“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God..."
                                                        Hebrews 11:3
The GapTheory























                                    In the beginning...?


If we want to discover the more obscure sides of religious ideology, we
need to start at the beginning. Most of us were taught that God created the
world in six days, and rested on the seventh. For centuries, many of us
who believe the Bible have accepted this time frame as absolute truth. We
trusted the men who first translated our Bible into English, and that they
made no mistakes in their translation. Most probably, the best way to truly
understand the Bible is to look at it in it's original Hebrew. What if the
original language of the Bible could, perhaps, say something different than
most of these modern English translations?

The translators authorized by King James (in the 1611 King James
Version) were, no doubt, under the assumption the world was created in
six days. This was probably something that they, and their ancestors, were
always taught. Words of the Hebrew language - as common in many
languages - often have a variety of meanings. The translators of the King
James (the first major English translation) could easily have used English
words to best "fit" their traditional assumptions of creation, as well as other
biblical stories. Take these verses, for example:


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

            Genesis 1:1 KJV


The next verse states:


"And the earth was without form, and void..."                                      

           Genesis 1:2 KJV


According to C.I. Scofield, Thomas Chalmers and other biblical scholars,
something dramatic may have occurred in the span between the time of the
first and second verses. Were the King James translators accurate in their
translation, or was it based on assumption? As stated earlier, Hebrew
words could have more than one meaning. With that fact in hand, let's see
if these early translators indeed translated the words correctly, or tried to
make the words "fit in" to what they always assumed was creation.

In Genesis 1:2, the use of the word was (from the Hebrew hayah)
indicates that something may have occurred beyond what these King
James translators believed. According to Strong's Concordance - a great
guide to Hebrew words - this word can mean "to be", "to come to pass",
"to come about", and "fall out". Did the earth begin the way Genesis 1:2
stated or did it become this way?

The words without form, in the above, were translated from the Hebrew
tohuw, which can mean "to lie waste", "that which is wasted", or "a place
of chaos" and "confusion". The Hebrew word for void is bohuw, which
can mean "a state of waste" and "emptiness". If we use these other
meanings for these words, we have another meaning for this verse:


"And the earth came to be a place of chaos, and waste."

                     -or-

"And the earth had fallen from its original form, and became a
place of chaos and waste."


The question remains: was the earth created "without form and void" or
did something happen to bring it that way? If we look at the verse in this
way we might be able to surmise that something of great importance
occurred between the first and second verses of the Bible.

We read in Genesis 1:1 that God created the heaven and the earth
(interestingly enough, the word heaven in the original Hebrew is singular).
When we look at the end of the Six-Day Creation, we read "the heavens
and earth were finished, and all the host of them" (Genesis 2:1). Now, it is
in the plural? Why? Could the first heaven have been created at the time of
Genesis 1:1 and another heaven - possibly one of many - have been
created at the end of the Six-Day Creation. Is it possible there was more
than one heaven - each created, and subsequently destroyed? Could a new
one have replaced the former at the time of our Six-Day Creation?

If we look deeper, why would God create a world that was formless and
void anyway? Isn't creation thought of as a finished product?


"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."

           Isaiah 45:18 KJV


Many people believe the Bible never contradicts itself, therefore, Isaiah 45:
18 tells us that God made the earth, and established it "not in vain". Could
there have been a previously established "world" that God needed to
destroy for whatever reason? Like the heaven, did God create another
world to replace the former?

In Genesis 1, we read God created new lights in the sky (i.e. our sun and
moon). Could some parts of the earth, such as the planet itself, only need
reworking, while others needed to be created again?

Could these new lights in the sky have been part of God's brand new
"heaven"?


"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them."            

           Genesis 2:1 KJV


The Gap Theory assumes the planet earth, in the wording of Genesis 1:1,
was created by God. There was as well an organized, harmonious order of
the earth - known as the world - which was also created at the same time.
According to this original Hebrew wording, it seems that God was not
satisfied with this previous world, and destroyed it. The planet remained,
however.

Our current world was formed from the ashes of the former world's
indistinguishable ruin, “re-worked” again by God as noted in our Six-Day
Creation. The earth stayed the same, but (at least) two harmonized
arrangements, known as worlds, were fashioned by God by this time!

The following verses of the Bible seem to reinforce this multiple-world
theory:


“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…”

         Hebrews 1:2 KJV


“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.”

         Hebrews 11:3 KJV






















Although the Bible could refer to other planets, here, it seems unlikely. II
Peter 3 seems to reinforces the above:


II Peter (KJV)
3:3: "Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water,
perished.
3:4: 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."


Many scholars assumed this verse only refers to Noah and his flood. Could
these verses actually be referring to the world that existed before the
present? We notice other verses which seem to argue against these as being
of the Flood of Noah:


II Samuel (KJV)
22:2 “And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my
deliverer;
22:3 … thou savest me from violence.
22:5 When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of
ungodly men made me afraid;
22:8 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven
moved and shook, because he was wroth.
22:10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness
was under his feet.
22:12 And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters,
and thick clouds of the skies.
22:15 And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; and
discomfited them.
22:16 And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations
of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD.”


Psalms (KJV)
18:1 “I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
18:4 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly
men made me afraid.
18:7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of
the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.
18:9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness
was under his feet.
18:11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about
him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
18:12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed,
hail stones and coals of fire.
18:13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest
gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
18:14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he
shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.
18:15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations
of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD.”


In the flood of Noah, we have account of the earth shaking and trembling,
no hail stones. There was only 40 days and nights of rain. As we notice, in
both of these verses, the foundations of a new world were, soon after,
discovered! Why?

In the words of Genesis 1:2, we recall:


"And the earth was without form, and void..."                                      


Considering the Gap Theory, couldn't Genesis 1:2 begin seem to more like
a description of a planet that became "without form and void", rather than
newly formed? Why would a creator create something already demolished?

According to Genesis 1:28, God instructs Adam to "be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth..." Why would Adam need to replenish a
world that was brand new?

Could our current world truly be the reformulation of some world of the
past?

As we'll see, this first reinterpretation could set the stage for so much more
of early Genesis to be further reinterpreted, or looked at in a different way.
Does everything else have to be the same as what we were always taught?
On top of it, could there be those out there who would - for whatever
reason - want to cover up, or purposely omit, the possibility of other
meanings to these early stories?

To dig deeper, Untold Adam and Eve will be able to tell us a lot more.

There is much more evidence of this in the book The Rise of Mystery
Babylon.


Copyright 2010, Brett T., All Rights Reserved