Heavenly sunlight we've been talking about energy today. And so take your Him, they'll turn to Him, number 489, and let's stand and sing. How's that y'all help me because I don't have any of the Tau tabernacles here to bail me out. And so here we go. Heavenly sunlight m number 489. We'll sing the first and the Last. Falling all the bright journey over the mountains through the defense jesus has said I never forsake me sing singing is praises jesus is mine are the last in the bright sunlight every sing sing singing and praises gladly I walking inside unless to have a word of prayer together heavenly Father, we're grateful for the earthly sunlight that is ours. We're grateful also for the heavenly sunlight and the sunlight that comes into our hearts and soul through the word of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. For this we are most grateful and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Today, some of you may not know, but we have been all weekend in our annual Tau's Prophecy Conference and having a good time with that Friday night and Saturday night and Sunday morning. Now, Sunday morning, we're concluding this. Normally I am preaching a Bible based series and we just started last week, a series on the life and times of Abraham. I'll pick that back up next week with the life and times of Abraham. But today we're going to look at something that we've been looking all weekend at Genesis One issues. But how many of you would agree it's not been like any Genesis One conference you ever went to. That's what I thought. Yeah, we have looked at things like electricity and power and cellular structure and all those kinds of things about what a God has done in our body and it's been in our body and around the world. It's been very interesting. Hey, you know what I noticed? And I had missed this yesterday as I was talking about environmental tyranny and whatnot we missed because it was yesterday morning, the Tau Electric Car Expo. Yeah, we missed it. We could have gone and given our opinion, but we were here learning into his word and into science and that was fun. So this morning is the last two sessions of it. We just finished one session and that session was on a Genesis One topic. That is the Flat Earth movement, which is growing so much steam. We looked at that. Now we're going to look at in just a moment anyway, we're going to look at the gap theory you may or may not have heard of, but it is a theory on Genesis, chapter one. And so we're going to consider that. You got the notes right there. Our bulletin today we have our Tauce extended family and we always like those who join us online week after week after week from around the world. And today we meet Darlene in Chula Vista, California. Is that far from you? Oh, ten minutes away. You all should meet Darlene and her cats. This is the first and possibly the last time we will have cats on the First Baptist Bulletin. But nonetheless, Darlene, we love you. And her quote there is bigger than most of the quotes we put. But I read that, and I thought, well, there's nothing there I want to leave out. And so I put the whole thing. You can read it, but Darlene has advanced muscular dystrophy and a motorized wheelchair, and so she watches us from home and is part of our church family. So darlene, we love you. God bless you for your faithfulness to our New Mexico church in your Chula Vista town. I've always thought Chula Vista just sounds like such a wonderful and nice I mean, it has such a ring to it. Chula Vista, is it as nice as it sounds? I've never been there parts of it they're like the part Darlene lives. Okay, excellent. Anyway, we have guests that have come in for the Tower Prophecy Conference and others, and we're glad that you are here today, and it is a blessing. And Madison, you're here, aren't you, madison, go back there and grab government and Christianity. You know what book I'm talking about, because that's the free gift we're giving today. I always give a free gift, and I usually give one of my books, but so many of you already have that today. We're going by Francis CICE is his name. And CICE lived in the he was writing during the Civil War and wrote about government and Christianity. And it's an interesting little booklet, interesting little read from a solid, dispensational biblical thinker who writes about government and Christianity. I wrote a little forward in the book, and I said, sometimes you'll say amen. Yeah, exactly right. And other times you'll say, no, don't say that. So it's one of those books you'll enjoy the read if you're one of our guests. If you're not, they're on sale for $149.95 or $5 or something like that. But anyway, we are glad to have guests with us today, and we haven't much time, but we do want to give some introductions from our out of towners. And let's start in the back with Steve and Mariana. Where are you all from? Steve, Mariana have been out of town all summer long. At least maybe since 2016. I'm not sure. It seems like forever. And welcome back. Mariana is leaving today, Saturday. Oh, Saturday. You're here all week. Oh, well, this is a record, people write this down. We're glad that you're here. Stephen. Mariana. Welcome back. Pam and Vernon, welcome back as well. We have a couple and there 12345 kids who are here with us today. We love to embarrass our guests and introduce yourself. Tell us who you are and where are you from? My name is Matt Jones. Excellent. Thanks for cross country traveling right here through us. Yeah, from Georgia. God bless you. Give one to the Jones family and then bring the rest up to me. And appreciate that. As a matter of fact, you can be Vanna White today. You passed out the books when the guests introduced themselves. Government and Christianity is the little book right here. And you see the fellow's picture there. He was a handsome dude with big old sideburns and all that. By the way, Joseph Syth is the guy that translated. It was a German song originally, but translated to him. We sing pharis. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus. He translated that. He was a Lutheran, but a Lutheran that held dispensational views. There used to be some it's an interesting little read there. You take that. Okay. Now let's continue on. And I've also got some of you have already put this in, but I have a pin that needs to go in our map in your home in Georgia. And you can stick that back there at some point. Now, I think the rest of our guests also introduce themselves Friday night. But we're going to get another introduction starting right here with Scott from Bend, Oregon. And we're glad that Paul's are here from Bend, Oregon. Pueblo, West Colorado. Thanks for being here again. Both of these helped in our work week this week. You'll be sure Madison gives you a book, okay? Yes, that's right. That's the wages. It is indeed. And, Louise, stand and introduce yourself. Allen, Texas. We're glad you're here, Louise. First time here. Thank you. David, would you like to introduce your family? My name is David Preston. Imperia Beach, California. Did you get a yes, a pen in Imperial Beach. We need that. In fact, we all just need to go to Imperial Beach. It sounds like in February. We'll be there, two blocks away. Okay, thanks. Let's go to Scott and family here a beautiful little historic town. In fact, Shelley and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in Jefferson, Texas. We took the big trip from Kaufman to Jefferson and it's been our anniversary there. And that was 22 or three or four years ago. There will be a quiz. Anyway, let's see. I think the rest of us are home folk, right? Did I get everybody? We had Chuck and Myra from Weatherford, Oklahoma. They had to leave this morning in order to get back for some things that they had going on, but we appreciate that. And the rest of you here this morning, this is a good day to be here because it's Potluck Sunday and if you're traveling around the United States with five kids, you can't afford lunch. So we cooked it for you and everybody, whoever you are, wherever you're from. There's plenty of food back there and it's going to be a feast, so stick around. Afterwards, we'll have lunch and have a good time with that. And it's a blessing. We have one of our most faithful members, always online local who's having a 95th birthday this Friday. Mary Ellen Warren. And Mary Ellen, we love you and want to wish you a happy birthday by singing it the best we can for 95 year old Mary Ellen on Friday. Here we go, ladies and gentlemen. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you and many more. Mary Ellen, we love you and appreciate your service for the Lord. God bless you. Okay, I think that's almost enough announcements, and we're going to do part of this. Normally we would shake hands, we would sing two more songs, we would take up the offering, we would have preaching, all that. But today of all days, I don't want to go overtime. There's food back there. And so we're going to have an abbreviated. I know you all that if I let you shake hands, it'll be 45 minutes before I can get you back together, and I want to be done by then. So we're not going to do that. We are going to sing one more song here today. And let's see. Let's say he lives. But I forgot to have the pianist find the page number and look it up for me. 269. That's not the song. We could sing a bite with me. Do you all like that one? Because that's what was up there. It's been a busy weekend, so we didn't set the computer up. AB C-D-E-F-G-H-E he lives. 269. That is what we're going to sing. And we're going to sing the first and the last verses of He Lives Today. You have your hymnal. I'll tell you what. No, I changed my mind. Stand and let's sing. And we sing him number 269. He Lives. I hear his voice appear and just the time I need him he's always me he walks with me and he walks with me along like rolls now, angel, you asked me how I know he's good to know that he lives right? You may be seated. And let me tell us about the offering a little bit, and then our kids will leave here in just a moment. And there are two things. One, our Missionary of the Month, we're very grateful for Shauna and Colton Williams and their two children. They live in Papa, New Guinea, and they serve as missionaries. They're doing just a fabulous job in remote villages, teaching the Bible chronologically. This month of September, if you mark your gift for missions, it goes to Shauna and Colton Williams. This wonderful young couple that we love have been here in our church. Secondly, if you want to give a gift to the regular offering of our church today, be sure and mark that. Just mark it budget or something like that, because everything else that comes in today is for the House Prophecy Conference offering. And that goes 100% to the building fund right here at Tau First Baptist Church. And we have several things that that could be used for along the way and always another one popping up here and there. So we appreciate those of you who have joined us online. You can give your Tau's Prophecy Conference love offering by going to Tausfbc.org and then clicking the Give online or Online giving. I think it says online giving button. And we would appreciate that. And again, anything that comes in this weekend, unless it's otherwise marked, we'll go to that offering. And thank you all for that. We're going to forgo today the passing of the offering plate or the offer Tory music that we would normally do. There's an offering box back there that anytime today. You can drop that in if you would like to do so with that, however, let me lead us in a word of prayer, dedicating these offerings to the Lord and asking his guidance through the service. Dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful again for you for the love that you have given us, for the fellowship of this place and the blessing of those who are here with us. It's our prayer that you have blessed our missionaries. Dear Heavenly Father, give them encouragement just knowing that there's a little group of people in towson of Mexico who do love and care for them, and we'll take this little offering to bless them this month. And then in addition to that, dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful for these here and around the world who give to help in the building needs here and the ongoing budget needs that we know. Heavenly Father, for 80 plus years you have provided and sustained this church and this building. And for that we're grateful. And we are grateful to have a place to meet and a place that cares about and studies the Bible and the word of God. Thank you for this in Jesus name, amen. And now our kids, if you'd like to go to our kids club, Madison, they'll be taking you out there, you can follow her. And the rest of us are going to look into the final session of our Tau Prophecy Conference. Normally, when you think of prophecy, you think of the end of the Bible. And so you would not be surprised if I said, let's look through the Book of Revelation. But we're going to the beginning of the Bible in the Taos Prophecy Conference. This time we got a little computer glitch so you don't get the normal artwork that I would give you. And so no art lessons today, sorry about that. But we do get a Bible lesson that goes along with that as well. And so we are going to start here in this last session again of our Task Prophecy Conference in Genesis, chapter one, verse one, where we are going to read just verses one and two. Now, of course, we read this Friday, we read a little bit of it Saturday. We read some even this morning. And you had it memorized already, but let's just see. Get it right in front of us with our eyes there. As the scripture says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Excuse me. On Friday night, we spent a great deal of time really looking at that and asking, why did the Spirit of God move upon the waters? What is that? What's up with that? What all happened on the first day of creation? And if you have a keen memory and a keen mind, you will say that when we begin to describe the gap theory, that the theory that we set forth just doesn't work with the gap theory. There's some differences. Let's take a look. The gap theory, who holds it? Let's take a little bit of historical journey on the gap theory and see what it is, just in case you're here today and say, I don't know what gap you're talking about. What is the gap theory? It is a theological idea that between Genesis one, verse one and verse two, there is a gap. And in that gap there was a catastrophe that took place. God created the heavens and the earth, and then a catastrophe took place. And then the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. So it's a theological concept that is not written there. I used to say, okay, it's just icegesis. You know what eisegesis is when you read something into the text and I would say, well, gap theory is nothing other than IGES. But then I began to read a little more on the gap theory and I would say it's not really eisegesis, it's biblical interpretation, using some other scriptures to say, well, it wasn't mentioned here, but this is where it comes. We're going to look at those other scriptures and we're going to look at the theory today and see if we can indeed put a gap between god created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was formless and void and put in a catastrophe in that spot. The gap theory was strongly held by dispensational teachers. I happen to be dispensational teachers and I love the old dead dispensationalist the best, I think, other than me and you, they are the best dispensationalists out there. And we're old and almost dead. No, we're not. We're spring chickens and we know about how electricity works too, so therefore we're good. But this particular theory that was given was given by some men, like EW Bollinger. You've heard me talk about Bollinger often and the things I agree with him and the things I disagree with him, he certainly held a gap theory. And if you get a Companion Bible, which I think any deep students of the word ought to have a Companion Bible as a companion to their Bible. And he held it. CI Scofield I use when I'm right here today, it says right there, the old Scofield Study Bible. I use scofield notes. The version that I use and that I would recommend are the 1917 version. And that's here, it's called old. Sometimes it's called classic, sometimes it's just called Schofield, but it's not called new. There you go. It's the 1917 version. I actually have the nine version. I stumbled across it one day on ebay and I just snatched it up. The 19 nine version was the original and then it was updated in 1917. As far as I know, nobody prints the 19 nine version today. And the only updates from were editing updates to just fixing spelling and things like that weren't very clean. I don't know, been since that time that publishers put things out that had a few mistakes in them, but that's what the difference was between those two versions. So CI Schofield taught it. As a matter of fact, reading from my CI Schofield Biblefield reference, we'll look a little bit at some of the notes here in just a moment in Genesis, chapter one, and see that very clearly he taught it. Have you ever heard of Clarence Larkin? Anyone ever heard of Clarence Larkin? A number of you? Clarence Larkin wrote this fabulous book called Dispensational Truth. Now, I used to think he was kind of an arrogant man because the cover says, the Greatest Book on Dispensational Truth Ever Printed. I'm thinking about changing the name of some of my books. The greatest book on evangelical garbage ever printed. There we go. It's actually, after his death, his book Dispensational Truth kind of took on that title, the Greatest Book on Dispensational Truth Ever Printed. And it really is very good. One of the best things about it, Larkin was a draftsman. I've said before engineers, architects, let me add draftsmen. I have said investigators like Sir Robert Lawrence. He was in charge of Scotland Yard. He's the guy that found Jack the Ripper back in historical days. He wrote a lot of good theology books. People who are used to looking for fine details, they make great theologians. So Larkin was a draftsman. They care about fine details. But the thing that probably made his book the greatest is because he was a fine draftsman, he created all these cool graphics that he wrote in their pencil drawings that help us understand the world. And he drew in the beginning was the heavens and the earth. And then there was a big chaos that took place, and then the earth became formless and void. And he goes back down through the various ages. And then he says he had the Garden of Eden after chaos. And then at the end he's got the millennial rain, and then he's got a big chaos at the end. So that it really does balance out well. When the earth shall melt and all those kinds of things at the end and he puts that chaos there. So it makes this nice, well balanced theology. And God does tend to be well balanced, doesn't he? And one thing seems to answer to another thing. So it looks pretty good with Clarence Larkin, that comes about 100 years ago and beyond. Let's go. 100 years ago would be William McKinley, I think was president. Anybody want to question me on that? He was president. He would later be assassinated and Calvin Coolidge, Cool Cal would come into the presidency. But I would say a vast majority of American Christianity in that time. Church going American Christianity. Protestant or fundamentalist. Which was just beginning to come about. They would have held to the gap theory back then. Your great grandparents probably. If they were church going people. They probably held to the gap theory because they had a Companion Bible and they had a Schofield Reference Bible and they had Larkins greatest book on dispensational truth ever written. And the preacher taught it and everybody else taught it. The gap theory was very popular during that time. And one more thing, I should say, since we cut out a song, I can tell you a few things, right. I suspect, in fact, the first part I know, I know that the King James Bible has made more impact on the world than any other book ever printed. And I specifically said the King James because for 400 years that was the Bible and still today that's the one. If you go out just into common open market society and find the few scriptures that they might know just because society knows them, they're going to know them in the King James, right? Judge not, lest ye be judged. That's King James talk, you know, they'll know those kind of things. And so the King James made an unbelievable impact upon society. As a matter of fact, just for someone out there who maybe is a dealer, a dollar or 10:00 scholar, that I would have you know that if you don't know the King James, I would say you don't know Western civilization, you don't know the society we live in. It had such a great impact. This is why you go, for example, Shakespeare had a big impact wherefore out there, oh, Romeo, wherefore all that? He had a big impact. And that's why a high school student at least used to be high school student, I suppose. Still today is going to reach him some Shakespeare. Why? Because the teacher is going to say, you don't know our world. If you don't know Shakespeare, you're going to come out, you're going to be a doofus if you don't get a little Shakespeare. You got to have this. Well, really, the King James put Shakespeare in the shadows, just has made so much more impact on society. Now, that said, I would suspect that the Schofield reference Bible, which was the first popular study Bible, had notes at the bottom, had cross references, all that kind of stuff. I suspect that the Scofield Reference Bible made more impact on American society than any other Bible definitely than any other study Bible and still does today. He was a dispensationalist. He believed in the gap theory and those who used it. Obviously, you kind of become like your teacher. And so that's scary, isn't it? Here it's come. So 100 years ago, that's what it was that there is a gap between Genesis, chapter one and two. As a matter of fact, if you happen to have a Scofield Bible, you can look at it right there. And after verse one, Scofield inserts a little note, if you will, and it says in italic, friend, earth made waste and empty by judgment. And it refers to Jeremiah, chapter four, verses 23 through 26. So he says, right there in the heart of the text, earth made void. Now, according to the Scofield Bible, then if you were to look down at the notes and I put this in your bulletin notes here in Genesis, he says that Genesis one, verse one refers to quote. He says, quote, the first creative act refers to the dateless past and gives scope for all the geological ages. Now, you've heard of geological ages, right? You saw the little chart, and it had the Iron Age. And I saw a cartoon the other day that was pretty good. It had these people coming out of caves and their clothes were all wrinkled and it said before the Iron Age. But you've seen all that, the strata and all of that. Now, I know that you and I, if we were to have a certain conference, we would talk about this, and we would probably say it's never actually been found that way in the world, but nonetheless, that's what we've been taught, and that's the way that it looks. So all the geological ages, the Stone Age, the Iron Age, the all these ages that are there, the Bronze Age, etc. Like all the geological ages, he says those fit back into Genesis, chapter one, verse one. Now, I said that some of that, like the Iron Age and even the Bronze Age and the Stone Age may be more anthropological ages than they are geological ages. And so the geological ages have to do with ages of the rocks and all that kind of stuff. And if I were a geologist, I would tell you what they are. But I'm not. All the geological agents began genesis are in Genesis one one. Schofield says it refers to the dateless past. It's back there prior to when God, when the Earth was without form. And so the dating of creation begins with when the Earth was without form. As a matter of fact, if you look at your Scofield Reference Bible, it's got a date right in the center column right there. He says 4004 BC. But Schofield would say Genesis one one that's before 4004 BC. How far back there? We don't really know. That is the gap theory. Genesis one two, teaching that the Earth here are, says the Earth was without form. Now, you can take the word was, the Hebrew word was. And we could find even in this very chapter, where was means became. That very Hebrew word does work for it was. It works for it became. Now, if you think about it, that's not really all that stunning, because was is one of those verbs of being. Anything that is being became, right? If it was, then it became. So it's not really all that spectacular, but translators sometimes would say became so you could look at it here and say, the Earth became without form. God created the heaven and the Earth, and then the Earth became without form. The Earth then became formless and void, but it was not previously formless and void. This is the gap theory. And again, I want to try to present it, as I said in the outline here, in a positive light. So if I were a gap theorist and I played with the idea some I'm not, you can read the end of the bulletin if you want, but if I were a gap theorist, I would say, okay, became. It wasn't back then. It was the heaven and the Earth, but it became formless and void. And then I would ask you to turn to, and I will. Jeremiah, chapter four, verses 23 through 26. And let's see if we could get if I take it became. Is there any biblical evidence that it became this? We go in our Scripture again, the fourth chapter of the book of Jeremiah. If you happen to have a scofield reference Bible, it's page 776, and it says in verse 23, Jeremiah speaking, he says, I beheld the Earth. And lo, it was without form and void, and the heavens, they had no light. Well, let me stop right there. Before we go on into 24, 25 and 26, we talked about even, I think, in our previous hour, we let Scripture interpret Scripture. And so if we're trying to understand one portion of Scripture, let's find another portion of Scripture that talks about the same thing. What doesn't? Jeremiah 423 sounds an awful lot like Genesis, chapter one, verses one and two. Yeah, same wording, really. Even so, here's Jeremiah. I beheld the Earth, low it was without form and void, and the heavens, they had no light. Verse 24, I beheld the mountains and low they trembled, and the hills moved lightly I beheld, and low there was no man, and all the birds of the heaven were fled. So here, let's read one more verse 26. And I beheld and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down in the presence of the Lord by his fierce anger. Okay, you can build a pretty. Good case here to say that in Jeremiah chapter four, jeremiah is given a tour, I guess you would say. He's picked up and say, hey, come look at this. And he says, Lo, I beheld the heavens and the earth. They were without form, they were void. There was no light. This is what I'm looking at. So he's given do you remember those happy days in school when they brought the big projector in the room? This meant we are going to have a movie today. And that was always exciting. Well, Jeremiah is getting one of those movies and here it goes. You kids don't know what you're missing out on. But anyway, he's got one of these movies, he sees the earth as formless and void and that it had no light. Sounds like Genesis one, one and two, how did it happen? Verse 26 again, he tells it looks like he tells how it happened. The fruitful place was a wilderness. The cities were broken down in the presence of the Lord by his fierce anger. How did we come to heaven and earth have no form, they're void, they're destroyed. Well, you could take Jeremiah 426 and say it was by the Lord's fierce anger. You would end up having to say, honestly, I don't know who they were or what they did, but let's not do that again. There was something here that caused the fierce anger of the Lord and he utterly destroyed his creation and made it formless and void. And he started over again. Two, he took it, destroyed it and brought it to a place of formless and void in which there was no light. And then you pick up and God said, let there be light. And the rest of the story then begins with the earth that we live in now. And as it came about now there's Jeremiah chapter four. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 24. If you turn back just to the left a little bit, isaiah chapter 24. And we'll look at chapter 24, verse one, and it says, this is a different prophet at different time. But Isaiah says, behold the Lord, maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste and turneth it upside down and scattereth abroad all the inhabitants thereof. Now, once again we look at that and we say, well, I don't know exactly what that's about, but if previously I see that the Lord was angry in Jeremiah 24 and the world became formless and void, this would seem to shed a little light on that. The Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste doesn't use the word formless and void, but to make it empty and waste, it's pretty close to formless void, isn't it? Different Hebrew words. Different English words. But if you and I were to be able to go back and look at Genesis one one, and I might call it formulas and void and you might call it empty and waste words that would describe the same thing. And so from this, then you can begin to again build an argument that something happened that caused Genesis one two, the Earth to be formless and void and darkness upon the face of the Earth. What caused that? And you would put the Lord's anger here. Now. We're still in Isaiah. Let's turn back a few pages to the right, isaiah 45, verse 18, and see if Isaiah shed a little bit more light on this catastrophe that took place. Isaiah and the 18th verse. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, god Himself that formed the earth and made it. He hath established it. He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none else. Now look at that little piece right there. He created it not in vain. Well, the word vain in the Scriptures means empty. He didn't create it empty, but we come and it's formless. And what void? I think we could build a decent argument to say void is the same thing as vain. Vain is empty, nothing to it. It's not going to do anything. But here Isaiah says in Isaiah 40 518, he didn't create it vain. But I'm reading that it's void vain. Pick your B word. What do you want if I'm reading? Let's go with void. He didn't create it void in Isaiah, but God created the heaven and the Earth, and the Earth was formless in void. Then I would have to say, well, if he didn't create it void, how did he create it? Maybe there was a gap that he created the heaven and earth and it was filled and full and functional and had form. That was pretty good for off the cuff, wasn't it? Four f words. So here's all this earth of fullness. And so I would say something must have happened. What happened? And I would get over into Jeremiah and say, oh, the Lord's fierce anger, oh, the Lord destroyed that which was filled in full and functional and had formed. He destroyed all that and brought about then something that is different. And again, we pull that through from putting these passages together. Now let's look at the next passage of Scripture, which perhaps puts the nail in the coffin that's in the New Testament. Let's go all the way to Second Peter and read two Peter, chapter three, verses five, six and seven. We'll see more. A Fodder for a gap. The context in Two Peter, chapter three, beginning in verse five is scoffers in the last day. And these scoffers in the last days were willfully ignorant. I was wondering why it didn't say the right thing. And it's because I'm in first Peter makes a difference. Second Peter, chapter three, verse five, here comes the scoffers. And it says in verse five, what for this they are willingly ignorant of? Could we camp out on that for just a moment. Those who are willingly ignorant, how much education can you give to someone who is willingly ignorant? No, honestly, and I am one that is pretty gracious with people, tries to give them the benefit of the doubt, tries to work with them, tries to bring them along, tries to say, okay, I wonder where they're coming from, what's up with this? But if someone is willingly ignorant, you just as well close the book and move on. Find someone else who's more willing to learn. I say that just for you and I. It is easy for I think humanity can very quickly slide into willful ignorance, and we do it because we've got places to go and people to see. Do you ever feel like it's just like, yeah, I know the world is falling apart, but I got guests coming for supper, I got to get the burgers cooked. And you're so focused on that, which is right there, that I really don't have time to learn anything else. And we become willingly ignorant. Now, obviously, I think that you and I cannot become experts on everything, and we even can't. There's not enough in our heart. I'll use that in a kind of gushy wishy sense, but there's not enough in our heart to cause us to be passionate about every problem in the world and to take care of it. And so oftentimes we do come and say, ain't my problem, I'm not going to worry about that one. And we have to do that almost for our sanity, don't we? And sort of leave it all behind there. But that said, I think that it can become a very dangerous thing when you and I, like these last days golfers, when you and I just purposefully become willingly ignorant or willfully ignorant, we just say, I'm not going to learn about it. I'll tell you an example that I had, you know, as I became a right divider of scripture and began to understand this doesn't really go with that. I had an experience in which I was over. It was kind of a church event and not here. So just so you know, not thinking in wright dividing, I learned not to name it and claim it, not to just say, oh, here's a wonderful promise. I'll take that one. The easiest one to pick on there is Jeremiah 20 911. Right? I know the plans I have for you. Plans are good in the future, wonderful. You're going to be rich and fat and sassy. That was a paraphrase. But that's Jeremiah and everybody loves to take Jeremiah 20 911 and sort of claim that one. Well, again, my theology is we ought to see really the context of that, see who it's written to, see if we ever take it or not. Now, I had sensed that people don't always like to do that. They sometimes like to cling to promises that are not theirs because it gives them comfort or it gives them hope or whatever it does, it lifts their soul, so they like to take it. And so I remember standing there in the kitchen, and the lady had Jeremiah 20 911 on a beautiful piece of artwork hanging on the wall. And she said, and I don't know how much she meant I'm not getting rid of the picture, or how much she meant I am not accepting what you're saying. I took it as I am not accepting what you're saying because she said, I know you don't believe in this, but I like it, and I'm keeping it. Now, honestly, if you're going to have Christian artwork in your home, it's probably not going to be rightly divided. So if I go to your home and I find you got Jeremiah 20 911, I am not going to shake the dust off of my feet and go on my way. Maybe it's just a pretty picture and it isn't the Bible. I mean, you can put whatever passage of scripture you want on the wall, and it can be, in a sense, and encouragement, but sometimes we want to become willingly ignorant, even about rightly dividing the word of truth. I'm just so comfortable with what I've always heard that let's just not get into that. I think willing ignorance is a problem. I think all the things we talked about over the weekend, I won't give a review as much as I'm tempted. All the things we talked about over the weekend, I think you all would probably agree with me. There's a lot of people who would just assume be willingly ignorant about that. Don't bother me with that kind of stuff. I'm not interested in that. I'm just going on with life and I'm going to make it. And that was all free and doesn't relate to the gap theory. But now we're back. There are those in verse five again for this they are willingly ignorant of. What are they willingly ignorant of? Here it is that by the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, whereby the world that was being overflowed with water perished. Okay, that's not the easiest one, is it? But here he does say, the heavens were of old, and he said, the world that was it perished. Something about standing out of water and standing in the water and overflowed with water. And when you go back to Genesis, chapter one, you may remember it said chapter one, verse two, the earth was formula and void, and the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters, perished with water. And then in verse seven, he says, but the heavens and the earth, which what? Which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, perdition and ungodly man. Now, this goes back to Larkin's beautiful drawings that he's got there was a chaos by water, and at the end, a chaos by fire. And you can put those into between genesis, chapter one, verse one, and you can talk about the world that was and the world that is now, and you can build a pretty good case again for your gap theory and interpret genesis one, one, and two in light of those passages. Now, with that, I want to critique it just a little bit, and I want to try to critique it biblically and scientifically and theology all in ten minutes, and I think I can do it. The critique biblically. Remember the passage of Jeremiah, chapter four, verses 23 26 that we read? That's the one that actually used the word formless and void. I think if you can critique it, it's not the creation and the recreation of the earth, but rather he's giving a prophetic word toward, in this case, Judah, the Southern kingdom. If you read all the context before and after, he's talking about Judah, and we started in verse 23, the earth being formless and void. I can't remember if I put my favorite string there. No, I didn't. But I was close. No, I did. Yeah. Chapter four, verse 23. Since I'm there, 23 says, I beheld the earth, and it was without form. 22 says, for my people is foolish. They've not known me. They are so tish. Children, does anyone know what a soap is to be? Sotish I looked it up last night, and I forgot. There may be a closer definition here. But as I remember it's well, I remember the word that was used, and then I thought, well, I would have to look that one up, too. Adult. D-O-L-T not adult. But you're adult. Does anyone know what adult is? A soap? What did someone over here say? Kind of stupid? Okay, we can't say that in church. Foolish. Thank you for giving us a much cleaner word. Okay, Mr. Jones, with your five children, do you ever look at them and say, don't be so tish? Oh, you've never used that word. Okay, well, we won't investigate further, but okay, that's the context here. My people, my chosen people, they're sodish this is the problem here. They are sodish that's the context. They're foolish. Then verse 27, again, we went 23 through 26. So the verse before says, my people are sodas. Verse 26 says, I beheld excuse me. Verse 27 says, for thus the Lord has said, the whole land shall be desolate, yet I will not make a full end. Okay. The full land will be desolate. What land? The whole earth? No, he's talking about the land of Judah. My people, Judah, they're foolish. They're sodish I looked, and the earth was formless and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep. The whole land in verse 27 will be desolate. I think it's the word that's used. The whole land will be desolate. Now, that ties it together. What's interesting here, I think, is in the Hebrew, the word for land and earth is the exact same word. So you could put land in both of them. Land. Normally we would talk about the land of Israel, the land of Judah, this kind of thing. So what if you took versus 23? And Jeremiah says, I was taken and I looked over the whole land of Judah and it was formless and void and darkness was over the land of Judah, the Judeans had become sotish that I made the land desolate. Now, he, I think, obviously would be making a poetic reference to Genesis chapter one, verse one, verse two actually formless and void. But he's saying, hey, Israel, your land is going to become desolate. Formless and void. That's the word there that's used kind of in this Genesis one type poetic language. But nonetheless, that is the reference that he makes. You've got the same thing in Isaiah, chapter 24, verse one that we also looked at earlier. This is the one that speaks of the world as being destroyed in his anger, and the world was not made in vanity. And when you begin to look at that, it uses the word, it speaks again. It gives the same picture of Genesis, chapter one, verse two is what I'm trying to say. And that's verse one. Well, by the time you get to verse two and verse three, it is clearly in the context speaking not of the Earth, but it's speaking of the land of Israel in the Book of Isaiah. And he says, hey, let me tell you the result of verse one. The result is not all of the world has been destroyed and we're starting over. The result is all of the Israelites are going to be scattered abroad. It says all the inhabitants thereof. And speaking of the land of Israel, they're going to be scattered abroad. Well, being scattered abroad doesn't really describe the gap chaos theory. They weren't scattered abroad. They ceased to be in that particular theory. So I don't think that it begins to I don't think it works. Now, we could go into Isaiah 40, 518, even second Peter, chapter three versus five and seven on the world that was the world that is now perished in water. I think we can easily put, hey, you want to talk about willful ignorance? Let me give you an example. Let's go back to the days of Noah and all the people see Noah building for 100 years. You talk about willful ignorance. This is that group of people right there, and the world that was God destroyed with water. And this is not a reference to the world that was in Genesis chapter one, verse one, but was not in verse two. It comes together now. Again, we didn't spend a whole lot of time like that just on the previous session on the flat Earth. There's so much more that we could have gone into to address the issues there. But I think what you've got here is exegetically. If we really do come out and study it, you got a good surface level argument. But when you really roll up your sleeves and get down to it, you say, guess what? Remember the video illustration I gave the other night of the perpetual motion machine? You end up saying it doesn't work. Doesn't work. Tango. So let's move on. Let's find a different idea. Now that is the theory critiqued biblically. If we were having a full semester class on it, we would go through and really dig into there. But I am convinced every passage used to support the gap theory actually is a judgment upon Israel. The passage and can't be used to shed light on creation. Now let's talk about it scientifically. Scientifically. Can we put a gap between versus one? And we started last night and I didn't put a name on it friday night, last month, whenever it was, we started this little seminar Friday night. We put forth a theory that I didn't put a name on it, but since then I've been calling it the energized universe theory and don't have time to go into it. But the energized universe theory that we have been discussing really does fall apart if you put the gap theory because I said in the beginning, god created the heaven and the earth was he created the elements. If that's not what happens, then all my theory falls apart. Therefore, that's not what happened. I really do think that was an illustration of confirmation bias. But I really do think that the things we want to see we do kind of find passages that will sort of support our cause and oh look, there it is. But if we were really to look at it, if we could analyze the DNA of it and get a DNA report, we'd find these things are not related, they're not in the same family. These don't go together. Just looks like it on the surface as you go through there. I think the problem is you've got the creation of unigized elements in my theory, you got unenergized elements then making them into the energetic process. The two don't go together. Now, I also think that the gap theory suffers from an accommodation problem. Scientifically. About the time this theory was so popular, do you remember that there was also a guy named Charles Darwin? And Charles Darwin had a theory that required millions and billions of years for things to take place. And where are we going to get those millions and billions of years? If you got a date on the top that says 4004 BC. Genesis, chapter one, verse two, it becomes very difficult to do that. And so could it be that some of these guys, I respect them very highly, but could it be, I'll say this cheap, they wanted to fit in there's a lot of pressure to fit in, isn't there? Most of you got over it. That's why you moved to Towers. But there's a lot of pressure to fit in. And could it be they said the scientists could be right, and we could be right. Then we can have dinner together, go to parties. Things will be good. It could be. Scofield even says he has a note on verse three. You can read in your Scofield Bible. He says in verse three, let there be light. Verse three. Here's the note. He says, the sense is made to appear, made visible. The sun and the moon were created in the beginning. The light, of course, came from the sun, but the vapor diffused the light. Later, the sun appeared in an unclouded day. Now, let me interpret that for you. Darkness was over the face of the deep. God said, let there be light. Schofield says, we already had the sun. It actually already existed, but there was so much vapor that it didn't get through. God cleared out the vapor, and the light came through. By the fourth day, God created the sun. Well, he didn't actually create the sun. By the fourth day, you could see it. Look, there's a sun up there. Now, I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem like a literal reading of the scripture to me. When I read verse three, God said, let there be light. It sounds to me like there wasn't light. He created light. If there was sun, there would be a light. He says there was a sun. It was just fogged over. I think this is an accommodation problem that he's sort of just trying to be friends with Darwin. Now, I once argued that the gap theory predated Darwin, and so it couldn't be a gap theory. I thought that sounded like a good idea because I wanted to be nice to Schofield and Bollinger and all that. And you can find that the gap theory predated Darwin. Then the problem was, even one of our listeners, Tim, sent me an email just yesterday on this. I was grateful he did, because it reminded me to say this, that Darwinianism predated Darwin. You can find Darwin's ideas going hundreds of years before Darwin. This is typically the way it works, that Benjamin Franklin invented electricity. Well, that's not really the right story there. So Darwinianism predated Darwin, the gap theory predated Scofield and these others, and I think that all comes together that in the end, scientifically looking at it, we ought to say this theory doesn't really work with the science as we know it. Now let's give one last 32nd view on a theological evaluation. Here's my problem with it, theologically, and this has been the struggle that I have never gotten over on the gap theory. Even when I tried to play with it and tried to say, could I adopt it? Could there be something? I see these scriptures that are coming together. Can I do it? My problem was always Genesis, chapter one, verse 31, the last verse in the first chapter of Genesis God, it was a 6th day. God looks over creation and declares this is what actually very good. This is very good. It's hard for me if I am standing on layers and layers and layers of dead stuff that came about from God's judgment to say this is very good. And if God's judgment came upon the previous earth, it's got to be because of the work of Satan. So on the 6th day you've got to with the gap series, you got to have Satan slithering through the grass. Let's give a scary scene here a little bit. You're standing out there barefoot and there's a big old rattlesnake coming around the corner slithered through, but you're looking oh, this is very good. I've got such wonderful grass here. I've got such wonderful sage brush here. This is very good. And he's sneaking up behind you. Is it very good? It will be a false evaluation. Or if you're standing on a dugout, you're standing on a grave that has been buried up and covered over and you say oh, this is very good. Well, it turns out my very good is built upon some dead man's bones. This is not so good after all. I have a hard time theologically was saying there is all this judgment and damnation that took place to build what we've got today to be very good. I don't think that sounds very good. I think you can take Genesis, chapter one, very literally. In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth, every element that there is that makes heaven and earth. God did on day one and he energized it, he put light upon it to keep that energy going and that was day two. And by the end of the week he's got man created in his image, given dominion over it in the garden that he has prepared. And I would say there is no devil yet, there is no serpent going around yet that hasn't happened yet. And so God indeed can say this is very good. And we would say, yes indeed. God didn't create the world in vain, did he? He created it with purpose. He created it with form and function. And all the things that took together took place by the end of that time. Well, with that we are out of time. So today we have rejected the flat earth theory and the gap theory doesn't say what exactly theory you adopted, but we rejected those two anyway. We I have a mouse in my pocket. And we looked at this energized universe that you and I live in, given energy by God that's even within us we learned to balance that. We learned that if we indeed live in an energized world, then we have plenty of energy now all the way to the end of the world. As long as the world exists, there'll be sunrise and sunset, seed time and harvest and cold and heat and winter and summer and all those things Genesis 822 promises us because of the energy that has been given. And I don't know about with that. Even with the problems of our world, I would say, wow, if we just put our thinking cap on every now and then, we could probably literally turn the world upside down just by technological advances that we could give to them and health advances that we could give to them. But the greatest advance we could give to them is tell them that God is offering a gift of grace through His Son Jesus Christ, who's paid for that gift completely with his blood, his death barrel, and resurrection. And he's seated at the right hand of the Father today, but coming again someday. Coming again in rapture to those who have received this wonderful gift. And I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty good thing to share with the world. Amen. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're grateful for the things that we've been learning this week about Genesis One and energy and all the things that we have looked at and the various theories. And for every one of these, we could have spent days, weeks, and months studying these topics. But we're grateful that You've given us the opportunity to come together in a different setting of learning this weekend. And I pray that it's been true to your word. I pray that we would question the assumptions all the way. I pray that if there's anything that we have that we have a misunderstanding on, that through the study of Your Word and the study of Your creation, which reveals the invisible things of God, that we would come to understand the world so much more about us. I pray that because of this, dear Heavenly Father, there would be young men and women who become theologically, scientific thinkers and in whatever their career is that they have value added into this world that will be a rich blessing. I pray that from what we've learned, fears would subside, from what we've learned that our health would be improved. And from what we have learned, we would be able to better interact with the world as we know it today. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. With that, we will conclude our service and our task. Prophecy Conference 2022. We'll do it again next year, same weekend, last weekend of September, whatever that is, in 2022 and have a good time with that. But now it's lunchtime, and we would love to have each one of you join us back in the fellowship hall. And we got a feast back there and it'll probably take just a few minutes to get everything back out on the table. But I look. Forward to that. And I'll tell you what. We won't sing today, but we'll play a song as I leave. How's that? He lives within my heart god bless you. No Wednesday night service this week, but I forgot to tell you. Men's breakfast. We're inviting the women this week, which is why we're making at 830 instead of 08:00. And afterwards we're going on a little road trip. But you don't have.