Gino (10 Jul 2022)
"RE: Lewis: 07.03.22: gap"


Lewis,
I enjoyed reading what you wrote.
When I was lost, I whole heartedly believed in evolution.
However, the day I was saved, I was able to believe the scriptures, that Jesus created everything in 6 days, and rested the 7th.
It was some years later that I began to be taught about a "gap" between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, of an indeterminate length.
Sadly, this appealed to my old nature, to give me an out, since I worked with scientists and engineers.
The apparent "out" was that this seemed to allow for the myriads of years necessary to produce the various rock strata and fossil records.
This seemingly gave me an out, so that I didn't sound too crazy to those around me, but it it appealed to my flesh, and was not of faith.
Although neither I, nor any of the scientists, engineers, or my professors, ever had "hands-on" with the fossils or rock strata.

I was taught that Peter was not speaking of the flood in Noah's day, but a pre-Adamic flood:

II Peter 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
  6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

They say that this was a pre-Adamic judgment of God upon a pre-Adamic world that they say existed between lines 1 and 2, resulting in:

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

They taught me that this pre-Adamic world was judged and "became" without form and void due to the judgment:

Jeremiah 4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

They taught me that after this, that Jesus had to recreate it all over again, in essence a re-terraforming, i.e "Earth 2", in the remaining lines of Genesis 1.
However, after being shown the thousand year kingdom, the apostle John was then shown:

Revelation 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

It didn't say that a second earth was passed away here, but that the first earth was passed away.

I was taught that the judgment came upon a pre-Adamic race, and upon the dinosaurs, as a result of the sins of this pre-Adamic race.
However, that would mean that sin and death came into the world during what they refer to as Earth #1.
But actually the scriptures show that sin and death came into the world in what they refer to as Earth #2:

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

It is traced back to Adam, not to some pre-Adamic man.
And Adam was created on the 6th day in the first earth, not Earth #2.

Then I was taught that Jesus only does things perfectly, immediately, and not starting out as form and void.
As to the immediately, then why did he create in steps over six days?
No, he doesn't always make everything in its final form immediately - consider Christians over time:

Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Galatians 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Then there is this interesting thing the Jesus did, which also was not done immediately perfect, but rather in steps:

Mark 8:23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.
  24 And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
  25 After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.

Also, Jesus created Adam the same way that he created the earth, in steps.
First there was the dust that he created, so that Adam, like the Earth, began without form and void.
Then he took the formless dust and formed Adam:

Genesis 2:7a And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,

At this point Adam was no longer without form, but he was still void.
Jesus then breathed into Adam:

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

At this point Adam was no longer without form and no longer void.
In a similar way Jesus did the same with the earth, in steps over the 6 days, to where it was no longer without form and no longer void.

Which also is kind of a picture of what he did with his word, bringing it into this world.
There were thousands of everyday words in the Hebrew and Greek tongues.
Yet he took them and formed phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and books.
Then he breathed into them his very Spirit, he inspired those scriptures.
And he brought it into the world in steps, beginning with Moses writing in the wilderness,
and ending with the apostle John writing on Patmos, many years later.

.