Author: gmatzko

Does soft tissue in dinosaur fossils argue for a young earth? Well, that all depends on who you ask. If you are a young-earth creationist (YEC) like me you are sure of it, but if you are an evolutionist or old earth creationist you are very dismissive of the whole idea.

A recent article by Dr. Brian Thomas entitled, “Collagen Decays Too Fast for Evolutionary Time,” is one of the latest pieces of research to be published on this topic by a YEC and appears to demonstrate what that title asserts. https://www.icr.org/article/11435 . Thomas shows that “bovine bone collagen held at 59˚F would decay with a half-life of 21,012 years under ideal conditions. At that rate, collagen would not last even one million years.” Let alone the 60-million years required by some soft tissue containing dino fossils according to an evolutionary timeline.

So how do the evolutionists counter research such as this? A good example is an article published by Biologos, a theistic evolution organization (Christians who believe that God used evolution to create.) https://biologos.org/articles/soft-tissue-in-dinosaur-bones-what-does-the-evidence-really-say . You can read it for yourself, but I would like to highlight the final conclusion: “Thus, it is absurd and insupportable to set aside the radioactive dating of these rock layers because some partly degraded soft tissue has been found in dinosaur fossils from those layers.”

It’s only “absurd” to folks at Biologos because they have already decided that the earth is billions of years old. And it seems absurd to me not to accept the evidence that these dinosaurs only died thousands of years ago, probably during the Deluge, because I already know that the earth is young! It alls hangs on presuppositions (faith), not scientific evidence. I believe the earth is young because I believe the Bible describes the earth as young (in the genealogies). So naturally, I think my presuppositions are better than theirs:)

Is there a ninth planet? If you haven’t kept up on things you might respond, “Sure, Pluto.” But Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006 because it doesn’t control its own gravitational environment (Neptune does). So is there a space object vying to take its place as the ninth planet? Yes, but I don’t know what to call it. Some people call it Planet X and some people call it Nibiru. I call it most likely non-existent.

Whatever you call it, even though no one has ever seen it, some scientists say that they know how big it is (five times bigger than the earth) and approximately where it is located because of its influence on the other twelve or so extreme outer objects we have seen (bodies in the Kuiper Belt and beyond) like Sedna. How can they be so sure? Because all these trans-Neptunian objects are aligned in such a way that they all make their closest approach to the sun around the time that they cross the plane of the solar system (“remarkably similar arguments of perihelion”). So astronomers are thinking that the ninth planet must shepherd all of these other objects and keep them clustered together.

So what is the flaw in their thinking? It’s true that you would expect this alignment to have been randomized over the life of the solar system if the solar system was 4.6 billion years old unless planet nine was there to keep them aligned. But what if the solar system is only six or seven thousand years old? Then no planet nine is required.

Since 2016 the astronomers have been training their telescopes on the region of space where they know planet nine has to be mathematically. They know that if they are the one to find it, they will be able to name it and they will probably get a Nobel prize and be famous. But what if their presupposition about the age of the solar system is wrong? It means a lot of time staring at nothing.

Researchers have been cataloging moonlight’s effects on animals for decades and continue to mark new connections.  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/moon-animals-light-behavior-lunar-phases So the natural question to ask is, “Does the moon have any effect on people?”

First, the Biblical evidence: Psalms 121:6 – the sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. We can all understand how the sun can smite us, but the moon? How does that work? or Matthew 4:24 – And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick (Grk “those who were moonstruck,” ), and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. How are we to understand this? Unfortunately, the commentators fall all over themselves trying to explain away such references. For example, the notes in the NET Bible state: “It is likely that the verse reflects an ancient, primitive belief that the moon could have an adverse effect on the mind (note the English expression “moonstruck,” which reflects such a belief)”.

Second, the scientific evidence: According the the Science News article already referenced above: “Scientists have investigated possible connections between the moon and a broad mix of human experiences, such as conceptions, births, emergency room visits, cardiac events, psychiatric episodes, sports injuries, aggression and crime, and even the ups and downs of the stock market. Much of the evidence is inconclusive or contradictory.”

Third, anecdotal evidence: As I’ve traveled around the world as the BJU Science Ambassador, I’ve encountered mental health workers, educators and law enforcement personnel who all testify to a connection between the light of the moon and how people behave. After this post has been published I’m sure I’ll hear from more of you in this regard:)

My conclusion is that even though we don’t know how the moon affects people, it is always a bad idea to vote against Biblical evidence. I’m fully expecting that the scientific evidence will follow at some future date.

I was asked this question while doing a Q&A at Anchor Baptist Church in Little River, SC this past weekend and the folks at Northside Baptist in Greenville, SC were also interested in this topic last night.

Yes, the magnetic poles are on the move and not only that, they are moving faster and faster year by year. Currently, the north magnetic pole is moving toward Siberia at about 55 kilometers per year and the South magnetic pole has moved off the continent of Antartica headed for Australia.

I think that it is very possible that this migration may signal a pole flip, something that hasn’t happened since the Deluge. It could happen tomorrow or years from now or even during the Tribulation period — no one knows, but the implications could be serious. There is also something called the South Atlantic Anomaly, that is growing apace, that may also signal a new polar reversal.

When the poles finally decide to flip, we could be left for a time without the magnetic field that protects our planet from solar and galactic radiation, the ionizing rays that can harm things on our planet. That not only means that cancer rates will skyrocket, but our electrical systems could fail as well. Some estimates I’ve seen say that that it might take up to two years to restore power for everyone affected. Daniel Baker, of the University of Colorado, who is sun radiation expert, says there’s no question in his mind that parts of the planet will become uninhabitable.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, I would recommend watching this short video even though it uses a bogus evolutionary time scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Ggs7nUjxA Creationists are not comforted by assertions that we don’t need to worry because it only happens every 780,000 years. Our time horizon is much more compressed than theirs.

Psalm 47:9b – “for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.”

“and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.” – Rev 21:21

Pictured above is a 1,600-year-old jade green Roman artifact called the Lycurgus Cup. If the cup is lit from the front it is jade green, but when it is lit from behind it glows blood red. How did the Romans do this? The Roman artisan who made the chalice was a pioneer in nanotechnology. Teeny tiny particles of gold were added to the glass – particles so small they were just 50 nanometers in diameter. That means that these gold particles were less than one-thousandth the size of a grain of table salt. Not only did the Romans know this trick for turning glass red, but medieval stained glass window makers knew how to use ground up gold to illustrate the blood of Christ in their art.

Could it be that the streets and walls in the New Jerusalem (the administrative center of the New Heavens and New Earth) will also be red to remind us of the blood of Christ, the only reason believers will be able to live in such a beautiful place forever? As a blood-washed saint, I’m looking forward to seeing if I’m right about this.

Psalm 19:4c-6 speaks of the sun using imagery that is neither a scientific description or a mythological account but uses typical Old Testament popular descriptive idioms for a natural phenomenon:

In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, ⁵ Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. ⁶ His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

First we see in verse 4c that the sun has a tabernacle or tent (i.e., abode). From this it appears that David understood that the sun is not moving. God literally “set” it in place.

In verse 5 the sun is likened to a bridegroom and a strong man sunning a race. The sun was the only source of energy that David had ever seen that never cooled down or diminished in size. We know now that the sun is actually growing as it burns about as fast as fingernails grow. Certainly too slow for us to measure.

In verse 6 we read of the sun’s chamber where it passes the night, bursting forth at sunrise in its full glory and lighting up its splendid tabernacle. We also read that the sun “goes forth,” referring not only to its apparent transit across the sky as the earth turns but also to the outgoing of its radiant heat.

Just as the sun lights all of the earth, so also, the revelation of God’s character, power and wisdom is universal. Every human being knows something about the Creator God because every human being has seen the sun!

Romans 10:18 – But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

The Earth is suspended in space

Job 26:7 – He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. [“North – The northern part of the heavens, which is put for the whole visible heaven, because Job and his friends lived in a northern climate. Nothing – Upon no props or pillars, but his own power and providence” – John Wesley]

This Biblical idea is quite different from the “World Turtle” pictured above in an 1876 drawing of the world supported on the backs of four elephants, themselves resting on the back of a turtle. This mythological view has counterparts worldwide.

Even in Europe and America, the idea that there was some kind of aether medium in which the earth was embedded prevailed until 1887, when Michelson and Morley tried to use an interferometer in a vain attempt to detect the relative motion of the earth in the aether.

The earth suspended in space is only one of many examples of scientific foreknowledge in the Bible. Here is what Matthew Henry had to say about Job 26:7 – The globe by the almighty power of God, is firmly fixed in its place, poised with its own weight. The art of man could not hang a feather upon nothing, yet the divine wisdom hangs the whole earth so. It is upheld by the word of God’s power. What is hung upon nothing may serve us to set our feet on, and bear the weight of our bodies, but it will never serve us to set our hearts on, nor bear the weight of our souls.

Hear, hear!

Yes, It helps provide our daily need of the element nitrogen. Nitrogen is the third most abundant element in the human body, and it must be renewed continually. We are actually surrounded by nitrogen since it comprises 78 percent of Earth’s atmosphere. However, our bodies cannot make use of the nitrogen in this molecular, gaseous form because nitrogen gas has a strong triple bond that is hard to break.  That is where lightning comes in. The great electrical energy of lightning is easily able to convert nitrogen in the air to a useable form.  The scale of this transformation is staggering. Worldwide, storms are estimated to produce one hundred million tons of useful nitrogen compounds each year. Perhaps up to one-half of all usable nitrogen in the soil is fixed or made usable by the energy of lightning.

In addition to keeping us alive, lightning is also beautiful and added beauty is the hallmark of God’s creative style.

As we have traveled across the US this past year we’ve had the misfortune to come across several flat-earthers in the churches we have visited. They all maintained that the Bible teaches that the earth was flat. No, this false idea is not taught in Scripture and here is why:

(1) Job 26:7 explains that the earth is suspended in space, the common sense comparison being with a spherical sun and moon.

(2) By 250 B.C. the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes had already measured the 25,000-mile circumference of the earth and we can assume that this information was known by the New Testament writers.

(3) Revelation 7:1 refers to angels standing at the four corners of the earth but the four corners are actually a reference to the four cardinal directions: North, South, East & West.

(4) Bible writers used the language of appearance just like we do when we refer to the Sun rising and setting. If they didn’t it would make for some awkward reading. We can have full confidence that when the Bible touches on scientific subjects it is completely accurate.