Were Dinosaurs Extinct
Before Adam Was Created?

A Sudden Change From Reptile To Mammal

As the famous paleontologist George G. Simpson once remarked: “The most puzzling event in the history of life on the earth is the change from the Mesozoic Age of Reptiles, to the … Age of Mammals. It is as if the curtain were rung down SUDDENLY on a stage where all the leading roles were taken by reptiles, especially dinosaurs, in great numbers and bewildering variety, and rose again IMMEDIATELY to reveal the same setting but an entirely new cast, a cast in which the dinosaurs do not appear at all, other reptiles are supernumeraries (minor actors) and the leading parts are all played by mammals of sorts barely hinted at in the previous acts” (Historical Geology, Carl O. Dunbar, p. 426). This sudden burial created the oil deposits and coal seams. Another evolutionary geologist, Carl O. Dunbar, said, "Throughout the long Mesozoic Era ... reptiles completely dominated life on the earth; but at its close their dynasty SUDDENLY COLLAPSED" (Historical Geology, p. 404). Then "the reptilian hordes gave way to a spectacular rise of warm-blooded vertebrates" (ibid., p. 336). (Cambrian Explosion) 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).

Uniformitarianism Unable to Explain Worldwide Pre-Adamic Drowning in "Waters" (Gen. 1:2) Circa 3960 B.C.

A well-known paleontologist, Norman Newell, confessed, "Geology students are taught that 'the present is the key to the past,' and they too often take it to mean that nothing ever happened that isn't happening now.... But ...we have gathered more data and we have begun to realize there were many CATASTROPHIC events in the past, some of which happened just once" (Newsweek, Dec. 23, 1963). "The CATASTROPHE would have had to be almost universal in proportions as we know that dinosaurs were present in most or all continents" (The Age of Dinosaurs, Bjorn Kurten, p. 236). Yet according to Edwin Colbert, "There is no place for WORLDWIDE CATASTROPHES in the world of the past or of the present if the principle of uniformitarianism has any validity" (The Age of Reptiles, Edwin Colbert, pp. 203-204). This idea that existing processes acting in the same manner as at present are sufficient to account for all geological changes is false. Ungodly men in the end times would teach that "all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2 Pet. 3:3-7). The idea that "the present is the key to the past" doesn't account for the worldwide extermination of dinosaurs in "waters" (Gen. 1:2). There were two worldwide floods at least 1656 years apart. One in 3960 B.C. and the other in 2304 B.C. The creation account was generally recognized as a literal fact by theologians and secular scholars alike -- throughout the Christian world -- until about two centuries ago. Sir Charles Lyell's book Principles of Geology was published in 1830. The earth, according to Lyell, has had no catastrophes -- just uniform, natural forces in action over vast amounts of time. The vast "long ages" assigned to the rock layers are meaningless. The layers only reveal the order in which life died in each worldwide flood catastrophe. The rock layers were laid down quickly -- perhaps in a matter of days. Not millions of years. Then in 1859, Charles Darwin published his book Origin of Species which taught evolution. Darwin's ideas needed Lyell's vast amounts of time, and Lyell needed a method of evolution. Lyell became an evolutionist upon reading Darwin's book. They were unwilling to retain God in their knowledge (Rom. 1:18-23

Iridium-rich Clay Layer Between Dinosaurs and Man

God originally created the earth "to be inhabited" (Isa. 45:18) at an unknown date in the distant past. It was populated by dinosaurs. He didn't create the earth "in vain" [tohu] (45:18) but it became that way. "The earth became without form [tohu] and void [bohu]" (Gen. 1:2). Scientists believe a meteor collided with earth causing the extinction of the age of dinosaurs. Satan and his angels had sinned (Isa. 14:12; Ez. 28:12; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). This collision caused a worldwide flood. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep ... waters" (Gen. 1:2) which drowned the dinosaur world (except aquatic varieties). Then God RENEWED "the face of the earth" (Ps. 104:30) and commanded man to "REPLENISH the earth" (Gen. 1:28). It had supported life once before. Then 1656 years later, another worldwide flood occurred (Gen. 7:12), initiated by another meteor colliding with earth, and God again instructed man to "REPLENISH the earth" (Gen. 9:1). The pre-flood world had been drowned due to wickedness and rebellion.

Many in the scientific community now believe in the reality of ancient, global catastrophes due to a layer of iridium which can be found in widely scattered parts of the earth. "This iridium-rich clay lay right at the boundary between the Cretaceous period, when there were dinosaurs, and the Tertiary, when there were none. Because iridium is rare on earth but common in meteorites ... [three Berkeley scientists] proposed that earth had been hit by an asteroid ten kilometers (six miles) across ... the proposal has since been backed up by abundant and convincing evidence from around the globe. Most scientists now concur that at least one great extraterrestrial object struck the planet around the time the dinosaurs died out." (National Geographic, "The March Toward Extinction," June, 1989 Issue, p. 665).

It is significant that the iridium layer is found within a layer of clay. Since clay is typically deposited on sea-bottoms (Collier's Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, Heading entitled "Clay," p. 345), a layer of clay indicates that an ancient worldwide flood occurred as a result of a meteoric collision. Since this iridium layer marks the end of the dinosaur age and many other forms of prehistoric life, it seems evident that meteoric collisions precipitated a series of catastrophic events which led to the earth becoming (in the Bible's words) "tohu - without form and bohu - void." The fact that this layer of destruction is followed by a world of mammals indicates there was a "clean break" in the types of life on earth. The hostile world of dinosaurs was eliminated, and was followed by a world of mammals which were far more compatible with mankind. This is consistent with the Bible's account that the prehistoric earth experienced a global catastrophe which was followed by a new creation featuring mammal species (Cambrian Explosion).

The National Geographic article also catalogues evidence that more than one mass extinction has occurred in the earth's history. It says: "scientists know that the story of life on earth has been punctuated by mass extinctions...no matter what causes them, mass extinctions do occur. They force a new perspective on the history of life." (National Geographic, "The March Toward Extinction," pp. 666, 673). This scientific view states that one ancient catastrophe: "was abrupt, worldwide, and occurred during the midst of a long warm spell. 'At most we are dealing with 20,000 years -- and maybe just one stormy night,' says Willi Ziegler, director of the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt." (Ibid, p. 684) For thousands of years, the Bible has been telling man that at least two ancient global catastrophes occurred: the Flood of Noah's time, and the destruction of an inhabited earth prior to Adam's creation. Interestingly, in recent years man's ability to analyse objectively the earth's past has finally advanced to the point that it confirms what the Bible has said from the beginning.

"Stone Age Prehistoric Man"?

The word "prehistoric" means no written record exists. How then do we know "prehistoric man" existed at all? There is no history to support it. But men continue to try to prove that cavemen COEXISTED with dinosaurs. But the world of the dinosaurs and the modern world of mammals are NOT INTERMIXED in the fossil record. Realistically, they are not even compatible. Yet historians try to extend the history of mankind. Manetho summarized the history of Egypt under the rule of 30 dynasties and tried to make them appear consecutive. But the truth is that Egypt was ruled by several kings at the same time (2 Ki. 7:6). The famous "AGES" of man known as Paleolithic (Old Stone), the Mesolithic (Intermediate Stone), the Neolithic (New Stone), the Chalcolithic (Stone and Copper) and the Bronze and Iron -- were CULTURES, not ages. Civilized man did not descend from primitive tribes using stone tools. Instead, it was degraded and degenerate men that descended from civilization -- "driven forth from the midst of men" (Job 30:1-8). Such cultures of head-hunters and cannibals exist today in places like New Guinea alongside modern civilization. But Adam was created 6000 years ago with a brilliant mind that was "very good" (Gen. 1:31). He was not in any way degenerate or primitive. Did not Zipporah, the wife of Moses (Ex. 4:25), and Joshua (5:3) both avail themselves of stone knives in order to perform the rite of circumcision, long after the stone age is supposed to have passed away? In fact, the very stone knives which were used on the occasion were buried in the tomb of Joshua according to the LXX of Joshua 24:30. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, in his Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians 3:262, gives an account of flint knives found in their tombs, the use of which was retained for certain religious purposes long after bronze and iron had been familiar to them. Herodotus 2:86 mentions that the Egyptians made an incision in the body of a dead person, when brought to be embalmed, "with an Ethiopic stone."

The Curse of Cain -- to be a Primitive Hunter-Gatherer?

Cain sought to gain his livlihood by farming methods which DEPLETED THE SOIL. He "was wholly intent upon GETTING and he first contrived to PLOUGH the ground ... God was more delighted with the latter oblation (of Abel), when he was honored with what grew naturally of its own accord, than he was with what was the invention of a covetous man, and gotten by FORCING the ground" (Ant. 1:2:1). "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive (wanderer) and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth" (Gen. 4:11-12). If Cain and his descendants had been allowed to continue their agricultural EXPLOITATION of the land, the soil would have been DEPLETED long ago. But God put a stop to it. Are Cain's descendants the so-called primitive "cave men" of archaeologists -- who hunted wild animals and gathered wild berries?

Woolly Mammoths Flash Frozen in "Ice Age" Commencing 2304 BC

A 300 degree below zero Farehnheit ice meteor came flying toward earth and either broke up in space or actually hit the earth first and then broke up. (There is water everywhere in space.) As it was breaking up, some of the fragments got caught and became the rings around the planets, or the craters on the moon, or the craters on some of the planets, and what was left over came down and was splattered on top of the north and south pole. The impact made the earth wobble around for a few thousand years afterward. Either that or the fact that the ice particles settled mainly around the poles caused the earth to wobble. This super cold snow fell mostly on the poles, burying the mammoths standing up. They were flash-frozen. Estimates are that 5 million mammoths perished in this catastrophe. They were frozen with undigested food in their mouths and stomachs. They died of suffocation -- no water found in their lungs but small ice crystals found in their blood indicate they probably froze in less than 5 hours. That requires a colder temperature than 300 degrees Farenheit below zero. "These fossils of the Siberian permafrost present an insuperable difficulty for a theory of slow, gradual geology ... no gradualistic process can result in the preservation of tens of thousands of tusks and whole individuals, even if they died in the winter. They must have been frozen suddenly" (Harold E. Lippman, "Frozen Mammoths," Science, Vol. 137, August 10, 1962, p. 449). Heaps of tusks were found in Siberia. For example, in the few decades preceding 1899, one report stated that about 20,000 tusks had been exported for the ivory trade. These were in perfect condition. Mammoths are not designed for cold weather. In Barrow Alaska a drilling rig drilled into a 300-foot tall tree under the permafrost. On the New Siberian Islands, they find frozen bobcats, frozen lynx, bison, mammoths, camels, etc. They find coal under the ice in Antarctica where there are no trees. Admiral Byrd found frozen palm leaves near the South Pole.

After the earth was hit by the ice meteor, or after the dumping of ice on the north and south poles, the crust of the earth cracked releasing the fountains of the deep (Gen. 7:11). (The pre-flood world had water under the earth also.) The earth broke up into plates at fault lines such as the San Andreas Fault, the New Madrid Fault, etcetera. The water under the crust was hot and came shooting to the surface and continued for 150 days killing everything within a few hundred miles immediately. Everyone drowned eventually but that process may have taken 6-8 months to kill everyone during that flood. A 200-foot tidal change every 6 hours and 25 minutes caused the sorting into layers during the flood. Psalm 104:7-8 mentions this tidal action. Genesis 8:23 mentions "going and returning" or sloshing tides. Noah stayed in the ark for six months because of this tidal action and the ground was probably still muddy.

The spreading ice caused the "ice-age" effect and the glacier effects we see. Ice came all the way down to Kansas City, Missouri (Extent of Ice Age, Scott Foresman, Earth Science, 1990, p.316). The ice age really happened -- at the beginning of the flood. It caused the flood. The ice caps at the poles sent off a cold wave. This cold air hitting warm air caused it to rain, and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The canopy collapsed. All fountains of the deep broken open in one day. (see Jasher 6:11) Fragments of the ice meteor made the canopy collapse that used to protect the earth. More UV light entered.

During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals would settle out and the dead plants would settle out. Once buried, they would become coal if plants and oil if animals. Natural gas deposits also formed during the flood. Those are still found today in huge graveyards. During the last few months of the flood, the unstable plates of the earth would shift around. Some places would lift up forming mountain ranges, other places sink down forming ocean basins. "The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place which thou didst appoint for them. Thou didst set a bound which they should not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth" (Ps. 104:8-9). The fact that Mt. Ararat has salt crystals at the 14000 foot level which only form under water, and the fact that pillow lava is also found high on Mt. Ararat which only forms under water, both indicate that this mountain was lifted up from under the water. The runoff from all the mountain ranges would cause incredible erosion in a couple of weeks -- like Grand Canyon.

Over the next few hundred years, the ice caps would melt back retreating to their current size. The added water formed the continental shelf. Oceans became deeper, wider and colder as the water level rose. The cold water would also absorb more CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) out of the atmosphere which would allow more radiation to get in shortening the life span of people (Joktan means "Shorten"). Some of the greenhouse protection was removed. In the days of Peleg it finally took effect. The earth was "Divided" -- the meaning of Peleg's name (Gen. 10:25). The continents were divided when the water level rose. Peleg was born about 100 years after the flood. He only lived to be 209. His father, grandfather and great grandfather lived to be in their 400s. Why are unique species such as kangaroos, wombats and koalas only found in Australia? They walked there. Because originally the continents were all connected for the first few hundred years after the flood. Populations spread out across the globe, and became "trapped" on their continents by the rising water. Non-aggressive and less aggressive animals were constantly being pushed to the migratory fringes. They would rather run than fight. While this was happening, the waters were rising up because the ice caps were melting back. All of a sudden, Australia -- which used to be part of the mainland -- was a protected island.

Not only that, there are ancient Egyptian cities discovered under 30 feet of water in the Mediterranean Sea. The sea level was lower at some point in the past. Cities have been discovered under water in Cabo de San Antonio, Cuba (1/2 mile down) and Mahabalipuram, India (several square miles) and Bimini Road, Bahamas. The underwater road off the coast of Florida was paved with magnesium oxide. Yona Guni, a city off the coast of Japan, is two football fields wide and about eight stories high. In the north Atlantic are carved rock columns 6000 feet under the ocean. Also, miles of pillared temples, buildings and statues. Wide curving boulevards and roads radiating out like spokes from a wheel. Gibraltar was a spillway when the Atlantic got too high. Then Sicily was the next spillway and then the Bosporus. Skeptics are "willingly ignorant" of this evidence (2 Pet. 3:5).

Scientists have reported discovering the first set of dinosaur fossils ever to be found in the interior of Antarctica. The fossils are said to be the remains of a plant-eating dinosaur, 25 to 30 feet long, that lived about 200 million years ago in what geologists call the early Jurassic age. The bones were spotted at a small section of exposed rock alongside the mountain, which lies about 400 miles from the south pole (Chris Raymond, "Scientists Report Finding Fossils of Dinosaurs in Antarctica's Interior," Chronicle of Higher Education -- March 20, 1991, p.A11). Also "the discovery of thousands of well-preserved leaves in Antarctica ... enjoyed a near temperate climate." Tropical plant-eating dinosaurs have also been found in northern Alaska. Mammoths are not designed for cold weather.

When climbers got to the top of Mount Everest, they found petrified clams -- in the closed position. When a clam dies, it opens. How would you get millions of petrified clams in the closed position on top of mountains all over the world? Mount Everest is quite a way from the beach. Clams don't climb mountains. They were buried alive in huge beds sometimes. Oysters 11.5 feet wide are found in Peru two miles above sea level (Holt, Modern Earth Science, 1983, p.207).

Any spinning top behaves in a peculiar way whenever it is struck by anything. If you throw a rock at a spinning top, it will wobble around for awhile (gyroscope) and then it will slowly recover and stabilize -- usually at a new angle or axis. "Scientists studying underwater volcanoes have found evidence the earth may have wobbled like an out-of-balance ball 84 million years ago, relocating the poles and shifting the location of Washington to the tropics." (By Randolph E. Schmid APO Washington MSNBC, Jan. 20, 2000). Today the earth is tilted 23.5 degrees. But was it always that way? Stonehenge is an interesting stone structure. It was built to worship the sun at summer solstice. It tracks the solar solstice shadow. But today stonehenge doesn't line up. The temple of Amen-Ra was drawn by Napoleon's savants in 1798. The colonnade aimed at the summer solostice -- longest day of the year. But it doesn't line up. Same with Eudoxus, etcetera.

The famous Australian astronomer George Dodwell conducted a study of the solstice shadows recorded by the ancients. Eudoxus, Amen-Ra, Stonehenge, etc. The recorded tilt of the earth made a wavy line on the graph that was a match of the wavy line a spinning top makes when struck by an object. It appeared to him that something struck the earth about 4350 years ago (Its A Young World After All by Ackerman) and caused the earth to wobble for several thousand years. Today the earth is stable. The north pole doesn't move much. But a graph of the earth's tilt as recorded by ancient astronomers indicates an impact 4350 years ago (2350 B.C.). Today the earth is tilted 23.5 degrees. This is what causes the seasons. The first mention of cold weather in the Bible is Genesis 8:22: "while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter ... shall not cease." (after the flood).

When a magnet floats above a superconductor, it is known as the Meisner Effect. A Japanese train operating on the Meisner Effect is suspended on superconducting coils causing magnetic levitation which gives no resistance and no friction. There are comets flying through space. These ice meteors are common in space and are normally -300 degrees to -400 degrees Fahrenheit (Holt, Modern Earth Science, 1983, p.51). An ice meteor flying through space would build up speed because of the inverse square law, as it got nearer earth. As it got going faster and faster, it would break up into a billion ice crystals. Those would then shower down on earth as a super cold snow. Huge polar ice caps formed at the time of the flood. Originally God formed the world to be inhabited (Isa. 45:18). But what we have today is uninhabitable in the arctic and antarctic regions.

Earth had a very strong magnetic field. At the time of the flood it was probably 15 to 20 times stronger than it is today. The magnetic field is weakening. Earth's magnetic field has lost 10% of its strength in the last 150 years (Astronomy and the Bible, Donald DeYoung p.18) and 40% of its strength in the last 1000 years. (If you go back 25,000 years, the magnetic strength would have been too strong for life to have existed here on earth, because of the heat generated, so evolutionists say it reverses.) The magnetic field would deflect most of the super cold ice crystals to the poles. Super cold ice is easily statically charged. The northern lights are caused because of the earth's magnetic field. The pre-flood world had a layer of ice or water suspended by the magnetic field using the Meisner Effect.

Two Creations and Two Worldwide Floods

There were two creations. One was in Genesis 1:1 and the other in Genesis 1:2. There were also two worldwide floods 1656 years apart. One in Genesis 1:2 and the other in Genesis 7:11. The "world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (2 Pet. 3:6) in both cases. How then do we tell the difference between the two sets? Fossils of cold-blooded reptiles are in the older and deeper layers of rock. But fossils of primarily warm-blooded mammals associated with man's world are found in the newer upper layers of rock. Rocks of the pre-Adamite world are so hard they can be dug into only with cutting tools and dynamite. But the sedimentary rocks laid down by Noah's Flood can in general still be dug into with a pick and shovel. The two mass extinctions are separated by the K-Pg boundary of sediment layers containing high concentrations of iridium.

Noah was told to take "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" (Gen. 6:19). This clearly reveals why so many mammals became extinct. Noah took representatives of various mammal groups -- but definitely not every variety. From the limited number of creatures in the ark, the world of today has been repopulated. The varieties of elephants existing today, for example, are much more limited than before the flood. The wooly mammoth and mastodon, relatives of the modern elephant, died in the flood. Representatives of elephants which Noah took on board the ark simply have not diversified back into those earlier varieties. The same can be said of other species. Where are the saber-tooth tigers, the glyptodonts, toxodonts, macrauchenia, ground sloths, and wooly rhinoceros?

The Earth BECAME Without Form and Void

Mankind is only 6000 years old but the earth may be much older. Creation week actually involved a re-creation of a devastated earth in 4027 B.C. Important Biblical events occurred between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. This is how to reconcile dinosaurs and the Bible. Many people mistakenly believe that either you have to believe in the young-earth theory of a 6,000-year-old earth and dinosaurs living with Adam, or you can’t believe in the creation week account of Genesis 1. God did not give man a hostile reptilian world -- filled with dinosaurs -- to inhabit. There is a large time gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.

John 1:1-2 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Psalm 90:2 says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Then comes Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Then next in time sequence is Isaiah 14:12-17, where Lucifer’s fall from heaven is recorded. Next comes the parallel account of Lucifer’s fall in Ezekiel 28:13-18. Then Jude 6 says, "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." The angels "sinned" (2 Pet. 2:4). Devastation was the result. Then Genesis 1:2 says, “The earth was (or "BECAME" -- NIV; or "had become" -- Rotherham) without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep." The Hebrew word "was" should be translated "BECAME" in Genesis 1:2 just as it is translated "BECAME" in Genesis 2:7, 9:15 and 19:26. Then Psalm 104:29-30 says, "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, THEY DIE (dinosaurs), and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou RENEWEST the face of the earth." Then God commanded man to replenish -- or repopulate -- the earth in 4027 B.C. (Gen. 1:28). The word "REPLENISH" literally means to "REFILL" and would not have been used if life had not been on the earth in an age before Adam. The same word is used in Genesis 9:1 after the Flood in Noah's time had completely destroyed all animal life except that which survived in the Ark. The earth had to once again be "REPLENISHED" at the time of Noah. Thus, this sin of the angels was therefore before the time of Adam's creation. Remember it was very soon after Adam's creation that Satan tempted Eve (Gen. 3). Lucifer had already fallen.

Apparently, something happened to cause the earth to become, as the Hebrew denotes, “chaotic and in confusion.” Since God is not the author of confusion or chaos (Isaiah 45:18; 1 Corinthians 14:33), it makes sense that the earth became that way due to Lucifer’s rebellion and subsequent expulsion to the earth. As Jesus Christ remarked, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Other scriptures reveal it was not only Satan, but also the fallen angels that were cast down with him. We read in 2 Peter 2:4 that “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell [from the Greek tartaroo, a place of confinement, in this case the earth] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment …” Revelation 12:3-4 describes the dragon (Satan, verse 9) as having drawn a third of the stars of heaven to be cast down to the earth—these “stars” being symbolic of angels (compare 1:20).

We don’t know how long it took Lucifer to rebel—and how long this was before the six-day renewal of the earth culminating in the creation of Adam and Eve, as described in the rest of Genesis 1. Satan’s rebellion apparently happened after the earth had passed through the dinosaur age. Then, geologists agree, something dramatic occurred between the "Age of Reptiles" and the "Age of Mammals." This apparently reflects the change from the pre-Adamic world to the world of man. Certainly there are smaller reptiles in our world, but they are insignificant in comparison to what existed in the previous age. If real dinosaurs had been in the Garden of Eden, it would have been more like Jurassic Park than a garden paradise.

This “ancient earth” explanation seems to make the most biblical sense. It is the only explanation that accepts the literal 24-hour days of the creation (or re-creation) week and, at the same time, makes room for an indefinite period before the creation of mankind that could include the dinosaurs and previous eras.The gap theory, which is distinct from theistic evolution and the day-age theory, is also called old-earth creationism, gap creationism, and the ruin-reconstruction theory. Some proponents of the gap theory include C. I. Scofield, J. Vernon McGee and Herbert Armstrong.

Recent geological and astronomical discoveries, such as cosmic expansion and signs of meteor impacts at the geologic Cretaceous-Paleogene border, better known as the “K-Pg boundary,” have only served to substantiate this view. In 1980, sedimentary layers found all over the world at the K-Pg boundary contain a concentration of iridium many times greater than normal (30 times the average crustal content in Italy and 160 times at Stevns on the Danish island of Zealand). Iridium is extremely rare in the earth's crust. As iridium remains abundant in most asteroids and comets, this fact suggests that an asteroid struck the earth at the time of the K-Pg boundary. Chromium isotopic anomalies found in Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary sediments are similar to those of an asteroid or a comet composed of carbonaceous chondrites. Shocked quartz granules and tektite glass spherules, indicative of an impact event, are also common in the K-Pg boundary, especially in deposits from around the Caribbean. All of these constituents are embedded in a layer of clay, interpreted as the debris spread all over the world by the impact. Using estimates of the total amount of iridium in the K-Pg layer, and assuming that the asteroid contained the normal percentage of iridium found in chondrites, the the size of the asteroid was then calculated. The answer was about 10 km (6.2 mi) in diameter, about the size of Manhattan. Such a large impact would have had approximately the energy of 100 trillion tons of TNT, or about 2 million times greater than the most powerful thermonuclear bomb ever tested.

One of the consequences of such an impact is a dust cloud which would block sunlight and inhibit photosynthesis for a few years. This would account for the extinction of plants and phytoplankton and of organisms dependent on them (including predatory animals as well as herbivores). However, small creatures whose food chains were based on detritus might have still had a reasonable chance of survival. Vast amounts of sulfuric acid aerosols were ejected into the stratosphere as a result of the impact, leading to a 10–20% reduction in sunlight reaching the Earth's surface. It would have taken at least ten years for those aerosols to dissipate. As Genesis 1:2 says, “The earth was (or "became") without form, and void; and DARKNESS was on the face of the deep." The Age of Reptiles ended. The dinosaurs were highly varied, "yet not one is known to have lived to see the dawn of the Cenozoic Era" (the age of man or the Age of Mammals) (Historical Geology by Carl Dunbar, p. 345).

Of course, Satan must have fallen before Adam did; otherwise, there would have been no temptation in the garden. Young-earth creationists say that Satan fell sometime after Genesis 1:31. Gap creationists say that Satan fell between Genesis 1:1 and 2.

One difficulty of the gap theory is that it requires that creation suffer death and destruction before Adam’s fall. Romans 5:12 says, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” The gap theory counters by positing two worlds. Satan’s sin brought death to the original creation, whatever that was like; and Adam’s sin brought death to the re-creation, the realm of mankind. Through Adam’s sin, evil entered our world and the realm of man was cursed. But rebellion already existed outside the realm of mankind (in the spiritual realm), since Satan and his angels had already fallen (Isaiah 14:12–14; Ezekiel 28:12–18). Sin could not enter the realm of man until man chose it. And Satan, via the serpent, successfully tempted man to make that choice.