Exposing the Ruin-Restoration Lie

The Genesis Gap Theory (Ruin-Restoration Creationism) is a modern attempt to place millions of years of death and geological history between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. While seemingly offering a way to accept both the six-day creation and long ages, this theory fundamentally compromises the authority of scripture and the nature of God’s perfect creation.

Here are the primary scriptural contradictions inherent in the Gap Theory:

1. The Contradiction of Christ and the Chronology of Creation

The Gap Theory places the original creation and the death of the pre-Adamic world (the fossils) millions of years before Adam. However, Jesus Christ and the Apostles taught that man was created “from the beginning” of creation.

• Christ’s Testimony: When discussing marriage, Jesus pointed back to the creation of male and female: “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” (Mark 10:6, KJV). If the “beginning” spanned billions of years, and Adam was created at the very end, Christ’s statement becomes nonsensical. Adam was present at the true beginning of the six-day process.
• The World’s Age: The genealogies in the KJV, when traced back, show that the world is only thousands of years old, as the Earth’s existence and man’s existence are treated as a unified, young history.

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2. The Corruption of “Was” and the Nature of Tōhû wābōhû

Gap theorists claim the Hebrew word hayah, translated as “was” in Genesis 1:2 (“And the earth was without form, and void”), should be translated as “became” to imply ruin. This is not the standard rendering for hayah.

• The Literal Meaning: The word hayah is correctly translated as “was” hundreds of times in the KJV (e.g., Genesis 2:10, “it was parted”). It simply describes the condition of the unformed matter God was about to shape.
• The Meaning of Tōhû wābōhû: The phrase translated as “without form, and void” is a description of unformed, uninhabited material waiting for God’s creative work, not a description of a judged or ruined world. It is a necessary state before order is brought forth. God was bringing order out of this unformed state, not restoring order to a chaotic ruin.

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3. The Impossibility of Death Before Sin

The most devastating theological flaw of the Gap Theory is the introduction of death, suffering, and a fallen world before the sin of Adam. The geological ages supposedly placed in the Gap are defined by the death of billions of creatures (the fossil record).

• The KJV Doctrine of Sin and Death: Scripture is clear: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12, KJV). Death is a penalty for Adam’s sin.
• The Perfect Creation: At the end of the six days of creation, God looked upon everything He had made, including the Earth, and declared it “very good” (Genesis 1:31, KJV). A world littered with the corpses of billions of creatures, destroyed by a satanic war, cannot be honestly described as “very good.” The Gap Theory fundamentally destroys the purity and perfection of the original creation.

The Gap Theory is a compromise with worldly wisdom that diminishes the power of God’s Word and attempts to insert the consequences of sin (death) into a time when creation was still perfect. The only truth we need is the plain reading of the KJV: God created the heavens and the earth, and in six literal days, He prepared it perfectly for man.