Chapter 11: The Gap Theory and Pre-Adamite Races

Have you ever wondered what happened before God created Adam and Eve? Finis Dake thought he had discovered something amazing hidden in the Bible. He taught that millions or even billions of years ago, before the Garden of Eden, there was a whole different world on Earth. This world had people living in cities, building civilizations, and being ruled by Lucifer (Satan) himself. When Satan rebelled against God, Dake claimed, God destroyed this entire world with a flood. Then, according to Dake, the six days of creation in Genesis weren’t really about God creating everything for the first time. Instead, they were about God fixing up the Earth after He had destroyed it. This idea is called the “Gap Theory” because it puts a huge gap of time between Genesis 1:1 (“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”) and Genesis 1:2 (“And the earth was without form, and void”).

Dake, Finis Jennings. God’s Plan for Man. Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, 1949.

This teaching might sound exciting, like something from a science fiction movie. But it’s actually very dangerous to our Christian faith. It goes against what the Bible clearly teaches about how God created the world, where humans came from, and how sin and death entered the world. Even worse, this theory has been used to support racist ideas by suggesting that different races of people might have been created at different times or in different ways. The Gap Theory wasn’t just a small mistake in Dake’s teaching—it was like a foundation stone that affected everything else he taught about God’s plan for humanity. Once you accept this theory, you have to change how you understand dozens of other Bible verses, and pretty soon you end up with a completely different story than what the Bible actually teaches.

The Amazing Story Dake Invented About the Past

Let’s look at the elaborate story that Dake created about what he thought happened before Adam and Eve. According to Dake, when God first created the heavens and earth countless ages ago, everything was perfect. The Earth wasn’t empty or dark like we read about in Genesis 1:2. Instead, it was a beautiful world filled with life. There were human beings living on this Earth—not Adam and Eve’s descendants, but a completely different race of humans that Dake called “pre-Adamites” (which means “before Adam”).

These pre-Adamite people weren’t primitive cave dwellers. According to Dake, they built cities, had governments, created civilizations, and lived in organized societies. They had kings and rulers, farms and businesses, families and communities. It was a fully developed world with millions or billions of people living in it. And ruling over all of these pre-Adamite humans was Lucifer, the angel we now know as Satan.

Dake taught that God had given Lucifer an actual throne on Earth. This wasn’t just a symbolic or spiritual rule—Dake believed Lucifer literally sat on a throne somewhere on Earth and governed these prehistoric nations. Lucifer had a capital city, a government structure, and authority over all the pre-Adamite races. There was even a pre-Adamite Garden of Eden where Lucifer walked and ruled from. For perhaps millions or billions of years, this system continued with Lucifer as Earth’s rightful ruler under God’s authority.

Dake provided extensive detail about this pre-Adamite system: “From several passages in the Old and New Testaments, we learn that, before Adam was created, there was a social order on Earth which was destroyed before the events of Genesis 1:3 (Isa. 14:12-14; 45:18; Jer. 4:23-26; Ezek. 28:11-17; 2 Pet. 3:6).”¹⁶

But then, according to Dake’s theory, pride entered Lucifer’s heart. He looked at his power over Earth and decided it wasn’t enough. He wanted to overthrow God Himself and take over Heaven. Here’s how Dake explained it using Isaiah 14:12-14:

When Lucifer rebelled, Dake claimed, a terrible war broke out between Heaven and Earth. The pre-Adamite humans joined Lucifer in his rebellion against God. This war might have lasted for thousands or millions of years, with battles raging between God’s loyal angels and Lucifer’s rebellious forces. Finally, God had enough. He pronounced judgment on the entire pre-Adamite world.

According to Dake, God’s judgment was swift and total. He sent a massive flood that destroyed everything. Every pre-Adamite human drowned. Every city was demolished. Every trace of civilization was wiped out. The Earth itself was wrecked so completely that it became “without form and void”—the chaotic, dark, water-covered mess we read about in Genesis 1:2. Dake taught that all the fossils we find today, all the dinosaur bones, all the evidence of prehistoric life—it all comes from this destroyed pre-Adamite world, not from Noah’s flood or any event connected to Adam’s descendants.

Dake provided a detailed contrast between what he called “Lucifer’s flood” and Noah’s flood, claiming to have found twenty distinct differences. He wrote: “The flood of Noah lasted over a year, yet vegetation was not destroyed. But in Lucifer’s flood the fruitful place became a wilderness (Jer. 4:23-26). New vegetation had to be planted in the 6 days, for the earth was totally desolate (Gen. 1:11-12; 2:5, 8-17). This proves that Lucifer’s flood was on earth longer than Noah’s and, without doubt, as judgment for a more serious rebellion—a complete rebellion of the pre-Adamite world.”⁴

Dake stated emphatically: “How long the Earth was ruled by Lucifer before he rebelled; how long the rebellion was forming before the actual break with God; how long God was patient with the rebels after their break with Him; how long the war between Heaven and Earth went on; and how long the Earth remained chaos, ‘without form and void’ after Satan’s defeat and all life on Earth was destroyed is not known, but this much is known—there was a rebellion that caused the curse on Earth of Gen. 1:2.”¹⁸

Then, after some unknown period of time (maybe millions more years), God decided to start over. The six days of creation in Genesis 1, according to Dake, aren’t describing God’s original creation of the universe. Instead, they’re describing God fixing up the ruined Earth and creating a new race of humans (Adam and Eve) to replace the pre-Adamites who had been destroyed. When God said “Let there be light,” He was turning the lights back on after having turned them off during the judgment. When He separated the waters and made dry land appear, He was cleaning up the mess from the pre-Adamite flood. And when He created Adam and Eve, He was starting humanity over with a brand new race of people.

The “Evidence” Dake Thought He Found

Dake didn’t just make up this theory out of thin air. He believed he had discovered overwhelming biblical proof for the Gap Theory hidden throughout Scripture. He spent enormous amounts of time and energy collecting verses that he thought supported his ideas. Let’s examine the main pieces of “evidence” he used and see why they don’t actually prove what he claimed they proved.

1. The Word “Replenish” in Genesis 1:28

One of Dake’s favorite arguments came from the King James Version’s translation of Genesis 1:28, where God tells Adam and Eve to “replenish the earth.” Dake argued that you can only RE-plenish something that was previously plenished (filled). Here’s exactly what he wrote:

This sounds convincing at first, doesn’t it? If God said “REplenish,” that must mean the Earth had been “plenished” before, right? But here’s the problem: Dake didn’t understand how language works and changes over time. The Hebrew word that the King James Bible translated as “replenish” is the word “male” (pronounced mah-LAY). This Hebrew word simply means “to fill” or “to be full.” It doesn’t mean “to fill again” like we might think when we see the English word “replenish.”

Even in English, the word “replenish” didn’t always mean “to fill again.” When the King James Bible was translated in 1611, “replenish” simply meant “to fill completely” or “to stock fully.” It’s like when we say a store has been “fully stocked” or “completely furnished”—we don’t mean it was stocked before, emptied out, and then stocked again. We just mean it’s now full of goods. The King James translators used “replenish” to mean “fill up completely,” not “fill again.”

Modern Bible translations recognize this and correctly translate Genesis 1:28 as “fill the earth” rather than “replenish the earth.” The New International Version says, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth.” The English Standard Version says, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” These translations are more accurate to what the Hebrew actually says. There’s absolutely no indication in the original Hebrew that the Earth had been filled with people before Adam and Eve.

2. Jeremiah’s Vision of a Destroyed World

Another major piece of “evidence” Dake used comes from Jeremiah 4:23-26. In this passage, the prophet Jeremiah has a vision of terrible destruction. Here’s what it says:

“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.”

Dake got very excited about this passage because it mentions the earth being “without form, and void”—the same words used in Genesis 1:2! It also mentions cities being broken down and no man being present. Dake claimed this was God showing Jeremiah a vision of what happened to the pre-Adamite world when God destroyed it. Here’s what Dake wrote about this passage:

But there’s a huge problem with Dake’s interpretation: he completely ignored the context of Jeremiah’s prophecy! If you read Jeremiah chapter 4 from the beginning, it’s crystal clear what Jeremiah is talking about. The chapter starts with God calling for Judah to repent of their sins (verses 1-4). Then God warns that an enemy army is coming from the north to invade Judah (verse 6). The destruction Jeremiah describes is the coming Babylonian invasion that would destroy Jerusalem and carry the Jewish people into exile.

Jeremiah is using dramatic, poetic language to describe how terrible this invasion will be. He’s saying it will be SO devastating that it will seem like the world is returning to chaos, like the earth before God put it in order. This is a common technique in Hebrew poetry called hyperbole—using extreme language to make a point. It’s like when we say “I could eat a horse” when we’re really hungry. We don’t literally mean we could eat an entire horse; we’re using exaggeration to emphasize how hungry we are.

The “cities” that Jeremiah sees broken down aren’t prehistoric pre-Adamite cities—they’re the cities of Judah that would be destroyed by the Babylonians. The reason there’s “no man” isn’t because pre-Adamites were all drowned—it’s because the people of Judah would be killed or taken into exile. Jeremiah is describing a future event (from his perspective), not a prehistoric catastrophe.

3. Isaiah and Ezekiel’s Descriptions of Satan’s Fall

Dake also used passages from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 to support his theory. These passages talk about the fall of powerful rulers, and many Christians believe they also contain references to Satan’s fall from heaven. Dake took these passages and claimed they proved Satan ruled over a pre-Adamite Earth. He particularly focused on Isaiah 14:12, which mentions Lucifer “weakening the nations.” Dake argued:

But once again, Dake ignored the clear context of these passages. Isaiah 14 explicitly says it’s talking about the king of Babylon (verse 4), and Ezekiel 28 clearly identifies its subject as the ruler of Tyre (verses 2 and 12). These were real human kings who lived during the time of Isaiah and Ezekiel. The prophets were pronouncing God’s judgment on these proud, arrogant rulers.

Now, it’s true that many Bible scholars believe these passages have a double meaning—they’re talking about the human kings, but they’re also giving us a glimpse of Satan’s original fall from heaven. The pride and arrogance of these earthly kings reminds us of Satan’s pride and rebellion. But even if we accept this double meaning, there’s nothing in these passages that says Satan ruled over a pre-Adamite race on Earth. The “nations” being weakened in Isaiah 14 are the contemporary nations around Babylon, not prehistoric civilizations.

Dake went even further in his interpretation: “In Ezekiel 28:14-16 we read that Lucifer was at one time in the mountain of God. This was not when an earthly king of Tyre ruled, so the reference is to the eternal past when the cherub himself had a literal throne on earth on the mountain of God.”²²

4. Peter’s Reference to “The World That Then Was”

One of Dake’s favorite passages for proving the Gap Theory was 2 Peter 3:5-7. Peter writes about scoffers who deny that God will judge the world, and he reminds them that God has judged the world before:

“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

Dake claimed that “the world that then was” couldn’t refer to Noah’s flood because Noah and his family survived, so the world didn’t completely perish. Therefore, he argued, Peter must be talking about a pre-Adamite flood where everything was completely destroyed. Here’s what Dake wrote:

But Dake’s interpretation doesn’t make sense when you read Peter’s whole argument. Peter is writing to Christians who know the Old Testament scriptures. When he mentions a world being destroyed by water, every one of his readers would immediately think of Noah’s flood—the famous judgment by water that everyone knew about from Genesis. Peter’s whole point depends on his readers knowing about Noah’s flood from Scripture. He’s saying, “Look, God judged the world with water before (Noah’s flood), and He’ll judge it with fire in the future.”

When Peter says “the world that then was” perished, he doesn’t mean that every single thing ceased to exist. The Greek word he uses for “world” is “kosmos,” which often refers to the world system or world order, not the physical planet itself. The pre-flood world order, with its violence and wickedness, did indeed perish in Noah’s flood. The civilization, the culture, the way of life—all of it was destroyed, even though Noah’s family survived to start over. It’s like saying “the Roman Empire perished” even though Italy still exists and Italians are descendants of Romans.

If Peter was really talking about some unknown prehistoric flood that nobody had ever heard of, his argument would make no sense. He’d be saying, “You know God will judge the world because He once judged a previous world that you’ve never heard about and that’s not recorded in Scripture.” That wouldn’t convince anyone! Peter’s argument only works if he’s referring to the well-known flood of Noah that his readers were familiar with.

The Creation of Pre-Adamite Races

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Dake’s Gap Theory is his teaching about pre-Adamite races. According to Dake, these weren’t just some kind of animal-like creatures or semi-humans. He insisted they were fully human beings, just like us, but created separately from Adam’s race. They had souls, intelligence, moral capacity, and everything else that makes someone human. They just weren’t descendants of Adam.

Dake described these pre-Adamites in great detail. He claimed they were organized into different nations with different characteristics (remember, he used the word “nations” from Isaiah 14:12 as proof). They had different skin colors, different physical features, and different abilities. They built complex civilizations with art, technology, government, and religion. They could sin and rebel against God, which is why they joined Lucifer’s rebellion.

Here’s a particularly revealing quote from Dake about these supposed pre-Adamite humans:

Now, Dake didn’t explicitly say that modern races come from different origins, but his theory opened the door wide for that interpretation. Think about it: if God created different races of humans before Adam, and then created Adam’s race separately, what’s to stop someone from arguing that God created different modern races separately too? This is exactly where some people took Dake’s ideas, using them to argue that different races aren’t really part of the same human family.

This becomes even more troubling when you remember what we discussed in Chapter 10 about Dake’s racist teachings. Dake wrote “30 Reasons for Segregation of Races” where he argued that God intended for races to stay separate. While he didn’t directly connect this to his pre-Adamite theory in that document, the theological framework was there. If you believe God created different races of humans separately in the past, it’s easier to believe He wants them to stay separate now.

Dake attempted to reconcile scientific findings with his theory: “Belief in the pre-Adamite system allows that the earth could be millions of years old. Prehistoric animals could have been a part of that system, as well as any different type of man, if such is ever excluded from Adam’s race by established proof.”¹⁴ This statement shows how Dake’s theory could easily be used to justify racial distinctions.

What the Bible Really Says About Human Origins

The Bible is absolutely crystal clear about where all humans come from, and it completely contradicts Dake’s pre-Adamite theory. Let’s look at what Scripture actually teaches:

Dake tried to get around these clear verses with creative interpretation. For example, when faced with 1 Corinthians 15:45 calling Adam “the first man,” Dake argued that this meant Adam was the first of the current race of men, not the first human ever. He wrote:

But this is what we call “eisegesis”—reading your own ideas INTO the text instead of getting your ideas FROM the text. Paul’s entire argument in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5 depends on Adam being the very first human being, the representative head of the entire human race. If there were humans before Adam, Paul’s whole theology falls apart. How could Adam’s sin affect all humans if some humans came from a different line? How could Jesus be the “last Adam” who saves all humans if the first Adam wasn’t really the first human?

Why This Contradicts Both the Bible and Science

The Gap Theory might seem like a clever way to make the Bible fit with scientific theories about the age of the earth and fossils. Dake thought he was helping Christians by providing a way to believe in both an old earth (billions of years) and a literal six-day creation. The pre-Adamite world could account for all those fossils and geological layers, while the six days of Genesis could still be literal 24-hour days. It seemed like the perfect solution!

But in reality, the Gap Theory fails both biblically and scientifically. It doesn’t match what the Bible teaches, and it doesn’t match what science has discovered either. It’s like trying to force two puzzle pieces together that don’t actually fit—you end up damaging both pieces.

Biblical Problems with the Gap Theory

Let’s look at the serious biblical problems with Dake’s theory:

1. Death Before Sin: The Gap Theory requires that death, suffering, and destruction existed before Adam sinned. All those pre-Adamites lived and died. They got sick, they grew old, they killed and ate animals (or maybe each other), and eventually they all drowned in God’s judgment. Death was a normal part of the pre-Adamite world.

But the Bible clearly teaches that death entered the world through Adam’s sin. Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 states, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

If death existed for millions of years before Adam, then death isn’t really the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). It’s just a natural part of God’s creation. This undermines the entire Gospel message. Why did Jesus need to die to conquer death if death was part of God’s original plan? Why is death called “the last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26) if God used it as a tool of judgment before sin even entered?

2. God Called Everything “Very Good”: Genesis 1:31 tells us, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” But if Dake’s theory is true, when God said this, the earth was literally covering a graveyard of billions of pre-Adamites. The fossils of an entire destroyed civilization were buried under Adam’s feet. How could God look at an earth filled with the remains of judgment and destruction and call it “very good”?

Imagine if someone showed you a beautiful garden, but then you found out it was built on top of a cemetery where millions of people were buried after being executed for rebelling. Would you call that “very good”? Would a loving God create Adam and Eve and place them in a garden built on top of the graves of a previous race He had destroyed? That doesn’t match the God of love we know from Scripture.

3. The Sabbath Pattern Makes No Sense: Exodus 20:11 explains why we have a seven-day week: “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.” This verse says God made heaven and earth and EVERYTHING in them in six days. It doesn’t say He remade them or fixed them up—He MADE them.

If the six days were just God renovating a destroyed world, the Sabbath pattern loses its meaning. Why would God establish the seven-day week based on a renovation project instead of His original creation? And notice that Exodus 20:11 includes “heaven” in what was made in six days. But according to Dake’s theory, heaven already existed for billions of years before the six days. The Gap Theory makes this verse impossible to understand correctly.

4. The Order of Creation Is Wrong: According to Genesis 1, God created the sun, moon, and stars on Day Four of creation week. But Dake’s theory requires them to have already existed for billions of years during the pre-Adamite age. How else would the pre-Adamites have had light? How would plants have grown? How would there have been day and night?

Dake tried to solve this problem by claiming that during the judgment on the pre-Adamite world, God somehow turned off the sun, moon, and stars, and then turned them back on during Day Four. But Genesis doesn’t say God revealed the sun or turned it back on—it says He MADE the sun, moon, and stars on that day. The Hebrew word used is “asah,” which means to make or create, not to reveal or restore. Dake wrote about this: “On the first day, God divided light from darkness and named them (Gen. 1:3-5). Light and darkness were originally created with the heavens and Earth, and had been on Earth all during Lucifer’s reign. Jeremiah tells us that it was part of the curse on Earth to withhold the sun, moon, and stars from shining on Earth (Jer. 4:23-26).”²⁵

5. When Did Satan Fall?: Ezekiel 28:13-15 describes Satan in Eden in his perfect state: “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God… Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” This suggests that Satan was still perfect when he was in Eden, and that his fall happened after the creation of Eden, not billions of years before.

But the Gap Theory requires Satan to have fallen before Genesis 1:2, billions of years before Eden was created. So either there were two different Edens (which the Bible never suggests), or Ezekiel is confused about when Satan fell (which would mean the Bible contains errors), or the Gap Theory is wrong. The simplest answer is that the Gap Theory is wrong. Dake tried to address this: “The Eden here was a garden in the earth when he ruled in perfection and sinlessness before he fell… No earthly king of Tyre was ever in Eden, as was this angel, nor does this Eden refer to Adam’s Eden, although Lucifer was in it also (Gen. 3; 2 Cor. 11:3).”²⁶

Scientific Problems with the Gap Theory

Ironically, even though the Gap Theory was invented to try to make the Bible compatible with scientific theories about an old earth, it actually fails scientifically too. Real scientists, whether Christian or non-Christian, don’t accept the Gap Theory because it doesn’t match the evidence.

Dake did attempt to address scientific concerns, claiming that his view accounted for fossils and geological evidence: “Belief in the pre-Adamite system allows that the earth could be millions of years old. Prehistoric animals could have been a part of that system, as well as any different type of man, if such is ever excluded from Adam’s race by established proof.”¹⁴ However, this creates more problems than it solves.

1. Where’s the Evidence of the Flood?: If God destroyed the entire pre-Adamite world with a global flood between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, where is the geological evidence for this massive catastrophe? Geologists can identify evidence of floods in the rock layers, but there’s no evidence of a global flood that destroyed an entire civilization right before the appearance of modern humans.

The fossil record shows a gradual progression of life forms over what scientists believe to be millions of years, not a sudden destruction of everything followed by a complete restart. If all fossils came from one pre-Adamite flood, why are they sorted into distinct layers with different types of creatures in different layers? Why aren’t all the pre-Adamite humans buried together in one massive layer?

Dake claimed scientists agreed with him: “Scientists assert that the Earth went through JUST ONE great catastrophe at an unknown period in the past; that animal remains show that they died in great agony; and that some unexplainable something happened to the Earth itself to cause it to be turned upside down.”²⁷ But this is not what mainstream science teaches.

2. The Fossil Order Is Wrong: According to Dake, all fossils come from the pre-Adamite world, and no fossils have been formed since Adam’s creation (since Noah’s flood was smaller and didn’t create fossils according to Dake). But if that’s true, why do we find fossils of modern animals—the same types of animals that exist today? Why do we find fossils that appear to be from different time periods, with simpler organisms in lower layers and more complex ones in upper layers?

If all fossils came from one judgment event, we’d expect to find them all mixed together—pre-Adamite humans, dinosaurs, trilobites, and everything else all jumbled up in one massive death layer. But that’s not what we find. The fossil record shows distinct patterns that don’t match a single catastrophic event.

3. No Evidence of Pre-Adamite Civilization: If there was an advanced pre-Adamite civilization with cities, technology, and billions of people, where is the archaeological evidence? We find evidence of ancient human civilizations from just a few thousand years ago—pottery, tools, buildings, etc. But we find absolutely no evidence of the advanced pre-Adamite civilization that Dake describes.

Dake might argue that God destroyed everything so thoroughly that no evidence remains. But then how can he claim that fossils and geological formations come from this period? He can’t have it both ways—either the judgment left evidence (fossils) or it didn’t (no cities or technology). The selective preservation of only certain types of evidence doesn’t make sense.

Theological Problems: What Happens to the Gospel?

The Gap Theory doesn’t just create problems for understanding Genesis—it undermines the entire Gospel message. Let’s think about what happens to core Christian doctrines if we accept Dake’s theory:

The Problem of the Image of God

Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that God created humans in His own image: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” This is what makes humans special and different from all other creatures. We bear God’s image.

But if there were pre-Adamites, were they also made in God’s image? If yes, then why did God completely destroy image-bearers with no opportunity for salvation? The Bible shows us that God always provides a way of salvation for humans—He saved Noah from the flood, He saved Lot from Sodom, He provides salvation through Jesus Christ. But the pre-Adamites had no ark, no salvation, no hope. They were simply destroyed.

If the pre-Adamites weren’t made in God’s image, then were they really human? Dake insists they were fully human, built cities, had moral capacity, etc. But how can you be truly human without bearing God’s image? And if creatures that weren’t in God’s image could build civilizations and have moral capacity, what makes the image of God special?

The Problem of Sin and Redemption

Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 build the entire doctrine of salvation on the parallel between Adam and Christ. Adam was the first man who brought sin and death into the world. Christ is the “last Adam” who brings righteousness and life. All humans fell in Adam; all can be saved in Christ.

But if there were pre-Adamites, this parallel breaks down completely. Did the pre-Adamites sin? They must have, since they joined Lucifer’s rebellion. But their sin couldn’t have come through Adam since they lived before him. So sin didn’t really enter through one man—it entered through the pre-Adamites first.

Could the pre-Adamites have been saved? They lived and died before any promise of a Savior was given. They had no covenant with God, no law, no prophets, no hope of a coming Messiah. If they had souls (and Dake says they were fully human, so they must have), where did those souls go when they died? They couldn’t go to Abraham’s bosom (it didn’t exist yet), they couldn’t be judged by Christ (He hadn’t come yet), and they couldn’t be saved by looking forward to the Messiah (the promise hadn’t been given yet).

Dake tried to solve these problems by arguing that pre-Adamites were a completely different category of being, unrelated to Adam’s race and not covered by Christ’s salvation. But this creates even bigger problems. It essentially means God created intelligent, moral beings with no possibility of salvation, destined only for destruction. That doesn’t match the God of love and mercy we know from Scripture.

The Problem of God’s Character

The Gap Theory presents us with a God who seems arbitrary and wasteful. He created an entire race of beings, let them live for millions of years, then destroyed them all with no opportunity for redemption. Then He started over with Adam, but didn’t even tell Adam about the previous creation. The Bible presents God as patient, merciful, and “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But the God of the Gap Theory destroys billions of pre-Adamites without mercy.

Furthermore, if God’s solution to rebellion is total destruction and starting over, why didn’t He do the same thing when Adam sinned? Why provide redemption for Adam’s race but not for the pre-Adamites? It makes God appear to show favoritism, which contradicts passages like Acts 10:34 that tell us “God is no respecter of persons.”

Dake acknowledged this problem but offered no real solution: “God was longsuffering; but when the final invasion of Heaven took place, God quickly put down the rebellion.”²⁸ But this doesn’t explain why the pre-Adamites had no opportunity for salvation.

How the Gap Theory Feeds Racist Ideology

One of the most dangerous aspects of the Gap Theory is how it has been used to support racist ideas. While Dake himself didn’t explicitly say that different modern races come from different origins, his theory provided a theological framework that others have used for exactly that purpose.

Think about the implications of believing in pre-Adamite races. If God created different races of humans at different times in the past (pre-Adamites, then Adamites), maybe He’s still creating different races separately. Maybe some modern races descend from Adam while others have a different origin. Maybe that’s why races look different and have different characteristics—they were created separately!

This is exactly where some people took these ideas in the 1800s and 1900s. They argued that only white people descended from Adam, while other races either descended from pre-Adamites who somehow survived the flood, or were created separately after Adam. This allowed them to claim that biblical commands about loving your neighbor only applied to your own race, since other races weren’t really your “neighbors” in the biblical sense.

These ideas were used to justify slavery, segregation, and all kinds of racial discrimination. After all, if different races have different origins, maybe they have different purposes, different capacities, and different relationships with God. Maybe God intends for them to remain separate. This is exactly what Dake argued in his “30 Reasons for Segregation of Races,” though he based it on other biblical misinterpretations rather than explicitly connecting it to his Gap Theory.

The Bible’s truth completely contradicts all of this. Acts 17:26 tells us that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” We are one human family, all descended from Adam and Eve, all created in God’s image, all fallen in sin, and all offered salvation through Jesus Christ. There are no separate creations, no fundamental racial differences, no divine mandate for segregation.

The variations we see in human appearance—skin color, eye shape, hair texture—are minor adaptations that developed as humans spread across the earth after the Tower of Babel. They’re like the different colors of roses in a garden—beautiful variations within one species, not separate creations. Genetically, all humans are incredibly similar, sharing 99.9% of their DNA. We are clearly one species, one family, one blood.

The Influence on Extreme Dispensationalism

The Gap Theory became a cornerstone of Dake’s entire theological system, especially his extreme form of dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is the belief that God has worked with humanity in different ways during different periods of history (called dispensations). Many Christians accept a moderate form of dispensationalism, recognizing that God related differently to people before and after Christ’s coming, for example.

But Dake took dispensationalism to an extreme level, dividing history into numerous periods with radically different rules, relationships, and even methods of salvation. The pre-Adamite world became the first dispensation in his system—what he called the “Dispensation of Angels” when Lucifer ruled the earth. This set a pattern for his entire approach to biblical interpretation.

Dake wrote extensively about this first dispensation: “Counting the pre-Adamite probationary period as the first dispensation and adding the seven dispensations of Adam’s race which will end with the Millennium, it could be said that this ninth kingdom will be the ninth and last dispensation of men and angels on earth. It will be eternal (Rev. 21-22).”²⁹

Here’s how the Gap Theory influenced Dake’s extreme dispensationalism:

1. Multiple Plans of Salvation: If God had a completely different arrangement with pre-Adamites than with Adam’s race, maybe He has different salvation plans for different groups. Dake taught that people were saved different ways in different dispensations—by works, by law, by faith, etc. This contradicts the biblical teaching that salvation has always been by grace through faith.

2. Fragmented Biblical Interpretation: Once you accept that Genesis 1:2 secretly refers to a destroyed pre-Adamite world, you start looking for hidden meanings everywhere. Every verse might be talking about a different dispensation or different group of people. Dake would take verses completely out of context and assign them to different dispensations, making it impossible to read the Bible as a unified story.

3. Speculative Theology: The Gap Theory is pure speculation—it’s reading an entire prehistoric narrative into a gap between two verses. Once you accept this kind of speculation, where do you stop? Dake’s theology became filled with elaborate theories about angelic hierarchies, multiple heavens, future dispensations, and other ideas that go far beyond what the Bible actually says. For instance, Dake wrote: “When will God’s kingdom become universally harmonious again? From these few facts it can be seen that there were envyings, strifes, deeds of licentiousness, violence, lowing of herds, strains of music and dancing to soothe the conscience, clatter of hoofs, sounding of anvils, vaunting of proud boasters, and all the mingled din that rose from a godless civilization in struggling to overpower the curse.”³⁰

4. Diminished Redemptive History: The Bible tells one grand story—creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. It’s the story of God creating a good world, humanity falling into sin, and God working through history to redeem and restore His creation through Jesus Christ. But Dake’s system fragments this into multiple stories of different creations, different falls, different judgments, and different salvations. The beautiful unity of God’s redemptive plan gets lost in the complexity.

Why Smart People Fall for This

You might wonder how intelligent, sincere Christians could believe something as speculative as the Gap Theory. Why would godly people who love the Bible accept such a problematic interpretation? There are several reasons why this theory has been attractive to many Christians:

1. It Seems to Solve the Science Problem: Many Christians struggle with how to reconcile the Bible’s account of creation with scientific claims about the age of the earth and the fossil record. The Gap Theory seems to offer a solution—you can believe in an old earth (billions of years for the pre-Adamite world) AND a literal six-day creation (the re-creation in Genesis 1). It feels like you don’t have to choose between science and the Bible.

2. It Makes Christians Feel Smart: The Gap Theory involves complex interpretation and hidden meanings that most people don’t know about. When you understand it, you feel like you’ve discovered secret knowledge that other Christians have missed. Dake presented his theory with such confidence and with so many proof texts that his followers felt they had superior biblical knowledge.

3. It Explains Difficult Passages: There are some challenging passages in the Bible that seem to hint at events we don’t fully understand. The Gap Theory appears to explain these mysteries. Why does Genesis 1:2 say the earth was “without form and void”? Why does Isaiah 14 talk about Lucifer falling? Why does Jeremiah 4 describe such destruction? The Gap Theory seems to tie all these passages together into one coherent narrative.

4. It Comes from Trusted Teachers: Many people learned the Gap Theory from pastors, teachers, or authors they trusted. When someone you respect teaches something with conviction, you’re inclined to believe them. The Dake Bible was especially influential because it presented the Gap Theory in study notes right alongside Scripture, making it seem like biblical truth rather than human interpretation.

5. It Appeals to Our Love of Stories: Humans are story-loving creatures. We like narratives that explain how things came to be. The Gap Theory tells a dramatic story of prehistoric worlds, angelic rebellion, cosmic judgment, and new beginnings. It’s more exciting than simply saying “God created everything in six days.” The elaborate narrative appeals to our imagination. Dake played into this: “The whole story in a few words is this. God created the heavens first, then the Earth, all in the beginning or in the dateless past (Gen. 1:1; Job 38:4-7). He caused the heavens and the Earth to be inhabited and gave Lucifer control of the Earth-kingdom (Col. 1:15-18; Rev. 12:12; Ezek. 28:11-18; Isa. 14:12-14.) Lucifer ruled for God for an unknown period before he rebelled and invaded heaven to dethrone God (Ezek. 28:11-18; Isa. 14:12-14).”³¹

The True Biblical Account of Creation

After examining all of Dake’s elaborate theories and speculations, it’s refreshing to return to what the Bible actually teaches about creation. The biblical account is simple, profound, and beautiful—without any need for gaps, prehistoric worlds, or pre-Adamite races.

Here’s what Scripture clearly teaches about creation:

This simple, straightforward account doesn’t require elaborate theories or hidden meanings. God created the world good, humans fell into sin, and God provides redemption through Jesus Christ. That’s the story the Bible tells from beginning to end.

Theological Implications for Today

Why does it matter whether we believe in the Gap Theory or not? Can’t Christians just agree to disagree on this issue? While Christians can certainly have different views on some aspects of creation, the Gap Theory has serious implications that affect core Christian doctrines:

For Our Understanding of Sin (Hamartiology)

If we accept biblical teaching, sin entered God’s good creation through Adam’s disobedience. This means sin is an intruder, not part of God’s original plan. Satan is a rebel who has invaded God’s good creation, not a former legitimate ruler of a previous world. When Christ defeats Satan, He’s liberating creation from an invader, not just replacing one ruler with another.

But if the Gap Theory is true, sin and death existed for millions of years before Adam. Satan had already rebelled and been judged. Death was already a tool God used for judgment. This changes everything about how we understand sin, evil, and redemption. Dake acknowledged this issue: “Lucifer is spoken of as being ‘perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, TILL iniquity was found in thee’ (Ezek. 28:11-17). He led an invasion into Heaven to dethrone God but was defeated and cast back to the Earth (Isa. 14:12-14; Luke 10:18). This rebellion of Lucifer and the Earth he ruled over, together with the angels of God who followed Lucifer, caused the judgment on the Earth before Adam.”³²

For Our Understanding of Humanity (Anthropology)

The Bible teaches that humans are unique image-bearers of God, specially created for relationship with Him. Our dignity, worth, and purpose come from this unique status. Every human being—regardless of race, ability, or any other characteristic—bears God’s image and has infinite worth.

The Gap Theory undermines this by suggesting multiple creations of different human races. Even if someone doesn’t explicitly teach that modern races have different origins, the theoretical framework is there. This can lead to viewing some people as fundamentally different or less valuable than others.

For Our Understanding of Salvation (Soteriology)

The Gospel depends on the unity of the human race in Adam. Because we all fell in Adam, we can all be saved in Christ. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). This only works if Adam truly was the first human and the father of all humanity.

If there were pre-Adamites who lived and died without any possibility of salvation, it raises serious questions about God’s justice and love. Why would God create intelligent beings with no hope of redemption? How can we trust a God who destroyed billions without mercy? Dake wrote about their doom: “At one time they were in God’s favor or grace, but being totally destroyed proves that they fell from HiS favor or grace, which could only be through sin.”³³

For Our Understanding of the Future (Eschatology)

The Bible promises that God will create “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1) where righteousness dwells. This will be a restoration and perfection of God’s original good creation. The curse of sin will be removed, and creation will be what God always intended it to be.

But if God’s pattern is to destroy and start over when things go wrong (as in the Gap Theory), how can we be confident in eternal security? If God destroyed the pre-Adamites completely, might He destroy us too if we fail badly enough? The Gap Theory undermines our confidence in God’s promises. Dake wrote: “The Bible tells us that there are various kingdoms in Earth and in Heaven (Col. 1:15-18); that over one-third of God’s angels rebelled with Lucifer and are still carrying on rebellion against God… that all the pre-Adamite men and nations also rebelled with their ruler Lucifer and were totally destroyed by a flood.”³⁴

Responding to Gap Theory Believers

If you know someone who believes in the Gap Theory, how should you respond? It’s important to approach this with love, patience, and grace. Many Gap Theory believers are sincere Christians who are trying to understand the Bible and defend their faith. They’re not trying to undermine Christianity—they think they’re defending it.

Here are some suggestions for talking with Gap Theory believers:

Conclusion: Building on the Solid Rock

Finis Dake’s Gap Theory represents one of his most elaborate and influential errors. By inserting millions of years and a whole civilization between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, he created a theological system that undermines biblical authority, contradicts clear Scripture, and opens the door to dangerous teachings about race and human nature.

The damage from this theory extends far beyond academic theology. It has confused sincere believers, weakened confidence in Scripture’s clarity, provided a framework for racist ideology, and complicated the simple Gospel message. When we add prehistoric worlds and pre-Adamite races to the Bible, we’re not defending Scripture—we’re undermining it.

The irony is that the Gap Theory was created to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. Christians don’t need to reconcile the Bible with every changing scientific theory. The Bible’s account of creation stands on its own as God’s revealed truth. When science seems to contradict Scripture, we can trust that either science is wrong (and will eventually be corrected) or we’re misunderstanding something. We don’t need to twist Scripture to fit current scientific theories.

Against Dake’s elaborate speculation stands the clear teaching of Scripture: God created the heavens and earth in six days. All humans descend from Adam and Eve. Sin entered through Adam’s disobedience. Death is the result of sin, not part of God’s original creation. Salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone. This simple, profound truth has sustained Christians for two thousand years, and it will continue to sustain us until Christ returns.

We don’t need Gap Theories, pre-Adamite races, or prehistoric worlds. We don’t need to discover hidden meanings between the verses of Genesis. We don’t need elaborate dispensational schemes that divide humanity and fragment God’s unified plan of redemption. What we need is to read the Bible plainly, believe what it clearly teaches, and trust the God who revealed it.

As we’ve seen throughout our examination of Dake’s errors, the problem isn’t that the Bible is unclear or insufficient. The problem is when teachers like Dake impose their own ideas on Scripture, forcing it to say things it doesn’t actually say. The Gap Theory is perhaps the clearest example of this—taking two verses of Scripture and building an entire prehistoric mythology between them.

Let this chapter serve as a warning: Beware of teachers who claim to have discovered hidden truths that the church has missed for centuries. Beware of interpretations that require you to ignore the plain meaning of Scripture. Beware of theories that complicate the Gospel and divide humanity. Instead, hold fast to the simple, clear truth of God’s Word.

The Bible tells one story—the story of God creating, humanity falling, and God redeeming. It’s a story of one God, one human race, one problem (sin), and one solution (Jesus Christ). This story doesn’t need gaps, additions, or improvements. It’s perfect just as God revealed it. And that’s the solid rock on which we can build our faith, our lives, and our eternal hope.

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