Gap Theory?

[Josh]

yeshuafreak wrote:

i believe in the gap theory which states that the dinosaurs were present right before the luciferic flood of gen 1:2 many disagree with me but it is one of the best theories presented thus far aparrt from Scott M Huse's young earth analyisis.

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John, I'd like to discuss the "gap theory" here.

One problem I see right off the bat, to hold this view, one must postulate two separate creations and destruction of life by God on earth, with no clear biblical warrant

Anyway, could you explain, according to this view, what God supposed created in the first creation as opposed to the second creation? Because I doubt it will fit with the fossil record evidence.

[yeshuafreak]

the gap theory states that there was an earth Before Gen 1:2 and Gen 1:2 is describing the destructin of this earth by a flood apart from noahs.

here is the evidence, and evaluation of it. later i will connect the dots as the theory calls for it:

Genesis 1:1-2

In the Beggining God created the heavens and the earth. 2. and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep...

now here i want to point out that the first verse is an act of creation, the second and act of destruction. first, let us review the hebrew:

bereshit bara elohim et ha shamayim v'et ha eretz. 2. v'ha aretz hayah tohu vah bohu; ...

now, the first word is 'bereshit'. this derives from the root 'rosh' meaning 'head' or 'beggining.' it includes the prefix 'bah' meaning 'in' or 'in the.'

so the word means 'in the beggning.' now this 'rosh' means 'dateless past'.. so 'in the dateless past...' it is an indefinate point in time.

the next word is 'bara' meaning 'create'. this word differs from the word 'asah' translated 'made.' bara means to form something from nothing, while asah suggests something being formed from already existing material.

the next word is 'elohim.' there is much debate over this one word, but it is not relevent to the gap theory, so we will ignore this wrod for the most part.

et ha shamayim vet ha aretz this is translated: the heavens and the earth. now, this word aretz means dry land, not flooded land. this is an important fact. it is interesting als to not that shamyim is masculine PLURAL. there is more than one heaven implied here which suggests that these 'heavens' refer to heavenly bodies like the sun moon and stars.

now, verse two:

v'ha aretz hayah tohu vah bohu

v'ha aretz means simply 'and the earth.'

hayah this is the most important word in the gap theory. this word in the hebrew can mean either 'was' or 'became.' it is translated became 67 times (gen 2:7; 19:26; 20:12; 24:67; becamest in 1 chr 17:22; ez 16:18); came cand came to pass 505 times (gen 14:1; 6:1,4; 11:12, 5; etc); become 66 times (gen 3:22; 18:18; 48:19; etc); etc, etc.

in other words, this word is not 'was' but became. the importance of this will be stresssed later.

next, tohu vah bohu. this means 'waste and empty.' this is another very important detail. we will metion it later.

after this, there is a mentionof darkness and the face of the deep, also refered to as the face of the waters.

in other words, now the dry land created in v1 is formless, empty, and dark, as well as wet. some act had to have been involved. we also realize that the earth became this way when we look at the hebrew hayah.

i hope i have captured your attention so far. more to come in the next post.

shalom

john

[yeshuafreak]

so for the next section:

In the last post we studied how there had to be a period of time btwn gen 1:1 and 1:2. we reviewed how the earth was created dry (aretz means dry land) and how it became (he., hayah) waste and empty. would God create something and themn immeadiately destroy it? No, i think not. obviously, there was a reason why he dstroyed his creation with a fllood ( face of the deep and face of the waters in gen 1:2). Now, we will erivew other scriptures that suggest a gap, as well as other things, like possible human creation , btween gen 1:1 and 1:2.

Is 45:18


"For thus sayeth 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; There is none else."


so, this doesnt mean much to people, but did you catch it? read it again...

Yes! it says that God created the world "not in vain." This means that God created the eath before Gen 1:2, where is became waste and empty. Now, just to fully observe the verse, let us read it and exhaustively expound upon it:

"For thus sayeth the Lord... I am the Lord; There is none else!"

This is the amin message of the verse. The rest is just parrallellism and poetry desciribing the power and majesty of God. Isaisah could have done without it, but thank goodness he did. without one comment, we may forever be ignorant on what Gen 1 truly is describing.

To study the parrallelism:

1.   ...The Lord that created the heavens,
2.            God himself that formed the earth,
3.      He hath established it, He created it not in vain,
4.            He formed it to be inhabited...

[/i]

This is a type of poetry called paralleism. It Often describes two diffferent events and connects them. In this case, it is connecting the creation, and reforming of the earth.

Notice that the 2nd and 4th lines speak of "forming." while the 1st and 3rd lines speak of "creating." Also notice that there is a difference in "create" (Bara) and "form" or "make" (asah). in other words, the 1 and 3 lines speak of God creating the earth in Gen 1:1, when it was created NOT IN VAIN (but it became that way, as described in gen 1:2), while the 2 and 4 lines speak of God reforming the earth for the reason of it being inhabited.

So, the fact is that since the earth was NOT created in vain, than the earth did NOT start out as Gen 1:2 describes.

The plot is thickening.

Now, the next verse is Jer 4: 23-26


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 heaven 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 his fierce anger.


...To be continued.

[Josh]

OK, some responses:

hayah this is the most important word in the gap theory. this word in the hebrew can mean either 'was' or 'became.' it is translated became 67 times (gen 2:7; 19:26; 20:12; 24:67; becamest in 1 chr 17:22; ez 16:18); came cand came to pass 505 times (gen 14:1; 6:1,4; 11:12, 5; etc); become 66 times (gen 3:22; 18:18; 48:19; etc); etc, etc.

in other words, this word is not 'was' but became. the importance of this will be stresssed later.

This doesn't demonstrate anywhere conclusively that the word should be translated "became".

Genesis 1:1-2

In the Beggining God created the heavens and the earth. 2. and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep...

now here i want to point out that the first verse is an act of creation, the second and act of destruction

These verses need not imply a "destruction". The current scientific consensus is that after the earth was originally formed, it was then later covered completely by water. This was geologically well before the first appearance of life on the planet. Thus, science comports with Scripture on the early earth.

it says that God created the world "not in vain." This means that God created the eath before Gen 1:2, where is became waste and empty. Now, just to fully observe the verse, let us read it and exhaustively expound upon it:

Or He just made it empty in the first place, which seems like a more natural reading.

Regarding your comments on parallelism:

This is a type of poetry called paralleism. It Often describes two diffferent events and connects them. In this case, it is connecting the creation, and reforming of the earth.

Notice that the 2nd and 4th lines speak of "forming." while the 1st and 3rd lines speak of "creating." Also notice that there is a difference in "create" (Bara) and "form" or "make" (asah). in other words, the 1 and 3 lines speak of God creating the earth in Gen 1:1, when it was created NOT IN VAIN (but it became that way, as described in gen 1:2), while the 2 and 4 lines speak of God reforming the earth for the reason of it being inhabited.

This doesn't prove anything other than that God originally created (bara) the earth and then later fashioned it (asah) into it's particular features. Just because parallelism can be referring to two separate events doesn't mean it must be referring to two events. The only reason we would suppose a parallel passage is referring to two events is if we have a clear reason to postulate two events, but in this case we don't. You're using one conjecture to support another.

Lastly, don't you think it's instructive that we are never once told that God created any life before the earth was formless and void?