The Creation Gap Theory

I used to believe in the creation gap theory, which is the belief that there is a gap of some indefinite period of time that elapsed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 or between 1:2 and 1:3. Now the Lord has helped me to see that this is not true and does great injustice to the Scriptures. Let me show you what I mean. There are many good articles out there that treat the subject exhaustively, but I don't intend to do that. I simply want to show you some of the most compelling reasons I found.

First of all, let's look at the passage in question. It states:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light,” and there was light.'" (Gen 1:1-3, NIV)

If you are like me, you may have thought that God created the heavens and the earth before the creation week, and then they were in place as raw materials for Him to work with when He made everything else. You may have believed that the earth either became formless and void at some point after God created it, or that it remained in that state until the first day of creation when He created light. However, this is not what the text says, if we read the meaning directly out of it.

No Verse Divisions or Break in the Text
In the original Hebrew Scriptures there were no verse numbers to provide any break in this text. Moreover, there is nothing in the Hebrew grammar to indicate that there was any break in the narrative. As Dr. Jonathan Sarfati  of Creation Ministries points out in his article, How Genesis 13 Undermines the Gap Theory, in Genesis 1 "there are grammatical terms, called the waw consecutive and waw disjunctive." Essentially what we learn from these is that in 1:1 the narrative begins, then in 1:2 there is a disjunctive clause, which we can identify by the structure of the verbs. A disjunctive clause is a side-step or parenthetical remark that comments on what was just stated. The Scripture states, "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Then in 1:3 there is a consecutive clause indicating that the narrative which began in the first sentence in 1:1 is now continuing. It's like saying in English, "And then..." The Scripture states, "And [then] God said, 'Let there be light,” and there was light.'" If you will consider that, it is a very good reason why there could not be a long gap between any of those verses.

No Death Before Adam's Sin
One reason why some people adopt the gap theory is to try to synchronize the Bible with the claims of modern science. Since scientists claim that the geological column (or layers of fossils) proves that the earth is millions of years old, they see the need to add a gap before the first day of creation to allow for a long period of time when another race of beings lived and died upon the earth. They feel this best explains how there could be fossils that are believed to be so old, dating to a time long before the period of Adam and Eve.

However, according to the apostle Paul, death came into the world as a result of Adam's sin. He states, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." (Rom 5:12). This means there could be no death before the sin of Adam, hence no fossils.

Nothing Visible before the Six Days of Creation
However, for me the most compelling reason was that the Lord created everything in the natural, visible realm in six literal days, and his act of creating the heavens and the earth occurred during those six days.

We know the days of creation are literal, because at the end of each day of creation is says, "And there was evening and there was morning," then it says the number of the day, such as day one, the second day the third day, etc.  We know that when an evening and morning pass by, we are talking about a 24-hour period or literal day.

Secondly, Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." If we say that God created the heavens and the earth before He began the six day creative week, we contradict the Scriptures. For they say that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth. Here are the passages where this is explicitly stated:

"Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven." (Gen 2:1-4)

"For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. (Exo 20:11)

"It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed." (Exo 31:17).

According to the apostle, all that we see in the visible realm was made out of that which is invisible. "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." (Heb 11:3). God did not make the heavens and the earth out of visible matter that He had previously created. It says He prepared the worlds by His Word and made that which is visible out of that which is invisible.

While the gap theory was taught in the early nineteenth century by a notable Scottish theologian named Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), it was Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, whose Reference Bible (Oxford University Press, 1909) helped to popularized it. However, more recently another man named Jack C. Scofield has written an article disproving the gap theory. He sums it up better than I can in his article called The Gap Theory of Genesis Chapter One, in which he states:

"The gap theorists would have us believe that a long break occurs between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 and then in verse three the 're-creation' week begins. This reasoning would separate the 'creation of heaven and earth' from the rest of the week by some indefinite time period, and certainly then, by their own reasoning, the ‘heaven and earth' creation cannot be considered to be a part of the re-creative week which follows. There are some Scriptures which disagree with this logic, namely Genesis 2:1 to 4 and Exodus 20:11 and 31:17. These verses clearly include the creation or making of the “heaven and earth” within the six creative days. To insist on a creation of the “heaven and earth” separate from the six stated days does great injustice to these texts. It must be pointed out that the Genesis 1:1 statement is the only creative statement in the entire first chapter with reference to “heaven.” If we are to understand the words of the Exodus verses in the sense of their clear, plain meaning and common usage, then we must conclude that day one began with Genesis 1:1, and therefore no gap."

I hope that this has helped to explain why the gap theory cannot be true, according to the Word of God.

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. The "Deception" painting © 2012 Danny Hahlbohm all rights reserved by the artist. Please view it on his official website, Inspired Art.

Author's note:  I also recommend reading Understanding the Gaps in Scripture, Pope Validates Evolution and Big Bang Theory, Holding Fast the Faithful Word, The Origin of Sin, Satan, and Secular Music, The Rise and Fall of Lucifer the Musician. You can access the Home page of this blog for more articles on Truth and heresy, as well as my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master."

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org

Pope Validates Evolution and Big Bang Theory

On October 28, 2014, Pope Francis declared at a gathering at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that evolution is real and the Big Bang happened.  He said, “When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician with a magic wand, able to do everything. But that is not so,” He added: “He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfilment."

The Pope obviously does not interpret the Bible literally.  He is saying that God is not able to do everything!  He literally said it would be wrong to think that God is "able to do everything," including the entire work of creation.

This is nothing new for the Roman Catholic Church.  According to Bible Light, "Pope John Paul II, on the 23rd of October, 1996, while speaking to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences plenary session at the Vatican, declared the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin to be fact, tacitly acknowledging that man evolved from the apes, and reducing the biblical account of Genesis to that of mere fable!"  The Bible Light goes on to say, "Apparently most Roman Catholic schools have taught evolution pretty much as fact since Pope Pius XII's encyclical HUMANI GENERIS in 1950."

The Biblical Record
The Scripture clearly says God created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. "He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them-- he remains faithful forever." (Ps 146:6)

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Gen 1:1). You need to have faith in God to understand that He commanded and the universe was formed.  "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." (Heb 11:3).  He did not make it from that which is visible. He made everything we see out of nothing. And then from the dust of the earth, He formed man.

"Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.' " (Gen 1:26-27)

When God finished His work of creation on the sixth day, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Gen 1:31a).  He did not need to improve on it, and it did not need to evolve over the eons in order for it to be what He created it to be.  In fact, immediately after creating Adam, God was having fellowship with Him in the garden.  It would make no sense for God to have fellowship with an amoeba.  And Adam was able to name all the animals (Gen 2:19-20).  A single-cell organism would not be capable of naming all the animals, and if they had to first evolve, then they would not have been developed enough yet for him to distinguish them from one another and name them.

Jesus Himself validated the creation account. He said, “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’"  He would not have said this about single-cell organisms or primates.  He spoke these words in the context of marriage, which does not apply to cells or animals.

The Bible says that all things are possible with God. "Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'” (Mt 19:26)

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you." (Jer 32:17)

Yet the Pope will not put up with sound doctrine like this, since he is a false prophet, and is speaking for the Babylonian religion that prefers to gather around itself a great many teachers who say what they want to hear.

"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." (2Tim 4:3,4)

While there is certainly such a thing as micro-evolution in which organisms can mutate within their own species, that does not mean man evolved from apes or from a pool of organic material.  Microevolution is genetic change in a population over generations that does not result in new species. Macroevolution is something entirely different, and the Bible does not teach that anything of that sort.  There is no observable evidence for macroevolution, therefore it is not a fact, but a theory that contradicts the Bible.

Putting it All Together
It is no surprise to me that the Pope is saying such unbiblical things as these, since there are numerous other Unbiblical Practices of the Catholic Church, and Pope Frances Supports Homosexuality.

If you are a part of this religion, I urge you to listen to and heed this warning.  It is an occult religion.

"Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "'Come out of her, my people,' so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;" (Rev 18:4).

Don't delay.  Time is fast running out!

Attribution notice:  Most other Scriptures taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, unless otherwise noted. The photo of Francis giving his first address as pope at St. Peter's Basilica, 13 March 2013, is used courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The photo of Pope Francis on 20 March 2013, one week after his inauguration, is also courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Author's note: If you enjoyed this post, I recommend reading my articles Unbiblical Practices of the Catholic Church, Angelica Zambrano Hell and Heaven, Angelica Zambrano's Second Visit to Hell, Testing the Spirits of False Prophets, Dare to Believe, The End Has Come, and New Age-New World Order. I also recommend The Next Pope. You may access more of my articles on the Main Directory of this blog, as well as my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

_________________________________________________

Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.