Gap creationism

This article is about an interpretation of the biblical creation account. For the shift from religion to science, see God of the gaps.

Gap creationism (also known as Ruin-Restoration creationism, Restoration creationism, or the "Gap Theory"), is a form of Old Earth creationism that posits that the six day creation, as described in the Book of Genesis, is historically accurate and involved literal 24-hour days, but that there was a gap of time between two distinct creations in the first and the second verses of Genesis, explaining many scientific observations, including the age of the Earth. In this it differs from Day-Age creationism, which posits that the 'days' of creation were much longer periods (of thousands or millions of years), and from Young Earth creationism, which although it agrees concerning the six literal 24-hour days of creation, does not posit any gap of time.

History

Gap creationism became increasingly attractive near the end of the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth century, due to the advent of the science of of geology making it increasingly obvious that Earth was far older than previous straightforward, literal interpretations of Genesis and the Bible-based Flood geology would allow. Its attraction was that it provided an alternative that allowed religious geologists (who comprised the majority of the geological community at the time) to simultaneously preserve their faith in the Bible and in the new authority of science (necessary as the doctrine of natural theology was in this period considered a second revelation, God's word in nature as well as in scripture, which could not contradict each other)

Gap creationism was popularized by Thomas Chalmers, a divinity professor at the University of Edinburgh, founder of the Free Church of Scotland, and author of one of the Bridgewater Treatises, who attributed it to 17th century Dutch Arminian theologian Simon Episcopius. Other early proponents included Oxford University geology professor and fellow Bridgewater author William Buckland, Sharon Turner and Edward Hitchcock.

It gained widespread attention when a "second creative act" was discussed prominently in the reference notes for Genesis in the influential 1917 Scofield Reference Bible.

In 1954, a few years before the re-emergence of Young Earth Flood geology eclipsed Gap creationism, influential evangelical theologian Bernard Ramm wrote:

The gap theory has become the standard interpretation throughout hyper-orthodoxy, appearing in an endless stream of books, booklets, Bible studies, and periodical articles. In fact, it has become so sacrosanct with some that to question it is equivalent to tampering with Sacred Scripture or to manifest modernistic leanings.

Its proponents have included Cyrus I. Scofield, Harry Rimmer, L. Allen Higley, Jimmy Swaggart, G. H. Pember, L. Allen Higley, Arthur Pink, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Robert Thieme, and Clarence Larkin.

Canadian physiologist Arthur Custance has argued that the belief can be traced back to biblical times, citing the Targum of Onkelos (2nd c. BC), Akiba ben Joseph's Sefer Hazzohar (1st c. AD), Origen's De Principiis (3rd c. AD), and Caedmon (7th c. AD).

Interpretation of Genesis

See also: Creation according to Genesis

Gap creationists believe that science has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the Earth is far older than can be accounted for by, for instance, adding up the ages of Biblical patriarchs and comparing it with secular historical data, as James Ussher famously attempted in the 17th century when he developed the Ussher chronology.

To maintain that the Genesis creation account is inerrant in matters of scientific fact, Gap creationists suppose that certain facts about the past and the age of the Earth have been omitted from the Genesis account; specifically that there was a gap of time in the Biblical account that lasted an unknown number of years between a first creation in Genesis 1:1 and a second creation in Genesis 1:2–31. By positing such an event, various observations in a wide range of fields, including the age of the Earth, the age of the universe, dinosaurs, fossils, ice cores, ice ages, and geological formations are allowed by adherents to have occurred as outlined by science without contradicting their literal belief in Genesis.

Biblical support

Because there is no specific information given in Genesis concerning the proposed gap of time, other scriptures are used to support and explain what may have occurred during this period and to explain the specific linguistic reasoning behind this interpretation of the Hebrew text. A short list of examples is given below:

• The word "was" in Genesis 1:2 is more accurately translated "became". Such a word choice makes the gap interpretation quite easier to see in modern English.

• God is perfect and everything he does is perfect, 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 in a state of grace when God "laid the foundations of the Earth", so there had been at least one creative act of God before the six days of Genesis. Job 38:4–7

• Satan had fallen from grace "in the beginning" which, since the serpent tempted Adam and Eve, had to have occurred before the Fall of man. Isaiah 14:12–15, Ezekiel 28:11–19, John 8:44

• In addition, space, time, water, and the rock which constitutes the main body of the earth existed before the period of six days began in Genesis 1:3.

See also

• Creationism
• Dating Creation
• Day-Age Creationism
• Old Earth Creationism
• Answers in Genesis
• Answers in Creation

References

• Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1964 reprint). Satan: His Motive and Methods. Zondervan. pp. 144 pages. ISBN 031022361X. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Gaebelein, Arno (1991 reprint). The History of the Scofield Reference Bible. Living Words Foundation. pp. 71 pages. ISBN 0962816906. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Larkin, Clarence (2005 reprint). Dispensational Truth. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 268 pages. ISBN 0766184277. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Numbers, Ronald (November 30, 2006). The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design, Expanded Edition. Harvard University Press. pp. 624 pages. ISBN 0674023390. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Pember, George (1987 reprint). Earth's Earliest Ages. Kregel Publications. pp. 464 pages. ISBN 0825435331. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Pink, Arthur (2007 reprint). Gleanings in Genesis. Filiquarian Publishing, LLC. pp. 408 pages. ISBN 1599867419. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Thieme, Robert (1974). Creation: Chaos and Restoration. Berachah Tapes and Publications. pp. 34 pages. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)