What about Day, Age or Gap theories?
Many people, including myself for the majority of my life, try to accept both Scripture and the version of origins that secular science believes. Some do this by taking each day to mean ages or periods of times while others claim there is a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. How do we determine if the "days" are literal days, ages or if millions of years fell in a gap?
First lets look at the word "yom" which in Hebrew CAN mean both a literal day as well as a period of time. So how do we choose? We can either try to use our own wisdom and place the meaning we want it to be on it, or we can use the Bible to interpret. If we use God's flawless word instead of our fallible views, we will see this:
-- The word day is used outside of Genesis 1 in conjunction with a number 357 times. In each instance, it means a literal 24 hour day.
-- The phrase "evening and morning" is used outside of Genesis 1, 38 times. In each instance, it means a literal 24 hour day.
-- Adam was created on day 6, lived through day 7 and died at 930 years old. If day means 1000 years, this doesn't work. If it means 6 billion years, Adam all of a sudden has a life span of 2 billion years!
-- In Exodus, God explains the reason He took as long as He did was to set up our week of working 6 days and resting one. If He really took 6000 years, we are to work for 6000 years, every day, and then rest for 1000. And if He actually took 6 billion years???
-- 2 Peter says that death, disease and thorns came after the fall. So either nothing died for a few years, a few centuries, or a few billion years or scripture is not flawless as God promised. In addition, we are told in Revelation and elsewhere that death is an enemy. If death was the tool God used to create us, it would be a hero (which it’d have to be to be called ‘very good’ by God), not an enemy!
-- Some plants require animals to live. Flowers require pollination, etc some trees require their seeds to be eaten and distributed. If trees were created on day 3 and insects on day 5, flowering plants would have to live 2 days, 2000 years, or 2 billion years without them depending on your view. Even worse, all plants require the sun’s light and heat to live. Yet the sun wasn’t created until the day after vegetation. A day is survivable. But a millennia or a billion years???
-- Genesis describes day seven as THE seventh day. If there were billions of years in creation, it would not be "the" seventh day but the x billionth day.
-- Some will try to fit millions of years into 2 Peter 3:8 "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day."
First thousand does not equal millions. Even if this was speaking about creation, 'thousands' does not help evolution.
More importantly, this is not speaking about creation but that God is outside of time. Jude 1:25, 1 Corinthians 2:7 "No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." This verse is simply stating that time is a creation of God's and He is not controlled by it, His creation is.
-- Some will try to squeeze a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 and insert a “Pre Adamite” civilization where there were millions of years, dinosaurs, death and Satan’s Fall. However Romans 5 says death came through sin, rained from Adam to Moses, by man came death – The Gap says death came before Adam/man.
-- Some will claim that the use of the word “replenish” shows that the world had to have been filled at one point in order to be Replenished. However, the Hebrew word used is 'male' which Strong’s only translates as fill. There is a separate word for filling again. Why was it translated as ‘replenish’ then? Simple, the King James Bible was translated in 1611. A dictionary from 1611 shows the only meaning of replenish was 'fill'. Not until 1650 did a dual meaning appear and both meanings are still in the dictionary.
Other examples of this include:
James 2:3 - have respect unto him who weareth the gay clothing
Romans I would have come to you but I was "let hither to"
In 1611“Gay” meant “happy” and “let” meant hindered. God’s word remains the same regardless of how often the English vocabulary changes.
-- Some will also try to claim Satan’s fall came in this ‘gap’. But how can that be? Ezecihal 28:13-15 tells “thou has been in Eden...” “in day thou was created...” “thou was blameless until the day iniquity was found in thee.” So, Satan was created and creation occurred during the first week, not at some time prior to then giving him time to try to make himself equal with God and gain 1/3 of the angles allegiance to try to force God to allow Satan on the throne at the very start of the first day. Even Satan needed more than a couple hours to accomplish this!
So, Satan was IN Eden and was without sin as was everything until well after day seven. Eden couldn’t have even been created until at least after day 3 when land appeared. Satan could not have fallen before day three at the very earliest. But on day seven, Genesis 1:31 says “God saw everything and it was very good.” If Satan had fallen, everything wouldn't be very good. So Satan could not have fallen and been put in Eden until after the seventh day at the absolute earliest.
-- Another facet of the Gap theory is that '1st earth was destroyed' and then God created a new one to fit with Genesis 1:2. BIG problem! Revelation 21:1 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." The first earth does not pass away until the near-end of revelation. WE ARE STILL ON THE FIRST EARTH.
-- An objection that some try to raise is that plants died before Adam sinned. While it is true plants were eaten before sin, plants are not alive in the Biblical sense. They neither have “the breath of life” nor blood in which is life (Gen 9:4, Lev 17:11-14, Deu 12:23). If there is no blood, it is not alive and cannot suffer death.
Scripture clearly says creation happened in seven literal days. Applying the rest of scripture to Genesis shows it can only mean literal days. A person can willfully choose to believe in billions of years, but it simply cannot be fit into scripture without purposely ignoring what scripture, and therefore God, says.
In His service... Arthur
Many people, including myself for the majority of my life, try to accept both Scripture and the version of origins that secular science believes. Some do this by taking each day to mean ages or periods of times while others claim there is a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. How do we determine if the "days" are literal days, ages or if millions of years fell in a gap?
First lets look at the word "yom" which in Hebrew CAN mean both a literal day as well as a period of time. So how do we choose? We can either try to use our own wisdom and place the meaning we want it to be on it, or we can use the Bible to interpret. If we use God's flawless word instead of our fallible views, we will see this:
-- The word day is used outside of Genesis 1 in conjunction with a number 357 times. In each instance, it means a literal 24 hour day.
-- The phrase "evening and morning" is used outside of Genesis 1, 38 times. In each instance, it means a literal 24 hour day.
-- Adam was created on day 6, lived through day 7 and died at 930 years old. If day means 1000 years, this doesn't work. If it means 6 billion years, Adam all of a sudden has a life span of 2 billion years!
-- In Exodus, God explains the reason He took as long as He did was to set up our week of working 6 days and resting one. If He really took 6000 years, we are to work for 6000 years, every day, and then rest for 1000. And if He actually took 6 billion years???
-- 2 Peter says that death, disease and thorns came after the fall. So either nothing died for a few years, a few centuries, or a few billion years or scripture is not flawless as God promised. In addition, we are told in Revelation and elsewhere that death is an enemy. If death was the tool God used to create us, it would be a hero (which it’d have to be to be called ‘very good’ by God), not an enemy!
-- Some plants require animals to live. Flowers require pollination, etc some trees require their seeds to be eaten and distributed. If trees were created on day 3 and insects on day 5, flowering plants would have to live 2 days, 2000 years, or 2 billion years without them depending on your view. Even worse, all plants require the sun’s light and heat to live. Yet the sun wasn’t created until the day after vegetation. A day is survivable. But a millennia or a billion years???
-- Genesis describes day seven as THE seventh day. If there were billions of years in creation, it would not be "the" seventh day but the x billionth day.
-- Some will try to fit millions of years into 2 Peter 3:8 "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day."
First thousand does not equal millions. Even if this was speaking about creation, 'thousands' does not help evolution.
More importantly, this is not speaking about creation but that God is outside of time. Jude 1:25, 1 Corinthians 2:7 "No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." This verse is simply stating that time is a creation of God's and He is not controlled by it, His creation is.
-- Some will try to squeeze a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 and insert a “Pre Adamite” civilization where there were millions of years, dinosaurs, death and Satan’s Fall. However Romans 5 says death came through sin, rained from Adam to Moses, by man came death – The Gap says death came before Adam/man.
-- Some will claim that the use of the word “replenish” shows that the world had to have been filled at one point in order to be Replenished. However, the Hebrew word used is 'male' which Strong’s only translates as fill. There is a separate word for filling again. Why was it translated as ‘replenish’ then? Simple, the King James Bible was translated in 1611. A dictionary from 1611 shows the only meaning of replenish was 'fill'. Not until 1650 did a dual meaning appear and both meanings are still in the dictionary.
Other examples of this include:
James 2:3 - have respect unto him who weareth the gay clothing
Romans I would have come to you but I was "let hither to"
In 1611“Gay” meant “happy” and “let” meant hindered. God’s word remains the same regardless of how often the English vocabulary changes.
-- Some will also try to claim Satan’s fall came in this ‘gap’. But how can that be? Ezecihal 28:13-15 tells “thou has been in Eden...” “in day thou was created...” “thou was blameless until the day iniquity was found in thee.” So, Satan was created and creation occurred during the first week, not at some time prior to then giving him time to try to make himself equal with God and gain 1/3 of the angles allegiance to try to force God to allow Satan on the throne at the very start of the first day. Even Satan needed more than a couple hours to accomplish this!
So, Satan was IN Eden and was without sin as was everything until well after day seven. Eden couldn’t have even been created until at least after day 3 when land appeared. Satan could not have fallen before day three at the very earliest. But on day seven, Genesis 1:31 says “God saw everything and it was very good.” If Satan had fallen, everything wouldn't be very good. So Satan could not have fallen and been put in Eden until after the seventh day at the absolute earliest.
-- Another facet of the Gap theory is that '1st earth was destroyed' and then God created a new one to fit with Genesis 1:2. BIG problem! Revelation 21:1 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." The first earth does not pass away until the near-end of revelation. WE ARE STILL ON THE FIRST EARTH.
-- An objection that some try to raise is that plants died before Adam sinned. While it is true plants were eaten before sin, plants are not alive in the Biblical sense. They neither have “the breath of life” nor blood in which is life (Gen 9:4, Lev 17:11-14, Deu 12:23). If there is no blood, it is not alive and cannot suffer death.
Scripture clearly says creation happened in seven literal days. Applying the rest of scripture to Genesis shows it can only mean literal days. A person can willfully choose to believe in billions of years, but it simply cannot be fit into scripture without purposely ignoring what scripture, and therefore God, says.
In His service... Arthur
