"Plato believed that the Flood had occurred two hundred million years ago.
The Babylonian historian Berosus placed the creation two million years ago.
Hindu traditions that were committed to writing 1,500 years ago teach that the earth’s history can be divided up into endlessly repeating cycles of 4.32 billion years, each of which can be further subdivided into 1,000 sub cycles of 4.32 million years duration.
The ancient Chinese adopted similar teachings of long cycles.
Obviously, the ancients were familiar with “old earth” histories and legends; it is the Bible’s “young earth” narrative that is unique.
Obviously, the ancients were familiar with “old earth” histories and legends; it is the Bible’s “young earth” narrative that is unique.
This is a powerful indication that Scripture was uniquely inspired by God, and not influenced by the surrounding pagan cultures.
In the Biblical creation account, God speaks the creation into being ex nihilo (out of nothing). There is no reason this should have taken hundreds of millions of years."
F.D. Nichols