Page 25 - Advanced Genesis - Creationism - Student Textbook

The Gap Theory (ruin and reconstruction theory)
A widely held opinion among many older theologians is that the
creation of Genesis 1:1 took place billions of years ago with a huge
time gap inserted between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. This gap is
used to explain the condition of the earth as formless and void and
covered with water. The idea is that verse 2 is a commentary
describing what happened by cataclysmic action at the end of verse
1. They theorize that this great cataclysm was the destruction of the
pre-Adamic world punishing Satan for his sin and plunging the earth
into darkness and chaos thus ending the geological age of the earth.
This is often called the ruin-and-reconstruction theory, and the pre-
th
Adamic cataclysm theory. This was first revived in the early 19 century by a Scottish theologian Thomas
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Chalmers; it had been widely popularized in the Scofield Reference Bible and has been taught in most
of the Bible institutes and seminaries of the United States for the past century.

The main purpose of the gap theory is to harmonize the Biblical chronology with the accepted system of
geological ages which was becoming popular in the days of Chalmers. The thought was they could ignore
the whole troublesome system of evolutionary geological ages by simply accommodating the Biblical
chronologies to allow billions of years of time to be wedged in between verses 1 and 2. The thought
was, “let the geologist have all the time they want, and let us get on with preaching the gospel.”

Problems with the Gap Theory
The geological age theory that was accommodated by the Gap theory has to rely on evolutionary
processes and uniformitarianism. It does not allow for a cataclysmic event such as is supposed in the
Gap theory. Therefore the gap theory is self-defeating scientifically since it doesn’t agree with the
science it is supposedly accommodating. Further it causes a theological problem. The geological age
model theorizes that the strata that we see in rocks was laid down over billions of years and the fossils
trapped within the rock layers have been dead for billions or at least millions of years. Since the Gap
theorists hold that this occurred between Genesis 1:1 an Genesis 1:2 they then have death and
suffering occurring before sin in Genesis 3:6.

There was no death in the world until sin was in the world (Romans 5:12; I Corinthians 15:21; etc.).
Evolution requires the fittest to survive and the weak to die. But death came into the world as a result
of sin. Death itself is "the wages of sin" (Romans 6:23). Our future deliverance from sin and death has
been purchased by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ, who is "the propitiation for our sins and ...
also for the sins of the whole world" (John 2:2).

This problem ripples through to the New Testament in Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:21. The gap
theory creates supposed contradictions in Scripture which only exist when extra-Biblical information is
trying to be accommodated within the text of the Bible. The best solution is to remove the Gap Theory
and read the text as it is most naturally read and draw conclusions of the chronology from scripture
rather than extra-Biblical sources.

10 https://answersingenesis.org/genesis/reinterpretations-of-genesis/
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