Has anyone encountered the "Gap Theory" in the Christian Bible, Book of Genesis 1:1? According to this theory, the Devil and his angels inhabited the earth for billions of years, as well as the great lizards (dinosaurs), before the Elohim, a Council of Gods (the Lunar Pitris or Dhyan Chohans) cleared the earth, using it "without form and void" (as Satan and his angels left it) so mankind could be created a place to live (Eden). It's much more complicated than this, but one fact remains, there WERE dinosaurs, AND there are the remains of NO MEN along with those dinosaur relics. What does HPB say about this? (I know I need to study it more, but I would like someone to begin the thread for me.)
Andrew
I have no source but my poor memory of one explanation. At the time of the dinosaurs we humans were on a more refined or subtle plane. So the dinos were not aware of us, nor we them. Or if either group was aware of the other, they were only that - aware - neither group could really affect the other.
The rest of the Gap theory I know nothing about.
Andrew,
I am not familiar with the Gap Theory, but The Secret Doctrine Covers the issues that you have raised. According to The Secret Doctrine, “The Elohim cleared the Earth,” as you have said.
“…in the tablet, ‘the Lord of Angels’ destroys the men in the abyss ... who ‘were destroyed’ because they were not ‘perfect’....” (SD vol II p. 55)
However, this does not refer to the world being “without form and void”. The phrase “without form and void” refers to Space in the state of non-differentiation, non-existence, before the events which caused spirit and matter to appear at the beginning of our present universe.
In The Secret Doctrine we read:
“THE ETERNAL PARENT (Space), WRAPPED IN HER EVER INVISIBLE ROBES, HAD SLUMBERED ONCE AGAIN FOR SEVEN ETERNITIES. [Stanza i-1-1]
“The ‘Parent Space’ is the eternal, ever present cause of all -- the incomprehensible DEITY, whose ‘invisible robes’ are the mystic root of all matter, and of the Universe. Space is the one eternal thing that we can most easily imagine, immovable in its abstraction and uninfluenced by either the presence or absence in it of an objective Universe. It is without dimension, in every sense, and self-existent. Spirit is the first differentiation from THAT, the causeless cause of both Spirit and Matter. It is, as taught in the esoteric catechism, neither limitless void, nor conditioned fulness, but both. It was and ever will be.” (SD vol I p. 35)
Thus, the world being “without form and void” refers to Space before the processes of differenting and existing (which signaled the beginning of our universe) began. (This was well before any physical atoms had appeared, much less before the planet Earth had appeared.)
Regarding the clearing of the Earth as you have mentioned, this occurred after the First Root-Race appeared on Earth, and before the Fourth Root-Race (The Atlanteans) appeared.
“The explanations given in our Stanzas are far more clear than that which the legend of creation from the Cutha tablet would give, even were it complete. What is preserved on it, however, corroborates them. For, in the tablet, ‘the Lord of Angels’ destroys the men in the abyss ... who ‘were destroyed’ because they were not ‘perfect’....” (SD vol II p. 55)
Yes, there were dinasours.
“…the ages of the reptiles and the mammalia, lizards with birds' wings, and serpents' heads on animal bodies....” (SD vol II p. 56)
Blavatsky is adamant that humanity appeared before any other animals on Earth.
“That man can be shown to have lived in the mid-Tertiary period, and in a geological age when there did not yet exist one single specimen of the now known species of mammals, is a statement that science cannot deny....” (SD vol II p. 155)
The reason humanity appeared before any other animals is because the First Root-Race only appeared in astral bodies — during the time on the Earth when the conditions could not support any animal life.
“But men, during the first and the second races, were not physical beings, but merely rudiments [astral entities] of the future men: Bhutas....” (SD vol II p. 108)
“Hence we believe in races of beings other than our own in far remote geological periods; in races of ethereal, following incorporeal, ‘Arupa,’ men, with form but no solid substance....” (SD vol II p. 194)
“...primeval humanity had at first an ethereal ... form, evolved by gods or natural "forces," which grew, condensed throughout millions of ages, and became gigantic in its physical impulse and tendency, until it settled into the huge, physical form of the Fourth Race Man....” (SD vol II p. 151)
“In those early ages, astral evolution was alone in progress, and the two planes, the astral and the physical, though developing on parallel lines, had no direct point of contact with one another.” (SD vol II p. 157)
Satan
The Secret Doctrine identifies several entities that are given the name Satan or the Devil. One of the entities named is among the Elohim. (Satan does not predate the Elohim, as your Gap Theory seems to indicate.)
“Of all the seven great divisions of Dhyan-Chohans, or Devas, there is none with which humanity is more concerned than with the Kumaras. Imprudent are the Christian Theologians who have degraded them into fallen Angels, and now call them "Satan" and Demons; as among these heavenly denizens who refuse to create, the Archangel Michael -- the greatest patron Saint of Western and Eastern Churches, under his double name of St. Michael and his supposed copy on earth, St. George conquering the DRAGON....” (SD vol I p. 458)
Actually, the topic of Satan is very complicated, and is covered in several places in The Secret Doctrine, but Blavatsky makes it clear that Satan is nothing like the figure which is portrated in modern-day Christianity.
"The Secret Doctrine identifies several entities that are given the name Satan or the Devil. One of the entities named is among the Elohim. (Satan does not predate the Elohim, as your Gap Theory seems to indicate.) "
Satan, then known as Lucifer, was one of the Council of the Elohim. Trying to fit Biblical theology into the Stanzas of Dzyan, or vice versa, may seem an impossible task, but I think HPB only gave us hints and symbols of the Ancient Wisdom Religion which mankind "filled in" with his own mythology later. From just a cursory review of both ideas for right now, I believe a case could be made for both "theories."
Andrew
Andrew,
The soure of Biblical theology IS the Stanzas of Dzyan, so some of us have already been able to fit the former into the latter. Much of Blavatsky's teachings were given to us for just that purpose.
We just have to be open-minded and know that much of the Bible was intentionally re-written for various reasons. Due to the re-writes, the ideas have been changed into something incorrect. Blavatsky shows us the incorrectness of the Bible, and what it used to say.
Once in a while, a mistake shows through -- surely the editors of the Bible must have accidentally let the story of the Elohim through. If those same editors were working today, I am sure they would re-write the Bible to say Adam and Eve were created by a single God, not a group of gods. (Fortunately, the Bible still says Adam and Eve were created by a group of gods, which is what actually happened, even though it greatly irritates modern-day Christians.)
Gen, 1:1, Bereshith bara elohim (Heb)
Gen. 1:1, In the beginning gods (Eng)
'Elohim" is always plural because of the "im" ending! That has been a headache for the Judaic-Christian "monotheists" for ever. Nothing can explain it away, and, yes, HPB clarified that point very exactly. Read Psalms 92 (91 in Catholic Bibles) where the Council of the Elohim are perfectly described.
Andrew