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LESSON 9 GEOLOGY’S EVIDENCE FOR CREATION AND THE FLOOD Verse Center: Psalm 114:4, 7, 8:The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters. Review Center: Play the game from lesson 7 Visual Aids: Print off VA-3-9-1; VA-3-9-2; Print off Gen 1:6,7,9; Gen 7:11, Gen 7:19; Gen 8:1, 8:22, 10:25; Job 12:8; Ps 104:6; Ps 104:32; Ps 114:4;
Aims: The students will memorize the underlined part of the verse and be able to explain where all the water could have come from to gouge out the Grand Canyon. TEACHING THE LESSON The earth is made up of elements that God created (VA-3-9-1). Our bodies are made up of elements too; the same ones from the earth. We know God used dirt from the earth to create man in the first place. So to nourish ourselves we need the same things that are in the earth; minerals come from the earth and vitamins come from plants and other animals that we may eat.
Geology is the study of the earth. Physical Geology is the study of materials that make up the earth and the processes that the materials operate under. Job 12:8 says, “Speak to the earth and it shall teach thee.” We don’t have to be ignorant about our earth. We can see the history of the earth by looking at things, even those things on the surface. Did you ever go to the top of a mountain or hill just to see what the big picture looked like around you? The surface of the earth is what most of us can observe. We can look closely at stones, mountains, layers of rock, soil, rivers and water erosion any day. But what forces of nature, normal or catastrophic caused them to be like they are?
God provided things under the ground also for our good. Practical geology deals with drilling for oil, water wells, mining, gemology, environmental science, disasters like mud slides, volcanoes and earth quakes. National and State Parks, farming, land conservation, fishing, traveling on water and fossils all are involved. Aristotle (c. 400 BC) believed fossils were motionless living beings. He believed rocks were created under the influence of the stars. You can tell he didn’t believe in God or the Bible. He believed earthquakes occurred “… when air crowded into the ground and was heated by central fires and escaped explosively”. [Frank Adams, “Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences” (NY: Dover 1938]
James Ussher, and Anglican Archbishop of Ireland, in the 1650’s used Bible genealogies and said the earth was created in 4004 BC. The Bible teaches catastrophism by way of Noah’s violent and global flood. James Hutton, in 1795 came out with his book, “Theory of the Earth” which promoted Uniformitarianism: physical, chemical, and biological laws that operate today operated in the geologic past. He did not believe the Bible nor that God would judge the earth for sin with a global flood. He said the processes that “… appear weak and slow acting today could, over long spans of time produce effects that were just as great as those resulting from sudden catastrophic events.” [Fred Lutgens, “Essentials of Geology” (NJ: Schuster & Schuster 1995) p. 10] Before his time most of the world was taught Creation and the Flood and believed it. Radiometric dating as taught in previous lesson was proved to be unreliable but is still used to keep Hutton’s theory alive.
Noah’s flood was not tranquil, it was violent. When you have mountains skipping like rams, water above the mountains, 2 miles of water above the earth as scientists figure, you have disaster all over the earth. We can see the results of this. Gen 10:25 says “… Peleg: for in his days was the earth divided”. It seems a small statement but when you consider Gen 1:9 , “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so”, you realize that before the flood the continents of the earth were all together in one place. Scientists call this big continent “Pangea” (VA 3-9-2). There is much evidence for this and we’ll cover many of these in this lesson.
We have seen how many scientists reject Creation and the Flood for religious reasons not scientific. Derek Ager, an evolutionist said, “I do not think the bible-oriented fundamentalists are worth honoring with an answer to their nonsense. No scientist could be content with one very ancient reference of doubtful authorship.” As you can see his rejection of the authorship of Moses of Genesis is at the core of his “scientific principles”. [Derek Ager, “The New Catastrophism” (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993) p. xix]
Warren Allmon said, “Indeed geology appears at last to have outgrown Lyell [geologic ages]. In an intellectual shift that may well rival that which accompanied the widespread acceptance of plate techtonics, the last 30 years have witnessed an increasing acceptance of rapid, rare, episodic and ‘catastrophic’ events.” [Post-Gradualism, Science, Vol. 262 (Oct 1, 1993) p. 122] Plate techtonics is what causes earthquakes, volcanoes and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which separated most of Pangea. Walter Alvarez said “Catastrophes have an important role to play in evolutionary thinking as well. If a chance impact 65 million years ago wiped out half the life on earth, then survival of the fittest is not the only factor that drives evolution. Species must not only be well adapted, they must also be lucky.” It seems though that science is not about luck-that sounds like nonsense! [Walter Alvarez, “What Caused the Mass Extinction? An Extraterrestrial Impact” Scientific American, vol. 263 (Oct 1990) p.84]
The earth is composed of an Inner Core, rich in iron with a 756 mi radius in the center of the earth, and Outer Core, molten metal and is 1410 miles thick, the Mantle, a solid layer, 1789 miles thick with the top 500 miles thick, hot and flowing called the asthenosphere. The top layer, the Crust, a light outer rock skin and is 3-25 miles thick. It is thinner and denser under the oceans.
In 1915 Alfred Wegener proposed that a super continent, he called Pangea once existed. And according to Gen 1:9 if the waters were in one place then the land had to be too. Wegener went on to claim that this super continent began breaking into smaller continents 200 million years ago, drifting into their present positions. In Gen 10:25 it says in the days of Peleg (100 years after the flood which most Christian scientists figure was 2345 BC) the earth was divided. God knew he’d need the people from the Tower of Babel to scatter; what better way? (Using VA-3-9-2 make 2 copies, then cut out each line of each continent to make 7 patterns from one of them. Take Styrofoam plates and trace the patterns out on them, cut each out. With a red permanent marker make a red line on the right of North America and South America. Take a large cookie sheet, put ½ inch of water in it. Place all the Styrofoam pieces in as in the original pangea picture . Then show how they moved apart; the Americas going west, India (under Africa) going north, Antarctica going south, and Australia going east.)
In 1968 Plate Techtonic theory came to light, further explaining continental drift. According to this model the crust is broken into pieces called plates. The major plates are North American, South American, Pacific, African, Eurasian, Australian and Antarctic. (Show the visual aid VA 3-9-1 after coloring each one a different color.) The continents of the earth as we know them are large rock masses which float on the hot molten asthenosphere. Presently the plates move very slowly 1-10 inches per year. But it doesn’t mean it was always this slow. Uniformitarians must believe it always was the same speed though. This movement is caused by unequal distribution of heat within the earth. The movement of plates generate earthquakes, create volcanoes, and build mountains. When 2 plates separate, magma comes into the void, this is called divergent boundaries of the plates, like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which goes down the center of the Atlantic Ocean. God evidently used it to divide the earth, the Americas from Europe and Africa. When 2 plates slide horizontally past each other it is called Transform faults. This is like the San Andreas Fault in California, which is where the Pacific and North American plates meet. In the earth quake of 1906, the Pacific Plate slid 15 feet north. In the Japanese earthquake of 2011 Japan moved 8 feet east. At the current rate that the continents of North and South America are still moving west - 1-2 inches per year, it would have taken them 1 billion years to get where they are today, not 200 million like they’re saying. But there’s a problem with Lyell’s fossil time line if it’s 1 billion years. That’s if you believe in Uniformitarianism… all things continue as they were from the beginning. That’s why Allmon had a problem with Lyell.
Here are evidences that the continents were once together.
1. The near perfect fit of South America with Africa, and North America with Europe.
2. The fossils of South America’s east side are the same as those of Africa’s west side. (At first before 1915 paleontologists thought there must have been a land bridge between S. America and Africa for the animals to cross, however no evidence of that has ever been found.)
3. The striations (streaks in rocks left from frozen water moving fast from the North and South Poles) are the same if South America and Africa were matched up again. This would also indicate that the break up of Pangea was after the flood.
4. The continuation of mountain ranges, similar in structure and make up, as the Appalachian and Scandinavian Mountains, that would have aligned before continental drift.
5. Paleomagnetism gives evidence of the continents having originally been formed- cooled- together. Paleomagnetism is when rocks with iron in them, when cooling, will align parallel to the existing magnetic field. They all go the same way. South America and Africa are not aligned now but would be if they were back together again.
6. Legends point to a recent catastrophic event. Plato (400 BC) recounts a story from the Egyptians. “Most of what the world has thought about the existence of ‘Atlantis’ as a superior culture disappeared during some sudden cataclysm. Atlantis once occupied a large island west of the Strait of Gibraltar. At a later time, there occurred portentous earthquakes and floods, and one grievous day and night befell them, when the whole body of your warriors was swallowed up by the earth and the island of Atlantis in like manner was swallowed up by the sea and vanished; wherefore also the ocean at that spot has now become impassable and unsearchable, being blocked up by the shoal mud which the island created as it settled down.” [Ken Davis, “Don’t Know Much about Geography”, (NY:Harper Collins 1992) p. 44]
During mountain building, flat-lying sedimentary and volcanic rocks often become slowly bent into a series of wavelike folds, this is called Folding. This would have happened when the American continents moved west. Folds are like if you were to push the edges of a sheet of paper together. (Demonstrate to students.) The folds to the sedimentary layers can get really deformed if they overturn each other. This makes so called “older” layers set on top of “younger” layers, messing up the Geologic scale of Lyells’
Mountains are also built by volcanoes; with many in Western United States. In Isaiah 54:9,10 it connects the flood with mountain building. “For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee….“ In Ps 77:18, 19 it says, “The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.” In Ps 114:3-8; “The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou was driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.” David who wrote these words did not see this, but God who inspired him to write it did. Could he have been describing what happened when the earth was divided?
Ps 104 is about the flood too. Verses 5-9; “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled: at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains: they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that thy may not pass over: that they turn not again to cover the earth.” Verse 25-32; “So is this great and wide sea, wherein all things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth. 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.” This all describes catastrophism.
There are 3 types of rock; Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic - which is the first 2 worked on. Igneous is base rock formed by cooling and crystallization of magma coming up from the asthenosphere from as great as 200 km below the surface. Lava is what is left after the gases have escaped the magma. Magma that reaches the surface is called “extrusive”; magma that doesn’t reach the surface but crystallizes is called “intrusive”; they may flow into rocks above them. We would never see this kind except for erosion- especially erosion by Noah’s flood.
The second type of rock is sedimentary. These are particles of eroded igneous rock and living material that gets fossilized and washed together into layers. During the flood, the fountains of the deep were opened, bringing water and igneous rock with them and all the water of the flood washed back and forth upon the earth and laid down many layers - 15 at Grand Canyon that are thousands of feet deep. (“Neo-catastrophists” say that millions of years are between these layers, avoiding all thoughts of Noah’s global flood. Evidently nothing could live in those millions of years as there‘s no evidence between the layers.) With each movement of water a new layer was laid down. Heavier stones and fossils would land on the bottom and lighter ones at the top. This is called hydrologic sorting. You will notice many ‘science’ programs on TV will admit to a local ‘devastating’ flood because they just can’t accept it that God would judge sin in so great a way. These sedimentary layers can be observed all over the earth. They contain coal, oil and gas deposits as they were once living things- fossil fuels. Here are some facts about sedimentary layers laid down by water. In any undisturbed succession of strata (layers):
1. Superposition: the ‘oldest’ stata is at the base and the ‘youngest’ is at the top.
2. Original Horizontality: Strata, when they were deposited were horizontal or nearly horizontal because of gravity.
3. Original Continuity: Strata continues horizontally in all directions until ending by progressive thinning or by being blocked against an obstruction.
4. Cross-cutting Relationships: Any feature which breaks the continuity of structure or cross-cuts strata must postdate the structure or strata.
5. Process-Product Analogy: Geologists should prefer explanations for the origin of strata which are consistent with the kinds of geologic process forming strata today.” [Floods today are not tranquil but dynamic.] [ Steven Austin, “Grand Canyon Monument to Catastrophe”, (Santee CA:ICR 1994) p. 23-24]
When geologists observe layers of rock (laid down by the flood) that have been deposited without interruptions they call them “conformable”. However no place on earth has a compete set of conformable strata. When interruptions occur they are said to be “Unconformities”. An unconformity represents a disturbance in the laying down of layers. If the flood was violent we can see how the layers wouldn’t be perfect. If you believe in Uniformitarianism, there is not a good explanation for the disturbances. Unconformities are important features because they represent significant geological events in earth’s history. Unconformities are all over the world. The greatest one is at the Grand Canyon. You have 1.5 billion year old igneous rock and directly on top of it you have .5 billion year old sedimentary rock. If you believe in these dates, then where is the missing 1 billion years? Not only do we have missing links but we have a missing billion years! This unconformity is visible in many parts of the earth..
The third kind of rock is metamorphic, meaning “change form“. To create them you need igneous or sedimentary rocks subjected to great pressures and temperatures. Metamorphism took place when rocks were subjected to conditions unlike those in which they originally formed. They are a monument to catastrophism. Conditions like great temperature increase and pressure increase could be created by folding and faulting during continental drift and mountain building. During mountain building great quantities of rock are subjected to the intense stresses and high temperatures of large scale deformation. Also when rocks are in contact with volcanoes, metamorphism can take place. Sedimentary rock of which shale is a type, become slate with increased temperature and pressure. Igneous granite becomes gneiss, limestone becomes marble, quartz sandstone becomes quartzite. Shale, slate and marble are made of clay particles much smaller than sand. Laminae are sedimentary layers thinner than one centimeter made up of clay particles. Evolutionists insist they must be laid down, a one year layer at a time, for millions of years. However, in 1960 Hurricane Donna in southern FL created surging ocean waves which flooded inland 5 miles for six hours. It left behind a 6 inch layer of mud made up of many thin layers of laminae. Another phenomena that gives evidence for a violent flood is the fact that there are no traces of erosion showing up between the layers, indicating that there was no time between layers. Evidence of an extreme active and violent flood year and continental drift when the earth was divided is evident all around us.
Before the huge sedimentary deposits laid down during the flood had time to consolidate or solidify they were pushed up to great heights. (Show this with 3 pieces of different colored paper.) Still plastic in consistency, they did not split or shatter when uplifted, but rather were bent and twisted like pages in a thick magazine or phone book. This illustrates the important fact that some major geologic features simply cannot be explained in terms of gradual processes over long ages. Natural revelation through science desperately needs the guidelines of special revelation through Scripture if genuine answers to nature’s mysteries are ever to be found. The Bible supplies the missing dynamic in terms of God’s intervention at the closing phase of the Flood year.
The glaciers as mentioned in the lesson about the flood also made an impact on the earth’s surface. Huge amounts of ice could come down at the poles if the ice was magnetic as it can be. It could account for the sudden movement of the ice away from the poles as so much accumulated. They made striations; streaks all over the earth in the rocks. Some believe the ice sheets were moving 200 miles/hour. Many hills were left after the glaciers melted, from the debris they were carrying. The glaciers would have taken a while to melt, so the oceans wouldn’t have been so high, allowing people to migrate to other continents as in Gen 11.
Quote proofs of Catastrophism by evolutionists; “I am coming more and more to the view that the evolution of life, like the evolution of continents and of the stratigraphical column [Lyell‘s] in general, has been a very episodic affair, with short ‘happenings‘ interrupting long ages of nothing much in particular.” “To me the whole record is catastrophic, … in the sense that only the episodic events- the occasional ones- are preserved for us.” These quotes are by Derek Agaer who was Professor and Head of the Dept of Geology and Oceanography, Univ. College of Swansea and President of the British Geological Assoc. The first quote is from “The Nature of the Statigraphical Record )NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1993) p.132, the second from his “The Statigraphic Code and What It Implies” in “Catastrophes and Earth History, Berggren & Couvering, eds. (Princeton Univ Press, 1984) p.93. Information from plate techtonics is over-ruling Lyell’s millions of years.
Supplies for art: (Purple Mountain Majesty) Patterns 3-9-3, purple, yellow, blue and green construction paper. Scissors, pencil, stapler. Make cbc patterns from 3-9-3.
Directions for art: Out of yellow, purple and blue construction trace the larger of 3-9-3 cbc onto them and cut out. Out of green the smaller of 3-9-3; cut it out. Place them in order, yellow, purple, blue, green ¾ “ apart. Fold them at the 3 ¾” mark -on the side of the green. Now you have 6 surfaces to write on. On the yellow, down under where the purple comes write: Is 54:10 … the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; On the purple write: Ps 114: 4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. On the blue write: Ps 114: 8 which turned the rock into a standing water… On the green write: Ps 104:32 He looketh on the earth and it trembleth; On the second blue: Ps 104:32 He toucheth the hills, and they smoke. On the second purple write: Mountain Building After the Flood.
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Elton Fairfield
