What is the 'Gap Theory' of Genesis?

In our last OPEN MAT Q&A a viewer asked JM about 'Gap Theory' interpretation of Genesis 1...

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[ArleneAdkinsZell]

Thank you for clipping this out, makes it easier to go back and take notes.

[Terrylb]

How long the days are in the Genesis account is an interpretation debate . How old the earth is, is a science debate because the Bible just does not say how old the earth and universe is.

[leeshelenberger]

There is no gap theory, it is gap fact.

[daltonburroughs]

Are you going to go over other views of Genesis in other videos? If so that would be cool.

[louisvassallo]

The Hebrew text supports the gap with 2 Floods in Genesis also the Sun and Moon were not revealed until day 4 of creation so we don't know how time was measured before that point in creation . I suggest you look deeper into how many places in the Bible . It's clear that a civilization existed before Adam. Jeremiah 4 talks at length on this subject .

[ksteak]

Seems like a crutch to pit finite science (aka what finite men's minds can understand) against an infinite God (who exists wholly outside of "science"). Why do we think our finite minds can define and box-in an infinite God??

[alex-qeqn]

I do not hold to the gap theory, but I do think that it is unfairly attacked in one particular. It is abundantly clear that the verb cannot be translated as “became” - that is, as denoting action or process. But, the translating of it as “was”, as a stative, does *not* disprove a gap - it merely informs us that, at the time of description, the earth was what it was. And a stative can be viewed as the present result of past action or process - that is “was” can be viewed as “had become”.

[buukkreider]

The Creation Story from Genesis 1.

There are three main thoughts on Genesis 1 and the Six Days of Creation. These are a short list, just three...

1) It was Six 24-Hour days that the Earth and Heavens were created. There are variations that it was only the Earth or only from the time of Adam was a total of six days.

2) It was Six 'Thousand Years' days (the thousand years are more or less, but about a thousand years per day).

3) The Gap. In Genesis 1:1 God had created the Heavens and the Earth. That could have been millions or billions of years ago. In verse 2, God replenished the Earth with life.


For those that study this - it is necessary that those that have a view on this they have read The Holy Bible over and over. They have read, studied, and meditated on God's Word. If they haven't done this part, then it would be too difficult for them to understand. That is what I believe is true. Of course, God has to help.

It is important to consider the Angels. The Angels were also created by God. The Angels were apparently given FREE WILL. When some of them went against God... that was bad for them because they had become FALLEN ANGELS.

A note on FREE WILL. I have often heard theologians and scholars say that we all have a free will, but that is not exactly true. Adam had a FREE WILL, but he fell. We are from Adam and we are already in a bad position. We may think we have FREE WILL, but we actually don't, but a fallen position where we need help from GOD. Enough said there.

In Job 38, The Lord tells Job that the Sons of God (Angels) shouted for joy when the foundations were fastened...


Job 38:4-7 The Sons of God Shouted

4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

When the foundations of the laid - when was that: what day?


Also, when God created The Earth did he make it void first? Or was the Earth already existing as a void? In Isaiah 45:18 he created it not in vain or void...

Isaiah 45:18 Not Created in Vain or Void

18 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.

How long did it take to create the earth from this passage in Isaiah?

When did the Fall of Angels occur which includes Satan?

When the Serpent was in the garden Satan was already fallen. So when did the fall occur?

Also, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnons don't seem to fit. When God made Adam, Adam was intelligent already. Otherwise, if God made man in his own image and if you believe in Evolution, what did God look like? Did he have a Neanderthal appearance, then did he also change in appearance after that?

Then there is the dinosaur question. Reading Genesis 1 - I don't see any dinosaurs there. There may have been dinosaur-like creatures in the seas, but not on the land. I never saw where Adam met T-Rex or Triceratops.

Also concerning the dinosaurs and science - there were three periods: The Triassic; the Jurassic; and the Cretaceous Period. The Cretaceous Period is when T-Rex and Triceratops were existing.

Science has fossils and it is difficult to dispute.

Now the fall of Satan is mentioned in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 - and you have to understand that in the Prophets there are oftentimes multiple applications.

Again I say, those that have not spent time reading, studying, and meditating on God's Word; and have not been through the complete Holy Bible over and over... this might be too much to handle. To those that have, then please listen to what I will say.

In Isaiah 14 - The Bright Morning Star or Lucifer rebelled against God. In this passage it speaks of The King of Babylon and beyond. This passage also speaks of The Beast that will be at his height in Revelation.


Isaiah 14:12-15 Son of The Morning - Similar to Day Star

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

The Lord Jesus is called The Day Star by Simon Peter, and he is called The Bright and Morning Star in Revelation by The Lord himself...


2Peter 1:19-21 The Day Star - and The Holy Ghost Inspiring Prophets

19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.


In Revelation 22:16 The Bright and Morning Star

16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

The Enemy is a deceiver and tries to act like he's The Lord Jesus. His title as Son of The Morning is close to Day Star and Bright and Morning Star.

So for the three main thoughts of creation I have one more passage in the book of The Prophet Jeremiah 4...


Jeremiah 4:23-26 The Pre-Adam Days God Destroyed the Earth

23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.


With this passage from Jeremiah it is easier to see the passages from Isaiah and Ezekiel...

Ezekiel 28:11-18

11 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

This passage speaks of The King of Tyrus, but it also speaks of the Anointed Cherub that fell. This will also be applicable in the 70th Week.

When The Anointed Cherub was in Eden, The Garden of God - that was before Adam was in the Garden of Eden. This is either a different garden or the same garden, but a little different in Adam's time.

Again, when did this occur? Walking in the Garden of God.

Now, as in Isaiah 14 this individual had a kingdom. This one here mentions that he had sanctuaries. Hmm.

He was perfect in all his ways... until iniquity was found. Pride found its way. The devil and pride are closely related.

Therefore, I have to go with the Gap. Most modern scholars will go with the Creation of the Heavens and Earth in Six Days, and different scholars vary in that theology.

I am in the minority here, but that's okay with me. My reading, studying, meditations, and understanding of God's Word has me to believe that there was a gap in verse 1 and verse 2 in Genesis chapter 1.

Salvation is not based on what a person believes on in Genesis 1:1, 2 - and I prefer not to argue too deeply on the matter. I will end it here.

Praise The Lord!

[katielouise]

Fascinating! Thanks for explaining that. When Jesus returns and wipes out all the evil, I want to attend “God University”. I want to know everything that happened, if at all possible. 🤭

[drbill-rf]

As you indicated, a Gap theory of creation is a 19th Century man made fiction. In the Koren Tanakh (which you recently reviewed) the literal English translation of Genesis 1:1-3 is: "When God began creating heaven and earth, the earth was void and desolate, there was darkness on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved over the waters." There is no gap to insert a Gap Theory. I believe the Bible is solely about this earth and does not address the creation of the universe. If there are other life forms in the universe then God will provide them their own bible fitting for their planet's unique creation, although that bible's teaching will be the same as our Bible's teaching. Truth is truth and God is immutable. Praise God!

[lufknuht]

Don't confuse the gap theory with unnecessary baggage. The gap theory is the POV that there could be a long time between Gen 1:1 and 1:2. The theory does NOT imply what happened in the gap, except that by the end of it, the earth was tohu & bohu. The theory does NOT imply that evolution took place during the gap. The theory does not imply a pre-
Adamic civilization on earth. And the theory does not depend upon translating "became" in Gen 1:2.

[Dizerner]

Have you ever thought about, how a perfectly good God making a good creation would start out with dark waters swirling in chaos? Sure, it's dramatic and picturesque, but morally it seems very strange. Like when the Word became the light of the world, it entered into darkness, but that darkness was sin. Something about the picture stands out in contrast, and seems to indicate something to us, that there was a darkness even before creation itself somehow.

[johnusmc]

Gen 1:1 Did God create the "Heaven" or the "Heaven's" ....because.... it can't be both

[johnneufeld]

2 peter the earth that was and the earth which is now

[johnneufeld]

On what day did God create the devil,

[MAMoreno]

Pros of the Gap Theory:
1. It avoids the overt science denial of YEC.
2. It offers an explanation for Isaiah 45.18.

Cons of the Gap Theory:
1. It ignores the passage's literary structure.
2. It's too novel to be all that convincing.

[lonecar]

God's Timeline

“Why didn’t the disciples know that Jesus could feed the 4, 000 after he had fed the 5, 000 in the previous chapter?” Matt 15:33 (KJV)
 The so called “Christian” leaders of today teach that it is because they didn’t have faith. But the fact is that anyone involved in such a miracle and still skeptical would not only remember it but would be anxious for a similar situation to arise and prove it one way or the other. The discrepancy is put there to prod those with eyes to see (those sincere in search of truth) to investigate.
 The answer is given in the 16th chapter where Jesus speaks of the leaven of the Pharisees.
Matt 16:6-12 (KJV).
If that bread were literal then the disciples had every reason to believe that Jesus was being literal about the leaven and he therefore had no reason to chide them. But that bread being symbolic he chided them for not considering and taking to heart his teachings even after the third time of bringing up the subject. That teaching is what you are reading now.
The bible (KJV) says that Jesus followed no will of his own but the will of God.
John 6:38 (KJV)
His life in the flesh is an ensample (representation) of God's laws. Jesus says that bread represents his flesh (his life) which in turn represents God's law (the bread of life).
John 6:51 (KJV)
 Jesus’ death gave us the New Testament. Matt 26:28 (KJV) and Heb 9:16 (KJV)
The New Testament brings meat to the scriptures, represented by the two fishes.
The meat is the symbolic code and patterns that bring/bind all scripture in the bible (KJV) together. Heb 5:12-14 (KJV)
It has been 2 thousand years since Jesus, so each fish represents 1 thousand years. In turn the five loaves of bread represent 5 thousand years that God gave his laws to man.
21 And they that had eaten were about FIVE THOUSAND men, …Matt 14:21 (KJV)
This gives us a glimpse of Gods timeline. 7 thousand years ago Adam was kicked out of the garden. It also shows us that we are at the end of our time on this earth;
13 … and in the earthquake were slain of men SEVEN THOUSAND: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. Rev 11:13 (KJV)

 What does all this prove? It proves that the stories in the bible (KJV) aren’t meant to be taken literally. Also different parts of the hidden truths and patterns are written by different authors hundreds and thousands of years apart show that the bible (KJV) is the preserved word of God orchestrated, compiled, and translated by him and the Holy Ghost.
It tells us that the bible speaks of itself and that it is for OUR admonition.
4 Neither give heed to FABLES and ENDLESS GENEALOGIES…1 Tim 1:4 (KJV)
It tells us its message is hidden in the fables, parables, and stories through symbolism.
And above all it gives us a major key in unlocking the hidden timeline and agenda of God. It tells us that the following verse is meant to be taken as literal. 2 Peter 3:8 (KJV)
 So taking 2 Peter 3:8 (KJV) as literal tells us that each creation day is 1k years.
5 .... And the evening and the morning were the first day. Gen 1:5 (KJV)
Another thing that shows the creation days are 1k yrs. is if you take the phrase “the evening and the morning” and do a search verbatim of the whole bible (KJV) the only verse that comes up other than the creation days is Dan 8:26 (KJV) There is no way the events of the vision it speaks of could happen in one 24 hour period.

Okay now to get down to it. When you make the creation days 1k yrs. long you will notice there is a big problem. There is no way that plants (created on the third day) could live 1k yrs. without the sun (created on the fourth day). The only way for this to work is to switch the third day with the fourth day. And you can’t just switch verses at your leisure; you need to get permission first. That permission is in the book of Revelation with the seven seals, (a pattern of symbols that REVEAL the second week of Gods timeline, the time of man's dominion). Remember we are looking to move the 3rd day. So when you look at the 3rd seal we read; Rev 6:5-6 (KJV)
Balances are symbolic of the weighing of two things (choices). It’s giving us a choice, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny;” And in that choice it warns us, “and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” not to spoil the flow of things in your choice.
So when we switch the 3rd and 4th days we see a definite pattern (a flow).
On day 1 you have the one earth with no life created.
On day 2 God splits the earth in two, still no life created.
On day 3 God creates the sun and the moon and it is mentioned! that he also created the stars. Three cosmic entities, No life created.
On day 4 God creates plants. One form of life created.
On day 5 God creates fish and fowl. Two forms of life created.
On day 6 God creates cattle, creeper, and beast. Three forms of life created.
One would argue that man was also created on the 6th day making it four forms of life.
But a cow is a beast, the redundancy put there again to prod those with eyes to see to investigate. When we go to Matt 25:31-46 (KJV), we see that sheep are used to represent the righteous and goats are used to represent the sinner. When we go to Ezek 34:17 we see God judging between cattle and cattle and between rams (the righteous) and goats (the sinners) making cattle represent the only ones left the innocent. Not because they didn’t do anything wrong but because at the creation they didn’t know of God’s laws.
Therefore three forms of life created on the 6th day, man (cattle), creeper, and beast.
 And we can go further with this creation of man. In Gen 5:2 (KJV) God calls “their” name Adam, meaning more than one. When we go to Rev 17:15 (KJV) we see that waters are used to represent peoples, and when we go to Gen 2:11-14 (KJV) we see the creation of the four races of man represented by the four rivers.

And this story of the creation of the four races is only given once, which means that the story of Noah’s flood is parable also. So when we go to 2 Peter 3:5-6 (KJV) when it speaks of the earth being overflowed with water it is speaking of the earth in the first day of creation. It also mentions that there was life on it before it was overflowed, similar to a vivarium, or a prep-station.
 Let's do a recap:
God overflows the earth with water, then after 500 years of darkness (called the evening) God says (speaking to the heavenly host) “let there be light” or to paraphrase [lets go to work]. Then for 500 years (called the morning) God and the heavenly host start setting the foundations of the earth, such as putting the continents and their rich resources in strategic places. Then God lets the earth settle for 500 years, being the evening of the second day. Then the morning of the second day God splits the earth in two. Then 1k years later he creates the sun and the moon and like I said it is mentioned that he created the stars also, not necessarily in that 1k year day. Then 1k years later he creates plant life, 1k years later fish and fowl, 1k years later man (cattle), creeper, and beast. And God and the heavenly host rested from physical labor the last day of the first week of God’s timeline.
 An observation of note, water is an accelerant of decay, and the earth was overflowed with water for 3, 500 years. And the calibrations of calibrations that need to be calibrated before an accurate reading can be given make carbon dating iffy at best. But no matter, just because you know the age of something doesn’t mean you know its history. Just because something is buried in 70, 000-year-old mud doesn’t make that thing 70, 000 years old.
 Just as it took 7 one-thousand-year days for the creation, God allotted 7 one-thousand-year days for man's dominion on this earth (the seven seals).

All glory to God. Amen

[joestfrancois]

Well there you go. In the face of demonstrable repeatable evidence believers of a religion try to find a way to make their claims, which have to be taken on faith, make sense in light of truth.

I don't know if most modern Christians understand that through the last 2000 years, the way the Christian Bible has been understood has changed when science rears its head, and believers simply change their explanations of what the Bible says.

What does a modern day believer say when confronted with something like the vault of the sky holding back another expanse of water?