Hill 1 Gary Hill Professor Bill Carnagey BBS 100 A Survey of the New Testament 1 May 2013 2033

3 A Survey of the Old Testament The book of Genesis is the foundational book of the Bible, the book of beginnings of creation, truth, man, woman, Sabbath, marriage, home, childhood, agriculture, sacrifice, grace, sin, murder, and many others all have their birthings here. One of the Exegetical issues that have developed between Biblical scholars over the years is whether there is a time gap in the creation account of Genesis. The significant gap theories postulate slightly different views of the creation account, but all attempt to justify a much older earth between the verses of Genesis 1.1 and 2 or 1.2 and 3. The most prominent of the theories is the Ruin-reconstruction theory which we will examine. (Ham). The Ruin-reconstruction Theory Authors Who first suggested the gap theory? Dr. Thomas Chalmers (17 March 1780 31 May 1847), a notable Scottish theologian and first moderator of the Free Church of Scotland was credited with being the man most responsible for the ruin-reconstruction gap theory. (Fields). This idea can be traced back to the relatively obscure writings of the Dutch Arminian Simon Episcopius (1583 1643) and first recorded officially from one of Chalmers lectures in 1814. Reverend William Buckland (1784 1856), a geologist, did much to popularize the ruinreconstruction gap theory. (Taylor). The origins of this theory came from a period when the study of Geology was just beginning to be accepted by the global scientific community.

Hill 2 The Ruin-reconstruction Theory Defined An accepted definition of the ruin-reconstruction gap theory is hard to find; they all seemed to have a intolerance to one side or the other. The definition that seems the least biased came from All About Creations website. Their description states, The Gap Theory holds that the ages of evolution (the periods and eras of "modern science") occurred before the six days of biblical Creation, but were part of the creative process of God. These ages were then terminated by a worldwide catastrophic event, followed by a period of replenishing the earth, according to the following instructions of God in Genesis: "Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (NKJV, Genesis 1.28). The Ruin-construction Controversy There appears to be a couple of ways to respond to the presumed gap theory. One of these is dismissing the theory or misapply it. We will try to make neither. Starting with the removal of the Bible and school prayer in 1963 from public schools began a trend of false teaching of evolution as established science. Theologians, sensing a departure from the truth of the Word of God, responded by attempting to reconcile the Bible to science, instead of standing on the Word of God. When trying to put theistic evolution into creation, it is like passing . . .a camel through the eye of a needle (NKJV, Matthew 19.24). It flies in the face of God whose passion for creation is evident in the often ignored Gospel of Paul, the most profound book of all literature, and the New Testament, Romans. Romans 1.18-35 delivers a curse that God pronounced on unbelieving humans who observed His magnificent creation before them so that unbelieving mankind, who has knowledge of Him manifest within them, is without excuse.

Hill 3 The Gap Theory Scriptural Issues While most gap theorist maintains a literal hermeneutic, the overall gap theory seems to be in direct contradiction to a number of scriptures that most literalist accepts. For example, when Moses and Aaron received the Law, God emphatically states, For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (NKJV, Exodus 20.11). First, in this passage God clearly delineates the creation in terms both Moses and Aaron could understand. The days of creation are spoken by the Creator Himself in a clear, concise, account that is not allegorical or symbolic, but rather a manifestation of time by God who created time and space, but who inhabits eternity. (NKJV, Isaiah 57.17a). Second, Romans 5.12 states, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. From this scripture, we know there was no sin or death prior to Adam which presents a formidable scriptural issue for the gap theorist. Paul testifies to Adam being the first man in 1 Corinthian 15.41 which removes any doubt. Paul wrote, And so it is written, The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. From the Word of God, we have Adam defined as the first man created during the sixth day. God had provided evidence for humanity removing any doubt about when life began, the first man Adam. Jesus, while in the region of Judea, received the usual questions by the Pharisees, but always in control, turned the tables on the Pharisees by saying, . . . Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. (NKJV, Mark 10.5-6). God in the flesh said that the creation of mankind

Hill 4 starting with Adam and Eve and the creation of the earth occurred in the context of what God had said in Exodus 20.11. Jesus Christ could not contradict what the Father had said, even if the Pharisees tried. When doubting the Words of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have a much bigger problem than whether the gap theory is true Biblically or not. Paul is perhaps one of the smartest men ever to live and probably is one of the greatest writers. He makes one of the clearest statements in the Word of God on the role Jesus Christ had in the creation and continues to apply in the world today. Paul states, For by Him all things were created that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (NKJV, Colossians 1.16-17) Historical Beliefs about Creation Augustine, 354 430 A.D., one of the earliest church fathers approached creation differently from the gap theorist in philosophy. Augustine states, What kind of days these were it is extremely difficult, or perhaps impossible for us to conceive. Augustine, who was an allegorist in the vein of Origen, believed in instantaneous creation, and that God did all creations by just speaking in a single breath. Augustines approach was that God spoke six creation acts into existence in a single instantaneous moment, and then had Moses wrote them down as six days. (Missler) Martin Luther, 1483 1546 A.D., speaking of creation, Moses spoke in a literal sense, not allegorically or figuratively that the world, with all its creatures, in six days were spoken into existence as the words read. We know from Moses that the world was not in existence before 6,000 years ago. Luther also was critical of Augustines allegorical use of the Genesis 1 and 2 accounts: Nor does it serve any useful purpose to make Moses at the outset so mystical and

Hill 5 allegorical. His purpose is to teach us, not about allegorical creatures and an allegorical world but real creatures and a visible world apprehended by the senses. He employs the terms day and evening without allegory, just as we customarily do. (Plass). G. H. Pember, MA, who otherwise was a staunch Brethren Christian from England, was a gap advocate even though the term was not part of his personal dialect. In his classic work, Earths Earliest Ages, Pember first attempted to remove some of geological and other difficulties commonly associated with the commencing chapters of Genesis; and then endeavored to show that the characteristic features of the Days of Noah were reappearing in Christendom, and, therefore, that the Days of the Son of Man could not be far away. Doubt cast on creation comes not only from outside the non-Christian scientific community where it would be expected, but, from also from within the professing scholarly Christians. Friar George Coyne, the former Vatican Observatory Director, made the following comments: How are we to interpret this scientific picture of lifes origins in terms of religious belief? Do we need God to explain this? Very succinctly, my answer is no. In fact, to need God would be a mere denial of God. God is not the response to a need. One gets the impression from certain religious believers that they fondly hope for the durability of certain gaps in our scientific knowledge of evolution, so that they can fill them with God. This is the exact opposite of what human intelligence is all about. We should be seeking for the fullness of God in creation. We should not need God; we should accept him when he comes to us. (Coyne) Why should we discuss evolution in an investigation about the gap theory? Dr. Jack Sofield, a gap theorist and former medical physicist puts it this way, The relationship between

Hill 6 evolution and the gap theory is found in the theory's statements that express a desire to provide for the lengthy time periods, or ages, required for evolutionary concepts and to harmonize these ages with the Biblical record of creation. Conclusion Theistic evolution, by its sheer nature, must at the very least draw inferences that are merely speculation from the text of the Genesis account of creation by necessity. The gap theory creates inconsistencies with Gods creation of the heavens, the earth, and all that is in them in six days. The gap theory and its variants, and theistic evolution both seem to be peoples attempts to bring the Bible in part to the whims of science, ever changing from study to study, instead of science bringing their disciplines in line with the Word of God. . . .God is not a man that He should lie (NKJV, Numbers 23.19), and is a jealous God (NKJV, Exodus 20.5), and one of the things that God is acutely sensitive about is His creation. Romans 1.18-35, is Gods reaction to an unbelieving mankind to what He has created for our enjoyment, and the resulting curse, or failure to observe natural law, in failing to recognize Him as the creator. The failure to recognize the creators role in the creation of all things is the ultimate violation of the natural laws of the universe. Jesus agreed: "You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (NKJV, John 8.32). The Bible is an integrated messaging system from an extraterrestrial God with 66 separate books, penned by 40 individual authors over thousands of years, which provably had its origin outside the time domain. (Missler) I believe strongly that there is nothing in the Genesis account which requires a theory above Gods successive six days of creation, be it theistic evolution or the gap theory. The United States Supreme Court in a 1963 ruling banned formal prayer and Bible reading in public

Hill 7 schools which in effect made it illegal to teach Gods creation along with the evolution theory. The failure to examine all the evidence is either myopic or an outright anti-Christian bias. For the children who have been, and are being raised in front of a television and educated in a government created space free from the Word of God is one of the greatest slaps in the face of God. Gods is in control as we can learn from this statement, Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed saying, Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure. (Psalm 2.1-5). For America and the world, I see the times of Jacobs trouble coming down the road. (NKJV, Jeremiah 30.7)

Hill 8 Works Cited Chaffey, Tim, Jason Lisle. DefenseBiblical Argument. 5 January 2012. Web. 29 April 2013. Coyne, George, SJ. A Catholic Scientist Looks at Evolution. Catholic.org. 1 February 2006. Web. 1 May 2013 Fields, Weston. Unformed and Unfilled. Collinsville: Burgeners Enterprises. 1976. P. 40. Print Gap Theory. All about Creation Organization. n.a. Web. 2 May 2013. Ham, Ken. What About the Gap and Ruin-Reconstruction Theories? Answers in Genesis Organization. 6 September 2007. Web. 27 April 2013. Luther, Martin. Luthers Works: Volume 1: Lectures on Genesis 1-5. Ed. Jaroslav Pelikan. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing. 1958. Print. Missler, Chuck. Cosmic Codes. Couer dAlene: Koinonia House Publishing. 2011. P. 357. Print. ---. Learn the Bible in 24 Hours. Dallas: Thomas Nelson. 2002. P. 1. Print. New King James Version, The Scofield Study Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print. Pember, G. H. Earths Earliest Ages, London: Hodder and Stoughton. n.d. Preface. Print. Sofield, Jack. The Gap Theory of Genesis Chapter One. Bible.org. 1975. Web. 29 April 2013. Taylor, Ian. In the Minds of Men: Darwin and the New World Order. Toronto: TFE Publishing. 1984. P. 363. Print. What Luther Says. A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian, Ed. Ewald M. Plass, Concordia, P. 93. 1959. Print.