Yes…Moody Press, from what I have read, declared – in the late 1950s—that evangelical (or did they use fundamentalist by then?) people had generally accepted that the earth is older than dirt (my phrase not theirs) and would not buy into a young earth belief. I cannot tell you whether I read this in Bernard Ramm’s book (from early 1950s) or Ronald Numbers’ The Creationists which is more recent. Numbers’ book chronicles the history of the creationist movement—not just the Genesis Flood publication or recent events. He has (or HAD) on the back cover copy, a glowing reference for his work, coming from Henry Morris himself (he of Genesis Flood fame) --which is complicated for some people. In the intro to The Creationists, Numbers declared himself the son of a Seventh Day Adventist pastor but also an agnostic. This does not mean he has nothing good to say, and Morris did not decline a book cover blurb. (Numbers passed away July 2023—see that online as well.)
At any rate…see below or look up the article “The Genesis Flood” on wikipedia…they cite Numbers a lot. (Numbers the author not Numbers the biblical book). see below Wikipedia excerpt\
n 1954, Bernard Ramm, an evangelical apologist and theologian closely associated with the ASA, published The Christian View of Science and Scripture, which attacked the notion that “biblical inspiration implied that the Bible was a reliable source of scientific data.”[6] Ramm ridiculed both flood geology and the gap theory, and one ASA member credited Ramm with providing a way for a majority of Christian biologists to accept evolution.[7]
Ramm’s book sparked a young Bible teacher and seminarian, John C. Whitcomb, Jr., to challenge what he considered its “absurdities.” Whitcomb had earlier studied geology and paleontology at Princeton University, but by the 1950s, he was teaching the Bible at Grace Theological Seminary. At the 1953 ASA meeting, Whitcomb had been impressed by a presentation of Henry M. Morris—a hydraulic engineer with a PhD from the University of Minnesota—called “The Biblical Evidence for Recent Creation and Universal Deluge.” Following publication of Ramm’s book, Whitcomb decided to devote his Th.D. dissertation to defending flood geology.[8]
Berated almost from the beginning of his project by influential evangelicals such as Edward John Carnell, the newly installed president of Fuller Theological Seminary,[9] Whitcomb completed his dissertation in 1957 and began condensing it for publication. With no illusions about his scientific expertise, Whitcomb sought a collaborator who had a PhD in science. He could find no geologists who took Genesis seriously, and even teachers at evangelical schools at best expressed distaste for flood geology.[10] Eventually, Henry Morris agreed to become Whitcomb’s collaborator for the scientific portions of the book. Despite his heavy teaching load and administrative duties at Virginia Tech, where he had just become head of a large civil-engineering program, Morris made steady progress on his section of the book, eventually contributing more than twice as much material as Whitcomb.[11]
As the manuscript neared completion, Moody Press, which had expressed initial interest, now hesitated. The proposed book was a long work that insisted on six literal days of creation and was certain to be criticized by segments of Moody’s constituency.[12] Whitcomb and Morris instead published with the smaller Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, whose owner Charles H. Craig had long wanted to acquire a manuscript that supported catastrophism.[13]