The Gap Theory of Genesis 1:1 and 1:2
Pre-Adamic Man
The issue of a 1st Creation or a Pre-Adamic race of people crept into the church during the Early-Mid 18th century. This was done in order to appease the Evolutionary Model of thinking and has neither basis nor warrant within the historic Church –nor should it. The idea is that in order to make Christianity appeal to the “masses of the highly learned” and in order to “explain” the idea of supposed various types of ancient humanoids IE, Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon etc. God somehow created a creation that somehow went awry or that He judged in anger. This reasoning is silly and an open back handed slap against the very character and nature of the God of the Bible, especially since there is absolutely no support for it in the Word of God. For a better understanding of who these people were visit either:
www.answersingenesis.org or to
www.icr.org . These ministries can assist and in fact have assisted many Christians to understand the origins and beginnings of mankind.
The idea of a Pre-Adamic race is as follows: they believe that God created an entire creation between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, but that God somehow “messed up” and had to judge this race of people and then recreate the world as it is now in Genesis Chapter 1:2.
Several critiques of this Pre-Adamic position:
1. If this position is to be held, it must be held in opposition to scripture. Scripture makes it clear that death came upon the Earth due to sin (Romans 5:12). Hence, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that due to the sin of Adam, himself death (physical death) entered into the world, so how could death come upon a race of people before death had ever been introduced into the world? Paul says here that death entered into the world after they had sinned in Chapter 3, not before as this position holds.
2. If God did somehow “mess-up” or fail in his original plan then He is an imperfect God. If He is an imperfect God then He is not Sovereign over all Creation, Perfect, and Worthy of worship!
The Day-Age Theory
Again, with the rise of educational elitism, the idea by some Biblical scholars was to make the Bible more appealing by insinuating that the days listed in Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 were not really 24 hr periods of time, but that they were in fact possibly millions of years. Again, this is a silly argument and without warrant from Scripture; however, it is a position that some Christians have come to hold so we must address it here.
Critiques:
1. It is true that in some places in the OT, that the Hebrew word Yom-often translated day does not mean a 24 hr period of time. This is especially true in Hebrew poetry and in both the Major and Minor Prophets; however, just because it is that way in these places does it mandate that here in the opening chapters of Genesis.
2. The use of numbers like 1st, 2nd and 3rd day seek to reveal to us that Moses did indeed intend for us to understand the creation “Days” to be literal 24 hr periods of time (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31. We also see the 7th day marked out as a regular day in 2:2)
3. Evening and morning further set forth the text into these appointed 24 hr periods of time.
4. By adhering to a “Day-Age” once must ask if a day is truly a “Million Years” then what about the “Nights”, were they a Million years also? We understand time to be continual i.e., morning follows night and night follows day etc. So were there 500,000 years of day,and then 500,000 years of night? If so, would not all plant life die out during the 500,000 years of night due to a lack of photosynthesis, and then all other life ultimately die here upon Earth? Of course it would which is the point, again this Theory is without warrant in scripture and is just another way to marginalize the text of the Bible in order to accommodate the unbelieving.
5. By maintaining the Day-Age Theory, the adherent totally destroys the significance of the Sabbath in the OT (Genesis 2:13, and Exodus 20:8-11).
Remember in the OT, the people were to memorialize the Creative Work of God (See again Exodus 20:8-11). The creative work of God is seen in the text as good (Chapter 1:4, 12, 18, 21, 25. In verse 31 of Chapter 1, God Himself says that creation was “Very Good”). Thus we see the power of God demonstrated within the passage and that it was to be remembered as a Divine Work in which He (God) revealed his limitless power and glory. Hence, we should deduce that the World and all that is contained therein was indeed created within the 6 literal days given in scripture and that these days were in fact 24 hour periods of time.
Theistic Evolution
Theistic Evolution teaches that set the universe in basic motion and that through “Natural Processes”, the Universe came into being along with all of the planets, galaxies, and various types of life (animal, vegetation, and human). In other words, God set everything up or provided the basic building blocks and then allowed nature to take its course. This view is ultimately nothing more than Darwinian Evolution with God tagged on the back end as some Cosmic Genie. Theistic Evolution is really a denial of a personal God who is definitely involved in the affairs of men which makes God very distant and uncaring