Q. I cannot reconcile the earth and the entire universe as being only 6,000 years old, and the scientific findings that the “big bang” happened billions of years ago. According to Genesis they were created within the same week. And while on the subject, surely, the all-powerful God did not have to REST on the 7th day. Fact is, He could have created all that He created in 6 days, with a snap of His fingers, if He had wanted to. What gives? Thanks.
Regarding reconciling the biblical presentation of a young earth with scientific findings, let me refer you to another blog of mine, Paradigms on Pilgrimage, which is actually a book in blog form. I wrote it with Dr. Stephen J. Godfrey, curator of paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum, to address precisely that issue. In the book, we each tell our own story of coming to a satisfying understanding of it.
Regarding God resting, let me refer you to this post, in which I say, in part, commenting on what Exodus says about God, “on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed“:
In what way could an infinitely powerful God be refreshed, if by definition He could never get tired in the first place? Many interpreters consider the “refreshment” of God to be, in effect, the “aaah” feeling He got when He surveyed “all that He had made” and saw that it was “very good.” While God first got this overview at the end of the sixth day, He devoted the entire next day to contemplating and admiring the beauty of the entire finished creation.
Good Question 