The Devastating Legacy of the "Gap" Theory

Richard A. Jones of American Vision examines the tragically ironic consequences of the "gap" theory bequeathed to Christianity by John Nelson Darby and his dispensationalist disciples.

In 1830 British evangelist, J.N. Darby, began to “discover” two gaps in Scripture where none actually existed. This was needed to help justify his novel theory of Premillenial Dispensationalism; [henceforth, PD.] Publishers of both the KJV and other versions soon began to add gap-related footnotes which slowly came to be seen as “authoritative” with the Scofield Reference Bible being the major culprit. Thanks to Darby, Scofield, D.L. Moody, L.S. Chafer et al, the first imaginary gap of “missing history” you “overlooked” during your initial read through the Bible was the one they inserted between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2. Supposedly, this was God’s initial but failed attempt at creation which lasted, surprisingly, for billions of literal earth years. The rebel, Lucifer, was expelled out of heaven followed by a lengthy period of judgmental chaos on earth. Not until verse 1:3 was God able to get back on track and begin re-creating according to His “original plan.”

By claiming an old earth, not one roughly 10,000 years old as indicated by testable carbon-dating evidence, these footnotes aided and abetted Darwinism, needlessly giving away the store to secularism and the Darwin-dependent ACLU, etc. (One asks, why would any Christian feel the need to voluntarily spin such a theory?) Humanist-based evolution theories demand an old earth and eons of time to allow for “evolution to take place” so that its life-from-non-life, geological ages/fossil record guesswork can be sold to the innocent. Thus, we have the modern irony that although most fans of the Scofield footnotes passionately deny Darwinism, their passive acceptance of a fictitious gap has played directly into the hands of the enemy by verifying PD’s “inevitable” culture collapse, a defeatist “strategy” of non-involvement, and the current humanist takeover.

Such misguided thinking has also led some Christians to buy into the “theistic evolution” heresy. These folks, who are forced to claim that God created Adam via evolution, yearn to be respected by their evolution-brainwashed friends and colleagues; an emotional need that overrides commitment to the clear, evolution-denying aspects of Scripture.

Perhaps even more devastating is the second of Darby's "gap" theories.

Darby’s Gap Number Two allegedly enters the picture in conjunction with the 7 weeks, plus 62 weeks plus 1 week (70 = 490 prophetic years) of Daniel 9:24-27. In this only modestly complex passage, the angel Gabriel brings a vision to Daniel (see 9:21) during which he; 1) gives Daniel the skill and understanding needed to fully grasp – no guessing needed – the precise meaning of the “70 weeks,” 2) tells him of the dire consequences pending for Israel due to centuries of chronic disobedience, 3) tells him of the coming Messiah and exact historical moment when He will begin His earthly ministry (precisely as week 69 ends), and of His atoning death. In contrast to what an unbiased reading reveals to a normal, alert reader, PD theory claims that the chronological flow of 7 + 62 + 1 weeks is discontinuous, with an artificial gap of unknown length placed between the 69th and 70th weeks to allow for an imaginary and “still future” 7-year tribulation. It’s an “eisegetical” or agenda-driven gap which, to date, has stretched for nearly 2,000 years; something an unsuspecting Daniel would never have believed nor should he have. In truth, the flow of 490 years is completely seamless. Thus, to “find” a gap at any point means the inventor has to want one to be there in order to fit a pre-conceived agenda.

The sole reason for this unproveable gap was to create a pillar of legitimacy for the “we lose in history” PD eschatology. The gap; 1) opens the door for invention of the fictitious “church age,” 2) an age of “grace not works,” (it’s been grace, not works, from the beginning of time), 3) a complete separation of Israel from the Church (Israel plus Gentile adoptees was the OT church), 4) opens the door for an unscriptural “return to the land” of an ethnic Israel that is still “in hibernation” in 2007. In fairness, PD also tried to explain why Jesus “failed” to return as promised in Matt. 24:27-31. But we now know that Christ in fact did come back exactly as described during the apocalyptic events of AD70, and that he came back in judgment, using the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Roman army as a surrogate force just as He regularly did in the OT. No less a commentator than Matthew Henry states that Daniel’s 490 years ended during the first century AD so that although all 490 years were future for Daniel they are past for us today. However, was the AD 70 coming Christ’s “second advent?” No. We still await that final appearance.

Bad history breeds bad theology. The devastating legacy of the "gap" theory is both working together to the detriment of the church's witness.