Creationism - National Center for Science Education

Heavenlies (1984). This book gives a thoroughly standard Gap Theory presentation,
though Hinn is far more concerned with Satan and his demons than with geology or
biology. Hinn received the Holy Spirit attending meetings of faith-healer Kathryn
Kuhlman, and was miraculously cured of stuttering when he accepted the calling of the
Lord to preach. Hinn, like most Gap theorists, believes that demons are the disembodied
former inhabitants of the pre-Adamic world; it is because of this condition that they
desperately seek to possess our human bodies. Satan’s fallen angels are not demons.
Satan was cast out of the third heaven; he and his fallen angels still inhabit the second
heaven (though “he visits here a lot”). Most demons are imprisoned in the Abyss, one of
the five underworlds; relatively few are at loose on earth. The Hell of Tartarus, another
of the underworlds, holds those fallen angels who have “left their own habitation.” Hinn
explains that these are the “sons of God” who, leaving the second heaven, cohabited with
women (the “daughters of men”) as described in Gen. 6; their offspring were the wicked
giants (Nephilim) of the days before the Flood.
Kenneth Hagin, well-known author, televangelist, and head of RHEMA Bible
Church (a.k.a. Kenneth Hagin Ministries), includes the Gap Theory in his 1983 booklet
The Origin and Operation of Demons (Volume 1 of his 4-volume “Satan, Demons and
Demon Possession” series). Hagin is concerned with the same themes as Hinn: the
“wicked spirits in the heavenlies”; their abodes in the various heavens, their natures,
history, and classification. Like Hinn, he was miraculously cured; he was “almost totally
paralyzed and completely bedfast from a deformed heart and incurable blood disease”
when he answered the Lord’s call. Hagin has the ability to “discern what kind of spirits
are in a locality.” He detects very many, and most are evil. Hagin believes that the only
logical explanation for all these spirits is the pre-Adamic creation of the Gap Theory.
They were members of Satan’s pre-Adamic kingdom on earth.
The Gap Theory is taught in two volumes of Corvin’s Home Bible Study Course
(1976) published by Jim Bakker’s PTL network (Bixler 1986:87n). Howard Estep, a
televangelist whose World Prophetic Ministry is based in Colton, California, concentrates
on pre-millennialist Bible prophecy, but also teaches the Gap Theory in booklets such as
Evolution: True or False? (1969), Jehovah—Adam—And You!, and Eons of Ages Ago!.
Don Wardell, in God Created (1984), argues against young-earth creationism and
Flood Geology. His Gap Theory presentation contains many of the usual arguments in
simplified form. He suggests, however, that some plants and animals—seeds and “living
fossils”—survived the darkness and flood of Gen. 1:2 into the six-day restoration and
recreation (1984:17,56-67). (Scofield and others had also suggested that seeds may have
survived from the original creation.)
Ronald Wlodyga, another follower of Herbert W. Armstrong, thanks Armstrong
and Dankenbring (his publisher) for assistance with his book The Ultimate Source of All
Super Natural Phenomena (1981). Wlodyga’s theme is that all supernatural phenomena,
including all occult and paranormal manifestations, emanate from Satan—except for
God’s miracles.
Based on certain scriptures, it seems evident that the earth was originally intended to be the dwelling place
of a third of the angels. It appears that God placed them there as a training ground to see if they would
accept the government of God. [1981:30]