JESUS’ AGE FOR THE EARTH
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Did Jesus get things scientifically wrong? After all, He was a man of His times. Jesus’ followers could never have comprehended the sophistication of evolutionary biology and cosmology, would they?
Yet, in so many places, we read about Jesus stating things that went against the very grain of the society He lived in. This is because He told the truth.
We should take note, then, when Jesus hints about the age of the Earth. In Matthew 19:4, Jesus, referring to marriage, says: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?” Note that Jesus, insulting the most well-read people of the time, is stating that human beings were there “from the beginning”, using the word αρχη, just as is used in John 1:1, referring to the creation of the universe.
If humans were the product of millions of years of evolution, then they were not around απ αρχης – from the beginning. If Jesus got this wrong, how can we trust anything else that He says? Jesus did not get this wrong, because He is the person of the Trinity, through whom this creation was achieved. The Biblical timescale, with Adam and Eve created during the first week of this universe’s existence, is Jesus’ timescale. This is a record of Jesus’ Age for the Earth.
Lord, all things were made through Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and we worship and adore Him. Amen.
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Did Jesus get things scientifically wrong? After all, He was a man of His times. Jesus’ followers could never have comprehended the sophistication of evolutionary biology and cosmology, would they?
Yet, in so many places, we read about Jesus stating things that went against the very grain of the society He lived in. This is because He told the truth.
We should take note, then, when Jesus hints about the age of the Earth. In Matthew 19:4, Jesus, referring to marriage, says: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?” Note that Jesus, insulting the most well-read people of the time, is stating that human beings were there “from the beginning”, using the word αρχη, just as is used in John 1:1, referring to the creation of the universe.
If humans were the product of millions of years of evolution, then they were not around απ αρχης – from the beginning. If Jesus got this wrong, how can we trust anything else that He says? Jesus did not get this wrong, because He is the person of the Trinity, through whom this creation was achieved. The Biblical timescale, with Adam and Eve created during the first week of this universe’s existence, is Jesus’ timescale. This is a record of Jesus’ Age for the Earth.
Lord, all things were made through Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and we worship and adore Him. Amen.
FOUNTAINS OF THE DEEP
Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
It must have made a tremendous noise, when the Earth’s crust cracked into pieces.
Genesis 7 tells us that the main event which began the worldwide Flood was the opening of the Fountains of the Deep. We think that this was probably massive volcanic and seismic activity occurring on a worldwide scale. Magma and superheated water would have emerged from these cracks. The superheated water would have been thrown miles into the atmosphere, at supersonic speed, and would then have returned to the Earth as rain – probably what is meant by the windows of heaven. This would also have caused the world’s largest ever tsunamis, bringing devastation and destruction to the pre-Flood world.
There are many models of how the worldwide Flood could have begun. The one, which I have outlined, is called Catastrophic Plate Tectonics, because it explains the existence of the Earth’s tectonic plates, by means of formation catastrophically – that is by the worldwide Flood. This sophisticated model is able to show how the Earth’s great geological forces, including modern day volcanoes, can be explained within a biblical timetable.
While it is interesting and important to research how the Flood began, we should never forget why the Flood began. God sent the Flood as a judgment because of the wickedness of people’s hearts. The only reason that we can discuss this today is because our ancestors escaped the Flood. That is because our ancestors were Noah and his family, saved, we read in Genesis 6:8, by the grace of God. We also can be saved from the judgment to come, when we repent of our sins, and put our trust in Jesus, our Ark of salvation.
Thank you, Lord, for saving me from the judgment to come, by your grace and mercy. Amen.
Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
It must have made a tremendous noise, when the Earth’s crust cracked into pieces.
Genesis 7 tells us that the main event which began the worldwide Flood was the opening of the Fountains of the Deep. We think that this was probably massive volcanic and seismic activity occurring on a worldwide scale. Magma and superheated water would have emerged from these cracks. The superheated water would have been thrown miles into the atmosphere, at supersonic speed, and would then have returned to the Earth as rain – probably what is meant by the windows of heaven. This would also have caused the world’s largest ever tsunamis, bringing devastation and destruction to the pre-Flood world.
There are many models of how the worldwide Flood could have begun. The one, which I have outlined, is called Catastrophic Plate Tectonics, because it explains the existence of the Earth’s tectonic plates, by means of formation catastrophically – that is by the worldwide Flood. This sophisticated model is able to show how the Earth’s great geological forces, including modern day volcanoes, can be explained within a biblical timetable.
While it is interesting and important to research how the Flood began, we should never forget why the Flood began. God sent the Flood as a judgment because of the wickedness of people’s hearts. The only reason that we can discuss this today is because our ancestors escaped the Flood. That is because our ancestors were Noah and his family, saved, we read in Genesis 6:8, by the grace of God. We also can be saved from the judgment to come, when we repent of our sins, and put our trust in Jesus, our Ark of salvation.
Thank you, Lord, for saving me from the judgment to come, by your grace and mercy. Amen.
VOLCANOES
Psalm 104:31-32
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.
Mount St Helens is an active volcano. It, and the other volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains, could erupt at any time.
Geologists point to the subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate under the North American plate as the cause of the magma, which breaks through at the volcanoes, causing them to erupt and to grow. This subduction is clearly happening very slowly today. Similar volcanoes occur at other subduction points around the world, and are especially notable in other areas in the so called Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean.
If this subduction had always been slow, over millions of years, as evolutionary geologists suppose, then it is difficult to understand how these volcanoes could continue to be active. However, it is our assumption that these plates were formed by the devastating events that began the worldwide Flood. Therefore, the original subduction occurred at a runaway rate. Indeed, solid remains of an early ocean plate can be detected in the Earth’s mantle. If the Earth were millions of years old, then this plate should have melted and mixed in with the semi-molten mantle by now. But the existence of this plate – probably the remains of the subducted portion of the Juan de Fuca Plate – is consistent with what the Bible says about the Flood and its timescale.
Because volcanoes were formed by the Flood, they speak to us of the wrath and of the mercy of God. In this sense, volcanoes like Mount St Helens are really large Gospel tracts.
I stand in awe at the manifestation of Your Power, Lord. Thank You for doing all things well. Amen.
Psalm 104:31-32
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.
Mount St Helens is an active volcano. It, and the other volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains, could erupt at any time.
Geologists point to the subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate under the North American plate as the cause of the magma, which breaks through at the volcanoes, causing them to erupt and to grow. This subduction is clearly happening very slowly today. Similar volcanoes occur at other subduction points around the world, and are especially notable in other areas in the so called Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean.
If this subduction had always been slow, over millions of years, as evolutionary geologists suppose, then it is difficult to understand how these volcanoes could continue to be active. However, it is our assumption that these plates were formed by the devastating events that began the worldwide Flood. Therefore, the original subduction occurred at a runaway rate. Indeed, solid remains of an early ocean plate can be detected in the Earth’s mantle. If the Earth were millions of years old, then this plate should have melted and mixed in with the semi-molten mantle by now. But the existence of this plate – probably the remains of the subducted portion of the Juan de Fuca Plate – is consistent with what the Bible says about the Flood and its timescale.
Because volcanoes were formed by the Flood, they speak to us of the wrath and of the mercy of God. In this sense, volcanoes like Mount St Helens are really large Gospel tracts.
I stand in awe at the manifestation of Your Power, Lord. Thank You for doing all things well. Amen.
HOW WOULD YOU KNOW THERE IS LIFE OUT THERE?
Romans 1:19
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
There are those who are searching for life in outer space. Such groups include SETI – the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. But supposing they received a signal from outer space. How would they know, if it was really an intelligence? In 1967, scientists at Jodrell Bank in England picked up regular pulses of radio signals, and they assumed that the signals must be intelligent in origin. In fact, they were of natural origin, caused by the rotation of dense stellar objects, or pulsars. Scientists realized that mere repetition of a signal does not represent intelligence. So, SETI has a definition which insists that observers look for “the existence of coded information on the signal”.
Has any such signal ever been observed? The answer is yes. But such signals have not been found through the telescope, but, rather, through the microscope. Such signals are found in molecules of DNA. DNA contains information, which is known to be highly sophisticated; so much so, that to explain this point further would require many more broadcasts. Yet some biologists have likened the information in DNA to the regularity found in salt crystals. These salt crystals do indeed have regularity, but this is not information.
There is an inconsistency in those, who insist that simple regularity is not information in one context, yet assume that it gives rise to information in another. For us, the information in DNA is what we expect in a material created by God.
Thank you, Lord, for Your wonderful Word, which gives light to our path every day. Amen.
Romans 1:19
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
There are those who are searching for life in outer space. Such groups include SETI – the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. But supposing they received a signal from outer space. How would they know, if it was really an intelligence? In 1967, scientists at Jodrell Bank in England picked up regular pulses of radio signals, and they assumed that the signals must be intelligent in origin. In fact, they were of natural origin, caused by the rotation of dense stellar objects, or pulsars. Scientists realized that mere repetition of a signal does not represent intelligence. So, SETI has a definition which insists that observers look for “the existence of coded information on the signal”.
Has any such signal ever been observed? The answer is yes. But such signals have not been found through the telescope, but, rather, through the microscope. Such signals are found in molecules of DNA. DNA contains information, which is known to be highly sophisticated; so much so, that to explain this point further would require many more broadcasts. Yet some biologists have likened the information in DNA to the regularity found in salt crystals. These salt crystals do indeed have regularity, but this is not information.
There is an inconsistency in those, who insist that simple regularity is not information in one context, yet assume that it gives rise to information in another. For us, the information in DNA is what we expect in a material created by God.
Thank you, Lord, for Your wonderful Word, which gives light to our path every day. Amen.
A POEM LOVELY AS A TREE
Psalm 96:12
Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.
The gramophone was switched on, 12-inches of vinyl placed on it, and the needle balanced on the disc, in order for us to hear the music. This was my mother’s favorite record, featuring the deep, gravelly bass voice of Paul Robeson, singing a song called “Trees”.
My mother loved trees, and so do I. They are, of course, plants. But the scale of a tree is usually magnificent. Not every tree is on the scale of the Giant Redwoods in California, but even the trees in your backyard are big objects. Some trees can get to be very old. I remember that the first time I saw the Major Oak in England’s Sherwood Forest, I was, and still am, awestruck by its age of a thousand years. According to legend, it provided shelter for Robin Hood and his Merry Men, and is certainly old enough to have done so.
Robeson’s song begins: “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.” The last lines of the song put this thought into perspective. “For poems are made by fools like me. But only God can make a tree”. Believers, like the psalmist in Psalm 96, ascribe glory to God for these wonderful objects – “the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord”. Genesis 1 tells us that God made these beautiful plants to produce seed after their kind. They are part of the glorious world that God has made, and we give thanks to Him for His Creative work in producing things like trees.
Everything in Your world has been made so well, Lord God, and I thank You for it. Amen.
Psalm 96:12
Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.
The gramophone was switched on, 12-inches of vinyl placed on it, and the needle balanced on the disc, in order for us to hear the music. This was my mother’s favorite record, featuring the deep, gravelly bass voice of Paul Robeson, singing a song called “Trees”.
My mother loved trees, and so do I. They are, of course, plants. But the scale of a tree is usually magnificent. Not every tree is on the scale of the Giant Redwoods in California, but even the trees in your backyard are big objects. Some trees can get to be very old. I remember that the first time I saw the Major Oak in England’s Sherwood Forest, I was, and still am, awestruck by its age of a thousand years. According to legend, it provided shelter for Robin Hood and his Merry Men, and is certainly old enough to have done so.
Robeson’s song begins: “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.” The last lines of the song put this thought into perspective. “For poems are made by fools like me. But only God can make a tree”. Believers, like the psalmist in Psalm 96, ascribe glory to God for these wonderful objects – “the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord”. Genesis 1 tells us that God made these beautiful plants to produce seed after their kind. They are part of the glorious world that God has made, and we give thanks to Him for His Creative work in producing things like trees.
Everything in Your world has been made so well, Lord God, and I thank You for it. Amen.
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