Gap Theory

Definition and Meaning

The gap theory is an interpretation holding that a long period of time passed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. According to this theory, the world God originally made was destroyed by some judgment and became "without form, and void." The work of the six days beginning in Genesis 1:3 is understood as the rebuilding of that world. For this reason it is also called the "ruin-reconstruction theory." As one attempt to reconcile an old earth with the six days of creation in Scripture, it is classified as one of several views within creationism.

Biblical and Historical Background

Proponents cite the following grounds:

• In Genesis 1:2, "the earth was without form," they hold that the Hebrew verb rendered "was" can also be read as "became."
• On the basis of Isaiah 45:18, "he created it not in vain," they argue that the formless state was not the original condition of the earth but a later result. Jeremiah 4:23 is also cited in support.
• They link the ruin of the first world to the fall of Satan, citing Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.

This view is generally said to have been popularized in the early nineteenth century by the Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers. After the Scofield Reference Bible, published in 1909, presented this interpretation in its notes, it spread widely within dispensationalist and fundamentalist circles.

Critics argue that Genesis 1:2 is grammatically a clause describing the condition of the earth introduced in the preceding verse, which makes it difficult to insert a time gap between the two verses. They also point out that Exodus 20:11 states that "in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is." Advocates of young-earth creationism further object that the theory presupposes death and destruction before Adam's sin.

In the Korean Church

In Korea, the gap theory is said to have been introduced through the Scofield Reference Bible and through preachers influenced by dispensationalism. It is still mentioned as one possible interpretation in sermons on Genesis and in Bible study. The creation science movement, which became established in the Korean church from the 1980s onward, generally holds to young-earth creationism and tends to be critical of the gap theory.

There is no confirmed record of any major denomination adopting an official resolution on the gap theory. Across denominations, it is treated, along with the day-age theory and the framework hypothesis, as an interpretive view discussed by individuals or within seminaries.