Gap creationism

Gap creationism, also called Restitution creationism or Ruin-Reconstruction, is a term used to describe a particular set of Christian beliefs about the creation of the Universe and the origin of man. The concept of the Gap Theory is widely thought to have been promulgated by William Buckland and Thomas Chalmers in the early 1800s, though some adherents maintain that it can be traced back to biblical times. Certainly it became quite popular when it was promoted by the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909.

Rationale

Gap creationists believe that science has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the Earth is in fact far older than can be accounted for by merely adding up the ages of Biblical patriarchs, as given in the Book of Genesis. By using this approach, Young Earth creationists derive the age of the Earth to be approximately 6,000 – 10,000 years.

However, in order to maintain that the Genesis account is inerrant in matters of scientific fact, which includes accepting that the Earth is extremely ancient, Old Earth creationists suppose that certain facts about both the human past and the age of the Earth have been omitted from the Biblical account rather than mythologized by it. The "Gap creationism" explanation of this position is to state that sometime before the Fall of Man, there must have been a "gap" in the Biblical account that lasted perhaps tens of thousands or even millions or billions of years.

A revised theory proposes that time in its current measurable form didn't exist prior to the Fall of Adam and Eve. God and all spiritual beings exist outside of time, therefore time is irrelevant. In this environment, the matter of whether the universe was created in one second or over several billions of years is immaterial; also, the principles of physics were optimal - for example, the speed of light was infinite. Some adherents to this revision also believe that the universe was created considerably smaller and subsequently grew after an immense conflict between Satan and Michael (archangel), which resulted in the signs of a universal cataclysm, which the non-theistic scientific community interprets as evidence for a Big Bang. The Earth may have pre-existed this event or may have arisen from it, but in both cases was left empty and desolated, and was selected for recreation. In this revised theory, mankind is created by God to take the role of spiritual partnership that was formerly occupied by Lucifer, and intended to re-establish God's intended order throughout the regenerated universe as part of an ongoing creative process. Only in such a capacity, can the general state of decay beyond the earth, and throughout the cosmos, be attributed to the Fall of Adam and Eve.

However, not all adherents of the Gap Theory accept that the scientific geological record refers to the gap between initial creation and regeneration, preferring instead to rely on the Biblical flood as a sufficient explanation for the mass extinction of many groups and classifications of creatures, including the dinosaurs, and geologic upheaval resulting in what could be misinterpreted as an old earth.

Varieties

Between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2

The most common variety of "gap theory" assumes that a chronological gap occurs between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, during which vast spans of geologic time are presumed to have elapsed. It is thus postulated that the Earth was initially created in the distant past, and that all geologic events pointing to an old Earth transpired before some event that reduced the Earth to a state of formlessness or chaos as described in Genesis 1:2. This interpretation views Genesis 1:1-2 as best translated thus:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

--gap occurs here--

Now the earth became formless and void (or waste and ruin)..."

One suggested explanation for the event that throws the Earth into chaos is the fall of Lucifer (Satan). (Revelation 12:7–12, Isaiah 14:12, Ezekiel 28, Luke 10:18)

Those who hold this viewpoint on when the gap occurred point out that the "clock" on the six days of Genesis 1 may not have started "ticking" until the emergence of light in Genesis 1:3 as that verse indicates that this was the evening and morning that make the first day of Genesis, and light had to be present to initiate an evening.

The viewpoint that a gap took place between verses 1 and 2 implies that the events during the six days of Genesis 1 were an act of re-creation (restoration of the Earth) rather than initial creation, explaining why Gap creationism is sometimes called "Ruin-Restoration", and is part of the ideas held by some adherents of Dispensationalism as recorded by Rev. Clarence Larkin in his book Dispensational Truth. One of the stronger arguments for support of this viewpoint is found within the wording of Genesis 1:2 which states that the planet earth was already a physical entity covered in waters and existing in space-time before God said "...let there be light" in Genesis 1:3.

Although the Bible gives no specific time for the interval between the initial creation (Genesis 1:1) and the start of the regeneration (Genesis 1:3), some Old Earth creationists see it as being merely thousands of years at the most on the basis that "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day" (see: Day-Age Creationism), while the majority of others feel that it must be considerably longer than that to account for the scientific geological record; this Old Earth Creationist view is at considerable variance with the Young Earth Creationist view, although both doctrinal schools are found within Christian fundamentalism.

Between Genesis 2 and 3

Some Gap Creationists postulate that a gap occurs between the seventh day, the one of rest, and the account of the Fall of Adam and Eve and hence that of Mankind through the agency of the temptation of Satan in the form of a snake. According to this theory, this amount of time would be sufficient for all of the geologic events which have happened to make the appearance of the Earth to be quite old.

Supporting scriptures

In contradistinction with other Old Earth creationists, Gap creationisms generally agree with the account of six literal 24-hour days as given in Genesis, and that everything done during this six day period was "very good". However, there are a number of scriptures which adherents contend support the Ruin-Reconstruction theory of an earth existing prior to this six day event.

God is light and cannot create anything in a less than perfect state, so a newly created earth from the hand of God shouldn't have been without form and void, and shrouded in darkness. Deuteronomy 32:4, Isaiah 45:18 1 John 1:5

The Holy Spirit was "renewing" the face of the earth as he hovered over the face of the waters. Psalms 104:30

Angels already existed when God "laid the foundations of the Earth", so there had been at least one creative act of God before this. Job 38:4–7

Satan had fallen from grace "in the beginning". A state of sin in the universe, but not yet in mankind, is demonstrated by the serpent's temptation of Adam and Eve to sin before they were actually corrupted by sin. Ezekiel 28:11–19, John 8:44

The death that "came to all men" through Adam was spiritual death, not physical death. At least two men in the past (Enoch and Elijah) did not die physically. Furthermore, Jesus is said to bring life to all men, and yet physical death still occurs. In fact, Jesus personally dealt with this very same confusion between physical and spiritual death among the Pharisees. Genesis 5:23–24, 2 Kings 2:11, John 8:51–53, Hebrews 11:5, 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17

Related to all of this is the fact that space, time, water, and the rock and metal which constitutes the main body of the earth existed in Genesis 1:2 before the period of six days began. In fact, the Bible doesn't discuss details on the creation of the body of the earth at all; beginning in verse 3, Genesis 1 only discusses the surface of the planet.

These scriptures are cited by supporters of Gap creationism without an appeal to scientific or secular investigations. Gap creationists do not necessarily agree with theories given by science, including the Big Bang and Evolution and others. In fact, a gap creationist may believe that the earth is only 6,000-10,000 years old; ie. that the "gap" was of a very short duration. The contention is simply that Scripture records the Genesis account to be a reconstruction of an existing earth.

Criticisms

Ruin-Restoration theorists contend that Genesis 1:2 is correctly translated "became without form and void" instead of "was without form and void". Critics argue that the rendering "became" requires the Hebrew idiom "to be" and the preposition "to" (Hebrew le). They also argue that the waw disjunctive grammar means that it is a parenthetical statement describing the earth as it was first created; the translation "became" would have used the waw consecutive, describing the next event in a sequence. However, many treatises have been written by Hebrew scholars supporting both sides of this translation, which means this issue cannot be clearly resolved.

In addition, the argument that the light had to be present to initiate an evening (Genesis 1:3) requires restricting the meaning of the Hebrew word "evening" (עֶרֶב) more narrowly than the Hebrew demands. While the word frequently is equivalent to the English word evening (the period of time just before until just after sunset), at times it is referring to the entire night when no light from the sun is visible. For example, in Job 7:4 the same Hebrew word is used and clearly refers to all of the night (which is how virtually all translations render it). In the passage in question (Genesis 1:5), "evening" and "morning" are said to constitute an entire day. Thus, the context strongly suggests that "evening" was meant to refer to "night" (the period of dark); and "morning", to "day" (the period of light).

Gap theorists also contend that the King James Version (KJV) translation of Genesis 1:28 of "replenish the earth" means to "refill". However, when the KJV was translated in 1611, "replenish" meant "to fill completely" (cf. replete), which is what the Hebrew word male meant. On the other hand, the exact same Hebrew word is used in Genesis 9:1 when God commands Noah and his sons to "fill the earth", in which case they were clearly re-populating the Earth after the Flood.

Critics argue that the finished creation was described as "very good", which they claim is incompatible with the Fall of Satan and a destructive "Lucifer Flood" that destroyed the alleged previous creation. Gap Theorists may contend that there is no declaration that all finished creation was described as "very good", but that each of the six individual days ends with God's approval, except for day two (Genesis 1:6–8). Furthermore, a Gap Theorist may point out that the things which were rebuilt during the six days of Genesis were "very good", and that this does not conflict with a Satanic fall before the first day in a Genesis 1:1-2 gap.

The long-age interpretation of the fossil record shows human and animal death before Adam. Scripture teaches that death is "the last enemy" (1 Corinthians 15:26) resulting from Adam's Fall (Genesis 3:17, Romans 5:12–19, 1 Corinthians 15:21–22). A gap theorist may first ask why this supports any particular creation account over another, as death may be the "last enemy" whether it began with Adam and Eve or before. He may also respond that 1 Corinthians 15:26 says that death is the last enemy to be destroyed, not that it is the last enemy in a chronological sense. Finally, he would contend that physical death is not the type of death referred to in the cited New Testament passages, a conclusion reached in the final bullet point of the Supporting Scriptures section above.

However, it is worth pointing out that not all adherents of the theory hold that the fossil record arises from the "gap" period, nor believe that physical death existed before the Fall of Adam and Eve (preferring instead to explain mass extinction as a result of Biblical flood.) There are many variations on the details of Gap creationism.

External links

Custance, Arthur C. Without Form and Void — Chap. 1 (A Long Held View) (Claimed support for Gap Theory prior to the time of Thomas Chalmers).
Johnson, Gaines R. 1997. Christian Geology — A comprehensive study of Creationism for Bible Believers: Rightly-Dividing Genesis and Geology
Ole Madsen, Denmark. The Gap theory Blog
Ole Madsen, Denmark. The Gap Theory Page — The Gap theory page
Ole Madsen, Danish site. Skabelsesberetningen - skrift udlaegger skrift — Gap teorien
Reagan, David F. 2003. To Gap or Not To Gap

Other creationist views

Fields, W.W., 1976. Unformed and unfilled: A critique of the gap theory ISBN 0-9641659-0-2 (mainly addresses above claims)
Grigg, R., 1997. From the beginning of Creation: Does Genesis have a gap?, Creation 19(2):35–38 (why YECs reject the gap theory)
Answers In Creation - Old Earth Creationism
Answers in Genesis, another creationist page
Spectrum of Creation Beliefs From Flat Earthism to Atheistic Evolutionism, including Gap Creationism