Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig. Today, the creation of

life and biological diversity, part four. For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to

reasonable faith.org. Last time we looked at the literal interpretation of Genesis chapter 1, and today we want to turn

to a quite different interpretation, which has been called the gap interpretation.

This is a view that was popularized by the old Schofield reference Bible. It holds that there is a gap of time between

verses 1 and 2 of Genesis chapter 1, and that all of the evidence of fossil life, extinct

life forms, and so forth, were from an ancient world that existed prior to the state

described in Genesis 1, verse 2, and which came under God's judgment and was destroyed.

What is described in verses 2 and following then is God's

re-creation in effect of the world after a long gap. So this view would say that all

of the evidence that we have in contemporary science of ancient geological periods, prehistoric

life, and the antiquity of life forms is from that pre-gap world. Now, what might we say

by way of assessment of this theory? I think that there could well be a gap of time

between verses 1 and 2 in Genesis 1. 1 describes, as we have seen, God's creation of the universe,

or the heavens and the earth.

Then, in verse 2, the focus radically narrows to God's activity upon the earth, and the earth

was without form and void.

And God's transformation of the earth from an uninhabitable waste to a place which is fit

for human habitation.

So I think there could well be a gap of time between the creation of the universe in verse 1 and the transformation

of the surface of the earth into a biosphere suitable for human habitation.

Now some young Earth creationist is eager to maintain that God's creation of the universe

...