A Gap of Confidence—My Personal Creation Story

Dr Danny Essary (Ed.D.) is an assistant professor at East Texas Baptist University (USA). In a recent e-mail to AiG, he shared his creationist testimony, including how the Lord used creation ministry to restore his full confidence in the authority and accuracy of the Bible. You see, the seeds of doubt in the Bible’s reliability were planted by a seminary instructor who presented him with the compromise view known as the “gap theory”.

As a young boy, my faith in the Scriptures was a literal faith. I took the Bible at face value. In my mind there could not have been any other way to interpret the Creation account other than as a literal six-day Creation. Although I became a Christian as a boy and did not receive evolutionary instruction in school, I began to question the literal interpretation of the Creation account during my high school years.

My family and I had moved and I was attending a new church (supposedly conservative and evangelical). During church training for my age group, a seminary instructor introduced my class to the idea of the gap theory. (For an explanation-and refutation-see the Gap Theory section of our Q&A: Creation Compromises page) The gap theory was the lesson and not just a side issue. The instructor was indoctrinating us into questioning the authority of God’s Word. We were subtly being deceived into believing a lie. Although my friends and I did not change our minds then and there, the seeds of doubt were planted in my mind.

Even in the college science courses I attended the indoctrination of evolution was not as explicit as it was during that church training class. I wrestled with the different theistic evolutionary ideas [i.e. God-directed evolution] that were being put forth at that time. I did not know how to defend my faith in a literal Bible from a scientific basis.

Through friends, I was introduced to creation literature. One of the first books that I read on the subject was The Lie: Evolution by Ken Ham of AiG. Although I did not fully appreciate that book at the time, it propelled me to search further until I could become satisfied with the answers to my questions. By God’s gracious leading I became satisfied that the Bible could be trusted completely. Therefore, I believe in a historical literal six-day Creation, a historical literal Genesis, an authoritative Bible written in part and completely inspired by my personal Creator God-The Lord Jesus Christ.

-Dr Danny Essary