Genesis 1 -- Creation and a Gap?

Genesis 1:1-2
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
KJV

See Genesis 1. Discuss and define your beliefs about the six days of Creation. Was this over a long period of time? Was it six 24-hour days? Was there a "gap" of unknown time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2? If so, what occurred during this "gap"? If not, explain in as much detail as possible the fall of Satan and the entrance of sin into the universe.

The issue of the length of the creation days revolves around the issue of one’s view of miracles, God’s powers, and the scientific “data” developed over the past 50-100 years. Those who advocate a normal 24-hour day generally point to, among many other details, the fact that this debate did not occur prior to the 1800s. While some ancient church fathers spoke of “instant” creation, the idea of geological time periods did not exist. The entry of time periods into the debate rose primarily with the advent of evolutionary thought.

Without considering the details of each concept, there appear to be three main creation views. First is the idea of six 24-hour days. This is the historical position of the church and is the most natural reading of the Genesis account.

Second comes the idea of six generation days (“day-age”). Here, each day represents a long, usually undefined, time period during which God “created” a seed that relates to each of the biblical days and then a long period of time passes during which the seed evolves into the respective life form, be it worlds, trees, stars, animals, and so forth. This form essentially fits evolutionary-type views into the biblical account. Those following this view do not promote evolution, but design the view to fit existing scientific data.

The day-age view is based upon science and the position that the laws of physics, astronomy, and other related fields of study have been uniformly applied throughout all of time. This view gives no place to supernatural events.

The third view is the literary framework view. This position views each of the days of creation as a literary structure whereby God presents creation in non-scientific forms. Thus, this view promotes itself as not requiring any scientific data and would lend itself to any type of scientific perspective the follower might desire to pursue. Thus, a literal day or a billion year time gap fits within the literary framework.

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