The prophet Ezekiel gave us a glimpse of Lucifer's function in God's kingdom.
"You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God." (Ezekiel 28:14)
The anointed cherub who covers what?
Have you ever seen a movie depicting some primitive tribe where the king sits on his throne and on either side of the throne is a servant holding a huge feather-like fan over the throne? Such was Lucifer's function.
He was one of two cherubs who covered God's Throne with their extremely large wings.
"And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubims shall be toward the mercy seat." (Exodus 25:20)
For thousands, and possibly millions, of years, Lucifer stood by God's Throne. He must have observed how God ran His kingdom and felt he could do it. I'm sure God sensed his ambition and reassigned him to a place he could exercise some authority. God sees the end from the beginning. I believe God sent Lucifer down to earth (the original perfect earth) to supervise other angels who were then acting as God's administrators over the earth and its (non-human) inhabitants. Recall that man had not yet been created.
Lucifer was not satisfied with his new position. He wanted to be God. He rebelled. He planned the first ever recorded military coup, that failed, in the annals of time.
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:12-14)
He (Lucifer) has always been referred to as "god of this evil world" (2 Cor. 4:4). In the above passage, we hear Lucifer saying: "... I will ascend." Doesn't this imply upward mobility?
This rebellion could have moved the JUST HANDS of GOD to destroy the earth just as He did in the days of Noah, by flood.
Lucifer is the origin of sin. He was not created that way.
"You (Lucifer) were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you." (Ezekiel 28:15)
In the above verse we see the words created and perfect together.
The Bible, sometimes, refers to angels as the sons of God or the morning star or simply stars. 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God ...' (Isaiah 14:13)
See:
From the book of Revelation, we know that about one-third of the total population of angels followed Lucifer into rebellion.
"His (Lucifer's) tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon (Lucifer) stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born." (Revelation 12:4)
We already know how he tried to use king Herod to kill the Baby Christ. Now we also see that all those angels who rebelled with him he had pulled down to earth to join the rebellious population that was already there. It was from earth that he wanted to "ascend into heaven."
God dealt with the problem.
"... God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment..." (2 Peter 2:4) And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own habitation, He (God) has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 6)
I believe "their own habitation" is a reference to earth. Because these angels chose to follow a created being rather than the creator, God, for the first time, destroyed their place of habitation. The war that ensued between faithful angels and Lucifer's group (later called demons) could account for the state of the earth in Genesis 1:2 - chaotic, in confusion, waste, and empty. God then flooded the earth with water which we also see in Genesis 1:2.
Once again, note that all these took place before man was created. All the animal life was destroyed in flood, which could account for the super-aged fossils found in various archaeological excavations.
So now we know there was rebellion and war between verses 1 and 2. How much time elapsed? It is quite impossible to determine. But it is possible to guess, scientifically, how much time that elapsed between verses 2 and 3, when God said: "Let there be light." This was the beginning of our earth. God simply cleaned it up for a new breed of beings who He came to love so much - you and I. Exactly how long before He decided to clean up the messed up earth, no man really tell. A good guess will be to subtract 6,000 years from one of those multi-million year old fossils. For God, it must have seemed like just one day, even if it may have been millions of years.
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)
Going back to the original question, then, you can begin to understand why I say that both responses - that the earth is millions of years old and at the same time 6,000 years old - may be right.
Millions of years, as used here, dates back to the Genesis expression "In the beginning, ...".
The evolutionists believe that man evolved over these millions of years. They believe that man was, at some point in time, an ape. I contend that man was created as is.
What they've dug up are definitely fossils from the original perfect earth.
Comming up: Biblical Time Line