As you recall, we associate the rise of modern evolutionary thinking with Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and his publication of "The Origin of Species" in 1859, because supposedly Darwin presented evolution as being scientifically feasible. Necessarily, the evolutionary theory must include long periods of time (millions of years) for tiny changes to supposedly accumulate in living animals and plants and be passed on to their descendants. Without millions of years, the evolutionary theory collapses.

Although evolution has never scientifically been observed to occur, and though it cannot be demonstrated by experiment, and though no scientific mechanism has ever been discovered whereby it might occur, the entire world in propaganda fashion has been told over and over again that evolution is true, is a proven fact, and is science.

Many Christians, since the time of Darwin, have believed the propaganda that evolution is true, and that evolution has been proven scientifically, and have sought to squeeze millions of years into scripture by various means. These Christians have thought the insertion of millions of years into scripture would solve the evolutionary problem for the church, when actually it only makes the problem worse, because it then changes and denies the scripture.

As you know, Christians have three methods they have invented to try to compromise the scriptures with the problem of evolution, and none of the methods do anything except compound the problem. The first is the idea of Theistic Evolution which supposes that God used evolution to create after he created space matter and time. The second method is the Day - Age Theory in which the days of creation are imagined to be long periods of time, and the third is the Gap Theory.

In order to understand the Gap Theory, we must clearly understand what it proposes. Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth"--- GAP OF MILLIONS OF YEARS. --- Genesis 1:2 "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". The gap theory hardly even appears in Christian writing or thought until after the time of Darwin. The purpose of the supposed Gap Theory is to accommodate the supposed millions of years required for evolution to supposedly occur, and it was proposed by Christians who were not scientists who believed science had proven the universe was millions or billions of years old. The idea is this would then give us an explanation for the obvious presence of billions of fossils in stratified sedimentary rock layers around the earth. The idea is then God could go ahead in accord with the creation story as given in Genesis.

However, this compounds the problem because Noah's flood must now be changed to a local tranquil affair or the flood described in scripture would have obliterated the fossil evidence and the supposed evidence of millions of years. The flood described in scripture in Genesis was caused by rain that poured continuously for forty days and forty nights (7:12); all the fountains of the great deep cleaved open in one day (7:11); waters were fifteen cubits above the highest mountains(7:20); all flesh with the breath of life in the dry land died (7:22): waters were at a maximum height for five months (7:24); occupants were in the ark over a year (8:14). There is no way this could be describing a local flood. Evolutionary thinking must scoff at the biblical description of the flood and adhere to the notion that the fossil record was laid down over millions of years of slow annual silting by present uniform processes (uniformitarianism). Evolutionary thinking cannot even entertain the idea of Noah's flood as described in scripture, because that would give a clear easy explanation for the fossil evidence only 4,400 years ago.

Another major problem with the Gap Theory is it would give us death before Adam and that negates the whole reason for our Savior's death on the cross. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Cor.15:21,22. If death isn't the result of Adam's disobedience, but has always been simply a part of the natural order of things, then we would destroy the heart of the Christian message. Evolution says man came by death, the Bible says death came by man.

Another problem with the Gap Theory is what do we do with clear scriptures like "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."Ex.20:11; and also "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Gen.1:31. Therefore the Gap Theory placing the imagined geological ages before creation week says the millions of years of death and suffering of created animals and pre-human creatures was very good, which hardly fits the biblical description of God. Even Satan himself (with all the host of heaven who later followed him in rebelling against God) still "wast perfect" (Ezekiel 28:15) at the end of creation week. His fall from heaven to the earth could only have been after God's universal "very good" proclamation at the end of day six.

Another interesting point is the Hebrew conjunction "wau" which means "and". When the conjunction "and" is used in writing it has the implied meaning of a connecting quality plus a continuity of thought. In the earliest Hebrew texts of Genesis you will find the word "wau" is used at the beginning of every sentence in Genesis 1. You can see this clearly translated in the King James. Hebrew scholars all agree the first chapter of Genesis was intended by the writer to convey a continuous narrative without any gap. Check Genesis 1 in your Bible and see if the first word in every sentence begins with the conjunction ‘and’.

Atheistic evolutionary scientists laugh at Christians for even considering these scripture compromising theories, and simply hold to their atheism, and rejection of the Bible as nonsense.

There have been many great Christian men and women in past generations who promoted the Gap Theory. These people were honest, sincere, well educated, but mistaken in this one belief. Even the brilliant Dr. Cyrus I. Scofield (1843-1921) was an advocate of the Gap Theory. Were he alive today, I am sure he would not support the theory, because with all the scientific evidence supporting the Bible in every area, there is no need to cling to any of these theories of compromise. Not only is there no need, but it is imperative that Christians abandon these positions of compromise and accept the Bible as the authorative Word of God. Only when this is done, will the Church stop blowing an uncertain trumpet. To accept the Gap Theory is to accept evolution as true and remember if evolution is true the Bible is false. Understand if you accept the Gap Theory you are proclaiming the Holy Spirit is the author of confusion and accepting the idea He did not write clearly and simply.

Do we believe the Bible takes priority over scientific theories and do we believe scientific theories must determine our Biblical interpretations?

As we pray for revival in the church, I do not expect the Holy Spirit to send it until the church unites in this war against Satan's religion of evolution and takes a united stand against it. The Holy Spirit requires that we must defend the scripture.

Remember the purpose of these Creation Science Messages is to strengthen your faith, and remove evolutionary thinking from the church.

Prepared from creation science literature
by Sidney C. Phillips M.D. Revised 1998

End of Message No. 12