Behemoth: Largest And Strongest Land Animal In Man’s World!

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What is the mysterious animal called “behemoth” in Job 40:15-24? Could this terrible beast be the hippopotamus we know today, as some commentators assume? Or some other creature?

You’ll be shocked when you see the scientific confirmation of what has been in God’s Word for over 3500 years!

In 1911 a British scientist was astounded when he found a few HUGE bones from what appeared to be an enormous type of rhinoceros. The bones were of such GIANT size they even dwarfed an elephant’s bones! He named the animal “Baluchitherium” (ba loo” chithee’ ri um).

Eleven years later, another scientist this time an American, was elated when he found three partial skeletons of “Baluchitherium”. The skeletal remains were hurried to New York where they were assembled. The results were nothing short of amazing!

The huge creature was confirmed to be an extinct, gigantic, apparently hornless rhinoceros! — a creature which fits the picture given of the Biblical “behemoth” mentioned in Job! Let us notice the startling comparison between the now-extinct “Baluchitherium” and the enigmatic creature of Job 40:15-24 which has perplexed Biblical scholars for ages.

Begin with Job 40:15: “Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee: he eateth grass like an ox.” What does this tell us?

First, God made a distinct creation of plants, including grass, and animals for the benefit and pleasure of man. The warm-blooded animals and the grasses and herbs were FIRST made when man was made — about 6000 years ago (Gen. 1:24-25). Evolutionists have always been puzzled at the fact that this kind of vegetation appeared so late in geological history.

Now notice again Job 40:15: “Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee ….” Here is an animal God made when man was made. Behemoth did not exist in the pre-Adamic world which was filled with giant dinosaurs and other types of strange creatures. Behemoth was an unique animal created with man — and for a purpose, as we shall see later!

Dinosaurs Before Adam: The Physical Proof Of Biblical Truth!

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What do the facts of science and the Bible reveal about dinosaurs – about the earth before Adam? Why is evolutionary geology unable to account for the sudden extinction of dinosaurs? Here are the answers!

Did you know that once literally millions of dinosaurs and other creatures suddenly perished from the face of the earth? Why? How did it happen? Why are the scientists puzzled by this catastrophic “time of great dying?”

Evolution has no answers

The Bible answers all these questions. It reveals whether the earth is older than man – just what kind of world God created in the beginning.

But evolution has no answer to the sudden disappearance of dinosaurs. No answers to the almost complete change of both plant and animal life forms at the end of what scientists have dubbed the “Mesozoic era.”

Why is the present world fitted for man’s existence, while the world of the dinosaurs was unfit for human survival?

Suppose you visit a museum

Take a brief walk through any natural history museum. It will reveal a vast array of charts and fossils depicting the theory of organic evolution. geology, you will be told, provides evidence of a succession of life forms in the strata of the earth.

But does the record of the rocks really show this? Do the facts of science substantiate these “scientific” theories?

Furthermore, it is claimed, the earth is billions of years old and the fossil record – the aged bones, tracks and other remains of extinct animals and plants – proves that life has been evolving over millions of years.

Why have scientists reburied the facts only to resurrect them in the image of their evolutionary theories? This article explains why!

Is Intelligent Design Really Intelligent?

Why is it so difficult to get one answer to the question, how did human life begin on Earth? Think about it. Our prosperous and well-educated Western societies, founded on Judeo-Christian principles cannot come to a satisfying conclusion as to whether human life originated as a planned, purposeful act of a supreme, all-powerful being, or as the result of a random, gradual process called evolution. There can only be one answer to this question. Yet examining the beliefs people embrace on the subject is massively confusing.

1. What is termed “old-earth creationism,” is the acceptance scientific evidence that the universe is billions of years old but nevertheless that God created all there is by separate acts of miracles.
2. What might be called “young-earth creationism” is the arguement that the universe, earth, and all life were created in just six days about 10,000 years ago.
3. Most scientists say that science cannot prove the existence of God, and believe in a Theory of Evolution – the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms.
4. The Intelligent-Design Theory states that creation is the work of an intelligent designer (though he is not specifically named), and that the Earth is billions of years old, not the thousands of years that most “biblical creationists” believe through their “literal” reading of the Bible.

In truth, true religion says the Bible account in Genesis actually describes a re-creation of the Earth. Therefore man was created 6000 years ago, but the earth is also millions of years old.

Gen. 1:2 is not actually the initial condition of the earth. Without form and void is not a regular sequence of events, but means  tohu (Strong’s # 8414 – waste & desolation) and bohu (Strong’s # 922 – to be empty, ruin).

Looking at this a little more in depth through the scriptures, we can see there is something wrong with this condition. Isaiah 45:18 says God did not create the earth in vain – same word tohu (waste and desolation). Is there a contradiction?

No, we simply understand that something happened between verse 1 and 2. The word “was” is Strong’s # 1961 [hayah], which is better translated as “became.” So the earth “became” without form and void. Something happened to cause it to become waste and desolate. It was not created like this by God.

Albert Barnes’Notes On The Bible further states:

“On the second day Gen. 1:6-7 a new disposition of the air and the water is described by the verbs “be” and “make.” These indicate a modification of what already existed. On the third day (Gen. 1:9, 11) no verb is directly applied to the act of divine power. This agency is thus understood, while the natural changes following are expressly noticed.”

In other words, the air and water was already in place before a great destruction came about, and then re-made by God. The grass, herbs and fruit are new creations, (though modifications of existing materials in place), not having been necessary in the time of dinosaurs. These were now necessary for the nourishment and existence of man to come.

In the fourth day (Gen. 1:14, Gen. 1:16-17)  the words “be,” “make,” and “give” occur, where the matter in hand is the manifestation of the heavenly bodies (two great lights) and their adaptation to the use of man. In these cases it is evident that the word “create” would have been improperly or indirectly applicable to the action of God. It does not prove the universe was created a couple of days before man. The Hebrew words in Genesis 1 indicate the universe already existed then.

1. “Create” means “bara” or to create a new condition or circumstance.
2. “Make” means “asap” which is creating or making something from existing materials. Moses used these 2 words deliberately and carefully.

In verse 1, God created from new, but in verse 16, they were “made.” Whatever happened in the destruction, God was making it right again. So verse 16 was not a new, fresh creation but God was working from materials that were already there at the beginning of the universe.

Looking at verse 21, we again see that the original language implies creation from new, when the sea creatures and birds of the air were made.

In Genesis 2:3, God rested from the work He created and made. A lot of parts of the universe were already there – from the earth and universe.

The Bible is an old book and if it wasn’t inspired by God, you would expect to find scientific inaccuracies, yet this is not so. Scientists are just coming to understand these truths. Satan will try to confuse religion and science about the truth of God. We should read and believe what the Bible says – that the earth is older than mankind. And we should give thanks directly to God for it all.

Note To Evolutionists: The Bible Supports Modern Science

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God gave the Bible to man as the basis of all knowledge. Any “knowledge” contrary to the information revealed by God in his word is untrue.

But what about the scientists’ claim that the earth is perhaps billions of years old, and that the fossil record in the rocks proves their theory of evolution? Is there any truth in either of these statements?

The Bible nowhere tells us when the earth was created. However, biblical chronology reveals that man has been on this earth for almost 6000 years. How can we use this knowledge to understand the record in the rocks?

Genesis 1 the key

Using the facts of science, let’s compare them with the teachings of the Bible. In Genesis chapter one, the six days of creation are well known to Bible students. These were six literal days of 24 hours duration. Let’s examine the Bible’s account of events on these days and see what they reveal. We will dwell on animal and plant life mentitioned in the account and note the description of this new creation.

On the third day, God said “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so” (Gen. 1:11).

Now let’s examine the geology books again and discover what the facts of science reveal. We’ll find a direct correlation between the revelation of the Bible and the findings in the rock layers! Notice this admission:

“Suddenly, a rapid diversification and radiation of the flowering plants occurred. Seward called the upper Cretaceous ‘the dawn of a new era’ and Lasquereuz many years ago observed that ‘the flora of the globe has become modified as by a new creation.’There has been no adequate explanation for this apparently sudden modernization of the earth’s flora. The angiosperms appear in familiar form, not in small variety but in great numbers: of existing families and genera. It is this perplexing paradox which has obscured the origin of the angiosperms” (Principles of Paleobotany, William C. Darrah, page 219).

Here then is direct geologic confirmation of the scriptures. The plants described in Genesis 1:11 appear suddenly in the geologic record.

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Gen. 1:11 would also include  the grasses of the field, the fruit bearings shrubs, vegetables, cereals, and the other seed and fruit bearing shrubs, which are known as angiosperms. Is it only coincidence that all these suddenly appear in the geologic record? Of course not!

There are many other “coincidences” when we compare the geological record with the Bible account of Creation in Genesis 1. The fifth day of creation saw the addition of fish and birds to the earth (Gen. 1:20-23). All geology books assert that fish have been on this earth long before man existed. If this is true, then why are fish included in the creation account in Genesis? Remember, the animals and plants in general, as described in Genesis, are those which are associated with man.

The plain truth is that when geology books mention fish in the Paleozoic Era, they are not generally referring to the fish which today populate the waters of the earth.

“Most of the modern families [of fish] and a few existing genera probably date from the Eocene {a sub-division of the modern era]” (General Zoology, Storer, page 610).

This is further substantiated by the following admission from the book “Creation by Evolution:

“In the following Cretaceous seas there were a few fishes that had the bony support of the tail as well formed as that of most existing bony fishes; indeed the reign of the modern thin-scaled bony fishes, completely adapted for rapid movement in water had begun, and the only subsequent changes where those which have given almost endless variety to this thoroughly efficient race” (page 131).

Thus, those fishes associated with dinosaurs did not have the thin scales of modern fish, but had hard enamel like plates. The modern fish which we have today, appeared at the time of Adam, as Genesis records and geological findings validate.

As we have already noticed In Gen. 1:20, the bird family was also created on the fifth day. However, this does not include the winged reptile – with wings, claws, teeth and long tail bone – which scientists named Archaeopteryx. It was not until the modern era that true birds appear

Modern types of birds, all toothless, appeared before the close of the Cretaceous, and in the Eocene [a division of the Cenozoic – the era of man] most of the present orders were represented” (Historical Geology, page 435).

Thus, modern true toothless birds definitely were not present before the Cretaceous Period which basically divides the world of the dinosaur from the world which existed after Adam’s creation. Here again, the findings of geology substantiate the teachings of the Bible!

On the sixth day, God created the cattle, and creeping things [insects], and the beasts of the earth after his kind” (Gen. 1:24). Modern classification of animals places the cattle and beasts in the class of Mammalia. These, as we have seen previously, are so characteristic of the Cenozoic (modern) Era that it has been rightly called “the age of mammals.”The curtain which rang down suddenly on the disappearance of the reptilian world, just as suddenly introduced the “age of mammals”- the creation described in Genesis :24-25!

Why the sudden change of life forms?

Something mainstream religion does not understand is that there is a time lapse which occurred between Gen. 1:1 and 1;2. The earth was created at an indefinite time – perhaps millions or even billions of years ago. Man however, has been on this earth only about 6000 years, as proven by biblical chronology and supported by the historical records of many nations.

Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 tell of the time when the great archangel Lucifer – who ruled the earth before Adam’s creation – rebelled against his Creator and fought God’s loyal angels for control of the universe. In his rebellion, he led away one third of the angelic world (Rev. 12:4). Jude 6 tells us of this very same time. Satan did not want to remain on the earth as the angelic servant of God – even though the whole earth was then as beautiful as the Garden of Eden – but he became jealous and tried to take away the authority of God (compare Is. 14:13-14, and Jude 6). It was at this time that the archangel Lucifer became Satan.

This great battle for the control of the universe caused massive destruction upon the earth. Animals and plant life of the types that then lived were destroyed, rapidly buried, and fossilized. The earth became chaotic and void (as Gen. 1:2 is more properly rendered). Life was taken from the earth so that when God rebuilt the surface of the earth and created man and the many new life forms described in gen. 1 and 2, God commanded man to replenish – or repopulate – the earth (Gen. 1:28).

The word replenish literally means “to refill”and would not have been used if life had not been on the earth in an age before Adam.

The same word is used in Gen. 9:1 after the flood in Noah’s time had completely destroyed all animal life except that which survived in the ark. The earth had to be once again “replenished”at the time of Noah! Thus, this sin of the angels was therefore before the time of Adam’s creation. Remember, it was very soon after Adam’s creation that Satan tempted Eve (Gen. 3). Lucifer had alreadyfallen.

Remember also, that it was on the first day of creation – shortly before the creation of man – that the earth was without form and void (Gen. 1:2). The first six days recorded in Gen. 1 describe the surface of the earth being reformed out of a chaotic condition. Yet, Isaiah 45:18 plainly tells us that God did not create the earth in this condition of a void wasteland. The earth became chaotic at the rebellion of Satan BEFORE the creation of man.

The truth now becomes clear. The earth had been populated by various forms of plant and animal life before Adam. At the rebellion of Lucifer against the authority of God, the earth was thrown into chaos and a time of “great dying” and “time of trial” ensued. Many animals vanished from the earth at the end of the Mesozoic, never again to be found in the later rock strata. God did not give man a hostile reptilian world – filled with dinosaurs – to inhabit! Instead, He provided man with a special creation suited for man and his needs.

Present world for man

Let’s now examine more closely why many new forms of life appear in the Cenozoic Era with man. Gen. 1 & 2 will again provide the key. Notice the importance to man of these plants and animals in Gen. 1:11-12, that were created with man in this admission:

“They [the angiosperms, or our modern plants] supply nearly all the plant life for the mammals [which also, remember, appeared suddenly at this time] that now dominate all other life upon the earth. Angiosperms provide the nuts and fruits of the field, the grasses of the prairies, the cereals which furnish fodder and grain for man and his domestic animals, and all the vegetables and fruits that man has cultivated, to say nothing of the flowers that add so much pleasure and inspiration to human surroundings” (Historical Geology, page 336).

These plants did not inhabit Lucifer’s world before man because Lucifer and the angels did not need them. God not only created man, but He created with and for man a world suitable for him. Man could not have survived on the earth before this time.

In relation to sea life, notice this quote from the book Creation by Evolution:

“It is also interesting to note that the fishes which achieved these latest developments [thin scales] include nearly all those that are used as food by man today”(page 131).

As we have seen previously, the modern thin scaled fish – edible for man – appear in the Cretaceous rocks. Here again we see scriptures wholly backed up by the facts of science. Both the time elements of their appearance and their usefulness to mankind are again confirmation of God’s word.

The same is true concerning the true birds which appear in the Cretaceous rocks. Birds are very useful to man for food – as in domestic birds – and for holding a check on insects, weed seeds, and rodents. The beauty and song of birds were especially designed to please man’s senses. The flying reptiles of the pre-Adamic worlss would hardly appeal to man’s tastes or compare to the modern birds in usefulness.

The importance of mammals to man in immense – in the role of providers of food, clothing, and beasts of burden. The same could never be said of animals existing in the pre-Adamic world.

Dinosaur mystery made plain

In summary, we have seen how the Bibe does not tell us earth’s age, but does tell us that man has been on the earth about 6000 years. Before the age of man, the earth was filled with animals and plants which characterized Lucifer and his host. The great dinosaurs and other forms of Lucifer’s world were buried in vast fossil graveyards as a result of Lucifer’s rebellion. Later, just before God created man, the earth had to be made into a liveable habitation for him (Gen. 1 & 2. God created the animals and plants necessary for man during the six days of creation week.  Fossils of all plants and animals are , generally speaking, the result of Noah’s flood or other events which have occurred in the past 6000 years.

We have briefly seen how the two great divisions of life on this earth as recorded in the geological record coincide with the teaching of God’s word. There is no contradiction between the facts of science and God’s inspired revelation to man.

But mankind has rejected God from his knowledge and wishes to substitute his own theories for the goodness of God (Rom. 1:18-22, 28). The beginning of true knowledge comes only from a fear of God (Prov. 1:7).

Evolutionists – without God’s word as a guide – are “ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Tim. 3:7). Evolutionary scientists will continue to devise and discard one theory after another, but the true facts of science  – without distortion – will always agree with God’s word.

Source: Dinosaurs Before Adam, Ambassador College, 1963.

Noah's Flood: Is It Believable?

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Is the Flood merely a Hebrew myth? Does the biblical record of the Noachian Deluge and the Ark make sense in the light of modern, scientific findings?

During the past few hundred years, the credibility of the Bible has come under serious question. Many have found it difficult to believe in a book which speaks of Jonah and the “whale”; an extra-long day in the time of Joshua; Christ walking on water; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego surviving the fiery furnace; Adam and Eve; the Israelites crossing the Red Sea; and a host of similar accounts written in a positive, it-actually-did-happen fashion.

Perhaps the long biblical account of Noah’s Flood in Genesis has evoked more questions than any other. Is it unreasonable to believe in the Flood? In the Ark? Have modern scientific findings truly made the scriptural account out of date?

While the many ramifications of the Flood cannot be discussed here in length, this article will examine the main objections to the biblical Flood and the Ark. We will see that the Bible is consistent with other fields of knowledge. Scripture is reasonable! Let’s examine the various major questions voiced about Genesis 6-9 and see how recent data actually verifies this ancient record.

Was the Flood Local?

It has now become popular among many to think of the Flood as merely a limited regional event. During the past century, the once commonly accepted universality of the Flood met with great opposition. One by one leading scientists and theologians sided with evolutionary and uniformitarian concepts. Soon no place was found for a worldwide deluge. Surely, it was reasoned, if the Flood is a reality, it was only a local Mesopotamian event.

It is not my purpose to present a comprehensive biblical exegesis on the universality of the Flood. However, to assume anything else is clearly contrary to the weight of biblical revelation and reason.

The need for a sea-going Ark is a compelling reason to believe in the Flood’s intercontinental effects. Why command Noah to build an Ark when he could have simply migrated to a non-flooded region? Neither would it make sense to take animal representatives of all kinds aboard the Ark if only a limited area of the earth were to be inundated (Gen. 6:19-20).

The specific reason for the Flood was to destroy all air-breathing land life — especially man himself (Gen. 6:17). Archaeology demonstrates that man had migrated around the world. Anything less than a universal destruction would not have accomplished God’s primary purpose of the Flood. So it is logical to believe that the Flood was of universal scope when both Scripture and reason are considered.

Where Do You Get Enough Water?

But what, then, of the origin of the Flood waters? Is there enough water on the earth to entirely cover it? If one observes a globe carefully, he might come to the conclusion that “earth” is an inapt name. For instead of being mainly terra firma, its surface is over 71 percent water. We live on a watery planet.

In addition, bear in mind the oceans average 12,450 feet in depth, while the average surface height of the land is only 2,600 feet. The proportion is clearly overwhelmingly in favor of the ocean and not the land. We are not told in the Bible exactly how God flooded the earth. Remember the Flood was not a natural event. It was brought on supernaturally by God, though He used natural agents.

What are the natural facilities God could have used in accomplishing His purpose? Here are some of the possibilities: 1) Elevate the ocean basins and thus force water onto the land, 2) lower the continents as units, or 3) add water to the oceans from underground basins (see Scientific American, May 1966, article, “Water Under the Sahara.”) God undoubtedly used a combination of factors to bring about His will. In the same way, when the Flood waters receded, they would have drained back into the place God made for them — the ocean basins and underground reservoirs.

What About “All Those Animals”?

Did the Ark have sufficient capacity to carry representatives of all the land animals? Consider the stated size of the Ark. “The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits” (Gen. 6:15). Historical records for the exact length of the cubit in modern terms are vague. Our research places it at around 22.5 inches. If valid, this would mean the Ark was 563 feet long, 94 feet wide, and 56 feet high. Its three-million cubic-foot volume would have had a displacement in water weight of 66,000 tons. This is the same capacity as 1000 American railroad freight cars. That’s ocean-liner size!

But if the cubit were equivalent to 18 inches, there would still have been plenty of room in its 450-foot length, 75-foot breadth, and 45-foot height hulk. This would still have given it a 500 freight car, 1.5 million cubit feet, carrying capacity. It was not until the 19th century that larger vessels were constructed. It shows the existence of skilled knowledge and ability in that ancient world not again demonstrated until recent times. Archaeologists are confirming this generally unexpected level of knowledge as they find more and more evidence of advanced skills among early humans. (See such books as Mysteries from Forgotten Worlds by Charles Berlitz, Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1972.)

How much room did Noah need for “all those animals”? Some misunderstand, thinking that the Ark had to house representatives of every variety of animals. One pair of every KIND of unclean (unedible) and seven pairs of each clean KIND (edible) were taken aboard. Each “kind” of creature represented a number of varieties. For example, over 100 breeds of dogs have now been developed. They are all of the same Genesis “kind.” Only one pair of the dog kind needed to be on the Ark.

God originally put within each “kind” of creature a fantastic genetic capability. As time passed, more and more varieties appeared, but these variations of the same “kind” of creature did not all have to be aboard the Ark bodily. They were there genetically within the pair (or seven pairs, as the case may be) taken on the Ark.

It isn’t necessary to consider sea life. It survived in the Flood waters. There were also many other simple forms of aquatic life that were not harmed by water. Consider that some 60 percent of the animal kingdom live in the sea, and 28 percent of the animal kingdom are insects. The remaining 12 percent average the size of a rhesus monkey.

IF insects had to be taken on the Ark (and this is a moot question), with every pair of known modern species of insect given 16 cubic inches of space, only 21 freight cars of space would be required. (Counting Genesis kinds only, the required space is far less.)

Accurate estimates of the number of mammal, bird, reptile and amphibian species on earth today is about 18,000. (Again, recognizing that only kinds, not necessarily species, were included, there would have been far fewer actual animals aboard the ark.)

Most animals are unclean, and there were a pair of each unclean animal. But let’s be liberal and say 40,000 rhesus-monkey-size animals were on the Ark. How much space would be required to house them? A letter about animal housing was sent to the London Zoo. Their answer was: “Most animals can be maintained in very close confinement indeed for long periods and remain perfectly healthy. A rhesus monkey, say, can be maintained indefinitely in a cage about 2 ft., 6 inches cubed” (15 cubic feet).

If the cubit were 22.5 inches long, 40,000 cages, each large enough for a rhesus monkey, would have only taken up 20 percent of the Ark’s three-million cubic-feet carrying capacity. So it becomes plain that the interior of the Ark was totally adequate for the animals, the food supply, and the humans aboard it during the Flood.

How Did the Animals Get Where They Are Today?

Each isolated land mass or continent has animals or birds not found elsewhere. Australia has its kangaroo, koala bear, duckbilled platypus, and Tasmanian devil. North America boasts the beaver, rattlesnake, raccoon, turkey and opossum. South America offers the llama, capybara, and sloth. Asia has its peafowl and panda bear. Africa has the giraffe, hippopotamus and zebra. Certain island groups also have kinds of animals not found elsewhere. How did all these animals become segregated after leaving the Ark?

Consider that God — not Noah — originally brought the animals to the Ark (Gen. 6:20). It would not have been a difficult matter for Him to see to it that they also redistributed themselves after the Flood. God is the Originator of animal migration. It was His will that the animals — as well as mankind — replenish and repopulate limited geographical realms after the Flood (Gen. 9:1; 10:5; 11:8-9). It should be no surprise to see both men and animals even today basically segregated around the world. This principle ought to seem basic. All forms of life exist in the specific land areas where they can best flourish.

Neither are the major land masses of the earth as isolated as one might suppose. They have been even less isolated in the past. Witness the existing land bridge between Asia and Africa — the Sinai Peninsula — and Central America between the North and South American continents. The Bering Straits between North America and Asia are quite shallow. Thousands of square miles are covered by water less than 150 feet deep. Large areas of present ocean between Southeastern Asia, the East Indies, and Australia are less than 600 feet deep. This illustrates that such present-day isolated communities are not impossibly separated from each other by great expanses of deep ocean. This factor may play a part in animal migration after the Flood.

Also, as men travel and migrate, they traditionally take with them familiar plants and animals. Some go with them accidentally. Many animals have spread to new areas in this manner — the rabbit to Australia, the English sparrow and European corn borer to the Americas, etc. Recent discoveries are showing that much sea traffic existed in the ancient world. The Bible itself shows that Solomon’s ships plied the seas and brought back precious items and animals to the Middle East from great distances (I Kings 9:26-28; 10:22; II Chron. 9:10). It is logical to conclude that animals were shipped between other areas as well.

It has also been demonstrated that animals have reached isolated islands on floating masses of vegetation or on storm and flood debris. This has been pointed out by such authors as Rachel Carson in her now classic work, “The Sea Around Us.” Whenever an island emerges from the sea, it soon becomes the home of various sorts of animals and plants.

Where Is the Flood in Geology?

Prior to the nineteenth century it was commonly believed the Flood was responsible for practically all geologic phenomena. Whenever a fossil was found, the finder would immediately think of Noah’s Flood. But soon cracks in the idea developed. If Noah’s Flood was truly responsible for most or all of the earth’s fossils, then why isn’t the fossil record thoroughly mixed up?

Why do certain layers only contain certain fossils? Why, for example, aren’t dinosaur remains ever found mixed with tigers, lions and other forms of modern mammal life? Mammal remains are almost entirely missing from the world of the “terrible lizards.”

This enigma multiplies when one considers that the stratigraphic record can only be understood to represent a passage of time greater than the year of Noah’s Flood. The bulk of the geologic record represents a sequence of events which cannot be fitted into the short time span of the Flood itself.

For this reason, there was often a difference of opinion among theologians and nineteenth-century Bible-believing scientists as to where the evidence of the Flood is to be found in the rocks. Estimates have ranged from the entire geologic column to a thin clay layer at the site of ancient Ur! (Sir Leonard Woolley, Excavations at Ur, London, Ernest Bonn, Ltd., 1954.)

A proper understanding must begin with a knowledge of both the Bible and the earth’s silent, yet revealing, fossil record. The avowed purpose of God in the Flood was to destroy both man and beast from the face of the earth. This is clearly the reason God sent a flood of waters. It was a time of great extinction. This is the first vital clue. But we also need to remember that the Flood was a relatively recent event. Biblical chronology would place it about 43 centuries ago. Therefore we should expect to find the evidence for the Flood towards the top of the earth’s layered sequence.

The third clue involves man himself and his world. We live in a world of mammals, birds, and flowering plants. It should be a world quite similar to the pre-Flood world. The Ark, remember, housed representatives of all kinds of air-breathing land life forms. What we find around us today should fundamentally be the same type of life Adam and his pre-Flood descendants saw around them. It would be logical to expect certain varieties to become extinct in the Flood, but their kind and type should still be with us today.

In summary, we could expect to find geological evidence of the Flood by: 1) noting a time of extinction in the fossil record, 2) looking toward the top of the geologic sequence of rocks, and 3) looking for an extinction of animal types which are familiar to us today. What evidence is. there, then, in the geological column which would lend weight to the worldwide catastrophe precipitated by Noah’s Flood?

Extinction Mystery

Dr. George Miller, former supervisor of the famous Los Angeles La Brea Tar Pits, had this to say about the “sticky” problem of extinction.

“We have had two eras of mass vertebrate extinction in the world’s existence: that of the dinosaurs … and that of the large mammals at the end of the Pleistocene or Ice Age…. When that period was over, mammoths, mastadons and saber-toothed cats were extinct — all over the globe.”

It is a mystery. The saber-toothed cats, for instance, were very successful animals. They …. died out completely. Why? Catastrophe? Plague? Earthquakes? A change in environment or climate? We do not know.

“We do not know, either, the answer to the mysteries within the mysteries. For example: horses….spread throughout the world — reaching the other continents, we think, across the land bridge in which is now the Bering Strait. Camels followed almost the same pattern. Yet … both horses and camels became extinct in the Western Hemisphere. Horses remained wiped off the face of the Americas until the Spaniards reintroduced them a mere 500 years ago. Again, why?” (Holliday, Kate, West Magazine, July 30, 1972, “By Tar Preserved,” pp. 11, 14.)

This revealing quote gives some fundamental facts of paleontology — points we will do well to consider. Note there have been TWO times of mass vertebrate extinction in the entire history of the earth. The first was the extinction of the dinosaurs (and it could also be added, flying reptiles and marine reptiles). The second and more recent vertebrate extinction was that of mammals (commonly giant size compared with those living today).

The mammalian extinction is especially interesting. It is recent. Mammals are the dominant vertebrates of today. And, as might be suspected, their selective disappearance after a period of successful life is a mystery to science.

End of Giants

Take, for example, North America, where there was the imperial mammoth in the west and the mastodon in parts of the northeast. Further north, the woolly mammoth lived carefree along the fringes of the glaciers. North America was an elephant’s paradise.

But these giant, now extinct, forms of elephants were not alone. In that day of giants, we find beavers as big as bears, giant armadillos, giant ground sloths weighing as much as present-day elephants, bison with fantastic six-foot horn spans, the great saber-toothed cats and giant jaguars. These, along with horses and camels, vanished. Why? The land was well suited for them. The Ice Age was over. Yet about 70 percent of all native North American mammals with an adult body weight of over 100 pounds became extinct in a time of plenty.

About a hundred years ago, scientists began to see the magnitude of the extinction problem. Alfred R. Wallace, who developed the idea of biological evolution simultaneously with Charles Darwin, was struck by the abrupt, strange and recent decimation of mammal life. In 1876, Wallace noted:

“We live in a zoologically impoverished world, from which all the hugest, and fiercest, and strangest forms have recently disappeared … yet it is surely a marvelous fact, and one that has hardly been sufficiently dwelt upon, this sudden dying out of so many large Mammalia, not in one place only but over half the land surface of the globe” (Alfred Russel Wallace, Geographical Distribution of Animals, New York: Hafner, 1962, Vol. 1. p. 150).

Now after 100 years, scientists know the effect was worldwide. A global disaster struck the earth after the Ice Age that hit the animal kingdom very hard. South America lost nearly all its large animals. Europe and Asia suffered losses as well. The day of giant mammals had come to an end.

One writer wisely noted: “The dinosaurs and the saber-toothed cats did not die out because they had somehow failed. They apparently died out because of some powerful and unusual forces entirely beyond their control” (Science Digest, “The Great Dinosaur Disaster,” Daniel Cohen, March 1969, p. 52).

“Powerful and unusual” forces? Yes, indeed! And in the case of the recent mammal extinction, the agency appears obvious — the Noachian Flood! (The earlier dinosaur extinction has its place in time before the creation of man.).

We have seen how the scriptural record presents a viable solution to a long-standing scientific mystery. Although many details are yet to be clearly understood, the Christian can remain confident that the findings of science continue to support the words of Scripture.

Source: Robert E. Gentet, The Good News, December 1973