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Bible Questions with Michael Pearl
Episode 044: Do you support the Gap Theory?

By Michael Pearl

Episode Transcription:

Michael Pearl:  All right. Here we are again, Mike Pearl and Jared, with No Greater Joy Ministries answering your Bible questions. I'm taking a little break from my gardening, sitting here under the weeping willow tree listening to kids play, and I am going to answer any kind of Bible questions that you've got today. So, what's your first question?

Jared:  Do you support the Gap Theory? Is this true, and why?

Michael:  No. I don't support the Gap Theory. I believe in the Gap Fact, according to what the Word of God says. The idea of calling it a theory is a recent invention. The church believed in the Gap way back. If you read in fact Augustine in the 5th Century, that's in the 400's, has a lengthy statement that shows that the early church believed that there was a gap between Genesis one and two, and Genesis 1:3. It's always been so. The church always believed it. The scriptures teach it so plain, that you would have to have some agenda outside the scriptures themselves, and there is a reason for that agenda. I have a desire to debunk evolution, and evolution is probably one of the most absurd concepts that man has ever come up with.

During the late 1800's and early 1900's, when Darwinism was so strong and science was believed in so much, many Christians were fooled by it. So, they just assumed that Darwin's origin of species was scientific fact, and so a lot of Christians tried to come up with some way where they could still hold what the Bible teaches and hold some kind of evolution at the same time.

So, they came up with theistic evolution, that is that God is the Creator, but He did it by a process of evolution, which is absurd. The Bible clearly teaches that God created this earth and the heavens in six 24‑hour days. We know that. That's very clear, six 24‑hour days.

So, there is no way you can be a Bible believer and believe that the six days were 1,000 years each, or 10,000 years each, or 100 million years each. They had to have been the six 24‑hour days, simply because He rested on the seventh day. Then He told the Jews to rest on the seventh day just like He did, and we know how long that seventh day was, it was a 24‑hour day.

Plus, in Genesis one it says there, that the evening and morning were the first day, the evening and morning were the second day, the third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day. So, if each day was made up of one evening and morning, then that's one period of light, one period of dark, so that the day couldn't have been longer than one light and one dark.

The lights and darks could not have been longer than 12 hours of light, 12 hours of darkness, thereabouts, or the earth would have heated up to 250 degrees, cooked all my tomatoes and squash right in my garden, cooked all flesh, killed everything, trees all died, froze it to 200 below zero, at nighttime everything would have died.

I mean, you could not have sustained life with lengthy periods of light, or lengthy periods of dark. So, if you're going to be a Bible believer, you have got to believe in six 24‑hour days of creation. Also, if you're going to be a Bible believer, you're going to notice that each of the six days were bracketed with, and God said the first day, "Let there be light," and there was light in the evening and the morning for the first day.

That's your first day, OK. Put that on the chalkboard, first day starting off, "Let there be light, " there was light the first day, second day, third day, fourth day, and the evening morning of the second day, and the evening and morning of the fourth day.

So, when you write down all six days of creation, and what took place on each day‑‑do that, do that, take your Bible and do that. What you find is before the first day, before He said, "Let there be light, " it is already said, "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." God brewed it on the face of the waters, and then God said, "Let there be light."

In other words, the first day's creation, does not include creation of the planet itself, the land mass. It does not include the creation of darkness. The earth existed in Genesis 1:1-2, in a darkened void state prior to the first day of creation.

So, the Bible begins with the assumption of a pre‑existent earth that was without form and void, darkness upon the face of the deep. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, day one and God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

What's created on the first day? Light. What's created on the first day, minus one, the heavens and the earth. You say, "But the Bible says, and that later it says that God made the heavens and earth in six days," sure He did. The word "created" and the word "made" are two different words that appear in Genesis chapter one, two, and later on in other parts of the Bible.

There are two different Hebrew words that are for 'created, ' 'made.' One word for created is the word "created." The other Hebrew word for the word made is the word 'made.' The word "made" has to do with composing something out of pre‑existing materials. The word 'created' has to do with bringing something out of nothing, ex nihilo, that which did not previously exist.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, but then God made throughout the six days of creation, made things, but then he created the whale. So, some things were previously existent and some were not. Some were composed of previous existing material.

So, the Gap is a fact. When Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day, and Lucifer comes into the garden to tempt them, he is already a sinner right? He is already there. He has already sinned, before that week. He was created sometime before that.

Job talks about him being created and the Sons of God shouting for joy, when the heavens and the earth were created. So, the angels existed prior to the creation of the universe. They were there shouting for joy when it was created, and he sinned before the creation of the universe‑‑no, excuse me. He sinned before the Genesis chapter one, two and three, the recreation of the earth.

So, otherwise what you would have to have, you would have to say that on the sixth day when God created the beasts of the field and Adam and Eve, that He also created Lucifer and the angels, and that Lucifer ascended up to heaven to be like the most high, sinned, was cast back down to the earth, and later on that day, tempted Adam and Eve.

In other words, you would have to cram the entire history of Satan that is revealed in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, and the Book of Revelation. You would have to take the entire history that is revealed about Satan, and cram it all into an hour or two. There is no mention of that history taking place at that time. There is mention of that taking place before the earth was created under Adam and Eve.

So, it is not a theory, it is a fact. The only reason to reject that teaching is to try to provide an argument against evolution, theistic evolution. Listen, a long time before evolution came along, Christians believed in a Gap. Now, we're not going to give it up, just because a few scientists think different.

Remember, we believe the Bible, not scientists. You can call them Christian Scientists or Creation Scientists, but if it is a scientist with a scientific theory, I'll stand on the Bible, which is a Gap, before I'll accept a scientist's personal views.

So, yes. I am proud and thankful, and by the way, when you get to heaven and find out there is a Gap, you be sure and come up and say, "Mike Pearl, I am sorry. You were right." [laughs]

Announcer:  If you would like to ask a Bible question, email us at [email protected] or call at 931‑805‑4820.

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2 comments on “Do you support the Gap Theory?”

  1. Mr. Pearl,
    Thank you for your ministry. Our family has been blessed of God through that ministry. The article on the "Gap" was thought provoking, however there are some observations that you might consider.
    The gap theory is not Biblical because it puts the entrance of sin and death into the world before Adam, which directly contradicts Romans 5.
    As for the words "created" and "made", while there are distinctions between them, they are used interchangebly in the passage. (see Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:4)
    It does not follow that because Satan's fall is not described in the Genesis 1 passage, that it then must have taken place before those events.
    In Genesis 1:31, God states that everything in Creation was "very good". (see above about "created" and "made") Satan's fall could not have happened yet as he is a part of that Creation. Also, we are not told how long Adam and Eve lived in the garden before the Fall. If there is any "gap" it occurs between chapters 1 and 2 giving time for Satan's fall.
    Thank you again for your ministry may God continue to bless it and you for His glory.
    Sincerely,
    Darren McClintock
    P.S. Just received a copy of "Created to Need a Helpmeet" - looking forward to reading it!

  2. To Michael Pearl from Jim Pearl!!!
    Greetings from the Frontiers of Northern Idaho! Comment regarding Gap Fact/Gap Theory:
    Thoughts from a marine/land geologist:
    Revelation 21:1 says, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away..." Notice the first earth had passed away, not the second earth. It all started with Adam and Eve. There was not a Pre-Adamite race cataclysm...
    Genesis 1:2 says, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep..." Genesis 1:2, perhaps, means that the LORD had not yet "started" electromagnetic (this is light!), gravitational, nuclear, and other forces; or the "shaping" forces for a void/dark (formless) earth.
    Genesis1:3, "Let there be light," is the LORD now shaping the earth with HIS adding shaping forces (electromagnetic and other forces, which equal "light" of various frequencies). GOD is light; we are beings of light. Light/energy=mass.
    I am reminded of "The Joy of Painting" (1983-1994) with Bob Ross. "Ross used the wet-on-wet oil painting technique, in which the painter continues adding paint on top of still wet paint." GOD, as the SUPREME ARTIST, paints on HIS canvas over a 6-Day period. Genesis 1:2 is the beginning of HIS brush strokes of HIS planet earth!
    I just spotted your ministry last night (Oct. 20, 2019). I was born September 25, 1942, and I am 77-years old. My "Pearl" Family came from New England.
    The LORD'S Abundant Blessings! Jim Pearl

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