Gap Theory and/or
The Ruin-and-Reconstruction Theory of Genesis 1

Gap Theory
"The gap theory teaches that God created the world perhaps billions of years ago, and it was perfect and beautiful in every way. This is the creation described in Genesis 1:1. This creation was populated with plants and animals and perhaps even with a race of pre-Adamic men who had no souls. Then, as a result of Lucifer's rebellion and fall (Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28), the earth—Lucifer's domain—became chaos. The picture of formlessness, emptiness, and darkness in Genesis 1:2 is allegedly a picture of divine judgment, for God could not have originally created the earth this way (see Isaiah 24:1; 45:18; Jeremiah 4:23-26). Darkness is often used as a symbol of judgment and sin in Scripture (John 3:19; Jude 13). The original creation in Genesis 1:1 was one of light, but after God judged the earth, it was characterized by darkness (verse 2). Millions of years—perhaps even billions of years—are said to have taken place between verses 1 and 2. Hence the 'gap' theory.

"Gap proponents typically translate Genesis 1:2 this way: 'But the earth became without form and empty' (italics added). Traditional translations render it, 'But the earth was without form and empty' (italics added). Gap proponents argue that the earth 'became' (Hebrew: hayetha) without form and empty when God judged the world as a result of Lucifer's sin. The words 'without form and void' (Hebrew: tohu wa-bohu) appear elsewhere only in Isaiah 34:11 and Jeremiah 4:23, and in these verses 'formless' and 'void' speak of judgment and destruction. Therefore, the words must have the same meaning in Genesis 1.

"In this view, God's judgment on the earth involved a devastating global flood followed by an Ice Age. All life on planet earth was apparently extinguished. The apparent old age of the earth and the extensive fossils showing development over long periods of time relate to this first creation. The six days of creation discussed throughout the rest of Genesis 1 (verse 2 and following) relate to God's re-creation or restoration of the earth, not the original creation. This reconstruction probably took place around 4000 B.C."

Ron Rhodes, The 10 Things You Should Know About the Creation Vs. Evolution Debate (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2004), 45-46.

From my perspective we can treat Genesis one of four ways.

1.> Genesis is a remarkable piece of literature written by a nomadic desert tribe basically making itself feel good by writing how they are better than the rest of us because their god can beat up your god. But basically as beautiful and inspirational as it is, its primarily a work of fiction wishing it was true.

2.> Genesis is an ACTUAL accurate record of what YHWH told Moses on Mount Zion and should be taken absolutely literal and that GOD created the earth and the universe in six days and the universe and the earth are about 6,000 years old and any data that suggest otherwise is either misinterpreted, fraudulent, or was placed their by GOD to test our faith.

3.> Genesis is an ACTUAL accurate record of what YHWH told Moses on Mount Zion and should be taken figuratively. GOD in his wisdom used metaphor and simile to describe a process that actually occured over billions of years but each epoch of the process represented a day in the life of GOD. From GOD'S eternal perspective the billions of years leading up to Adam and Eve were like 5 days.

I once read an excellent scientific article that explained how Genesis correlated to the major stages that science now believe the universe went through as it expanded from the Big bang. The Universe was thousands of years old before the expanding mega-hot plasma cooled to the point that photons could actually travel more than a few nano-meters before being reabsorbed by the particle soup. Here is a quick overview as I remember the article. Can't remember author or publication, just the concept.

Day One: Big Bang to transparency of light. (And God said let there be light)

The Radiation Era
10,000 years

The first major era in the history of the universe is one in which most of the energy is in the form of radiation -- different wavelengths of light, X rays, radio waves and ultraviolet rays. This energy is the remnant of the primordial fireball, and as the universe expands, the waves of radiation are stretched and diluted until today, they make up the faint glow of microwaves which bathe the entire universe.

Day Two: Transparency of Light to Domination of Matter (GOD separates Earth from Heaven)

The second epoch of the Big bang was when the universe cooled so that matter could form as stable atoms. Beginning the Era of Matter Domination
300,000 years

At this moment, the energy in matter and the energy in radiation are equal. But as the relentless expansion continues, the waves of light are stretched to lower and lower energy, while the matter travels onward largely unaffected. At about this time, neutral atoms are formed as electrons link up with hydrogen and helium nuclei. The microwave background radiation hails from this moment, and thus gives us a direct picture of how matter was distributed at this early time.

Day Three: Birth of Stars and Galaxies (God said let dry land appear)

300 million years
Gravity amplifies slight irregularities in the density of the primordial gas. Even as the universe continues to expand rapidly, pockets of gas become more and more dense. Stars ignite within these pockets, and groups of stars become the earliest galaxies. This point is still perhaps 12 to 15 billion years before the present.

Day Four: Birth of the Sun and our Solar system (And God said, let there be lights that mark the seasons.)

5 Billion Years Before the Present
The sun forms within a cloud of gas in a spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. A vast disk of gas and debris that swirls around this new star gives birth to planets, moons, and asteroids . Earth is the third planet out and the moon is its companion.

Day Five: Life Evolves (And God said, "Let the water, earth and air teem with living creatures)

3.8 Billion Years BP
The Earth has cooled and an atmosphere develops. Microscopic living cells, neither plants nor animals, begin to evolve and flourish in earth's many volcanic environments.

Primitive Animals Appear
700 Million Years BP
These are mostly flatworms, jelly fish and algae. By 570 million years before the present, large numbers of creatures with hard shells suddenly appear.

The First Mammals Appear
200 Million Years BP
The first mammals evolved from a class of reptiles that evolved mammalian traits, such as a segmented jaw and a series of bones that make up the inner ear.

Dinosaurs Become Extinct
65 Million Years BP
An asteroid or comet slams into the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. This world-wide cataclysm brings to an end the long age of the dinosaurs, and allows mammals to diversify and expand their ranges.

Day 6: Man appears (And God said let us make man in our image)

Homo Sapiens Evolve
600,000 Years BP
Our earliest ancestors evolve in Africa from a line of creatures that descended from apes.

Here is the url I used to get the epochs from. https://www.strangemusic.com/BBTL.htm

So from this viewpoint Genesis is the word of GOD but very symbolic and metaphorical..

4.> Genesis is an ACTUAL accurate record of what YHWH told Moses on Mount Zion and should be taken literally from the perspective of the planet. When Genesis is translated properly we understand that Gensis is an Account of Gods repairing the Earth after something bad happened to it.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth. 2 And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. KJV

The answer to this paradox is in how Gen. 1:2 is commonly translated from Hebrew to English. In the original Hebrew, the words are (transliterated into the English alphabet) erets hayah tohuw bohuw choshek paniym tehowm ruwach elohiym rachaph al paniym mayim. The meaning of the these words, as cross-referenced in the Hebrew/English Dictionary of Strong's Concordance are:

(erets – Earth ) (hayah – was, come to pass, became) (tohuw – formlessness, confusion, chaos) (bohuw – emptiness, void, waste) (choshek – darkness, obscurity ) (paniym – face, surface) (tehowm – primeval ocean, deep) (ruwach – wind, breath, mind, spirit ) (Elohiym – God) (rachaph – move, hover) (al – over) (paniym – face, surface) (mayim – waters, waterflood).

The second Hebrew word in Genesis 1:2 is hayah, which should be translated as "came to pass," or, for the most accurate word for word translation, "became." If just a few words from the ancient Hebrew are translated more accurately into English, the translation that results provides a deeper understanding that solves the puzzle.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth. 2 And it came to pass that the Earth became a wasteland, empty and chaotic; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The sentence in Gen. 1:1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth, can be treated as a statement that stands by itself. Millions or billion of years passed between Gen. 1:1 and Gen. 1:2. Instead of Genesis 1 being about how God created the heavens and Earth in seven days, it is about how God repaired (renewed) the Earth in seven days. The renewing was necessary because of the terrible cataclysm that had wiped all life off of the face of the Earth. The tragic event that required God to personally come down and repair the Earth was the War of the Angels. It was Lucifer who was responsible for plunging the planet into frozen darkness.

Day 1–Black Smoke and Dark Clouds covered the Earth: The world was frozen and covered with a dark atmosphere, choked with smoke and clouds. The air was so thick with corruption that no light could glimmer through it. Lucifer's destruction was so complete that possibly only a few deep-sea creatures were still alive. The seas were frozen or close to freezing up. If the Spirit of God hadn't intervened, eventually, even the deep-sea creatures would have died. Genesis 1:2 begins with the Spirit of God hovering over the water. Obviously, science understands the universe was not created from water. By accepting both Science and Genesis, understanding can be achieved. Conditions Similar to Nuclear Winter: The conditions described in Genesis resemble the same conditions of a nuclear winter. The term "nuclear winter" was coined to describe the effect a nuclear war would have on Earth's atmosphere. Hydrogen bombs exploding all over the Earth would raise so much dust into the atmosphere that the Earth would be completely cut off from the Sun's warming rays. The result would be a terrible, planet-wide winter. The Earth would be so cold and dark that all life would cease to exist. This pre-historic planet-wide freeze would explain why the mammoths were frozen so quickly that many have been found with food still in their mouths. It has always been a puzzle to scientists as to how or why they became frozen so quickly. Research indicates that many species disappeared over night, geologically speaking. Somewhere between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, the Earth lost mammoths, saber toothed tigers, giant armadillos and such. The best current scientific theory is violent climate changes. Gen. 1:2 …God divided the light from the darkness. On the first day, God cleared the atmosphere enough for light to penetrate to the Earth's surface. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. (KJV throughout unless noted otherwise)

Day 2–The Ice Melts: Gen. 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. The temperature of the Earth was so cold that the seas were frozen and the land was covered in deep ice and snow. God warmed the Earth so that water separated from the ice to become water below and clouds above. This is what is meant to divide the waters from the waters to create the heavens. …And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Day 3–Dry Land and Plants Appear: Gen. 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. Warming the Earth and melting the ice caused massive flooding. The melted water settled in the low areas revealing the land. Gen. 1:11 And God said, Let the Earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the Earth: and it was so. … And the evening and the morning were the third day. The cold had killed all the plants. God needed the plants to be back in place before placing animals on the Earth so they would have something to eat.

Day 4–Sun, Moon and Stars Revealed: Scientists criticize the accuracy of God supposedly creating the Sun, Moon and Stars on the fourth day. Since Genesis records God repairing the Earth, now the fourth day makes sense. On the third day, the atmosphere was still steamy and full of clouds. On day two, the ice had just been converted into water and vapor clouds. By day four, the atmosphere wasn't clear yet. Clouds still covered the Earth heavily on day three. As the floods subsided, God brought the water-loving plants back into the world, but the cloudy steamy atmosphere prevented a clear view of the celestial heavens.

Gen. 1:14-19 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the Earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the Earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

It doesn't match scientific evidence for the Sun and Stars to have been created after the Earth. What God did on the fourth day was to finish cleaning up the air and break up the cloud cover. The Sun, Moon and Stars were hidden up to this time because the atmosphere had become so polluted and dark by the War of the Angels. This theory matches the scientific record. The Sun came before the Earth and was not created a day after God put plants on the Earth. Gen. 1:1 states God created the heavens and the Earth. The Sun, Moon, and Stars are part of the heavens. Verse 2 is later in the timeline; it is not the beginning of a detailed commentary of Verse 1, which stands alone. God created the heavens and the Earth, period. The heavens are mentioned again in Verse 4, billions of years later than Verse 1 in the timeline. The Sun, Moon, and Stars existed before the Rebellion of Lucifer and were hidden by the darkness created by Lucifer. God cleared the air for the plants restored on day three so they could have sunshine. Biblical Hebrew is not a "tense" language: Why is the language of day four in present tense and not past tense? It doesn't read "God had made," it reads, "God made." Biblical Hebrew is not a "tense" language. Modern grammarians recognize that it is an "aspectual" language. This means that the same form of a verb can be translated as past, present, or future depending on the context and various grammatical cues. When it references the Sun and Stars, the original Hebrew does not indicate when the Sun and Stars were made, (i.e. present tense) but simply a statement that God made them to be for times and seasons and so forth. Genesis 1 is a record of God repairing the damage caused by Lucifer's war. The fourth day was the day the clouds were cleared by God so that the Sun, Moon, and Stars could be seen.

Day 5–Fish and Birds restored: Gen. 1:20-23 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the Earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth in the waters did God create. And every winged fowl after his kind did God place for his pleasure. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Day 6–Animals and Mankind restored: Gen. 1:24-27 And God said, Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the Earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the Earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the Earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

SUMMARY: Genesis is not a record of God creating the Heavens and the Earth from nothing in seven days but instead a record of God repairing the Earth in seven days.

From Verse 2 of Genesis 1 on, the remainder of this first chapter of the Bible is not describing the original creation of the Earth. But it is describing a renewing of the face of the Earth, after it had become waste and empty as a result of the sin of the angels.

Day 7–God Rests: Gen. 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Long before the Ten Commandments were given to Israel, God established a special day dedicated to rest and sanctification. The purpose of this day was to make it easy for mankind to get close to God every seven days. The spiritual ruler of this world has blinded mankind to the benefits of the Sabbath.

I believe this is an accurate view of the four main approaches taken by most people. I am now going to share with you what I believe to be the most probable correct interpreatations on a scale of 0% to 100% and why.

1.> Genesis is a remarkable piece of literature: 0% - If it hadn't been for the discovery of the Torah Codes, which is another huge controversy of itself, I would have given this perspective as a greater than zero percent of being correct. See: https://reluctant-messenger.com/torah_codes.htm

In my opinion the discovery of the Torah Codes proves Genesis is from YHWH and not just nomadic literature. Had it not been for the discovery of the Bible Codes / Torah Codes I wouldn't have any trouble considering the Bible as possibly so much ancient literature to be appreciated but not taken literal.

2.> Genesis is literal and Earth/Universe is 6,000 yers old. 0% The slam dunk as I had posted elsewhere is that the speed of light proves the universe is Billions of years old. And I don't buy for a second that GOD made the Earth and Universe look billions of years old to test our faith.

3.> Genesis is symbolic of 7 epochs of the BIG BAng until NOW. 5% The reason I can give this approach 5% is because of the scriptures that say "To God a day is like 1,000 years and a 1,000 years is like a day," So I am willing to hold out that quite possibly anything written in Genesis reflects that truth by showing us that billions of years of evolution is like a week in the life of an eternal God.

4.> Genesis is an ACTUAL accurate record of GOD repairing the Earth. **I'm 95% convinced this is the most logical approach to understanding Genesis. What really sold me on this was when Scientist discovered in Antartic Core Samples that there was massive volcanic residu in the form af heavy metals 6,100 years ago (long before it could have been attibuted to pollution from industry.) See: https://reluctant-messenger.com/ancient_dust.htm

Genesis 2 verses 1 and 4 appear to contradict the theory that Genesis 1 is an account of GOD repairing the Earth.

Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.

Gen 2:4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens...

Q: Don't these verses plainly discredit the notion that Genesis 1 is an account of GOD repairing the Earth after the War of the Angels? Verse 4 plainly states that Genenis 1 was a history of GOD creating the heavens and Earth, not repairing them.

A: It definitely appears to do so in English. But, the original text was written in Hebrew and was translated into English under the assumption that Genesis 1 was a description of a 7 day creation from nothing. Examining the original Hebrew in verse 1 actually confirms that this was a repair of the Earth after a war.

The word translated into English as HOST is tsaba' {tsaw-baw'}. According to the TWOT - Theological Word Book of the Old Testament the definition of TSABA is: that which goes forth, army, war, warfare, or host. This word is almost always translated elsewhere in the Old Testament in the context of war or warfare. But, because the translaters assumed the word was being used in the context of creating the entire universe the word host was used to indicate GOD created the entire Universe. What was actually being communicated was that the War was over because the Sky and Land had been brought back to its original state before the war. (The word translated as heaven can also mean sky or air).

The word translated in verse 4 as CREATED is the Hebrew word bara' {baw-raw'}, which is a verb. Once, again, the translators assumed that the heaveans and earth were created in seven days so other, more accurate, English words were not considered. The definition of BARA according to the Theological Word Book of the Old Testament is: to create, shape, or form. One of the alternate meaning listed is transformations. In other words, the translators could have said it was an account of when the sky and land was transformed. The word translated as HISTORY is towldah {to-led-aw'}, which also can be translated as results. And the word translated as MADE, is from the Hebrew word `asah {aw-saw'} which the Theological Word Book of the Old Testament defines as: to do, fashion, accomplish, or make.

Lets go back and see what the meaning would be if the translators had known of the War of the Angels and the fact that Genesis was an account of the land and air being transformed back to its state before the war.

1 Thus the war of the heavens and earth was brought to an end. . . . 4 This is the result of the heavens and of the earth being transformed, in the day that the LORD God accomplished it for the land and air.

According to the Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, the above translation is just as accurate from a technical perspective but, it makes a huge difference in the meaning and is consistent with GOD repairing the Earth after a war had destroyed it.

Well, I feel I have just about exhausted what I can say on this subject for now.

However, if you want a classic 6,000 year old Universe viewpoint that is very mainstream in how it rebuts the Gap Theory I would like to share this gem I found.

What is the "Gap Theory?", its origin and history? https://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c003.html

Here is a critical Gap Theory website that concludes it falls in the category of a deceptive teaching which can have adverse effects upon those who will believe it. https://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=36

More Gap Theory Critical sites

Gap Theory Questions and Answers

Back to Genesis

From the beginning of the creation

Christian Answers Gap Theory

Creation Gap Theory Refuted

For a more balanced viewpoint Wikipedia has
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_creationism

Apologetics Press has:
https://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/442

Gap Theory Proponent Sites

https://www.kjvbible.org/

https://www.raptureready.com/faq/faq89.html

https://reluctant-messenger.com/

https://www.ichthys.com/sr2-copy.htm

https://www.learnthebible.org/gap_or_not.htm

https://creationdays.dk/

https://the-gap-theory.blogspot.com/

Stephen aka Chester

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