What is the Gap theory?
To get a proper understanding of this theory lets first
begin with defining what The Gap theory states...
The Gap theory states
that there is a gap of time (supposedly any number of years) between the first
two verses of Genesis Chapter one. It says that before the six day creation
there was a world full of animals, birds etc. and that Satan had fallen from
heaven and led the world in rebellion against God for which this world was
judged by God. After this judgment God started again and reformed the earth
since it was without form and void.
Here are the first two verses of Genesis for our
reference...
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And
the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the
deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)
Most Christians who believe in the gap theory also make the
following statements that according to them go hand in hand with the Gap
theory…
Each day of the 6 day
creation can be taken as one day or a thousand years or even a million or a
billion years.
They cite the following verses from the Lord's word to
support such a claim...
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when
it is past, and as a watch in the night. (Psalms 90:4)
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2
Peter 3:8)
Some Gap theorists even believe that the first earth was
destroyed and God created everything all over again
Now let us proceed to
examine whether the Gap theory is in line with what the word of the Lord
teaches...
What are the problems
with the Gap theory?
If Satan had already
fallen from heaven then how do we explain the following verses?
And God saw
everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31)
How could everything be good if Satan had already fallen,
led a pre-Adamic civilization into rebellion against God, this civilization had
been judged and the earth had supposedly become without form and void?
Or consider these verses about Satan from the book of
Ezekiel…
Thou hast been in
Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius,
topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy
pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth;
and I have set thee so: thou wast upon
the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the
stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy
ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. (Ezekiel 28:13-15)
Satan was in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was
created on the sixth day. Everything was good at the end of the sixth day.
Hence the implication seems to be that he sinned after he was in the garden and
not before… which means that there was no Pre-adamic civilization!!!
Or what about this verse from the book of Romans…
Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans
5:12)
God’s word says that sin entered in through one man (Adam)
and death by sin. The Gap theory says that death and sin were present before
Adam was created!! If we believe the gap theory is true then death should have
come before sin and Adam... But God’s
word says Adam came first, then sin and then death! How can we reconcile these
two completely opposed statements?
Without form and Void
Supporters of this theory will say that the earth was without
form and void and that this implies that it had been judged by God and destroyed
and God began to create it all over again. As a supporting verse they will
quote this verse from the book of Jeremiah…
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void;
and the heavens, and they had no light. (Jeremiah 4:23)
They’ll say that this is how the earth must have been since
it says without form and void here as well. But if you see the context of the
passage it is not talking about an event that has happened but about a destruction
that the Lord will make upon the earth, a future event.
Imagine a building that has not been formed and is empty…
this has not been completed and no one is living in it as yet. It is without form and it is void. Now imagine a building
that has been destroyed and hence it lies in ruins and no one lives in it. This is also without form and void. How can one blindly
apply only the meaning that is convenient to their theory instead of applying God’s
word to interpret? The creation week is a literal event which requires it to be
taken literally.
Six literal days or
Six thousand years or Six million years???
If the creation week was anything more than six literal days
then the following verses would be false…
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
(Genesis 1:5)
It is called “The first day”. Hence it cannot be a period
more than a single day. Some will try to go into the Hebrew and say that the
word for day here can imply a period of time. If one reads the Old Testament
and studies all the occurrences of the word YOM they will find that if the word
is preceded by a number such as first or second and also by a definite article
like “the” it means only a literal 24 hour day. If this word in Genesis 1:1,2 can
be twisted by scholars to mean a period of time and not a literal 24 hour day
then consider the verses of the Ten Commandments given by God and written with
His own finger upon the stone tablets...
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days
shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of
the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger
that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD
blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)"
God wrote this with His own finger. If each day was a
thousand years then did God rest for a thousand years when He rested on the
seventh day? No! Or did he ask the Jews to work for six days
and take a holiday for the rest of their lives? No! Each day
mentioned was a single day. In fact if God had wanted He could have made it all
in six seconds. The reason He chose six literal days with an evening and a
morning in each day was to give us a model of what would follow, a model of how
History would pan out.
Six thousand years have passed from Adam’s creation and we
are in the seventh millennia (a thousand years). It is quite possible that this
seventh millennia (a thousand years) will be the same thousand year reign of
Christ mentioned in the bible which is to happen soon. If we apply the term a
thousand years with the Lord these seven millennia can be compared to the seven
days of creation. Just as the seventh day of the creation week was for rest,
the seventh millennia might be a model of the thousand year reign of Christ
when we will enter into the Lord’s rest.
Why is it written that one day with the Lord is as a
thousand years in Psalms 90 as well as 2 Peter chapter 3? As a model! Please
note that it says that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years not that
one day is a thousand. It does not say that it is with man as a thousand years
but that it is with the Lord as a thousand years. Also it does not say it is as
a million years or billion years but a thousand years and that too only with
the Lord.
And what about the rest of the verse 2 Peter 3:8? It says
that a thousand years are as yesterday with the Lord. What about Psalms 90:4
where it says that a thousand years with God are as a watch in the night. Does
that mean that a thousand years can be assumed by us to be three hours (one
watch in the night is three hours)? Can one apply this to the seven days of the
creation week? Is it okay to randomly apply or to pay attention to context? Psalms
90:4 as well as 2 Peter 3:8 are talking about how God is not constrained by
time as we are... that for Him a one day is as a thousand years. For plants a thousand
years are not as a single day… they need sunlight to live, they need insects to
pollinate them.
Let us assume that a day is a thousand years just for
assumption’s sake… where would this assumption lead us?
1.
The plants that were created on the third day
would die waiting for the sun to rise on the fourth day. Because the sun would
be created in the fourth day according to this assumption that would be for a
thousand years...
2.
And what about insects to pollinate the
flowers... Going by this assumption we would have to wait for two thousand
years before the insects could pollinate the flowers because it says that all
other animal life was created on the fifth day. Since there are two days in
between according to this theory that would mean two thousand years.
3.
And what about the very specific mention of the
evening and the morning being the first day in Genesis Chapter 1 verse 5. If we
were to assume that each day was a thousand years it would make each evening
500 years long and each morning 500 years long. This doesn’t sound logical.
4.
The word says that God rested on the seventh
day. According to this theory that would mean that God rested for a thousand
years… But He rested on the seventh day to set a model for the Sabbath. Hence
it has to be a single day and not a thousand years.
First Earth? Second
Earth???
Was there really an earth which became void and formless?
Genesis Chapter one shows God creating the earth in verses 2 - 31 and all that
is in the earth. Was God creating a second earth in these verses? Is this truly
the second earth we are living on? Had the first earth been destroyed and was
being re created in the first chapter of Genesis? Consider the following verse
from the book of Revelation which erases all doubt about which earth we are
standing on as we speak…
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
(Revelation 21:1)
Only in Revelation Chapter 21 is the second earth created. Which
means that there was no earth before the first earth was created.
Conclusion
What is the purpose
of the Gap theory?
To reconcile the theory of evolution with Biblical doctrine
and try to show that God’s word makes provision to include evolution into the
creation timeline… So that the world will hate Christians less and we can marry
the two… so that we can marry opposing doctrines with a little bit of
compromising… After all as Christians we are supposed to have peace with
everyone around us even if it means to welcome the theory of evolution into God’s
Holy, Unchanging word. Absolutely not!!!
Consider…
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny
before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on
earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against
her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. (Matthew 10:33-36)
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this
world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom
of this world? (1 Corinthians 1:18-20)
But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; (1
Corinthians 1:27)
O Timothy, keep that which is committed
to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: (1 Timothy 6:20)
Since the world is attacking Christianity through “So called
Science” and throwing “Evolution” in our faces, such theories like the gap theory
have been created by some who are genuinely at a loss of words to explain and
defend the faith (1 Peter 3:15)! Sometimes it may be a lack of knowledge of the
Word, sometimes it might be that they feel that any method is okay to bring
more people to Christ. Sometime they might partially be believers of the “So
called scientific” theories that the world throws at us every day. But one of
the main reasons is that they are not able to reconcile the theory of evolution
with Biblical doctrine. God is not a respecter of persons; He does not need to
reconcile His Holy Word with theories of men. “He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” His word is inerrant, He
cannot lie, He does not change... If He says six days then He
means Six actual days.
GOD could have created it all in the blink of an eye but He
chose six actual days to let us know the model of all History and how it would
all pan out. All the laws that are in place from the creation are given by God.
There are people who have studied Genesis chapter one for their entire lifetime
and have not understood the depth of the wisdom of our Lord, God and Saviour,
Jesus Christ.
The Glory of God is in every work that He has done which
includes the work of the creation week. Have you noticed that all that man
proposes is called a theory while all that God creates is called a law. For
example we have the “Law of Gravity” but only the “Theory of Evolution” or the
“Big Bang Theory”
In conclusion it is clear from God’s word that
1.
Everything was created in six actual days
2.
There is certainly no gap between verses 1 and 2
of Genesis Chapter 1
3.
We are still living on the first earth that the
Lord has created
4.
Satan had not fallen or led a pre Adamic
civilization into rebellion against God
5.
Adam’s sin is what brought death into the world
and not the other way around
6.
There is a clear model being set by the Lord all
through His word in the seven day week of creation
The Gap theory is something that leads many thousands of
Bible Believing Christians to doubt whether the Lord’s word is absolutely inerrant,
perfect and flawless. It makes them wonder whether other theories and
philosophies of the world also can be grafted into the Word of the Lord as well… Such a theory should not be
encouraged.
God forbid: yea, let God be
true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified
in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4)
Praise be to our Lord, God
and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
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