I had to smile recently when I read a short article about new research on the Grand Canyon. This geologic wonder has been studied by thousands of scientists and yet continues to surprise them with its various features—and this article highlighted several features that sound rather like there was a global flood as described in Genesis! This is not surprising to Bible-believing Christians.
The new research looked at the Tonto Group, a 500-meter-thick formation, containing the Tapeats sandstone, Bright Angel Shale, and Muav Limestone (as well as two other minor) strata, that is conventionally assigned to the Cambrian layer (this represents the initial stages of the global flood). While evolutionists believe it to be 540 million years old, listen to how they interpret this area based on their studies at Grand Canyon and other places (emphasis added):
- “The Tonto Group holds a treasure trove of sedimentary layers and fossils chronicling the Cambrian Explosion some 540 million years ago, when the first vertebrates and animals with hard shells rapidly proliferated and sea levels rose to envelop continents with emerging marine life.”
- “From the Tonto Group’s 500-meter-thick strata, we’re learning about sea-level rise and the effects of catastrophic tropical storms – probably more powerful than today’s devastating hurricanes – during a period of very hot temperatures when the Earth was ice-free.”
- “Sea levels were so high during this time period, Dehler says, that rocks like the Tonto Group were deposited atop every continent on Earth, as seas bathed the continents in a complex mosaic of shallow marine, coastal, and terrestrial environments.”
Sea levels rose all around the world, bathing the continents and depositing vast rock layers that stretch across continents. That’s all coming from evolutionary scientists—but it almost sounds like they’re describing the initial stages of the global flood as waters began to rise and sea creatures were rapidly buried by these rising floodwaters.
I’ve always said that if the Bible didn’t mention a global flood, most geologists would believe that there was one! The evidence is all around us, and it’s overwhelming.
The article mentions that Grand Canyon is like a crime scene, where detectives must piece together what happened in the past. And that’s true—that’s the nature of historical science. We can’t directly test, observe, or repeat the past, so worldview—what one believes about the past—determines the interpretation of the evidence in the present.
The battle isn’t over the evidence. It’s over two different interpretations of the same evidence because of two different starting points: God’s Word vs. man’s word.
