Gap Theories Made Simple!
Science and the Genesis Record
What is the earliest recorded time in the Bible? Many would say Genesis 1:1 and they would be dead wrong! The absolute earliest recorded time in the Bible is John 1:1 stating that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
You either believe that scripture or you don’t believe it. This beginning was before the beginning in Genesis, which refers to creation of matter. The Word of God brought matter into existence. The material creation was good (Genesis 1:10,12,18,21,25,31). It was perfect.
When people decide on what to believe as being the age of the earth, there are two huge groups. One big group consists of evolutionists who believe the earth to be old (13.5 billion years old, give or take a few million). The other big group consists of Christians who believe the earth to be young (6 thousand years old, give or take a few years). Many of the evolutionists are, as described by Paul, people who do not like to retain God in their knowledge (Romans 1:28), professors who claim to be wise (verse 22), but change the glory of God into corruptible animals (verse 23). Some evolutionists simply have no ideas (positive or negative) about God but believe evolution because they see creation as a package put together by Christians whose ideas of a young earth break with reality in such a dramatic way that they take what appears to them to be an appropriate path (belief in evolution). By the same token, many Christians are caught off-guard when confronted with scientific evidence that the earth is much older than 6 thousand years. So when someone who appears to be a scientist or a biology teacher makes an appearance and gives a presentation to a group of Christians, they are so relieved to “see” that the earth is young after all. The only problem is: The earth is not young!
This is a unique problem. Christians will obviously reject any thesis that the earth is old coming from evolutionists (most of whom are atheists). This is entirely logical. After all, if the evolutionists are wrong about their belief of the origin of the species (and they are wrong), then it stands to reason that the average Christian is going to also reject their other belief, the belief in an old earth. This impulse to reject information is so strong that most Christians are very happy for anyone to spoon-feed them fables about a young earth and a young universe.
Emotion is an important key for the young-earth advocates in their presentations. They are very entertaining. And the audience usually consists of mainstream Christians who don’t want to dig too deep but would like to be assured that the earth is young. It is a human characteristic that unlearning error is always more difficult than learning something new for the first time. So the young-earth advocates fill a need that the majority of Christians have to be assured that the earth is young.
There was a time (in the middle of the dark ages) when the majority of Christians thought that the earth was the center of the local solar system and that the planets revolved around the earth. Many thought they had scriptural evidence of that idea. But there was no scriptural evidence to back the idea up. And there is no scriptural evidence to back up the idea of a young earth or a young universe.
Thomas Chalmers in the 1800’s is credited with having discovered the gap in the first two verses of the Bible. The gap was always there but it wasn’t noticed until scientific discoveries made it plain that the earth was a very old planet.
Why do most Christians cling to the notion that the earth is young? It’s mainly because there are young earth power brokers such as Kent Hovind, Duane Gish, Ken Ham, Walter Brown, and others who stand ready to feed the flocks the fables that would appear to establish the idea of a young earth. These men, and you, and I will all have to stand before Christ when he returns. Any one who claims to be an agent of truth should be very careful to learn the truth and teach the truth.
There are various gap theories. The most famous gap is located between the first verse in the Bible and the middle of the second verse.
Where is the gap?
"Haya" in the Hebrew is the key to understanding the gap. “Haya” is a generic verb. It can mean “was” as it appears in the King James Version Bible. It can also mean something else.
“And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep…” (Genesis 1:2 (first part of the verse)).
The word translated as “was” in the King James is the Hebrew “haya”, which is a generic verb. There are other meanings contained within the generic verb “haya”. One of those meanings is “became”. One might argue at this point that one is picking and choosing a meaning for the word. In a sense that is true. Keep in mind that is what the King James translators also did. They had to pick and choose. The Bible is over 7 million bytes long. Do you really believe that the King James translators picked and chose correctly through the entirety of the Bible? Not a chance! This is not a put-down of the King James Bible. In its time (and for hundreds of years thereafter) it was the ultimate English translation. In some ways it still is, compared to many of the liberal and traditional slanted modern translations that have been produced. Any theologian should have at least one King James Bible plus a relatively accurate modern version for comparison.
Gap theories focus on the first chapter of Genesis. The most logical gap theory focuses on the first 2 verses of the Bible. The first verse in the Bible “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” occurred a long time ago, probably billions of years ago. The gap of 13.5 billion years (give or take a few million) occurs between verse 1 and the middle of verse 2.
How is this possible?
The earth “became” (“haya”) without form and void (Genesis 1:2 (first part of the verse)). It is also worth mentioning that “without form and void” are also not the best translation. For the Hebrew words “tohuw” and “bohuw” “confusion and emptiness” is a better rendering. Are we picking and choosing? Yes, but so did the King James translators.
“And the earth became confusion and emptiness…” (Genesis 1:2 (first part of the verse)). We know that God does not create anything in confusion and emptiness. Therefore we now can see more justification for the word “became”. Otherwise we would have to conclude that God had created the earth in confusion and emptiness (or without form and void, using the King James phraseology).
What occurs starting in the middle of verse 2 is, in fact, the re-creation of the world in the technical sense of the word. However, you may also call it a creation. For example suppose your house burned down and nothing was left except the concrete foundation. You clear away the burnt rubble and build the new house on the old foundation. You have re-created the house. You could also say you have created the house. Both are correct but the word “re-create” is more specific. What God did in the 6 days was creation, re-creation, and specifically renewing the face of the earth.
“You send forth your spirit, they are created: and you renew the face of the earth” (Psalms 104:30).
“For thus says the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the Earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD: and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:18).
“…he created it not in vain….” The King James “vain” is the Hebrew “tohuw”, meaning confusion, the same Hebrew word used in the second verse of the Bible. He did not create it in confusion. Or using the King James phraseology, he did not create it without form.
There is no evidence of any creature being alive in the second verse of the Bible. In fact, there is every indication that any animals (such as dinosaurs) were by that time dead. After all, the oil that your car uses consists of dead plants and animals from the core of the earth.
Both Christians who insist on a 6 thousand year old earth and scientists who believe in evolution of the species have departed from reality. Evolution is a religion that should not be taught in schools at all. However, Christians who would like creation to be taught in the public schools are not likely to succeed as long as they believe in a 6 thousand year old earth. And evolutionary scientists are not going to convert Christians to evolution because the scriptures prove evolution to be an error.
If you would really like to know how old the earth is, geology is a fairly good teacher. If you would like to know how old humans are, Genesis is a fairly good teacher. Even though the earth is billions of years old, humans (Adam and Eve) are only about 6 thousand years old. Genealogies of the Bible prove Adam and Eve were created only about 6 thousand years ago. Geology proves many objects on this planet are billions of years old. The only logical way to reconcile these two facts is through the gap theory.
-- wilyelder
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