RSR on the Day-Age and Gap Theories

* RSR's Lists of 24-Hour Indicators, and Gap Theory & Day Age Consequences: Below, see our list of Indicators of the 24-Hour Creation Days. Below that, Bob Enyart and Fred Williams, discuss the Gap Theory claim that the Bible indicates that a long period of time passed between the first two verses of Genesis. There they list the unexpected consequences that typically go along with acceptance of that alleged gap. They also briefly list the unexpected consequences of the Day Age Theory. The claim that the creation days were long periods of time has implications that are not always immediately obvious to those considering that position. (See that list immediately below this paragraph.) So, what isn't always presented upfront is that as supporters of the Gap or Day-Age theories try to maintain old-earth creation views, they then must rearrange the order of those days (since their theory requires the existence of the Sun before Day 4; etc.). Gap theorists also tend to reject that there were no thorns before Adam's sin, Noah's global flood, etc. Christian denominations, universities, and other organizations that adopt the Day-Age theory tend to reject all of that and even that the languages originated at Babel, and they tend to reject the Exodus, Jericho's supernatural fall, Joshua's conquest of Canaan, etc. For the vast majority of Christian groups that make what looks like just a small interpretative adjustment in Genesis 1, trying then to be consistent with that adjustment leads these Christian institutions to reject many seemingly unrelated and plain historical passages in Scripture. Further, accepting an old earth interpretation of the Bible appears to lead to disinterest in, and even outright rejection of, the many fascinating corroborating archaeological and scientific discoveries that affirm the Bible as God's Word.

Day Age theory visual representation via a calendar * List of Day-Age Theory Consequences: The initial presentation of Day-Age might seem reasonable, that the word "day" can mean a long age and so Genesis accommodates an old earth. What isn't always presented upfront however is that as supporters try to maintain the Day-Age theory, they not only lengthen the days but then also:
- must rearrange the order of those days (since they claim the Sun existed before the Earth and land animals before birds, so Day 4 comes before Day 1, and Day 6 comes before Day 5, and Day 3 plants before Day 4's Sun is also an issue for them)
- reject that there were no thorns before Adam (as Genesis states)
- reject that all was "very good" until sometime after Day Six
- reject that there was no death before Adam's fall (as the Bible states)
- reject the great ages that the antediluvians (like Methuselah) lived to
- reject the global flood (and all the evidence for it)
- reject that the languages originated at Babel
- reject the dispersion from Babel (preferring Out of Africa)
- reject the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
- reject the Exodus (and all the evidence for it)
- reject Jericho's fall (and all the evidence for it)
- reject Joshua's conquest of Canaan (and all the evidence for it)
- reject Jesus' genealogy in Luke
- reject Jesus affirming Noah entering the Ark before the flood destroyed the rest of the world
- reject that God made us male and female as stated in Genesis and by Jesus
- reject Jesus' statement in Mark 10:6 that God made mankind at the "beginning" of creation
- reject Hebrews 1:10 and Gen. 1:1 on God making the Earth at "the beginning" of creation
- reject that God instituted marriage in Eden between one man and one woman
- etc. (for ex., they even reject the 2018 evidence that Solomon indeed made the gates found in Israel)

* List of Indicators of 24-Hour Creation Days; The above (like the Gap Theory observations below) is a list of the consequences that result from rejecting normal-length days of creation. A direct way of showing that these Genesis Days equaled 24 hours include observing that:
- On Day Four the sun and moon were to rule over the day and night, virtually mandating literal days 4, 5, and 6
- The Day Three plants needed the Sun of Day Four to survive therefore Day 3 could be hours but not years long
- Each of the six Days have ordinals 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., which are typically used with literal and not figurative days
- Each of the six Days have evening and morning descriptions typically used with literal and not figurative days
- The 7th Day sabbath model is that God made the heavens, earth, and seas and everything in them in six days
- The purpose of Genesis carefully listing the ages of the patriarchs was for calculating the years since creation
- Jesus said that God created Man at the beginning of, that is, not not long after, creation (Mk. 10:6; etc.)
- Lucifer in the Garden of Eden hadn't yet fallen, no suffering or thorns yet till after "everthing was very good" on Day Six 

So it turns out that making a small adjustment in Genesis 1 and overlooking that "the evening and the morning" were the first day, the second day, etc., leads to extensive rejection of other plain historical passages of Scripture. Soon enough such compromise leads also to rejection of the Bible's teaching on gender and God making us male and female (Gen. 1), on sexual morality (Gen. 1, 9, Ex. 20, etc.), on marriage between a man and a woman (Gen. 2), and even the killing of the innocent (Gen. 4, 9, Ex. 20, etc.) through suicide, euthanasia, and abortion. What then, arises, with the adoption of the Gap Theory? Bob and Fred investigate (see below).

* RSR's Multiple Creation Site Search: This single Google-based custom creation search already has saved Bob and Fred dozens of hours in research and made us much more effective. So we invite you to check out RSR's Multiple Creation Site Search.

* God Exists; Secular Theories of Origins Do Not: As filmed on the Pepperdine Campus...

* List of Gap Theory Consequences: The initial presentation of the Gap Theory might seem reasonable, that a period of time transpired between the first two verses of the Bible and so Genesis accommodates an old earth. What isn't always presented upfront however is that as supporters try to maintain the Gap Theory, they not only insert a long period of time into Genesis 1 but then also:
- reject that there was no death before Adam's fall in Genesis 3
- reject that the sun was not made until Day Four (so they effectively re-order the days)
- reject that God made the stars after He made the Earth (preferring billion-year astronomy stories)
- reject that there were no thorns before Adam (as Genesis states)
- reject that "everything... was very good" on Day Six (Gappers claim the Devil already existed)
- reject that Lucifer became the enemy at Eve's fall ("because you have done this", and not before)
- reject that Lucifer was in the Garden of Eden when he fell ("in Eden"; "I will ascend into heaven")
- minimize Noah's flood (claiming the biblical and scientific evidence for it was for Lucifer's flood)
- reject the Ten Commandments statement that "in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them" (Exodus 20:11; not even the Day-Age supporters outright reject this; they just claim, erroneously and with many resulting problems listed above, that those days were of long ages)
- reject Jesus' clear statement that God made us at "the beginning of creation" (not after millions of years)
- claim that God put a wicked agent in Eden (instead of it being "very good")
- claim falsely that "replenish the Earth" means to "plenish" again (as though repent meant to "pent" again)
- claim that Lucifer fell during a first "Earth age" (instead of Gen. 3 when he became the enemy of God and man, "because you have done this")
- reject that the "first man [was] Adam" as even the New Testament specifically states (claiming that men existed in the first "Earth age")
- reject that the crust of the Earth is the "firmament" of Day 2 with its waters below which flooded the Earth by "the fountains of the great deep" (rsr.org/firmament; however not only Gappers but many creationists miss this also)
- claim that there was a true global flood in the first "Earth age" and that it was Lucifer's flood (while rejecting that Noah's flood was worldwide)
- claim that the race of men killed in Lucifer's flood had no souls (because Jesus only died for those who sinned since Adam, and if the pre-adamic race of men had souls, Jesus would be cruel to not die for them too)
- claim that Peter omitted Noah's flood (and was referring to Lucifer's flood) when criticizing those who "willfully forget... the world... being flooded" (2 Peter 3:5-6)
- reject John's description in Rev. 21:1 of today's earth as "the first earth" for "I saw... the first heaven and the first earth had passed away... And God made a new heaven and a new earth" (not a third earth)
- reject the mass of scientific evidence supporting a young earth including short-lived carbon 14 everywhere it's not supposed to be (like in coal, oil, marble, diamonds, dinosaur bones, etc. as at rsr.org/14c); soft tissue including blood cells in dinosaur bones (as at rsr.org/soft); flat gap uneroded boundaries between Grand Canyon layers (and around the world, as at rsr.org/gc); transient events of the solar system (as at rsr.org/transient); and see more at our youngearth.com and RSR's List of Not So Old Things!
- Etc.

* In The Day That You Eat Of It: Jesus said, "I say unto you", over a hundred times. Christ's words are in the place of the Old Testament's four hundred plus, "Thus saith the Lord". For He is God. So with authority the Lord said, "Most assuredly, I say unto you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death" (John 8:51). Of course Jesus did not mean that His disciples would never die physically. Rather, of course, He meant their spiritual rebirth could be eternal in that they would never again die spiritually. Likewise, when He said to Adam of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). That did not mean that they would die physically the very day they ate, but that they would die spiritually. Death is not obliteration but separation. In physical death a man's spirit separates from his body. In spiritual death his spirit is separated from God. The Hebrew word for day of course can mean a long period of time. Some day-agers though, eager for more evidence for that obvious truth, will claim that the death Adam was warned about was only physical death. Then, because he didn't die until he was 930 years old, their claim is, "See, here too, the 'day you eat of it', even that day is a long period of time!" Sadly though, that unnecessary and incorrect argument undermines the reality and immediacy of spiritual death. The separation of our spirit from God of course is as real as the separation of our spirit from our body at physical death. In fact, for the believer, our body acts as a kind of anchor to keep our soul on Earth. So, not when our heart stops, because that's merely a pump (that could even be replaced in a transplant, and of course the patient still retains their personal identify), but when someone actually dies, a rather dramatic thing happens. With the separation that is physical death, untethering a man's soul and spirit from his body, for the believer, his spirit, which is free, now soars into the heavenlies to forever be with the Lord. Tragically though, for the unbeliever, the great weight of his guilt, no longer tethered to his physical body, now causes his darkened spirit to plummet into hell. Selah.

* Framework View, Cosmic Temple View: In 2014 Bob Enyart joined a week-long science cruise to Alaska organized by the anti-Darwinist old-earthers at the Discovery Institute. You can hear Bob give his debrief of that trip and how much he enjoyed listening to and interacting with speakers Stephen Meyer, John West, Paul Nelson, and Oxford's John Lennox. On that trip Bob read Lennox' book and you can find here on our website the most stunning information found there, in Seven Days that Divid the World. At any rate, that book covers the day-age view and something called the "Framework View", that the Genesis days "exhibit a logical rather than a chronological order." The Framework View of course comes in various versions. Lennox advocates interpretive efforts that remove the conclusion of a young earth. He presents at length a similar attempt to remove the literalness of Genesis by an interpretation called the Cosmic Temple View. Regardless of what approach Bible students use to achieve their desired old age of the Earth, they effectively undermine dozens of other Bible teachings as listed above. If anyone doubts this, consider the pattern across hundreds of Christian colleges, seminaries, and universities, wherein as they officially adopt an old earth position (whether by the Day Age, Gap, Framework, or Cosmic, interpretation) they then begin tolerating among their ranks professors who reject the global flood and the Exodus. In fact, a typical example was seen where Bob gave his Trading Genesis presentation on the campus at the Church of Christ's Pepperdine University in Malibu. Old-earth Christian institutions tend to quickly move from "tolerating" faculty members who reject the flood and the Exodus, etc., to where they actually require faculty members to reject these, and eventually, to reject the many other Bible teachings listed above.

* Stand-alone: Today's program is a stand-alone RSR show as it summarizes last week's introductory program. So there's no need to go back and listen to that program but it's there for those who want to hear more about the early part of today's broadcast.