>> “But God says the heavens and earth are old, very very old” <<
.
No, he does no such thing.
Keep reading. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This is a declaration without any hint of a time signature. Verse two follows with AND the earth became ..... yes, most translations use the word 'was', but it is not correct. Genesis 1:2 describes the rebellion of the devil and God casting him down. This earth was flooded and made uninhabitable. God did NOT create this earth in that condition. Isaiah 45:18----
IIPeter 3 describes three different heaven/earth worlds, and that word world means age(s). That heaven/earth age that WAS was destroyed and there was a flood, which was not Noah's flood. Genesis 1:2 also states without question this earth was flooded.
There is no human recorded historical account of the casting down - overthrow when the devil rebelled. Yet we know it happened as described by Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. This would have been a 'supernatural' war wherein NO flesh survived. Genesis 1:3 - describes the 'superfund' of 'superfunds' to clean up this earth for it to be a habitable place for the newly formed flesh humans, (which were not living until the breathe of life which means soul/spirit intellect was breathed into their nostrils) and the rest of the creatures God created. We are not given the date when all souls/spirit intellect were created. But they existed during that first heaven/earth age.
Christ and Paul both used the noun and verb form of 'casting down - overthrow'. Paul says the elect were chosen BEFORE the foundation of the world. That word 'foundation' is the Greek translation for 'casting down - overthrow'.
Noun katabole is used in the following --- Matthew 13:35; 25;34: Luke 11:50: John 17:24: Ephesians 1:4: Hebrews 4:3; 9:26; 11:11: IPeter 1:20; Revelation 13:8; 17:8: The corresponding verb kataballo IICorinthians 4:9; Hebrews 6:1: Revelation 12:10:
There is NO way if young earth creationists were correct in claims of a young earth would the Creator have allowed the religion of evolution to become the law of this land.