How old is the earth?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  When was that?  How long ago was it?

There is a lot of confusion these days about Science and Religion.  Can they exist together?  Do they complement each other?  There are those who see there is no problem between the scientific observations made in the last fifty years and the truth of the Bible.  Then, there are those who want Science to be the end of Religion, their sword for being rid of God's judgment.

On account of this, the question of the Earth's age is often used to "debunk" the Bible, because man's observation makes it very clear that "billions and billions" of years can be seen in the universe.

But there is something that few people are willing to observe in the Biblical account.  When God created Adam, how old was he?  Did God make a zygote, or a fertilized egg?  No.  Adam was created as a full grown adult.  If a group of scientists had come at that moment to test Adam's age, though he was only one day old, they would have observed that Adam was 25 or something.  He was created with age.  The same is true for the whole creation.  How old do stars need to look in order to be full grown?  What about trees?  Rocks?  God made everything with man in mind.  He wanted the light of the stars to reach Adam's eyes.  He wanted the trees to bear fruit and feed Adam and the animals.  The reason things look old, is not because they are old, it is because they were made with age (precisely so they WOULD look old) - just like Adam.

There is nothing to fear in Science, because it belongs to God.  It is the observation of God's things, and it brings Him glory.  However, the truth of God's Word must remain first, because no matter what things look like to man at a given moment in history, the truth of His Scriptures will be shown in their entirety to all on the Last Day.  Thanks be to God for revealing Himself to us in His Holy Word, and may He give us faith to rest in His unchanging truth.