Easy question.. The bible is written for and by/thru created beings.. For created beings to understand i.e. US.... About Genesis some scholars translate the Hebrew word "created" in that book in some places to be the re-creation.. or therefore re-modeling and not creation.. implying that there could have been something "here" before.. i.e. dinosaurs, like that.. Before WHAT?.. I don't know, it don't say.. Maybe the "devil" destroyed the place as he seems to be willing to do even these days..
About Revelation.. much of revelation is metaphor.. There is much to learn of and about in this life.. Where the earth came from don't be high on the list of essentials.. I'm not saying there was a "society of creatures" before revelation chapter one.. but there could easily have been..
The Universe "always was" is indeed possible and should in my estimation should be on the list of possibilities.. Whats strange is that it is not..
I have a friend who knew (really knew) Hebrew. Probably 30 years ago now, we were discussing Genesis in a Bible study. He told me then that there's a difference in the wording of Gen 1:1 and 1:2. In verse one it's creation of something new, never before created; in verse two, it's a word indicating remaking of something that already existed.
His thoughts were that what happened in between was the fall of Satan/Lucifer, when he was thrown out of heaven. He figures that when that happened; Satan/Lucifer destroyed the earth in an attempt to keep God from creating man so God had to remake, or rebuild it, to be habitable for man.