Re: 6,000 Years Or 4.5 Million. I believe the Bible says the earth and whole creation is approximately 6,000 years old. I heard one Bible teacher explain that miraculous creation implies age. In other words, if God created a 30 year old man 10 minutes ago, that man would be both 10 minutes and 30 years old at the same time, and that explains tens of thousands of years old fossils, etc. in an earth that is only 6,000 years old. That’s the best and most logical (to me) explanation I’ve heard explaining prehistoric discoveries. Is there another or better one Biblically speaking?
A plain sense reading of the Bible indicates that God initially created the various living components of the creation (trees and plants, birds, fish, animals and humans) in a mature state about 6,000 years ago. Therefore, at the end of six days He had a fully functioning mature creation with the ability to be self replicating.
However, I don’t think that explains the enormous difference between how unbelievers view the age of the creation compared to the Biblical account, because the self replicating process only required one growing season in the case of trees and plants, and one generation in the case of the others to take effect.
Remember the first generation of everything only appeared 6,000 years ago. For your example to be correct, they would have to have been created as if they were already anywhere from tens of thousands to several million years old.
In my opinion, the better explanation is that God told the truth about how and when the Creation came into existence and man is mistaken.