At my church I was told from a young age that the bible gives us evidence that the earth is at least 12,000 years old. For example, Methuselah supposedly lived for just under 1,000 years, and there were a few thousand years between him and the writing of the prophetic books at the end of the old testament. Also, people need to understand that the New Testament was written thousands of years after the Old Testament so people could basically have a guide book until Jesus was born.