{"id":18272,"date":"2019-09-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/angelology-009-satanology-05\/"},"modified":"2019-09-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T05:00:00","slug":"angelology-009-satanology-05","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/angelology-009-satanology-05\/","title":{"rendered":"Angelology 009 (Satanology 05)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[12],"series_event":[499],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18272","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-genesis","series_event-angelology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Angelology 009 (Satanology 05)","sermon_date":"20190901","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7010,"sermon_slides":7018,"sermon_mp3":7015,"sermon_id":"91191217193893","series_or_event":499,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":12,"chapter_and_verse":"1:1-3","sermon_transcript":"Dr. Andy Woods\n\nAngelology 9; (Satanology 5)\n\nGenesis 1:1-3\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09-1-2019\n\nLet\u2019s open up with a word of prayer if we could. Let\u2019s pray: Father, we\u2019re grateful for this morning and we lift up the victims of the latest mass shooting yesterday in Odessa and I just pray You\u2019ll be with those in Florida that are perhaps experiencing Dorian [can't understand word] or very soon, I looked up the latest outbreak that\u2019s happened in Israel and we realize we live in a fallen world and we see evidence of that all around us.\u00a0 And I pray that You will use these events that are going on around the world to draw people\u2019s attention to the fact that this life is very temporary and we really need to place our trust and invest in things that are eternal.\u00a0 And I pray You\u2019ll do that work. I pray You\u2019ll be with us here at Sugar Land Bible Church both in Sunday School and the main service that follows and with communion and the fellowship lunch afterwards and the different meetings that are going to be going on. So I just pray that Your spirit would superintend everything and I pray that people would leave here eternally changed today.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things sin Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles and open them to the Book of Genesis, chapter 1 and verse 1.\u00a0 That should be pretty easy to find, amen!\u00a0 And we\u2019ve been doing this study on angelology, the doctrine of the angels.\u00a0 And part of studying angelology is studying Satanology, the doctrine of Satan because Satan at one time (as we know) was once a high-ranking angel.\u00a0 So, we\u2019ve moved away from the good angels and we\u2019re looking at what the Bible has to say about Satan.\n\nWe\u2019ve looked at the fact that he clearly exists, Old Testament, New Testament.\u00a0 We have also looked at the fact that he is an actual person and not an impersonal source of energy.\u00a0 And then we went through his about 18 to 20 names and titles given to him in the Scripture, each of which reveals something about His character.\u00a0 And then the last few weeks we\u2019ve been looking at how Satan became Satan; what was his original state and first sin.\u00a0 And we saw that there\u2019s only two areas of the Bible that help us with that, Ezekiel 28 first, so we went through that passage, Ezekiel 18:12-17, and learned all about the fall of Satan.\u00a0 And then the second passage is Isaiah 14:12-15 and we went through that passage and learned all about the fall of Satan, how Satan was lifted up with pride and lost his position in the heavenlies and plummeted to the earth.\n\nAnd part of me was just going to move on to his works but the study really wouldn\u2019t be complete unless I made some kind of an attempt to explain the time of Satan\u2019s fall.\u00a0 And part of me just wanted to avoid this because there\u2019s a lot of controversy on this and it\u2019s very tempting as a teacher to just stay away from things that are controversial but I guess you guys know us better here at Sugar Land Bible Church, we kind of take on controversies.\u00a0 So, I wanted to spend some time talking about the time of Satan\u2019s fall.\u00a0 And I think the reason there are so many differences of opinion on this is you\u2019re dealing with very limited data; I mean, there isn\u2019t an awful lot of Scripture that you can go to that allows you to say conclusively thus saith the LORD, here\u2019s when Satan fell.\n\nI think probably the best you can do is you can pick the view which is least problematic.\u00a0 So the first view is that Satan already fell long before the world was.\u00a0 They put the fall sometime in eternity past. And if you sort of track what we said in the good angels, when the good angels were created, I tried to lay out a case that I think the good angels came into existence during the creation week itself.\u00a0 It\u2019s a minority view but it is held by some, like Dr. Renald Showers and others.\u00a0 If you believe that then it\u2019s hard to argue that Satan fell sometimes in eternity past long before the world was.\u00a0 Beyond that, when you look at Satan\u2019s fall in both the Ezekiel 28 passage and the Isaiah 14 passage it\u2019s pretty clear that Satan\u2019s falls to the earth. Ezekiel 28:16, of Satan, says, \u201cI cast you to the ground.\u201d\u00a0 [Ezekiel 28:16, \u201cBy the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore, I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God.\nAnd I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.\u201d]\n\nAnd when you go to the Isaiah 14:12 passage it\u2019s very clear that he fell from heaven to the earth.\u00a0 \u201cHow you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! \u00a0\u00a0You have been cut down to the earth [You who have weakened the nations!]\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of hard for Satan to fall and fall to the earth if the earth didn\u2019t exist yet\u2026 Amen!\u00a0 So, the first view that Satan fell sometime in eternity past, a lot of evangelicals believe that.\u00a0 I personally have a difficult time with that.\n\nThe second view and we have to spend (as I\u2019ll explain) a lot of time on this.\u00a0 The second view is that Satan fell in between verse 1 and verse 2 of Genesis chapter 1.\u00a0 So this is something that many, many conservative evangelicals have believed, probably since the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, which is a very good Bible in many ways but it promoted something that\u2019s called the Gap Theory.\u00a0 Has anybody heard of the Gap Theory?\u00a0 Most evangelicals have heard of this, it\u2019s very interesting to study.\u00a0 And it\u2019s this idea that in between verse 1 and verse two of Genesis 1, that\u2019s when the fall of Satan took place.\u00a0 So that, by definition, to dismiss that option it requires a critique of the Gap Theory.\u00a0 So that\u2019s sort of the direction that I\u2019m going to go in today and probably for the next couple of weeks. And I wanted to sort of slow down and spend some time on this because this is something that many, many Christians believe.\u00a0 A lot of my friends believe it.\u00a0 But I really don\u2019t think at the end of the day that it\u2019s the most probable theory.\n\nSo when we get into what\u2019s called the Gap Theory; here\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do, we\u2019re going to define the Gap Theory.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not one of those that likes to just tear down something without giving it a hearing so I\u2019m going to actually today (and we may get through this today) lay out the evidence for the Gap Theory.\u00a0 In other words, why is it that the Gap Theory has become so popular in the minds of so many Christians?\u00a0 So I\u2019ll lay out the evidence for it; there\u2019s about thirteen pieces of evidence that people point to in promoting the Gap Theory.\u00a0 And then we\u2019ll move to number three, maybe a little bit this week, probably into next week, where I\u2019m going to respond to each of the thirteen pieces of evidence.\u00a0 And then we\u2019ll hit number four where I\u2019ll give you some remaining problems with the Gap Theory.\u00a0 And then once we get through all of that I\u2019ll give you, number five, what I think is the correct way to handle Genesis 1:1-3.\u00a0 In other words, if the Gap Theory is not true then how should we be reading Genesis 1:1-3?\u00a0 So that\u2019s sort of the direction that we\u2019re going in and the reason we\u2019re going into all of this is because it relates to the doctrine of Satan getting to the issue of when exactly did Satan fall.\n\nSo the Gap Theory, what is it that we\u2019re really talking about (when we talk about the Gap Theory) well, take a look if you could at Genesis chapter 1 and notice verses 1-3.\u00a0 These are no doubt very familiar verses to all of us.\u00a0 It says this: \u201cIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. \u00a0\u00a0[2] The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. [3] Then God said, \u201cLet there be light\u201d; and there was light.\u201d\u00a0 And then you keep moving through the chapter and it gives you the creation week right down to verse 31 where God looks back on the creation week and He doesn\u2019t\u2019 just say it was good, He says it was what?\u00a0 He said it was \u201cvery good.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 1:31, \u201cGod saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.\u201d]\n\nSo the Gap Theory basically is known as the Ruin-reconstruction theory and it\u2019s sort of something that\u2019s biblical to critique because every time you critique it somebody will say well, I don\u2019t believe the version you\u2019re teaching, I believe this other version over here, and it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s different variations of the Gap Theory, which obviously it\u2019s impossible for me to get into every single variation of it. So, if I leave out someone\u2019s particular version of it don\u2019t get your feelings hurt, that\u2019s just a matter of timing and how much time I have.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to critique what I think is what\u2019s called the classical Gap Theory.\n\nHow does the Gap Theory work?\u00a0 Well, according to verse 1 you have an original creation brought into existence by God in a perfect state.\u00a0 And when you look at Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1 it says, \u201cIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.\u201d\u00a0 Now that\u2019s the earth (according to the Gap Theory) which was perfect.\u00a0 Some people like the late Merrill Unger, longtime professor of Hebrew at Dallas Seminary, argued that there was actually a race of people on the earth at that time called a pre-Adamic race.\u00a0 And some gap three people hold to the pre-Adamic race, some don\u2019t.\n\nBut at any rate, verse 1, according to the Gap Theory, is basically describing the world (as God originally intended) with plants and animals and birds and even a pre-Adamic race of people. \u00a0And then something happened in between verse 1 and verse 2 and that\u2019s where classical Gap Theory, in between verse 1 and verse 2 puts the fall of Satan.\u00a0 So between the end of verse 1 and the beginning of verse 2 you could have, depending on how much time you need, a million years, a billion years, and allegedly that\u2019s when Satan fell, right in that gap; that\u2019s why it\u2019s called the Gap Theory.\u00a0\u00a0 And Lucifer\u2019s rebellion and judgment took place in that gap.\u00a0 Lucifer fell and God judged!\u00a0\u00a0 Now when God judged He brought water because that\u2019s why verse two says, \u201cthe surface of the deep and the spirit of God was moving on the waters.\u201d\n\nSo according to classical Gap Theory thinking they\u2019re actually were two floods in the ancient past.\u00a0 And it\u2019s sort of interesting, when you talk to a Gap Theory person about the flood. you have to be careful in figuring out what flood they\u2019re talking about, because there was the flood in-between verse 1 and verse 2, where Lucifer fell, a third of the angels fell, and God brought judgment through a flood.\u00a0 And then there was another flood that you read about in Genesis 6, 7 and 8 called the Noahic flood.\u00a0 And this is sort of popular because you can take all of the fossil records, which looks ancient, and you can cram it right there in between those two verses.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting, according to classical Gap Theory there really is not a genetic relationship between present animals and humans and the fossils which were destroyed in the gap.\u00a0 You see that?\u00a0 So you look at the fossil record and it could be talking about something from Lucifer\u2019s fall, Lucifer\u2019s rebellion, Lucifer\u2019s judgment, that really has no genetic relationship to present animals, human beings, etc.\u00a0 So, you go to verse 2 and what is being described, according to the Gap Theory, is the chaotic conditions of the world following Lucifer\u2019s fall and judgment which took place in between verse 1 and verse 2.\n\nSo you look at verse 2 and what does it say?\u00a0 It says, \u201cThe earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was moving on the waters.\u201d\u00a0 So when it says \u201cThe earth was formless and void\u201d the Hebrew words there translated formless and void is tohu<\/em> and bohu<\/em>, and what Gap Theory people do is they go to other parts of the Bible where is tohu<\/em> and bohu<\/em> are used together to describe judgment and chaos.\u00a0 The two passages they go to (and I\u2019ll be sharing these with you a little bit later) are Isaiah 34:11 and Jeremiah 4:23.\u00a0 [Isaiah 34:11, \u201cBut pelican and hedgehog will possess it, And owl and raven will dwell in it; And He will stretch over it the line of desolation. And the plumb line of emptiness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremiah 4:23, \u201cI looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; And to the heavens, and they had no light.\u201d]\n\nAnd then you\u2019ll notice it says, \u201cdarkness was over the surface of the deep\u201d and they say see, darkness is evil in the Bible.\u00a0 So they\u2019ll go to John 13:19-20 or Jude 13 where darkness is something bad, and they you see, that\u2019s evidence of a world that was destroyed, an original world that was destroyed through the Luciferian rebellion and judgment.\u00a0 And then it talks about how the Spirit of God was moving on the waters.\u00a0 [Genesis 1:2, \u201cThe earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.\u201d]\n\nAnd they\u2019ll go to Bible translations that say the Spirit of God \u201cwas brooding,\u201d and there is a Bible translation that says that, I\u2019ll show it to you in just a minute.\u00a0 And so they say aha, there\u2019s your evidence that the Spirit of God was disturbed at what happened with the Luciferian rebellion and judgment.\u00a0 So they\u2019ll go to Ephesians 4:30 which talks about don\u2019t grieve the Holy Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0 [Ephesians 4:30, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.\u201d]\u00a0 And so the idea here is the Spirit of God was grieving at what took place because the old world was destroyed.\u00a0 And then it says the Spirit of God was moving on the waters and to their\u00a0\u00a0 minds it means there was a flood.\u00a0 I mean, God sent a flood in a judgment to destroy that old world.\n\nSo once you get past verse 2 and then you get into verse 3, all the way through the end of the chapter, verse 31\u2026 verse three says \u201cThen God said, \u2018Let there be light.\u2019\u201d \u00a0Now once you get to verse three what we\u2019re told by Gap Theory advocates is verse 3 is not the original creation; the original creation was wrecked in between verse 1 and verse 2.\u00a0 So what is happening in verse 3 is not an ex nihilo<\/em> creation out of nothing, but it\u2019s what we would call a renovation.\u00a0 In other words, God, beginning in verse 3, is fixing what got busted.\n\nLet me put it this way; someone breaks into your house and they vandalize, they damage the furniture, they spray paint on the walls, and so you come back and you find your house in that condition and you\u2019re not necessarily going to buy a brand-new house but you\u2019re going to repaint the walls and those kinds of things.\u00a0 In other words, you\u2019re fixing what got busted.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the Gap Theory looks at the six days of creation.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something out of nothing, it\u2019s not an ex nihilo<\/em> creation, it\u2019s more of a renovation.\u00a0 And they believe that this renovation started, probably six thousand years ago, in six literal days.\u00a0 So Gap Theory people are very literal when it comes to Genesis 1, the creation week, they think it is twenty-four hour days, correctly.\u00a0 They take it as a renovation that sort of began thousands of years ago, not billions of years ago, what happened billions of years ago is in verse 1 and between verse 1 and verse 2.\n\nSo the Gap Theory is sort of interesting because it allows people to be old earth in terms of their creationism understanding.\u00a0 They can hold to a fossil record and an earth that\u2019s billions of years old but they still are able to hold to a literal interpretation of Genesis 1, it\u2019s just the literal interpretation starts there in verse 3 and it\u2019s not so much a creation but it\u2019s a renovation.\u00a0 The Gap Theory is sort of an interesting combination: old earth but literal creation week.\u00a0 So the best I\u2019ve tried to do is tried to explain where the Gap Theory is coming from.\u00a0 It\u2019s very attractive to people because it allows you to hold to what science is saying about the age of the earth, billions of years old, you can believe that, but at the same time you can still believe in literal Genesis 1.\u00a0 And the only reason I\u2019m bringing all of this up is it relates to Satanology because that\u2019s where they put the fall of Satan, at the end of verse 1 before the beginning of verse 2.\n\nSo is there actual evidence for the Gap Theory?\u00a0 Well, in fact there is evidence for it.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019m going to lay out the evidence in such a way that you might even think that I\u2019m a believer in this because\u2026\u00a0 you know, the people that hold this they shouldn\u2019t be maligned as dumb or stupid or they don\u2019t believe the Bible, they do believe the Bible; it\u2019s actually in the Scofield Reference Bible.\u00a0 I happen to have a very high opinion of the Scofield Reference Bible.\u00a0 I don\u2019t agree with the Scofield Reference Bible on this point but the Scofield Reference Bible holds to the Gap Theory.\n\nSo what actually is the evidence for the Gap Theory?\u00a0What I have here is a chart and on the left column is the evidence in favor of the Gap Theory and then on the right-hand column is the response to each of those pieces of evidence because when I critique something I like to be fair to what it is I\u2019m critiquing.\n\nSo why is it that so many people hold to the Gap Theory? We\u2019re in Houston and Bob Thieme had an influential ministry here in Houston and so a lot of people come to our church, come to us from Bob Thieme or a Bob Thieme related church and to my understanding he was an advocate for a believer in the Gap Theory.\u00a0 So likely many of you, at some point have been exposed to this and\/or believe it.\n\nSo why do people believe this?\u00a0 Well, here is the first piece of evidence they cite, it has to do with a Hebrew conjunction beginning in verse 2.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t show up in English but in verse 2, in Hebrew there\u2019s a conjunction there and the Hebrew name for it is a vav<\/em>, and so the Gap Theory believes that that Hebrew conjunction vav<\/em>, beginning in verse 2 is a contrast, it\u2019s a contrast, so they interpret that conjunction as \u201cbut.\u201d\u00a0 And the reason that\u2019s important is because what is happening is in their minds, verse 2 is being contrasted to verse one.\u00a0 Verse 1 is the original world; verse 2 is how it got wrecked, so the contrast is very important so they take that initial vav<\/em> and they translate it as \u201cbut.\u201d\n\nAnd then they go into verse 2 and you\u2019ll see the word \u201cbecame,\u201d I think that\u2019s pronounced in Hebrew hayah<\/em> if I\u2019m not mistaken, and it says, \u201cthe earth was\u201d in most Bible translations, but they don\u2019t want that verb to mean was, they want it to mean became, \u201cbut the earth became.\u201d\u00a0 Now why are they interested in doing this?\u00a0 Because verse 1 is the perfect world, verse 2 is a description of the wrecked world, after Satan fell.\u00a0 So here was the original world and then the earth \u201cbecame\u201d something else in light of the Luciferian rebellion and judgment.\u00a0 And to be completely honest with you I think that particular verb is used a number of times in Genesis 1 and many times it means become or have become.\u00a0 So you might want to jump down to Genesis 2:7, it\u2019s very close to the context that we\u2019re working in here, and it says, \u201cThen the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became\u201d see that? That\u2019s hayah, \u201c<\/em>a living being.\u201d\n\nIf you go to Genesis 2:10 it says, \u201cNow a river flowed out of Eden to water the Garden; and from there it divided and became\u201d see that? \u201cfour rivers.\u201d\u00a0 And then you go to Genesis 3:22, these are all verses very close to our context, look at Genesis 3:22, it says, \u201cThen the Lord God said, \u201cBehold, the man has\u201d what \u201cbecome like one of us\u2026.\u00a0 So, if hayah,<\/em> means became or become over and over again in Genesis 1, 2 and 3, why can\u2019t it mean that in verse 2?\u00a0\u00a0 The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of Hebrew Bible, created a couple of centuries before the time of Christ, goes through many of these passages, in fact, hayah <\/em>is used, I think around 27 times in Genesis 1, if I\u2019m not mistaken.\u00a0 And the Septuagint translates it as themselves, \u201crender that\u201d particular verb [can't understand word] which means became many, many times.\u00a0 So the Gap Theory personnel are advocates, they basically believe that well, if it means that other places it can mean that there in Genesis 1:2.\u00a0 So, \u201cBut the earth became\u201d is how they want verse 2 to read.\n\nThe third piece of evidence cited by the Gap Theory advocates are the words tohu<\/em> and bohu<\/em>.\u00a0 It says there, \u201cthe earth was formless and void, tohu<\/em> and bohu.\u00a0 <\/em>And they say aha, the only other places in the Bible where tohu<\/em> and bohu <\/em>in the Old Hebrew Bible are used together, they mean a judgment and so they\u2019ll go to Isaiah 34:11, which says, \u201cThe pelican and hedgehog will possess it, and owl and raven will dwell in it; and He will stretch over it the line of desolation and the plumb line of emptiness,\u201d tohu<\/em> and bohu.\u00a0 <\/em>So they say look, there Isaiah 34 is describing judgment.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Since those same Hebrew words are used together in Genesis 1:2 it must be describing judgment as well.\u00a0 They also will use Jeremiah 4:23-25 where Jeremiah says, \u201cI looked at the earth and behold it was formless and void;\u201d tohu and bohu \u201c<\/em>and to the heavens and they had no light.\u00a0 [24] I looked at the mountains, and behold they were quaking; and the hills moved to and fro.\u201d\u00a0 [25] And I looked and behold there was no man and the birds of the heavens had fled,\u201d and they say there it is again, tohu<\/em> and bohu <\/em>in a context speaking of chaos and judgment so obviously that\u2019s what it\u2019s got to mean in Genesis 1:2.\u00a0 In fact, the Scofield Reference Bible says that.\u00a0 The Scofield Reference Bible commenting on Jeremiah 4:23 connects that verse to tohu<\/em> and bohu<\/em> used in Genesis 1:2.\n\nThe Scofield Reference Bible, I think was created around 1902, somewhere in there, (and that\u2019s an important date and I\u2019ll explain why a little bit later in the series,) says, \u201cIt,\u201d Jeremiah 4:23, \u201cdescribes the condition of the earth as a result of the judgment which overthrew the primal order of Genesis 1:1.\u00a0 In other words, the Scofield Reference Bible is saying you understand tohu<\/em> and bohu<\/em> in Jeremiah 4:23 exactly like you would understand it in Genesis 1:2, speaking of judgment and the judgment came into existence through the Luciferian Rebellion.\n\nA fourth piece of evidence that the Gap Theory holds to is this phrase \u201cdarkness\u201d in Genesis 1:2. What does Genesis 1:2 say?\u00a0 \u201cThe earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep \u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Now the Gap Theory advocate goes to all of the references in the Bible where darkness means something evil.\u00a0 For example, in John 3:19, Jesus says, \u201cThis is the judgment that light has come into the world and men loved the\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cdarkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And they say aha, darkness is evil in the Bible, so it\u2019s got to be in Genesis 1:2.\n\nThey also will quote Jude 13, \u201cThey are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.\u00a0 Darkness means something bad in Jude so it\u2019s gotta be something bad in Genesis 1:2. And the Gap Theory advocate will tell you that God never says the darkness is good.\u00a0 I mean, you look at Genesis 1 and God says it is good over and over and over again.\u00a0 If you go to Genesis 1:4 it says in verse 4, \u201cGod saw the light was good,\u201d now they\u2019ll say well, God never said the darkness was good in the prior verse.\u00a0 So therefore, the darkness must be something evil related to Lucifer\u2019s fall and judgment.\n\nA fifth argument that you find from Gap Theory advocates is they say there\u2019s a distinction between bara<\/em> and asah<\/em>.\u00a0 Notice Genesis 1:1, \u201cIn the beginning God\u201d what? \u201ccreated the heavens and the earth.\u201d\u00a0 Now that\u2019s the Hebrew word for create, \u201cbara.\u201d\u00a0 But you move into the creation week itself and suddenly the verb changes.\u00a0 If you look at Genesis 1:16 it says, \u201cGod made the two great lights,\u201d now notice it\u2019s a different verb, it\u2019s no longer bara<\/em> but it\u2019s asah<\/em> and Gap Theory advocates will basically that last verb is used because God is no longer creating ex nihilo<\/em> as He was in Genesis 1:1 but now He is renovating.\u00a0 So they\u2019ll say asah<\/em> means to renovate, to fashion, to appear, and they\u2019 say the switch in verbs is proof of the Gap Theory.\u00a0 In fact, the Scofield Reference Bible makes that very point.\u00a0 What does it say in the notes.\u00a0 And this is painful for me to talk about because I love the Scofield Reference Bible and here I am disagreeing with it.\n\nIn Genesis 1 here\u2019s what the note says.\u00a0 \u201cOnly three created acts of God are recorded in this chapter.\u00a0 The heavens and the earth, animal life and human life.\u00a0 The first created act refers to the dateless past.\u201d\u00a0 Now why are they saying that?\u00a0 It\u2019s the old world that was brought into existence before it was wrecked to the Luciferian rebellion.\u00a0 \u201cThe first created act refers to the dateless past.\u00a0 Neither here, Genesis 1:3 nor in verses 14-18 of the same chapter is an original act implied.\u201d\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 So the Scofield Reference Bible is taking the view that what God is doing in the creation week is He\u2019s fixing what got broke.\u00a0 It\u2019s not ex nihilo, which means something out of nothing new creation.\n\nNow why does the Scofield Reference Bible say this?\u00a0 A different word is used.\u00a0 It\u2019s no longer bara <\/em>but it is asah<\/em>.\u00a0 The sense is made to appear to be made visible, the sun and the moon were already created, they just became visible (see that) on day four.\u00a0 The light came from the sun of course but the vapor diffused the light; later the sun appeared in an unclouded sky.\u00a0 In other words the sun was already there.\u00a0 The sun was not created on day four.\u00a0 Of course, sun I\u2019m talking about s-u-n, because the son, s-o-n was never created.\u00a0 So the sun already existed from the old world and when God got around to renovating what Lucifer\u2019s rebellion busted or broke, the sun just sort of became visible, came out from the clouds or something of that nature.\u00a0 And the Scofield Reference Bible justifies that interpretation on the basis of the switch in verbs from bara<\/em>, verse 1, to the verb asah<\/em>.\n\nWhat else does the Gap Theory teach?\u00a0 If you look at Isaiah 45:18 it indicates that God did not create the earth desolate.\u00a0 \u00a0Isaiah 45:18, \u201cFor thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), [\u201cI am the Lord, and there is none else.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 And they will know that waste place is tohu<\/em>.\u00a0 And they\u2019ll say well wait a minute, that\u2019s the same word used in Genesis 1:2, tohu<\/em>.\u00a0 So if God did not create the earth, tohu<\/em>, then obviously something happened in between verse 1 and verse 2 to wreck the world God created.\u00a0 Now what was that thing that happened?\u00a0 It was the Luciferian rebellion and judgment.\n\nThey will also point to verse 2 where the Spirit of God was \u201cmoving on the waters.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 1:2 \u201cThe earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.\u201d]\u00a0 <\/u>There\u2019s a translation, I have it at the top, the AMPC, and you\u2019ll notice that what it puts in the parenthesis, it says, \u201cThe Spirit of God was moving (hovering)\u201d now look at this, or \u201cbrooding) over the face of the earth.\u201d\u00a0 And the Gap Theory advocate immediately says that and they\u2019ll connect the dots with Ephesians 4:30, which says, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 And so their point is the Spirit of God was injured, the Spirit of God was grieving, the Spirit of God was wounded in verse 2 of Genesis 1.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Lucifer rebelled, he deceived a third of the angels into rebelling with him against God.\u00a0 God brought a flood, flood number one, and destroyed everything.\u00a0 And now God is fixing what got broken and that\u2019s why the Spirit of God is brooding or upset over what transpired.\n\nWhat else does the Gap Theory teach?\u00a0 You thought you were finished with that chart, look at this, we\u2019ve got a whole other chart.\u00a0 But stay encouraged, this is my second chart, meaning the last chart.\n\nThey will go to Genesis 1:28, which in the King James Bible says \u201cGod replenished the earth\u201d in the creation week.\u00a0 So look at Genesis 1:28, if you\u2019re a KJV person, you\u2019ll see this in your translation. It says this, now this is during the creation week itself, \u201cAnd God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,\u201d look at what the KJV says here, and do what to the earth?\u00a0 The Hebrew word Mole\u2019<\/em> do what to the earth\u2026 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cand replenish<\/u> the earth,\u201d so a Gap Theory advocate will say you can\u2019t replenish something unless it was already filled.\u00a0 Well when did it originally get filled? It got filled in Genesis 1:1, and that whole system got broken because of the Luciferian fall and judgment.\u00a0 And so they will cite this as evidence that in the creation week God is replenishing, \u201cre\u201d they think means a second time, and it does most of the time, that English word, replenish, and the reason God is replenishing is because the old world was full but it suddenly became empty because of the judgment.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nAnother piece of evidence for the Gap Theory is Isaiah 24:1, which says, \u201cBehold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants.\u201d\u00a0 And so they say there it is, the Lord originally laid the earth waste indicating that our earth (that we\u2019re in now) was not the first creation of God but it was formed out of ruin.\u00a0 And they believe Isaiah 24:1 teaches that.\n\nAnother piece of evidence cited by the Gap Theory is the Luciferian rebellion described in Ezekiel 28:13-14. Now didn\u2019t we study that last time?\u00a0 Or maybe not last time but a couple of weeks ago? I tried to make the case that that is the fall of Satan in Ezekiel 28.\u00a0 And notice what it says about Satan\u2019s fall, \u201cYou were in\u201d where? \u201cEden, the Garden of God;\u201d and the Gap Theory person will look at how this is described, \u201cEvery precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you.\u00a0 On the day that you were created they were prepared.\u00a0 [14] You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there.\u00a0 <\/em>You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.\u201d\n\nAnd they\u2019ll say you know what, I don\u2019t see \u201cstones of fire\u201d in Genesis 2 describing the Garden of Eden.\u00a0\u00a0 So what are they getting at?\u00a0 What they\u2019re getting at is Lucifer was in a Garden of Eden which was different than the Garden of Eden described in Genesis 2. There was another Garden of Eden which preceded the Garden of Eden that we know about and that was the Garden of Eden in the Genesis 1:1 world.\u00a0 So in Gap Theory thinking not only are there two floods\u00a0 you have two Gardens of Eden.\n\nThis is sort of humorous but what they believe is that the Garden of Eden that we read about in Genesis 2, where our forbearers fell in Genesis 3, was not the first Garden of Eden.\u00a0 In fact, that Garden of Eden was constructed on the ruins of another Garden of Eden that Lucifer was in with the stones of fire, Ezekiel 28, that God destroyed with the Luciferian rebellion and judgment.\u00a0 So the Garden of Eden that we know about is really not the first Garden of Eden, it\u2019s a Garden constructed on the ruins of the former Garden of Eden.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nWhat else do we have here with the Gap Theory? One of the things they say is there\u2019s just not enough time; there\u2019s not enough time for Lucifer\u2019s rebellion because when you get to the\u2026 and I\u2019m going to try to make the case later, not today, but I think Lucifer\u2019s rebellion did not take place until after Genesis 1:31, because it says everything was \u201cvery good.\u201d\u00a0 But it had to have happened before Genesis 3:1 where Satan came into Eden as a talking snake.\u00a0 And I\u2019m going to try to make the case that the fall of Satan happened in between Genesis 1:31 and the beginning of Genesis 3:1.\u00a0\u00a0 Now the Gap Theory person would say that\u2019s ridiculous, there\u2019s not enough time in between those verses for that to happen.\n\nFor example, Adam and Eve did not have children, their first child doesn\u2019t show up until Genesis 4, so obviously you\u2019re dealing with a very short period of time and you can\u2019t fit the end of creation, the fall of Satan, the fall of a third of the angels, the Luciferian rebellion, the flood judgment that allegedly took place, you can\u2019t cram all of that in between the end of Genesis 3:1 and the end of Genesis 1:31 and the beginning of Genesis 3:1.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to have more time so they take the Luciferian rebellion and they drop backwards into the end of verse 1 of Genesis 1 and the beginning of verse 2.\u00a0 So a lot of the thinking relates to the fact that there has to be more time for all of these things to transpire.\u00a0 So part of it becomes a timing issue.\n\nAnd then a twelfth argument for the Gap Theory is the explanation of the fossil records.\u00a0 I mean why do all of the scientists tell us that the fossils are millions and billions of years old?\u00a0 Well, suddenly with the Gap Theory you\u2019ve got an explanation for that so you can hold to a literal creation week as renovation but you can be an older creationist at the same time and not run afoul of modern-day science (so called science) which is saying that everything is ancient.\n\nAnd if you\u2019re an advocate of the Gap Theory with the variety that teaches a pre-Adamic race then you\u2019ve got evidence for a very old fossil record in terms of human bones.\u00a0 So, you can see why this is very popular with people; it\u2019s sort of allows you to bridge the gap between what science is saying about the age of the earth and you can also believe the Bible.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why a lot of these theories take traction (in the minds of a lot of people) because people come out of institutions (like myself, the public school system) believing that evolution or the age of the earth, everything the secularists told me about that is a scientific fact, and then I got saved.\u00a0 What am I going to do now?\u00a0 Now God is telling me He created everything in six days.\u00a0 And so you can see how a theory like this would become popular with people that want to hold onto both worlds.\u00a0 And I know a lot about that because I tried to bridge that gap for many, many years in my early Christian life.\u00a0 I gravitated towards every theory I could find which allowed me to believe both simultaneously.\n\nThe problem with God is when He renews your mind He\u2019s not really just interested in renovating your mind.\u00a0 He takes a wrecking ball to everything, doesn\u2019t He?\u00a0 Your old assumptions that you held suddenly, when you submit to His authority, come crashing to the ground.\u00a0 But the Gap Theory is very popular because it allows people to hold to an older interpretation of the fossil record.\u00a0 I\u2019ll show you in a little bit why I think the fossil record can be explained in terms of the deluge of Noah in Noah\u2019s day.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think there were two floods; I think there was one Noahic flood.\u00a0 And a lot of things in the fossil record really don\u2019t make a lot of sense unless you understand it from that perspective.\n\nAnother argument for the Gap Theory, talking to a really good guy recently, kind of expressing to him my concerns about the Gap Theory, and his response to me is well, there\u2019s gaps elsewhere in the Bible, aren\u2019t there?\u00a0 I mean, aren\u2019t there prophetic gaps?\u00a0 As a dispensationalist don\u2019t you believe that?\u00a0\u00a0 Yes I do.\u00a0 Well, if there\u2019s gaps everywhere else why can\u2019t we have our gap at the end of verse 1 of Genesis 1 and the beginning of verse 2?\u00a0 So if you\u2019ve been following our teachings on Daniel and Revelation you know that we believe that there are prophetic gaps in the Scriptures.\u00a0 This one\u2019s on all your Christmas cards, right?\u00a0 \u201cFor a child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 9:6, \u201cFor a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.\u201d]\u00a0 Now is that the first coming or the second coming?\u00a0 When was the child born to us?\u00a0 First coming or second coming?\u00a0 First coming!\u00a0 But then what does the rest of the verse says, \u201cAnd the government will rest on His shoulders;\u201d second coming.\u00a0 Verse 7, \u201cAnd there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on forever more.\u201d\u00a0 [The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.\u00a0 Isaiah 9:7]\n\nNow a lot of people say well, let\u2019s just allegorize the end of verse 6 and the beginning of verse 7 and let\u2019s teach Kingdom now theology.\u00a0 But a dispensationalist doesn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 We believe the whole Bible is literal so we would place the end of verse 6 and verse 7 into the future and the beginning of verse 6 into the ancient past, so there\u2019s a gap there of at least two thousand years.\u00a0 And so the point is well, if there\u2019s a gap there why can\u2019t we have another one at the end of verse 1 and the beginning of verse 2 of Genesis 1?\u00a0 Zechariah 9:9-10 says, \u201cBehold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.\u201d\u00a0 Now that\u2019s the first coming, right?\u00a0 But look at verse 10, \u201cAnd He will speak peace to the nations and His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s an obvious gap, isn\u2019t there, between those verses.\u00a0 Verse 9, first coming, verse 10 second coming.\u00a0 Unless you want to allegorize it, which a dispensationalist doesn\u2019t do.\n\nSo if there\u2019s a gap there why can\u2019t we have another one in early Genesis.\u00a0 There\u2019s a clear gap here in Isaiah 61:1-2.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; [2]\u00a0 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord\nand the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.\u201d\u00a0 Now isn\u2019t this what Jesus quoted in the synagogue there?\u00a0 Where was that?\u00a0 That was Capernaum, wasn\u2019t it!\u00a0\u00a0 It says, \u201cHe came to Nazareth where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He<\/strong> entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up<\/strong> to read. [17] And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He<\/strong> opened the book and found the place where it was written,\u201d He\u2019s going to show them what part of that verse is being fulfilled right now.\n\nBy the way, He wasn\u2019t given a scroll with verse divisions and chapter division.\u00a0 He knew Isaiah so well that he could open up this scroll and point to the pertinent section. And he starts to quote Isaiah 68:1-2, \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, [2] To proclaim the favorable\u00a0 year of the LORD\u2026\u201d and he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0And this part is kind of funny to me, the eyes in the synagogue were fixed on Him. Well, of course. \u00a0And he began to say to them, \u2018Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d\u00a0 Do you see what Jesus just did there?\u00a0 He quoted part of a verse; this is what He left out, \u201cand the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn.\u201d\u00a0 Why would He leave that out?\u00a0 Why would He quote Isa 61:1 and the first part of verse 2 and stop right in the middle of the citation?\u00a0 Because His point is TODAY the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing; I\u2019m only quoting the parts of it that are happening right now.\u00a0 The parts of it that are\u00a0 yet to come I\u2019m leaving out.\n\nSo it\u2019s interesting to me that Jesus believed in prophetic gaps, if you look at them very carefully.\u00a0 There\u2019s an obvious gap in Daniel 2 in between the ankles and the feet of the statue.\u00a0 The legs of iron, ancient Rome; the feet made of iron and clay of ten toes hasn\u2019t happened yet.\u00a0 So right there in between verses 40 and 41 Daniel skips at least two thousand years of history.\u00a0 He does the same thing, by the way, right in the middle of verse 7 of Daniel 7.\u00a0 We\u2019ve studied the seventy weeks prophecy, haven\u2019t we; I think we taught the seventy weeks prophecy for almost seventh weeks.\u00a0 And we tried to make the case that there\u2019s a gap of undisclosed duration of time where you find the age of the church in between the end of verse 26 and the beginning of verse 27.\n\nWhen you look at Daniel 11:35-36 it skips from Antiochus IV to the future antichrist.\u00a0 So there\u2019s a gap of over two thousand years (at least) in between verse 35 and verse 36.\u00a0 [Daniel 11:35, \u201cSome of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.\u00a0 [36] Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done.\u201d]\n\nAnd this is what we call the mountain peaks of prophecy; it\u2019s like looking at something in the distance, two mountains, with the further mountain higher than the former mountain, and you can see the two mountain peaks in the distance but what can you not see?\u00a0 You can\u2019t see the valley between the mountains.\u00a0 That\u2019s how a lot of the prophets brought forth their prophecies.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why the prophets were confused about their own prophecies.\u00a0 I mean, do we understand this, that just by virtue of the time period that we\u2019re living in that we understand the Book of Daniel better than Daniel did?\u00a0 The book of Isaiah better than Isaiah did?\u00a0 Because hindsight is what? 20\/20, we can see how that relates to the first coming but this over here relates to the second coming and in between is the age of the church.\u00a0 Isaiah, Daniel and the rest didn\u2019t know anything about the age of the church at that time; that hadn\u2019t been disclosed yet. The age of the church is a mystery, and that\u2019s why they were perplexed at their own prophecies. That\u2019s why Daniel, at the end of the Book of Daniel, says \u201cI heard and I wanted to understand, but the angel said to me\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cGo thy way Daniel,\u201d you\u2019ve done your job, just write it down, it\u2019s not for you to understand in its fullness yet.\n\nSo Peter says as to the salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace of God would come to you, make careful searches and inquiries, these prophets did, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.\u00a0 Put yourself in poor Isaiah\u2019s shoes; one second the Lord gives you a prophecy about a suffering Messiah, Isaiah 53, and the next second He gives you a prophecy about a ruling and reigning Messiah, Isaiah 9:6-7.\u00a0 Well, what\u2019s poor Isaiah supposed to do?\u00a0 \u00a0He just throws up his hands and says what\u2019s the deal Lord, because he didn\u2019t see the gap between those two prophecies.\n\nThe reason I\u2019m bringing this up is Gap Theory people say well there\u2019s gaps everywhere prophetically.\u00a0 So why would you, as a dispensationalist reading the Scofield Reference Bible be against the gap here at the end of verse 1 and the beginning of verse 2?\n\nSo the best I know how to do, I\u2019ve tried to lay out the case for the Gap Theory and if I didn\u2019t cover your particular variation of it no hard feelings, I\u2019m just trying for the sake of time cover what\u2019s called classical Gap Theory.\u00a0 And so we move here into a response to each of those thirteen pieces of evidence that we just went through.\u00a0 Why do this?\u00a0 Proverbs 18:17 says this: \u201cIn a lawsuit the first to plead his case sounds right until another comes and cross-examines him.\u201d\n\nIs that not the truth with anything?\u00a0 I mean, you might say well Pastor, you\u2019ve explained the Gap Theory so well I\u2019m a believer because it seems very reasonable on the surface.\u00a0 It seems reasonable until someone cross examines, you see. And this is why we have in our Constitution system protections for criminals, those accused of crimes, that they can cross examine witnesses and things of that nature because anybody can get up and talk and sound completely reasonable in what they\u2019re saying until someone else is allowed equal time to show the gaps in (pardon the expression) in their argument.\n\nThat\u2019s why I\u2019m sort of, when it comes to cable television I like to channel surf. My wife\u2019s always saying well why are you watching that liberal station?\u00a0 Because I go from Fox News, to MSNBC to CNN, why are you wasting your time over there with MSNBC and CNN?\u00a0 Well I want to see how they\u2019re going to counter this conservative point that\u2019s being made on Fox News because I don\u2019t want to be one of these people that just believes something without understanding the weaknesses of the position.\n\nSo that\u2019s why I wanted to move into looking at the response to each of those arguments offered in favor of the Gap Theory.\u00a0 One of the reasons, and I\u2019ll close with this, that I\u2019m concerned about the Gap Theory is Psalm 11:3 which says this, \u201cIf the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?\u00a0 I\u2019ll be honest with you, the saying that doesn\u2019t fit with me that\u2019s completely right about the Gap theory is how early it happens in the biblical story.\u00a0 I mean, whether you believe it or don\u2019t believe it, it happens right there at the end of verse 1, it\u2019s supposedly this gap.\u00a0 And this is why I\u2019m a little bit defensive about early Genesis, because you\u2019re tampering with the beginning of the Bible. And if you tamper with the structure of the Bible and you want to wreck the Bible the thing you would tamper with is the foundation, wouldn\u2019t you?\u00a0 I mean, if you have foundation problems, you don\u2019t have much.\n\nWe lived in Dallas for, I don\u2019t know, seven, eight, nine years, and we had a house that was built on poor foundations.\u00a0 And we would wake up in the morning and we would see a crack that didn\u2019t exist the night before right there in our living room.\u00a0 Now we can throw spray paint over that all we want, right? But the problem is the foundation, and that\u2019s sort of why I want to critique the Gap Theory and offer this to you, because whether it\u2019s right or whether it\u2019s wrong, what you\u2019re doing in between those two verses is foundational to the Bible. And it\u2019s going to have an impact, I believe, on how you read the rest of the Bible.\u00a0 And so we\u2019ll get into that as the series unfolds.\u00a0 Hopefully I haven\u2019t made too many enemies today and we\u2019ll stop.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t