Reality Check
By James Scott Bell

Some Objections to the Gap Theory

Even though the Gap Theory, or better yet the "Reconstruction" view of Genesis 1, is biblically sound, many champions of the Young Earth view (the earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old) are vehemently against it.

This is unfortunate, as many great Bible teachers hold to its biblical nature. I think the problem may be that Young Earth Creationists (YECs) are, understandably, gun shy about their view. They've been ridiculed and hammered by atheistic scientists, and therefore believe that any admission that the earth may be much older than they suspect is like losing a battle to atheism.

I would like to reassure YECs that this is not the case, and that the Reconstruction view is one they should take another look at.

Unfortunately, some of their objections border on hysteria. I've seen a few call the Reconstruction view "heretical." As if R. A. Torrey and J. Vernon
McGee were heretics!

So leaving such extremes aside, let me deal with what I see are the main objections to the Reconstruction view. As you will see, none of them is
very strong.

1. The Gap Theory is false because of the "mental gymnastics" necessary to force its strained argumentation to agree with the actual biblical text.

Quite the contrary, the Gap view is based on solid Hebrew interpretation.
(See the archive for my previous articles.)

It is the opposing view that runs into Scriptural trouble. For one thing, it cannot reconcile Gen. 1:2 with Isaiah 45:18. The latter verse clearly says God did NOT create the earth "without form" (same word as Gen. 1:2). The YEC view ignores the fact that everywhere in the Bible where "without form and void" are used it is NEGATIVE. Yet it forces it into a positive meaning in one verse only, Gen. 1:2. And so forth.

Only the Gap view is true to ALL of Scripture.

2. The Gap Theory is erroneous because there is no evidence for the claim that Satan's rebellion was on the Earth.

Again, Scripture is the answer. Before the ruin that precedes Gen. 1:2, Satan is described as being IN EDEN, and in fact its GUARDIAN CHERUB. (Ez. 28:13-14). This is an Eden unlike that of Adam. It was a previous Eden, on earth.

3. The Gap Theory is false because it implies death of humankind on the Earth prior to Adam.

This is a false charge. The Gap view does not postulate that humankind existed on earth prior to Adam. Hominids yes, but not human beings. Only Adam, made in the image of God, fits that.

Also, YECs claim that the Bible teaches there was no physical death of ANY kind (plants, animals) before Adam's fall. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that Adam's sin brought in SPIRITUAL death for MAN. Read Romans 5 and you'll see this. Physical death of man came with it, but there is nothing that says animals or plants didn't die before Adam.

These three objections are really the only ones with any merit, but as can be seen they don't really make the case.

It is time to recognize what Torrey and McGee and Barnhouse and Scofield and so many other great Bible teachers knew--that God created a world that was stained by Satan's rebellion. He brought a curse of water, and that is why in Gen. 1:2 there is water over the earth, and God begins his reconstruction. The earth, then, can be millions or billions of years old.

At the end of the reconstruction comes God's crowning achievement: Man. That's us. And what the first chapter of Genesis shows is a God who is not defeated by rebellion and ruin, but instead brings something even better out of it.

That's what he will do with us. We are fallen creatures, but in Christ we are made new, and better, and will by God's grace live forever with Him.

www.jamesscottbell.com

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