Page 20 - Creationism - Student Textbook w videos short

creation may be somewhere between 10,000 BC and 4,000BC with the likelihood that it is closer to the
lower end.

The Gap 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-Adamic
th
cataclysm theory. This was first revived in the early 19 century by a Scottish theologian Thomas
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.

This problem ripples through to the New Testament in Romans 5:12 and 1Corinthians 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.

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