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.

Script:

God stopped up the places where the water had been gushing out from under the earth. He also closed up the sky, and the rain stopped. For 150 days the water slowly went down.

Genesis, chapter 8, verses 2 and 3, Contemporary English 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 recently started 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 and he is the one picking the facts we are covering in this series. RD, what is the central theme of this series? We have done many series on Anchored by Truth and I’m sure we’ve covered way more than 10 facts throughout the many series. So, why now try to cherry pick just 10 facts out of the thousands or tens of thousands of facts that are important to the Christian faith?

RD: Well, I semi-joked last time that I’m not sure a series entitled “1,000 facts you need to know” would be very appealing to most listeners. Most people, including me, do better with learning new information when we can focus on just a couple of things at a time. And for many people the facts that we are covering in this series will be new information although we touched on all them somewhat in other series. But the theme of this series is to help people know how they can be sure that their faith, the Christian faith, is a faith that is built on a solid foundation – not on shifting sand.

VK: You are alluding to Jesus’ admonition that is recorded in the gospel of Luke, chapter 6, verses 47 through 49. Jesus said, “Anyone who comes and listens to me and obeys me is like someone who dug down deep and built a house on solid rock. When a flood came and the river rushed against the house, it was built so well that it didn't even shake. But anyone who hears what I say and doesn't obey me is like someone whose house wasn't built on solid rock. As soon as the river rushed against that house, it was smashed to pieces!”

RD: Yes. Today there a river of misinformation that is flowing through our culture and is often specifically targeted at Christian houses. We are flooded with messages from our popular culture that the Bible isn’t trustworthy and in those rare cases where the Bible gets something right it’s just pure coincidence. Now that flood and river don’t collapse the houses of all Christians but they collapse enough that we need to take action. We need for people to begin checking the foundation of their faith house and ensure that it is built on a solid foundation.

VK: And, of course, the foundation of Christianity is faith but faith does not mean believing things that are at odds with reality. That’s one of the lies that Satan loves to spread – that faith is like a leap into the dark where we must just trust that someone will be there to catch us. That’s not faith. That’s foolishness. Real faith is examining a particular truth claim, analyzing it carefully, and making an informed decision to place our trust in something. Notice that in Jesus’ story he noted that the person who built the house that withstood the river and the flood had “dug deep.” I’m afraid not many contemporary Christians dig deep these days into the intellectual foundation of our faith.

RD: I agree and that’s a problem and that’s the reason I wanted to do this series. The Bible is one grand saga that tells a story of creation, fall, and redemption. When God inspired the various writers to write their particular part of the story He made sure that they always contributed to the main narrative. It has been said that if you know what you are doing you can find Jesus on every page of the Bible. It is certain that you can find Jesus in every book of the Bible. The saga of creation, fall, and redemption is what ties the entire Bible together and makes it a unified work about the ultimate Unifier. We often praise people who bring various groups, cities, or even nations together. But there is only one Person who has ever brought heaven and earth together and that is Jesus. But we can’t appreciate Jesus’ redemptive and unifying role if we don’t know the background of the grand saga and if we don’t know how the individual episodes fit into the larger narrative.

VK: We especially need to know the larger story but we also need to know how the individual components of our faith fit into that larger story. And we especially need to know how to defend the essentials of our faith so that we can withstand the river of opposition in which the church stands today. And certainly in our day and time that river starts on the slope of deep time and evolution because that’s the water that challenges the historicity of Genesis and, by extension, the historicity of the Bible itself. Some Christians contend that we can abandon the historicity of the opening chapters of Genesis while retaining our confidence in the balance of scripture. But that’s like trying to keep the water in the lake when you let the leak in the dam go unaddressed.

RD: The simple fact is that the saving faith must be coupled with knowledge. Of course, the knowledge required is modest at first. We have to know that we are all sinners and that Jesus has saved sinners by his sacrificial and atoning death. But if we think that’s all we need to know to persevere in faith we are only fooling ourselves. Trying to grow our faith without developing our understanding of its content and context is like trying to grow a garden but never giving the plants any water or fertilizer.

VK: I heard you say once that “Giving kids faith without knowledge is like putting out jewelry on the sidewalk. It won’t be in place very long.”

RD: That’s why the facts we are featuring in this series are so important. They are by no means all Christians need to know but they are a good start for helping Christians shore up their foundation. We started out by showing that the conventional views of a billions of years old universe and earth, which is obviously at odds with the Bible, does not possess the scientific support that most assume that it does. Last episode of Anchored by Truth we demonstrated that the Bible’s contention that at one point in history there was a flood that engulfed the entire world also possesses substantial scientific support. One of the pieces of evidence that we cited was that fossils of marine creatures are found in the Himalayas including Mount Everest the highest mountain in the world. Today we want to go a little farther with the fossil evidence and show that fossil evidence – contrary to popular belief – does not lend any support to the evolutionary hypothesis. To the contrary, when examined carefully the fossil evidence found around the world is a profound problem for evolution.

VK: So, fact number 4 out of our 10 facts every Christian needs to know is that the fossil record does not support evolution. In fact, the fossil record helps demonstrate the reliability of the book of Genesis. Do I have that right?

RD: Yes.

VK: I’m sure you have some lines of evidence that you want to cite to support this 4th fact. Where do you want to start?

RD: There are more lines of evidence that support the fact that the fossil record is problematic for the evolutionary hypothesis than we have time to discuss in just one show. But for today, I want to very briefly discuss three. The first line of evidence I want to talk about is what is often termed the “Cambrian Explosion.” The second line is the absence of transitional fossils between taxonomic groups and the third is what are sometimes called “ephemeral markings.”

VK: Sounds like we have a lot to get into so we better get started. There doesn’t seem to be uniformity in the dating of the Cambrian period but it’s normally considered to have been a period in geological history that was over 500 million years ago. Common dates have the Cambrian period lasting from around 570 million years BC to around 530 million years BC. Now, we should say that these time frames are the time frames that are ascribed by conventional, secular geologists and paleontologists. They obviously are no where near the Biblical time frames.

RD: Yes. And that’s one of the points we need to focus on today. The Bible tells us that the earth and universe around 6,500 years old. Conventional science says the universe is 14.5 Billion years old and the earth is 4.5 Billion years old.

VK: Not much harmony between those views is there?

RD: No. There is not. And in the first episode of this 10 Facts Every Christian Needs to Know series we took on that whole notion of Deep Time so people can go and listen to that episode and begin to understand some of the evidence that Deep Time does not exist. For today, the point we need to make is that the fossil record is viewed by conventional scientists as a record of the passage of time whereas Biblical geologists view the fossil record as a snapshot in time. Conventional science believes the fossil record was built up over hundreds of millions of years. Biblical scientists believe the fossil record was created almost exclusively during the Genesis flood that lasted just a little over a year about 4,500 years ago.

VK: Again, not much harmony between those two views. But as we have pointed out evolutionists must have billions, or at least hundreds of millions, of years available for random mutations take life from inanimate, randomly colliding atoms to biologists pondering how those undirected collisions produced them and their ideas. No billions of years, no biologists.

RD: And one of the problems for those who want to believe that unintelligent molecules turn into enormously intelligent molecular chemists is the Cambrian Explosion. Briefly put one of the big problems for evolution is that during this purported Cambrian period almost all of the major phyla that we know about today suddenly appeared in the fossil record.

VK: A phylum is a taxonomic classification level that is between the kingdom level and the class level. Human beings are part of the class of mammals. Mammals are, in turn, in the phylum Chordata. Chordata simply refers to animals that have a spine or backbone.

RD: Right. There’s not uniform agreement on how many phyla there are in the animal kingdom but the number 35 to 40 is common. There’s also not uniform agreement on how many of those phyla appeared during the Cambrian Explosion but most classifiers agree that at least 20 appeared and some say that as many as 35 appeared. The problem for evolutionists is that when they look at pre-Cambrian strata they find no precursors to these phyla. Furthermore, in the supposed half billion years since the Cambrian there are no new phyla that make an appearance that are traced back to those known from the Cambrian. We have discovered the existence of new phyla infrequently but the ones discovered to not link to any of the phyla already know and there are no evolutionary links known among the phyla of the Cambrian period.

VK: Just to remind our listeners the evolutionary hypothesis says that all life on earth came from a common ancestor that first appeared hundreds of millions of years ago. Then, over time, this single ancestor evolved gradually through numerous beneficial mutations into all the species we see. If this hypothesis is true then the sudden appearance of any phyla in the fossil record is problematic – much less the sudden appearance of two dozen or more when there are no known ancestors for any of them.

RD: So, the sudden appearance of multiple phyla all of which are so fully developed that they are almost identical to their modern counterparts is a real challenge for evolution. If evolution were true the pre-Cambrian strata should be brimming with their hypothetical ancestors but those strata are not.

VK: But the collection of all these distinct and fully formed phyla in the Cambrian strata poses no problem for the Biblical claim. The Cambrian strata is simply a large collection of animals that was buried in the early days of the Genesis flood. Since that was only 4,500 years ago it’s no big surprise the Cambrian representatives look very similar to their current counterparts. And since the Bible tells us that God created all the various kinds of animals fully-formed and fully-functional the absence of hypothetical ancestors is exactly what you would expect. So, this situation also helps point to the 2nd line of evidence you want to discuss – that the fossil record as a whole, even beyond the Cambrian, contains no convincing transitional fossils.

RD: Exactly. It’s not just that there are no transitional fossils that are intermediate between the Cambrian phyla and their ancestors, but there are no transitional fossils that are intermediate anywhere in the fossil record. This was true in Charles Darwin’s day and he recognized the problem. Darwin famously acknowledged the lack of transitional fossils in Origin of the Species. It’s just that Darwin thought the deficiency would be cured over time.

VK: Darwin wrote, “… why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?” He also wrote, “But as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?”

RD: But the absence of transitional forms in the fossil record has never improved. In his famous book Algeny Jeremy Rifkin said, “Actually, the discrepancy between the theory and the fact only begins with the Cambrian period. It turns out that our paleontologists have been unable to find a single convincing intermediate or transitional form linking the various life forms.”

VK: Also, David Kitts, a professor of geology at the University of Oklahoma said, “Evolution requires intermediate forms between species and paleontology does not provide them.” Steven Stanley in his well-known work Macroevolution summed up the problems with the fossil record by stating “The known fossil record fails to document a single example of [gradual] evolution accomplishing a major morphologic transition and hence offers no evidence that the gradualistic model can be valid.”

RD: The absence of transitional fossils is particularly glaring because if there was any direct evidence for evolution it would have to come from fossils. Dr. Pierre P. Grasse’ who was one of the world’s greatest living biologists, in his book Evolution of Living Organisms reminded his fellow scientists that “the process of evolution is revealed only through fossil forms. A knowledge of paleontology is, therefore, a prerequisite; only paleontology can provide … the evidence of evolution and reveal its course or mechanisms.” In other words there is no scientific evidentiary mechanism that can make up for the lack of transitional forms in the fossil record. Without those transitional forms there is, simply put, no direct evidence that evolution has occurred. But this most certainly does not mean the fossil record is silent on the debate between the Biblical and secular perspectives on the history of life on this planet. To the contrary, the fossil record strongly points to the reliability of the scriptural account.

VK: What are you thinking about now?

RD: The third line of evidence that we want to mention today that supports our 4th fact – the fact that the fossil record does not support evolution – is the presence of ephemeral markings (raindrop marks, ripple marks, animal tracks) at the boundaries of paraconformities show that the upper rock layer has been deposited immediately after the lower one, eliminating many millions of years of ‘gap’ time.

VK: Paraconformities are also known as ‘flat gaps. ’ According to Creation Ministries International these “are contacts within sedimentary sequences where layers of sediment representing many millions of years are said to be missing. Flat gaps are remarkably flat and the sedimentary layers either side of the gap are parallel and relatively thin compared with their enormous geographical extent.” In other words paraconformities are sedimentary layers within the earth where two different layers are in immediate contact but there is no evidence of any time gap being present between the deposition of the layers.

RD: Yes. Conventional geological time frames would say that there were millions of years between the time one layer was deposited and then the layer above it was laid down. But if that time gap was real the lower layer would exhibit a considerable amount of erosion. But there are many places around the world where two layers supposedly millions of years apart show no evidence of this time gap. And one line of evidence that demonstrates this is the presence of millions of dinosaur footprint fossils around the world. Think about the conditions that would be necessary for the fossil record to retain a footprint – not a foot – just the print.

VK: The animal would have had to step into a soil patch that was soft enough to form the impression and conditions would have to be stable enough for that impression to partially dry. But shortly thereafter another layer of sediment would have to be deposited which essentially filled the footprint and then encased it in some kind of a “protective” coating – a coating strong enough to survive millennia of subsequent erosive action. The point you’re getting it is that the presence of dinosaur and other animal footprints in rocks that are supposed to be ancient means that the geological formation activity was occurring very quickly.

RD: Exactly. The normal presumption is that the fossil record was laid down over tens or hundreds of millions of years. But the presence of dinosaur tracks in stone shows that the fossil record was more likely created in a much shorter period of time – a time period consistent with the Genesis flood. In 2012, Ray Stanford, an amateur dinosaur track enthusiast, noticed a small outcrop of sandstone on a hill in Greenbelt, Maryland. It was same color as sandstone in which he had previously discovered a small dinosaur track. They dug out the outcrop, which turned out to be part of a 2 square meter slab that contained the highest concentration of tracks anywhere in the world. It contained not only tracks of several different kinds of dinosaurs but also tracks from a crocodile and a mammal. This slab of dinosaur, crocodile, pterosaur, and mammal footprints provides dramatic evidence that supports the biblical account of creation and the Flood. According to Michael Oard, a scientist with Creation Ministries International, the fact that dinosaur and mammal prints are found on the same slab goes against the evolutionary idea that mammals largely diversified after the dinosaurs. Rather it shows that mammals and dinosaurs lived at the same time.

VK: This is perfectly consistent with the Bible because all animals were created during the 6 days of creation and had diversified across the earth before the global Genesis Flood began. He also says that the rapid formation and preservation of the prints in days or hours is consistent with the rapid processes that occurred during the Flood. The existence of footprints means that the animals were alive, suggesting that the tracks were made as the floodwaters were rising and before water covered all the earth. The prints likely represent the efforts of the animals to escape the ongoing inundation of the rising waters.

RD: Ephemeral markings in the fossil record show that the fossil record was created far more rapidly that is typically assumed by conventional science. Now let’s remind everyone of the reasons this is important. Conventional science asserts that the fossil record contains evidence that supports evolution. But the three lines of evidence that we have discussed today helps demonstrate that it doesn’t.

VK: The sudden appearance of numerous well-define and distinct animal phyla during the “Cambrian explosion,” with no evidence of any ancestors that preceded them, argues strongly against common ancestry. And the fact that many of these phyla are almost identical to their modern counterparts casts considerable doubt on whether any evolution has occurred in the supposed intervening half-billion years. The absence of transitional forms throughout the fossil record has been called “the trade secret of paleontology” because it argues strongly against evolution rather than for it.

RD: And the existence of dinosaur footprints and other ephemeral markings that found around the world shows that different sedimentary layers can be deposited very quickly even in vast quantities. This is consistent with laboratory findings that moving water can sort materials very efficiently as they are settling. Given the vast sedimentary layers that sometimes cross continents this speaks to the previous occurrence of at least one massive flood that would be consistent with the flood described in chapters 6 and 7 of Genesis.

VK: This 4th fact, like the 3 before it, are important because they provide support for the Bible’s truth. But they also demonstrate that many of the assumptions that circulate so widely in our culture do not possess the credibility that is so often assumed. The Bible says the truth will set us free but for truth to do that we must be willing to diligently pursue the truth even when we are one of the few who are doing so. This sounds like a great time to go to the Lord in prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer for our kids who are back in school and many of whom struggle when taking tests. And let’s remember always to pray regularly for them because the Bible assures that God hears and responds to the sincere prayers of His faithful children regardless of their age.

---- PRAYER FOR TAKING A TEST

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 Contemporary English Version)

Genesis, chapter 8, verses 2 and 3, Contemporary English Version

Global Evidences of the Genesis Flood | Answers in Genesis

High & Dry Sea Creatures | Answers in Genesis

Dinosaur footprint treasure trove found in Britain - creation.com

The Bright Angel Trail trackways - creation.com

Flat gaps - creation.com

Dinosaur and mammal tracks found together - creation.com

Satan’s Strategy

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