Creationism - National Center for Science Education
Creationism - National Center for Science Education Creationism - National Center for Science Education
uilt cities, in ages past. If there was a pre-Adamite race of creatures or beings, where are their fossils? Pember offers several suggestions: God might have zapped or rotted them; they might have been swallowed up by the earth; or, most likely, they may be entombed at the bottom of the Abyss, where their spirits are still imprisoned. Pember blames “spiritualism” (occultism, psychic beliefs, witchcraft, reincarnation, Eastern and other heathen beliefs) on Satan and these demon spirits. Alfred Edersheim, a converted Jew best known for his Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, also wrote The World Before the Flood (1875), in which he advocated the Gap Theory: “An almost indefinite s pace of time, and many changes, may therefore have intervened between the creation of heaven and earth, as mentioned in verse 1, and the chaotic state of our earth, as described in verse 2” (quoted in Custance 1977:111). The Terrible Catastrophe (1885) by Rev. Gottlieb Hasskarl of Philadelphia describes Flood myths from around the world, arguing that these, along with geological evidence, support the biblical account. Hasskarl also presents a Gap Theory interpretation of creation, citing the authority of Kurtz and one H.W. Morris (author of books such as Science and the Bible): When—how far back in the past—”the beginning” was—“God created the heaven and the earth” out of nothing is not stated, neither does the record afford any clue by which this can be ascertained. For this verse stands as an independent sentence, and relates a creative act distinct from and long prior to, the work of the six days. The sacred historian, in passing from the event announced in the first verse to the state of things described in the second, passes over a period of indefinite, and perhaps, incalculable length. [Hasskarl then describes Satan’s Fall during this period.] Of the condition of our planet during that period, what changes or revolutions it underwent, nothing is said; but the second verse describes to us its condition immediatey before the Adamic creation, the history of which begins with the third verse. [1885:244-246] In Genesis in Harmony with Itself and Science (1899), George Rapkin said that “we know races existed prior to Adam.” The antediluvian nephilim (“giants”) of Genesis 6:4 were surviving aboriginal pre-Adamites, he argued. Rapkin followed Ussher’s chronology for the six-day (re-)creation and the Flood. The Gap Theory got a tremendous boost when Cyrus Scofield endorsed it in the notes of his famous Reference Bible. Published in 1909 by Oxford, with an expanded edition in 1917, the Scofield Reference Bible had an enormous influence in defining and propagating the doctrines of the rising fundamentalist movement. It was Scofield who popularized the doctrine of dispensationalism—the view that God had different covenantal relationships with humankind in each of the clearly demarcated “dispensations” or historical periods. Scofield also stressed the new premillennial view: that Christ would return in person to rule on earth at the beginning of the Millennium. Debated and developed at various Bible conferences around the turn of the century, dispensationalist premillennialism, including the doctrine of the Rapture, became the predominant fundamentalist view, due in large part to Scofield’s popularization, and is still the majority view. The Scofield Reference Bible, perhaps the most widely distributed annotated Bible in the English-speaking world, gave the Gap Theory great prestige. In his note to Genesis 1:1, Scofield states that the “first creative act refers to the dateless past and gives scope for all the geologic ages.” Referring to the third day of the “new creation,” when God commanded earth to “bring forth” vegetation, Scofield asserts that seeds probably
survived the catastrophic judgment of Genesis 1:2 and were allowed to grow again in the newly reconstituted earth: It was animal life which perished, the traces of which remain as fossils. Relegate fossils to the primitive creation, and no conflict of science with the Genesis cosmogony remains. Like Pember, Scofield cites Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah 4:23-26 to support the idea of this ancient pre-Adamic creation. In the New Scofield Reference Bible, a 1967 revised edition, and in the 1984 New International Version (NIV) Scofield Bible, the Gap Theory is somewhat downplayed; the supporting comments are relegated mostly to Isaiah rather than Genesis, where it is mentioned only as a possible interpretation. The older editions remain quite popular with fundamentalists, though. Clarence Larkin’s Dispensational Truth; or God’s Plan and Purpose in the Ages (1920; originally 1918) was also quite influential in popularizing dispensationalism and belief in Christ’s pre-millennial return. Larkin graphically protrayed the dispensations by means of 90 large detailed charts. Creation of the original or pre-Adamite earth was in the “dateless past.” It was not at the beginning of the first day as described in Gen. 1:3-5. The six days’ work as described in Gen.1:3-31 was the restoration of the earth (not the heavens or starry space), to its original condition before it was made “formless and void,” and submerged in water and darkness. [1920:21] The original world was corrupted by sin, and God destroyed it by the awful Flood catastrophe described in 2 Peter: “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” Watchman Nee, the Chinese theologian, argued for the Gap Theory; his Mystery of Creation (1981) is a very readable summary of Pember’s classic interpretation, who he follows closely; he also cites Chalmers. Nee also states that 2 Peter 3:5-7 refers to the pre-Adamic world, its destruction by flood, and the present creation. Strict young-earth creationists insist that a straightforward reading of this passage clearly shows this to be Noah’s Flood, not some pre-Adamic cataclysm. Indeed, John Whitcomb, Morris’s Genesis Flood co-author, entitled his sequel to that work The World That Perished, quoting 2 Peter 3:6. 35 Giorgio Bartoli, the Italian geologist, chemist, and mine director, presented the Gap Theory (which he called “restitutionism” or “reconstructionism”) in The Biblical Story of Creation (1926). 35 This chapter of 2 Peter is a rich source of “proofs” for various and conflicting schools of creationism. The verses just before those quoted by Nee refer to “scoffers” during the last days who refuse to believe that God ever destroyed the world or could do so in the future; many creationists maintain that it describes uniformitarian evolutionists. (This makes little sense, however. The “scoffers” oppose biblical historicity with its prophesied Judgment and End of Time. Though they seem to acknowledge a creation, they deny that the world changes—hardly an evolutionist position. The verse immediately following, which says that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” is, along with Psalm 90:4, the best available scriptural support for Day-Age creationism. And the coming of the Lord “as a thief in the night,” two verses later, followed by the destruction of the earth, is cited by pre-tribulation premillennialists as support for the secret Rapture to heaven of the faithful.
- Page 135 and 136: In a book on astronomy, John Whitco
- Page 137 and 138: Pentecostalists typically affirm be
- Page 139 and 140: member. In the 1920s, Aimee Semple
- Page 141 and 142: James Kennedy, pastor of Coral Ridg
- Page 143 and 144: ook, calling it ‘a fairy tale,’
- Page 145 and 146: In the second half of his book O’
- Page 147 and 148: any species from another species. I
- Page 149 and 150: never heard of Marra before, but I
- Page 151 and 152: accuse him, as already noted, of fo
- Page 153 and 154: Jay Sekulow is a lawyer who represe
- Page 155 and 156: to “internal” evidence, Islamic
- Page 157 and 158: What initially strikes the reader c
- Page 159 and 160: Journal of the Victoria Institute,
- Page 161 and 162: (all of ICR and/or CRS), and Malcol
- Page 163 and 164: Creationism in South Africa is infl
- Page 165 and 166: also includes other Bible-science i
- Page 167 and 168: oard of advisors includes Gunther S
- Page 169 and 170: Evolution on Trial (1985), one of s
- Page 171 and 172: sponsored by UCLA, and partly funde
- Page 173 and 174: Christianity, then emigrated to Can
- Page 175 and 176: R.G. Elmendorf, the whimsical Catho
- Page 177 and 178: YOUNG-EARTH CREATIONISM CHAPTER 6 D
- Page 179 and 180: attacking evolution. Of the three,
- Page 181 and 182: (1970), arguing for the Gap Theory.
- Page 183 and 184: “These extinct animals and vegeta
- Page 185: Prior to Darwin the Gap Theory was
- Page 189 and 190: ut it did at least welcome all such
- Page 191 and 192: Convinced of the geological ages an
- Page 193 and 194: Science (1862), by Mrs. George J.C.
- Page 195 and 196: evidence for evolution, even in its
- Page 197 and 198: P.J. Wiseman, a British air commodo
- Page 199 and 200: ut he also criticizes “hyper-orth
- Page 201 and 202: espect, except in this one, that th
- Page 203 and 204: Men complain, however, that God wou
- Page 205 and 206: Davidheiser does not speculate whet
- Page 207 and 208: Paul Johnson, in Creation (1938), a
- Page 209 and 210: “fundamentalist groups-.called sc
- Page 211 and 212: God precipitated by shifting the ea
- Page 213 and 214: Heavenlies (1984). This book gives
- Page 215 and 216: contemptuous of academics, scientis
- Page 217 and 218: may be closer to the actual intent
- Page 219 and 220: addressed to Christian students fac
- Page 221 and 222: Despite disclaiming any direct link
- Page 223 and 224: life are so infinitesimally small t
- Page 225 and 226: an article which originally appeare
- Page 227 and 228: standard creationist arguments as t
- Page 229 and 230: Noah and the animals left the ark w
- Page 231 and 232: The Duke of Argyll, in Primeval Man
- Page 233 and 234: science from UC Berkeley; his other
- Page 235 and 236: “true” science, was based on th
uilt cities, in ages past. If there was a pre-Adamite race of creatures or beings, where<br />
are their fossils? Pember offers several suggestions: God might have zapped or rotted<br />
them; they might have been swallowed up by the earth; or, most likely, they may be<br />
entombed at the bottom of the Abyss, where their spirits are still imprisoned. Pember<br />
blames “spiritualism” (occultism, psychic beliefs, witchcraft, reincarnation, Eastern and<br />
other heathen beliefs) on Satan and these demon spirits.<br />
Alfred Edersheim, a converted Jew best known <strong>for</strong> his Life and Times of Jesus the<br />
Messiah, also wrote The World Be<strong>for</strong>e the Flood (1875), in which he advocated the Gap<br />
Theory: “An almost indefinite s pace of time, and many changes, may there<strong>for</strong>e have<br />
intervened between the creation of heaven and earth, as mentioned in verse 1, and the<br />
chaotic state of our earth, as described in verse 2” (quoted in Custance 1977:111).<br />
The Terrible Catastrophe (1885) by Rev. Gottlieb Hasskarl of Philadelphia<br />
describes Flood myths from around the world, arguing that these, along with geological<br />
evidence, support the biblical account. Hasskarl also presents a Gap Theory<br />
interpretation of creation, citing the authority of Kurtz and one H.W. Morris (author of<br />
books such as <strong>Science</strong> and the Bible):<br />
When—how far back in the past—”the beginning” was—“God created the heaven and the earth” out of<br />
nothing is not stated, neither does the record af<strong>for</strong>d any clue by which this can be ascertained. For this<br />
verse stands as an independent sentence, and relates a creative act distinct from and long prior to, the work<br />
of the six days. The sacred historian, in passing from the event announced in the first verse to the state of<br />
things described in the second, passes over a period of indefinite, and perhaps, incalculable length.<br />
[Hasskarl then describes Satan’s Fall during this period.] Of the condition of our planet during that period,<br />
what changes or revolutions it underwent, nothing is said; but the second verse describes to us its condition<br />
immediatey be<strong>for</strong>e the Adamic creation, the history of which begins with the third verse. [1885:244-246]<br />
In Genesis in Harmony with Itself and <strong>Science</strong> (1899), George Rapkin said that<br />
“we know races existed prior to Adam.” The antediluvian nephilim (“giants”) of Genesis<br />
6:4 were surviving aboriginal pre-Adamites, he argued. Rapkin followed Ussher’s<br />
chronology <strong>for</strong> the six-day (re-)creation and the Flood.<br />
The Gap Theory got a tremendous boost when Cyrus Scofield endorsed it in the<br />
notes of his famous Reference Bible. Published in 1909 by Ox<strong>for</strong>d, with an expanded<br />
edition in 1917, the Scofield Reference Bible had an enormous influence in defining and<br />
propagating the doctrines of the rising fundamentalist movement. It was Scofield who<br />
popularized the doctrine of dispensationalism—the view that God had different<br />
covenantal relationships with humankind in each of the clearly demarcated<br />
“dispensations” or historical periods. Scofield also stressed the new premillennial view:<br />
that Christ would return in person to rule on earth at the beginning of the Millennium.<br />
Debated and developed at various Bible conferences around the turn of the century,<br />
dispensationalist premillennialism, including the doctrine of the Rapture, became the<br />
predominant fundamentalist view, due in large part to Scofield’s popularization, and is<br />
still the majority view.<br />
The Scofield Reference Bible, perhaps the most widely distributed annotated Bible<br />
in the English-speaking world, gave the Gap Theory great prestige. In his note to<br />
Genesis 1:1, Scofield states that the “first creative act refers to the dateless past and gives<br />
scope <strong>for</strong> all the geologic ages.” Referring to the third day of the “new creation,” when<br />
God commanded earth to “bring <strong>for</strong>th” vegetation, Scofield asserts that seeds probably