The "gap theory" seems to me to be just another attempt to undermine the validity of the creation record in Scripture. It bothers me that a Christian person that I really respect would answer a question about it with a sort of "maybe, maybe not" type of attitude, and leave room for its possibility. This theory is used to place an indeterminate amount of time between Genesis, Chapter One. There are lots of different ways that such a gap could be manipulated and used, and they already abound.

Most of the guys who adhere to this theory are injecting a couple of hundred million years between those verses to say, "See? The Bible allows for evolution." They usually say that the original earth was created and ruined, only to be reborn through an evolutionary process.

The reason this teaching undermines the gospel of Christ is because it provides a theoretical inroad for bloodshed, disease, suffering and death, all before Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden. Because most who hold to this type of teaching have accepted a "millions of years" scenario for dating the fossil record for example, they have allowed the heedless theories of some scientists to determine the meaning of Scripture. They choose Evolution as a creation model because they won't trust what the Scriptures have to say. This gap provides a crutch for such weak beliefs.Mankind has not taken God at His Word from the beginning. This theory diminishes God, and moves away from the need for a Savior in Christ.

Some go on to say that the fall of Satan to earth must have taken place in this "gap." The problem is, any rebellion by Satan during this imagined period is a contradiction of God's description of His six day creation period as being in its entirety, "very good." Any theory like this is an opportunity to impose upon Scripture, the ideas which are outside of it and compromise God's Word.

My first introduction to the gap theory came more than twenty-five years ago, when a Christian elder I knew had a book in his bookshelf that I asked him about. I didn't know it was the gap theory then of course, because the book really didn't bill itself as such. I don't remember the name of it, but I recognized immediately that it deviated from God's Word and I felt a strong leading from the Lord that it was heretical thinking. I was a bit taken aback that this man would give even the slightest credence to such a notion.

He told me that this book explained a way for the dinosaurs to have existed. He said that when Satan fell to earth with his minions, there was a huge battle between he and God's angels. IN that battle the earth was destroyed and that the creation story of Genesis (with Adam and Eve) took place afterward to restore the earth. This is all just entirely inconsistent with God creating everything in six days, the way the Bible states it in Exodus 20:11;

"For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

The heavens and the earth were created and the sea and all that's in them. This is chronological, and the rest of creation was chronologically created in six days. Suffering and death before the fall of man, is contrary to Scripture. The Bible tells us that sin entered the world through one man, Adam. (Romans 5:12) The Bible teaches that (1 Corinthians 15) Adam was the first man, and that because of his rebellion, his 'sin' corruption and death entered into the picture.

It doesn't stop there though. People move right on into Genesis 2 and begin to argue about things like, say, whether or not the verb in Genesis 2:19 is perfect or imperfect. Again, this sort of stuff is designed to diminish what the Bible says. Such don't matter because those in "Camp Diminish" aren't looking for something in which to believe, they're looking for something to refute.

No amount of arguing with them is likely to change their minds, because they are actively looking for ways not to believe. Believing in the Biblical creation account is a matter of faith, not science or wordplay, and only God's goodness will bring men to repent and turn to Him. It's our job to continue to share the Word of God, and share the heart of Christ in our deeds.