Examining the Geologic Column

Examining Charles Darwin and the start of the evolutionary theory

Let’s examine a theory some Christians hold to called the gap theory. A man by the name of Thomas Chalmers proposed a theory in the early 19th century called the gap or the ruin and reconstruction theory that tries to fit in the supposed billions of years of history that the scientific community tells us how old the universe is and tried to make it fit into the Bible. The theory claims that after Genesis 1:1 the earth was perfect as God intended but in the time frame from verses 1 to 2 is when the fall of Lucifer happened and Satan wrestled control of the earth from God and started a revolt against him known as the pre-adamic rebellion. During this period of time is when the evolutionary process kicked off giving us the fossil records and the deep rock layers we see today. After a few billion years the earth was void as we read in verse 2 and afterwards, there were six literal days of creation. Now, as silly as this all sounds, there are some Christians who hold to this point of view to fit in what the scientific community tells us about the age of the earth to accommodate the dinosaurs, fossil records, deep rock layers, etc. The biggest piece of evidence creationists and Christians can use to refute the gap theory is by looking at Romans 5:12 where the apostle Paul writes “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:” So in this passage, we read that death first came into the world through the sin of Adam and Eve and not through evolutionary processes because it was never in God’s perfect plan for man to die but due to their disobedience God ended up cursing man to eventually grow old and die. So, if there were “billions of years of history” during these six days of creation then there must have been death prior to the fall of man in order for the evolutionary process to run its course. This piece of evidence alone is enough to make the gap theory heretical to scripture and if the gap theory were true then Christians would still be left to answer all of the glaring errors that the gap and evolutionary theory presents claiming billions of years. Secondly, the rock layers and fossil record can easily be explained by Noah’s flood. When the fountains of the deep broke open and the torrential rains started pouring down it took out countless animals and caused devastating damage to the earth's landscape. We can look at places like the Grand Canyon and see the kind of immense damage that much water all at once can cause. We know that water is one of if not the most destructive forces on earth and how rapidly it can change an environment, so it is strong evidence at the very least. The gap theory is a dangerous belief because instead of taking God at his word in Genesis, we are attempting to compromise the Bible in order to make the secular science work as an origin of how we got here and that is a very dangerous game to play and again this theory is entirely unsupported according to scripture. Quite simply, the gap theory is compromising the Bible and heretical to scripture and even if something major like this happened then surely we would have a record of this in Genesis but we do not.

How old is the universe? Well that all depends on who you ask. The general consensus that the scientific community agrees upon is that the universe has been around for 13.8 billion years which would have been when the supposed Big Bang first happened. Over the years, this estimate has changed dramatically. Before 1999, scientists claimed the universe was anywhere from seven to twenty billion years old and a recent theory from Professor Rajendra Gupta from the University of Ottawa claims that the universe may be 26.7 billion years old. He proposed this theory based on evidence from the James Webb telescope where we can see “advanced galaxies” and cosmic background radiation. Now, I’ve previously touched on this Cosmic Background Radiation and noted several key points of evidence and doubts against this claim but why does the scientific community constantly need to change the age of the universe whenever they find something that doesn’t fit in with their supposed theories? I believe these extraordinary claims need even more extraordinary evidence for proof. In 2023, scientists were finding galaxies with the James Webb Telescope that they were claiming came into existence anywhere from two hundred to five hundred million years after the Big Bang occurred. But wait, this is confusing because if the Big Bang was the start of everything as they say then how could galaxies form completely independently? The scientific community can never get their story straight and we are constantly finding proof that weighs against the billions of years theory and proves a young earth. As Creationists and Christians, we believe that the universe is only around 6,000 years old and we first came to that number by tracing the genealogies in the Bible all the way from Adam to the time of Jesus. With recent scientific discoveries, we can show that the universe is in fact only around 6,000 years and not billions with there being ample observable evidence in our galaxy alone to prove this. Firstly, we know that the gravitational pull of the Earth's moon Luna significantly impacts the Earth’s rotation and its stability with rotating on the planets axis. In the 1970’s, we learned from laser beams that were reflected from the surface of the moon that it is actually pulling away from the Earth at a rate of about 3.78 centimeters every year. This is interesting because the moon is approximately 384,400 kilometers away so if the universe were 13.8 billion years old, we can show from mathematics that 10.1 billion years ago the moon would have literally been inside of the earth so how would something like this be possible if the big bang were true? Secondly, the Earths rotations has been gradually slowing by 1.8 milliseconds per century and is primarily affected by the gravitational pull of our moon. So, if the Earth is so old then shouldn’t it have completely stopped rotating a few billion years ago? Thirdly, let's look at Saturn. Scientists discovered in 2017 that Saturn’s rings are slowing disappearing and NASA estimates that about the rings are losing about 6,300 pounds of ice every second! They estimate that the planets rings will be gone in about one hundred million to three hundred million years but how can this possibly fit in with the 13.8 billion years old theory? Fourthly, comets with their rate of deterioration of ice and dust only have a lifespan of about 10,000 years according to the scientific community and we actually see them die out frequently. A man by the name of Jan Oort proposed in the 1950’s that new comets must originate in the Oort cloud that is on the edge of our solar system but when you dive into it there is unsurprisingly no observable evidence of comets forming. Lastly and very interestingly, when we take a look at stars, we know that there are small long-lived stars and large short-lived ones because the more mass a star has the quicker it burns out. What is mind-boggling is that just in the Milky Way galaxy alone there are over 100 billion observable stars! However, we see stars blowing up all the time and astronomers estimate that large stars have a max lifespan of less than 10 million years while small stars can last all the way up to 10 billion years. So, if our universe is 13.8 billion years old then how do we still have stars in the sky? Well, it’s theorized that new stars are produced in the Milky Way galaxy every year to replace the ones that have burnt out but of course, there has been no proof of this actually happening and we’re left with a bunch of “theories and guesses” as to why things happen with scientists constantly having to change their answers. We’re told never to question the science but doesn't the very definition of the word science mean “the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained”? Hundreds of years ago it was believed that the Earth was actually at the center of the universe and everything revolved around it. What’s interesting is that a lot of evidence that the scientific community finds ends up proving that the universe isn’t nearly as old as they think it is. The intricate design of our universe is undeniable proof that we must have come from an intelligent creator and the more we study the universe the more in awe us Christians are that God spoke this universe into existence! What’s remarkable is that if the Earth were even one inch closer to the sun it would cause a mass extinction event due to the increased heat we would receive so the notion that the entire universe was just a colossal accident and we just happened to come about due to random chance and processes is absurdity at its finest, entirely illogical, and has no real proof to back it up.  Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth.”