10092022 2 Peter 3: 3-11 “Why the Global Flood is foundational to our faith.”

Before we get to our scripture, I want to share My journey from secular geologist to Biblical geologist.

What I remember most about my childhood was my father’s absence. My father, Joseph Banks was a geologist working for an oil company with mineral rights in Florida and Australia. Since not much was going on in Florida where we lived, he spent a lot of time in Australia. He would be gone for a year at a time. in my eyes, he was just like the famous English botanist Sir Joseph Banks who sailed with Captain James Cook to Australia. Likewise, my father was an explorer of rocks and fossils in the outback of Australia. If he had his way, he never would have stepped a foot back into civilization.

Geology was not just my father’s profession; it was also his passion. When he was not working for the company, he was out in the field collecting rocks and fossils around Florida, visiting oil well sites, rock quarries and authoring papers on the geology of Florida. Family vacations were a mixture of trips to the beach and trips to the quarries and down gravel road to oil rigs. Growing up in this environment how could I not want to follow in His footsteps. So off to college I went to try to capture my father’s passion for geology. Sadly, although I found Geology to be full of exciting discovery, I never acquired my father’s level of passion.

As a geology student in the early 1970’s I was instructed in Darwinian evolution (molecule to man evolution), naturalism, and the old age view of earth (millions and billions of years). Creation science was just beginning about this time but was never mentioned in the secular universities that I attended. If anyone had stood up and mentioned the global flood and the catastrophic events mentioned in the Bible, they would have been laughed out of the academy. There was no ark encounter or creation museum back them and Ken Ham was still teaching school in Australia. Always in the back of my mind was the feeling that there was something wrong with what I had been taught in school about the history of the earth and how it came to be formed. For example:

1. In my Introduction to Physical geology course, we learned about the catastrophic geologic processes of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and plate tectonics. However, after this basic course rapid catastrophic geologic events were downplayed and replaced by the theory of uniformitarianism, the slow gradual deposition of rocks over millions and billions of years, how boring. This conflict between Catastrophism and uniformitarianism has a long history in the field of geology.

2. Where were the missing links or transitional life forms in the fossil record to prove the theory of Darwinian evolution? The fossil evidence showed creatures appearing out of nowhere and then disappearing just as rapidly without any change in their appearance.

3. Why are 95% of all fossils on the continental land masses marine invertebrates?

4. How can soft tissue like collagen be preserved in dinosaur bones that are supposed to be 150 million years old?

5. How can Darwin’s theory of molecule to man evolution still be taught in public schools and universities when it has never been verified by either observational or experimental evidence. In fact, it has been proven false over and over again by scientists.

Things just did not make sense geologically, and now I know why because it was all a deception. The old age of the earth was not based on scientific fact but unscientific assumptions. The founders of the modern field of geology make three assumptions that guided their interpretation of geologic history.

1. Nature is all that exists, therefore ruling out the supernatural actions of our creator God.

2. The interpretation of the past can only be done in accordance with what is happening now in the present, this is the principle of uniformitarianism, or the present is the key to the past. Therefore, since there is no global flood occurring now it never could have occurred in the past.

3. The Bible is irrelevant to scientific pursuit and cannot be used to explain how the earth formed.

With these three assumption Geologists have been led astray into all sorts of erroneous conclusions, all for the purpose of discrediting the Biblical account of creation and the history of the earth.

Since I have discarded these assumptions my passion for geology has grown exponentially. How exciting it is to know the truth, that 99% of the rocks which we see today in road cuts and quarries were deposited during God’s judgment on the earth through a catastrophic yearlong global flood. How could I not be excited by such a reshaping of the entire world in such a short period of time? It did not take billions of years to deposit these rocks but a single year. That will blow your mind. Our God is an awesome God!

But sadly, it took almost 20 years for me to overcome my Darwinian Evolution – Uniformitarianism training. The effect of propaganda is long lasting. But for years God through His word had been working on me, convincing me that there was something fundamentally wrong with the uniformitarian principle of millions and billions of years and molecules to man evolution. Besides the fact that there is no beauty, grace, and mercy in evolution but only misery, death, and despair. And of course, there is the fact that only an eternal being that does not change can give life, not a big explosion. But there was an event that happened in 1980 that helped to change the minds of many geologists. What was that event? The volcanic eruption of Mt. St. Helens, when half the mountain was blown away and in a matter of hours depositing stratified sediment exactly like those formerly thought to have taken 20 million years to deposit. That catastrophic event gave evidence to God’s amazing power to alter the earth in a very short time. We have also seen this in the February 2023 earthquakes in Southern Turkey where a formerly flat olive grove was turned into a thirteen-story deep gorge or rift zone over night.

Now here I am fifty years later, preaching the truth regarding the age of our young earth and the catastrophic geologic processes of the global flood during the time of Noah, a preacher of righteousness. There is no need for any other theory than the 6 days of creation. That was my journey from a secular geologist to a Biblical geologist. From a double minded man, believing in God but not the inerrancy of His word, to a man devoted to the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible.

So, to our Scripture we go to ask this question. What did the Apostle Peter have to say about the uniformitarianism vs. catastrophism debate?

My text today is from 2 Peter 3:3-11 and it is a prophetic passage which speaks volume regarding this geological debate. Jan asked me the other day, “why do we not have prophets today?” I replied, “We do not need them for God’s word is prophetic.” As Peter himself said in 2 Peter 1: 19, “And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”

Will you stand as we read the prophetic word of 2 Peter 3: 1-11. (Read text)

Peter starts out in the first two verses reminding the early Christians and through them to us also how important it is “to remember (to member ourselves to) the predictions (the words spoken) by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.” Peter is saying that without the Word of God, the word of truth you are lost. You are on the broad way to destruction. You are giving yourselves into the very hand of Satan himself, the father of lies.

Peter in verse 3 begins to prophesize, now would be a good time to listen up, for he says, “know this first of all.” This is of first importance! Peter is prophesying that sometime in the future, what he calls the last days, scoffers will come scoffing, following their own sinful desires (their own lusts), denying the word of God and His promises, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? (Referring here to the second coming of Christ in judgment) For ever since the fathers fell asleep (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” Peter is prophesying about a time in the future when people will seek to convince others that the coming judgment of Jesus will never happen.

Peter’s prophecy has come true in our day! So, what were these scoffers trying to say? Their message is one I was taught in the geological sciences, uniformitarianism, “all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” Their purpose was:

1. First, to discredit and laughingly mock the global flood of the Bible and to justify an extremely old age for the earth (4.5 billion years old) to allow time for the Darwinian theory of molecule to man evolution to work. Time here becomes the creative force rather than the eternal and immutable creator God.

2. Secondly, they seek to prove that God’s word is unreliable, therefore, we need not fear the promised coming judgment of Christ for there is no evidence of His past judgment (here particularly referring to the flood during the days of Noah).

Remember, in Genesis 6: 5-8, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So, the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping thins and to birds of the heavens; for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”

Because of their sinful desires, lusts as Peter told us, people will try to convince us that there is no God, therefore no coming judgment on sin. But the Psalmist in Psalm 53:1 wrote about them saying, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God,’ they are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity.”

So, the scoffers come laughing at anyone who is willing to stand up and say that the totality of God word is truth, that it is inerrant and infallible, and that the flood of Noah was God’s judgment on man for His wickedness and that Jesus is coming soon to judge the living and the dead as we often recite in the Apostles Creed. They know that a message of judgment and a young earth would hinder their efforts to allow every man to do what is right in his own eyes, calling what is utter chaos, freedom, instead of what true freedom really is, doing what is right in God’s eyes because He is our creator and we are created in His image.

So, how did Peter respond to the scoffer’s false statement of uniformitarianism? Peter states the truth of God’s word saying, I like the way the NAS translates verse 5, “Has it escaped your notice.” The ESV translates it, ”For they deliberately overlook this fact.” The Greek work here literally means “they shut their eyes to this fact.” Why? Because it does not promote their naturalistic agenda.

Peter goes on to say, “that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, by the word of God, and that by means of these (water) the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.” Peter here points to the unique supernatural creation of planet earth, how it was formed out of water as we are told in. Genesis 1:2, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” In the beginning the earth was formed out of water as Peter said.

Read on in Genesis 1:6-8, “And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse (the lower part of the sky) and separated the waters which were under or below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven (sky).” Now we have an upper layer of water above the sky and another layer of water below the sky, a sky sandwich.

Then In Genesis 1:9, “And God said, ‘Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear;’ and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas.” The earth was indeed formed out of water with two watery masses, the upper realm served as a canopy for the whole earth (above the sky) and in the lower realm the waters were gathered together to form the seas, rivers, lakes, and underground reservoirs, the water trapped in the earth, what we call aquifers today. As Peter said in verse 8, all these waters, the waters above and the waters below and the waters beside were prepared for the great deluge so that the world would be destroyed by water as Peter wrote.

Here Peter was referring to the global flood during the time of Noah which was God’s judgment on the great wickedness of man. In this act of judgment God destroyed all flesh on the earth except eight persons. And God used the waters of creations to supply the waters needed to flood the whole earth and to a level above the highest mountains. The upper canopy provided the waters for the 40 days of rain. But it was the water that came from the fountains of the deep, from the lower realm formed by the underground reservoirs that primarily additional water. In Genesis 7:11 we are told, “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same days all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.”

As a former secular geologist, I can truthfully tell you that the best explanation for our present mountains and fossil graveyards and coal and oil deposits is the catastrophic global flood. But the mockers are still at work today condemning those who give credence to the truth of the Genesis global flood. The effort to rid the world of God’s judgment is a well-entrenched lobby.

Why is it that the global flood is so foundational to our faith? Here I will list the theological consequences of uniformitarianism, naturalism, and the Darwinian molecule to man evolution.

1. If you believe in millions and billions of years and molecules to man evolution, then you deny that God as the only witness to creation was wrong when he said He created the earth out of nothing in 6 literal days supernaturally by the word of His mouth. Therefore, denying the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture, saying that the Bible is in error and therefore lacks authority in our lives.

2. If you believe in millions and billions of years and molecules to man evolution, then you deny that Adam and Eve ever ate of the forbidden fruit that led to the death of all creature as we are told in Genesis 3 and therefore believe that death has always existed on earth for billions of years thus rendering God’s very good creation not good at all since it originally included death.

3. If you believe in millions and billions of years and molecules to man evolution, then there was no original sin and its result, our sin nature that we have all inherited from the first Adam and consequently there is no need for a second Adam (Jesus Christ) to die on the cross for our sins and rise from the dead on the third day so that we might be reconciled to God and have eternal life. In other words, the uniformitarians destroy the gospel, saying that Jesus died on the cross for nothing, and we are still in our sins and without hope.

4. If you believe in millions and billions of years and molecules to man evolution, then you destroy the character of God, saying He is not righteous or just or holy, not faithful to keep all His promises and not only did the flood in the days of Noah never happen nor will there be a second coming of Jesus. And if God is not righteous than He is not worthy of worship.

You see the flood deniers attack the very foundational principles of the Christian faith; God’s divine creation, His inerrant and infallible word, original sin, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, the resurrection, and the second coming of Christ. As Psalm 11:3 tells us, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

But praise the LORD, unknown to me, while I was learning all about evolution and naturalism at a secular university, creation scientists were beginning to publish their research. Since 1961 when Morris and Whitcomb publish their definitive work on the Global flood now, we have scientist from all the major disciples working to promote the truth of God’s word through organizations like the Institute for Creation research in Texas, Answers in Genesis in Kentucky, David Rives Ministries in Tennessee and many more. And they have now come up with a scientific account of the history of the earth that is thoroughly Biblical.

What is the true story of the history of the earth?

So now thanks to creation scientists we now have a complete story of creation authenticated by science. The true story goes like this: In the beginning, six thousand years ago, not millions and billions of years ago, God created everything good, no disease and no death, a world-wide tropical paradise due to the upper canopy of water where animals grew to humongous sizes like the dinosaurs and all the continents were together as one whole. Al the continents were together making one continent.

But man was tempted by the devil and fell from grace bringing sin and disease and death into the world.

But God in His mercy and grace promised a savior who would be born of a virgin and defeat the devil and restore things back to the way they were before the fall.

Sadly, years pasted, and man grew more evil until in divine judgment God flooded the whole earth with water in 2349 BC (4,372 years ago). This global flood and the resulting tsunamis and earthquakes and volcanic activity and sea floor spreading destroying everything on its surface of the earth and reshaped and reconfigured it into what we see today (the continents were separated through rapid seafloor speaking). But God, even in judgment brought about good in the form of our oil and gas deposits when incredible amounts of organic material was rapidly buried under thousands of feet of sediments.

And out of the global flood came the ice ages due to the elevation of the temperature of the oceans from subsea volcanic activity causing increased evaporation and precipitation and the cooling of the planet from the volcanic activity. The once tropical planet was now experiencing dramatic climate change.

Only Noah and his family survived to repopulate the earth. God told them to scatter but they did not, rebelling against God once again, they settled in one place (Babel) and began to build a tower to the heavens. God confused their tongue forcing them to scatter throughout the earth along land bridge created by the ice ages falling sea levels to become the people groups that we know today.

Then God chose a man by the name of Abraham to be a blessing for the whole earth, 2,000 years later the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ, would come from Abraham’s descendants. As we are told in Hebrews 2:17, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to made propitiation for the sins of the people.” And after Jesus’ death and resurrection he left behind the kingdom of God in His disciples and the true church via the Holy Spirit to continue building the kingdom until He comes again in judgment.

Here in our story we pick up in verse seven where Peter continued to speak the truth saying, Not only was the earth destroyed back in the time of Noah, “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.” Again, Peter is referring to the second coming of Christ and the judgment of the end times.

Then Peter answers the age-old question, why is Jesus so long in coming again in verse 8-9?

First, he spells out the fact that God’s understanding of time is quite different from us humans. A thousand years to the Lord are a mere day. In God’s time the second coming is rapid. But in our time, it seems like an eternity. But Peter explains it like this, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God is so very gracious, are not you glad, I am. But Peter goes on to warn us in verse 10, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be expose.” Now is the time to correct our false thinking, to rid ourselves of fake Atheistic science and propaganda. Now is the time to treasure the word of God, which Jesus called the word of truth and do it Therefore, as Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:11, “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way (by fire), what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.” Now is the time to get prepared, to get right with God. God has called us to a life of holiness, in obedience to His word, to building His kingdom here on earth.