Dr. Don Clark of Creation Moments, along with Jim, David and the Morning Show audience, addresses an article from the Institute for Creation Research examining whether animals experienced death before Adam’s sin and what the Bible has to offer as evidence.
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Dear friends,
I am a Biblical creationist, and Christian whom the Lord gave me the privilege of studying His Creation through the lenses of chemistry and geology. From both Scripture and science, the evidence is that the earth is old. Dr. Don Clark knows about biology, and does not know about geology. Pangea broke up long before Noah’s Flood. The ice ages occurred long before Noah’s Flood, with the last long glacial period existed from 100,000 to 11,000 years ago. God has given us 11,000 years of warm climate similar to what we have today.
Fossils are any evidence of past life. They do not need replacement of the organic matter with silica or carbonate to be a fossil. Catastrophic flooding will not form a fossil leaf that is intact – it would be torn to shreds. I have a photo of an intact leave about 3 feet across, and it likely would be have fallen into a calm water setting with mud, and be covered over with mud within a short. There was animal death before the Fall, because Romans 5:12 is clear. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—…” The Fall caused spiritual death to mankind – separation from a relationship with God.
Please, please learn to communicate Creation’s story with a description that fits reality. Our youth deserve a truthful view of creation, or their faith faces a difficult challenge with they learn the truth.
Soli Deo gloria,
Ken Wolgemuth
Please forward to Dr. Don Clark. I have spoken to him on the phone last year.
Thanks, Ken! We’ll forward your comment to Dr. Don. I suspect he’ll have a response for you …
Thank you, Ken, for your comments. They are appreciated.
First, I would disagree with your statement that Scripture supports that the earth is old. I, as well as many other scientists, would suggest just the opposite. So considering Pangea and the ice age or ice ages, let’s look at the scriptural evidence.
There is only one global catastrophe mentioned in the Bible, that of the Global Flood. Therefore, something as catastrophic as Pangea breaking up into our present-day continents should have been stated unless, of course, it was part of the Global Flood. Indeed, in the Book of Jasher an extra-Biblical text, Chapter 6:11 seven days before the Flood it says, “…the Lord caused the whole earth to shake, and the sun darkened, and the foundations of the world raged, and the whole earth was moved violently… and all the fountains in the earth were broken up, such as was not known to the inhabitants before…” It certainly sounds to me that the one landmass, Pangea, was breaking up at the time of the Flood.
What was the cause of the ice age or ages? Classic geology would place the ice age long before the Flood. But classic geology would also deny that there was a Global Flood in the first place. As far as I am aware, there is no satisfactory explanation for what caused the ice age. However, the meteorologist, Michael Oard, has written extensively about what caused the ice age – the Global Flood and the breaking up of Pangea (see, for example, https://www.icr.org/article/ice-age-genesis-flood ).
You are correct in saying that fossils do not need to be petrified to exist today. But the existence of petrified trees requires water and minerals, which was in abundance post-Flood. I would argue, however, that a leaf, or any other organic matter, for it to exist in the fossil record would need to be covered quickly by a mudflow. If it sits on the bottom of a lake or other body of water long enough to be covered by silt settling out of the water, it would long since have decayed.
Thanks again for you comments. We see things dimly here on earth but when we see Him face-to-face things will be made clear. Blessings.