The ocean-bed scan of the Gulf of Mexico, revealed a crater with high walls.  Walls that had been thrown up by the asteroid impact—walls containing animal remains that lived back at that time.  But the most interesting part for me was the report of a sulfur compound that occurred as a result of the impact, creating a fire that burned all through the skies for a lengthy amount of time, and covered the atmosphere of the entire earth--obliterating the sun.   Killing life on earth.  All at once.  The asteroid hit, plant life and the dinosaurs died at the same time.  The earth was darkened.

Subsequent discoveries have authenticated that event. The entire earth was shaken, the burning sulfuric atmosphere blotted out the sun, and sixty six million years ago almost everything that was on land died.

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep…” Finally, we know scientifically how it got that way. The Biblical account is validated.  

Eventually, the fire and residue in the atmosphere burned out, the debris settled, and the sun shone through again--that sun that was already there in the heavens. God didn’t have to “recreate” it.  The sun had been created in the first verse in Genesis. “…God created the heavens…” That light, the sun, had allowed plant life to grow in the dinosauric ages. And that same sun allowed the food chain to flourish--from those animals that ate plants all the way up to the largest animals who were carnivores. 

“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”  You can’t move on the face of something that isn’t there.

Furthermore, the word void suggests that the earth had at one time contained something.  Something that is no longer here—thus, we have a void.  The entire second verse in the Bible is about disruption.  How could the earth of an all-powerful God who created it become a place that was empty, formless, dark and void?  A dichotomy.  What happened between verse one, and verse two?

That’s the part God doesn’t tell us about in the Biblical account.  That’s where strata comes in. 

I recently watched a documentary on television that used a process of underwater scanning to discover events that had taken place in the past.  The program was called “Draining the Oceans.”

One of the episodes concerned the discovery of an impact crater under the water. A crater left by an asteroid which hit the earth sixty-six million years ago--at exactly the same time all of the dinosaurs vanished.  I’m not going to go into how they date such events—this book isn’t about Organic Chemistry. Suffice to say that with carbon dating—the half-life of carbon decay—it can be done with an acceptable degree of accuracy.  Also, strata, and ice core examinations support the time line. 

2. The second source of information concerning that sudden disappearance of what was living on earth is the Biblical source, and it is more subtle.  In the very first verse of the Bible, it says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  But in the second verse of Genesis, God describes that this perfect earth he had created had been destroyed.  He says it this way, “And the earth was void, without form, and darkness was on the face of the deep.”   He is not describing something he "created." 

Obviously, something must have happened between verse one and verse two. Creative works are perfect.  God created the heavens and the earth.  All of it.  He didn’t create an void, dark, formless mass as is described in Genesis 1:2.  

When those long-ago animals existed, there had to be a food chain.  Starting with plants.  Plants have to have sunlight.  The sun was there at that time .  Also, there was water.  The Bible implies that there was water on earth before the destruction between verse one and two, because verse two says that there was darkness on the face of the “deep.”  

Water, “the deep,” already existed on the earth when verse two was written.  God had created “the deep” in verse one along with everything else because in verse two it says, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”  You can’t move on the face of something that isn’t there.

And then, suddenly, the dinosaurs all disappeared.  Abruptly.  All at once. Not over time; no, they disappeared in an instant.  How could that happen?  What occurred to wipe out almost all life on the surface of the earth, but allow almost all creatures that were in the waters to survive?

Dinosaurs gone.  Land life extinguished.  In an instant.  We are able to glean knowledge about that disappearance from two, and only two sources.

1.  The first source is strata deposits--in which there are fossils of  creatures that were once alive laid down in layer upon layer of sediment.  And in those layers, there are thousands and thousands of deposits of multitudes of different kinds of animals that no longer exist. You can’t deny strata; strange animals once existed.  And they disappeared all at once.  Instantly. 

Additionally, in ice cores, scientists can date, and trace through the layers in the ice cores from present day, back through millennia.  They can identify catastrophes, volcanic deposits of ash that traveled through the atmosphere, tsunamis, temperature changes and other phenomenon which occurred on earth through millions and millions of years.  Layer by layer, preserved deep in the ice.  Ice core Strata.

2. The second--and only other--source of information concerning that sudden disappearance of what was living on earth is the Biblical source...

I pray that all of you will have a blessed day.  I know that for some of you, there will be sadness for those who have gone on, but have joy in the moment knowing they are  with the one who's birth we celebrate today.

Merry Christmas.

When the first words of the Bible were written, this word create (bara in the Hebrew) was used to describe something unique.  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  We are given nothing more than that.

 God didn’t share what, or who, he put on that earth way back then.  Or how He did it. The Bible simply says that He created two things.  The heavens.  And the earth.  Out of nothing.  And both the heavens and the earth were created complete and perfect in every way.  Nothing was missing.  

I personally wish God would have told us more about that world, but He didn’t.  Scientifically, we know that millions of years ago, in that long-ago past world that He created, there were animals that are totally different than those we know today.  Their bones, as fossils, are preserved in the strata deposits of the earth. Animals died, were covered up with dirt, and preserved.  Layered from top to the bottom of the strata.  Sixty-six million years ago.

There they are.  Those animals existed.  They are preserved for us.  Real animals.   You can touch them, pick up their bones and know that at one time there were many different kinds of creatures on earth that no longer exist, and they were rampantly abundant.  And then, suddenly, they all disappeared.  Abruptly.  All at once. Not over time; no, they disappeared in an instant.  How could that happen?  What occurred to wipe out almost all life on the earth, except for life that existed in the waters--oceans and seas?

I started with a couple of classes in Chemistry, and Comparative anatomy—I cut, dissected, pinned and identified arteries, veins, muscles, breathing systems and organs.  My poor family, husband and four children, endured me repeating every lecture to them each evening at the supper table.  They weren’t nearly as excited about what I had learned as I was.

Organic Chemistry, Entomology—where I spent a semester identifying all the different structures of bugs.  Incidentally, if you sprinkle Borax powder along the baseboards of your kitchen, you don’t need toxic bug spray.  Roaches and other critters you bring in from the grocery store—sometimes in sacks of potatoes--will lick their feet when they step on the Borax powder and die.  Borax is a simple cleaning agent.  Sweep it up, or mop the floor with it.

I finally ended up with some basic knowledge about Zoology, which didn't mean I knew nearly enough--I had only scraped the surface.  I read every book I could get my hands on.  I attended every lecture within driving distance on the subject of evolution, kept taking classes, taught mathematics on a college campus for twenty years,  and did a bit of advanced statistics.  Statistics don’t lie.  It was helpful to know what was actually statistically possible in our universe, and what wasn’t.  The more I learned, the more convinced I was of the truth of the book of Genesis.  And I set out to put that book in context with true scientific knowledge--beginning with three words.  Create.  Make, and Let.  (Continued.)