Daily Devotional - January 18

Christian Truth

God commanded us to “have dominion over [creation].” The original word translated as “dominion” means to study, understand, and control. This is the essence of science. So do you want to be a science detective? First, let’s define science. There are two broad categories of science:  operational and historical.

Operational (or observational) science is the type of science that one might do in a laboratory. It is about experiments that are repeatable. For example, at sea level, water will always boil at the same temperature:  212 degrees F. Operational science builds stuff like rockets, smart phones and other inventions.

Historical science deals with what happened in the past. No scientist has a time machine. No scientist can go back into the past to perform experiments. The past cannot be directly observed or tested, so interpretations are involved. For example, suppose a dinosaur fossil is dug up. How long ago did it live? We don’t know for sure. But Christians have an eye-witness report through which to interpret the present. God is the eye-witness, and He recorded it in the Bible. There was a great Flood, and this flood would have recently buried the dinosaurs that would have rapidly become fossils. But this is still historical science.

So, when you go on vacation to places like Yellowstone National Park, you will see signs such as, “Over the course of 16.5 million years, approximately 15-20 massive eruptions have left immense calderas (craters) to dot the landscape…”, have fun separating interprtation/historical science (millions of years) from observation/operational science (immense calderas). Remember, it is only the observable that can be tested. All else is opinion, based on starting beliefs. Spend your next vacation being a science detective!

…have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

~ Genesis 1:28b

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

Daily Devotional - January 17

Biology

How do fish swim in murky water or schools without running into each other? It’s the fish’s lateral line. On either side of the fish, running from the gills to the tail, is a line of small pores that are filled with hairs (neuromasts). These sensory hairs pick up very tiny vibrations and pressure changes traveling through the water and convert them to electrical impulses that are sent to the brain. With a line of many hair clusters (neuromasts) picking up information at different points on the lateral line, the fish has the ability to figure out what is happening around it.

Scientists have successfully copied the fish’s lateral line and hope to install them on submersibles and other underwater vehicles. These scientists used great engineering skills to develop this new technology. It would be an insult to their intelligence to say their artificial lateral line happened by accident and chance. Then why would we say the fish’s lateral line happened by accident and chance? It was created by the Great Engineer Himself, God. So the next time you pick up a fish, look for the lateral line (on some fish it is hard to see) and praise the Great Engineer for His great design.

Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?

~ Job 12:8-9

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

Daily Devotional - January 16

History

Since the discovery of their bones in the 1800’s, Neanderthals have been presented as ignorant, evolving, humanoid ancestors to modern man. Yet over the last few decades, anthropologists have discovered that Neanderthals demonstrated sophisticated human behavior. For example, they traded jewelry, made cosmetics, developed sophisticated glues, cooked with utensils and spices, and had grave rituals. Creationists have long taught that Neanderthals were just post-Babel, fully-human descendants of Adam and Eve. They were nomadic hunters with sophisticated javelins living in shelters of hides on wooden frames and occasionally in caves.

The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has recently found and analyzed a specialized bone tool used in leather working at two French Neanderthal sites. Microscopic analysis of the tools revealed wear and tear consistent with today’s tools used to make supple, lustrous hides. In other words, Neanderthals were also great leatherworkers! Once again, science is confirming the biblical viewpoint. Neanderthals were not some primitive, subhuman creature, but fully human nomads in Europe that lived a rugged life during the Ice Age.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

~ Psalm 90:2

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

Daily Devotional - January 15

Biology

Did platypuses evolve in Australia? There are two monotremes (mammals that lay eggs) in Australia - the platypus and the echidna. These animals have all the normal characteristics of mammals (backbone, hair, milk glands), yet they lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. We only find platypuses and echidnas in Australia. So how did they get there?

Noah took two of each kind on the Ark, which landed in the Middle East (Mt. Ararat). Echidnas and platypuses spread out to various parts of the world, yet it seems they only survived in Australia. During the Ice Age, the interior of Australia would have been well-watered and very lush, allowing the platypus and echidna to spread out and fill Australia. Only after the Ice Age ended did the enormously dry Australian desert areas develop. When the sea levels rose at the end of the Ice Age, Australia was cut off from Asia, isolating its unique animal life on this very big island.

Did platypuses evolve? Fossil platypuses are essentially identical to modern platypuses; no transitional forms have been found. The Bible says God created fully formed land animals on Day 6 of Creation week. When we look with our “biblical” glasses, we can understand why platypuses are found in Australia.

Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

~ Genesis 8:17

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

Daily Devotional - January 14

Paleontology

News flash: Fossilized squid ink used in modern ink pen! Recently in Wiltshire, UK, a fossilized ink sac was removed from a squid fossil. The dried ink was ground up, mixed with an ammonia solution, and used to draw a picture of the extinct squid with its Latin name written underneath. How could a soft and sloppy ink sac fossilize? How could it still be black? Evolutionary dating puts it at 150 million years old. No protein structure could survive that long!

Obviously, this squid was not slowly covered with sediment over millions of years; it had to be covered recently, rapidly, and deeply in order to preserve such a find. The worldwide Flood of Noah’s time (about 4400 years ago) is a far better explanation for the preservation of this fossil squid ink.

And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

~ Genesis 6:13

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

Daily Devotional - January 4

History

When we hear the word “cavemen,” we often think of primitive people wearing bear skin clothing and carrying wooden clubs. In fact, people have lived in caves throughout history; some even live in caves today. In the Yellow River region of China, some 20 million people are still living in caves. These caves are carved out of silty soil and are packed so hard that they do not need support. The caves usually measure 10 feet by 13 feet and extend 20 to 25 feet into the hillside. They are warm in the winter and cool during the hot summer. They have many modern comforts such as plumbing, electricity, and even cable television. Caves are a great place to live, to which 20 million Chinese can attest. Are these people primitive? Hardly! Based purely on evolutionary ideas, people assume that humans who lived in caves were primitive brutes. In chapter 10 of Genesis we find the account of the tower of Babel. As people migrated across the earth, some sought shelter in caves as they built more permanent homes. Today we often find their archeological remains in caves. Neanderthal man is one such example. The fact that they lived in caves did not make them primitive; it is just another housing choice.

Then he came there to a cave and lodged there…

~ 1 Kings 19:9

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

Daily Devotional - January 3

Geology

Imagine that you drive into a deserted town and happen to stop at a closed restaurant. You go around to the back of the building and peer in the window, and there on the kitchen counter is a stack of food-encrusted plates. By looking at the plates, you really cannot know how long they have been there nor can you know how much time passed between the placing of the first plate at the bottom of the stack and the plate located at the top of the stack. It could have been mere seconds from the placing of the first plate until the placing of the last plate. Or perhaps the stack was made on a weekend or the dishwasher had a day off and days passed between the placement of the plate at the bottom of the stack and the placement of the final plate at the top of the stack. The stack itself reveals nothing about the time frame – only that the bottom plate was deposited first and the top plate was deposited last.

In a similar way, the geologic layers of the earth, in no way, prove an enormous age for the earth. The sedimentary layers are very much like this stack of plates. They simply reveal which plates (layers) were laid down first during the worldwide flood of Noah and which plates (layers) were laid down during the final stages. The geological column is the record of what was laid down during the year-long Flood of Noah’s time, not how old the layers are.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
~ Proverbs 1:7

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett