Dinosaur bones (Wikipedia Commons)
The Church of God 7th Day, Salem (West Virginia) put out an article about dinosaurs and the gap doctrine.
Although it admits, “A gap theory sounds plausible and intriguing” (Royer D. Were Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark? Advocate of Truth, April 2026, p. 5), this group does NOT accept that there was a time gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. It also teaches, “therefore dinosaurs must have been on the Ark” (Ibid, p. 4).
It further teaches that they “believe that no death occurred until Adam sinned” (ibid, p.4). They assert:
The Bible teaches that there was no death of animals or humans before Adam sinned. (See Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12; I Corinthians 15:21-22). This means that there could not have been any animal fossils (and dinosaur bones) before sin. (Ibid, p. 4)
But the Bible does not teach that–this is simply their interpretation. So, let us quote each of the verses it referred to above:
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Genesis 2:17)
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned — (Romans 5:12)
21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)
Not one of those verses suggest that animals do not die.
Notice that death affects humans, because we sin–animals do not sin.
Pay particular attention to 1 Corinthians 15:22–consider if this is referring to animals as the Bible never teaches that all animals will be resurrected. When the Bible teaches that the “rest of the dead” are resurrected (Revelation 20:6), they get judged (Revelation 20:12)–that does not happen for animals.
The Bible asks:
21 Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth? (Ecclesiastes 3:21)
Human and animal death is not the same.
Yet, CG7-Salem seems to treat them as the same.
Let me add that, although English translations do not normally mention it, there was a gap mark in the Hebrew manuscript between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.
Some have claimed that the view that there was a major time gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 was a position taken to deal the items from evolutionists. Notice one such false claim from a Sabbath-keeping group:
Gap creationism (also known as Ruin-Restoration creationism, Restoration creationism, or “The Gap Theory”), is a form of OLD-EARTH creationism. It agrees that the six-day creation, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved literal 24-hour days, but supposes that there was a “GAP” of time between TWO DISTINCT CREATIONS in the first and the second verses of Genesis. The REASON this THEORY came into being was to reconcile the bible text with the THEORY that the age of the Earth is BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD. It posits that an EARLIER creation, complete with dinosaurs and pre-Adamic hominoids lived and died before the “Genesis days of creation.” (Closing the Gap. co-written by Brian and Kenneth Hoeck for Truth On The Web Ministries. http://www.truthontheweb.org/gapclose.htm accessed 07/23/18)
Yet, it should be noted that the ‘gap theory’ was known prior to the time of Charles Darwin or scientists claiming that the Earth was billions of years old. Hence, the above contains false assertions.
Notice a claim about a Protestant who popularized the gap theory in 1814:
It was definitely Thomas Chalmers, a divinity professor at the University of Edinburgh, who popularized the gap theory. He first lectured on it in 1814 and attributed it to Episcopius:
My own opinion, as published in 1814, is that it [Genesis 1:1] forms no part of the first day but refers to a period of indefinite antiquity when God created the worlds out of nothing. The commencement of the first day’s work I hold to be the moving of God’s Spirit upon the face of the waters. We can allow geology the amplest time . . . without infringing even on the literalities of the Mosaic record. . . .
[Bixler, 1986, pp. 86-87](McIver T. Formless and Void: Gap Theory Creationism. Creation Evolution Journal (8)3, 1988: p. 6)
Episcopius was a 17th century Roman Catholic bishop. Charles Darwin was born February 12, 1809 and had not written books on evolution by then. He started writing about natural selection in the 1830s, and his Origin of Species book did not come out until November 24, 1859.
Furthermore, not only did Thomas Chambers precede Darwinism, the gap view is much older than that.
Before going into some old quotes, it should be pointed out that in the Hebrew of the Masoretic text, there a pause/gap symbol between the first and second verses of Genesis.
Furthermore, in the Masoretic text in which Jewish scholars tried to incorporate enough “indicators” to guide the reader … is one small mark which is technically known as Rebhia which is classified as a “disjunctive accent” intended to notify the reader that he should pause before proceeding to the next verse. Such a mark appears at the end of Genesis 1:1. This mark has been noticed by several scholars including Luther. It is one indication among others, that the waw (וּ) which introduces verse 2 should be rendered “but” rather than “and,” a disjunctive rather than a conjunctive. (Custance AC. Without Form and Void. 1970, pp. 18-19)
This shows a gap, not a conjunctive connection, between verses one and two, therefore verse one is NOT an explanation of verse two.
So we see that, anciently, there is an actual gap symbol between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis–THAT WHAT WAS IN THE BIBLE! And that instead of Genesis 1:2 beginning with “And” like the KJV and Douay Rheims have, it should begin with “But.”
Now, one anti-Gap article asks, “WHY CAN’T WE JUST BELIEVE THE BIBLE?” It then refers to the biblical gap view as an “imagined theory” and claimed it was based on non-biblical evidence (Closing the Gap. co-written by Brian and Kenneth Hoeck for Truth On The Web Ministries. http://www.truthontheweb.org/gapclose.htm accessed 07/23/18), yet it failed to mention that there is an actual pause/gap in the Masoretic text of scripture.
And a correct translation of the Bible makes the point more apparent.
Let’s now see two translations of something else in the Bible:
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 creepeth upon the earth.’ (Genesis 1:28, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh 1917)
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 1:28, KJV)
The Original Douay OT (1610) also teaches to “replenish the earth, and subdue it” (though the version I checked uses old English spelling, like “fubdew it”).
To replenish (Strong’s word 4390, transliterated from Hebrew into uwmil°uw) means to “restore (a stock or supply of something) to the former level or condition.” There would be no reason to “replenish” if there had not been a previous time when the Earth existed.
Furthermore, consider that this was the same command (with the same Strong’s word 4390, transliterated from Hebrew into uwmil°uw) God gave Noah after the Great Flood:
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. (Genesis 9:1, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh 1917)
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. (Genesis 9:1, KJV)
Adam was told to replenish as Noah had.
“Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35) and Isaiah 45:18 is clearly in support of the gap-theory position that there must have been a second creation. So does, Psalm 104:30.
Notice the following from the late Herbert W. Armstrong:
Now there were two super archangels whose wings spread out and covered the throne of God. You find that in a design of the tabernacle that God had given to Moses, back in the writings of Moses, if you want to refer to it back in your Bible (Exodus 25:19-22). Now in verse fifteen, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created… [God started him out alright and he was living perfectly to begin with. It doesn’t say how long that was, whether that was; he’s an immortal being. He didn’t live seventy years and die; he will never die. He’s been living ever since he was created and always will. But he was perfect] …till iniquity was found in [him].” (Ezekiel 28:15) Iniquity is lawlessness. He began to break God’s law instead of enforcing it.
Now in verse seventeen it says, “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty and you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your own brightness. I will cast thee to the ground,” God says. (Ezekiel 28:17 paraphrased) So there is the description of Satan the devil. He had angels under him; he led them into hostility against the government of God. Now God’s government is based on the law of God. All government is based on a constitution or a basic law. And the basic law of the government of God is simply the way of love: an outgoing love toward God and toward neighbor — outgoing love — love toward others, not toward your own self. And sin is the transgression of that way or that law. Now Satan transgressed it. Satan believes in vanity, self-exaltation. He believes in hostility toward others. He believes in all of those things.
And so the government of God became inoperative — no longer operating. The government of God was not here any longer. But the throne was there; Lucifer was still there; and his name was changed to Satan and Satan still sits on that throne! And he still has power! But it’s not the power of the government of God because the government of God was gone from the earth! And the only place God has set that government is in His Church! And the people that would have been hostile in the church and some have gone out of the Church of God and said, “I don’t want any more of that government of God in the Church!” That’s what God is working toward; that’s why we have the Church! We are trained to be governed by the government of God so we could be helping Christ to govern with the government of God when He makes us into God beings! Oh God help us to understand that. Well, Lucifer became Satan. Sin of the Angels Now, as a result of that sin, the earth became waste and, well, in a state of decay; and waste and emptiness.
And so you turn back into Genesis and you read of that in the very first chapter of Genesis that: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was [or it had ‘become.’ It should be ‘became’ instead of ‘was’. And the same Hebrew word is translated, ‘became’ in other places in Genesis] without form and void [that’s tohu and bohu]. And darkness was on the face of the [earth].” (Genesis 1:1-2)
And the tohu and bohu are Hebrew words that mean, “waste and empty and in a state of decay.” It became that way as a result of the sin of the angels. They were supposed to improve the earth, physically even. Even though they’re spirit beings, they were to improve the physical earth and they didn’t. They ruined it. Man was given the chance. And what has he done? Man has polluted every physical thing on this earth! Man is physical, himself. He’s polluted himself; he’s polluted himself morally. He’s polluted his water; he’s polluted the air we breathe; he’s polluted the soil that must produce us the food we eat. That’s what man has done.
But now we turn to one of the Psalms, the one hundred and fourth Psalm and verse thirty where it is just speaking about God. It says: “Thou sendest forth thy spirit [the Holy Spirit of God, now, is sent forth. And that is the power that God uses to do what He does], they are created [been created by the Spirit of God, you see] and thou renewest the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:30) God renewed the face of the earth! A lot of people don’t know that’s in the Bible — that the earth had become waste and decayed and God renewed the face of the earth for man! Now we go right back to the first chapter of Genesis again, and you find the earth, as Satan left it: “Darkness was on the face of the deep [It was all covered with water. And it was waste and empty]. And the spirit of God moved upon the water [now He sent forth His Spirit to begin to create, or renew the face of the earth]. And God said, Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:2-3)
The first thing He did was to produce light where Satan was in darkness. Darkness will hide sin and evil. Light will expose evil. But light also reflects beauty so you can see it. You see, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). God believes in beauty. I believe in beauty. (Armstrong HW. (The Meaning of Atonement. Sermon: September 20, 1980)
Satan’s rebellion was a reasons that after the initial creation in Genesis 1:1 that the world became “desolate” (Genesis 1:2, ISV). Notice that scripture clearly says that God renewed the face of the earth. And that is what God did. While most translations say a version of the word renew or replenish for the second half of that verse, notice the following:
Contemporary English Version: You created all of them by your Spirit, and you give new life to the earth. (Psalm 104:30)
Good News Translation: But when you give them breath, they are created; you give new life to the earth. (Psalm 104:30)
And while I do not believe the above are strictly literal translations, the basic idea that God gave NEW LIFE and renewed the earth is correct.
The idea that God replenished, restored, or rearranged, the earth after many (apparently 1/3) of the angels messed up, is not new.
In the early second century, we have this from Papias, who claimed to know the Apostles:
Papias thus speaks, word for word: To some of them [angels] He gave dominion over the arrangement of the world, and He commissioned them to exercise their dominion well. And he says, immediately after this: but it happened that their arrangement came to nothing. (Papias. Fragments of Papias. From the Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord. Chapter VII. Antenicene Fathers)
Yes, the angelic realm and universe were created first, then many angels rebelled. This is what the Bible teaches.
In the 20th century, the late French Cardinal Jean-Guenole-Marie Danielou wrote something related to that:
Andrew of Caesrea tells us the Papius taught that God had conferred on certain angels the task of administering the Earth, and that they betrayed that trust. (Danielou, Cardinal Jean-Guenole-Marie. The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Translated by John A. Baker. The Westminister Press, 1964, p. 47).
This would be related to fragment VII, written c. 611 A.D., though Cardinal Danielou did not refer to it. Why is this of interest?
While the teaching about angels has been taught in certain Churches of God for some time, it is not a teaching that the Greco-Roman churches tend to hold to.
As far as the Church of God goes, in the second century, Theophilus of Antioch wrote:
This Eve, on account of her having been in the beginning deceived by the serpent, and become the author of sin, the wicked demon, who also is called Satan, who then spoke to her through the serpent, and who works even to this day in those men that are possessed by him, invokes as Eve. And he is called “demon” and “dragon,” on account of his [ἀποδεδρακέναι] revolting from God. For at first he was an angel. And concerning his history there is a great deal to be said; wherefore I at present omit the relation of it, for I have also given an account of him in another place. (Theophilus. To Autolycus, Book II, Chapter 28. Translated by Marcus Dods. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe.Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885)
While we do not have Theophilus‘ history from “another place,” what he wrote above is consistent with the view that the angels were created before the formation starting in Genesis 1:2 (and the Bible also shows that per Job 38:4-7). Theophilus seemingly supports an older earth theory. And while Theophilus has issues, like poetic style of writing can be hard to understand, he also wrote:
And what great thing is it if God made the world out of existent materials? For even a human artist, when he gets material from some one, makes of it what he pleases. But the power of God is manifested in this, that out of things that are not He makes whatever He pleases; just as the bestowal of life and motion is the prerogative of no other than God alone. For even man makes indeed an image, but reason and breath, or feeling, he cannot give to what he has made. But God has this property in excess of what man can do, in that He makes a work, endowed with reason, life, sensation. As, therefore, in all these respects God is more powerful than man, so also in this; that out of things that are not He creates and has created things that are, and whatever He pleases, as He pleases. Theophilus. To Autolycus, Book II, Chapter 4).
It reads like Theophilus is teaching while God can create out of nothing, He also can create out of materials He already had made. That, too, is consistent with the gap teaching.
There was a major time ‘gap’ between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.
It was during that time that there were dinosaurs.
Here is some information from the old Worldwide Church of God on this topic:
Do dinosaurs disprove the Bible? Scientists say ancient dinosaur fossils are millions of years old. Yet the Bible supposedly says that everything was created a mere 6,000 years ago. Do science and the Bible contradict each other?
At some time in the past, the earth was inhabited by a bizarre assembly of awesome and immense reptiles. Gigantic dinosaurs roamed the land. “Thunder lizards” weighing 50 tons must have shaken the ground as they walked. …
Scientists say the strange and remarkable “age of reptiles” occurred more than 70 million years ago. Yet most fundamentalist churches and creationist groups attempt to support the idea that God created the whole universe, including man and the dinosaurs, about 6,000 years ago.
Thus the dinosaur has come to symbolize one of the most fundamental challenges to the Bible and Christianity: Can the Bible account for the existence of dinosaurs and other extinct creatures in the short period of 6,000 years? And if not, must the Bible be rejected?
The fact is, fundamentalists face a real problem in trying to squeeze dinosaurs into 6,000 years of earth history. The facts just don’t allow it, even when Noah’s Flood is invoked as an explanation.
Fact # 1: There is a vast difference between the world of man and that of the dinosaurs. … The world in which dinosaurs roamed was in most respects utterly unlike our own. Man would feel strange and foreign in that world …
Fact # 2: The world of the dinosaurs and the modern world of mammals are not intermixed in the fossil record. …
Fact #3: Many dating methods show dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. …
Fact #4: Both the Bible and the stratigraphic record conflict with the view that Noah’s Flood killed the dinosaurs. …
Genesis 6:19 clearly states that “of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.”
Dinosaurs were land-dwelling, air-breathing creatures and should therefore have been on the ark, if they were alive at that time. Therefore, they would not have been killed by the Flood and would still be alive today!
The same holds true for the flying reptiles, which would have been in the ark and should have survived. …
For these four reasons, we must reject the traditional fundamentalist idea that the earth and all life forms that have ever appeared were created a mere 6,000 years ago.
Yet the Bible does supply the answer! It recognizes an inhabited earth — a prehuman world — prior to the creation week of Genesis I. Genesis 1:1 speaks of the original creation: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” But between the first two verses of Genesis, a time gap of unknown length exists. Surprising as it may seem, the Bible nowhere specifies the time of the original creation; perhaps it was billions of years ago. (Ginskey RA. THE BIBLE AND THE DINOSAUR WORLD. Plain Truth, May 1977)
Yes, the earth may well be billions of years old. Furthermore, the fact that there are no dinosaurs now shows that they were gone before the great flood.
As far as them being gone, the old Worldwide Church of God published the following:
In the dim past of antiquity, giant dinosaurs roamed the earth. Suddenly — the dinosaur’s strange world came to a cataclysmic end. …
Dinosaur expert Dr. Edwin Colbert admits, “There can be no doubt about it. All of the dinosaurs along with various other… reptiles, became extinct.
“… NOT ONE OF THEM SURVIVED, as is amply proved by the fact that during almost a century and a half of paleontological exploration, the wide world over, no trace of a dinosaur bone or tooth has ever been found in any post-Cretaceous rocks, not even in the earliest of them. The proof of the geologic record on this score is IRREFUTABLE” (Dinosaurs, Edwin H. Colbert, p. 249). …
This sudden extinction of reptilian life was certainly a mysterious event. But equally puzzling to scientists was the sudden appearance of entirely new forms of life, totally unrelated to the reptiles. …
Neither is there evidence of transition from reptiles to mammals. Then, where did the living things of this present age come from? (Kroll P. The Day the DINOSAURS DIED. Worldwide Church of God, 1970)
Well, the answer to that last question is that God made everything.
As far as why, we have a free online booklet: The MYSTERY of GOD’s PLAN: Why Did God Create Anything? Why Did God Make You?
That being said, yes there were dinosaurs before Adam and Eve–and yes there is a time gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.
God had dinosaurs go extinct before He created humans in Genesis 1:27.
One should not be afraid to teach children the truth about God’s creation, including dinosaurs.
The Bible is true and is not unscientific.
For more information on that, we have another free booklet: Is God’s Existence Logical?
Yes, you can believe the Bible and teach your children from it, as well as answer questions about dinosaurs.
We also have the following related video:
Were Dinosaurs Prior to Adam & Eve?
When did dinosaurs live? The ‘National Catholic Register’ had an article by Stacy Trasancos titled ‘What Do You Say When Kids Ask About Dinosaurs?’ She brought up some dangers with the ‘young earth creationists’ and stated that dinosaurs were prior to Adam and Eve. Yet, she basically said that the first few verses of Genesis 1 should not be trusted. Yet, that is not the case. Does the Bible support any type of time gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2? Is there a gap symbol shown in the Masoretic text? Did the KJV and NKJV translator err in translating a disjunctive as a conjunctive? Must the earth only be about 6,000 years old? Is billions of years possible? Getting to dinosaurs themselves, do the fossil records support them being prior to a time of replenishment? Could dinosaurs have been destroyed by a ‘dark ice age’ or does the Great Flood of Noah’s time make the most sense? Did the old Worldwide Church of God bring up several facts that ‘young earth fundamentalists’ misunderstand and discount? Is the Bible scientifically reliable? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more.
Here is a link to our video: Were Dinosaurs Prior to Adam & Eve?
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
How Old is the Earth and How Long Were the Days of Creation? Gap Theory? Does the Bible allow for the creation of the universe and earth billions of years ago? Why do some believe they are no older than 6,000 years old? What is the gap theory? Were the days of creation in Genesis 1:3 through 2:3 24 hours long? Here are links to two sermons: Gap Theory: Doctrine or Modern Heresy? and Genesis, ‘Prehistoric man,’ and the Gap theory. Here is a link to a related article in Spanish: ¿Cuán vieja es la Tierra? ¿Cuán largos fueron los Días de la Creación? ¿Teoría de la brecha?
CG7-S: Church of God 7th Day, Salem (West Virginia) This group formed by A.N. Dugger in 1933 when he split from the CG7 group he was once president of.
Is God’s Existence Logical? Is it really logical to believe in God? Yes! Would you like Christian answers to give atheists? This is a free online booklet that deal with improper theories and musings called science related to the origin of the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and evolution. Two animated videos of related interest are also available: Big Bang: Nothing or Creator? and A Lifegiver or Spontaneous Evolution?
Does it Make Physical Sense to believe in God? Some say it is not logical to believe in God. Is that true? Here is a link to a YouTube sermon titled Is it logical to believe in God?
Is Evolution Probable or Impossible or Is God’s Existence Logical? Part II This short article clearly answers what ‘pseudo-scientists’ refuse to acknowledge. Here is a link to a YouTube video titled Is There Another View of Evolution? and another titled Quickly Disprove Evolution as the Origin of Life.
Where Did God Come From? Any ideas? And how has God been able to exist? Who is God?
How is God Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient? Here is a biblical article which answers what many really wonder about it.
Has time been lost? It Saturday the seventh day of the week?
Questions and Answers from Genesis Many wonder about certain early events that this article discusses.
Was Unitarianism the Teaching of the Bible or Early Church? Many, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, claim it was, but was it?
What is the Meaning of Life? Who does God say is happy? What is your ultimate destiny? Do you really know? Does God actually have a plan for YOU personally? There is also a video titled What is the meaning of your life?
The MYSTERY of GOD’s PLAN: Why Did God Create Anything? Why Did God Make You? This free online book helps answers some of the biggest questions that human have, including the biblical meaning of life. Here is a link to three related sermons: Mysteries of God’s Plan, Mysteries of Truth, Sin, Rest, Suffering, and God’s Plan, Mystery of Race, and The Mystery of YOU.