A little more here:
KayDee, you mentioned the Gap Theory -- or that 'whole bunch of stuff' which was supposed to happen between Genesis 1 and 2.
Ain't there. There is no gap. The first verse of Genesis is the creation of time, space, and mass from nothing -- they physical universe. The second verse tells us what condition all this stuff was in -- formless and void, meaning it had no solid shape and it had no intrinsic organization. It was just 'stuff' or 'mass.' THEN God started organizing it!
A good explanation of the Gap theory was found by one of our folks back on the old Creation/Evolution board. It is Walt Brown's site, here
http://www.creationscience.com/
There's an alphabet on the page near the bottom. Click on 'g' for 'gap' and when you see 'gap theory', go there.
Is man eternal? Not in the past, but in the future, yes. Jesus indicates that very clearly at the end of the parable of the sheep and goats when He says
"Then they [the goats] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
So however long eternal life is, that's how long eternal punishment is, and that is how long we will be in existence.
I heard something from a pastor once that really stuck with me, and I've thought about a lot since:
"Only one Man was born to die. The rest were born to live."
Sometimes I wonder what horrid pain we have caused God...
I know that I have, when this thought strikes a little too deeply once in awhile, apologized to Him for the whole human race -- myself very much included! Yes, I'm saved for sure and for good, but when I think of the cost, and the pain...