Science says the earth is billions of years old. Plenty of time for evolution. What’s the truth?

The "beginning" in this verse (Genesis 1:1) refers to the original creation. There were other beings in existence when God laid the foundations of the earth. All the angels were in existence, including Satan. In Job 38:4,7, God says, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding." "When the morning stars sang together and the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy." The first, or original, creation of the earth was never inhabited by man. This creation was destroyed by God, later, re-created by God, along with its inhabitants, in six days. This was for mankind's habitation.

The word "CREATED", in Genesis 1:1, is the Hebrew "BARA", infers divine power and means "to bring into existence where nothing existed before." It is a single act of God by which the earth came into existence all at once. God was careful to use the exact word "BARA", refuting the hypothesis about the earth breaking off another planet, whirling in space until it cooled off, then sprouting a little speck of protoplasm!

Genesis 1:2 reads, "And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep..." Genesis 1:2b states "and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water". This actually begins God's remaking the earth for man's habitation. In this verse, the word "was" is mistranslated and should be "became." The same Hebrew word translated "was" here in Verse 2, is properly translated "became" in Genesis 2:7. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man BECAME a living soul." Further, the word "void." in the Hebrew means "to lie waste, desolation, wilderness, and without form." Reading literally, "And the earth became without form and laid in desolation as a wilderness of waste, and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

The original creation of the earth, in Genesis 1:1, was beautiful and God, later, put it into the chaotic condition as found in Verse 2. This is further proven by Isaiah 45:18, "For thus saith the LORD, that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it, he hath established it, he created it NOT IN VAIN..." The word "vain" here is the same Hebrew word, "tohuw", as the word "void" found in Genesis 1:2. In other words, God did not create the earth in the chaotic condition as found in Verse 2, but it became that way. The Bible does not give the length of time from the Original Creation to the Re-creation in Genesis 1:2b. It could have been millions of years. However, Adam and Eve were created only 6,000 years ago, on the sixth day of the six days of the Re-creation. Forget evolution, believe God!