The Gap Part 2:
WHY THE “GAP" THEORY HAS BECAME POPULAR;
If an intelligent Christian, without any previous bias, would simply think for himself, then read the first chapter of Genesis, He would believe, as millions of others have believed. That verse one and the rest of the chapter are talking about the same CREATION, in the same time. That verse one is simply a statement of fact, Which the following verses outline in detail about the creation of man in chapter two.
But people aware of scientific facts and scientific opinions do not approach the problem of the ages of the earth without a bias. It has been discovered that there are layers and strata on the earth, that in these strata or layers are billions of fossils of plants and animals, and coal beds. It has been discovered that on many continents there are great deposits of sea shells, fossils of sea life. So scientists generally who do not believe the Bible, do not believe in direct creation, have figured out that all life came by evolution through the natural process, and that millions and millions of years, even billions of years, perhaps, through natural, and gradual processes on the earth, mountain ranges have been forced up, continents have sunk beneath the sea, Ocean Beds have raisin to dry land, and that in these natural processes through many billions of years, that plants and animals have become covered With soil and rock, and have been formed into coal beds. Sea shells and fossils of marine life have been left on the land even in the highest mountains.
Most unbelieving scientists have now come to believe that these fossil remains and changes which are indicated in the surfaces of the earth, were made through countless ages.
Good Christians, not willing to accept the theory of evolution instead of direct creation as taught in the Bible, Have sought some explanation of these scientific facts of fossils, and coal beds. The evidence is that the seas once covered the continents that now are. So, Although the first chapter of Genesis does not discuss plainly two separate periods of creation with a gap in between them, Christians formulated the theory that Genesis 1:1 tells of the original creation: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. They say that then a great judgment of destruction came upon the earth , and that is mentioned in verse two. Verse 2 says “And the earth WAS without form and void”. And They make that read, ‘The earth BECAME without form and void”. Thus they tried to account for the fossils , and tried to pacify scientists who demand million of years for them to form.
So George H. Pember 1870 in the book, Earths Earliest Ages, suggested the interpretation that a tremendous age or GAP was to be counted after Genesis 1:1, And after the great judgment of God, which formed the fossils, and coal beds, and the other evidence that the scientists claim in the surface of the earth, He thought that God, beginning in Genesis 1:3 made a new creation of six days. This theory was held also by France Delitzach in Germany. And has been made popular by the Schofield Bible notes.
THE GAP THEORY CAN NOT BE PROVEN IN THE BIBLE
The attempt to prove the gap theory is flimsy in scripture. The scriptures simply DO NOT teach that there are great ages between Genesis 1:1 and verse 3 and following.
1. To try to make Gen 1;2 say “And the earth became without form and void”. Is a poor translation. In 1948 at Winona Lake School of theology. H.Henkel polled twenty of the leading Bible scholars of
The Hebrew language in the United States. They were asked. “Is there any exegetical evidence for a view that there was a Gap between verses 1 and 2.??” Their reply was an emphatic NO!. According to prof. Surburg, quoting from the book MODERN SCIENCE AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
No!, In the first act of creation , God brought matter into being, from nothing, but it was not yet formed into continents and seas, into plants and animals, and he had not yet made man. It was without form and void. Creation was not yet finished. That is the obvious meaning of Genesis 1:1.
It is not so surprising that the ones who believe the Gap Theory, Know about the change in the Bible the word ‘WAS” was changed to the word “BECAME” Will stand in their pulpits every Sunday morning and preach against these pervert bibles that we see on the market today, And I might add they can quote every misused word in them. But they can not see the fault of their own error. It is all right for them to change a word to get their theory across, The King James 1611 is the word of God and if you have to change one word, period or comma, to make it mean some other doctrine, you are changing the word of God and you will pay the price of tampering with it. The Bible says what God means and He means what he says. Weather you or I believe it makes no difference in it.
(2) Dr. Schofield says in his notes: Jer.4:23-26 Isa.24:1 and 45:18 clearly indicate that the earth had under gone a cataclysmic change as a result of divine judgment.
This is a serious mistake in interpretation. Jeremiah 4:23 “I beheld the earth and lo it was without from and void and the heavens and they had no light”. But the context clearly indicates that here God
Is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the nation Judah when they were carried into captivity in Babylon.
In the preceding verses Israel is commanded. “For this grid you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us. V-8 Verse 16, says Make ye mention to the nations: Behold publish (speak) against Jerusalem, that watchers come From a far country, and give out their voices against the cites of Judah Verse 19 " My bowels! My Bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me ; I can not hold my peace, because thou haste heard. O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war." And then verse 20; Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled; suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. And then the earth or the land (as often translated) is to be without form and void.
And after V-23 Verse 25 says; “I beheld and lo there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.”the people were carried away captive”. “ For thus hath the Lord said, “The whole land shall be desolate: YET WILL I NOT MAKE A FULL END”.
Verse 29; “ The whole city shall flee, for the noise of the horsemen and the bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb upon the rocks; every city shall be forsaken, and not a man shall dwell therein”. The destruction mentioned is not some prehistoric cataclysmic judgment on the earth, But is the destruction of Jerusalem and of the country when Judah was carried into captivity.
NOTICE; That statement in verse 26. “And all the cities thereof were broken down”. There were no cities before Genesis 1:1 and this could not mean judgment of the whole earth, man had not been created yet. Those who believe the Gap Theory Must spiritualize the scripture to get it to mean what they want it too. If you leave a young Christian to himself and the Bible, and let the Holy Spirit teach him He will not come up with a gap theory, unless some one tells him that, theologians and men are teaching tradition for the commandments of men. They read teachings into the word of God that simply are not there.
(3). Isaiah 24:1 does not talk about a prehistoric judgment of God. Or a cataclysm of the whole earth. Again we find that the destruction mentioned is because of war and trouble which God will bring on the nations. The entire chapter 23 preceding is about the burden of Tyre and it’s destruction, so the 24th chapter starts on the same theme.
Isaiah 24:1 says Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste. And turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants there of:” But the next two verses say, “ And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller: as with the lender, so with the borrower: as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him; The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled, for the Lord hath spoken this word.” That is a destruction brought by war on a people because of their sins. The Priest and the people, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, all alike will be carried in the trouble that God will send them. It seems to be an unworthy subterfuge to pretend that Isaiah 24:1 and Jeremiah 4:23 talk about a great prehistoric judgment on the whole earth, before the creation of man. I DO NOT BELIEVE IT, THE BIBLE DOES NOT SUSTAIN IT.
Dr. C.I. Schofield also makes a reference to Isaiah 45:18,
“For thus saith the Lord that created the Heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it: He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord: and there is none else”. But that does not mean, surely, to contradict the statement in Genesis 1:2 That after the first creation of matter, it was without from and void. But it was NOT in vain, for God then went on to complete his creation.
6. If the Gap theory were true??? Then there would have to be a detailed creation of all the plants and the animals before the catastrophe that is presumed to have destroyed them. The Bible does not tell of such creation before Genesis 1:2
And while the fall of Satan is mentioned in the Bible, the scripture nowhere tells of a divine judgment on the whole earth at the time of the fall of Satan. I believe that Satan was kicked out of Heaven the same time he showed up in the garden of Eden to deceive Eve.
So the Gap Theory can not be proved from the Bible.
And as we will show next, it is not needed as an explanation of the earth strata and fossils.
THERE IS MUCH EVIDENCE THAT THE FLOOD IN NOAH’S DAYS ACCOUNTS FOR THE FOSSILS, COAL BEDS, AND OTHER CHANGES IN THE EARTH’S SURFACE, FOR WHICH SCIENTISTS WOULD LIKE TO HAVE MILLIONS OF YEARS.
The so called Gap Theory of immense ages between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:3 with a ruined earth of some awful judgment of God, before the six days of creation described in Genesis 1. That theory was formed to try to explain the fossils and layers of earth which the evolutionists say requires millions of years of time to form them. As we have shown in this book the Gap Theory is not taught in the Bible...... We believe, rather that the strata of the earth, the fossils, the coal beds, were brought about as a result of the earth destroying flood of Noah’s day, as described in the Bible. The accompanying and following events, and the awfulness of the flood ,surely is a more reasonable explanation of the layers of the earth, and fossils, the coal beds, than the unproved theory of evolution.
Who thinks it reasonable to believe in spontaneous generation, that life without a creator by inherent and accidental forces sprang out of dead matter????? Not a single case of the beginning of life has ever been observed nor has man been able to bring it about, with all the resources of modern science.!!!!
Why? Is it reasonable to believe the guess, that all kinds of Plants and animals originated by evolutionary process. When as I just read in a science book this morning that not so much as one of that family or kind has evolved in a million years. And besides who would have been around to proved it a million years back. The oldest man we have record of was 960 years old. But there was God, And he didn't mention one thing about evolution in his word. But of course that book I was reading insisted on the earth being a billion years old. Why??? Is it reasonable to suppose that animals came from plants? That many-celled animals came from one celled animals, and that vertebrates came from invertebrates. That reptiles came from fish, that birds came from reptiles, that mammals came from birds and that men came from apes when not a single link has ever been found between the principal kinds. The reason people believe in evolution is not because it is reasonable, but because it is an excuse for not believing in God and his word about direct creation. So it is natural that for the unconverted and the unbelieving man.
Why believe that the fossils and coal beds were formed by natural causes following a uniform pattern through the centuries and millenniums and millions of years? No fossils, no coal beds are now being formed as far as we know on earth. Uniformitarian geology does not very sensibly explain the mysteries of the surface of the earth
But when we believe the Bible account of a tremendous flood, with all the fountains of the great deep broken up, that is the tidal waves from all the oceans and when “The rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights”. And when the mountains were covered” and every living creature that was on the earth died except those that were in the Ark.It is hard not to understand how we have the fossil layers and the coal beds. And the strata on the earth.
Remember, Genesis :13 says “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me: For the earth is filled with violence through them: and Behold I will destroy them with the earth.” That is , the people of all the earth and the earth its self as it was then, were to be destroyed. And Jesus himself accepted the authenticated Bible story of the flood. He said: “And as it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be in the coming of the Son of man”. They did eat and drink They married and were given in Marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the Ark. And the flood came and destroyed them all.
JESUS SAID “ THE FLOOD CAME AND DESTROYED THEM ALL”.
A very significant Scripture on this matter is II Peter 3:3-7. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lust. And saying where is the sign of his coming? For since the days our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water: V-6 " Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:V-7 " But the Heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and the perdition of ungodly men”.
NOTICE!!!! The scripture says scoffers, unbelievers, who walk after their own lusts, do not believe there has been a catastrophic change They do not believe what the Bible says about a direct creation. That by the word of God the heavens were of old, standing out of the waters and in the water.”.
They do not believe that the world that then was, being overflowed with water., perished. NOTICE!!! That this destruction of the world was so drastic that not only the people, but all, the face of the earth as it then was, perished. And the awful destruction then is liken to the time in the future when another catastrophe will come. When fire will envelope this planet in “The day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
Then every thing that will burn will burn and everything that will melt will melt. Well, So drastic then was the destruction of the earth by water in the flood. And it is very significant that God said that the earth as it is now is a result of two things, DIRECT CREATION and then THE FLOOD. And scoffers deny both the direct creation and the universal flood.
How could such a flood cause the tremendous changes that took place on the face of this earth. Well, the Scripture expressly says that “All the fountains of the great deep were opened”. In some awful way the waters of the oceans covered the land. We know that sometimes volcanic pressure raises an island in the sea, or submerges a bit of coastline. And scientists are all agreed that earth changes have happened all over the world. Perhaps then the ocean bottoms were raised to help flood the earth. The great mountain ranges we have now we think obviously were raised after the flood.
Then “The windows of Heaven were opened”. And that must mean more than ordinary rain. It rained over the whole earth for the space of forty days, As I understand the scriptures.
And that must mean that there was far more than the average precipitation and the millions of tons of water that ordinarily held in vapor of air were discharged.
Even now, if there is an earthquake on the sea bottom, A tidal wave may rush upon the land doing millions of dollars worth of damage, and killing many people. The power of moving water has hurled giant ships to destruction. Or has rolled boulders weighting tons before it. If tidal waves again and again went around the earth, surely the sand, the silt, the carcass of animals, the uprooted trees would be carried, and then dropped and covered by succeeding tides. And then the giant island seas would begin to break through the soft layers, and so the Grand Canyon could have been formed in the first few centuries after the flood. Then volcanic actions and internal pressures and changes in the earth could raise the mountain systems as they are today, with some of the layers and fossils of sea shells and other fauna, high above their original position.
In the 17th century and the early 18th century scientists believed that the earth strata and fossils were caused by the flood. Hilo, before Christ, St Augustine, and later Baron Curvier in the University of Parisin 1799,
And many other scientist Williams,Cattcot, Woodward,Granville Penn. Held what we call flood geology, believing that the Genesis flood and the adjusting period in the first century or two afterwards, accountable for the geologic conditions of the surface of the earth today.
When most of the scientist were Christians, they believed of course in the flood and they could understand and believe what God said about the flood destroying the earth. But these days when men went away from God, they wanted to leave the Bible out, They wanted to find some natural, and not a supernatural source for life on the earth. So when they
Discounted God and the Bible, they left off Direct Creation and left off the flood. This was with unbelieving men, not the objective and scientific decision but was a subjective decision of men voluntarily refusing to believe the Bible or as II Peter 3:3 says, they are scoffers, walking after their own lusts and desires. And “they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Where by the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. A willing ignorance of the Bible led people to turn away from the biblical doctrine of the flood.
But even today there are not many men in science who teach that the strata, fossils, coal beds, etc., are a result of the flood. Overwhelming evidence is given in the book, THE DELUGE STORY IN STONE by Byron C. Nelson. The geology text books by prof. George McCready Price. And perhaps the best of all is The Genesis Flood by Drs. Whitcomb and Morris.