Origin of the Old Earth Theory?

Attached is a cutout of an article by dispensationalist Clarence Larkin (1850 - 1924). Perhaps unknown to many, the system of doctrine in Dispensationalism supports the existence of an Old Earth that dates back to eons of ages before the present earth. Strictly speaking, they do not believe in a young earth but that the present earth was a restoration of the old earth.

Such was also in the case of dispensationalist Peter Ruckman (1921 - 2016) who taught the same Old Earth Theory. More than once, people mistook me for a Ruckmannite maybe because most of my posts on facebook are about the King James Bible, which Peter Ruckman also promoted. A Ruckmannite is someone who follows Peter Ruckman and his teachings, and the core teachings of Peter Ruckman include:

1. Dispensationalism

God's timeline is divided into different "dispensations", and that God has a different plan and method of dealing with men in each of these dispensations. A believer's faith is tested based upon their "legal obedience as the condition of salvation" (Scofield's note for John 1:17) to God's plan according to the individual dispensations that they were born in i.e. salvation is not strictly by grace through faith.

2. Superiority of the King James Bible

The King James Bible is directly inspired and is more superior than its underlying text (Massoretic Text & Textus Receptus).

3. Divorce and Remarriage

Divorce and remarriage does not disqualify a man from being pastor. Peter Ruckman himself was remarried multiple times.

4. Abortion

The thing in the womb is not a child until he is birthed i.e. he supported abortion. According to Peter Ruckman "... a baby is not a living soul until he breathes." Link:

I do NOT believe in any of these. As earlier mentioned, Peter Ruckman also taught and believed in a pre-Adamic earth before the present Creation. As illustrated from the cutout attached, the Old Earth Theory, otherwise known as the Gap Theory, was actually a spawn off from Dispensationalism which is the system of doctrine in all of Peter Ruckman's teachings.

Below is a quote from the website about Peter Ruckman's gap theory:

"Not all gap theorists agree on the details of the theory, but the one unifying principle of all gap theorists is that Genesis 1:2 (1:1 in the case of the dependent clause view) records the ruin of a once-perfect earth, and a lengthy time-gap between the original creation and the restoration recorded in Genesis 1:3"

The Gap Theory teaches that there was a pre-Adamic earth before the present Creation. According to Peter Ruckman, there may be a gap of millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. In Peter Ruckman's own words:

"Genesis 1:2 is not the original creation, because 2 Peter 3:5-6 tells us something happened to the original creation. Genesis 1:2 says something terrible happened, a great calamity of some kind: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

Peter Ruckman did not believe in a literal 6-days Creation. Gap theorists question the words of the LORD in Genesis 1:2. They argue that the earth in Genesis 1:2 "become" without form and void, as in:

Genesis 1:2 "And the earth was [הָיָה, hâyâh] 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." NOTE: [insertions]

In an out of biblical usage, the word "hâyâh" may also be translated "become". So to Peter Ruckman and other gap theorists, they believe that a better translation of the word "hâyâh" in Genesis 1:2 should be "become", and this is not all. If it could be said that Genesis 1:2 raises a question, then Exodus 20:11 is a typical passage in the Bible that answers it:

Exodus 20:11 "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

But Peter Ruckman took a novel approach in brushing off the truth given to us in Exodus 20:11 by declaring it non-doctrinal! So, if you ask me if Peter Ruckman was a true believer of the King James Bible, which he claimed he was, I don't think so. But Christians who are sucked into the teachings of Peter Ruckman cannot see that. Like Peter Ruckman himself, they also believe in an old earth. One of the verses they constantly use as proof text is this:

Genesis 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."

BTW, the Old Earth Theory goes along with ancient mysticism, mystery religions of the world, and the theory of Evolution which teach that the earth is millions and billions of years old. Genesis 1:28 was where CI Scofield left his notes on what a "dispensation" means:

"a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God. Seven such dispensations are distinguished in Scripture..."

It was no accident that Peter Ruckman himself was a heavy promoter of CI Scofield's Dispensationalism. Back to the Gap Theory, according to the Ruckmanites, the word “replenish” means that the earth was once filled, and then made empty before Genesis 1:2, and then God had to “plenish” it again via the present Creation. In the general sense, the word “replenish” (verb) means "to fill up; to top up; to restore." However, the King James Bible has also given us the specific meaning of this word in the following verses, if we were to compare them word for word:

Genesis 9:1 "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be [1] fruitful, and [2] multiply, and [3] replenish the earth."

Genesis 9:7 "And you, be ye [1] fruitful, and [2] multiply; [3] bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein."

NOTE: [insertions]

As you can see, there is an exact one-to-one match between these two verses. Therefore the biblical definition of “replenish” is “bring forth abundantly and multiply therein”. It does not say anywhere to restore the earth, to refill or anything like that, which the Ruckmannites use to justify for the Gap Theory. The Earth is not millions of years old. It is not even 10 thousand years old. A thousand times no!! The Earth is very young. In fact, it is only about 6,186.5 years old according to the King James Bible.

Dispensationalist and gap theorist, Charismatic preacher Benny Hinn also presented Genesis 1:28 in support of the Gap Theory. According to Benny Hinn, the word "subdue" means to conquer by force or the exertion of superior power. Therefore, he says in his sermon "Demonology" that man was not commanded to subdue the fishes of the sea, fowls of the air and beasts of the land because man already has dominion over them. Benny Hinn further says that man was commanded to subdue devils., not these creatures. This goes along with his teaching that Adam was a little-g "god":

“Psalm 82 verse 1 says, ‘God standeth in the congregation of the mighty,’ that’s you. ‘He judgeth among the gods.’ Who are the gods? You are.” — Benny Hinn

What Benny Hinn did not teach about Genesis 1:28 is that little colon (":") mark in "... and subdue it:" A colon has the meaning "which is to say" i.e. the clause after the colon being the explanation or enumeration of the clause before the colon. A second witness against Benny Hinn on how he wrested Genesis 1:28 is evident if we compare this verse against Genesis 9:1-2:

Genesis 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."

Genesis 9:1-2 "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered."

Therefore "subdue" simply means that the fear of man and the dread of man is upon every creature, and into his hands are they delivered. Animals have a natural fear of man because God has put it in them. But fear does not mean that animals will automatically submit to man. In most cases animals flee from the presence of man, but in some cases, they fight. Man was called to subdue the earth and have dominion over every creature under heaven.

Psalms 8:5 "For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour."

Acts 19:13-16 "¶ Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded."

God has made man a little lower than the angels i.e. angels are higher than man. Angels are the little-g gods, and fallen angels are devils. Man does not have dominion over angels, but this does not go along with the Charismatic Church (Benny Hinn included) because it goes against their core teachings. The one who has dominion over devils is the Son of God Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the very Spirit of the 66 books of the Holy Bible.