What biblical reasons are there to accept the scientific view of the earth as billions of years old?

As I said, Moses and the Israelites could interpret “yom” as “eon” when appropriate just as well as we can. The problem is that it’s not appropriate to do so in Ex 20:8-11 and Ex 31:12-17 because the internal logic of those passages depends on “6 yoms” being “6 regular days.” [quote=“jammycakes, post:331, topic:36256”]

Way too tenuous. He only mentions “in the beginning” in passing, in a verse that’s about something completely different. Nowhere near enough to create a non-negotiable doctrine out of it.
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I don’t think you’re appreciating the nature and force of Jesus’ argument against the Pharisees. They were invoking a commandment of Moses in defense of divorce and Jesus’ appeal to higher authority was to the original creation order established by God. It was a stunning argument, saying that marriage was an inherent aspect of nature itself and could not be violated or changed. Moses’ “certificate of divorce” was thus a temporary concession to humanity’s fallen nature. Jesus’ argument falls apart if He was not describing the way things actually were in the beginning - that is, according to Gen 1-2, which He was quoting.

Jesus was not just mentioning “in the beginning” in passing - it was the essence of His argument. For you to compare this to the many foolish predictions about a rapture is unwarranted…to say the very least.