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Gary Hill

Professor Bill Carnagey

BBS 100 – A Survey of the New Testament

1 May 2013

2033

A Survey of the Old Testament

The book of Genesis is the foundational book of the Bible, the book of beginnings of

creation, truth, man, woman, Sabbath, marriage, home, childhood, agriculture, sacrifice, grace,

sin, murder, and many others all have their birthing’s here. One of the Exegetical issues that have

developed between Biblical scholars over the years is whether there is a time gap in the creation

account of Genesis. The significant gap theories postulate slightly different views of the creation

account, but all attempt to justify a much older earth between the verses of Genesis 1.1 and 2 or

1.2 and 3. The most prominent of the theories is the Ruin-reconstruction theory which we will

examine. (Ham).

The Ruin-reconstruction Theory Authors

Who first suggested the gap theory? Dr. Thomas Chalmers (17 March 1780 – 31 May

1847), “a notable Scottish theologian and first moderator of the Free Church of Scotland was

credited with being the man most responsible for the ruin-reconstruction gap theory.” (Fields).

This idea can be traced back to the relatively obscure writings of the Dutch Arminian Simon

Episcopius (1583 – 1643) and first recorded officially from one of Chalmers’ lectures in 1814.

Reverend William Buckland (1784 – 1856), a geologist, did much to popularize the ruin-

reconstruction gap theory. (Taylor). The origins of this theory came from a period when the

study of Geology was just beginning to be accepted by the global scientific community.

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The Ruin-reconstruction Theory Defined

An accepted definition of the ruin-reconstruction gap theory is hard to find; they all

seemed to have a intolerance to one side or the other. The definition that seems the least biased

came from All About Creation’s website. Their description states, “The Gap Theory holds that

the ages of evolution (the periods and eras of "modern science") occurred before the six days of

biblical Creation, but were part of the creative process of God. These ages were then terminated

by a worldwide catastrophic event, followed by a period of replenishing the earth, according to

the following instructions of God in Genesis: "Then God blessed them, and God said to them,

“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea,

over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (NKJV, Genesis

1.28).

The Ruin-construction Controversy

There appears to be a couple of ways to respond to the presumed gap theory. One of these

is dismissing the theory or misapply it. We will try to make neither. Starting with the removal of

the Bible and school prayer in 1963 from public schools began a trend of false teaching of

evolution as established science. Theologians, sensing a departure from the truth of the Word of

God, responded by attempting to reconcile the Bible to science, instead of standing on the Word

of God. When trying to put theistic evolution into creation, it is like passing “. . .a camel through

the eye of a needle” (NKJV, Matthew 19.24). It flies in the face of God whose passion for

creation is evident in the often ignored Gospel of Paul, the most profound book of all literature,

and the New Testament, Romans. Romans 1.18-35 delivers a curse that God pronounced on

unbelieving humans who observed His magnificent creation before them so that unbelieving

mankind, who has knowledge of Him manifest within them, is without excuse.

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The Gap Theory Scriptural Issues

While most gap theorist maintains a literal hermeneutic, the overall gap theory seems to

be in direct contradiction to a number of scriptures that most literalist accepts. For example,

when Moses and Aaron received the Law, God emphatically states, “For in six days, the Lord

made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (NKJV, Exodus 20.11).

First, in this passage God clearly delineates the creation in terms both Moses and Aaron

could understand. The days of creation are spoken by the Creator Himself in a clear, concise,

account that is not allegorical or symbolic, but rather a manifestation of time by God who created

time and space, but “who inhabits eternity.” (NKJV, Isaiah 57.17a).

Second, Romans 5.12 states, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world,

and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” From this scripture,

we know there was no sin or death prior to Adam which presents a formidable scriptural issue

for the gap theorist.

Paul testifies to Adam being the first man in 1 Corinthian 15.41 which removes any

doubt. Paul wrote, “And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being. The last

Adam became a life-giving spirit.” From the Word of God, we have Adam defined as the first

man created during the sixth day. God had provided evidence for humanity removing any doubt

about when life began, the first man Adam.

Jesus, while in the region of Judea, received the usual questions by the Pharisees, but

always in control, turned the tables on the Pharisees by saying, “. . . Because of the hardness of

your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them

male and female.” (NKJV, Mark 10.5-6). God in the flesh said that the creation of mankind

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starting with Adam and Eve and the creation of the earth occurred in the context of what God

had said in Exodus 20.11. Jesus Christ could not contradict what the Father had said, even if the

Pharisees tried. When doubting the Words of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have a much bigger

problem than whether the gap theory is true Biblically or not.

Paul is perhaps one of the smartest men ever to live and probably is one of the greatest

writers. He makes one of the clearest statements in the Word of God on the role Jesus Christ had

in the creation and continues to apply in the world today. Paul states, “For by Him all things

were created that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or

dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He

is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (NKJV, Colossians 1.16-17)

Historical Beliefs about Creation

Augustine, 354 – 430 A.D., one of the earliest church fathers approached creation

differently from the gap theorist in philosophy. Augustine states, “What kind of days these were

it is extremely difficult, or perhaps impossible for us to conceive”. Augustine, who was an

allegorist in the vein of Origen, believed in instantaneous creation, and that God did all creations

by just speaking in a single breath. Augustine’s approach was that God spoke six creation acts

into existence in a single instantaneous moment, and then had Moses wrote them down as six

days. (Missler)

Martin Luther, 1483 – 1546 A.D., speaking of creation, “Moses spoke in a literal sense,

not allegorically or figuratively that the world, with all its creatures, in six days were spoken into

existence as the words read. We know from Moses that the world was not in existence before

6,000 years ago.” Luther also was critical of Augustine’s allegorical use of the Genesis 1 and 2

accounts: “Nor does it serve any useful purpose to make Moses at the outset so mystical and

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allegorical. His purpose is to teach us, not about allegorical creatures and an allegorical world

but real creatures and a visible world apprehended by the senses. He employs the terms ‘day and

evening’ without allegory, just as we customarily do.” (Plass).

G. H. Pember, MA, who otherwise was a staunch Brethren Christian from England, was a

gap advocate even though the term was not part of his personal dialect. In his classic work,

Earth’s Earliest Ages, Pember first attempted to remove some of geological and other difficulties

commonly associated with the commencing chapters of Genesis; and then endeavored to show

that the characteristic features of the Days of Noah were reappearing in Christendom, and,

therefore, that the Days of the Son of Man could not be far away.

Doubt cast on creation comes not only from outside the non-Christian scientific

community where it would be expected, but, from also from within the professing scholarly

Christians. Friar George Coyne, the former Vatican Observatory Director, made the following

comments:

How are we to interpret this scientific picture of life’s origins in terms of religious belief?

Do we need God to explain this? Very succinctly, my answer is no. In fact, to need God

would be a mere denial of God. God is not the response to a need. One gets the

impression from certain religious believers that they fondly hope for the durability of

certain gaps in our scientific knowledge of evolution, so that they can fill them with God.

This is the exact opposite of what human intelligence is all about. We should be seeking

for the fullness of God in creation. We should not need God; we should accept him when

he comes to us. (Coyne)

Why should we discuss evolution in an investigation about the gap theory? Dr. Jack

Sofield, a gap theorist and former medical physicist puts it this way, “The relationship between

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evolution and the gap theory is found in the theory's statements that express a desire to provide

for the lengthy time periods, or “ages,” required for evolutionary concepts and to harmonize

these ages with the Biblical record of creation.”

Conclusion

Theistic evolution, by its sheer nature, must at the very least draw inferences that are

merely speculation from the text of the Genesis account of creation by necessity. The gap theory

creates inconsistencies with God’s creation of the heavens, the earth, and all that is in them in six

days. The gap theory and its variants, and theistic evolution both seem to be people’s attempts to

bring the Bible in part to the whims of science, ever changing from study to study, instead of

science bringing their disciplines in line with the Word of God.

“. . .God is not a man that He should lie” (NKJV, Numbers 23.19), and “is a jealous

God” (NKJV, Exodus 20.5), and one of the things that God is acutely sensitive about is His

creation. Romans 1.18-35, is God’s reaction to an unbelieving mankind to what He has created

for our enjoyment, and the resulting curse, or failure to observe natural law, in failing to

recognize Him as the creator.

The failure to recognize the creator’s role in the creation of all things is the ultimate

violation of the natural laws of the universe. Jesus agreed: "You shall know the truth, and the

truth will set you free" (NKJV, John 8.32).

The Bible is an integrated messaging system from an extraterrestrial God with 66

separate books, penned by 40 individual authors over thousands of years, which provably had its

origin outside the time domain. (Missler)

I believe strongly that there is nothing in the Genesis account which requires a theory

above God’s successive six days of creation, be it theistic evolution or the gap theory. The

United States Supreme Court in a 1963 ruling banned formal prayer and Bible reading in public

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schools which in effect made it illegal to teach God’s creation along with the evolution theory.

The failure to examine all the evidence is either myopic or an outright anti-Christian bias. For the

children who have been, and are being raised in front of a television and educated in a

government created space free from the Word of God is one of the greatest slaps in the face of

God.

God’s is in control as we can learn from this statement, “Why do the nations rage, and the

people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel

together, against the Lord and against His Anointed saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces

and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold

them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep

displeasure.” (Psalm 2.1-5). For America and the world, I see “the times of Jacob’s trouble”

coming down the road. (NKJV, Jeremiah 30.7)

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Works Cited

Chaffey, Tim, Jason Lisle. Defense—Biblical Argument. 5 January 2012. Web. 29 April

2013.

Coyne, George, SJ. A Catholic Scientist Looks at Evolution. Catholic.org. 1 February 2006.

Web. 1 May 2013

Fields, Weston. Unformed and Unfilled. Collinsville: Burgeners Enterprises. 1976. P. 40. Print

Gap Theory. All about Creation Organization. n.a. Web. 2 May 2013.

Ham, Ken. What About the Gap and Ruin-Reconstruction Theories? Answers in Genesis

Organization. 6 September 2007. Web. 27 April 2013.

Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works: Volume 1: Lectures on Genesis 1-5. Ed. Jaroslav Pelikan. St.

Louis: Concordia Publishing. 1958. Print.

Missler, Chuck. Cosmic Codes. Couer d’Alene: Koinonia House Publishing. 2011. P. 357.

Print.

---. Learn the Bible in 24 Hours. Dallas: Thomas Nelson. 2002. P. 1. Print.

New King James Version, The Scofield Study Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Print.

Pember, G. H. Earth’s Earliest Ages, London: Hodder and Stoughton. n.d. Preface. Print.

Sofield, Jack. The Gap Theory of Genesis Chapter One. Bible.org. 1975. Web. 29 April 2013.

Taylor, Ian. In the Minds of Men: Darwin and the New World Order. Toronto: TFE Publishing.

1984. P. 363. Print.

What Luther Says. A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian, Ed. Ewald M. Plass,

Concordia, P. 93. 1959. Print.