The Knowledge of the Glory » Earth Sciences

Paths of the Seas

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:31:25 +0000

Christian oceanographer Matthew Maury mapped the seas.

Matthew Maury believed the Bible. He read in Psalms 8 and 107 of “paths in the seas.” His attitude was “If God’s word says there are paths in the seas, they will be found.” Having circumnavigated the globe before he was thirty, he was familiar with ocean currents, tides and winds.

His break came when he was given a post considered a sinecure: Superintendent of the Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, D.C. He found many old logs gathering dust and saw the chance to convert them into maps of winds and currents. He also solicited information from captains world-wide, promising them free publications in return. Millions of his forms were returned to the Depot, enabling him to revise and update maps, and advise the entire world on shipping lanes. He advocated many farsighted advances which are documented in my book Scientists of Faith.

Like many scientists before and after him, Maury’s Christian faith played an integral part in advancing knowledge. He is an example of why thoughtful faith should not be disparaged in scientific circles.

Prophetic Geology

admin — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:58:07 +0000

Map showing the line along which Israel will sink down like the Aravah.

Scientific evidence supports many prophecies the Bible makes concerning geological changes which are yet to come. I discovered this while researching my book The Earth Will Reel from its Place (available for $14.99 through amazon.com and other major booksellers). One of the most interesting articles I uncovered was in support of a prophecy made by Zechariah.

This 6th-century BC prophet tells us that the land of Israel will sink down like the Aravah from Geba to Rimmon (Zechariah 14:10). Traced on a map, this is just North of Jerusalem to the far south of the territory allotted to Simeon.

Two and a half millennia after Zechariah lived, gravity anomaly mapping came into use by geologists. Imagine my thrill as a Bible-believer to discover that a 20th-century geologist, using this relatively-recent technique, perhaps not even aware of Zechariah’s prophecy, had mapped a fault several miles deep which traces out the line Zechariah predicted will sink down.*

This to me was one more confirmation that the God of the Bible is real and able to impart knowledge to his spokesmen long before that knowledge becomes accepted fact. When this prophesy is fulfilled—as it will be—remember to give God glory.

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* Garfunkle, Zvi. “Tectonic Setting of Magmatism in Israel.” Israel Journal of Earth Science 38 (1989): 51-74.

Miracle at Jordan

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:25:07 +0000

The Jordan River near the Dead Sea.

This morning my Bible reading brought me through Joshua 3, which describes the Jordan drying up during flood, allowing the Israelites to cross into Canaan. Critics are generally skeptical of the miracles described in the Bible; however, they do not call this miracle a myth. Instead, they circle around to attack from a different angle, impugning the account because of its complexity, because it interweaves the actions of the priests, the people crossing over, and the tribal leaders taking up memorial stones.

The reason the critics do not attack head on is because there is independent evidence to deflect such an approach.

In Joshua 3:16, the writer tells us that the waters piled up at the village of Adam. This is significant.

Adam is about 16 miles north of where the Israelites crossed the river. Twice in the last 1,000 years the drying of the Jordan river has been replicated. The first instance was recorded by an Arab historian, who tells us that in 1266 a landslip at Tell ed-Damiyeh (identified with Adam) left the river bed dry for ten hours. The second instance occurred almost 700 years later in 1927 when an earthquake again caused a landslip at Adam which left the river dry for 21 hours.

Clearly a natural basis for the miracle exists. The critics cannot argue it away as a myth. Does this “naturalness” at all detract from the Biblical miracle? Not in the least. Given the rarity of landslips at Adam, that one should occur at just the moment when Israel was ready to cross is a miracle of timing that reveals the finger of God.