This ministry is called Worldview Warriors. Our goal and our vision are to train and equip this generation to know and understand the Biblical worldview and be ready to stand upon it when the world comes with its challenges. So why did I spend the last five weeks writing about a personal trip? The answer is simple: because the Grand Canyon has been a weapon used in the hands of secular “scientists” to dismantle and destroy the faith of millions of people. It is not proper scientists that the Grand Canyon refers to in order to teach the 6 million+ visitors each year about how the canyon formed. It is the priests of the pagan religion of secular/natural humanism. If they were actual scientists being referenced, they would be open and considering of the different ideas of how it all formed, and they would not be so set against any model that resembled Noah’s Flood. Russ Miller, one of our speakers, teaches that the Grand Canyon is one of the pillars of the secular/humanistic religion because of how well it “shows” the long ages of the past. Yet, when actual Bible-believing scientists finally got on their feet to give an answer to these false teachings, they began making waves and the secularists and old earthers in the churches are threatened by this.
Russ Miller often states that he is blocked by 90% of churches from being able to present information that has a history of piercing through the fog of millions of years and would equip the churches to teach their children to be able to stand on the Word of God. Yet, because of tares sown among the churches, usually in the form of a pastor, elder, deacon, or a big tither, if a pastor were to bring Miller to his church to present, it would offend these old earthers and create division. But I will stand with Miller and state that the ones causing division are not those who present the truth firmly and adamantly, but those who bring in another gospel. When taken to its full logical conclusion, Old Earth Creation models are a different gospel, with a different creator and as a result a different “Jesus.” There are authentic born-again believers who are old-earthers, but they are not consistent with it and most don’t actually believe it. They have little choice because they haven’t heard the other side of the story. The old earthers love to cite Proverbs 18:17 to try to counter the young earth creationist claims, but they never like having this verse used on them because it always exposes their teachings as false teachings.
What make origins so important? Don’t you just have to believe in Jesus, that He died for your sins and rose from the dead for you to be saved? Well, why do you need to be saved? What are being saved from? What are you being saved to? What does salvation even mean? If this debate was ONLY about the age of the earth, the old earthers would have a point that it is a secondary issue. However, it’s not about the age of the earth. It’s actually about Adam and sin. It’s about what Adam’s sin did and when death entered the world. In every old earth model, there is death before sin, and that is a fatal, damnable heresy. If death (of any kind) preceded sin, then death cannot be the penalty for sin. If the world prior to Adam has operated precisely as we observe today, then we have a creation that started out cursed. There is an origins model that has this as a principal teaching: the Gnostics’ teaching that the Demiurge created with the corrupted “essence” of the “True God.”
When I point this out, I have old-earthers go ballistic over it, and they will argue anything and everything EXCEPT this point I’m making. There is one I confronted by showing him how his geologic models show human death prior to Adam, and he questioned everything from the interpretation of Scripture to whether the fossils were human or not, everything except the dating methods. His response when I pointed this out was, “I just have to figure out the theology.” In Old Earth theology, notice this: “modern science” is “god” and “Divine Scripture” is “a matter of interpretation.” While some individuals do not believe this, this is the practice of the majority of them. Keep them talking and they’ll prove and even admit it.
I love how Russ Miller puts the issue so simply and succinctly. The secular community seeks to destroy the faith of unsuspecting youth by teaching them of long ages that put death before Adam and sin, which separates us from God and calls for a Savior in Jesus Christ. This is the summary of his book COST which I got to help edit and critique for its current edition. There are countless people in churches who have bought into these lies and instead of seeking the truth, they seek to block the truth from being spoken. The battle over origins is not about the age of the earth, but about all that comes with it. It is over the principal problem for mankind: when sin and death entered the world. It is about the problem for which Jesus is the solution. When one rejects the problem from being a problem, then why would one proudly boast about the solution from said problem? One fruit of Old Earth teachings is found in the Progressive Christianity movement (formerly Emergent Church) where there is hot debate about the problem of evil and why Jesus had to die. Now, not all old earthers are Progressive Christians, but all Progressive Christians are Old Earthers. Rob Bell and Brian McLaren both question the necessity of the virgin birth as they question the age of the earth and as they question the doctrines of hell and morality. They aren’t the only ones.
Origins has been the primary frontal attack on the authority and integrity of Scripture for the last 200 years. For the first 100 of those years, the Church was in such shock that they didn’t know how to respond and instead they caved on Scripture. They waived the white flag, and the moment the Church in general surrendered on origins to these predominately non-scientific and most certainly non-Christian Deists out of the Enlightenment, it lost the authority to speak on many different issues. The Bible was regulated to just being a religious book for the Christian religious, and not a book by which all man was expected to live. It didn’t take long in Europe for societies to start collapsing. It took the U.S. much longer to surrender its roots, but after about 100 years of teaching old earth ideas in the churches, the U.S. gave up the Bible entirely by removing prayer and the Bible from the public square in 1962-1963.
But God was ready to answer that and raised up men like Henry Morris and John Whitcomb to reclaim the Bible as the authority, not just in the church but also the nation, by answering the very place where it was surrendered: at origins. For many in churches, it’s brought revival back and currently with people like Russ Miller, we are rescuing people who were raised in churches, brainwashed by Marxist Evolutionists, and now have come back to the truth. But there are many churches who will not have it. I would question if the large percentage of those churches even qualify as being a church under God but are rather no more than a Sunday social club — a synagogue of Satan. Jesus is coming for a pure and spotless bride, and that includes on issues like origins. I, for one, want to be ready when He comes, and I will teach others to be ready for that, too. The origins debate is not just about origins; it’s about the Gospel. It’s about the correct worldview. It’s about the correct authority. Get those wrong, and you might have EVERYTHING wrong.
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On the second day of our trip, we did an early morning guided raft tour of Glen Canyon. Page, Arizona is right on the Arizona/Utah border at Lake Powell (which extends into Utah) and is also where the Grand Canyon officially begins. In the 1930s, a 750-foot dam was in this canyon and the lake was formed as a result. This area is under the guard of Homeland Security. If this dam were to be breached, numerous towns and everything down river would be wiped out. In 1983, a “cavitation” event took place when the dam was filled to the brim and engineers were trying to drain as much water as possible without overflooding everything downstream. But in this event, giant chunks of concrete were being shot out of the overflow spillways about 150 feet. In this picture, you can see a piece of rebar sticking out of the river.
The Colorado River flows out of the Glen Dam at 47 degrees regularly into the Glen Canyon, which is the first 17-mile stretch of the 277-mile long Grand Canyon. A rafting tour company does raft tours along this stretch before the Glen Canyon levels out and Marble Canyon begins at Lees Ferry. Lees Ferry is the only place along the entire stretch of the Grand Canyon where vehicles can get in and out because the surrounding walls are only a couple hundred feet tall, and there is some leveling out on the north side. But there are severe warnings at Lees Ferry that once you pass their markers: there is no going back without either hiking the long way, going the 9- to14-day journey through the rest of the river, or helicoptering out. Marble Canyon begins at this point, which cuts straight through the valley (much like the Little Colorado River Canyon does) and then enters the main Grand Canyon.
Our group of 54 split up among two large rafts, able to hold 30 people each, and each with a raft guide. Our three speakers split up among the two rafts and at various points, our speakers would talk about different formations and observations that we saw. Our raft guides only pointed out several interesting things to note but didn’t say much about how they formed. I’m guessing they really didn’t know. But our speakers did, and they explained the processes that would be required to produce these canyon walls that on average were about 700-1100 feet tall. Keep in mind, this is the SMALLEST part of the Grand Canyon. We did pass through the famous “Horseshoe Bend” which is a 270-degree turning of the river (see picture immediately below).
We also passed by what appeared to be a former ox-bow lake (see picture immediately above). There are two chasms in the wall that circle back and are connected behind what we could see. It looked like another breached dam caused it to drain and from the pictures. You can see where rain would regularly run down and create waterfalls, staining the rocks. Just to get the scale here, that tiny vertical water stain on the left “side canyon” is this up close:
One thing I learned about this canyon is the rock layers this canyon carved through are about 1300 feet above the Kaibab Formation, which is the top layer at the Grand Canyon. So, in terms of the order of rocks, we were above even Red Butte and Cedar Butte, yet due to the huge upwarp, these buttes and the main Grand Canyon itself is higher in elevation except where the river flows through the inner gorge.
What caused Glen Canyon to form? The secular models proudly proclaim the Colorado River carved it. Yet, if that were the case, why don’t we see Glen Canyons, let alone Grand Canyons, in nearly every river? An honest geologist will ask this: “Did the river form the canyon? Or did the canyon form the river?” Water always takes the path of least resistance and flows downhill. It never flows uphill, and if it can go around an obstacle, it will go around it before cutting through it. This is a severe problem in the secular models because the Grand Canyon is carved through the Kaibab Upwarp, and it would easily redirect itself around the upwarp, rather than cutting through it. With Glen Canyon, did the Colorado River cut straight down leaving vertical walls with hardly any erosion debris? Or was the canyon already carved and the Colorado River took the path of least resistance into the canyon?
Horseshoe Bend is a valuable point of contention. Secular geologists will claim that if a dam breach caused the canyon, we should see a straight path. We should not see the bends and meandering that they claim would be the case if a river slowly carved it over millions of years. But is that so? I have seen firsthand that this is not the case. In 2006, El Paso had its “500-year flood.” We had 15 inches of rain in less than 48 hours. It carved up all sorts of stuff, and the west side of El Paso had it the worst, where a brand-new Blockbuster Video store was literally washed off its foundation. But out in the desert, there were canyons carved into the desert sand. They meandered and cut vertical walls, much like the scale of the Grand Canyon or at least Glen/Marble Canyon. It doesn’t take a little water and a lot of time. It takes a LOT of water at high speeds, and it happens in a very short time. So how did Horseshoe Bend form with a 1100-foot wall on the outer curve, and roughly only a 500-foot wall on the inner bend? The best explanation is fast-moving water carved through the path of least resistance. Cavities or cracks in the rocks, perhaps while still soft, would easily enable these twists and turns in the canyon to do its work.
There are two details in these canyons frequently missed by the secular geologists. 1) Lack of debris from erosion on the sides. We have some there, but not millions of years’ worth, and the walls are too vertical for that kind of time to play a role. 2) The side canyons. The secular geologists have no real clue for how the side canyons were cut WITHOUT regular rivers flowing through them. They will have their stories, but they’re pure speculation and frankly, they don’t work in the real world. The Bible give us a mechanism that can explain it all: Noah’s Flood and the aftermath of it. Does the Bible give us all these specific details? No. But it gives an event that fits everything that we see.
Next week, I’ll wrap up this series on why the Grand Canyon is an important item of discussion for Christians to get and understand, and even how the Grand Canyon can be used to either present the Gospel or destroy it. It all hinges on whether you accept Noah’s Flood or not. Stay tuned.
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The Grand Canyon is an utterly breathtaking and amazing sight. But there is something even more amazing than that: the Grand Staircase. As you travel about 150 miles north from the Grand Canyon, you see a much more extensive climb of plateau to plateau than climbing the Grand Canyon itself. From the Vermillion Cliffs in Utah into Zion Canyon and further up to Bryce Canyon, we have a total about 9-11 thousand feet of layers to climb once you get out and away from the Grand Canyon. But it gets much more interesting than that.
The Grand Canyon’s depth is over 5000 feet. There is another 10,000+ feet of layers that should be on top of the canyon. So take twice the depth of the Canyon and add that to the top of the rim. We can’t imagine that. But this butte in the picture above is evidence that these layers extended from Utah to far south beyond the Grand Canyon. Another butte, Red Butte, which is south of the main entrance (my only picture from the bus of that butte is not very good, so I’m not going to share that here) is also evidence of the extension of these layers. I did not get a picture of it, but I noticed while at Desert Point, where Cedar Butte is clearly visible, that far to the north is another butte that takes a good eye to spot.
Now here is what is very interesting of these buttes. They sit ON TOP of the layer I stood on when I took that photo. Yet, I was looking down upon those 900-foot-tall buttes. How is that possible? Simple: The ground we were standing on was uplifted by what we call the “Kaibab Uplift.” That is why the Colorado River starts at only 3000 feet of elevation, but the South Rim is at 7000+ feet and the North Rim is at 8000+ feet. We have a mile of “uplift” in the Colorado Plateau and the Grand Canyon cuts through this uplift, never actually dropping below the main valley surrounding it.
So why point out these buttes? If you have been to the Canyon, you may have noticed there is virtually no mention whatsoever of these two buttes, especially at Desert Point where this picture was taken. Instead of a plaque describing the Cedar Butte (the plaque faces it), there is a memorial of where two planes crashed into each other near that viewpoint. Why would this butte have no mention? Because they are evidence of these layers which we only start to see 70+ miles north extending at least as far as the Canyon and very possibly way south to past Flagstaff. With the exception of these buttes, the 9-11 thousand+ feet of layers are completely MISSING! The buttes are all we have left. The Grand Canyon, as massive as it is, only has about 900 cubic miles missing. The missing Grand Staircase layers account for over 130,000 cubic miles. That means the missing Grand Staircase layers have a volume of 140x that which is missing from the Grand Canyon. And the literature by the Grand Canyon Park makes no mention of these buttes or the missing two miles of layers from the top of the canyon.
There is a critical follow up question. Where are the layers? If the Colorado River carved it all, we can’t find the Grand Canyon debris downriver except for a few small places outside Phoenix or San Diego, but what we have there would hardly fill a dump truck (yes, I am exaggerating, but the fact remains the extreme bulk of the missing rocks are still missing). Let’s again examine the secular claims and the Biblical claims.
The secular claims argue that in the final stages of forming the layers, the entire Colorado Plateau uplifted while under the latest cycle of rising and falling seas. This time, the uplift was so big that it caused the ocean to run off and take off those two miles of sediments with it. This is a concept called “sheet erosion,” where a massive amount of water cleans out a whole sheet of rock layers. Now, what’s amazing is that this sounds exactly like the Flood models. Since the Grand Canyon media does NOT include any of this information, that means the secular models are just now coming to realize this (parks are like textbooks, they are way behind on actual facts). This makes me wonder if the secular and old earth geologists are actually trying to copy notes from the Flood geologists, all the while making mockery of the flood geologists. In the academic world, that’s called plagiarism (this would not be the first time they’ve done it either). The Flood models would call for the rising of the land towards the tail end of the flood and the ocean floors sinking producing the massive and extensive runoff that would carve out those layers and somehow leaving those buttes behind (this could have been a supernatural act). Again, the secularists would never have considered a “catastrophe” like this until Mt. St. Helens forced them to, and Flood Geologists were well on top of things at that point. So why are the secular models looking more and more like the Flood Geologist claims, except without the Flood?
What also stands out to me on these buttes is that they are flat. They’re completely planed off. What natural mechanism has the ability to shave off a mountain like that? Take notice that there are mountains all over the world that are shaved off like this. Only fast-moving water filled with rocks and grains could do that. And what kind of mechanism could produce such fast-moving water? Noah’s Flood. The secularists know this, but despite all the evidence and even the fact that their own models closely resemble what would happen if there was a global flood, they still reject it from being an option. Why is that? Why are so many scientists so hardened and so adamant that there could not be a global flood?
The answer is simple: 2 Peter 3:3-7. They are willingly ignorant of the Flood, proclaiming that all that is happening today is what has happened all in the past, forgetting that the world of Noah’s Day perished by water. It’s intentional. They refuse to recognize the Flood because the Flood was no mere water disaster. It was God’s judgment upon sinful, wicked men. This was a big point we emphasized on this trip. There is such a great beauty to the Grand Canyon, but it’s a monument not merely to catastrophe but to judgment. It was a judgment so severe that God only let one option for salvation to be present: Noah’s Ark. That judgment with one escape is the first clear picture of the Gospel and that our final judgment will not be a mere local event but universal. The entire population will face the final judgment just as the entire population (not just a localized area) faced the judgment of the Flood. If the idea of a global flood was not tied to the Bible and the Gospel, no one would dare question it. Scientists accept a global flood idea on Mars with no water present. Mars’ version of the Grand Canyon, which is far bigger, was obviously cut by water. Yet on earth when 70% of the planet is covered in water, it could not be a global flood? It’s obviously not the science that holding them back.
Next week, I’ll share about the river raft tour through Glen Canyon before I wrap up this series on why we need to understand the important of origins and the Flood.
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The question that enters nearly every person’s mind when they enter the canyon is: “How did this form?” There are two predominate models: the secular-humanistic model and the Biblical Creation model. The Old Earth models are completely inseparable from the secular-humanistic models in this case other than “God did it” slapped to the end. There is no point in trying to distinguish them. The secular models proclaim the Colorado River carved it (they have two primary competing theories for this), and the Biblical model proclaims it was a result of Noah’s Flood.
An interesting detail about the Grand Canyon is that the Canyon doesn’t carve into the valley it surrounds (see in picture above; in the back left is the Little Colorado River Canyon where it does carve into the valley). The vast majority of the canyon’s layers have been uplifted by what is called “the Kaibab Upwarp.” This is why the Colorado River enters Glen Canyon at an elevation of 3700 feet and exits at Lake Mead with an elevation of 1221 feet, but the rim of the canyon is between 6-8 thousand feet above sea level. It is important to note that water cannot flow uphill, and this is a major blow to the secular models. They can’t get the water high enough to cut it. So, they have two proposed models. 1) Forward cutting, where the Colorado River began to cut through the Upwarp and the layers above the river collapsed through the cutting. 2) Piracy, where erosion took place throughout the Upward and eventually cut backwards until it carved a new route for the Colorado River to take place. These two models have some merit because these mechanisms have been observed to happen with other rivers. But that merit ends right then and there. Just because it happened in one place, that doesn’t mean it happened somewhere else, especially when you don’t have favorable matching conditions or settings.
The Biblical models have two major competing ideas as well. 1) Flood runoff (promoted by Tim Clarey of ICR). This is a big one as both secular and Biblical models believe heavy amounts of runoff played a significant role in forming the region. 2) Breached dam hypothesis (Nate Loper who leads Canyon Ministries is a big proponent of this one). Once believed by secular models and now rejected by many, this one has some weight to it, too, because of how easily we have seen canyons form overnight from breached dams before. There is some back-and-forth debate as to whether each of these models can actually do what they claim to do. This comes from both parties and from within both parties.
As Christians, our job is to analyze things based on the framework of what the Bible says. The point of contention is Noah’s Flood. The secular-humanistic models intentionally deny this event, and the Biblical models make it the focal point. So, what does the Bible record? Take some time to read Genesis 7-8, then I’ll highlight some points.
There are two sources of water: the fountains of the deep and the windows from heaven. The window of heaven rained for 40 days, but the fountains of the deep were not closed for 150 days. So we have water from above and water from below. These waters rose for 150 days and then receded for 150 days. Noah was on the Ark for a total of 377 days. These waters covered all the high hills under heaven to the point where the mountains were completely buried. Then at the end of the flood, we see the waters receding over a span of a 150 days, and then the land dried out until Noah disembarked from the Ark. A flood skeptic will say, “I see no claims of geologic upheaval or volcanoes or anything that Flood Geologists claim.” Well, Genesis wasn’t written to be a scientific textbook, nor was it meant to describe things in modern scientific language. Rather, it was written so the uneducated person, no matter time, culture, or language, can get the big picture. However, what would happen if what the Bible describes did occur?
But what should we expect if the Flood was indeed a global event? We should expect to see many rock layers laid down by water. We should see billions of dead things caused by drowning or burial. We should see effects of fast-moving water in large quantities. We should see extremely little time in between layers as tides rolled in and out. And what do we actually see? Many rock layers laid down by water, filled with billions of death things, massive scales of water erosion, and in between layers, we have virtually no evidence of the passage of time. The rim of the Canyon at Desert View (see picture of Cedar Butte above) shows what we SHOULD see should any layer be exposed for any significant length of time. Hills, plants, erosion run off, etc. Instead, look at the layers right below it. There is no indication of any passage of time there. No indication of erosion over thousands of years, let alone millions, no indication of bioturbation (plant growth, animal livelihood, etc.), just rock layer after rock layer. The secular arguments against this nearly invariably deal on the technicalities, not the big picture.
Now what should we see if the secular models are valid? Besides what is addressed above, if millions of years have passed, we should see the canyon “walls” not actually look like walls. They should merely be ravines and valleys. If a river carved the canyon, any walls should be mostly collapsed with angles of more than 30 degrees. Consider the scale of the Canyon. If the Colorado River carved it, how wide did that river have to be in order to get that width? And how much water are we talking about to produce said width? The secularists have their models, their explanations, and their excuses, but they really have nothing that doesn’t resemble nor require water on a global scale. We should see a canyon that fits the size of the Colorado River, and we should NOT see large side canyons. (Look at the Bright Angel Canyon in the first picture, which heads towards the middle, and also look at the Little Colorado Canyon that you can barely see in the second picture below it). The secularists don’t have a reasonable answer for these side canyons that won’t invoke or suggest a global scale catastrophe.
I am convinced that Flood deniers have never seen water move in large quantities or velocity. I have. In 2006, here in El Paso, we had 15 inches of rain in less than 48 hours, and I saw canyons carved into the sand, meandering like the Grand Canyon and with vertical walls like the Grand Canyon. The power of water is highly disregarded by our mainstream geologists today. When we add grains of sand or dirt, we can cut steel with water. Imagine what that will do should a dam burst.
The secularists and old earthers will say that the Flood models are untenable. And there may be things in the flood models that simple won’t work or we don’t have answers to. But don’t think for a moment that the secular models are any better. Don’t think they have solutions that don’t have bigger problems. I could justifiably argue that for every problem the secularists present for the Biblical models, the secularists will have the same problems, only bigger for their own. I believe I can claim that if any “Deep Timer” were to apply the same standards of scrutiny upon their own models as they do the young-earth models, they could not believe in Deep Time any further and be honest about it. Next week, we’ll look at an even bigger problem for the secular models: two miles of rocks missing from the TOP of the Grand Canyon.
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They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, the Grand Canyon is one thing where 1000 words doesn’t cover the picture and the picture doesn’t cover seeing it live. I took this shot on Friday, June 11, and it’s much like the famous pictures of the Canyon you see (from the same location). When I took my tour, we stopped by three viewing points: Mather Point, Bright Angel Lodge, and Desert View. These three points give you the biggest views and the iconic views that just leave you in jaw-dropping awe and wonder. Take note: in this picture, there is a canyon heading towards you. This is the Bring Angel Canyon, a small side canyon. The main Grand Canyon is going from right to left.
The Grand Canyon of northern Arizona is considered one of the largest canyons in the world, but what makes it stand out is that due to the desert landscape, you can grasp the magnitude of it in a few views. It is about 277 miles long, with depths exceeding a mile deep and widths spanning 1-18 miles for most of the canyon. Mather Point and the Bright Angel lodges are very close to each other (but you still need to drive without some good hiking), and they allow you see the greatest percentage of the canyon. Then Desert View showcases some extensive views as well. Here is one of them:
The pictures off my phone are clearly nowhere high quality, but there are important features to observe here. Until you reach the bottom of the canyon, all the layers are sedimentary — laid down by water. Both the secular and Biblical models agree on this. Only the sedimentary layers have fossils in them. You will also notice that for the most part, the layers are pretty flat in relation to each other, though there are exceptions to this. FAR to the west of the Canyon is “Surprise Canyon” (well outside our viewing range), which is a 400-foot gorge cut into a side channel but then filled in with various debris all the while having flat layers on top. The secular models use this canyon to prove that layers had to represent long periods of time for a river to carve that canyon (all the while claiming the Colorado River carved the massive Grand Canyon).
So, what do we have in the canyon? At the very bottom, we have the “Vishnu Schist” and the Zoroaster Granite, volcanic granite that is often called “basement rock.” Flood geologists call this “Day 3: Creation Rock,” — this is the rock that was formed out of the waters on Day 3. Everything on top of this is sedimentary rocks laid down by water. In some visible places, there are up to 12,000 feet of rocks that were initially stacked on top of each other and then “faulted,” that is, tilted over (the Joggins area in Newfoundland has 20,000 feet of sediments in a similar status). On top of that is what is called the “Great Unconformity,” which is called that because it goes directly against the secular models of how geology is supposed to work. Nearly every layer from here on out is predominately flat. There are about ten distinct layers from this unconformity upward including the Tapeats Sandstone, Redwall Limestone, the Coconino Sandstone, and the Kaibab Formation at the rim. Within these layers are various lava flows, fossils, wood carvings, and numerous other finds. It’s these sedimentary layers that are of primary interest to all parties. Another important thing to note: these layers are continental in size. They are MASSIVE and cover many multiple states, not just local areas.
Now there are other areas called “unconformities” throughout the canyon, and flood geologists have often debated these points. But it is important to notice that the secular models point to such “unconformities” because they have entire layers MISSING from the Canyon. How do they know they are missing? Because they compare the actual layers to the Geologic Column. The secular models proudly proclaim that nearly 25% of the geologic history is not found in the Grand Canyon and say that these layers were removed. Well, what would cause such removal of entire layers with no evidence they were ever there? Where did these layers go? How do they know these layers actually existed there? The secularists and Old Earthers won’t tell you this outright, but while they accuse Flood geologists of starting with their answers (that is, starting with the fact of Noah’s Flood, a record that well predated their ideas), they are doing the exact same thing (that is, starting with the Geologic Column as stated in the textbooks is real, which doesn’t exist in the real world as presented).
The secular models for how the layers got here is through rising and falling seas. I found that very interesting because this looks a lot like the flood models as the waters rose from the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven along with the tides that would be ever changing due to the changing water levels. This is supposed to be coupled every few million years with the continent collapsing due to the weight of the rock and waters, which enables the rising seas to deposit the next layer. While we have seen evidence of this collapsing called isostasy in different places around the world, do we see evidence of this here? And how would the collapsing produce the same drop for the entire span of the area, leaving essentially perfectly flat layers AND without any significant visible cracking that would be expected when rock moves on that kind of scale? These models must have this collapsing (yet the books I’ve read don’t actually mention this and one author admitted it was because he and his co-authors decided it was too complicated to explain), otherwise they actually promote a global flood for every layer. There are problems here that I am not convinced the secularists have thought through.
The Flood geology models for the laying down of the layers include the rising and falling of flood waters due to the daily tides and running off as the land was being churned up. Some models call for tsunami waves caused by the massive geologic upheavals to crash ashore and leave their deposits as the waters receded with each wave and tide. Other models call for the fact that as the waters rose, they churned up two miles of rock, and then as things started to settle down, the layers were deposited and cleanly sorted by size, weight, and density (which is very easily observed in a household experiment). Then came the runoff from the Flood which had effects that I will get into later. I’ll just say here that there are two miles of missing layers from ABOVE the canyon. There is no way I can get into the technical details here, but you can look into the two major models of the Hydroplate Theory and Catastrophic Plate Tectonics at the links provided.
So, what caused all the layers to form? I personally believe it is a combination of the tsunamis and sorting. I don’t think either model can cover it alone. But I found the secular models to be wishful thinking at best. The secular models’ proposed mechanisms are simply not capable of producing the size or scale of rocks we find WITHOUT being global in scale. But the secularists will not consider the Flood at all because it really wrecks up their models and their dating methods.
This post discussed the formation of the Canyon’s layers. Next week, I’ll look at the different models for how the canyon was carved.
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Two weeks ago, from June 10-13 this year, I got an experience of a lifetime. I got to go on a Biblical tour of the Grand Canyon with Russ Miller, Eric Hovind, and Helmut Welke among 50 others. I had been to the Grand Canyon once before, about 15 years ago, stopping likely at Mather Point to see the Canyon. We really only stayed there about 30 minutes or so to enjoy the views and headed out. I recall the spectacular views from then, but that was then. This is now. I’ve not only been studying the Creation/Evolution issues in much greater detail since then, but now I could take what I have been learning and see it with my eyes. I LOVE mountain top views and the Grand Canyon is no different. So, I am going to do several posts about this trip and highlight some of the major themes that were discussed.
My intellectual interest in the Grand Canyon was sparked when I kept getting invited to check out a book titled The Grand Canyon: Monument to an Ancient Earth. I finally got it and read through it, filling pages of notes and observations. The bulk of the secular arguments I will be addressing come from this book. While I hardly addressed the specific science claims, I was primarily looking at the internal logic and compared that to the Young Earth Creationist claims. I ended up with 70 pages of comments from the quotes. While hailed by numerous scientists and some Christian leaders, it is ALSO hailed by numerous atheists and secular groups who would love nothing more than to have Bible-believers’ heads. It is quite telling on where you actually stand when the atheist community is promoting your work more than Christians.
So I read this book, and I knew Russ Miller from a conference he gave back here in El Paso a few years earlier, and I asked him if he knew about it. Knowing he led trips to the Canyon and knowing this was out there, I believe it is important that we know what our “opposition” is saying. He was thoroughly impressed with my critique and then invited me to come on one of his tours. I was all set last year, and then COVID hit. But I asked that my registration be held off till the next year and with much doubt, confusion, and uncertainty about what would happen, the trip was on.
Our group met in Phoenix on Thursday evening, June 10, where we introduced ourselves to each other and had a little warm-up talk. Having studied this stuff quite a bit, I did everything I could to keep my mouth shut to add my knowledge in. I wanted to let the speakers speak. Then Friday, we got onto a charter bus and drove to the South Rim of the Canyon, picking up Russ Miller (who lives in the Flagstaff area) along the way. On the bus ride, we watched a few video presentations from the speakers. Helmut Welke gave presentations on the general origins issue debates including on dinosaurs, radioactive decay, and age of the earth. Russ Miller’s presentations included the importance of the origins debate to the Gospel, but also to the foundations for our nation’s morality, as well as being the main speaker for the canyon presentations themselves. Eric Hovind’s presentations were primarily on evangelism and sharing the Gospel.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon and stopped by three viewing points on the South Rim: Mather Point, Bright Angel Lodge (looking across from Bright Angel Canyon), and Desert View. At best, we only saw about 1/3 of the Canyon all together. From those three stops, we then went to the Camron Trading Post (run by the Navajo) for dinner and then drove all the way to Page, Arizona, crossing the Little Colorado River and Canyon towards where the Grand Canyon officially starts at Lake Powell. The Colorado River is dammed there at the base of the Glen Canyon. Here we stayed the night.
In the morning, we took a river raft tour from base of Lake Powell for the first 17 miles of the Grand Canyon (formally called Glen Canyon) to Lees Ferry where the Glen Canyon levels out and the Marble Canyon begins. The Marble Canyon continues on until it officially becomes part of the main Grand Canyon. Rafters have to stop at Lees Ferry because once you enter Marble Canyon, there is no place to get out or escape the canyon without hiking out until you reach the other end of the Canyon 270 miles downriver at Lake Mead. For this part of the tour, we split up into two large rafts (each able to hold 30 people) with a formal guide.
Throughout Glen Canyon we pointed out several features, just in awe at the 500-1200 foot tall cliffs (very small in proportion to the main canyon which is over a mile deep) and also passed the famous “Horseshoe Bend” before arriving at Lees Ferry. We took a rest stop about halfway there where there are restrooms and some petroglyphs. About six of the group came prepared to go swimming and leapt off the raft into the river, at 47 degrees regularly (due to coming out from the bottom of the dam). But they were warned to never go out to the current because the river would take them.
From there we headed off to a spot for pictures at what is called “Poison Rock,” then went to a Navajo location where dinosaur tracks (including Velociraptor and T-Rex) are found. After that, we returned to Phoenix for a pizza party and final sessions. Sunday morning, we scattered with nothing official but hanging out at the hotel until different flights and departures from there.
The trip as a whole was a bit under $1000, not including transportation to Phoenix, but that includes three nights of hotel stays, a two-day charter bus, all meals, park fees, the raft tour, and three speakers’ costs. It was worth it. There are other tour groups who do the Canyon as well. I know Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research do 9-14 day trips where they raft through the whole length of the Grand Canyon (I hear those are roughly $5000 each, but you don’t get hotels every night in the canyon). They operate these through Canyon Ministries headed by Tom Vail which takes numerous groups on a regular basis. One of my friends here in El Paso had just returned from a four-day trip with them.
But what amazed me about this trip was having studied the theories and learning from both sides the claims, and seeing it all in person, it just ignited the fire for me even further. So, for the next few posts, I’m going to go into details about the trip and will compare and contrast what the secular models say and what the Biblical models would suggest. I will not get into the technical details, but I will simply highlight the main ideas.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
