Several people over the years have written to The Refiner's Fire asking for an explanation about science/petrification/the age of the earth, so, we ask that you first check out our article, Science versus the Bible.

Concerning the time it takes for wood to petrify please read Does it take millions of years to petrify wood? and About Petrified Wood.

Reference the age of the Earth: The Talmud (what traditional Jews call "the Oral Torah" - which is commentary on the first five books of the Bible) says the following:

Sanhedrin, Babylonian Talmud p. 97 a.: Rabbi Kattinna said: Six thousand years shall the world exist, and one [thousand, the seventh], it shall be desolate, as it is written, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. [quotation from Isaiah chapter 2 verse 11]. Rabbi Abaye said: It will be desolate two thousand as it is said, After two days will he revive us: in the third day, he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight [quoting from the prophet Hosea chapter 6 verse 2]. Two days meaning two thousand years according to Psalms 90 verse 4.

In other words, there will be:

• Two thousand years of chaos (before Yahweh gave us His written Torah) when the world was steeped in paganism (that's why He destroyed the world by Flood - see Genesis 7 through 9; also read through Exodus 20 when The Ten Commandments were given at Mt. Sinai at a time when YHWH was in the process of trying to show His people how to BE set apart for Him).
  
  NOTE: By the way, Torah has always been around. It is YHWH's Divine Instruction in Righteousness (outlined in the first five Books of the Bible) without which we would have NO blueprint for moral, holy living. Cain and Abel knew to present animal sacrifices (Genesis 4); Noah knew the difference between "clean and unclean" animals (Gen. 7:1-3). For those who insist Torah is just a "Jewish thing" you need to realize there we no "Jews" until our Third Patriarch, Jacob, fathered his son Yehudah/Judah, who headed the Tribe of Judah (where the term "Jew" originated) - and yet EVERYONE up until that time who believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was TORAH OBSERVANT....
  
  
• Two thousand years of Torah and learning about Yahweh and studying His teachings of morality (which began with Abraham, who became a "Hebrew" when he physically and spiritually "crossed over"; and included not only the 613 commandments, but later the Ten Commandments given to Moshe/Moses).
  
  
• Two thousand years of Messiah (which we are in now from the time that Yeshua walked the Earth and died as our Final SIN Sacrifice). And soon, as the Bible says, we will enter the Millenium with Yeshua as ruler of the earth for one thousand years, being taught personally by Him. After that, as the Bible tells us, there will be a "new heaven and a new earth."

As of this writing in February 2012, we are in the Hebrew calendar year of 5772 - very close to the year 6000. This is, of course, by man's reckoning and we cannot be exactly sure of when we'll tip the scale into the next Millennium according to the Hebrew calendar. What we can be sure of, however, is this: Judging from all the events going on in the world and specifically, in the Middle East with Israel at the center, we can be sure that Yeshua's Second Coming isn't that far off! (According to the calculations in Andrew Gabriel Roth's Wheel of Stars, Yeshua's Second Coming could be on Rosh Hashana, 2030!)

What we must realize is, YHWH's Feasts - His Appointed Times - reflect many major biblical events. Yeshua has so far fulfilled the first four of the seven and the next one to be fulfilled is Rosh Hashana, the Feast of Trumpets - the day when YHWH calls His people together....Sounds an awful lot like the "rapture" will occur on a Feast of Trumpets....

The above concepts are very deep and one has to have some understanding of God from the Hebrew, as opposed to the Greek mindset, which is what the Tanach was written from.