Posted on September 16, 2013
Grand Canyon: Elevation Fascination
The Grand Canyon is one of the most interesting – and controversial – geologic phenomena in the world. A few people do say that it’s “just a big hole in the ground”, but most people are astounded by the sheer vastness and extreme depth of the canyon. Geologically speaking, there is a lot to the Grand Canyon. Evolutionary geologists have a hard time explaining many of the geologic phenomena in the Grand Canyon. We creationists certainly cannot say we have it completely figured out or agree on every little thing about Grand Canyon geology, but we do have Biblical and logical answers to many of the Grand Canyon questions.
One of the first things I was intrigued by when I got my first good look at the Grand Canyon, after flying into Whitmore Wash was the elevation of 4,100 feet above sea level. Considering that Denver, Colorado is one mile (5,280 feet) above sea level and my hometown in the Texas Panhandle has an elevation of about 3,280 feet, it is rather striking that the outer part of the Grand Canyon would be so high above sea level. There is a reason behind it, though. The plateau that the Grand Canyon cuts through is called the Kaibab Plateau, which is named like the top layer of the canyon – the Kaibab Limestone.
The Kaibab Plateau has what geologists call a monocline, where several layers are curved together upwards. The layers were laid down (by Noah’s flood), then while they were still soft, they were bent up. Imagine if you set a piece of wire on a table top and put your thumb under part of the wire. If you want the wire to lay flat on both your thumb and the table top, you would bend the wire up and around the edge of your thumb and it would be flat again along the length of your thumb. That is the same concept of what the Kaibab Monocline is like, except with ten thick layers of rock extending for miles instead of a wire.
This brings up a big problem for the evolutionary models of the Grand Canyon. In order for these layers to bend, all ten of them had to be soft when they were bent. These layers span about 300 million years according to the evolutionary timescale. There is no way that bottom layer (the Tapeats Sandstone) could stay soft for 300 million years while all of the other layers were being laid down and then bent. Rock can bend after it hardens, but only under extreme heat and/or pressure, which would turn the sedimentary rock (limestone, sandstone, and shale) into metamorphic rock (marble, quartzite, slate, etc.). These layers are still sedimentary rock, so they must have been bent while they were soft, all at the same time. The flood is a good explanation for this.
Posted on September 9, 2013
Grand Canyon Adventure
“Rapids Ahead!” Our raft captain called out over the chatter. I grabbed the strap behind me and the rope at my feet as I braced myself for the impact of the cold waves. The cold water was a relief in the midst of the late August heat of the Grand Canyon. This past week, I had the privilege of going whitewater rafting for several days in the Grand Canyon with a group of other young-earth creationist Christians, put together by Canyon Ministries. Many people see the Grand Canyon from the rim, but getting to see it from the bottom while experiencing the rapids of the Colorado River and camping beside it was a different experience.
God has a truly astounding way of working out our “disappointments” for our ultimate good. For me, this river rafting trip was yet another such testimony. In January of 2012, about the same time I half-heartedly decided to study geology, I read an article in Answers Magazine about Tom Vail and his ministry taking people on river rafting trips through the Grand Canyon with a Christian worldview (see Answers, Vol. 7, No.1, January-March 2012, pg. 15-16). I kept that little bit of information in the back pocket of my mind. About a year later, my geology professor was getting together a group of students to go see the Grand Canyon (from above) and the Hopi Indians for college credit, but it did not end up working out for me to go. That is when I remembered the article I read, looked up Canyon Ministries on the internet, and signed myself up for a trip.
The excursion I went on lasted for four days, traveling down the Colorado River from Whitmore Wash to Lake Mead. My favorite part of the adventure was the short helicopter ride down through the canyon to the river side where we met with the river rafts. We rafted down the river for three days, primitive camping (i.e., camping without toilets, showers, internet, and phone service) out under a spectacular display of stars along the river. I was with a group of twenty-eight people from all over the country (and Australia) including creationist astronomer, Dr. Danny Faulkner, and our guide Jon Albert who recently took over leadership of Canyon Ministries. It was an incredible experience – the trip of a lifetime – and I would earnestly encourage anyone interested to seriously consider taking a trip with Canyon Ministries.
Posted on August 31, 2013
Creation Clarified
For the past six weeks, we have been talking about the ideas of theistic evolution and millions of years, and how those ideas do not go along with the Bible. The reason why this topic is so important is because it is about the authority of God’s Word and the foundations of the Gospel. Our discussions in this series have been mostly philosophical or theological. Today we will conclude this Clue series and move on to some specific scientific evidences for creation and a young earth next week.
The idea of theistic evolution (i.e., that God used evolution to create) is not what the Bible teaches. Neither does trying to squeeze millions of years into the six days of creation work out. Thankfully, God did not give us some vague, metaphorical picture of the creation event, but instead He gave us a complete and specific historical account of how and when He created. Notice in Genesis 2 how the Scriptures seem to go out of the way providing details about where the Garden of Eden was and where the rivers branched off. This was to cite a specific, historical location where real people lived and actual events happened.
The flood is an important event for geology and covering the millions of years idea. It could not have been just a large local flood for several reasons. First of all, the Bible says how high above the tallest mountains the flood waters went (water cannot be sustained in mid-air unless God performs a miracle, like when Moses led the Children of Israel across the Red Sea, so the waters logically must have covered the face of the entire earth). Second, if it had been a large local flood, Noah and the animals could have just moved – they had plenty of warning. We will talk about specific scientific aspects of the flood later, but for now, the point is that a lot of water and little bit of time can account for most of the geologic layers we find on earth. For this Clue series, the main point is that we can trust God’s Word. Because we know that what God said about the past is true, we can trust what He says about our future.
Posted on August 24, 2013
Clarifying Creation, Part II
What is the number-one reason why we know God did not use evolution or millions of years to create? If you really wanted to, you could spend all day just looking at the Hebrew text in Genesis 1. The original Hebrew text certainly does teach that God created everything in six literal, 24-hour days about six thousand years ago. Hebrew scholars generally agree that this seems to be the originally intended meaning. However, that is not the real heart of the issue. The real issue is twofold – the reliability of God’s Word and the foundation of the Gospel.
We have already discussed the importance of the reliability of God’s Word some in this Clue Series (see …). It is important to realize that it is not logically consistent to trust just some of what God says. In my Bible, I used to just highlight the verses I liked, but I’ve come to realize that often it’s the verses I don’t really like that I should be highlighting and memorizing. Furthermore, if we can’t trust what God says about the way things happened in the past, how can we trust what He says about the way things will happen in the future? God is God –He is the all-powerful Creator of the Universe. He made science! Don’t you think He can get it right in His book?
The real reason that creation science – science with the Biblical view on the age of the earth – is important is because of the Gospel. Jesus is referred to in the book of Romans as “the Last Adam”. Well, in order to know about the Last Adam, we have to know about the first Adam. Jesus offers salvation, but no one would care for salvation if they didn’t know they needed to be saved. Because of the sin of the first Adam, death entered into the world. This is directly opposed to the evolutionary view, that death was a normal (and even progressive) thing. They believe that death came before people, but the Bible clearly shows us that death came because of the sin of people. You see, if you try to put millions of years into the Bible, you take away the reason for the Gospel, and end up taking hope out of the picture.
Posted on August 17, 2013
Clarifying Creation, Part I
Jake grew up in a typical church-going family. His family went to church every Sunday and he was one of the really good kids in Sunday school. He believed in God. He was a good boy. Jake was also pretty good in school too – especially science. But, sometimes it was hard for Jake to figure out how the Bible stories about creation that he learned in Sunday school fit with evolution and all the other things he was learning in science class. Jake wondered if maybe God used evolution to create everything, or something like that. Jake’s problem is a very common issue for young people today so it is a very important topic to address.
In short, the answer to Jake’s question, “did God use evolution to create?” is no. Could God use evolution – yes, God can do anything, but it isn’t consistent with His character. Let’s explore just the basic reasons in the text of Genesis why we know God didn’t use evolution to create today, and next week we will explore some deeper reasons.
The first thing you will notice as you read through Genesis 1 is that creation is organized into six separate days. The order of events found in Genesis 1 is very different from the order of events according to evolution or the “Big Bang”. For example, according to God’s Word, the earth came before the stars (stars are not until Day 4) but according to man’s model, the earth came billions of years after stars formed. Also, evolution says that birds came from reptiles, but the Bible says that the birds (Day 5) were created before reptiles (Day 6 with other land animals).
Some people try to take the first chapters of Genesis metaphorically, and say that they are only poetry. However, the entire book of Genesis is written in historic form like other books of the Bible recounting actual events that happened, not poetic form like the Psalms. People have also pointed out that the Hebrew word used for day in the days of creation, yom, is interpreted as a span of time rather than a particular 24-hour day. However, every time the word yom had a number with it (i.e., the first day) or the words “morning” or “evening” with it, yom always means a literal 24-hour day. It actually looks like God went out of His way to clarify that He meant to tell us that He created everything in six literal 24-hour days.
Posted on August 12, 2013
What God Says
We have already established that we know God exists and that we can trust what God says over what people say because God has always been there. God’s Word is true, timeless, and perfect. Over the centuries since Jesus came, people have tried to burn Bibles, keep It away from common people, miss-interpret God’s Word, and persecute those who preach God’s Word. Yet through it all, God has preserved His holy Word so that He can use It to change lives in our present day and age.
Many people in our present day and age have been taught to think that all religions are basically the same, and that the Bible isn’t more significant than any other “religious” writings. Biblical Christianity is different from all other belief systems because we believe that salvation can only come through the grace of God to suffer and die to take our punishment for sin, not our own righteousness. We never can earn our own salvation from the punishment we deserve (eternal separation from God in Hell) because God is just and must punish sinners, regardless of what we try to do to make up for it. All other religions teach that we have to earn our own righteousness and earn our way to Heaven.
What the Bible teaches is very different from all other belief systems, but there’s more that makes the Bible significant. The Bible says that It is the Word of God over and over again in the Scriptures. Jesus claimed to be God, and the Bible claims to be the Word of God. I know this may sound like circular reasoning to say that we know the Bible is the true Word of God because It says that It is, but that’s because the Word of God must be our ultimate foundation. There is nothing we can hold above the Word of God to judge It, but we do know that The Bible re-affirms itself. Furthermore, the Bible has never been wrong. For example, God knew about germs so He instituted hand washing long before humans figured it out. The main point is that the Bible is God’s Word, and can be trusted above everything else – God and His Word is all we can really depend on, for everything and everyone else will let us down.
“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word! What more can He say, than to you He hath said – to you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, for I am they God, I will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.
When thro’ fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient shall be thy supply; the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes; that soul though all hell shall endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”
“How Firm a Foundation” from Rippon’s Selection of Hymns, 1787
Posted on July 28, 2013
God, Are You There?
Before we explore the reasons why Theistic evolution, the belief that God used evolution to create, doesn’t work, we first need to discuss how we know that God is real. Furthermore, we can’t just prove that a god (or gods) exists; rather, we need to know that God is the single, all-powerful God of the Bible. Most people do believe that there is some sort of god, but some people are atheists who believe that all we can see or touch or detect with scientific instruments is all that there is.
We know that God exists because laws of logic, or rules of reasoning, are a reflection of the way God thinks. It’s thinking about thinking . . . so think about it, will you? We can have no other source for logical thinking besides the God of the Bible. Laws of logic are rules that guide our thinking. For example, “Two contradictory statements cannot both be true” and “If A is true, than B is true. If B is true, then C is true. A is true, therefore, C must be true” are both laws of logic. We inherently know these basic rules of thinking, and they are always true for everyone, no matter where you are. We don’t have to learn them – we just know they are true.
Science is actually impossible without logic because science is just making observations and using logic to come to conclusions about those observations. Evolution does not provide a reason for logic. According to evolution, logic (as well as everything else in the universe) just “happens” to be here, and may or may not be here or function the same way tomorrow or in another few million years. Most of the founding fathers of modern science were Christians who wanted to learn more about God through exploring His creation. They expected to find order and patterns throughout creation because they knew that the God of the Bible was also a God of order and purpose. There is no logical reason for an evolutionist to expect order and patterns in the universe. Also, God commanded people to study science, because it falls within the command to “fill the earth and subdue it” given in Genesis. You see, without God – the God of the Bible – it is impossible to have science.
Posted on July 22, 2013
Christianity & Science
People recognize that Christian values like love, compassion, justice, and peace are good things. We recognize science as good too, because through science we can solve many of the world’s problems and even save people’s lives. But what about Christianity and science together? Many people wonder how – or if – Christianity goes with science, especially when it comes to the age of the earth. This Clue of the Week is the first in a series of Clues on this topic. Our July-September edition of Creation Clues for Kids (which should, Lord willing, be online by the end of the week) will also focus on this topic.
Before we dive into the depths of this controversial issue, it is important to step back and explore exactly what I mean when I say “Christianity” and “science”. In using the word “Christianity” I am referring to the belief that: 1) God exists, 2) He created the universe, 3) He is personal, 4) the Bible is accurate and reliable, 5) people are naturally sinful in our sin-cursed world, 6) Jesus was God, and 7) people cannot be justified by their own works so are in need of salvation from Jesus.
The word science in and of itself simply means knowledge. The exchange of ideas that comes from scientists. Please keep in mind that scientists are people, and as people, we are bound to make mistakes at one point or another. Because we don’t know everything (we never really can) and sometimes make mistakes what is accepted as scientific truth can change quickly. With some scientific ideas, they are accepted more for their popularity than because they are proven and repeatable. Next time we will talk about atheism and how we really can know that God exists.
