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Friday, August 24, 2012


A friend recently gave me a copy of a classic book by Clarence Larkin. It's been popular with Bible students who appreciate distinguishing various economies in the outworking of God's purpose.

In his commentary on Genesis one, Larkin presents what is usually called "the Gap Theory," assuming a long lapse of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Although the Young Biosphere Creationist model doesn't accept the view of the "gap," their interpretation of Day 4 also acknowledges the earlier creation of the stellar heavens (1:1):

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. (Gen. 1:14-19)
Larkin wrote:

 FOURTH DAY: SOLAR LIGHT RESTORED
The appearance of the sun and moon on the Fourth day was not a new creation. They had existed in connection with the Pre-Adamite Earth and had not been destroyed when it was made waste The words translated "made" in the 16th verse is not the same word as is translated "created" in verse one, and does not imply a "creative" act. What is meant is that the clouds broke away and permitted the sun and moon to be seen, and that from that time they were appointed to measure the days, and years, and seasons as we have them today. In other words, on the Fourth day "Time" in contrast with "Eternity" began.
Dispensational Truth: God's Plan and Purpose in the Ages, Clarence Larkin, Glenside, OPA: Larkin, 1920, p. 27

I can't help but wonder, that if Dr. John Whitcomb had this interpretation, Dr. Henry Morris may have grasped the model Gorman Gray has presented. If it was then taught in Morris' book, The Genesis Flood, YBC would be the more primary model among Young Earth Creationists.