[In Part 2, Chapter 1, Genesis, Mr Ridout seeks to show, as a supplementary figure, a semblance to a pre-creation in the six days work of creation. There is no scriptural reference to, or necessity of, such a pre-creation. In Mr Ridout's day the infant science of geology overwhelmed people with the vastness of the geological record. Some, without faith, sought to make from this a theory of evolution. Many Christians, unable to apprehend the geological record in the time-span of man's history sought to find a space for it in a pre-creation, or 'gap', before the six days. For many years it has been appreciated by many Christians that the geological record is very largely one of the cataclysmic global flood as described in Genesis and referred to elsewhere in the Scriptures e.g. 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5; 2 Peter 3:3-6. (Men do not oppose long ages or a pre-creation view as such, they oppose any idea of 'God' and of 'judgment' as in Noah's flood.) Clearly such a flood would have left the remains of all types of life sorted by type in sediments soon hardened into rock. The earth in Genesis 1:1 was 'unformed and unfilled' — it is not necessary to understand it as 'wrecked'. These pre-creation ideas introduce even greater theological difficulties such as death before sin, and death operating where God had stated that all that He had made was very good. The fact that fossil creatures are either identical to modern creatures, including apes and men, or of a similar nature, point to the first creation pre-flood scene. It should also be mentioned that a long ages world view introduces more scientific difficulties than it seeks to solve, e.g. features of the universe which could not be as we now see them if there had been the long ages which are mooted. This is not the place to expand on this, but there is much literature available on the subject, both scriptural and scientific. Ed. STEM.]