Genesis: In the Beginning

By John R. Rice

Are you appalled at the theory of evolution yet at a loss as to how to defend creationism? Do you believe wholly in the Creator, yet are you not able to answer the arguments of the evolutionists? In his book, "In the Beginning" Dr. John R. Rice gives you the ammunition you need to shoot down the worldly fiction concerning origins. Even the most minute point is detailed to give insight and understanding as to how God planned, established and set the world in order.

But this is more than a book to refute the silly claims of man's climbing from beastly ancestry up toward civilization, the so-called Stone Age, etc. It is one of the most "scientific" books available today dealing with the truth about the worldwide Flood; the civilization before the Flood; the world convulsions that destroyed and made over the face of the whole earth, made the layers, the fossils, and coal beds, the radically different climate after the Flood; and much, much more.

This book is for every Christian who wants to defend God as the Creator clearly, concisely and correctly!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sword of the Lord Foundation
• Release date: Oct 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370303809

John R. Rice

John Ralph Rice was born five years after the Second World War on October 12, 1950, in Newark, New Jersey. I was educated in Newark, New Jersey, at Essex County College, the University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey, and the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. I am the great-grandson of African American slaves who were freed after the American Civil War in 1865. My ancestry prior to my great-grandparent’s lineage in South Carolina is unclear; however, in a recent interview in September 2009 by my great nephew, Al-Tariq Ibn Shabazz, I said, “I knew the relationship between African American females and the American white slave master was well known, and so I viewed the whole proposition as a system of sacrilege.” Thus becoming, in the words of Carter G. Woodson, “the miseducation of the Negro.” Upon graduation as a massage therapist (2004) many doctors, intellectuals, scholars, and activists around the world know my name and in every home in my family as well. I devoted my life to peace and change one week after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and my view of the world’s health problems became clear to me when I accepted transcendentalism as a philosophy in my professional years. I often said Sigmund Freud’s discovery of psychoanalysis played a major approach to my client’s problems on their first visit to my clinic. My passion for healthy lifestyles became rooted in acupressure, and the vision I bring to my work as a massage therapist is scientific. I believe in an empirical reality; that is to say, a patient’s symptoms has mental, not physical, causes and the unconscious part of the mind has a strong influence on behavior. I still consider myself to be a Renaissance man and here are my most important writings: 1) The John R. Rice Narrative 2) Rape, The Secret Assault on Women, 3) The Judgment of History, The Race For Freedom, From Slavery To Manhood, 4) The African American Spirit and The Search For Its Destiny, 5) The Voices in East Harlem 6) Africa’s Greatest Triumph, 7) The African American Body Politic, and 8) The Prison Door are donated to the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark. “Imhotep would be proud.”

Book preview

Genesis 1

In the Beginning

The Creation of the Earth

Verse 1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

All the Bible, Christ and Christian Faith Stand or Fall With Genesis

Genesis is included in that clear statement of II Timothy 3:16, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, or literally is breathed out by God. Jesus believed in Genesis as the very Word of God and quoted or referred to it. He said, Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Matt. 5:17, 18).

The law here specifically refers to the first five books in the Bible including Genesis; and Jesus quoted from that law, from Deuteronomy 8:3, when He answered Satan, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4).

The resurrected Jesus spoke to the two sad, doubting Christians on the road to Emmaus: O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:25–27). Jesus quoted Scriptures beginning at Moses about Himself and so in all the scriptures.

So Genesis is the very inspired Word of God, and the first verse of Genesis is as inspired and authentic and as authoritative as John 3:16 or any other verse in the Bible.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

In the Beginning God!

God was in the beginning. Where else could God be than there—at the beginning? No earth, no sea, no sun, no stars, no planets, no animals, no matter, no energy before God! God was at the beginning of creation. Here we find God was at the beginning of the Bible.

That there is a God is the basic fact of all this universe. He made all things. He made life. He is all knowledge, all wisdom, all power. He is all goodness, all mercy and all loving-kindness. Everything good in the universe stems from God. All evil is rebellion against God.

Genesis starts at the beginning. So also does the Gospel of John. We read in John 1:1–4:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

We are told the same thing in Colossians 1:15–17:

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."

Jesus Christ not only created all things, but they were created for Him, and by him all things consist, or hold together. When creation was done, the Lord Jesus kept His hand on the universe, and He keeps planets in their orbits. All the planetary processes are supervised and continue under Jesus’ controlling hand.

We are even told that the animals look to Him and are fed, just as Jesus said that God notes the sparrow’s fall. Jesus is the Creator.

Hebrews 1:2 tells us that God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. The next verse continues the story that Christ is upholding all things by the word of his power.

But Genesis 1:2 says, ...the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. In some similar way the Holy Spirit works with Jesus now. Jesus is the Saviour, but the work of regeneration is actually done by the Holy Spirit, and He it is who moves into the Christian’s body to live and there represents Christ so much that the Scriptures may say, Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

If we understand that Jesus Christ is the Creator, we need not be surprised that He will come back to reign on the earth again and make it into a new Garden of Eden. We need not be surprised that in His life on earth Jesus created bread and fish enough to feed the five thousand besides women and children and that He created the wine out of water in John, chapter 2.

We see that all of the Trinity had part in creation:

1. In the beginning God created.—Vs. 1.

2. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.—Vs. 2.

3. His Son,...by whom…he made the worlds.—Heb. 1:2 (see John 1:3).

So Father, Son and Holy Spirit all had part in creation.

There is no contradiction here, no conflict. Christ, the Word, the Logos, the revelation of God, the Son of God, another Person of the Godhead, was there at the beginning too. Christ is the Light of the World shining into the night of this dark world to fallen men, alien from God, even enemies of God.

Who did the creating: God the Father or Christ the Son? Well, Christ was active in creation.

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."—Col. 1:15–17.

In the beginning God. But the Hebrew word for God, Elohim, is plural, including all the three: the invisible God, of whom Christ is the image; Christ, active in creation; and the Spirit of God, who moved upon the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2).

But there is no jealousy, no competition, no aloneness in the Godhead. They are not separate but one. There are three manifestations of God, three Persons; but they are one. We say that Jesus is the Saviour of the world, but He is not alone in saving sinners. First, God so loved the world. Then, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And then it is the Holy Spirit who convicts the sinner, who brings about the miraculous regeneration of salvation in the believer, so that one is born of the Spirit. Whatever Christ did, the Father and the Spirit did. When the Holy Spirit moves into the body of a convert as a Comforter, Guide and Witness, then through Him, Jesus said of both Himself and the Father, And we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23). There is a sense in which God is always we. What one Person of the Godhead does, all have part and do.

The importunate friend in Luke 11:5–8, begging the Bread of Life for hungry sinners, says, Lend me three loaves. He seeks the soul-winning help of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to give the Bread of Life. All work together. God—Elohim—created. Christ created. And the Holy Spirit had part, too.

Then to whom should we pray—to the Father or to the Son? Why, to either or to all three. We should pray, Our Father, or like Bartimaeus and the Canaanite woman, Thou son of David, or if you like, to the sweet Spirit of God. Would it be wrong to ask help of your divine Teacher, your Guide and your Comforter? or wrong to ask the Spirit of God to make plain the Scriptures you read? or to pray that He will convict a sinner? or that He will breathe upon you in power for soul winning? Jesus said He is really "another Comforter," meaning One just like the Lord Jesus Himself, the first great Comforter they knew.

So the Godhead created, but Christ was active in creation along with the Father and the Spirit.

God’s Creation Proves to Every Open Heart There Is a God!

Creation is proof of God. Since there is a world, there must be a World-maker. Sensible men need not argue about whether there is a God; for only a fool, a perverted one, could say, There is no God.

All the universe speaks of a mighty, all-powerful, all-wise God.

Psalm 19:1–6 says:

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."

Oh, the voice of the sun in the heavens says there is a God! His glory, His handiwork are evident. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. The heathen sailors on Jonah’s ship knew there was a God, so they begged Jonah to pray. All the idols and spiritual blindness among the most depraved races cannot wholly shut out the clamoring voices of the heavens and all created things that proclaim there is a God.

Dr. Bill Rice went to Africa to work with missionaries for a season. Far into the jungle they went to a tribe of little black Pygmies who had never seen a white man. By shooting monkeys for their food and then intriguing them by showing them a book that talks (the Bible), he assured them he could tell them where their fathers had gone. At last he could tell them of a God who loved them and who sent His Son to die, to forgive and save them so they could go to a happy, blessed hereafter in Heaven.

Then a most surprising thing happened. A tiny man named Tarasi said, Bwana, I thought it must be something like that. Many times I have climbed the highest tree and have looked far into the sky, trying to see God. I felt sure He must be up there someplace. And again and again I have called, ‘God, are You there? Can You hear me? Do You see little old Tarasi? God, I am afraid—come and help Tarasi.’ But, the old fellow continued, I never could hear Him answer me a word. I thought God surely must have some way of helping poor old Tarasi....I am glad to hear of Jesus and to know that He died for me....I thought it must be something like that!

Oh, God has not left Himself without a witness! Men are without excuse who do not seek God and love Him and serve Him.

In Romans 1:18–22 the Lord tells us clearly of this fact: All of creation proves there is a God.

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

What may be known of God is manifest in creation. We do not believe, as some do, that the Gospel is written in nature; but God as a Creator is revealed by His works. Those races after the Flood, here spoken of in Romans, chapter 1, had no excuse. They knew about God but preferred idols. ‘They were not thankful’ (vs. 21). They did not like to retain God in their knowledge (vs. 28). So God darkened their sinful hearts and gave them up to uncleanness (vs. 24). He gave them up unto vile affections (vs. 26). He gave them over to a reprobate mind (vs. 28). Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools (vs. 22). Ah, so that is how atheists happen! That is the way of the fool who says in his heart, There is no God.

The Fool Who Says, No God for Me

Yes, Romans 1:22 says that the people descended from Noah after the Flood and enlightened people, with great civilization and who knew about God, turned away from God with unthankful, wicked hearts. They did not want to retain God in their knowledge. So, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

But Psalm 14:1–3 tells us about this:

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

That is repeated almost word for word in Psalm 53.

Only a fool can say, There is no God. The term fool in Scripture does not only refer to ignorance or poor judgment or lack of intelligence; it speaks of one whose judgment is warped and tainted by an evil mind and by wicked desires. The rich fool of Luke 12:16–21 had plenty of sense; but his mind was so obsessed with worldly goods, eating and drinking and riches, that he took no thought that he must die and meet God. So God said to him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. The fool in the Bible is a perverted person who is blinded by sin and by his own wicked heart. It has to do not primarily with the mind but with the soul, the heart, the intentions, the desires. So is such a man who says there is no God.

But read again that first verse, Psalm 14:1: The fool hath said in his heart… Where did he say it? Not in a logical and intelligent mind, considering all the facts. No, in a wicked heart that did not want God. Atheism and all unbelief are heart matters. The fool has said, There is no God, but the words there is are in italics, showing they were not in the original but were supplied by the translators to make sense. Actually the fool really said, No God! No God for me! I’ll not have a God! He is saying not so much that God does not exist but that he will have no God. He wants no God. Unbelief is from a wicked heart, rejecting the light and the truth as the unbeliever rejects God.

Let Us Illustrate

I have a watch in my hand. It is marked Accutron. It is a lovely gift from my brother Dr. Bill. Now let us talk like an evolutionist or any other atheist or agnostic. Suppose that we say, No one planned this watch. No one made it. It just accidentally happened as a result of concomitant forces, circumstances, accidental movements or impulses in thousands of years. It just happened. Nobody planned it.

But you would protest. There are twelve equally distant marks around the face of it, and they are divided into exactly sixty smaller measures exactly the same size. Surely somebody planned it to show twelve hours of sixty minutes each.

No [let me reply as a fool would], it just happened. Perhaps it was first a chip of wood or a bit of iron ore; then it was a button, then a compass, then a steam gauge, then a watch. The similarity of size and shape proves evolution. It just happened.

But some sensible one would say, But how could it accidentally happen that the hour hand goes from twelve to one in exactly one hour and so on around the face of that watch? The minute hand goes sixty minutes in one hour. The tiny second hand goes sixty seconds in one minute. Why? You insist, of course, Somebody planned it! Somebody made it. You say, Dr. Rice, you talk like a fool. If there is a watch so intricate, then there must be a watchmaker.

Yes, you are right. One talks like a fool who says there are watches keeping good time, fitted to the wrist, adjusted, powered with tiny batteries that last a year or more, and all keeping good time always, but that there is no watch factory! Only a fool talks that way. That is like the fool who says there is no God!

To say that man, plants, animals, the seas, the air, the earth turning on its axis, the sun around which we orbit, and the infinite riches and wisdom and planning of all nature—to say it just happened without a personal Creator is to speak like a fool. God says one who says it is a fool, and I say amen.

It is said that Sir Isaac Newton had someone make an intricate machine representing our planetary system: a central sun, an arm revolving about that with a ball representing the earth, a moon that went around the earth, and all the planets proportionate in size and on arms a proper distance to represent their course in the heavens, turning with the relative speeds of the planets. A crank turned the beautiful and accurate planetarium.

A scientific friend came in, we’re told, and marveled and exclaimed, Wonderful! Who made it?

Nobody, answered Sir Isaac.

Oh, don’t joke. Tell me who made it.

Again the brief, indifferent answer, Nobody made it.

Indignantly, that infidel scientist protested. Such a marvelously planned machine, actually a model of our planetary system showing how all move in proper order around the sun, could not just have happened. Who made it?

Dr. Newton replied that the actual earth and sun and planets and moons were a million times more detailed and wonderful than the mechanical model, and the infidel thought no one made them! What a fool anyone would be to say of this universe, There is no Creator! It is not sensible. It shows a perversion, a wicked preference against God.

The Lord Jesus said in John 3:18–21:

"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

Only those who hate the light because their deeds are evil run from Christ and say, No God. That same unbelief is why sinners reject Christ and go on their wicked way to Hell.

Yes, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

God Who Created All Things Sustains Life, and You Must Answer to Him

Is this matter of creation, then, simply a theological matter; and does it really concern you and me? Well, the God who made the world sustains it and controls it. Again note Colossians 1:16, 17:

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."

All things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Christ not only made all things, but by him all things consist, or hold together! The Christ who made this giant solar system, the original of the little copy (the man-made planetarium), turns the crank that makes the universe go! Christ keeps the earth in its orbit, sets the bounds for the seas, sends the rain or withholds it, gives the wild beasts their food, notes the fall of every sparrow, and paints the beauty of every wild flower.

He sets up kings or dethrones them. The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein (Ps. 24:1).

The God who creates you keeps your heart beating. He starts the juices that digest your food. He supervises the kidneys that eliminate the poisons from the blood. He creates the antibodies in your blood to immunize you against certain diseases, or He does not, as He chooses.

So a man is not only a fool in heart to say there is no God; but he is a fool who would ignore, with arrogant and unthankful heart, the God who loves and provides for him, who nurtures and seeks him. It is in him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28).

When King Belshazzar sinned, Daniel told him, And the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified (Dan. 5:23). So a king or a pauper who ignores God is a fool in God’s sight.

Remember, Unbelief Is a Heart Sin

The Scriptures repeat the truth that unbelief is a sin, a wickedness. To the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus said:

"O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."—Luke 24:25–27.

So a Christian who knows Christ as Saviour may be guilty of unbelief about some Bible truths, and so Jesus said they may be fools, and slow of heart to believe. Make sure your heart leaps gladly to believe all that the prophets have spoken, all the Bible, lest Christ should call you a fool!

Remember that unbelief is the sin which doth so easily beset us in Hebrews 12:1; and we should make sure again and again deliberately to lay aside that wicked tendency of our carnal nature to unbelief.

And in this universe, where Jesus is to be the only atoning Saviour, He is to come back to reign; and He who created man must do the new creation, making one a new creature in Christ.

He who created the world can create a clean heart in you and in me.

Genesis 1 (Cont’d)

In the Beginning

God and Miracle

It was in the beginning. That reminds us of the first statement in the Gospel of John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God (John 1:1, 2).

Before there was an earth, before there was a sun or moon or stars, we suppose before there was force or matter, there was God—God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son. The Son was there in the beginning with God.

We suppose that the angels, heavenly beings, were there with God. Later, the archangel Lucifer would sin and become Satan, and some angels would fall with him; but we suppose it was after this time, for in Isaiah 14:12–17 the prophesied fall of the Antichrist someway typifies the fall of Satan, and there Lucifer had ambitions mentioning the heavens and the clouds and things. So Satan’s fall was after this time in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, but before Satan tempted Adam and Eve.

In the beginning. Yes, there was a beginning. Does anyone suppose there is a universe with no Creator? that there are mighty forces with no Cause? that there is infinite wisdom but no source and no Wise One from whom it emanates? Does anyone suppose that there is astronomy without an Astronomer, mathematics ingrained in nature but no Mathematician, the laws of music inherent in the laws of vibration and sound yet no great Musician? In the beginning there was God.

There was a beginning because now the sun is burning itself out. I do not know how many millennia of years it will take; but since the sun is slowly consuming itself in energy, there was a time when it had to have begun and to have been charged with the energy it now gives out. And in the beginning there was God.

In the Beginning God Created the Heaven and the Earth

There was no earth, but God made an earth. There was no water, but God made water. There was no light, except as Christ Himself is the Light and His light is inherent in deity; but God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

God made everything out of nothing. That is involved in the word to create. It is also stated in Hebrews 11:3: Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

That statement of God in Hebrews 11:3 is important because the believing heart will believe that God created the heavens and the earth; but the man who is an alien from God, who does not know God, whose heart is not enlightened by the Spirit of God, does not see that God created the heavens and the earth. The creation is a spiritual truth that must be received by faith. There are no witnesses to the creation but God Himself and the angels. There is no reliable record except the record that God Himself has given. So then it is through faith that we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God and that God made the things that are out of things that were not.

Again, I Corinthians 2:14 tells us, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Christianity, a Religion of Miracles

Here we run smack into the fact of miracles. A miracle is the only possible explanation of the origin of all things. If God did not make matter, where did it come from? If God did not create the germ of life in plants and then in animals, then how did it happen? If God did not set the heavenly bodies in their orbits and with mathematical precisions, balances and counterbalances set them to running, and if He does not watch over them and keep them in their place, then what explanation do you have for these things?

Does it take faith to believe in a miracle? Yes, but it is not a silly faith like that of the evolutionists who think that things from inherent forces grew from dead matter into living cells and then into a mighty tree of plant life and then animal life, culminating in man. That farfetched story is more unbelievable than any fairy tale, and one who can swallow all that without a murmur is far more credulous than those who believe that God created the heavens and earth as He said. There is no other logical or believable explanation of this universe except that God created it.

But one who is going to be a Christian has already accepted the fact of miracle when he accepts the fact of God.

The Bible is miraculous—that is, men were moved by the Holy Spirit and gave the exact message God told them to give, without error. That is not natural but supernatural, not ordinary but extraordinary, not human but divine. The future has been foretold unerringly in hundreds of prophecies in the Bible, and the coming to pass of the prophesied event proves a miraculous inspiration of the prophecy.

Christ is a miracle. He was conceived in the virgin’s womb by the Spirit of God, without a human father. He worked miracles in His ministry again and again. He raised the dead. He created matter in feeding the five thousand. He turned water into wine. He stilled the tempest on the sea by a word. Then He rose bodily from the grave and ascended bodily to Heaven. Christ is a miracle.

The new birth is a miracle. That is, one has an actual change in his nature. One has the law of God written in his heart. One now has the Spirit of God dwelling in his body. One actually becomes a child of God by a miraculous change. He still has the old nature, but he now has the new nature.

Answered prayer is a miracle. If God changes the order of things—whether He stops rain or sends rain; whether He permits an accident or prevents it; whether He moves a king or a pauper to act or think a certain way; whether He sends a direct answer to prayer in money or in things or in clear instruction—it is a miracle. It is divine and not human. It is supernatural and not natural.

As conversion to Christ is a miracle, it is only the forerunner of another miracle in the bodily resurrection of every Christian that will take place one day.

The Christian religion is a miracle religion. No one need stumble at the statement that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

They were created! They did not slowly grow. It was not a self-contained process. God may work a series of miracles as He did in creating the earth, the seas, the firmament, the birds, the fishes, the plants God and Miracle and animals and man; but a miracle is not itself a process. A bit of protoplasm, with some amino acids and some chemicals, did not of itself become an amoeba. An amoeba did not develop until it was a many-celled animal, then a mollusk, and then into a higher form. Dogs did not develop into baboons, and baboons into apes, and apes into men. No, God created things. He made all of them.

Genesis 1 (Cont’d)

Gap Theory Not Scriptural

The theory (1) of original creation in dateless past; (2) of millions of years in which, scientists imagine, to provide the fossils, earth strata and coal beds; (3) and then a recent restorative creation of six days on the earth formerly ruined by divine judgment, is not taught in the Bible.

The Scofield Reference Bible since 1909 has made popular with fundamental Christians what is called the Gap Theory of creation, or the Restoration Theory. That theory is that Genesis 1:1 tells of an original creation of the earth in the ageless past; that Genesis 1:2 tells of a divine judgment and ruin that came on all creation, lasting for millions or billions of years and accounting for the strata of the earth, the fossils, the coal beds—to fit in with the theories of scientists; and that the rest of Genesis, chapters 1 and 2, tells of a restoration of the ruined earth, with added six days of creation of animals and man.

Scofield Bible Notes on Supposed Gap in Creation

On Genesis 1:1, on the word created Dr. Scofield has a note as follows:

But three creative acts of God are recorded in this chapter: (1) the heavens and the earth, v. 1; (2) animal life, v. 21; and (3) human life, vs. 26, 27. The first creative act refers to the dateless past, and gives scope for all the geologic ages.

On Genesis 1, verse 2, the earth was without form, and void, Dr. Scofield has this note:

Jer. 4:23-26, Isa. 24:1 and 45:18, clearly indicate that the earth had undergone a cataclysmic change as the result of a divine judgment. The face of the earth bears everywhere the marks of such a catastrophe. There are not wanting intimations which connect it with a previous testing and fall of angels. See Ezk. 18:12-15 and Isa. 14:9-14, which certainly go beyond the kings of Tyre and Babylon.

Then on verse 3 of Genesis, chapter 1, which says, And God said, Let there be light: and there was light, Dr. Scofield has this following note on page 3:

Neither here nor in verses 14-18 is an original creative act implied. A different word is used. The sense is, made to appear; made visible. The sun and moon were created in the beginning. The light of course came from the sun, but the vapour diffused the light. Later the sun appeared in an unclouded sky.

(The above notes are modified in the brand-new edition of the Scofield Bible, and the Gap Theory is not given unqualified endorsement.)

Why the Gap Theory Became Popular

If an intelligent Christian without any previous bias would simply read the first chapter of Genesis, he would believe, as millions of people have believed, that verse 1 and the rest of the chapter are talking about the same creation, in the same time. That verse is simply a statement of fact, which following verses outline in detail, with added detail about the creation of man in chapter 2.

But people aware of scientific facts and scientific opinions do not approach the problem of the age of the earth without a bias. It has been discovered that there are layers and strata on the earth and that in these strata or layers are billions of fossils of plants and animals, and the coal beds. It has been discovered that on many continents there are great deposits of sea shells and fossils of sea life. So scientists who do not believe the Bible and do not believe in direct creation have figured out that all life came by evolution, through natural processes, and that through millions and millions of years, even billions of years perhaps, through natural, gradual processes on this earth, mountain ranges have been forced up, continents have sunk under the ocean, ocean beds have risen to be dry land; and that in these natural processes through many billions of years, plants and animals have been covered and become fossilized, great forests have been covered with soil and rock and have been formed into coal beds, and sea shells and fossils of marine life have been left on the land, even on the highest mountains.

Most unbelieving scientists have now come to believe that these fossil remains and the changes which are indicated in the surface layers of the earth were made through countless ages.

It is only fair to say that now hundreds of proved scientists who are Christians do not believe the evolution theory but believe in direct creation and have associations, magazines and many books to prove the Bible is scientifically accurate on creation and the Flood.

Good Christians, not willing perhaps to accept the theory of evolution instead of direct creation, have sought some explanation of these scientific facts of the fossils, the coal beds. The evidence is that the seas once covered the continents that now are.

So, although the first chapter of Genesis does not discuss plainly two separate periods of creation with a gap of ages between them, Christians formulated the theory that Genesis 1:1 tells about an original creation. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. They say that then a great judgment or cataclysm of destruction came to this earth and that that is mentioned in verse 2. Verse 2 says, And the earth was without form, and void; and they make that read, "The earth became without form and void."

Thus they tried to account for the fossils and tried to pacify scientists who demand millions of years.

So George H. Pember in the book Earth’s Earliest Ages suggested the interpretation that a tremendous age or gap was to be counted after Genesis 1:1. And then, after a cataclysmic judgment of God which formed the fossils, the coal beds, and the other evidences which scientists claim in the surface layers of the earth, he thought that beginning with Genesis 1:3, God made a new creation of six days. This theory was held also by Franz Delitzsch in Germany and by others. It has been made popular by the Scofield Reference Bible.

But Gap Theory Cannot Be Proven by Bible

The attempt to prove the Gap Theory is flimsy. The Scriptures do not teach that there are great ages between Genesis 1:1 and verse 3 and following.

1. To try to make Genesis 1:2 say, "And the earth became without form, and void, is a poor translation. In 1948 at Winona Lake School of Theology, M. Henkel polled twenty leading scholars of the Hebrew language in the United States. They were asked, ‘Is there any exegetical evidence for the view that there was a gap between verses 1 and 2?’ Their reply was an emphatic no," according to Professor Surburg, quoting from the book Modern Science and the Christian Faith.

No, in the first act of creation, God brought matter into being; but it was not yet formed into continents and seas, into plants and animals. It was without form, and void. Creation was not yet finished. That is the obvious meaning of Genesis 1:1.

2. Dr. Scofield says in his notes on Genesis 1:2,

Jer. 4:23-26, Isa. 24:1 and 45:18, clearly indicate that the earth had undergone a cataclysmic change as the result of a divine judgment.

I believe that that is a serious mistake in exegesis and interpretation. Jeremiah 4:23 says, I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. But the context clearly indicates that God here speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the nation Judah when they were carried into captivity to Babylon. In the preceding verses Israel is commanded, For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us (vs. 8). Verse 16 says, Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. Verse 19 says, My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. And verse 20 says, Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. And then the earth, or the land (as the word is often translated), is to be without form, and void.

And after verse 23, verse 25 says, I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. The people were carried away captive. Verse 27 says, For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. Verse 29 says, The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein. The destruction mentioned is not some prehistoric cataclysmic judgment on the earth but the destruction of Jerusalem and of the country when Judah was carried captive.

Notice, and all the cities thereof were broken down, the statement in verse 26. There were no cities before Genesis 1:2, and this could not mean a cataclysmic judgment on the whole earth before man was created.

3. Nor does Isaiah 24:1 talk about a prehistoric judgment of God, a cataclysm on the whole earth. Again we find that the destruction mentioned is because of war and trouble which God will bring on the nations. The entire chapter 23 preceding is about the burden of Tyre and its destruction, so the 24th chapter starts on the same theme. Isaiah 24:1 says, Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. But the next two verses say, And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word. That is a destruction brought by war on a people because of their sins; and the priest and people, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, all alike will be carried away in the trouble God will bring them. It seems to be an unworthy subterfuge to pretend that Isaiah 24:1 or that Jeremiah 4:23 talks about a great prehistoric judgment on the whole earth before the creation of man. I do not believe it. The Bible does not sustain it.

Dr. Scofield also makes a reference to Isaiah 45:18: For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. But that does not mean, surely, to contradict the statement in Genesis 1:2 that after the first creation of matter it was without form and void. It was not in vain, for God then completed His creation.

If the Gap Theory were true, there would still have to be a detailed creation of all plants and animals before the catastrophe that is presumed to have destroyed them, and the Bible does not tell of such creation before Genesis 1:2.

And while the fall of Satan is mentioned in the Bible, the Scriptures nowhere tell of a divine judgment on the whole creation at the time of Satan’s fall.

So the Gap Theory cannot be proved from the Bible. And as we will show next, it is not needed as an explanation of the earth strata and fossils.

Much Evidence That the Flood in Noah’s Days Accounts for All Fossils, Coal Beds and Other Changes in Earth’s Surface, for Which Scientists Would Like to Have Millions of Years

The so-called Gap Theory of immense ages between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:3 with an earth ruined by some awful judgment of God, before the six days of creation described in Genesis 1—that theory was formed to try to explain the fossils and layers of the earth which evolutionists say require millions of years of time.

As we have shown, we do not believe the Gap Theory is taught in the Bible. We believe, rather, that the strata of the earth, the fossils, the coal beds were brought about by the earth-destroying Flood of Noah’s day described in the Bible and by accompanying and following events. That awful Flood and years of earth convulsions following surely are a more reasonable explanation of the layers of the earth, the fossils, the coal beds, than the unproved theory of evolution.

Who thinks it reasonable to believe in spontaneous generation, that life without a Creator by the inherent and accidental forces sprang out of dead matter? Not a single case of the beginning of life has ever been observed, nor has man been able to bring it about with all the resources of modern science!

Why is it reasonable to believe the guess that all kinds of plants and animals originated by an evolutionary process when, as I read in a book of science this morning, not one such family or kind has evolved in a million years? Of course that book insisted on billions of years.

Why is it reasonable to suppose that animals came from plants, that many-celled animals came from one-celled animals, that vertebrates came from invertebrates, that reptiles came from fish, that birds came from reptiles, that mammals came from birds, and that men came from apes, when not a single link has ever been found between the principal kinds?

The reason people believe in evolution is not that it is reasonable but that it is an excuse for not believing in God and direct creation. So it is natural for the unconverted and unbelieving man.

Why believe that the fossils and coal beds were formed by natural causes following a uniform pattern through the centuries and millennia and millions of years? No fossils, no coal beds are now being formed, as far as we know, on the earth. Uniformitarian geology does not very sensibly explain the mysteries on the surface of the earth.

But when we believe the Bible account of a tremendous Flood, with all the fountains of the great deep broken up (Gen. 7:11)— that is, the tidal waves from all the oceans—and when the rain [was] upon the earth forty days and forty nights (vs. 4) and when the mountains were covered (vs. 20) and every living thing that had breath died except those in the ark, it is not hard to understand how we have the fossil layers and the coal beds and the strata on the earth.

Remember, Genesis 6:13 says, And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth—that is, the people of all the earth and the earth itself, as it then was, were to be destroyed!

Jesus Himself accepted and authenticated the Bible story of the Flood. He said:

"And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all."—Luke 17:26, 27.

Jesus said, The flood came, and destroyed them all.

A very significant Scripture on this matter is II Peter 3:3–7:

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 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: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."

Notice the Scripture says that scoffers, unbelievers, who walk after their own desires, do not believe there has been any catastrophic change, do not believe what the Bible teaches of the direct creation that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. They do not believe that the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

Notice that this destruction of the world was so drastic that not only the people but also all the face of the earth as it then was perished. And the awful destruction then is likened to the time in the future when another catastrophe will come, when fire shall envelop this planet in the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Then everything that will burn will burn, everything that will melt will melt. Well, so drastic then was the destruction of the earth by water in the Flood.

It is very significant that God here says that the earth as it now is, is a result of two things—direct creation, then the Flood! And scoffers deny both the direct creation and a universal Flood.

How could such a Flood cause the tremendous changes that took place on the face of the earth? The Scripture says that ‘all the fountains of the great deep were opened.’ In some awful way the waters of the ocean helped cover the land. We know that sometimes volcanic pressure raises an island in the sea or submerges a bit of coastline, and scientists are all agreed that such changes have happened all over the world. Perhaps then the ocean bottoms were raised to help flood the earth. The great mountain ranges we have now obviously were raised after the Flood.

Then the windows of heaven were opened (Gen. 7:11), and that must mean more than ordinary rain. It rained over the whole earth for the space of forty days, as I understand the Scriptures. And that must mean that there was far more than the average precipitation, and the millions of tons of water that ordinarily held in the vapor of the air were discharged.

Even now, if there is an earthquake on the sea bottom, a tidal wave may rush upon the land doing millions of dollars of destruction and taking many lives. The power of moving water has hurled giant ships to destruction or has rolled boulders weighing tons before it.

If tidal waves again and again went round the earth, surely the sand, the silt, the carcasses of animals, the uprooted forests would be carried, and then dropped, and then covered by succeeding tides. And then the giant inland seas would begin to break through the soft layers, and so the Grand Canyon could have been formed in the first few years or centuries after the Flood. Then volcanic action and internal pressures and changes in the earth could raise the mountain systems as they are today with some of the layers and fossils of sea shells and other fauna high above their original position.

In the 17th and the early 18th centuries, nearly all scientists believed that the earth strata and fossils were caused by the Flood. Hilo, before Christ; St. Augustine, later; Baron Cuvier, in the University of Paris in 1799; Benjamin Silliman, head of the geology department of Yale University in 1829; and many other scientists—Williams, Cattcot, Woodward, Granville Penn—held what we call Flood geology, believing that the Genesis Flood and the adjustment period in the first century or two afterward are accountable for the geologic conditions of the surface of the earth today.

When most of the scientists were Bible-believing Christians, they believed, of course, in the Flood; and they could understand and believe what God said about the Flood destroying the earth. But when men went away from God, they wanted to leave the Bible out, they wanted to find some natural and not a supernatural source for life on the earth; and so when they discounted God and the Bible, they left off direct creation and left off the Flood. This was with unbelieving men. It was not an objective and scientific decision but was a subjective decision of men voluntarily refusing to believe the Bible. Second Peter 3:3, 5, 6 says they are scoffers, walking after their own lusts or desires, and 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: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. A willing ignorance of the Bible led people to turn away from the Bible doctrine of the Flood.

But even today there are not wanting many men of science who teach that the strata, fossils, coal beds, etc., are a result of the Flood. Overwhelming evidence is given in the book The Deluge Story in Stone by Byron C. Nelson, Augsburg Press; in The Flood by Alfred M. Rehwinkel, Concordia Publishing House; the geology textbooks by Professor George McCready Price; and perhaps best of all by The Genesis Flood by Drs. Whitcomb and Morris.

And if you take away the desire to fit in with the scientists’ opinions about countless ages, then there is no need to invent a Gap Theory of creation.

No, as far as we can tell from the Bible account, Genesis 1:1 simply states a theme, and the rest of the chapter tells the details of that creation, and then more details are given about man in the second chapter.

So, with respect for good men, we do not believe the Gap Theory about creation. Christians should not try to fit their theology to the unproved suppositions of unchristian scientists.

Genesis 1 (Cont’d)

Creation in Six Literal Days, Not Ages

"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."—Exod. 20:11.

In Genesis, chapter 1, is a brief outline of the creation of the heavens and the earth. In brief, definite language God tells what happened day by day in six days of creation. The Bible never hints that it is a poem or that the language is figurative and allegorical. The simple, honest intent of the Scripture is evidently that thus in six literal days God made the heavens and the earth and then completed them. Genesis 1:1 says heaven and the earth, but Genesis 2:1 and 4 say the heavens [plural—all the universe] and the earth.

Infidels and enemies of the Bible would like to say, as Dr. George Buttrick says, that there are two accounts of the creation and they do not agree (The Christian Fact and Modern Doubt, p. 161). No; in the second chapter of Genesis there follows a detailed explanation of the creation of man, which is stated in Genesis 1:27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. But God of course wants to expand that statement and tell us more about the creation of man and then of woman and of their environment, their relation to the animal kingdom, their sin and fall, and the curse and promise involved. So here we do not have two conflicting accounts of creation but first the bare outline and then the important details which we need to know. Only flagrant unbelief and wicked bias, such as those of infidels like Tom Paine, Robert Ingersoll and their theological counterparts, would find contradictions here in Scriptures which millions of Bible believers have seen as perfectly harmonious.

Why We Believe Creation Took Six Literal Days

It seems to this writer that there is overwhelming evidence that the account of creation speaks of six literal days in which God made the heavens and the earth, not six ages or eons.

1. Why Not Six Literal Days?

The simple truth is that the only reason people would claim that the days of creation were agelong periods is that they thus try to fit into the theories of unbelieving scientists, the speculations and guesses of those who are enemies of the Bible.

Out-and-out unbelievers want to disparage the Bible. They do not accept direct creation as an act of God, so they labor ardently to try to prove that the earth and the universe are billions of years old. The popular idea now is that the universe is about five billion years old.

Some people try to accept evolution as the method of God’s creation. They want to put God into it but