Catastrophe Vs. Uniformitarianism

Well, good afternoon, everyone. It's great to see all of you here. The sun's coming out. Another beautiful Sabbath day here in Seattle. Great to be here with all of you. Today, I wanted more of an educational thing I want to present today. I want to spend the first half of this split sermon time kind of introducing what I think is a very informative video, especially for children and young adults. It kind of counters what is taught in public schools today and shows evidence for that. It was actually 34 years ago today, just about, or this weekend almost, on Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, about 8.30, just after 8.30 in the morning, that Mount St. Helens erupted. How many of you are here when that happened? Quite a number of you. Well, we were here. We were living here at the time, and we were camping over Lake Chelan at the time it erupted. And when it did erupt, we heard it on the loudspeaker. They went around. They told us what happened. About 9 o'clock, I think it was, was a clear sunny day in Chelan. East from Washington. It was a beautiful day. And all of a sudden, over the horizon, we saw this black cloud coming in. And then the loudspeaker said, Mount St. Helens had erupted and said, anybody who needs to get back to Seattle should be leaving immediately. So we did. We packed up and headed back to Seattle as fast as we could. And we decided to take Stephen's Pass, which is the more northerly route, to try to get away from the falling ash as much as we could. And it was a good thing we did, because before we would have gotten over Snoqualmie Pass, it had been closed down. On the way to Chelan, on the way from Chelan to Wenatchee, before we turn off to go towards Stephen's Pass, we actually got into the falling ash. And it was right around noon or so. Just before noon, we were going through it. And we're about 15 minutes, we're in the falling ash. And it became actually from a bright, sunny day, all of a sudden, it was black, it was dark, you could barely see with your lights on. And we were in that falling ash for about 15 minutes. It reminded me of, and I won't turn there, but Deut. Army 28-29, since you will grow up as a blind man at noon day. And that's what we were kind of doing when that occurred. But a year ago, on the weekend of Pentecost, I gave a sermon based on the eruption of Mount St. Helens, and based on a National Geographic article, which was entitled, New Life in the Blast Zone. And the sermon was actually titled, The Real Miracle of Pentecost. But today, I want to introduce a DVD in this first part of the sermon, which vividly illustrates another very important lesson, this DVD does, that we can learn from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. It disproves a major component of the theory of evolution, which is not taught as a theory in schools. It's kind of taught as being fact, even though they don't say that, but that's the way it's taught. But this DVD just proves a major component of the theory of evolution. The DVD, which I'm going to introduce here in this first message today, was produced by Awesome Science Media, and it's hosted by Dr. Steve Austin, who he's employed by the Institution for Creation Research. And he's got a doctor's degree in geology, and he's a creationist. He believes in creation, and he tried. That ICR, Institute for Creation Research, they do, they have a lot of scientists there with a master's and doctor's degree, who actually, their whole program is to find evidence to support creationism in the Bible. So they do research for that to that end. The DVD today will play is called Mount St. Helens, Modern-Day Evidence for the Worldwide Flood, by Dr. Steve Austin. Again, like I said, it was a doctor's degree in geology.

A major component of the theory of evolution is another theory, a sub-theory, if you will, which is called basically the theory of uniformitarianism. And that concept, or theory, of uniformitarianism is this. The way everything is occurring today is the way it has always occurred in the past. That's the basic tenet of that particular position or theory. Of course, evolution requires millions of years, and all this took place over millions of years, very gradually, over a long period of time. Like millions of years. The concept of uniformitarianism would have us believe that everything that we see on the earth today, geologically speaking, came about gradually in a very uniform manner, by means of totally natural processes, not by catastrophes. So uniformitarian rules out catastrophes as being a causative factor for what we see on the earth today, for the most part, especially when it comes to the flood, of Noah's flood. It rules out what we are told in the Bible and instead supports the theory of evolution, that everything happened over millions of years, a long period of time, very slowly. So in this first message, then, today, I want to relate what the Bible tells us in regards to creationism versus catastrophe. And then we'll play the DVD, which shows how the eruption of Mount St. Helens supports what we read in the Bible and gives clear evidence to support what the Bible says. The title for this first message is, Catastrophe versus Uniformitarianism. Now, why is this so important? Well, it's so important because, as I said, in our public school system today, they pretty much base what they teach on a lot of these things. They teach geography or these kind of things, some of the sciences. They basically, in the schools, public schools and universities, everything that they teach is really based on the theory of evolution as being a factual rather than just a theory. God and the Bible had then really kicked out of the public schools today, as we know, and you can't even teach the Bible in public schools today, even though back when our schools were founded, that was the basis in our public school, but not today. So if you want evidence for creationism, you have to go to a private school or you have to be homeschooled.

So this DVD then is going to be especially important to show children and young adults who are receiving a public education how what's being taught in public schools when it comes to certain aspects of science and geology especially are based on the theory of evolution, not based on some facts that we can interpret in many different ways here. So first of all, I want to just look very briefly, very simply, direct what does the Bible say? The Bible makes it very plain. It doesn't what the Bible teaches. Let's just see straightforward what the Bible teaches. Number one, Genesis 1.1, which you all probably know by heart, says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So right off the bat, we're told to believe that everything we see was created and created by God. It didn't evolve or come about slowly, gradually somehow, over millions of years. So this, Genesis 1.1, is a very direct and straightforward statement and a very authoritative statement. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, if you go to the New Testament, to the book of John, it also begins with another very authoritative and straightforward statement. John 1.1 again says, in the beginning, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God, or excuse me, the Word was with God and the Word was God. And He, the Word was in the beginning with God. Again, a very straightforward authoritative statement. Genesis 4, Genesis, not Genesis, excuse me, John 1 verse 14 then tells us who the Word is. Verse 14 of John 1, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So it's all very straightforwardly in the Bible then, both old and New Testament, said, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. God then consists of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

We're all things created and made through the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. John 1, verse 3, he answers that for us. John 1, verse 3, all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. Does the Apostle Paul confirm that all things were made through Jesus Christ? Let's go to the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter 1, verse 2, where Paul addresses this letter to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then referring to Christ, Paul says this in verse 16 of Colossians 1, For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence.

Now did it please God the Father to create all things through his Son and for his Son? Verse 19, for please the Father that in him, in Christ, all the fullness should dwell. So what does the Bible say then? Clearly and authoritatively says that all things were created by God, by the Word who became flesh and dwelled among us. Now what does the Bible say about those who believe otherwise? About those who believe there is no God and that everything we see somehow evolved over the course of millions or billions of years.

Well, there's a couple scriptures to make it very plain, but let's just go to Psalm 14 verse 1, which says in Psalm of David, Psalm 14, 1, says, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. That is also repeated in Psalm 53 verse 1. Now why is that foolish? If there is no God, what is the alternative? School book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah tells us what the alternative is if you don't believe in God. You don't believe that God was the creator of all things. Jeremiah chapter 2, and first I'll read verse 13.

Jeremiah 2 verse 13 says, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They've hewn out ideas and theories that really cannot satisfy one's thirst and that cannot provide any hope for the future. What is the philosophy and theory that men have hewn out for themselves? What philosophy and theory of men hold, that men devise that hold no water, so to speak, that can never satisfy and that can never provide any hope for the future?

Well, it basically tells us here in the same chapter. Jeremiah 2 verse 27. They say to a tree, you are my father, or to a stone, the dead matter to a stone, you gave birth to me. In essence, that's what the theory of evolution tries to say, that life somehow came from a stone. It came somehow, life spontaneously generated from dead matter, even though it's a very foolish idea that can never be demonstrated scientifically.

It's never happened. It never would happen. It's impossible. Life cannot generate from dead matter, from a stone. And again, you not only have to have life, you have to have both male and female life that can then reproduce their species, whatever that species happens to be. So the Bible says those who believe that are fools and that's the foolish theory or idea, because life can only come from life, which is the law of biogenesis, as you say.

And of course, the Bible tells us that man's life came from God. Again, we read that in Genesis 2. Genesis 2 verse 7 is very basic. And the Lord God formed man on the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. So the life of man came from life, came from God, who has eternal life, who has lived eternally. And of course, God created male and female, just as 1 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.

That's then what the Bible says, very plainly and very authoritatively. Now, what about catastrophe? What does the Bible say in regards to catastrophe, influencing what we see, geologically speaking, on the earth today? Let's go forward just a few chapters here to Genesis chapter 6.

Genesis chapter 6 verse 5.

Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was very sorry that he made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. He said, I will destroy a man whom I am created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing, and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the eternal. Then dropping down to verse 12. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And we're approaching that again today. And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with the earth. Now how did God carry that out? Verse 17. He said, I myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth shall die.

Now what happened when God brought floodwaters on the earth? Genesis 7, verse 11. In the sixth hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up. All the fountains of the great deep were broken up. All those mountains under the oceans erupted, were broken up. And the whole, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Now when all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, there would have been numerous volcanic eruptions, both in the oceans and on land, similar to the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Catastrophic eruptions, if you will. Genesis 7, verse 17. Now the flood was on the earth for forty days, and the waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. And the waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills and mountains under the whole heaven were covered. And the waters prevailed fifteen cubits, or probably nearly thirty feet above the highest mountains or hills. And the mountains were covered. You know what they find on top of the mountains today, and at the top of the Grand Canyon? They find seashells. How'd they get up there?

Verse 21. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, the breath of the spirit of life, and all that was on dry land died. So he destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground, both man and cattle and creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days. Now, one thing we're going to be assured of here, no matter how bad things are today and how things are going back that way again the way they were before the Flood, when God brought this about, God tells us He's never going to do that again. And we have a sign for that, as we know of, most of us are familiar with. Genesis 9, beginning in verse 12, God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you, talking to Noah, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. So this is the covenant God makes with the earth. He's never going to destroy the earth again with the Flood. And it shall be when I bring it back and it shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth that the rainbow shall be in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. That water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

And the rainbow shall be in the cloud. And I will look on it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh is on the earth. When you see a rainbow, it reminds God I'm never going to flood the earth again no matter how bad it gets. As He did before. So the Bible tells us there was a catastrophic flood that destroyed and covered the entire earth.

How would that catastrophic flood have affected the geology of the earth?

How would it have affected the science dealing with the physical nature and history of the earth?

Now, the theory of evolution has to rely on additional theory, which is a theory of uniformitarianism, that everything occurred in the past as we see it occurring today. It rules out catastrophe as being anything a causative factor for what we see on the earth, geographically speaking. Does the Bible address catastrophe versus uniformitarianism? Yeah, in a sense it does. Let's go to 2 Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter chapter 3, beginning in verse 3, Peter writes, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of His coming? Hey, we've been hearing that for many, many years. For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Now, I was referring there to Christ coming, as they don't see that happening, but in essence, that also describes the concept or theory of uniformitarianism, that all things continue today, as they did in the past from the very beginning, in the beginning of creation.

Now, when evolutionists look at the ocean, when they look at millions of fossils, when they look at the formation of coal, when they look at seashells on top of mountains, when they look at deep canyons and small rivers, like the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, for example, and when they look at dried-up lake beds, when they look at thrust-up mountaintops, they decide and declare that it all came about by the same gentle processes and natural forces that we see operating on the earth today.

What does the Apostle Paul say in regards to all things continuing as they were from the beginning of creation? 2 Peter 3 verse 5. For this they willfully forget that by the word of God, the heavens that were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and the perdition or as a destruction of ungodly men. So Peter says they willfully forget that what we see today, geographically speaking, came about as a result of a catastrophe. It was the result of Noah's flood.

Now in the case of Noah's flood, there would have been numerous catastrophic eruptions, volcanic eruptions, similar to the eruption of Mount St. Helens that would have occurred probably all over the earth, both in the oceans and on land.

What geographic changes resulted from the eruption of Mount St. Helens. That's what this video will show. It will show that all these things that evolutionists say took thousands of years or millions of years happened within a very, very brief, short period of time when Mount St. Helens erupted. They're going to cover five or six things in this video. First question, the first thing I'm going to cover, did the eruption of Mount St. Helens result in rapid strata formation, which evolutionists say took millions of years? The theory of uniformitarianism says that strata formation took base very slowly over millions of years. It didn't happen rapidly. But this DVD of the eruption of Mount St. Helens will show how it can happen extremely rapidly, as we'll see. Did the eruption of Mount St. Helens result in rapid erosion?

Rapid erosion, which eroded and formed canyons over 500 and 600 feet deep through solid rock, which evolutionists say took millions of years?

But did that happen in eruption of Mount St. Helens in a matter of days?

So here's a question to ponder. Did the Colorado River erode away and form the Grand Canyon, as evolutionists would have us believe? Or did the Grand Canyon result in the formation of the Colorado River because of the catastrophic destruction of a natural land barrier of a lake? In other words, was the lake breached to form the Colorado River because of a volcanic eruption that occurred? Well, we don't know, but that certainly could happen. We'll see how that happened in the result in the case of Mount St. Helens. The DVD will show how a canyon and a river can be formed very rapidly by a volcanic eruption.

Number three that I'll show and look at is what do logs and log deposits of Spirit Lake tell us? You know, when Mount St. Helens erupted, tens of thousands of logs floated on Spirit Lake after that eruption. I mean, there's simply close to a million logs. What do those logs tell us when it comes to replanted and petrified forests, which evolutionists say took millions of years to form?

What do they tell us in regards to catastrophe versus uniformitarianism? Fourth thing the DVD will show is how long does it take for coal to form? Uniformitarianism and evolution says it takes many, many thousands of years, or many years, many years, maybe thousands of years. Coal is formed from peat, from the woody tissue of ancient plants, and from sheets of bark. And evolution tells us coal was formed over the course of tens or hundreds of thousands of years from swamps.

But the tens of thousands of logs on Spirit Lake, after the eruption of Mount St. Helens, as you'll see in the video, they had no bark. They had no bark. What happened to all the bark? Where'd it go? It went to the bottom of Spirit Lake, and it formed peat very rapidly, which is the first process for the formation of coal, established, which happened very rapidly in just a matter of years.

And I already covered this a little year ago, so I'm not going to go into that, but they touch on what about biological recovery, how long does it take after a catastrophic eruption for biological recovery. I covered that last year in Pentecost, in my sermon titled, The Real Miracle of Pentecost. And you'll see here, biological recovery of Mount St. Helens has already taken place in just a matter of very few years. And finally, at the very end of the video, we were asked, what does the mountain teach us?

Now, in this video, I don't think they mentioned Harry Truman by name, but we all remember Harry Truman, the famous name. He had a cabin on Spirit Lake, and there were a lot of eruptions, small eruptions, before the major eruption that occurred on May 18th, a lot of warning earthquakes and so on, said they could erupt at any time. He was warned to leave, but he refused to leave. He refused to heed the warning, even though they were warning him that the volcano could erupt at any time because of all the little tremors and earthquakes that were occurring.

So he died prematurely because he refused to heed those warnings. So one thing the eruption Mount St. Helens teaches us is that we should heed serious warnings. Like the warning that Christ gives us in Matthew 24. This is my final scripture. Matthew chapter 24, where Christ gives us a warning in reference to His return. Matthew 24 verse 36. But of that day and hour, referring to His return, of that day and hour, no one knows. Not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, also will also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days of Noah, just before the flood, just before the flood came, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving a marriage until the day that Noah had been. And they did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will it be in the coming of the Son of Man. The Greek authors say, where is the promise of His coming? He's never going to return. These things are never going to happen, but someday they will. So we'd better prepare now for that eventuality. So the 1980 eruption Mount St. Helens has become known, to scientists, creation scientists anyway, it's become known that eruption Mount St. Helens has become known as God's gift to creationists. Because it proves all of what I just mentioned can happen very rapidly as a result of a catastrophe such as Noah's flood.

That those things do not require tens of thousands or millions of years as evolution and the theory of uniformitarianism would have us believe. In conclusion, and for the second half of the split sermon today, we'll play the DVD Mount St. Helens Modern Day Evidence for the Worldwide Flood by geologist Dr. Steve Austin. As I mentioned, to be effective, it needs to be seen, needs to be viewed, not just heard. And for that reason, and also to avoid the possibility of any copyright infringements, we're not going to webcast the audio of the DVD and we'll not post it on our local website either, because we don't want to violate any infringements of copyright infringements. But it can be ordered for a cost of about $15 to $20 or less by going to any of the following websites floodgeologyscience.com. That's awesome media. I have awesome science media production of it. floodgeologyseries.com. Or you can go to icr.org. That's the Institute for Creation Research's website. Or you can go to Amazon. Maybe get a used copy of it for less. And again, the title they actually give the title I just mentioned is on the on the cover of the of the DVD. But the actual they give a subtitle in the video. It's slightly different than that for some reason. But if you go use that title, Mount St. Helens, the modern day evidence for the worldwide flood, you can find that DVD if you want, if a person wants to order it, because we're not going to be showing it or webcasting it of the audio and we're not going to post it on our website. So after a him and announcements, special music, we'll then play the video. It's about 36 minutes. Right now we'll have another him and then announcements and special music.