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The Journal of Ministry & Theology Fall 2008 28-68

GENESIS, GEOLOGY AND THE GRAND CANYON

Dr. Gary Gromacki

Associate Professor of Bible and Homiletics Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania

In June of 2008 I traveled by motorized boat 187 miles down

the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon with 28 Bible teachers and creation scientists. Tom Vail of Canyon Ministries1 led our adventure. Terry Mortenson and Andrew Snelling, with Answers in Genesis2, gave lectures on the age of the earth as well as the geolo-gy of the Grand Canyon. Our group started the rafting trip at Lee’s Ferry. We went through Marble Canyon and then through the Grand Canyon. Some highlights of the trip for me included rafting the rapids in the Colorado River, viewing the rock strata in the canyon, visiting some Anasazi ruins, seeing a petrified log, seeing fossils at Redwall Cavern, jumping into the pool at Elves Chasm, listening to a teacher read Genesis 1 in the inner gorge, floating down the Little Colorado River, hiking through the slot canyon at Matkatamiba, surviving Lava Falls rapids, praying as a group to start each day, and taking a helicopter ride out of the canyon.

The Grand Canyon is an amazing place. Over five million visi-tors travel there each year to experience its breathtaking beauty. It

1 Canyon Ministries was started by Grand Canyon river guide Tom

Vail. Every day Tom would tell us “Let’s go boatin’,” and we put on our life jackets and got into the boats from Arizona River Runners. Tom shared his testimony of how he came to Christ with us on the trip and his story appears in his beautifully illustrated book Grand Canyon: A Different View (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003).

2 Answers in Genesis sponsored our trip. Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry started by Ken Ham that has produced many books, DVDs, and online resources that present scientific evidence for biblical creationism and a young earth. Answers in Genesis recently built the Crea-tion Museum in northern Kentucky which presents an account of the origins of the universe, life, man, and man’s early history according to a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis. Its exhibits reject evolution and assert that the earth, man, and all life forms were created by God in six literal days some 6000 years ago.

Genesis, Geology and the Grand Canyon 29

is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.3 The Grand Can-yon in northern Arizona contains one of the most exceptional series of exposed rock formations found anywhere in the world. The sequence of rock layers in the canyon vary in color and thickness and extend from the Colorado River to the Kaibab Plateau. The Grand Canyon is approximately one mile deep and extends 278 miles between Lake Powell on its eastern end and Lake Mead to the west. The Colorado River meanders through the Grand Canyon.4

In this article we will examine the question of the age of the earth as we study the book of Genesis, geology, and the Grand Canyon. How old is the earth? How was the Grand Canyon formed? Do the rock layers of the Grand Canyon prove that the earth is old? Is Genesis opposed to geology? Does Genesis teach us anything about the age of the earth? How have Bible scholars and creation scientists interpreted Genesis, geology and the Grand Canyon? This paper will attempt to answer these questions regard-ing the Bible and science.

THE GRAND CANYON AND THE AGE OF THE EARTH

How long ago was the Grand Canyon formed?5 Evolutionist

geologists assert that the rock strata of the Grand Canyon were formed over millions of years as oceans slowly advanced and re-

3 There is no consensus on the seven natural wonders of the world.

One of many lists was compiled by CNN, listing the Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef, Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Mount Everest, Aurora, Paricutin Volcano, and Victoria Falls. (<http://www.cnn.com/TRAVEL/ DESTINATIONS/9711/NATURAL.WONDERS/> [accessed 1 September 2008]).

4 The average width of the Colorado River is 300 feet, and its mini-mum width is 76 feet. The Colorado River’s average depth is 40 feet, and its greatest depth is 85 feet. Its average gradient is 7 feet per mile (<www.nps.gov/grca/parkmgmt/statistics.htm> [accessed 24 July 2008]). The temperature is around 48° F.

5 John Hance, early Grand Canyon guide and storyteller, gave this fanciful explanation of the formation of the canyon: “It was hard work, took a long time, but I dug it myself with a pick and shovel. If you want to know what I done with the dirt, just look south through a clearing in the trees at what they call the San Francisco Peaks,” (<www.nps.gov/grca/ parkmgmt/statistics.htm> [accessed 24 July 2008]).

30 The Journal of Ministry & Theology

treated over the North American continent. They believe that the Grand Canyon was cut in six million years by the Colorado River.6 Belknap argues for an old earth as he describes how the Grand Canyon was formed:

The dark, contorted rocks of the Inner Gorge are the ancient, highly metamorphosed remains of even older sedimentary and igneous rocks. How ancient? Detailed studies of radioactive elements reveal that the Canyon’s oldest rock, the Vishnu Schist, was metamorphosed some 1.7 billion years ago; presumably the original rock was deposited as silt or fine sand a few hundred million years before that during the Pro-terozoic Era. Above the inner gorge is a thick sequence of flat lying sedimentary rock. In this sequence the harder sandstone and limestone layers form vertical cliffs; the slopes between the cliffs are softer silt-stone beds. Fossil plants and shells found here indicate that the sedi-ments were deposited in the Paleozoic Era during a time span of 295 million years, from about 545 to 250 million years ago. Although most rocks younger than Paleozoic have been eroded away from the Canyon rim, nearby outcrops show that at least 2000 feet of sediment was de-posited during the succeeding 170 million years. This period of deposi-tion occurred during the Mesozoic Era (the age of dinosaurs), a time when the region was low and swampy, but not deeply submerged. The Mesozoic ended about 65 million years ago when vast disturbances began to raise both the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau. After a long period of stop and go uplift, the present river drainage pat-terns began forming. In the last 6 million years, the ancestral rivers or-ganized themselves into the present Colorado. During that time the river cut down through a mile of rock to form Grand Canyon.7 Belknap holds to a uniformitarian view of historical geology.

Uniformitarians argue that the geological processes seen today are the same processes that occurred in the past and will always be the

6 “This most famous of all canyons was formed by swiftly flowing

waters of the Colorado River cutting into rock layers of the southwestern Colorado Plateau,” (Stanley Beus and Michael Morales, Grand Canyon Geology [New York: Oxford, 1990], 2). Biblical geologist Steven Austin shows the problems with the antecedent river theory and the “precocious gully” theory in his book Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe (Santee, CA: Institute for Creation Research, 1994), 85-92.

7 Buzz Belknap, Grand Canyon River Guide (Evergreen, CO: Westwater Books, 2008), 4-6. Belknap describes his view of the formation of the Grand Canyon over millions of years on pages 8 and 9 of his book.


same in the future.8 Uniformitarian geologists argue that the present is the key to the past. They reject the worldwide flood of Genesis. They would argue that the earth is millions of years old and would seek to use the Grand Canyon as exhibit A for their view.

Young earth creationists and biblical geologists have a differ-ent view regarding the age and formation of the Grand Canyon. Young earth creationists believe that the days of Genesis 1 were six literal 24-hour days which occurred a little over 6000 years ago. Biblical geologists assume that the book of Genesis gives a true, historical account of origins. They would argue that the earth is not millions of years old, but just thousands.9 They would interpret the formation of the Grand Canyon in light of the fact that Genesis teaches that there was a global flood (Gen 6-8). Biblical geologists would argue that most (not all) of sedimentary rock layers seen in the Grand Canyon are the result of a catastrophic worldwide flood. They believe that the Grand Canyon was not eroded slowly over millions of years, but in a short period of time either as a result of receding flood waters or the breaking of a dam from post-flood lakes or a combination of these two events.

8 The concept of uniformitarianism was first proposed by the

Persian geologist Avicenna. Uniformitarianism is a philosophy of science which was made popular by James Hutton in his book Theory of the Earth and by Charles Lyell in his three-volume Principles of Geology (1830-1835; repr., New York: Johnson Repr., 1969). Before Darwin sailed on the Beagle he read Lyell’s Principles of Geology which explained that land-forms were the result of gradual processes over millions of years. Lyell’s uniformitarian geology influenced Darwin and his belief that evolution took place over millions of years.

9 Dr. Don DeYoung has written a book called Thousands … Not Billions (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2005). This book summarizes eight years of research led by the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) to determine the age of the earth. The project title was Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth (RATE). The book argues that the earth is not millions of years old but rather several thousand years old. Dr. John Morris has written a book entitled The Young Earth (Colorado Springs, CO: Master Books, 1994) which gives biblical and scientific arguments in favor of a recent creation of planet earth.


THE GRAND CANYON AND THE GEOLOGIC COLUMN

The Grand Canyon is known for its many different types of

rock layers. In 1870 John Wesley Powell was the first geologist to explore the Grand Canyon. He called the rock strata of Grand Can-yon “a book of revelations in the rock leaved Bible of geology.”10 Geologists classify rocks in three main types: igneous11, sedimen- tary12, and metamorphic.13 All three types of rocks are found in the Grand Canyon.

Geologists have related these rock layers to different time pe-riods in earth’s history. The vast ages of earth history have been divided by geologists into a series of geological eras and periods.14

10 Beus and Morales, Grand Canyon Geology, 8.

11 Igneous rocks are formed as a result of the cooling of molten rock. Below the surface molten rock is called magma. At the earth’s surface it becomes lava. Magma or lava is a mixture of elements such as silica, iron, sodium and potassium. As it cools these elements combine or crystallize to form igneous rocks. Some types of igneous rocks include obsidian, pumice, granite, and basalt (<http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/Fichter/IgnRx/ Introigrx.html> [accessed 15 September 2008]).

12 Sedimentary rocks are the results of weathering, transportation by water, and deposition of quartz sand, clay and calcite in a solution which result in sandstone, shale and limestone (<http://csmres.jmu/edu/geollab/ Fichter/SedRx/index.html> [accessed 15 September 2008]).

13 Metamorphic rocks are changed over time from a preexisting rock by heat, pressure, and chemical activity. Metamorphism occurs when a preexisting rock (the parent rock) is buried in the earth under layers of other rocks. The deeper the rock is buried, the hotter it gets and the higher pres-sure it experiences. The rock becomes a metamorphic rock. Marble comes from limestone that experiences heat and pressure; quartzite comes from sandstone and slate comes from shale. Any rock can be metamorphosed including igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks (<http://csmres.jmu/edu/geollab/Fichter/SedRx/index.html> [accessed 15 September 2008]).

14 The geologic time scale is based on supposed differences in evolu-tion of fossil animals. Index fossils also known as guide fossils or zone fossils are fossils used to define and identify geological periods in different rock strata. Rock strata are often dated by the index fossils and index fossils are dated by the rock strata in which they are found. This is an obvious case of circular reasoning to justify millions of years. Anomalous fossils are problems for evolutionists. Anomalous fossils are two fossils of different ages found in the same rock layer. If the evolutionist cannot extend the


The whole sequence is known as the Geologic Column. The Geologic Column has never been found in its totality in any one location. It is an artificial construct developed by geologists who believe in an old earth. The Geologic Column is used by evolution-ist geologists to date rocks and fossils. It is used as an argument to support the teaching of evolution. The Geologic Column is often displayed in books on the Grand Canyon. Geologists believe that the youngest rocks are at the top of the Grand Canyon and the oldest rocks are at the bottom.

The Geologic Column is divided into two supereons: Phanerozoic and Precambrian. The supereons are divided into eons. The Precambrian supereon is divided into two major eons: Archean and Proterozoic. The Phanerozoic supereon is divided into three major eras: Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic. The eras are di-vided into periods. The following description of time periods in the Geologic Column will be given from oldest to youngest.

The oldest rocks come from the Precambrian15 eon. The Archean (formerly called Archaeozoic) is a geological eon that has rocks that date from 2500 million years ago and older. Some geo-logical columns place the Hadean before the Archean while others have the Hadean as included the Archean. Supposedly the first continents formed during this eon. The Proterozoic eon dates be-fore 542 million years ago. Evolutionists believe that primitive water dwelling plants and animals evolved during this time.

Evolutionist geologists believe that the Paleozoic16 era (542-250 million years ago) was marked by the first appearance of ani-mals with shells such as clams, invertebrates (animals without backbones), fish, land plants, and amphibians. The Paleozoic era is divided into Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississip-pian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian periods. Evolutionists believe that all invertebrate animals evolved in the primordial seas during the Cambrian period. Brachiopods and trilobites were common. Evolutionists believe that during the Ordovician period the earliest

stratigraphic range of the fossils, he must determine which fossil is the index fossil and represents the true age of the rock strata.

15 Precambrian is the word used to describe the time before the Cambrian period. Evolutionists believe that it includes 85% of geologic time (Nicholas Coch and Allan Ludman, Physical Geology [New York: Macmillan, 1991], 198).

16 From a word meaning ancient life.


known vertebrates evolved. Graptolites, corals, brachiopods, cephalopods, and trilobites were abundant. The oldest primitive land plants also evolved at this time. During the Silurian period evolutionists believe that the earliest known land animals evolved along with fish. During the Devonian period evolutionists believe that amphibians evolved along with a great variety of boneless fish and the first known seed plants. The Mississippian period suppo-sedly saw the rise of the amphibians and culmination of crinoids. The Pennsylvanian period is known for the earliest known insects. Evolutionists believe that during the Permian period primitive reptiles evolved, the trilobites became extinct, and the first modern corals were formed.

The Mesozoic17 era (251-65 million years ago) is divided by geologists into the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. Dur-ing the Triassic period evolutionists believe that the earliest dino-saurs evolved along with flying reptiles, marine reptiles and primi-tive mammals. Cycads and conifers were common. Ammonites also evolved during the Triassic period. During the Jurassic period, evolutionists believe that dinosaurs ruled the world. Also during this time evolutionists believe that birds evolved. Evolutionists believe that dinosaurs, flying reptiles, and ammonites became ex-tinct during the Cretaceous period.

The Cenozoic era (65 million years ago to the present) is the time when mammals and flowering plants became dominant. The Cenozoic era is divided into the Tertiary and Quaternary periods. The Tertiary period is divided into five epochs (from oldest to youngest): Paleocene Epoch, Eocene Epoch, Oligocene Epoch, Miocene Epoch, and the Pliocene Epoch. The Quaternary period is divided into the Pleistocene Epoch and the Recent Epoch. Evolu-tionists believe that during this time modern plants, animals, and man evolved.

Biblical geologists are divided over the Geologic Column and its significance. Reed and Oard have edited a book entitled The Geologic Column: Perspectives Within Diluvial Geology.18 Some biblical geologists (Tyler, Coffin) believe that the Geologic Col-umn should be accepted as foundational for developing an

17 From a word meaning middle life.

18 John Reed and Michael Oard, ed., The Geologic Column: Perspec-tives Within Diluvial Geology (Chino Valley, AZ: Creation Research Socie-ty Books, 2006).


understanding of the geological history of planet earth, but they reject the chronology of the Geologic Column. They believe it is helpful in identifying various rock strata and index fossils within the strata.19 A second approach by biblical geologists is called recolonization. Recolonization accepts the Geologic Column and seeks to understand the fossil and rock strata within a framework of biblical history with short time periods.20 A third group of biblical geologists accepts the Geologic Column as a general flood order with many exceptions. Oard gives arguments for Walker’s biblical geological model. The sedimentary rocks labeled as Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic strata are viewed as early Flood. Ceno-zoic strata can be early Flood, late Flood, or post-Flood depending upon their location and the particular fossil used to date the Ceno-zoic.21 A fourth group of biblical geologists calls for a rejection of the Geologic Column and an interpretation of the rock record with-in a biblical framework of creation, fall, and flood. They would argue that the rock record is a descriptive term for those sections of the rocks that can be observed by geologists today. They believe that the Geologic Column is an interpretation of the rock record by means of assumptions of millions of years, evolution and the conti-nuity of depositional processes. Reed, Klevberg, and Froede Jr. state their position: “If the column rests on the presuppositions of evolution, deep time, and uniformitarianism—all inimical to crea-tionism—then it has no meaningful role in creationist stratigra-phy.”22

The different rock layers in the Grand Canyon are classified by evolutionist geologists using the Geologic Column. These different layers and their geologic ages are listed from top to bottom accord-ing to this scale. The youngest rocks are listed first and the oldest rocks are listed last. The rock record of the Grand Canyon strata is

19 Ibid., 53-71.

20 David Tyler argues that the universal flood starts with the Hadean and the fossilized plants and animals belong to the Proterozoic and Phanerozoic eons (Ibid., 73-88).

21 Ibid., 99-121.

22 John Reed, Peter Klevberg, and Carl Froede Jr, “Interpreting the Rock Record Without the Uniformitarian Geologic Column,” in The Geologic Column, 129.


in bold print and the Geologic Column ages are given in regular type:

Kaibab- Paleozoic era; Permian period Toroweap- Paleozoic era; Permian period Coconino Sandstone- Paleozoic era; Permian period Hermit Formation - Paleozoic era; Permian period Supai Group- Paleozoic era; Pennsylvanian/Permian periods

Esplanade Sandstone- Paleozoic era; Permian period Wescogame Formation- Paleozoic era; Pennsylvanian period Manakacha Formation- Paleozoic era; Pennsylvanian period Watahomigi Formation- Paleozoic era; Pennsylvanian period

Redwall Limestone: Paleozoic era; Mississippian period Temple Butte Formation: Paleozoic era; Devonian period Unclassified Dolomites: Paleozoic era; Cambrian/Devonian periods Tonto Group: Paleozoic era; Cambrian period

Muav Limestone: Paleozoic era; Cambrian period Bright Angel Shale: Paleozoic era; Cambrian period Tapeats Sandstone: Paleozoic era; Cambrian period

Great Unconformity Grand Canyon Supergroup: Late Proterozoic era;

Precambrian period23 Chuar group: Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period

Sixty mile formation: Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period Kwagunt formation : Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian

period Galeros formation: Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period

Nankoweap: Middle-Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period Unkar group : Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period

Cardenas Basalt: Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period Dox Sandstone: Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period Shinumo Quartzite: Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period Hakatai Shale: Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period

23 “Pre-Cambrian sedimentary and volcanic rocks are exposed along

the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon National Park. The angular attitude of these beds indicates that they were tilted after deposition, according to the principle of original horizontality first proposed by Steno” (Coch and Ludman, Physical Geology, 187)


Bass Limestone: Late Proterozoic era; Precambrian period

Vishnu Schist and Zoroaster Granite: Early Proterozoic era24

OLD EARTH VIEWS AND THE BOOK OF GENESIS

Most geology textbooks date the age of the earth as 4.6 billion

years old.25 Many geologists would argue that the many sedimenta-ry layers of the Grand Canyon prove that the earth is old. Many Christian scholars (Hugh Ross, Davis Young, Norm Geisler) be-lieve in an old earth.26 They argue that millions of years can be inserted in the Bible, and so they try to reconcile geology and Ge-nesis. The following is a summary of old earth views.

Atheistic Evolution

Atheistic evolutionists believe that the universe has always ex-

isted or came into existence as a result of a big bang.27 They believe that the sun existed before the earth and that the earth spun off from the sun and was at first a hot molten sphere. Atheistic evolutionists believe that a single cell evolved from non-living chemicals in the hot, primordial seas. Mutations were beneficial and led to the evolution of multi-cellular organisms. Some amphi-

24 Beus and Moralis, ed. Grand Canyon Geology, 9. Belknap gives a

colorful chart of these rock layers in his book Grand Canyon River Guide, 10-11. Belknap also has color pictures of the rock layers in the Grand Canyon that he identifies, which provide a guide for visitors who want to know what rock layers they are viewing (Ibid., 12-15).

25 Geologic time differs from historic time because it is measured in millions and billions of years back to the supposed origin of the earth about 4.6 billion years ago. Isotopic dating has provided new information about the age of the earth (4.6 billion years), the oldest rocks found so far (3.96 billion years), the oldest fossils (3.1-3.5 billion years) and evolutionary stages that culminated in modern humans. (Coch and Ludman, Physical Geology, 212).

26 Davis Young and Ralph Stearley, The Bible, Rocks and Time: Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008) gives a comprehensive history of geology and presents evidence for an old earth.

27 Carl Sagan wrote, “The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be” (Cosmos [New York: Ballantine, 1985], 1).


bians evolved into reptiles, including the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs lived millions of years before man came on the scene. Many evolu-tionists believe that the dinosaurs were killed off by a meteor that hit the earth and caused a change in climate. Some shrew-like crea-tures survived which evolved into the mammals of today. Atheistic evolutionists believe that man evolved from some ape like creature a few million years ago.

Carl Sagan writes, “The secrets of evolution are death and time—the deaths of enormous numbers of lifeforms that were im-perfectly adapted to the environment, and time for a long succes-sion of small mutations that were by accident adaptive, time for a slow accumulation of patterns of favorable mutations.”28

Atheistic evolutionists reject the biblical account of creation in Genesis. They view Genesis as myth. They would view the layers of rock in the Grand Canyon as a result of millions of years of changing environments including a time when the region was like a desert (Tapeats Sandstone) and times when the region was covered with water (Redwall Limestone).

The teaching of Genesis on the origins of life contrasts with the teaching of evolution. Genesis teaches that God created the earth on day one before the sun, while evolution teaches that the sun existed before the earth (Gen 1:1). Genesis teaches that God created light on day one before he created the sun on day four, while evolution teaches that the sun and light have always existed or came into existence as a result of a big bang. Genesis teaches that life began on dry land (Gen 1:11-12) while evolution says that life began in the ocean. Genesis states that birds existed before insects (Gen 1:20, 24) while evolution reverses this order. Genesis states that birds and fish were created on the same day (the fifth day of creation; Gen 1:20-23), but evolution says that fish evolved before birds. Genesis indicates that God created plants and animals to reproduce after their kinds (Gen 1:11, 12, 21, 24), while evolu-tion teaches that animals can change their genetic makeup as a result of positive mutations and become different types of animals. Genesis teaches that God created Adam from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7) and breathed into him the breath of life, while evolution teaches that man descended from a sub-ape creature. Genesis

28 Ibid., 30.


teaches that man and dinosaurs were created on the same day (sixth day; Gen 1:24-31) and existed at the same time, while evolution teaches that dinosaurs existed millions of years before man came into existence. Genesis teaches that death and suffering came into the world because of man’s sin (Gen 3), while evolution teaches that death and suffering existed before man evolved.

Charles Darwin himself realized that the theory of evolution had problems. He writes,

The number of intermediate varieties which have formerly existed on the earth must be enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology

assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this perhaps is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory.29

Even scientists today who are not creationists have written

books critiquing evolution. Michael Denton has written a book called Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. Denton points out that,

It is still, as it was in Darwin’s day, overwhelmingly true that the first representatives of all the major classes of organisms known to

biology are already highly characteristic of their class when they make their initial appearance in the fossil record. This phenomenon is particularly obvious in the case of the invertebrate fossil record. At its first appearance in the ancient Paleozoic seas, invertebrate life was already divided into practically all the major groups with which we are familiar today.30

The fossil record reveals sudden appearance of species and sta-

sis. This supports a creation model not an evolution model of ori-gins. Evolutionists have not discovered any transitional forms to prove their theory of evolution. Robert Barnes writes that “the fossil record tells us almost nothing about the evolutionary origin of phyla and classes. Intermediate forms are non-existent undiscovered, or not recognized.”31

29 Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection (1859), 287.

30 Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1985), 162.

31 Robert Barnes, “Invertebrate Beginnings,” Paleobiology 6 (1980): 365.


Neo-Catastrophism, Local Floods and Punctuated Equilibrium

Some evolutionists are neo-catastrophists. They would view

the rock layers of the Grand Canyon as being formed by local floods, but not a universal flood. Robert Dott argues that the geo-logical record is a record of local and regional catastrophes and not slow uniform rates of deposition.32 Derek Ager writes, “But I main-tain that a far more accurate picture of the stratigraphical record is one of long gap with only very occasional sedimentation.”33

Stephen Gould, an evolutionist and paleontologist, proposes that the degree of gradualism championed by Darwin is non-existent in the fossil record. This lack of transitional forms in the fossil record led him to propose his view of punctuated equili-brium. Punctuated equilibrium is the view that evolution is marked by long periods of stability which is later punctuated by rare in-stances of branching speciation.34 Gould proposes that the degree of gradualism championed by Darwin was nonexistent in the fossil record. This lack of transitional forms in the fossil record led him to propose his view of punctuated equilibrium.

The book of Genesis indicates that there was a global flood, not just a local flood in Mesopotamia. The lack of transitional forms in the fossil record supports a biblical view of creation and a worldwide flood.

Theistic Evolution

Theistic evolutionists believe that God superintended the

process of evolution to bring our world and life into existence five billion years ago.35 They believe that God created the first cell and

32 Robert Dott, “Episodic View Now Replacing Catastrophism,”

Geotimes, November 1982, 16.

33 Derek Ager, The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record (New York: Wiley and Sons, 1973), 34.

34 N. Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, “Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism” in Models in Paleobiology, ed. T. Schopf (San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper, 1972), 82-115.

35 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a geologist and paleontologist who wrote to incorporate evolution into Christianity (Pierre de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (1940; repr., New York: Harper, 1959). Theistic evo-


that from that first living cell all living things evolved. They also believe that all species of land animals, fish, and birds have evolved from a common ancestor. Theistic evolutionists believe that the first man evolved from some remote, sub-human male ape. They believe that Genesis 1-3 is a spiritual allegory. They believe that the days of Genesis should be viewed as millions of years rather than literal 24-hour days. They think that it is inappropriate to refer to science using Genesis since they believe Genesis was written in a pre-scientific age and was intended for religious in-struction. Theistic evolutionists believe that the Grand Canyon is millions of years old. Genesis 1 contradicts the teaching of evolu-tion and shows that God did not superintend the evolution of ani-mals or men. Genesis 2:7 emphasizes that man was a special crea-tion of God. God took dust and breathed into it and man was formed (Gen 2:7). God did not create a soul and place it into the body of an ape.36

Progressive Creation or Day-Age View

Progressive creationists37 believe that God created the universe

over six or more long ages of time. The geologic ages are placed during the six days of creation of Genesis 1. Sometimes progres-sive creation is called the day-age view.

Hugh Ross teaches an old earth and progressive creationism in his writings.38 Ross rejects evolution and abiogenesis as explana-tions for the history and origin of life. He believes that God formed different life forms in incremental or progressive stages. Ross be-

lution is widely held today and is taught in liberal Protestant, Roman Catho-lic, Eastern Orthodox and some Jewish schools.

36 Richard Niessen gives a critique of theistic evolution and the day-age theory in Impact #81 of the Institute of Creation Research (<http://www.icr.org/articles/print/164> [accessed 19 September 2008]).

37 Progressive Creationism was coined by Bernard Ramm and is the official position of Wheaton College (<http://www.wheaton/edu/ Biology/ faculty/ppp/other_files/progtheo2.html> [accessed 19 September 2008]).

38 Hugh Ross has written several books arguing for the progressive creation view: Hugh Ross, The Genesis Question (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1998); Hugh Ross, Origins of Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2004); Hugh Ross, Creation as Science (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2006)


lieves that the days of Genesis are historic, distinct, and sequential, but not twenty-four hours in length. One argument used is that 2 Peter 3:8 says that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” It is important to see that Peter uses a simile here. Peter does not equate one thousand years with one day. Progressive creationists also like to argue that too many activities occurred on the sixth day for it to have been a 24-hour day. But Genesis 1:24-31 indicates that God did several things on the sixth day: He created the beasts of the earth, cattle and every creature on the earth. He then created Adam from the dust of the ground. God brought the animals to Adam, and Adam gave names to the animals. Then God created Eve from the side of Adam and performed the first wedding in Paradise (Gen 2:21-25). Ross be-lieves that when God said “Let there be light,” that the atmosphere changed and the sun’s light began to shine through. But Genesis states that God did not create the sun until day four (Gen 1:14-19). Ross accepts uniformitarian geology. He believes that Noah’s flood was local, but killed all humans except Noah and his family. Gene-sis teaches that the flood was global. If the flood were local, why did God command Noah to build an ark? He could have com-manded him to take his family to a different region to avoid a local flood.

The Gap Theory or Ruin-Reconstruction View

The Gap Theory or ruin-reconstruction view attempts to har-

monize Genesis 1 with geology that teaches that the rocks are mil-lions of years old.39 This view maintains that Genesis 1:1 describes the original perfect creation. Gap theorists believe that between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 there is an indefinite time gap. In this view the

39 Thomas Chalmers proposed the Gap Theory in 1814. George H.

Pember wrote Earth’s Earliest Ages (1876; repr., Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1975) in 1876 and argued for the Gap Theory. Arthur Custance argued for the Gap Theory in his book Without Form and Void (Brockville, ON: Doorway Papers, 1970) . The New Scofield Reference Bible gives this note on Genesis 1:3: “Neither here nor in vv.14-18 is an original creative act implied. A different word is used. The sense is made to appear, made visi-ble. The sun and moon were created ‘in the beginning.’ The light came from the sun, of course, but the vapor diffused the light. Later the sun ap-peared in an unclouded sky.” The best critique of the Gap Theory was written by Weston Fields, Unformed and Unfilled (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1976).


geologic ages of millions of years are placed before the six days of re-creation described in Genesis 1:3-31. This view teaches that a pre-Adamic race of humans inhabited the original creation. Lucifer (unfallen Satan) ruled over these people in the Garden of Eden. When Lucifer rebelled (Isa 14), sin entered the world. The earth was then judged by God as a result. The universe became formless and void. Gap theorists believe that Genesis 1:2 describes a judged world after the fall of Satan. Darkness is viewed as indicating Sa-tan’s presence in the world. The waters that covered the world are sometimes referred to as “Lucifer’s flood.” Gap theorists believe that fossils are a result of the global flood in Genesis 1:2. They therefore advocate death before the sin of Adam in Genesis 3. Gap theorists believe that Genesis 1:3 describes the first day of re-creation of the world.

The Gap Theory presents several problems. First, Gap theorists believe that there is a chronological sequence between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. They believe that the verses should be translated, “And the earth became formless and void.” The Hebrew text does not sup-port this translation. The disjunctive waw begins Genesis 1:2 and introduces a disjunctive clause and not a consecutive clause. The verse should be translated, “Now the earth was formless and void.” The Hebrew verb היתה should be translated “was” rather than “be-came” (cf. Jonah 3:3; Zech 3:3).

Second, Gap theorists argue that “formless and void” imply judgment and an evil condition that could not have been part of the original creation by God. “Formless and void” (תהו ובהו ) do not necessarily imply judgment and an evil condition. The word “form-less” (תהו ) appears in the OT referring to outer space (Job 26:7) and the wilderness (Deut 32:10) without any evil connotations. Isaiah 45:18 says that it was not God’s ultimate intention that the earth be formless and void. In other words, God did originally create the world formless and void, but since this was not his ulti-mate purpose for it to remain in that condition, he proceeded to form and fill it on the six days of the creation week.

Third, Gap theorists argue that “darkness” (�חש) is not good and indicates the presence of evil in the world. While it is true that darkness is used as a symbol of judgment and evil in the Bible, it does not follow that darkness is inherently evil. Darkness was created by God who is light for creation’s good (Psa 104:19-24). While it is true that God called the light good but said nothing about the darkness, this does not mean that darkness was not good


(cf. Gen 1:4). God did not specifically say that the expanse that he created was good, but that doesn’t mean that it was not good (cf. Gen 1:6-8). Evening was part of the days that God declared good. God saw all that he had made (including darkness) and said that it was very good (Gen 1:31).

Fourth, Gap theorists believe that the two primary words for “create” (ברא used in Gen 1:1 and עשה used in Gen 1:25) refer to two different kinds of creation. They say that bara refers to prima-ry creative activity, while asah means that God re-created out of previously existing materials. The Hebrew words are not so dis-tinct. For example, Moses used bara of the creation of man out of previously existing material (Gen 1:27), and he used asah of the whole creation as the primary activity of God (Exod 20:11). Fur-thermore, he used bara of the creation of some animals (Gen 1:21) and asah of the creation of other animals (Gen 1:25). The real difference between these two words is that Moses used bara only of divine activity, and he used asah of both divine and human ac-tivities.

Fifth, Gap theorists believe that God commanded Adam to replenish the earth (Gen 1:28, KJV). This command they believe shows that the earth must have been previously inhabited. This is a wrong translation of the Hebrew word ומלאו. Genesis 1:28 is a command to fill the earth, not to refill the earth. Also, how could there be a race of pre-Adamic people? What would be their rela-tionship to Adam? How could they have died if sin was not in the world? Adam was the first man that God created. The Bible does not indicate that there was a race of pre-Adamic people.

The strongest argument against the Gap Theory is the fact that death and the curse came into the world as a result of Adam’s sin, not because of Lucifer’s fall (cf. Rom 5:12; 8:20-22). Adam was not walking on a graveyard of fossils when God created him from the dust of the ground. Animals did not die until after the fall of man (cf. Gen 3).

The Precreation Chaos Theory

The Precreation Chaos Theory views Genesis 1:1 as a sum-

mary statement inclusive of what God did on the six days of crea-


tion recorded in Genesis 1:3-2:1.40 This view states that Lucifer fell before Genesis 1:1. The condition of the earth as “formless and void” results from Lucifer’s fall and describes an earth judged by God. The order of events in the beginning according to this view is (1) God created the universe; (2) God created the angels (Job 38:4-7); (3) Lucifer fell because of pride (Is.14; Ezek.28); (4) God judged the world with a flood and darkness; (5) The first day of “re-creation” began with God creating light and separating it from the darkness. Allen Ross writes concerning Genesis 1:1-2,

These verses have traditionally been understood as referring to the ac-tual beginning of matter, a Creation out of nothing and therefore part of day one. But the vocabulary and grammar of this section require a closer look. The motifs and the structure of the Creation account are introduced in the first two verses. That the universe is God’s creative work is perfectly expressed by the statement God created the heavens and the earth. The word bara (created) may express creation out of nothing, but it certainly cannot be limited to that (cf. 2:7). Rather, it stresses that what was formed was new and perfect. The word is used throughout the Bible only with God as its subject. But 1:2 describes a chaos: there was waste and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. The clauses in verse 2 are apparently circumstantial to verse 3, telling the world’s condition when God began to renovate it. It was a chaos of wasteness, emptiness, and darkness. Such conditions would not result from God’s creative work (bara); rather, in the Bible they are symptomatic of sin and are coordinate with judgment. More-over, God’s Creation by decree begins in verse 3, and the elements found in verse 2 are corrected in Creation, beginning with light to dispel the darkness. The expression formless and empty (tohu wabo-hu) seems also to provide an outline for chapter 1, which describes God’s bringing shape and then fullness to the formless and empty earth. Some have seen a middle stage of Creation here, that is, an un-finished work of Creation (v.2) that was later developed (vv.3-25), in-to the present form. But this cannot be sustained by the syntax or the vocabulary.41

40 See Bruce Waltke, “The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1-3, Part III:

The Initial Chaos Theory and the Precreation Chaos Theory,” BSac 132 (July-September 1975): 216-28.

41 Allen Ross, “Genesis” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, ed. John Walvoord and Roy Zuck (Wheaton,IL: Victor, 1985), 28.


One major problem with the Precreation Chaos Theory is that

God declared in Genesis 1:31 that “everything that He had made was very good.” How could a world that had been judged by God with a flood and darkness because of Lucifer’s fall be declared “very good”? Moses did not record the fall of Lucifer in Genesis 1-2.

The Framework Hypothesis

The Framework Hypothesis asserts that the creation week of

Genesis 1:1-2:3 is a literary device intended to present the creation week in a topical, non-sequential manner rather than a literal, se-quential one. Kline believes that Genesis 1 is arranged topically rather than chronologically.42 In the first three days God forms the universe, and in the second three days God fills his universe. Kline sees the creation kingdoms (light, sky/water and land/vegetation) in the first three days and the creature kings (luminaries, birds/fish, and land animals/man) in the days four through six. Since the first and fourth day of creation appear to have many similarities, propo-nents of this view conclude that they are descriptions of one event. Second, Kline argues that ordinary providence governed the crea-tion account. Third, he believes that the seventh day is unending, and therefore the six days of creation in Genesis 1 are not 24-hour days.

Robert McCabe presents an excellent critique of the Frame-work Hypothesis.43 McCabe gives a summary of the major prob-lems with the Framework Hypothesis:

There are at least two problems with interpreting the creation account

as a semi-poetic account. First, while Genesis 1:1-2:3 reflects a somewhat stylistic use of Hebrew narrative because of its repeated phrases, the 55 uses of waw consecutive (a Hebrew verb form that is predominantly used in Hebrew sequential narrative literature) strong-ly argues that the creation account is a sequential, chronological narr-ative and not a semi-poetic account. Second, the supposed parallels

42 Meredith Kline, “The Framework Interpretation” in The Genesis

Debate: Three Views on The Days of Creation, ed. David Hagopian (Mis-sion Viejo, CA: Crux P, 2001).

43 Robert McCabe, “A Critique of the Framework Interpretation of the Creation Account (Part 1),” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal, Vol. 10 (2005): 19-67; Part 2, Vol. 11 (2006): 63-133.


between the two triads are strained. For instance, the framework ar-gues that the luminaries of Day 4 are intentional replication of the light created on Day 1. However, this overlooks the important point that the luminaries of Day 4 are placed in the expanse created on Day 2. Thus, the luminaries of Day 4 presuppose the creation of the physi-cal phenomenon of light on Day 1 and the expanse on Day 2. Conse-quently there is nothing significant in Genesis 1:1-2:3 to undermine the traditional view that maintains that this is a historical, sequential account affirming that God created the heavens, the earth and all things therein over the course of six, literal, sequential days.44 The seventh day is not unending. Moses made the point that

the seventh day is the Sabbath, a day of rest. God worked six days during the creation week and rested on the seventh day. The Israe-lites were to follow God’s example and work six days and rest on the seventh day (Exod 20:8-11).

A YOUNG EARTH

The Origin of Planet Earth

In order to interpret the Grand Canyon correctly it is essential that we study the book of Genesis. Genesis 1 teaches that God created the universe and everything in it in six literal 24-hour days.45 God did not use the process of evolution to bring the earth into existence.46 Genesis 1 records a true historical view of the

44 Robert McCabe, email message to author, August 2008.

45 There are two main arguments for “day” (יום) in Genesis 1 to refer to a 24-hour period of time: First, the Hebrew word יום when it is used with a numerical adjective (one, two, etc.) always refers to a 24-hour day. Second, God finished his creation in six days of a week, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” God established seven days of 24 hours each to equal a week. He de-signed that man should work six days and rest one. For a detailed study of the Hebrew word for “day” in the context of Genesis 1 see Jim Stambaugh, “The Days of Creation: A Semantic Approach” JMAT 7.2 (Fall 2003): 42-68 and Jim Stambaugh, “The Days of Creation: A Semantic Approach Part II” JMAT 8.1 (Spring 2004): 37-54.

46 Hebrews 11:3 says “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Genesis 1 emphasizes that creation was the result of God’s powerful spoken word.


origin of planet earth. Genesis 1:1 tells us “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God created the earth on day one. The earth was covered with water on day one and enshrouded with darkness (Gen 1:2). The earth was “formless and void.” The words formless and void have nothing to do with the fall of Luci-fer.47 Darkness was on the face of the deep.48 The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters like a mother bird would hover over its nest. God is sovereign and in control over his creation. The earth was uninhabitable in the beginning.

Genesis 1, Creation Rocks and the Grand Canyon God created planet earth on day one of creation week (Gen

1:1). The rocks on planet earth on day one of creation had the ap-pearance of age, but they were only one day old. On the first two days of creation the planet earth was covered with water. On the third day of the creation week God commanded that the waters be gathered together into one place so that the dry land might appear (Gen 1:9-10). Notice that God did not create the dry land. He commanded that the dry land appear out of the water. The upward movement of the land mass would have involved geologic activity. God called the dry land Earth49 and the waters he called Seas.

47 Lucifer did not fall until after the creation week. The evidence of

this is that God declared his creation “very good” (Gen 1:31). Could God declare that his creation was very good if sin was in existence and his created world had already been judged with a flood as a result of Lucifer’s fall? Lucifer had to have fallen shortly after the creation of Adam and Eve and before Genesis 3:1.

48 The deep (תהום) is a reference to the ocean waters. On the first day God created planet earth and it was covered with water. God made the dry land appear on day three of creation week (Gen 1:9-10).

49 Before the Genesis flood, the earth had one land mass and only one ocean. The one land mass is called Pangaea by geologists. All of the conti-nents would have been joined together. Plate tectonics is the study of the lithosphere, the outer portion of the earth consisting of the crust and part of the upper mantle. The lithosphere is divided into a dozen large plates which move and interact with one another to create earthquakes, mountain ranges, volcanic activity, ocean trenches and many other features. Continents and ocean basins are moved and changed in shape as a result of these plate movements (cf. geology.com). The Pangaea was probably divided into continents as a result of the geologic activity associated with the Genesis flood.


Do the rocks in the Grand Canyon prove that the earth is mil-

lions of years old and that evolution is true? Biblical scholars and creation scientists have another explanation for how the Grand Canyon was formed. Bible scholars do not believe that God created the Grand Canyon during the creation week. But the oldest rocks in the Grand Canyon can be dated to the creation week. The oldest rocks in the Grand Canyon are the schist and granite in the inner gorge. These metamorphic rocks are the oldest rocks in the Grand Canyon since they are at the lowest level. These rocks are beneath the Tapeats Sandstone and the Great Unconformity. These rocks were probably made as a result of the geologic activity of day three of creation. On that day God made the dry land appear and the oceans were formed. The rising of the land surface produced the great temperatures in the earth’s crust that led to the formation of the metamorphic rocks. Biblical geologist Andrew Snelling writes,

This statement in Genesis 1:9 is simple yet geologically profound.

Although the verse indicates that the water moved, it does not indicate exactly how the land came to be above sea level. One possibility is that God used catastrophic earth movements to almost instantaneously raise and lower blocks of the earth’s Day One crust to form dry land and sea basins. If that were so, as the crustal blocks were raised, the surface water than had been covering them would have drained rapidly off the land. Rapidly moving water catastrophically erodes, so massive erosion must have occurred. Thus laden with sediments, these waters would have drained into the ocean basins, where the sediments would have been deposited rapidly. Because neither plant nor animal life had yet been created, the resultant sedimentary rocks would be devoid of animal or plant fossils.50 Biblical geologist John Whitmore agrees with Snelling as he

writes,

The oldest rocks in the Grand Canyon consist of the Precambrian schist and granite. These rocks probably were made during the creation week (probably on day 3) and then perhaps later modified, during the creation week and/or the Flood. Mostly unfossiliferous Precambrian sedimentary rocks overlie the igneous and metamorphic basement. Many of these sedimentary rocks probably date between the creation week and the Flood. Early in the Flood, these rocks were tilted up-

50 Andrew Snelling, “Thirty Miles of Dirt in a Day,” Answers, Oct.-

Dec., 2008, 29.


wards and then catastrophically eroded by ensuing Flood waters; form-ing a tremendous erosional surface called the Great Unconformity. A thick boulder layer and the fossil record begin the Cambrian Tapeats sandstone, which rests on this surface. A similar sequence of rock oc-curs in many other places world wide. The Paleozoic rocks of the Grand Canyon are thin, widespread marine deposits, some of which are continental in extent.51 So in the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon we find metamor-

phic rocks (the schist and granite) that date back to the time of creation week. We also discover sedimentary rocks without fossils that predate the time of the flood. These sedimentary rock layers are called the Grand Canyon Supergroup and include the Chuar group, Nankoweap, and the Unkar group. Biblical geologist Snelling gives this explanation of these sedimentary rocks without fossils:

Underneath these layers—near the bottom of the canyon—are many other layers that do not contain plant or animal fossils. Violent processes, including volcanoes and rapidly moving mud and sand, must have created these layers. Many tilted sedimentary and volcanic rock layers (about 13,000 feet [4 km] thick) sit on top of other folded and metamorphosed layers of both sedimentary and volcanic rocks (es-timated to have been originally about 40,000 feet [12 km] thick). After these metamorphic rocks formed, hot granites from deeper in the earth must have intruded into them. Because of the folded and metamor-phosed layers, and most of the tilted sedimentary layers above them, contain no plant or animal fossils, it is likely these were nearly all deposited catastrophically during the erosion and deposition of day three of creation week.52 The sedimentary rocks below the Great Unconformity and the

metamorphic schist and granite rocks below these sedimentary rocks were formed then as a result of the uplifting of the land by our powerful Creator God on day three of creation.

51 John Whitmore, “Creationist Flood Geology in the Grand Canyon,”

(Proceedings of the First Conference on Creation Geology, Cedarville University, <http://cedarville.edu/geologyconference> [accessed 24 July 2008]).

52 Andrew Snelling, “Thirty Miles of Dirt in a Day,” Answers, Oct.-Dec., 2008, 29.


THE FALL OF MAN, DEATH , AND FOSSILS

Genesis 3 records the sin of Adam and Eve. God warned Adam that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die (Gen 2:17). Satan tempted Eve and told her that she would not die if she ate the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:4). Eve dis-obeyed and ate of the forbidden fruit and then gave some to Adam, and he also sinned against God (Gen 3:6). As a result of their sin God pronounced a curse on the ground and predicted that it would produce thorns and thistles (Gen 3:18). God also predicted that Adam would die (Gen 3:19). The sin of Adam brought death into the world (Rom 5:12). Creation groans under the curse (Rom 8:19-22). Famine, disease, natural disasters, mutations, and extinction are the results of sin’s being in the world. Trilobite and nautiloid fossils have been found in the Grand Canyon. These creatures lived from the time of their creation (day five of creation week) until the universal flood. Some may have survived the flood but became extinct later. Since death and extinction did not occur until after the sin of Adam, there would have been no sedimentary rocks with fossils in them prior to Genesis 3. All fossils would have to be post-fall. Most of the fossils were probably formed as a result of the universal flood (Gen 7-8).

THE UNIVERSAL FLOOD AND THE GRAND CANYON

Literary Structure of Genesis 6:11-8:22 Genesis 6:11-8:22 is a stylistic masterpiece. Moses uses a

chiasm in writing this section. The periods of time in this section also form a symmetrical pattern: 7, 7, 40, 150, 150, 40, 7, 7. The turning point of the narrative is found in Genesis 8:1: God remem-bered Noah. From that high point in the narrative, the flood waters start to recede and the earth begins to dry out from the universal flood. It was God’s intervention that was decisive in saving Noah and the literary structure of Genesis 6:11-8:22 highlights this fact.


A God resolves to destroy the corrupt race (6:11-13)

B Noah builds an ark according to God’s instructions (6:14-22) C The Lord commands Noah and family to enter the ark (7:1-9)

D The flood begins (7:10-16) E The flood prevails 150 days and the waters cover the

mountains (7:17-24) F God remembers Noah (8:1a) E The flood recedes 150 days and the mountains are visible (8:1b-5) D The earth dries (8:6-14) C God commands Noah and family to leave the ark (8:15-19) B Noah builds an altar (8:20)

A The Lord resolves not to destroy humankind (8:21-22)

The Genesis Flood The Genesis Flood was not a local flood in the Mesopotamia

region. It was the greatest flood of all time. It was a global flood that covered the whole earth and destroyed over a billion people and wiped out all civilization to that date. Only eight people sur-vived this universal catastrophe: Noah, Noah’s wife, and their three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives.53

The Construction of an Ark

God commanded Noah to build an ark to save himself and his

family and two of every kind of animal (Gen 6:14-21). God told Noah, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.” God gave Noah detailed instructions that he was to follow in building the ark, spe-cifying that Noah make it of gopherwood. The Hebrew word for “ark” means a box. The same term is used of the box in which the baby Moses was placed in the Nile river (Exod 2:3). When we

53 Genesis tells us about the eight people who went into and out of the

ark. Genesis 7:7 says, “So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.” Genesis 8:18 says, “So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.” Genesis 9:18 says, “Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” Peter states that God “did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righ-teousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly” (2 Pet 2:5).


think of an ark we usually picture a boat or a ship with bow and a stern. But a ship is designed to move through the water. The ark looked more like a rectangular box than a ship of today. It was a barge-like boat that was designed merely to float on top of the water. Modern ocean going tankers and aircraft carriers have a similar scale of dimensions.

The ark was covered inside and outside with pitch. This black tar would make the ark watertight and seal it against any leaks. We do not know where Noah lived prior to the flood, but there is noth-ing to indicate that he lived near an ocean. Yet here he was build-ing the largest boat that man had ever seen up to that time. The length of the ark was three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits and its height thirty cubits. A cubit is about 18 inches. The ark was a boat that was 450-feet long, 75-feet wide, and 45-feet high. The ark had a roof on the top and probably a series of small windows 18 inches from the top that would let in air and light. The ark also had three decks with rooms in the ark. These decks and rooms would have provided more than enough capacity to support all of the animals on the ark. The volume of space on the ark was 1.4 million cubic feet, equal to the capacity of 522 standard railroad cars. There was more than enough room for two of every kind of animal.

The Lord said, “Behold, I myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die” (Gen 6:17). The flood was not just a natural disaster. The Lord himself would bring this judgment on the earth. The Lord predicted that all living things (animals and humans) would die as a result of the deluge.

God told Noah that he would establish his covenant with Noah and would deliver him and two of every kind of animal that would go with him on the ark (Gen 6:18-21) This is the first mention of the word “covenant.” There were three types of covenants made in the ancient Near East. The parity covenant was made between equals. Some examples include the covenant made between Abraham and Abimelech (Gen 21:22-32), Isaac and Abimelech (Gen 26:26-33), and Jacob and Laban (Gen 31:44-54). The suze-rain-vassal covenant was one that a superior (suzerain or king) made with an inferior (servant or vassal). The Mosaic covenant is an example of this kind (Exod 20:1-17). The grant covenant was also made between a superior and inferior, but it was an uncondi-tional covenant in that the superior gave a gift to the inferior. The Noahic covenant is closer to the grant type of covenant in that God gave a gift to man: a promise that he would never again destroy the


world with a flood. The Noahic covenant is like the other grant covenants in the OT: the Abrahamic (Gen 15) and Davidic cove-nants (2 Sam 7).

Noah obeyed God and built the ark (Gen 6:22). Building the ark was an act of faith on Noah’s part. He had never seen it rain before.54 Noah worked long and hard on the construction project. It took Noah and his three sons and possibly others 120 years to build the ark. Noah built the ark even though he was ridiculed by the wicked people of his generation. As he built the ark, Noah preached a message of judgment to come. He was a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet 2:5). No one believed his message except his immediate family, but that did not deter Noah from finishing the work that God called him to do.

The Lord told Noah to enter the ark along with his family and to take seven each of every clean animal and bird (Gen 7:1-4). Some of these animals would later be used for sacrifice. Noah, his family, and the animals entered the ark as God commanded (Gen 7:5-9). How did Noah gather all of the animals to come to the ark? Noah did not have to go out and round them up. God brought the animals to Noah and the ark (Gen 7:8-9). This must have been an amazing sight to see. Two by two the animals came to and entered the ark.55

The Chronology of the Universal Flood

Moses recorded the chronology of the universal flood in the

book of Genesis. The devastation of the flood which covered the earth and its impact on the topography and geology of the planet

54 Before the flood, the ground was watered by a mist that came up

from underground subterranean rivers (Gen 2:5-6).

55 Were dinosaurs on the ark? Genesis 6:14-15 indicates that the beasts of the earth came into the ark two by two. Baby dinosaurs could have come onto the ark instead of their large parents. What happened to the dinosaurs? Most of the dinosaurs died as a result of the global flood. Dino-saurs died after the flood because of the climate changes that resulted in the world after the flood (Genesis 8:22 mentions cold and winter) and because man hunted them down. The book of Job refers to dinosaurs. Behemoth may have been a brontosaurus. Behemoth is described as having a tail like a cedar and bones like beams of bronze. He is described as the first of the ways of God who lies under the lotus trees in a covert of reeds and marsh (Job 40:15-24). Leviathan may have been a marine dinosaur who was diffi-cult to catch or kill (Job 41:1-34).


can be seen in this detailed log of what happened to Noah, the ark, and the flood waters.

2/10 Noah and his family and all the animals entered the ark on the tenth day of the second month (Gen 7:6-9; 7:13-16). God shut the door. For seven days Noah and his family waited for the flood to come.

2/17 (Day 1) Torrential rain began to fall for the first time on the seventeenth day of the second month (Gen 7:10-12). How could it rain 40 days and 40 nights? Where did all the water come from? Moses wrote that all the fountains of the great deep were opened. Volcanic explosions and earthquakes broke up the great fountains of the great deep so that the underground water gushed to the sur-face. The windows of the heavens were opened. Joseph Dillow believes that the early earth was surrounded by a water vapor cano-py. He believes that the condensation of the water vapor canopy led to a continual downpour for 40 days and 40 nights.56

3/26 (Day 40) The flood57 was on the earth for forty days and lifted the ark off the surface of the ground (Gen 7:17-20). Moses wrote, “Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward and the mountains were covered” (Gen 7:17-20). The flood waters lifted the huge ark so it could float on the surface of the waters.

56 Joseph Dillow, The Waters Above: Earth’s Pre-Flood Vapor Canopy (Chicago: Moody, 1981).

57 The Hebrew word for flood is mabbul ( מבול) and refers to destruc-tive flood waters. Genesis 7:23 says that God destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.” Jesus described the destruction of the flood on two occasions. He compared the universal flood to the judgment of people when he will return a second time to earth to establish his kingdom. Jesus said, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they mar-ried wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27, emphasis added). In his Olivet Discourse Jesus spoke about the flood, “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt 24:38-39, emphasis added).


All of the pre-flood mountains were covered with water. The

flood waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward and the mountains were covered (Gen 7:20). The highest mountains were at least 22.5 feet under the surface of the water so that the ark floated freely above the peaks of the mountains. The depth of the water again is an argument for a universal flood. The high mountains that we see today, such as Mt. Everest, did not exist before the flood. They came into existence after the flood when the great mountain ranges were formed and the ocean basins were made so that flood waters would recede off the earth into the oceans.

What happened as a result of this universal flood? All land animals, birds, creatures, and men and women were destroyed (Gen 7:21-23). Genesis 7:21-23 says “And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land died. So He destroyed all living things that were on the face of the ground; both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were de-stroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.”

7/16 (Day 150) The flood waters prevailed on the earth for one hundred and fifty days (Gen 7:24).

7/17 (Day 151) After 150 days of flood waters dominating the earth, God remembered Noah (Gen 8:1): “Then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.” To say that God remembered Noah does not imply that God had forgotten him during the 150 days of the flood. The word implies that God would intervene because of a previous commitment to Noah. God kept his promise to preserve Noah and his family. God delivered Noah from judgment and began to bring an end to the universal flood by caus-ing the flood waters to recede. God began to restore the earth (Gen 8:1b-5). God sent a wind over the earth and the waters began to recede. God closed the fountains of the deep and the rain was re-strained (Gen 8:2). The waters receded to the point that the ark rested on Mt. Ararat in the seventh month and seventeenth day


(Gen 8:3-4).58 Mt. Ararat lies on the border between Turkey and Armenia. From this region Noah’s descendants spread out over the earth.

10/1 (Day 225) Noah could see the tops of the mountains on the first day of the tenth month (Gen 8:5).

11/11 (Day 265) Noah waited forty days after seeing the tops of the mountains before opening the window of the ark (Gen 8:6).

11/12 (Day 266) Noah sent out a raven and it kept flying back and forth until the water dried up (Gen 8:7).

11/19 (Day 273) Noah sent out a dove, but it returned to Noah because water still covered all the surface of the earth (Gen 8:8-9). Keil and Delitzsch note, “The raven in seeking food settles upon every carcass it sees, whereas the dove will only settle on what is dry and clean.”59 The dove returned to the ark because it could find no place to land.

11/26 (Day 280) Noah waited seven more days and then sent out the dove and it returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf. This revealed that the water had receded from the earth (Gen 8:10-11). The olive tree can put out leaves even while the tree is under water.

12/3 (Day 287) Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove, and it did not return (Gen 8:12).

1/1 (Day 315) Noah removed the covering off the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry (Gen 8:13). Noah and his family did not leave the ark at this time. God did not tell him to leave the ark until 56 days later.

2/27 (Day 371) The earth was dry enough for Noah and his family to leave the ark (Gen 8:14). Noah and his family left the ark when God told him to leave (Gen 8:15-17). Noah obeyed God and came out of the ark along with his family and the animals (Gen

58 Mt. Ararat is the tallest mountain in Turkey. It is 16,854 feet high

and is covered with snow. Stories are told of people who have seen and visited the ark. Josephus mentioned that the ark existed on Ararat. In 1905 an Armenian named Georgie Hagopian and his uncle climbed to the ark that they claimed was sticking out of a glacier. In 1955 French explorer Bernard Navarra cut some wood from an object which he believed to be the ark. John Morris with Creation Research Society has made ten attempts to locate the ark. He tells of his adventures on Ararat in his book Noah’s Ark and the Ararat Adventure (Colorado Springs, CO: Master Books, 1994).

59 Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 1:49.


8:18-19). From beginning to the end, the flood event lasted 371 days (Gen 7:11-8:14).

The Noahic Covenant

Noah built an altar and sacrificed some of the clean animals on the altar to the Lord as an act of worship to the Lord when he came out of the ark. His burnt offerings were for worship. Noah had taken seven of each of the clean animals on the ark. That is why he could sacrifice some and not endanger making those animals ex-tinct. The whole burnt offering represented the worshipper’s total surrender and dedication to the Lord (cf. Lev 1).

The Lord smelled the aroma of Noah’s sacrifice. This anthro-pomorphic expression shows that God accepted Noah’s worship. The Lord promised to never again curse the ground in the way that he had done after the fall and before the flood (Gen 3:17-18; 5:29; 8:21). He also promised to never again destroy all living creatures with a universal flood (Gen 8:21; 9:11, 15). The rainbow was given as a sign of the Noahic covenant (Gen 9:13). If the Genesis flood was local, then the rainbow in the sky is meaningless. There have been many local floods in the history of the world.

The Lord stated in the Noahic covenant that there would be times of planting and reaping (seedtime and harvest), changes in temperature (cold and heat), and seasons (winter and summer) (Gen 8:22). There was a dramatic climate change after the flood. The water vapor canopy which had produced a mild, tropical cli-mate around the world was now gone. As a result, winds would blow and temperatures would change and seasons would come and go. Most creation scientists believe that the Ice Age followed the flood.60

60 Dr. Safarti writes, “There is strong evidence that, following the

flood, for a time ice and snow covered much of Canada and the northern United States, northwestern Eurasia, Greenland and Antarctica. Evolution-ists believe that there were many ice ages, but it’s more likely they were advance/retreat cycles within a single Ice Age. Evolutionists find the cause of the Ice Age a mystery. Obviously the climate would need to be colder. But global cooling by itself is not enough, because then there would be less evaporation, so less snow. How is it possible to have both a cold climate and lots of evaporation?...When all the fountains of the great deep broke up, much hot water and lava would have poured directly into the oceans. This would have warmed the oceans, increasing evaporation. At the same time, much volcanic ash in the air after the Flood would have blocked out much sunlight, cooling the land. So the Flood would have produced the necessary combination of lots of evaporation from the warmed oceans and cool conti-


Peter’s View of Creation and the Universal Flood

The Apostle Peter stated that God did not spare the ancient world and brought a flood on the world of the ungodly. Second Peter 2:4-5 says, “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of dark-ness, to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righ-teousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.” God did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly. The universal flood was a judgment from God because of the wickedness of man before the flood (cf. Gen 6). Only eight people were spared this judgment.

Peter points out that the world that existed perished being flooded with water. Second Peter 3:5-6 says, “For this they willful-ly forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.” Unbelievers are guilty of willfully forgetting what happened at creation. Peter refers to the third day of creation when he wrote that the earth was standing out of water and in the water (cf. Gen 1:9-10). Peter be-lieved in creation. He also believed in a worldwide flood.

Summary of Arguments for a Universal Flood

How do we know that the flood was universal and not local?

First, Genesis says that all the high mountains were covered (Gen 7:19). Second, every living thing (outside of the ark that lived on land) was wiped out by the flood (Gen 7:23). Third, the fact that Noah had to build an ark is an argument for a universal flood. Noah would not have needed to build an ark if the flood were local. God could have just sent him to another place to avoid the local flood. Fourth, the Noahic covenant with God’s promise to never send a universal flood is an argument for the universal flood. If the flood were local, then the rainbow in the sky is meaningless. God made a covenant with Noah that God would never again destroy the world

nental climate from the volcanic ash sun block. This would have resulted in increased snowfall over the continents. With the snow falling faster than it melted, an ice sheet would have built up” (Jonathan Safarti, “Mammath Riddle of the Ice Age” Answers in Genesis, 2000, 7-8).


with a universal flood. The sign of that covenant is the rainbow. There have been many local floods since the flood of Noah’s day. But these local floods, devastating as they have been, are nothing in comparison to the world wide deluge of Noah’s day. Fifth, the amount of water involved argues for a universal flood (Gen 7:11, 20; 8:2). Sixth, the testimony of Peter argues for a universal flood (2 Pet 3:3-7).

THE UNIVERSAL FLOOD AND

THE GEOLOGY OF THE GRAND CANYON

Sedimentary Rock Layers Biblical geologists believe that the Grand Canyon was formed

as the direct result of the universal flood of Genesis. The rising flood waters laid down many layers of sediment during the first 150 days of the flood. John Morris writes, “If Creation/Flood think-ing is correct, then great thicknesses of sediments were laid down early in the Flood, and those nearer the top were laid down late in the Flood, only months later.”61 These sediments then hardened into the various rock strata. The first sedimentary rock layer laid down by the universal flood in the Grand Canyon was probably the Tapeats Sandstone. The contact lines between the layers are flat and there are no signs of physical or chemical erosion. This is an argument for these layers of sediment being laid down quickly over a short period of time instead of over millions of years.

Henry Morris, who received his Ph.D. in hydrology and hy-draulics with a minor in geology, has pointed out that a universal flood with its sediment saturated currents would of necessity pro-duce horizontal superimposed layers of materials selected by the moving waters according to their specific gravity.62 Tasman Walk-er writes that biblical geologists “have determined that the horizon-tal layers were deposited in the first part of the Flood while the waters were advancing. We can use the same approach with the other parts of the Canyon, such as the metamorphosed rocks at the

61 John Morris, The Young Earth (Colorado Springs: Master Books,

1994), 106.

62 John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, The Genesis Flood (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1961), 274.


bottom (Creation, pre-Flood or early Flood), the erosion surfaces at the top (Flood recessive), the lava flows (post-Flood), and the carv-ing of the Canyon itself (Flood recessive or post-Flood). Biblical geology is the key to understanding the rocks.”63

Michael Oard writes, “Comparing Walker’s model to the geo-logical column reveals several surprises. First, sedimentary rocks labeled Precambrian (if from the Flood), Paleozoic, and Mesozoic strata are early Flood. Second, Cenozoic strata can be early Flood, late Flood, or post-Flood depending upon the location and the par-ticular fossil used to define the Cenozoic. Third, flood deposition is highly nonlinear with a large percentage of strata deposited early in the Flood.”64

The Great Unconformity

An unconformity is a surface in the rock record in the strati-

graphic column representing a time when no rocks are preserved. It could represent a time when no rocks were formed or a time when the rocks were formed and then eroded away. The contact line in the Grand Canyon between the Grand Canyon Supergroup and the first sedimentary rock layer of the Tapeats Sandstone is called the Great Unconformity. The Great Unconformity shows the flat ero-sion of the underlying surface. According to evolutionist geologists the Great Unconformity spans a time of 250 to 1200 million years in the Grand Canyon. Austin asks,

Is there evidence for catastrophic erosion on the Great Unconformity?

Many creationists believe there is. Large boulders of Shinumo Quartzite fill great channels of boulders which, in places, occur directly above the Great Unconformity in the base of the Tapeats Sand stone. … These were interpreted by Chadwick as catastrophic under-

water debris flows, which were able to move boulders ten feet in diameter more than a quarter mile. Such processes require condi-

tions which would be very erosive to bedrock. … The best theory seems to be that significant erosion occurred on the Great

63 Quoted in Tom Vail, Grand Canyon: A Different View, 37.

64 Michael Oard, “The Geological Column is a General Flood Order With Many Exceptions,” in The Geologic Column: Perspectives Within Diluvial Geology, ed. John Reed and Michael Oard (Chino Valley, AZ: Creation Research Society, 2006), 99.


Unconformity while it was under water, not while it was elevated out of the sea.65

The hard surface must have been smoothed off by a huge flow of water. This is what we would expect with a global flood.

Marine Fossils in the Sedimentary Rocks

Many marine fossils have been found in the Grand Canyon.

These marine fossils such as trilobites66 and nautiloids67 were bu-ried quickly and catastrophically. There are no intermediate life forms. If evolution were true, we would expect to find intermediate forms of life. But the exact opposite is found in the fossil record. The fossils are found as complex, fully developed creatures.

The Grand Canyon is in the middle of a desert. How did these marine fossils end up in the Grand Canyon? Evolutionists believe that they lived in ancient seas that covered the region. So evolu-tionists must admit that at one time the area was covered with wa-ter. Biblical geologists would argue that they were buried quickly by the sediments from the universal flood.

Walker points out that “animal trackways provide another im-portant clue. Tracks are found in the Supai Group and the Coconi-no Sandstone. Tracks mean the animals were alive, so the strata must have been deposited before all air breathing creatures pe-rished. That was before the world was completely covered with water during the inundatory stage.” 68

All of the fossils discovered in the Grand Canyon are above the Great Unconformity. The first fossils are found in the Tapeats

65 Steven Austin, Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe (Santee,

CA: Institute for Creation Research, 1994), 47.

66 Trilobites are extinct arthropods that appear in early Cambrian rocks. When they appear in the fossil record they are already highly diverse and geographically dispersed. There are some 17,000 known species of trilobites.

67 Nautiloid fossils are found in abundance in a six foot thick layer near the base of the 500-foot thick Redwall limestone. The nautiloids aver-aged 18 inches in length but some reached as big as six feet. The nautiloids are related to today’s squid. The nautiloids are extinct today.

68 Quoted in Tom Vail, Grand Canyon: A Different View, 37.


Sandstone. Davis Young claims that fossils have been found in the Precambrian rocks below the Great Unconformity.69 Andrew Snelling writes of these fossils,

With respect to Davis Young’s statement that fossils had been found in Precambrian rocks in the Grand Canyon, he is referring to the sedi-mentary rocks in the upper part of the Chuar Group, which are above the Unkar Group sedimentary rocks and the Cardenas Basalt, but be-low the Tapeats Sandstone. Some of these claimed fossils are proble-matical. The only unequivocal fossils found in those rocks are the stromatolites, an example of which we saw on our hike in Kwagunt Creek. These represent the fossilized remains of mounds built by mats of blue green algae or cyanobacteria. These rocks and these fossils I and others believe are a result of sedimentation during the pre-Flood era, that is, between the end of the Creation week and the beginning of the Flood. Yes, these are fossils, of a sort, found below the Tapeats Sandstone. I didn’t go into details about this on our trip because I was trying to keep things as simple as possible, and because these algal fossils are far different from the marine creatures such as trilobites that are buried and fossilized in the Tapeats Sandstone. Those are clearly the result of burial during the Flood, and the base of the Tapeats Sand-stone in places contains boulders that are testimony to the vigorous water currents that were destructive in eroding off the pre-Flood land surface at the beginning of the Flood. Also, there is another thin layer in some parts of the Canyon just below the Tapeats Sandstone that is full of boulders, that are again indicative of the beginning of the Flood. That’s why we believe the Flood began at that level in the record, plus all of the marine creature fossilized in the units above must relate to the Flood. That means the rock layers below are from the pre-Flood era and those deeper down are from the Creation week. Of course, in all of this we can’t be absolutely dogmatic. All we are doing is endea-voring to understand the geologic record as we observe it in the light of the Scriptures. But of course, our knowledge of the geologic record is limited to only those portions of the rock strata that are exposed to view, and even then there are lots of areas, such as in the Grand Can-yon, that have not yet been fully explored. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that whatever we find in the future our understanding of the geologic record can easily be adjusted to the absolute framework we find presented in the Scriptures, our first and foremost authority.70

69 Young writes, “The facts, however, are that more and more fossils

are being discovered in so-called Precambrian rocks as the rocks them-selves are subjected to a more detailed investigation than ever before” (Davis Young, Creation and the Flood: An Alternative to Flood Geology and Theistic Evolution [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1977], 77).

70 Andrew Snelling, email message to author, July 22, 2008.


The Folding of Sedimentary Layers

Folds or bends in the rock are found in some sedimentary lay-ers in the Grand Canyon. When there is movement along a fault today there is a crack in the rock. The folding of the sedimentary layers sometimes across multiple layers without cracking shows that the folding had to happen when the layers were soft and after rapid deep burial. These folds show that the deposition and upheaval which led to the folding were one event. The universal flood of Genesis is the probable explanation of these folding of sedimentary layers.

The Cutting of the Grand Canyon

Two possible explanations are given by biblical geologists re-

garding the formation of the Grand Canyon. One view is that the canyon was cut by the receding of the flood waters. The flood waters receded off the earth for 221 days starting on day 151 (Gen 8:1-4). John Whitcomb writes,

Spectacular exposures of flat lying sedimentary rocks such as those in

the Grand Canyon provide ample evidence of Deluge deposition. In this area, there are thousands of square miles of horizontal strata,

thousands of feet thick. … By far the most reasonable way of account- ing for them is in terms of relatively rapid deposition out of the

sediment laden water of the Flood. Following the Flood, while the rocks were still comparatively soft and unconsolidated, the great

canyons were rapidly scoured out as the waters rushed down from the newly uplifted peneplains to the newly enlarged ocean basins.71

The Havasupai Indians live in the Grand Canyon and they be-

lieve that the canyon was formed as a result of a great flood.72 Geologist Steven Austin writes,

71 John Whitcomb, The World That Perished (Grand Rapids: Baker,

1973), 74.

72 Cushing records this story from the Havasupai Indians living in the Grand Canyon: “As the waters of the world dried and flowed away, the face of the earth cracked and was worn full of deep canyons. One of these can-yons was very narrow and filled with rattlesnakes. This was the canyon of the Havasupai” (F. H. Cushing, “The Nation of the Willows” Atlantic Monthly 50 [1882]: 558). Just recently a dam burst and water from the dam damaged their village and the Havasupai canyon.


If catastrophic drainage was involved in forming Grand Canyon,

then it would be a relic feature formed from erosive processes which had operated at rates and scales far greater than today. Grand Canyon would be a static monument to the action of intense ancient processes, not a dynamically evolving landform in equilibrium with slow, modern, erosive processes.73

The psalmist wrote about this event:

You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be

moved forever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment, the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled, at the voice of your thunder they hastened away. They went up over the mountains.74 They went down into the valleys, to the place which you founded for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over that they may not return to cover the earth.” (Psa 104:6-9; NKJV)

The psalmist refers back to Genesis 7:19-20 which says that

the high hills and mountains were covered with water. The psalmist also knows about Genesis 8:3 which speaks of the flood waters receding continually from the earth.

A second view is that some dams from post flood lakes from the universal flood broke and the rushing waters then cut through the rock layers laid down by the flood and formed the Grand Can-yon. Geologists have observed that the surface of the Colorado Plateau is a saucer shaped basin that could have contained a giant post-flood lake which would form behind the Kaibab Upwarp. Biblical geologist Steven Austin writes that “the lake would occupy an area of more than 30,000 square miles and contain 3000 cubic miles of water. The volume of that lake would be three times that of Lake Michigan.”75

73 Austin, Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe, 92.

74 A better translation for Psalm 104:8 is “the mountains rose and the valleys sank down.” This would explain how the flood waters could recede off of the earth. The rising of the mountains would include the Rocky mountains in North America. The water receded off of the North American continent in an east-west direction and the Grand Canyon would have been formed as a result of these receding flood waters.

75Ibid., 93.


Austin believes that the weight of evidence favors the theory

that Grand Canyon was opened by a breaching event—probably failure of the natural dam formed by the Kaibab Upwarp.76

A third possible view would be a combination of these two views. The initial carving of the Grand Canyon could have come as a result of the draining of the flood waters from east to west. Geol-ogist Andrew Snelling told us on our trip that the flood waters would have carried the rock debris to an area near San Diego and dumped the dirt and rocks there. The flood waters would then have been diverted south to the Gulf of California. Dams from the post-flood lakes could have burst later and carved some more of the Grand Canyon.

Post-Flood Volcanic Activity and

the Uplifting of the Kaibab Plateau After the Grand Canyon was cut, there is evidence of post-

flood volcanic activity in the Grand Canyon. In the middle of the Colorado River at mile 178 our group encountered Vulcan’s Anvil, a monolith of rock rising 20 feet out of the middle of the Colorado River.77 Vulcan’s Anvil is the cooled core of a lava vent. This chunk of shiny black basalt rock is a warning to river runners about the approaching of a dangerous rapid on the Colorado River: Lava Falls. Lava Falls is named for the nearby lava flows that led to the black basalt that covers many of the rocks on the north side of the river. The lava came from Vulcan’s Throne, the cinder cone volca-no on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

John Wesley Powell wrote in his journal on August 25, 1869: Great quantities of lava are seen on either side; and then we come to

an abrupt cataract. Just over the fall a cinder cone, or extinct volcano,

76 Steven Austin gives an example of several canyons that were formed

as a result of the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. The valley of the North Fork of the Toutle River, northwest of Mount St. Helens, was blocked by a dam of landslide debris and volcanic ash on May 18, 1980. The valley was unblocked by a mudflow on March 19, 1982. The breaching event produced several canyons some as high as 140 feet deep (Steven Austin, ed., Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe, 94).

77 Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and blacksmiths. In myth Vulcan pounds metal in his volcano workshop, showering fire and molten rock out of his skylight (the top of the volcano).


stands on the very brink of the canyon. What a conflict of water and fire there must have been here. Just imagine a river of molten lava running down into a river of melted snow. What a seething and boiling of the waters; what clouds of steam rolled into the heavens.78

Morris writes about the creation of plateaus and volcanic activ-

ity in the post-flood world environment: The post-Flood isostatic readjustments, especially the mountain up-lifts, would surely have triggered the release of additional floods of magma, and these are reflected in the tremendous recent lava plains and plateaus around the world, as well as the great numbers of only re-cently extinct volcanoes, not to mention the considerable number still alive. Thus a great portion of the earth’s recent and continuing geo-physical activity-especially earthquakes and volcanic eruptions—can be attributed to the cataclysmic upheavals initiated by the Flood and its residual effects.79 The rising of the mountains (in North America that would in-

clude the Rockies) occurred after the universal flood. The Kaibab plateau would have risen after the flood as well.

CONCLUSION

The Bible tells the story of planet earth. God created planet

earth on day one (Gen.1:1). God created the earth round (Isa 40:22) and he suspended the earth in space (Job 26:7). The early earth rotated on its axis in a 24-hour day/night cycle. On the first two days of creation week the earth was covered with water (Gen 1:2; 2 Pet 3:5). On the third day God made the dry land appear (Gen 1:9-10). At first there was one land mass and the ocean. The geologic activity associated with that powerful act of God led to the forma-tion of the creation rocks (schist and granite) at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was not formed by God during the week of creation.

When the first man Adam sinned he brought death into the world (Gen 3; Rom 5:12). As a result of Adam’s sin, the earth was cursed with thorns and thistles (Gen 3:17-18). All of the fossils that

78 Powell Report quoted in Belknap, Grand Canyon River Guide, 53.

79 Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), 260.


are found in the Grand Canyon (trilobites, nautiloids, brachiopods) had to have been formed after the fall of Adam. The fossils are found in the sedimentary rocks above the Great Unconformity in the Grand Canyon. The Tapeats Sandstone was the first sedimenta-ry rock layer laid down by the universal flood in the Grand Can-yon. The layers of sedimentary rock above the Great Unconformity were laid down during the first 150 days of the universal flood. Two possible explanations are given by creation scientists regard-ing the origin of the Grand Canyon. The receding flood waters could have cut through the layers of sediment and formed the Grand Canyon. A second explanation is that post-flood lakes were dammed up and then broke through and quickly carved the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was not formed over millions of years but in a relatively short time.

In the future millennium, the curse on planet earth will be lifted (Rom 8:20-23). The last enemy of death will be destroyed (1 Cor 15:26) and all things will be put under Christ’s authority (1 Cor 15:27-28). After the millennium God will burn the earth with fire (2 Pet 3:10). God will create a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells (Isa 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet 3:13). The new earth will not have any oceans or seas (Rev 21:1). Redeemed people will live in the New Jerusalem which will be on the new earth (Rev 21-22). The Grand Canyon will not exist forever since this world will be destroyed by fire in the future.

Today visitors can see the beauty of the Grand Canyon and be reminded that a holy God judges sin in his world. The Grand Canyon is a huge chasm when seen from the air. The Bible tells us that sin separates the sinner from God like a huge canyon. Jesus Christ is God who took on human flesh (John 1:1, 14). Jesus made a way possible for God and man to be reconciled. He died on the cross taking the punishment for our sin. Only through faith alone in Christ alone and his work on the cross can a person be forgiven of his sins and obtain eternal life (Eph 2:8-9; Rom 5:8).