"Ever since Christians first attempted to harmonize Scripture with the
concept of millions of years, they have been straying further and
further from a literal meaning of Genesis until they have abandoned it
altogether.
after the first and second admonition reject;
Titus 3:10
First promoted by Presbyterian minister Thomas Chalmers, the gap
theory inserts an indefinitely long period between the first two verses
of the Bible.
During this gap, Satan allegedly fell, causing the
downfall of the initial creation before God wiped it out with a
worldwide flood. Then, beginning in Genesis 1:2, God recreated the world in a manner close to the one described in the rest of Genesis 1.
The gap theory gained near-inspired status among many conservative
Christians, especially after the influential Scofield Reference Bible
promoted it in a marginal note for Genesis 1:2.
Scofield stated, “The first creative act refers to the dateless past,
and gives scope for all the geologic ages. . . . Relegate fossils to the
primitive creation, and no conflict of science with the Genesis cosmogony remains.”
AIG