Incorrect Translations
Well, let’s talk about the Creation. We sure do not want to be ignorant of the Creation like the scoffers are. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." If you skip down to verse five and it says, "The evening and the morning were the first day." Notice the word the—T-H-E. In English that is called the definite article: the first day. Now this is from the King James Version of the Bible, which I use, and I think you would be smart to use if you speak English. Many of the newer translations have made some serious changes. I would just be real cautious if I was you. I used to say (I do collect Bibles—versions of Bibles), I used to say I am not afraid of them. The more I study this, the more afraid I am getting folks. They have made thousands of changes in some of these, some of them very serious. Now, if you do not read Greek or Hebrew, you might want to stick with the King James if all you can read is English, which is all I can read. Here is the Reviled Substandard Perversion - I was reading through my Bibles to see how they treated the Creation story, and I came to the RSV. They said, "And there was evening and there was morning one day." What happened to the first day? Well, now it is just one day. Down in verse 8 instead of saying "the second day", they said it was "a second day". Why did they do that? Well, the reason these guys did that, they do not believe in a literal six day creation. They believe in what is called the Gap Theory.
The Gap Theory
How many have ever heard of the Gap Theory before? The Gap Theory was invented in 1814 by a Scottish preacher named Chaulmers, probably a well-meaning guy who just wanted to stick millions of years into the Bible, that is all! Because everybody was teaching the earth is millions of years old and Chaulmers thought, "you know the Bible is going to be left out, unless we can figure out a way to make the Bible say the earth is billions of years old." So, he invented a gap between verse one and verse two. The Gap Theory teaches between the first two verses of Genesis, there is ample scope for all the geologic eras. They say that is where the pre-Adamite rebellion took place and a judgment of Lucifer happened. The Gap Theory is unscriptural, it is unscientific and it unnecessary. The world is not billions of years old and you do not need to stick a gap in there. The Gap Theory folks always say, "well, you know didn’t God tell Adam to replenish the earth?" Well, we will get into that in a minute about replenish the earth.
Solar Days or Ages
Then you have got these verses they use all the time to justify the Gap Theory, but the Bible says pretty clearly in Exodus 20:11, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is." No gap there. He made everything in six days and God wrote this one on a rock with His own finger. This is part of the 10 commandments. Exodus 20, He must have known what He was talking about and He did not stutter. "Six days," that is the way He did it.
Death—Whose Fault?
Romans 5 tells us death came because of man’s sin. If the Gap Theory is true you had death before man ever got here. The Bible says it was death that came by sin, I Corinthians 15, same thing, "By man came death, in Adam all die." See, it is because of Adam’s sin; that is the reason we have death in the world today and that is why Christ died on the cross—He is the second Adam. I could preach for hours on that topic. Adam was the first man and he sinned and plunged the whole human race into death and suffering and misery and Christ came to redeem us from that.
Replenish or to Plenish?
The Gap Theory folks say, "well God told Adam to replenish the earth and the word replenish means to fill again." You get the glass, you say, "would you please replenish the glass for me, you know, fill it again." That is what the word means today, but in 1611 when the King James Version was translated, the word replenish was the proper word to use for the Hebrew word male [MAH lay] which means, "to fill". Go fill the glass! About 1650 (English language changes from time to time you know), the word replenish began to mean "fill it again." Today that is what it means, but in 1611 it just meant "go fill". There is a different Hebrew word, shana [SHAH nah], which means "to fill a second time, or to do something a second time." That is not what God told Adam to do. He told him to male the earth, "go fill the earth". So it was nothing to do with filling it again.
When Did Satan Fall?
In the book of Ezekiel, it tells us when Satan fell from heaven. Ezekiel 28, Lucifer is the theme of this chapter here; the Lord is talking about Lucifer. He says, "Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone was thy covering," and then it describes him in his tabrets and his pipes and the gold and the beryl and all this stuff, and you get down to verse 15, it says, "...Till iniquity was found in thee." You see, Lucifer was in Eden until iniquity was found in him. Well, the Garden of Eden was a model Day six and Lucifer was in it before he fell, so he sure could not have fallen from heaven between verse one and verse two; the Garden of Eden had not been made yet. Lucifer was in the Garden of Eden as a nice guy, until iniquity was found in him. In Genesis 1:31, the last verse of the chapter, it says, "God saw everything and behold it was very good." It would not be very good if the Devil was running around as a bad guy, and Adam and Eve were standing on top of thousands of feet of sediment full of dead things. That would not be very good! The whole idea of a pre-Adamite rebellion and a judgment of Lucifer during a gap is bologna, it is unscriptural, it is unscientific, and it is unnecessary! It goes against many, many other scriptures.