unavoidable conclusion about how long each day must be at a minimum is in. From this scriptural proof, it becomes clear that the seventh day is at least 7,000 years long. Since the Bible nowhere states the seventh day will conclude when Christ's thousand year reign is complete, there is then no way for us to claim that this seventh day cannot be millions of years long.
For these reasons, it is evident that each creative day's length cannot be defined with any certainty at all. All we can say with certainty about the length of each creative day is – that it is unknown, and, that it is at least 7,000 years long. More can be said about how science may have some way of limiting the length of this day. Even Biblically speaking, there are certain things in Genesis chapter one that give us some controlling factors. But the above is enough for all to make their own conclusions given a little help from my studies.
If we were able to establish when Gen 1: 9 and 10 happened, we could establish how long God’s creative days were each. But, this seems impossible. Personally I do not believe in the claims of science since there is not enough sediment in the seas to indicate a really long, as in billion of years, long time.
So, it is seen that each Terra-forming day is at least 7,000 years long at a minimum. However, my personal opinion which doesn't have much scriptural basis is that each day s 42,000 years long.
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This permits at 7000/day an age now to the beginning of day one - 48,000 years. Since we are ca 6000 years into day seven.
If using my 42,000 years, we would have 252000 +6000 = 258,000 years unverified.
They seem to understand such in solar days.
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