“The problem I’ve had with the Creationists is that they try to use Creation to prove creation,” says my pastor, Richard Jordan. “It’s by faith that we know that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. You know it because God said it—end of discussion.

“One of the arguments people like to make is that, ‘God created the earth with the appearance of age,’ but I’ve never understood this. Adam, when he was created, was a fully mature adult. He appeared like he was 30 years old.

“If the earth is created with the appearance of age, but it’s really young, when you examine the earth, what would it tell you? Adam’s two days old and looks 30. So, if you anatomically examine Adam, how old would you think he was? Thirty, wouldn’t you? Because that’s the way he appears.

“How would you know he’s two days old? God told you. The only way you’d know is God told you, because He created him with the appearance of being older. So, if He created the world with the appearance of age, how is it then that you look at the world and say, ‘Look, see, it’s really young’?

“How can you prove it’s young by its appearance if it’s created to appear old? You follow that? That’s the logic used, and that logic just leaves me to say, ‘I thank God for Genesis 1:1 and Hebrews 11:3,’ because that logic just doesn’t work for me but those verses do.

“Let me show you a couple of verses that tell me there’s something to the ‘ruin- reconstruction’ (theory). Genesis 2:4 says, ‘These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.’

“Notice it doesn’t say, ‘This is the generation’? No, it says, ‘These are the generations (plural) when He made the six-day creation.’ The six-day creation is not the generation of the universe, it’s the generations. If that’s the first creation, don’t you think that word generation would be singular?

“The second time this word’s used is in Genesis 5:1: ‘This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.’

“Now, Seth is the beginning of the book of the generations of Adam, right? But is Seth the first child Adam had? No. He had two other kids before Seth—Cain and Abel. So when he says ‘the book of the generations of Adam,’ that’s a reference to a starting point in time that skipped two previous sons at least.

“Now, why did it do that? Well, look at Genesis 4:25: ‘And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.’

“It says ‘another seed.’ We’re talking about the Messianic line here. The Messianic line started with Abel, but Abel gets knocked off and is replaced by Seth. So, when you look at the second time the word ‘generations’ is used, it’s talking about a starting point in time that skipped over previous generations.

“Genesis 6:9 is the next time the word’s used. The verse says, ‘These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.’

“God begins a new generation in the earth. There’s a previous generation before Noah that God wiped out, meaning there was a destruction of the old world with a new starting point here.

“So, when I go back to Genesis 2:4, it’s at least consistent with the use of the term ‘generations’ in Scripture that the Creation of the six days in Genesis 1:3 and following—

it’s at least consistent with this being the generations of the heavens and earth—

that there could have been a previous one. In fact, it’s suggested that they’re might have been.

“Go to Gen. 1:28: ‘And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’

“God said what? ‘Replenish the earth.’ And do what? ‘Subdue it.’ If you subdue something, doesn’t that imply it needed to be put in subjection? If something’s in perfect harmony, would it need to be put in subjection? That implies it’s in rebellion, doesn’t it?

“Man’s original commission is made in light of the world being in rebellion against God. And he’s told to go out and replenish the earth. Now, people say, ‘Well, that word replenish really means to fill it up.’

“Well, if you look back at verse 22, it says, ‘And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.’ That word fill there is exactly the same word translated replenish in verse 28.

“In the King James Bible, when they translated that word, they knew how to translate it fill. And they chose specifically not to translate it that way (in verse 28), but translated it replenish. They knew what they were doing and they did it on purpose. Now why would they do that?

“By the way, the re concept in ‘replenish’ means what? Fill it again. ‘Plenish’ it again. Why did they do that? Come over to Genesis 9:1: ‘And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.’

“He’s saying, ‘Replace; repopulate the earth. Replace the previous occupant with a new set of occupants.’

“The implication all through here in Genesis is that there could have been, and probably was, a previous. . . the old world. And the heavens which were of old, and the earth, they perished in a flood—probably the flood in Genesis 1:2.

“I’m amazed, frankly, at how many Grace Believers have succumbed to the anti-Gap rhetoric; the emotional-driven fanaticism, quite frankly, of others who are so intent on proving their position, and maintaining their doctrine and so forth—based upon things that are really just simply manipulating the verses in the Scripture—to attain what it is they want it to be.

“I understand again the desire to be opposed to evolution—‘science falsely so-called’ and all of that—and I certainly applaud that motivation; I just think it makes no sense to do that by denying things that are more than valid in the Scripture. It’s unnecessary and leaves you at a tremendous disadvantage. There is a spiritual plot and plan that the Adversary has, and that God has, in work in Creation.”