What Is Gap Theory?

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. – Genesis 1:1-2

When I was a little boy I remember reading these verses and thinking to myself “what happened there? Did I miss something? Why didn’t God give us the whole story? To me it was clear as day. If God created the heavens and the earth in verse 1, then how is it without form and void in verse two?

In the Septuagint the word “was” is instead translated as “became”. Of course this makes you ask some interesting questions.

-          Became? Yeah I thoughts so! So what happened here?

-          Who did the “becoming”? Who made it happen? (God of course).

-          Why did He make this thing that He created formless and void? Was He mad or something?

Well there are some folks who believe that there is no gap at all between the two verses. They believe that verse two is just the starting place that sets the stage for verse 3 and beyond. And you know what? I can dig that. No one knows for sure of course but that has never been the way that I read it. I have always instinctively seen the gap; even before the fancy Septuagint knowledge (shout out to Chuck Missler).

So what if there was a gap? Furthermore when were the angels created? Satan fell from grace but it isn’t described at all during creation and he shows up in the garden as a serpent. When did that happen? Perhaps it happened in the gap. Perhaps not. I love these fun bible mysteries!

Here are some chapters from scripture to check out if you are interested in following this yellow brick road. The general idea is that the earth becoming formless and void was judgment for some iniquity, and that iniquity is related to the fall of Satan from grace. Of course there are some other folks who want to throw the dinosaurs in the mix here (that’s what I used to believe too though now I’m not so sure). I’ll let you decide.

This is the fun of Genesis. We are only in verse two and there are already tons of controversy and wild goose chases to run down. Have fun!

-          Job 38: God talks to Job about creation

-          Isaiah 45 God has Isaiah write a letter to Cyrus, King of Persia 150 years before he is born telling him who He is and how he created the world.

-          Ezekiel 28:11-29 The fall of Satan: (The king of Tyre in this passage is Satan.. after all.. the human king wasn’t in the garden of Eden now was he? King meant that Satan was leading the ruler)

-          Isaiah 14:12-21: The fall of Satan, pride

Chuck Missler on The Gap Theory