Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

For if God did not spare … the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; …— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

2 Peter, chapter 2, verses 4 through 9, New International Version

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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re very glad to be with you today as we continue the series we started several weeks ago on Anchored by Truth. We are calling this series “10 Facts Every Christian Needs to Know.” In the studio today we have RD Fierro. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. So far we have covered 7 of the 10 facts and we have done 2 other episodes to talk about what those facts mean. RD, the purpose of this series is to give listeners 10 solid facts that they can turn to when they encounter narratives in the world that try to cast doubt on the reliability of the Bible. It would take quite a while for us to go over all 7 of those facts, but why don’t you catch us up on our last couple since they relate to our discussion today? For those listeners who want to listen to any of episodes might have missed they are all available on their favorite podcast app or from our website crystalseabooks.com.

RD: Well, I would also like to say hi to the listeners joining us here today. And as you mentioned today we are going to build on facts number 6 and 7. Just as a brief review the first 5 facts we covered that every Christian needs to know demonstrated that the popular narratives of Deep Time, evolution, and uniformitarianism don’t possess nearly the quality of scientific support that they are normally assumed to possess. In short, they aren’t trustworthy as a basis for forming a coherent worldview yet so many people today, including Christians, have accepted them without question. So, our first 5 facts gave Christians a solid basis to begin questioning these narratives which are so often used as the basis for doing away with the need for God to explain the physical universe and life. With fact number 6 we moved on to beginning our demonstration that the foundational book of the Bible, Genesis, is, in fact, a trustworthy foundation for our understanding of the universe, life, and human history. Fact number 6 showed that Moses was the author of the Genesis and the other books of the Pentateuch

VK: The Pentateuch is a collective name for the first five books of the Bible. They are also sometimes referred to as the Torah or Five Books of Moses. By reaffirming that Moses wrote the Pentateuch we are establishing when those books were written. Right?

RD: Right. The traditional date assigned to Moses writing the Pentateuch is in the 15th century B.C. Many scholars place the composition starting around 1445 or 1446 BC which is the so-called “early date” for the start of the Hebrew exodus out of Egypt. But even the scholars like the supposed “late date” for the exodus would place the composition of the Pentateuch in the 13th century BC.

VK: And those dates are in conflict the dates some liberal Bible critics have tried to assign to those books which has the books being written as late as 400 or 500 B.C. And the reason the critics want to assign those dates is that it allows them to claim that many of the prophecies contained in the Pentateuch weren’t prophecies at all. But instead the alleged writers were writing a sort of pious history to encourage the Jewish people who were then under the dominion of foreign powers.

RD: Again, right. The liberal critics can’t stand the thought that Moses, as well as other inspired prophets, wrote accurate prophecies hundreds of years before certain event occurred. Fulfilled prophecy is a powerful argument that an all-powerful, all-knowing God supernaturally inspired the human authors. If the liberal critic can perform literary alchemy and turn prophecy into history they can argue against the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible.

VK: I like that phrase – literary alchemy. The critics do that a lot, don’t they? They have to. If Moses correctly predicted that the Jews descent into idolatry would result in them being conquered and deported from their “promised land,” it is a powerful indictment of those who attempt to dismiss the Bible’s authenticity.

RD: So, our 7th fact, that we covered on our last episode, was that we can see from the genealogies contained in chapter 10 of Genesis that Moses gave us an accurate record insofar as the repopulation of the earth is concerned. The Bible tells us that the ark settled on the mountains of Ararat. It doesn’t say Mt. Ararat as sometimes is said, but the mountains of Ararat. Most commentators place that range somewhere in modern Turkey. Since that’s where the repopulation of the earth began you would expect to see the tribes and nations that descended from Noah to fan out from there.

VK: And indeed that’s what human history shows us. There are 16 names of Noah’s grandsons contained in chapter 10. And in our last episode of Anchored by Truth we traced the names of several of those grandsons and how their names are embedded in geographic sites or regions as well as in the names of nations. For instance, we pointed out that the descendants of one of Noah’s grandsons, Tubal, began settling the country to the north of Turkey. Today Tubal’s name is commemorated in various places in both the nations of Georgia and Russia.

RD: The prophet Ezekiel mentioned Tubal along with Gog and Meshech (Ezekiel 39:1) who are generally regarded as also having settled in territories to the north of Turkey. Meshech is the ancient name for Moscow. Moscow is both the capital of Russia, and the region that surrounds the city. To this day, one section, the Meshchera Lowland, still carries the name of Meshech, virtually unchanged by the ages. Tubal’s name is preserved in the name of the capital city of the nation Georgia whose capital to this day is called Tbilisi. Tubal’s descendants also crossed the Caucasus mountains, migrated due north-east, and gave their tribal name to the river Tobol, and hence to the famous city of Tobolsk, Russia.

VK: So, knowing that Moses actually authored the Pentateuch, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, establishes when the book of Genesis was written – most likely in the 15th century BC but certainly no later than the 13th century BC. As part of his record Moses gave us the name of Noah’s sons and grandsons. We can trace the expanding population of the post-flood period by following the names of those grandsons in history and geography. Tracing the settlement patterns of Noah’s grandsons and their descendants shows that Moses’ record was accurate for nations and regions throughout Europe, western Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. We’ve established that through facts 6 and 7 of the 10 facts every Christian needs to know. But you said that today you want to show that the Genesis record Moses wrote is reasonable even when you consider the entire earth. How is that possible?

RD: We can demonstrate that Moses gave us an accurate record of the creation of the earth – and its subsequent destruction by a global flood – by taking a look at the current population of the entire earth. The 8th fact that every Christian needs to know is that the Biblical time periods and population sizes are far more reasonable that the alternatives that are commonly believed. By taking a look at the earth’s population we can see not only that the Genesis history is an accurate history but also that the alternate explanation, evolution, is deeply flawed. Bear in mind that the Bible tells us that the universe and earth were created about 6,500 years ago. The deep time and evolutionary hypothesis tell us that the universe is 14.5 Billion years old and the earth is 4.5 Billion years old. The evolutionary hypothesis also tells us that the first human beings came into existence at least a million years ago. There are some historians that will tell us that the earliest humans were using stone tools over 2 million years ago.

VK: Well, let’s start with the fact that the Bible tells us that there were 8 people on the ark: Noah, his wife, their 3 sons and their wives. Genesis, chapter 5, verse 32 tells us that Noah had 3 sons – and interestingly they were all born when Noah was over 500 years old. Then Genesis, chapter 7, verse 1 tells us that God told Noah to take his whole family into the ark. And Genesis, chapter 8, verse 18 says, “So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.” So, we can be very confident of the number of people that were available to begin the repopulation of the earth. There were at least 3 surviving couples and it is possible that Noah and his wife might have had more children. This number is reinforced by what we heard in our opening scripture from 2 Peter. Peter tells us that God “protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven other [people]…” That gives us a very firm starting point. And a quick internet search says that the world’s current population is expected to cross 8 Billion during 2022. So, the question is – can 6 or 8 people grow into a population of 8 Billion in 4,500 years?

RD: And the answer may be surprising but it is a firm “yes.” To see why let’s start with the time periods that we get from the Bible. For our purposes today I am going to use the time periods calculated by Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, the lead scientist for Creation Ministries International. These periods are available in his commentary on the first 11 chapters of Genesis entitled The Genesis Account. I like this as a source because Dr. Sarfati is not only very detailed in his description but he “presents his work” as they used to say in math class. Dr. Sarfati believes the earth was created in the year 4178 BC plus or minus 50 years. I’m just going to use round numbers and say 4,200 BC.

VK: Dr. Sarfati also believes that the flood occurred 1,656 years after creation. That would mean the flood occurred a little more 2500 years before Jesus was born. We live more than 2,000 years after Jesus was born. So, it’s fair to say that we have those 4,500 years since the flood in which to achieve the necessary population growth.

RD: Right. The question then is what growth rate is necessary to achieve that level of population growth. And as I mentioned the number may surprise you.

VK: So surprise me.

RD: In financial management there is a well-known rule called the “rule of 72.” The rule of 72 tells you how long it will take your money – or anything else for that matter – to double. For instance, if you invest your money at 6% per year it would take 12 years for $100 to become $200. You divide 6 into 72 and you get 12.

VK: By the same token if you could invest your money and get a 12% return ...

RD: Oh, I wish...

VK: … yes, you do. Anyway, if you could invest your money and get a 12% return it would only take 6 years to double your money. At 12% interest $100 becomes $200 in just 6 years. All this tells you why people are always seeking a better rate of return – especially in today’s inflationary environment.

RD: Exactly. Well, the rule of 72 doesn’t just work for money it also works for people. So, if the world’s population since the flood had grown at an average rate of 2% per year it would have doubled every 36 years. In 4,500 years that means that it would have 125 times. And here’s where the surprise comes in. At an annual average growth rate of 2% today you would have way more than 8 Billion people on the earth. The actual annual average growth rate that you need to go from 6 people (assumes Noah and his wife did not have any more children) to over 7 Billion people in 4,500 years is less than one-half of one percent.

VK: Let me repeat that – because as you said that is a surprise. To go from 6 people to over 7 Billion people in a period of 4,500 years you only need a growth rate of less than one-half or one percent. That is a bit of a surprise – and it certainly doesn’t seem impossible.

RD: And it’s not. The Encyclopedia Britannica claims that by the time of Christ, the world’s population was about 300 million. It apparently didn’t increase much up to AD 1000. It went up and down in the Middle Ages because of frequent wars, invasions, plagues etc. But the world’s population is thought to have reached 800 million by the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in 1750. That would have been an average growth rate of 0.13% in the 750 years from 1000–1750. By 1800 though it was thought to be one billion while the second billion was reached by 1930—an average growth rate of 0.53% annually. This period of population growth cannot be due to improved medicine, because antibiotics and vaccination campaigns did not impact till after WWII. But from 1930 to 1960 the population reached three billion. The growth rate during that period was 1.36% annually. By 1974, the fourth billion was reached, so the average growth rate was 2.1% from 1960 to 1974. From 1974 to 1990, when the mark hit five billion, the growth rate had slowed to 1.4%. World population reached 6 billion in 1999 and 7 billion in 2011. The increase in population growth since WWII is most likely due to fewer deaths in infancy and improved health care which leads to reduced loss from disease.

VK: In other words during those time period for we have much more accurate data we can see that a population growth rate of one-half of one-percent per year is not at all out of the question. At times we seem to have had periods of slower growth in population but at times we have had much faster growth.

RD: Right. So, let’s step back and take a look at what this means. Let’s focus on our 8th fact. The 8th fact that every Christian needs to know is that the Biblical time periods and population sizes are far more reasonable that the alternatives that are commonly believed. We have already seen that to get from 3 reproducing couples to 7 to 8 Billion people in a period of 4,500 years you don’t need an outlandish population growth rate – one-half of one-percent a year will do it. So, that raises a huge problem for the evolutionary hypothesis which is the alternative to the Biblical contention. Evolutionists believe that the human race is a million years old or older. So, that raises a big question – where are all the people?

VK: What you’re saying is that if the human race really were a million years old the human race would have had a lot more time in which to reproduce. If the human population could go from 6 people to over 7 billion in a period of 4,500 years there should be a lot more people on the earth now if the human race were hundreds of thousands of years older. That’s not an idea you hear being discussed.

RD: No. It’s not. Evolutionists claim that mankind evolved from apes about a million years ago. Here are some interesting numbers from an article on the Creation Ministries International website entitled “Where are all the people.” If the human population had grown at just 0.01% per year since then (doubling only every 7,000 years), there would be 1043 people today—that’s a number with 43 zeros after it. To try to put this number of people in context, say each individual is given ‘standing room only’ of about one square meter per person. However, the land surface area of the whole Earth is ‘only’ 1.5 x 1014 square meters. If every one of those square meters were made into a world the size of ours, all these worlds put together would still ‘only’ have a surface area able to fit 1028 people in this way. This is only a tiny fraction of 1043 (1029 is 10 times as much as 1028, 1030 is 100 times, and so on). Those who adhere to the evolutionary story say that disease, famine and war meant the numbers remained constant for most of this period, but that would mean that mankind was on the brink of extinction for over 99.9% of its supposed history.

VK: Talk about asking someone to exhibit faith in a proposition that stretches credulity. The Biblical concept is an absolute certainty compared to that. And that of course doesn’t end the problems with the evolutionary hypothesis. We supposedly routinely unearth fossils and bones from tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. The dinosaurs were supposed to have perished 65 million years ago when a giant meteor struck the earth yet we find their bones all the time. And we don’t just find bones from T-Rex sized dinosaurs. We find bones from dinosaurs the size of deer or chickens. So, if mankind had been in existence for a million years –and even if the population was nowhere near current levels – there should be lots of bones of humans lying around. But we don’t find them. I guess besides the question, “where are all the people” we can ask the question “where are all the bones?”

RD: Evolutionists claim there was a ‘Stone Age’ that lasted about 100,000 years when supposedly between one million and 10 million people lived on Earth. Fossil evidence shows that even people from primitive ages buried their dead. They often buried them with artifacts. Cremation was not practiced until relatively recent times (in evolutionary thinking). If there were just one million people alive during their supposed Stone Age time, with an average generation time of 25 years, they should have buried 4 billion bodies and a huge amount artifacts. If there were 10 million people alive, it would mean 40 billion bodies buried in the earth. If the evolutionary timescale were correct, then we would expect the skeletons of the buried bodies to be largely still present after 100,000 years, because, as we’ve discussed, many ordinary bones claimed to be much older have been found. And even if the bodies had disintegrated, those artifacts should still be found. But we haven’t found those treasure troves of either bodies or artifacts.

VK: Again, the purpose of this “10 Facts Every Christian Needs to Know” series is to enable people to put a solid intellectual foundation beneath their conviction that the Bible is the inspired word of God. In our day and time we need to ensure that we have that foundation because the Bible is under attack from just about every quarter. We are told by popular culture that the Bible is not relevant because it is not accurate. But as we have been discussing here today the Bible’s continuing relevance is established by the abundant evidence that it is accurate.

RD: Yes. Again, let’s step back and see why these last three facts are so important. Our 6th fact, the fact that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, including the book of Genesis tells us when Genesis was written. And a reasonable date for that is the mid 1400’s B.C. Our 7th fact which is that we can trace the lines of descent of Noah’s grandsons through history and geography confirm that the flood story in Genesis is true. So, we can confirm the truth of the Genesis account in the history and geography of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa such as Egypt and Ethiopia.

VK: And the fact that the population of the earth is easily achievable from 6 people starting 4,500 years ago shows that, in effect, the entire human population around the world testifies to the accuracy of the book of Genesis, especially the flood account.

RD: Yes. One researcher who studies genetics, CW Nelson, has said this. “By comparing DNA from different humans around the world, it has been found that all humans share roughly 99.9% of their genetic material—they are almost completely identical, genetically. This means that there is very little polymorphism, or variation. …”

VK: Polymorphism, as related to genomics, refers to the presence of two or more variant forms of a specific DNA sequence that can occur among different individuals or populations. Simply put, the absence of polymorphism means that a given cohort of living creatures displays very little difference genetically. Species that have existed for hundreds of thousands or millions of years would be expected to show some amount of polymorphism because mutation in individuals would gradually lead to perceivable differentiation. But studies of humans don’t show this.

RD: The lack of a significant amount of polymorphism is consistent with a recent human origin and the global flood. Evolutionary models of origins would not predict such low human genetic diversity. Mutations should have produced much more diversity than 0.1% over millions of years. Again, this means that pretty much the entire population of humans on the earth provides testimony to the accuracy of the first several chapters of Genesis. Let’s remember that Moses wrote Genesis about 1400 years before Jesus lived. He would have had very little knowledge of civilizations and peoples outside of Egypt and Palestine. Yet far away from where he was writing people were living and developing in exactly the way we would expect if the account he was writing was true. We still see that today. The size of the earth’s population is consistent with a significant bottleneck that occurred about 4,500 years ago. The names of nations, rivers, and even languages give testimony to the first generations that emerged from the ark after the flood waters receded. The lack of genetic diversity among human beings today testifies to a common ancestor. And as we have covered on other Anchored by Truth shows even the bit of DNA contained in human mitochondria gives evidence that people today can trace their ancestry back to 3 female ancestors.

VK: The point of this series and today’s discussion is to help Christians guard against the narratives that circulate so widely today. One of those narratives is that the Bible cannot be trusted. So, to push that narrative the critics must cast doubt on the reliability and authenticity of scripture. But reality pushes back on the claim that the Bible can’t be trusted. And that’s what these 10 facts that every Christian needs to know points to. Furthermore, the evolutionary explanations that are offered all come with significant problems. If humans had been around for over a million years we should have countless numbers of additional people alive today. And, at a minimum, we should find billions of remains and the artifacts of those who came before. We don’t find either. Moses could not have known what the population of the earth would be in 2022. But God did. Moses just knew to record the history God gave to him. He did so faithfully and accurately and we see the fidelity of his account all around us today. Sounds like a good time for a prayer. To close, for today let’s listen to a prayer for the missionaries that God sends to bring His word to a world that needs His encouragement. We may not all be called to go to distant lands but we can all be missionaries to our families and communities.

---- PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES

VK: Before we close we’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes in this series or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”

(Opening Bible Quote from the New International Version)

2 Peter, chapter 2, verses 4 through 9, New International Version

Where are all the people? - creation.com

Population growth since Flood - creation.com

Biblical human population growth model - creation.com

The sixteen grandsons of Noah - creation.com

• Cast doubt on God’s goodness

• Deny God’s truth

• Elevate self-importance

• Establish a replacement in the mind and heart for God’s truth

Cultural Narratives

One way to look at narratives is that there are primary and secondary narratives that circulate in our culture. The primary narratives are so embedded in our culture that they are not even noticed any more. They are like the framed prints on your wall. Initially you see them but as time goes by you notice them less and less. Eventually you only know they are there when a visitor comes in and remarks about them.

Deep time, evolution, uniformitarianism, and the equality of all religious viewpoints are now primary narratives in our culture. Only fools and the suspect disagree with them. The narratives we notice (such as the prominent social and political narratives) are secondary ones - the acceptability of abortion, same sex marriage, the difference between "green" energy and fossil fuels, "public" education, increased government control and regulation, etc. The secondary ones emerge from and are dependent on the primary ones.

• The Big Bang/deep time does away with the need for God as Creator.

• Evolution does away with the need for God as the Author of life.

• Uniformitarianism does away God as the Administrator of justice (become evil continually and God will wipe you off the face of the earth).

Since we've done away with God we now create our own standards for what constitutes "personhood," family, man's dominion over the earth, etc.

The problem is, of course, we didn't do away with God or His truth.

And the house built on intellectual sand falls when the river of reality hits it.

So, we will proclaim the truth to try to save some and maybe by God's grace many or most. People who doubt the inerrancy of scripture never think about any of this but they should.

The line from that which they doubt the Word to a life they don't want to live is very straight. The line grows even more straight as it uncoils - just like the hangman's rope.