THE GAP THEORY (Young Earth vs Old Earth)

Hello and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. Today we're going to be looking at the subject of creation, the gap theory, and the debate between young earth and an old earth.

Is the earth 6 ,000 years old? Is it 4 to 6 billion years old? Is it a lot older than that?

We're going to play clips from some very well -known televangelists and see what they say. But perhaps let's start at the beginning.

Perhaps the most well -known verse in all of the Bible is Genesis 1, 1, which says, in the beginning,

God created the heaven and the earth. Goes on to say in verse 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.

And then you get that statement, you know, let there be light. So that's what we're looking at today. The subject of creation, the gap theory, is there a indefinite period of time, you know, millions, perhaps billions, trillions of years in between Genesis 1, 1 and 1, 2, that's known as the gap theory.

We're going to look at that and this whole debate between a young earth versus an old earth.

So is the earth 6 ,000 years old? If you take a literal view of the book of Genesis, holding to the traditional interpretation, the answer many believe is yes, the earth is about 6 ,000 years old.

God created, here's the argument, God created all things in six days. He rested on the seventh day.

Of course, Adam was created on day six. We know how many years Adam lived. We have a record of that along with his descendants, how long they lived.

So it's easy to just kind of add it all up and on the surface, a plain reading of the text would suggest that the earth is about 6 ,000 years old, but here is what televangelist

Benny Hinn says, watch. So when, when God said, let there be light, when he began to restore creation into its original beauty, because of Satan's fall, the earth became empty and void and so forth.

If you remember, cause I believe in the, in the gap theory, it's not a theory anymore really to me cause it's, it's the truth.

When God created the earth, he created this earth trillions, billions, decillions years ago.

Nobody seems to know. God did not create the earth 6 ,000 years ago. He created man 6 ,000 years ago.

So man is 6 ,000 years old. The planet, nobody knows. So Benny Hinn claims that Genesis one verse three, when

God says, let there be light, Benny Hinn is saying that as God sort of what re creating this idea that God created all things initially, everything was good.

Everything was fine, but then Satan fell and in his rebellion, everything was destroyed.

The creation was laid waste. So according to Benny Hinn and many others, there is this gap.

This gap of time in between Genesis one, one and one, two, a gap of billions of years.

You heard Benny Hinn talk about it. He says, uh, the gap theory says it's not really a theory says it's just true.

Well, wait a minute. Is there anything in the actual text of scripture that would indicate that I don't see anything.

So where did the gap theory come from? Basically Christians for centuries held to what is called the young earth position that the earth creation is about 6 ,000 years old.

But ever since Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, uh, in the 1800s, scientists started to claim that no, the earth is much, much older.

And of course, uh, today they say it's, you know, billions of years old. So you know how people are.

There will always be people who try to make the Bible fit with the modern atheistic viewpoint.

So in the 1800s, a man named Thomas Calmers, he came up with the gap theory and it was made popular.

The gap theory basically got into Baptist and evangelical churches through the world famous Schofield reference

Bible. So I don't know what the most recent version of the Schofield Bible says if this note is still in there.

But I, I have a very old copy of the Schofield reference Bible and here's what it says.

Genesis one, one in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then there is a note before verse two, the earth was made waste and empty by judgment.

And then down at the bottom, there is a note that says there are three creative acts of God recorded in this chapter.

The first creative act refers to the dateless past and gives scope for all the geologic ages.

So you can see right there, here's the Schofield reference

Bible. Basically they are advocating for the gap theory.

And then there's a quote in there, like where's this idea that the earth was laid waste in this, you know, billions or trillions of years ago.

So there's a quote from Jeremiah four, 23 through 26, which if you look at it in context,

I mean, what's Jeremiah talking about in context, that verse, Jeremiah four, it's dealing with the destruction of Judah in Jerusalem.

But Schofield somehow out of nowhere tries to make it about this cataclysmic judgment billions of years ago.

And it's really just a way to shoehorn in the gap theory into the Bible, but it's just not there.

Folks. Again, this was a theory made up in the 1800s as an attempt to blend atheistic ideas with Christianity, basically to make the

Bible more palatable. So we've heard from Benny Hinn, who really is not a reliable Bible teacher, but these were the clips

I found. So here is another televangelist advocating for the gap theory.

Let's hear what Kenneth Copeland has to say on the subject. Listen. Here. Genesis chapter one, verse one, in the beginning,

God created the heaven and the earth. 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.

Now, the fossil record does not lie.

It doesn't. There's an eon of time between Genesis one and Genesis two.

The earth was not created without form and void. It had been flooded.

Noah's flood was the second one, not the first. Okay. So now it's my turn because we need to get our beliefs from the

Bible, not what men say about the Bible. So whether a tin or Copeland or the

Schofield reference Bible, the word of God says six days, the

TV preachers, Schofield, they may say something else, but the Bible says six days. So that's what

I'm going to believe. I'm going to believe the Bible, Exodus 20 verse 11, we already saw what Genesis says.

So what does Exodus say? Exodus 20 verse 11 says for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day.

So the Bible is very clear. The heavens and the earth were made in six days and all that is in them.

So how do you get billions of years out of that? Well, you have to create this theory and impose it upon the text of scripture.

And why did they do that again to make it fit modern atheistic viewpoints?

So you have the old Testament record, very clear. And then when you get to the new

Testament, what do you see? You see the Lord Jesus Christ himself quoting from and affirming the writings of Moses.

Jesus says that the writings of Moses, these are the words of God.

Christ says in Matthew four, four, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

So I don't know about you, but I'm going to stick to the Bible. And as a pastor, I would encourage you to do the same.

Stick to what the Bible says. I'm going to believe Schofield or excuse me,

I'm going to believe Moses over Schofield any day. I'm going to believe God, the

Bible over Kenneth Copeland any day of the week. And then Kenneth Copeland, he said the earth was destroyed by a flood.

And he says, Noah's flood was the second one. Well, where's that in scripture?

I mean, let's be honest, he totally made that up. So the gap theory isn't in scripture.

Someone made it up in 1814. The Catholic church then picked it up. Of course they did. Then Schofield, then hen, then

Copeland and the TV preachers. And there you go. Now it's being taught to the people in the pews.

Also in that clip, Copeland, he didn't appeal to God's word in that clip.

He said he didn't say God's word doesn't lie. He appealed to the fossil record instead.

He said the fossil record doesn't lie. Well, here's the thing about the fossil record.

The fossil record doesn't talk. It doesn't say anything, doesn't lie or tell the truth.

Scientists are the ones who talk. Scientists are the ones who either lie or come up with theories that are close to the truth or many times they're right.

But let's face it, many of the modern scientists, well, for example, in 2020, the scientific community all marched in lockstep and they all told us something that was what?

A load of bull. Obviously they are advocating, they're the ones advocating for evolution, which we know as Bible -believing

Christians, evolution isn't true. So it's just odd that a minister would, instead of appealing to the

Bible, he's going to appeal the fossil record doesn't lie. Okay, well, there's plenty of explanations.

Matter of fact, there's a man named Ken Ham and Ken Ham has done a wonderful job.

His ministry answers in Genesis. He deals with all of these things and he has a lot of good explanations.

But you know, it's just very clear what the Bible teaches. But these guys have come up with their own ideas.

Now, someone will say, they'll say, okay, yeah, but when the

Bible says that God created in six days, you know, the Hebrew word yom translated day, it doesn't necessarily, here's the argument they'll say, it doesn't necessarily refer to a 24 hour day.

Well, actually that's true. It doesn't necessarily refer to that because people use the word day and such as well back in my day, you know, so you can use the word day to refer to something other than a 24 hour day.

But if you look at the text, right in context, that's what you have to do with the Bible and understanding what it's telling you.

It always has to be in context. So if you look at Genesis chapter one, what does it tell you in the evening and the morning were what the first day and the evening and the morning were the second day.

And the evening and the morning were the third day. So an eon of time, a billion years doesn't have an evening and a morning.

So clearly what God was communicating is exactly what scripture says.

God created in six days. Again, I would direct you to Ken Ham and his ministry.

They do great work on the subject, but here's the danger in wrapping this up. Here's the danger.

As soon as you get away with inserting six billion years in between Genesis one, one and one, two, what else can you get away with?

If you can superimpose some, you know, theory created outside of the

Bible, if you can superimpose that upon the text anywhere, where's that end? If you don't take

Genesis one, literally, do you take John one, literally, yeah, where does it end?

If people don't believe the beginning of the Bible with Genesis, and then of course a lot of people don't believe the end of the

Bible with revelation. They don't take that literally either. You have to wonder if you don't take Genesis at face value and you don't take revelation at face value.

Do you really believe anything in between? Well, I believe everything in the

Bible is true. Why do I believe that? Because that's what Jesus believed again, Matthew four, four, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, Jesus affirmed the old

Testament as the word of God. And then of course his apostles who spoke with his authority, they affirmed the new

Testament writings as the scriptures. So it's obvious in conclusion, it's obvious that there is nothing in the text that actually teaches the gap theory.

There is nothing in the text of scripture to suggest that the earth is actually billions and billions of years old.

And one last thing to those who would say this is like a secondary issue wrong.

The whole concept of the gospel is potentially at stake. Why? Because you have lost humanity in Adam and redeemed humanity in Christ.

If Adam didn't exist or if that is wrong, the whole redemption story starts to fall apart.

The apostle Paul in making his case for the gospel in Romans five, 12 says, therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned.

So you say, well, but these guys aren't saying that Adam didn't exist. Well, some people do say that, but okay,

Han and Copeland and Schofield, they affirmed a historical Adam. That's true.

But at the same time, they said the earth is billions of years old.

Well, here's the problem with that. If the earth was billions of years old and you have the fossil record of animals and for millions and billions of years, creatures on earth are dying before Adam was even created.

That goes directly against Romans five. It goes directly against the whole narrative of all men being in Adam or in Christ because you have death without sin.

You have death before sin. Again, Romans five makes it very clear that death exists because of sin.

But with the gap theory, what these men are saying, you had death for millions and billions of years before sin ever entered into the world.

So the concept, basic concepts such as the curse and the reason for death, it all breaks down as soon as you adopt this gap theory and a view of the old earth.

It just doesn't line up with the scripture. So what's the solution? Stick to the

Bible, take it a face value, listen to sound teachers of God's word, who believe every word of scripture, who seek to live by it and apply it to their lives.

To daily life and test the spirits to see whether or not they're of God. Why? Because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

My name's Michael Grant. Thanks for listening. And until next time, may the Lord be with you and have a great day.