Page 24 - Genesis: Book of Beginnings and Science Behind it

3. Septuagint - 5270 BC
4. Josephus - 5555 BC
5. Kepler - 3993 BC
6. Luther - 3961 BC

The idea that the Biblical account of the chronology of creation spans several thousand years is plausible
and defendable, even more so than the 14.5 billion proposed by evolutionary thinking. The exact date
for creation may be somewhere between 10,000 BC and 4,000BC, with the likelihood of being closer to
the lower end.

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 between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. This gap explains the
earth's condition 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 cataclysm theory. This was first revived in
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the early 19 century by a Scottish theologian, Thomas Chalmers; it had been widely popularized in the
Scofield Reference Bible and taught in most 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 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 as the Gap theory supposes.
Therefore, the gap theory is self-defeating scientifically since it doesn't agree with the supposedly
accommodating science. Further, it causes a theological problem. The geological age model theorizes
that the strata in rocks were 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 and 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).

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