Posted on April 3, 2015
Creation Week and the Cross
Have you ever wondered if it really matters that we have a seven day week? Simply put, it’s because God created everything in six literal, 24-hour days, rested on the seventh, and commanded us to model our lives after that. When God makes a commandment like that, He usually has a point He is making and a reason for it, if only we will pay close attention to what He is doing. Creation week is actually closely tied to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, beautifully illustrating the Gospel of God’s incomprehensible grace.
Just before Jesus was crucified, spilling His precious blood for our ransom, He came into Jerusalem with His disciples to celebrate Passover. The day that Jesus was crucified was “preparation day”, the day before a very important Sabbath day of rest from work – Passover Sabbath (see John 19:14, 31, and 42; Mark 15:42). Of course, this preparation day was about getting all the work done before it was time to stop working and rest.
Here’s the key: right before Jesus died on the cross, He said “It is finished”
Our Savior FINISHED the work, once, for all and forever, right before the Sabbath day. In the beginning, in Genesis 2, God finished His creation work right before He originally instituted the Sabbath to be a day of rest. The work is finished right before the Sabbath. What exactly is the Sabbath? It is a day to set aside for worship and rest (see Deuteronomy 5:12-15). Because Jesus finished the work, we are welcome to enter into His rest and rise in newness of life, as a new creation.
What’s the point of all this? GRACE! You see, the work is DONE – Christ said “It is finished”, and He meant it! There is absolutely nothing else we can do to add to the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Only after we accept that the work is done and enter into His Sabbath rest can we rise with Him in newness of life, on the first day of creation week (Mark 16:1-2), rising as a new creation in Christ. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day totally missed it – the Sabbath is not about following a rule, but about accepting the finished work of God’s marvelous grace. Our salvation does not depend on a work list of rules for us to follow, but a loving relationship of rest and peace in knowing the work is done and all we have to do is enter into that rest and let Him make us into a new creation.
Just because we are saved by grace and want to share that grace with others does not mean that we compromise Truth or continue in sin (see Romans 6). One of the reasons we must not compromise the Biblical Truth that God created everything in six literal, 24-hour days and rested on the seventh is because doing so would corrupt this illustration of salvation by grace. Such thinking would be a huge insult to the Lamb of God Who finished the work for you. If we allow those days of creation to be stretched into millions of years of death and suffering, we are defiling the picture of God’s perfect work being completed so that we can enter into His rest. Creation week and young earth creation are important because they are pivotal to understanding and remembering salvation by grace. So, enter into the rest of His completed work and let Him make you into a new creation, just as He did on the first day of creation week.
Posted on March 27, 2015
Colorful Creation, Part 2
Do you have a favorite color? Or do you think you’re too old to have a favorite color anymore? I always enjoy asking kids this question, but really no one is too old to appreciate the diverse and beautiful way God created light to reflect on His creation all around us. Well, I’m just going to tell you that blue is my favorite color for a number of reasons, and I’m probably going to talk more about blue than any other color. It used to bother me that the expressions using my favorite color, like “he’s blue today” or “I’ve got the blues”, indicated sadness. I thought blue, like the spectacular sky and vast oceans, should be a happy color!
Colors can often be used to convey a particular concept or idea, both scientifically and Biblically. Throughout the Bible, as God revealed Himself to individuals and the nation of Israel, He continually set up symbols and reminders (often including specific colors) of Who He is, what He has done, and what He promises He will do. The rainbow, of course, is the colorful symbol of God’s promise never again to destroy the entire earth with water like He did with Noah’s flood. When reading about the wilderness Tabernacle or Solomon’s temple in the Old Testament the colors blue, purple, and scarlet are mentioned over and over again. Every detail of these holy places, including the colors, had special meanings and reminders intended to point back to God.
You’ve probably heard that the color purple indicates royalty (Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords) and that scarlet is symbolic of the lifeblood our Savior shed for our ransom. Blue is a very significant color as well because it is the color of the sky and a reminder to keep our focus toward Heaven. In the first chapter of Ezekiel, it talks about the throne of our LORD being the same breathtaking blue of sapphire stones. It’s also very thought-provoking to notice that every Isrealite man was supposed to have a blue strand in each of the tassels on the four corners of his garment to remind them of God’s Word and to remind them to be set-apart (holy) for the LORD (see Numbers 15:38-41). Traditionally, the dye for this blue strand of each tassel was extracted from a special sea creature (the mollusk, Murex trunculus), and this dye was so valuable that it was often worth more than its weight in gold.
In science, as well as the Bible, colors can often be vivid reminders of God’s protection and provision for us and the rest of His creation. Aurorae are a perfect example of this. God created earth with a magnetic field around it to protect us from dangers like solar wind – I like to describe earth’s magnetic field to kids as an invisible force-field. Solar wind consists of very energetic particles that could cause a lot of damage if our magnetic field did not deflect it. Sometimes in the weaker parts of the magnetic field, near the magnetic north and south poles, some of these very energetic particles get into the upper atmosphere and cause a spectacular light display of aurora. This is where the colorful Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere and Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere. These lights are a beautiful reminder of how God created our magnetic field to protect us from those dangerous solar particles that cause the aurora.
There are many other examples of God using colors in creation to protect and provide for a plant or animal, like a color-changing chameleon or creatures with intimidating looking patters. The next time you see colorful reminders of God’s provision and protection in creation, remember that He cares for even the sparrows, and so much more for us, as we are made in His image.
Reference:
The Hem of His Garment, by John D. Garr, 2007, Gold Key Press
Posted on March 20, 2015
Colorful Creation, Part 1
The blank circle on my sketchpad stared menacingly back at me as I searched my brain for inspiration that would fit into this assignment for my college art class. We were supposed to create a color wheel- based painting that reflected a culture of our choice, but the cultures brought up as examples had a lot of elements that I wouldn’t quite be comfortable with painting. Suddenly, an idea dawned on me and I ended up loving the project so much that I was sad to have to turn it in for grading. In my color wheel, I decided to paint the six days of creation from Genesis 1 inside the Star of David reflecting Biblical concepts and Jewish culture. The more I worked on the project, the more vividly I saw how closely color is tied to creation.
“And God said, ‘Let there be light’:and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.” ~ Genesis 1:3-4
Day one of creation week, the very first thing that God created was light. The colors we see with our eyes are just certain wavelengths of light bouncing off things. Thinking of light and colors as wavelengths can sometimes be a little confusing. The easiest way of thinking about this is that bright white sunlight is actually all colors together coming at you all at once. When that light hits an object, the object you see absorbs some of those colors and the rest of the colors bounce back and hit our eyes.
Have you ever noticed that wearing black clothes in the summer makes you feel hotter? Or noticed how hot an asphalt road gets in the daytime heat? Maybe you’ve been up on a roof with dark shingles and felt how hot they can be, even a little after sunset (I speak from experience; “shingle burns” hurt, but amazing views of sunsets and stars are worth it). All of these things happen because the color we see as black is absorbing all colors of light and getting lots of heat energy so none of those colors are bouncing off to our eyes.
Dark colored things that absorb more light (and heat) are said to have a low albedo while white things, like a good layer of snow on the ground, have a high albedo. The albedo is just the portion of light being reflected back off an object. It’s a very good thing that God created snow with a bright, white color and high albedo because it acts like a mirror, reflecting off some of the heat so that the snow melts slowly in the spring and does not cause as much flooding as it otherwise would.
Just like the original six days of creation, when we choose to let God make us into a new creation by the blood of Jesus, the first thing that He does is fill our lives with the light of Christ. When we let our lives be filled with the light of the Son of God, they become incredibly and uniquely colorful, bright, and beautiful, just like creation all around us. Be sure to read more about our Lord’s colorful creation in next week’s “Clue of the Week”!
“ . . . I am the light of the world: he that followeth after Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” ~ John 8:12
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven” ~ Matthew 5:16
Posted on March 13, 2015
Pi Appreciation Day
Can you imagine what the world would be like without round/curved shapes? Life would be pretty rough in only rectangular/triangular shapes; everything would look like it came out of some weird pixilated computer game. Moving much of anything would be difficult – the best you could get for wheels would probably look like an octagon or dodecagon (that would make for a bumpy ride) and I have no idea how the joints in our bodies would work. When we really start thinking about it, we realize that our world revolves around these amazing circular/spherical shapes (quite literally). We usually tend to just take these circular shapes for granted.
A special holiday is coming around this weekend; March 14, 2015 (3-14-15) is the major geek holiday of “Pi day” because the mathematical constant of Pi (π), used to calculate many aspects of circular/curved shapes, is 3.1415[not rounded] just like the date (3-14-15). “Pi day” is a great opportunity to remember the marvelous way God created our universe with precision, purpose, and beauty from the vast expanses of the universe down to the structure of an atom. To celebrate “Pi day” I’ve enjoyed making pie, eating pizza, and memorizing Pi to the 27th digit with the help of a song (a circle dance might be fun too). You might just enjoy recognizing how many things in your world have to do with circular shapes and the constant Pi.
One thing that is really remarkable about our universe is that it was specially designed by our Creator to be discovered and explored with math and science. Exploring and explaining the way our world works is a way of obeying the commandment God gave to fill, subdue, and have dominion over the earth, because He made us in His image, unlike any other creature (see Genesis 1:26-28). The fact that we can discover laws of math and science to consistently explain the way the world works is a huge testament to the existence of our Creator, God (more about this here).
Sadly, math is a subject that is often disliked, misunderstood, or rushed through in our modern education system. It’s easy to get so focused on “finding the answer” or “solving the problem” that we completely miss the wonder and beauty that math is conveying about our universe and our Creator. In a similar way, it can be easy for us as individuals to focus on trying to explain the Bible and “figuring it out” rather than focus on developing a personal relationship with Christ that will guide our understanding of the Scriptures.
Updated on February 17, 2016
Curiously Curved Clouds
The vast expanse of the sky has always been one of the most enthralling wonders to me. Sometimes stormy, sometimes starry, and sometimes simply spread abroad in its spacious, clear blue. Because I love seeing and learning about different kinds of clouds, there’s one very funky cloud I’ve been on the lookout for over the past several years. They were particularly elusive to me because these clouds pretty much only form near mountains, which most certainly aren’t a part of my every-day topography experience. On my recent trip to Colorado Spring, Colorado (more about the geology on that trip here), I think I may have finally seen some of these odd cloud formations – lenticular clouds.
Lenticular clouds are lens/almond-shaped clouds that are often very bizarre looking and hang around for hours. They also tend to form in layers on top of each other, looking almost like a stack of plates with curved edges, creating a phenomenon that is called “pile d’assiettes” (French for “pile of plates). Because of their odd looks, these clouds are sometimes perceived as “flying saucers”.
While I’m a little doubtful that the clouds I saw in Colorado Spring really are genuine lenticular clouds, they are certainly the closest I’ve ever seen. According to official cloud classification, stratocumulus, altocumulus, and cirrocumulus cloud genera can all be of the lenticular cloud species (more on official cloud classification here). Most of the really striking lenticular cloud pictures are taken with altocumulus clouds or on several layers at once, while the ones I saw were more like stratocumulus clouds.
Lenticular clouds are best thought of as “wave clouds”. When a stable layer of air gets pushed over a mountain or hill, the air keeps bouncing in a wave-like motion for a little while after it crosses the obstacle, before the air can settle down again. Depending on relative temperatures and humidity levels in the different layers of the atmosphere, lenticular clouds can form at the crests of these waves. Pilots usually know to take lenticular clouds as a warning sign, because they mean that there’s a lot of turbulence in the air around the mountain.
It’s incredible to see the way God made our clouds and weather systems to be stunning as well as functional. Although the climate and topography of earth has been catastrophically changed by the global flood mentioned in the Bible, in His incredible mercy, God has allowed some pretty incredible things to come from it all, whether they are lenticular clouds or rock formations at “Garden of the gods”.
“The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not aquit the wicked: the LORD hath made His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet . . . the mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea the world and all that dwell therein . . . the LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble and He knoweth them that trust in Him” Nahum 1:3,5,7
References:
The Weather Identification Handbook, published 2002, by Storm Dunlop
Guide to Weather Forecasting, published 2008, by Storm Dunlop
Meteorology: Understanding the Atmosphere (Instructors Edition), published 2003, by Steven Ackerman and John Knox
Posted on February 27, 2015
God’s Rock Garden, Part 2
The throng of tourists swarming around the massive, precariously posed boulders was a stark contrast to the quiet, peaceful trails at the grouping of incredible rock formations in Colorado, called “Garden of the Gods”. Last week, we discussed how the jagged chunks of sandstone sticking up out of the ground at “Garden of the Gods” are better explained by the catastrophic global flood induced by the One True God (read about that here). One very interesting attraction in this natural landmark that confirms the reliability of the Biblical flood account is formations like the famous “Balanced Rock”.
“Balanced Rock” is carved out of a rock layer called the Fountain Formation Lyons conglomerate, which is considered one of the older layers at “Garden of the Gods”. A conglomerate is, quite simply, a gathering of pebbles and mud cemented together, and this Fountain Formation layer must have been laid down during the global flood. After the major catastrophe, it probably took a while for earth’s climate to stabilize into what we have today. The draining flood waters and localized catastrophes just after the flood would have caused a lot of erosion, wearing down upper layers. Acids in the water, changing temperatures, and changing pressures caused cracks to form in this layer and many others. The other rock pieces that originally were part of the “Balanced Rock” formation broke away, but the huge boulder was left standing.
Another interesting thing found at “Garden of the Gods” is a dinosaur fossil that has not been found anywhere else (according to their official website at the time of this writing) of the species Theiophytalia Kerri. These fossil remains were originally discovered in 1878 by James Kerr, but were taken to Yale by dinosaur paleontology pioneer, Othniel Marsh (more about Marsh and his iconic rivalry here) and misidentified as a Camptosaurus. It wasn’t until over a century later, when the fossils were loaned back to Colorado to get a precise cast of the fossil made for “Garden of the Gods” that the true identity of the dinosaur was discovered.
This dinosaur fossil is a testament to the fact that the amazing geological things we see here, and all over the world, are a result of the righteous judgment of the God, which meant a lot of death and destruction. Sadly, when Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God, death and destruction entered into our beautifully perfect created world. Completely unlike false gods frequently associated with these geologic wonders, the One True God (YHWH) is tenderly compassionate and merciful, even in His righteous judgment. Although the flood was a horrific thing, God, in His mercy, made stunningly beautiful and useful formations out of it all over the world. Like “Balanced Rock”, there are many other rock formations that seem precariously positioned and they all serve as monuments to the righteousness and grace of our Lord and Savior – similar to many of the monuments or memorials people throughout the Bible made to remember God and the things He has done.
References:
“Garden of the Gods” teacher information pack: http://www.gardenofgods.com/education/index_367.cfm
“Mysterious Natural Wonders” by Dr. Andrew Snelling in Answers Magazine, Vol. 9 No. 3, published July 2014
photo copyright Sara J. Bruegel, 2015
Posted on February 23, 2015
Window
In every soul is a window,
An opening in every life
Through which our moments show
Mysteries hide behind those windows,
Travelers see but a moment of life
That from the opening flows
A glimpse through the glass
Represents what’s within
To all those who pass
Some windows gleam with light,
Reminding pilgrims of home;
Their bright panes the weary invite
Some windows are shuttered and dark,
Ornate without but haunted within;
Tight-drawn curtains are their mark
Some windows though shaded
With grief and struggle,
Still shine with light un-faded
May my windows be bright,
Filled by God from within,
And hearten others to shine in the night
Posted on February 20, 2015
God’s Rock Garden, Part 1
The picturesque view of Colorado Mountains outlining the distant horizon was suddenly broken by nearby jagged red rocks towering high above us as we approached. The closer we got, the more dramatically the rough rocks loomed from above. Last weekend, I had a chance to see breathtaking rock formations at “Garden of the Gods”, a National Natural Landmark in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It’s really a remarkable experience getting to see these enormous, spectacular rocks up-close, and even climb on some of them. But, there’s a lot more to these rock formations than just their beauty – they also tell the vivid story of God’s mighty power, fierce judgment, and undeserved mercy.
As a believer in the One True God of the Bible (YHWH), a name like “Garden of the Gods”, referring to false gods, makes me a little uncomfortable as well as curious about how this beautiful place got that name. Although many of the Native American people who lived near or traveled through this area had legends about connections between these rock formations and their false gods, the name actually came from two surveyors who were exploring the area in 1859. One said he thought it would be a “capital place for a beer garden” to which his companion, Rufus Cable replied “Beer garden! Why it’s a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it Garden of the Gods.” And that has been its name ever since.
The geology of this remarkable place really is best explained by a supernaturally caused event – the global flood in the Bible. What makes this place so incredible is the jagged sandstone dikes sticking up out of the ground. The earth that God originally created was completely destroyed by the catastrophic world-wide flood – it must have ripped up all the vegetation and sediments, leaving bare bedrock. Early in the flood the first layers of mud, including the Sawatch Sandstone (geologically classified as Cambrian), began to separate out and be laid down on top of the bedrock.
Towards the end of the flood and possibly beginning of post-flood planet recovery the Rocky Mountains started to lift up through plate-tectonic activity (more on that topic here) in an event that geologists call the Laramide Orogeny (an orogeny is the geologic term for a mountain-building event). During that time, a fault cut down vertically through the upper rock layers and even through some of the bedrock. The movement caused one side of the fault to sink down and the other to rise up, making the upper (more recent) layers go down and the lower (older) layers go up. After erosion, this would make bedrock level with mid-flood layers and about 20,000 feet above the matching bedrock on the other side of the fault.
Long story short, there was a lot of cutting, squeezing, lifting, and moving of enormously vast rock layers (can you imagine the earthquakes?!). This caused the layers to bend smoothly like crumpled papers in some places, making some of the layers actually bend up at an almost vertical angle (see picture of layers near “Garden of the Gods”). Pressure from all this caused Sawatch Sandstone layer, which was apparently still soft, to squeeze like toothpaste into cracks in the layers above and bedrock bellow, later hardening into the jagged giant rocks we see at “Garden of the Gods”. These layers had to have been soft around the time the Rocky Mountains were built up, which presents a huge problem for those who believe in “millions-of-years” geology: the Sawatch is supposed to be about 300 million years old, but it needs to still be soft when the mountains were built up, a supposed 70 million years ago. Rock that is 230 million years old is not going to be soft enough to bend and squeeze like toothpaste – it’s better explained by the global flood in the Bible!
References:
“Ute Pass Fault: Sand Injectites and Rapid Deformation Fit the Flood” by Dr. John Morris in Acts&Facts Vol. 42 No. 11, published November 2013, Institute for Creation Research
The Earth Through Time, 9th edition (2010), by Harold Levin
Posted on February 13, 2015
Our Temporary World
“So let me get this straight; you’re only going to be here this week and never coming back? Like, I’m probably never going to see you again until we get to heaven?!” said the kind teenage girl. “Pretty much” I smiled gently in reply. I was visiting a church while volunteering with an out-of-state ministry when I had this conversation, very grateful for a new friend, even though I was just a traveler. That experience and several others over the past few years have really got me thinking about how temporary and fleeting our lives and our world really are. It‘s easy to just let ourselves get comfortable with certain patterns or routines and assume that things will always work the same way they do now, but is that really a Biblical idea? Or is it applying uniformitarianism (the idea that the present is key to the past and future) to our personal lives?
The ideas and theories that scientists pursue – evolution, age of the earth, genetics, etc. – are not limited to staying within the realm of science. Much as we would like to separate our lives into distinctly separate divisions like work, school, religion, and family, we are not robots that can simply switch modes. The ideas we come away with from different subjects tend to mix together in our brains to create our worldview and influence how we respond to ideas in other areas. If we choose to accept the unbiblical idea of uniformitarianism in science, we might also find it subtly hidden in the way we think about the future in our personal lives. The Bible clearly tells of the supernatural creation of our universe, one-time catastrophic global flood, and a coming fiery judgment and new creation of earth, all unlike anything we’ve seen today.
Scientists can spend a lifetime trying to explore and explain the way things work in God’s incredible creation. But, their theories will be adjusted (or sometimes completely abandoned) as new generations add to and correct the information their predecessors gathered. Whether or not we realize it, the world of science is constantly changing, just as our own lives change and our understanding is challenged by ideas. While we might find some nice routines for a while, it’s important that we don’t let those routines or goals be what we depend on: our dependence needs to be on God and the Truth in His Holy Word.
I have committed my life to Christ – that means that my time in this world is temporary and I’m a traveler, just like I was in the example I gave at the beginning. People, places, opportunities, traditions, and ideas will come and go, but my God and His Word will be with me forever – no matter what.
“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand for ever.” ~ Isaiah 40:8
“As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him and His righteousness unto children’s children” ~ Psalm 103:15-17
This is a beautiful old hymn that goes along with this concept:
Posted on February 6, 2015
Lava Rocks
A dark, shiny object caught my eye as it fell out of its hiding place, a small cavity in a fossil. The smooth, lightweight object was vastly different from the raggedly worn and delicate fossils in the donated box of Alaskan fossils I was helping sort through as part of my training at Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum. The interesting object I stumbled upon is a type of volcanic rock, called mahogany obsidian. Obsidian forms when hot lava is quenched by water and hardens into a glassy rock. It’s usually a semi-transparent black, but the mahogany obsidian I found is mostly opaque brown with darker black specks. People usually notice obsidian more than a lot of other rocks because it has a “concordal fracture” – meaning that it breaks in circular patterns. Because of this, the light-weight rock will often be found in a very smooth, rounded shape or with sharp, almost serrated edges.
Obsidian is classified as an “extrusive igneous” rock. You may remember last week in our “Clue of the Week” how we talked a little about “intrusive igneous” rocks, like granite, that are formed underground when magma cools and hardens (you can read about that here). Well, the main difference between “intrusive” and “extrusive” igneous rock is quite simply that “intrusive” rock is hardened magma inside the earth while “extrusive” rock is hardened lava that is exiting the underground and spilling out on the surface. The difference between magma and lava is that magma is underground and lava leaks out onto earth’s surface.
There are many other types of extrusive igneous rocks, like obsidian, some of which you might see every day. Do you ever use a pumice stone on your feet during a pedicure? It has lots of little holes and can even float on water. It may be helpful to think of pumice as lava foam because it forms when bubbly lava (lava mixed with dissolved gasses) hardens. It’s as if all the bubbles that the two-year-old filled the sink with hardened into a rock (just with hot lava instead of soapy water). You may also see a kind of lava rock, called scoria, in your yard. Scoria is similar to pumice, but a lot darker and usually with much larger holes. This is because the lava that scoria is made of has more metal (like iron) in its chemistry than the lava that pumice is made of.
Obsidian, pumice, and scoria are just a few common, but interesting examples of extrusive igneous rock – or simply put, lava rock. Rocks like these can be a sobering reminder of how, in spite of human efforts, God is ultimately in control of our planet. We can try to predict things like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that these rocks (and many others) are formed by so that damage can be minimized, but the earth is the Lord’s.
“The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: The LORD shall rejoice in His works. He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: He toucheth the hills, and they smoke.” ~ Psalm 104:31-32
