la modificada teoría de la brecha de ralph winter

7/24/2019 La Modificada Teora de La Brecha de Ralph Winter

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Ralph Winters Modified Gap Theory

(La modificada teora de la brecha de RalphWinter)

Hello folks, trust you are all having a nice summer.

Im sure many of you are familiar with Ralph Winter. He is the editor of the acclaimed

bookPerspectives on World Missionsand is arguably the foremost expert on missions in the

world today. Ralph and I exchanged several letters a number of years ago, right after God at

Warwas first published !""#$. %y the way, God at War&ust went into its !'th printing this

week. (eah)$. I dont know what influence, if any, my work had on him, but he told me at that

time of a revelation of sorts that hed had regarding missions and spiritual warfare.

*ust as Ive been arguing, Ralph had at some point come to understand that nature as we nowfind it has been corrupted by demonic powers. +ince missions is all about spiritual warfare,

Ralph came to believe that missions must include engaging in warfare against all aspects of

nature that have been corrupted. If my memory serves me correct it may not$, he established a

program to fund research into the origins of disease as a result of this revelation. he vision that

funds this research program is that fighting viruses, parasites, diseases and the like is part of

missions)

I couldnt agree more)

-ow, I recently received some mailings from a lady named %eth +nodderly in response to myrecent blogs on natural/ evil. +hes the director of William 0arey International 1niversity I

believe$. +he reminded me that Ralph had proposed a version of the gap theory/ that avoids

the scientific difficulties Id been struggling with in my own version of the gap theory/ 2

namely, the lack of corroborating geological and paleontological evidence. If there was a

world3wide do over,/ there ought to be massive evidence of it 2 and theres none$. I now recall

Ralph explaining his view to me eight or nine years ago, and I remember not being very

persuaded by it2 which perhaps explains why I forgot about it altogether. %ut %eth graciously

sent me several research papers shed written on Ralphs view as well as one of Ralphs own

writings, and I have to say this view looks much more plausible to me now than it did when Ifirst heard it.

I cant possibly do &ustice to Ralphs view in a short well, sort of short$ blog like this, so Ill

&ust give the outline of the view and ask you to trust me that %eths excellent essays defending

this view make a surprisingly compelling case. 4aybe in future blogs Ill flesh out some of the

argumentation$. What follows is mostly from %eths essays, and I have to the confess that it

wasnt always clear to me from these essays which insights are Ralphs and which are %eths.

+o when its not clear to me, Ill &ust refer to them as Ralph and %eths$ view./

o begin, Ralph offers the not3entirely3implausible speculation that 5od commissioned angelic

beings to oversee aspects of nature and the production of life, similar to the way 5od later

commissioned humans to have a domain of authority over nature and animals. hese angels, he


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speculates, were in training,/ which in part perhaps explains why life evolved so slowly from

our human perspective$. Read 6s. 78 if you think angels are exempt from needing training$.

+ome of these angels3in3training rebelled, and this is why the areas they continue to exercise

authority over became corrupt. Ralph and %eth$ offer evidence that this corruption began early

on during an epoch called the 0ambrian explosion,/ roughly 97: million years ago. It is at this

point that we find the first traces of violent forms of life, and they increase in complexity 2 and

viciousness 2with remarkable speed by geological standards$.

-ow, similar to what I argue in God at War, Ralph argues that the phrase formless and void/

tohu wa bohu$ in 5enesis !;8 denotes a pe&orative state of affairs. It doesnt reflect creation as

5od originally intended it, but rather reflects a creation that has been overcome with chaos and

futility.


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+o Ralph and %eth$ argue this goodness/ doesnt extend to the whole cosmos. Rather, they

argue that 5od had carved out a special ?den,/ as it were, on the otherwise corrupted earth.

Ralph suggests 5od specially created humans and re3created animals as he originally intended

them prior to the cosmic corruption and placed them in the garden. +tanding in the center of

this specially created ?den all would appear good. %ut ?den, in this view, was an oasis of

blessing in a cursed desert.

%ut it wasnt supposed to remain a small oasis. Ralph argues that ?den was intended to be asort of mustard seed beachhead/ from which 5od planned to launch his assault against the

rebel forces that corrupt nature and to eventually reclaim the entire globe as his Cingdom. His

plan was to extend the freedom for the state of tohu wa bohuin ?den to eventually encompass

the entire planet. We were, in other words, created for warfare.

his plan, however, was conditioned on humans remaining obedient to 5od, which, as you

know, unfortunately didnt happen. ?den was thereby forfeited and engulfed in the very state

of tohu wa bohuit was established to overcome. (et, 5od didnt abandon his plan. He simply

modified it. He graciously continued to work in and through humans to restore them to theirrightful place of authority on the earth and eventually establish the entire planet as a domain of

5ods reign. In 0hrist this happened, in principle. Bnd through the 0hurch this is happening in

fact.

We are still battling the state of tohu wa bohu2 and this, for Ralph, is what missions is all

about. Indeed, its what the Cingdom is all about.

I will need to do more research and reflection before I throw my hat entirely in the ring with

this revised gap theory. %ut I have to confess I find it very compelling. It allows one to continue

to hold to the gap theory on an exegetical basis, which Ive always thought was very strong.(et, by localiDing the gap/ it completely avoids the geological and paleontological problems

that accompany the standard gap theory.

-ot only that, but while Im sure the interpretation of 5enesis ! as reflecting the perspective of

one on the earth and as structured for literary, not chronological, purposes may strike many lay

readers of this blog as idiosyncratic, there are, as I mentioned, a host of conservative


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la modificada teoría de la brecha de ralph winter

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