Several people 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 the Jews call "the Oral Torah" - which is commentary on the first five books of the Bible) says the following - which actually foreshadows Yeshua (Jesus) but they don't recognize what's before their eyes:

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 God gave us His Torah - teaching/instruction) when the world was steeped in paganism.
  
  
• Two thousand years of Torah and learning about God and studying His teachings of morality (which began with Abraham and included not only the 613 commandments, but later the Ten Commandments given by Moshe/Moses).
  
  
• Two thousand years of Messiah (which we are in now from the time that Yeshua walked the Earth); 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."

We are now in the year 5768 - there were 240 lost years in the Bible which puts us up to the year 6008....In other words, the Sabbath Rest is upon us! No one knows the day or the hour of Yeshua's return, and all we can do is to prepare ourselves for the "rapture" which is imminent according to the Biblical feasts. Yeshua has so far only fulfilled the first four of the seven and the next feast to be fulfilled is Rosh Hashana, the Feast of Trumpets. The "rapture" will occur on a Feast of Trumpets....

These 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.