As you may have seen the video clips of the Rhetoric School Creation Science trip to Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon, it was nothing short of breathtaking and spectacular. We witnessed God’s glory displayed with such grandeur in such diverse ways, I believe we were all transformed to be closer to God.
When we started out at Grand Canyon, it snowed. Puffy snow covered every leaf of every tree in such a beautiful way, we almost forgot we came to see the Grand Canyon. In fact, we could not see the canyon because the thick condensation covered up the entire canyon. Then we slowly made our way down the slippery path along the South Rim to see if we could get below the milky cloud. The cloud did not clear, so we could not see below the cloud, but what we were able to see was especially beautiful with patterns of streaks of white snow.
When we came back up, Mrs. Hoesch encouraged us to pray for the clouds to clear. On the way out, when we stopped at an overlook, the clouds cleared and we were able to get a stunning view of the Grand Canyon.
The most glorious part of the trip was what God was revealing through the geological features of the canyons, explained in detail by Mr. Bill Hoesch, our tour guide. Many scientific evidence point to a world-wide flood. One example is the existence of fossilized sea animals on top of the mountains. During a gas stop, Mr. Hoesch took us to a nearby hill to look for some fossils of sea animals, and we found a hand full of small echinoderms—“baby starfish.” Mr. Hoesch explained that these same echinoderms are found on top of Mt. Everest. This evidence points to a world-wide flood, of which there are hundreds of independent accounts throughout the world. Mr. Hoesch showed the picture of an American Indian female scientist he met who showed a painting handed down to her by her ancestors, a painting with details that match the biblical account of the flood, although this lady was not a Christian.
But the history of a single event, world-wide flood is a problem for those who do not believe in the Christian God. It points to the biblical data that there is God who judged the world through a world-wide flood. The idea of a world-wide flood presents two major problems for non-Christians. First, the idea of a world-wide flood points to the biblical data that there is a real God who created the world and who judged the world because of its unbelief and wickedness against God. Second, the idea of a world-wide flood goes against the atheistic assumption of evolution, which is a non-Christian’s justification for man’s autonomy. World-wide flood happened suddenly in a relatively recent past, but the theory of evolution says that it happens slowly over millions of years.
So, the more people look at geological evidence around the world, the more they are faced with the truth that 1) the global flood really happened, 2) God created the world, 3) man sinned against God and received God’s judgment by a global-flood, 4) and that man is in need of a savior. Geological evidence points us to Christ.
By the end of this trip, it became clear to me that the more a student studies geology (or any branch of science for that matter), the more he is faced with one of two choices: accept what God says in the Scriptures and submit to him or reject him and depend only on oneself.
Mr. Hoesch spoke with conviction both as a serious scientist as well as a serious believer of God’s Word. Of the several key biblical passages that he shared, the most significant passage is from 2 Peter 3:3-7:
“Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”
This passage speaks presciently about our generation, which rejects God, creation, and world-wide flood, and which believes in evolution as the reigning doctrine that undergirds atheism, Marxism, and socialism all over the world including the “advanced” countries like the US and South Korea.
Our creation science trip transformed our lives by awakening our soul’s eyes to God’s beauty in nature, and by awakening our minds to the biblical account of the global-flood and the glory of God revealed through it.