Science and Biblical History

My little brother recently purchased a payloader. I am excited about his new “toy” because I am hoping he will let me “play” with it. He also has a road grader that I would like to play with as well. I have already played with his backhoe. When we were kids, we played with Tonka toys like that, but his “toys” are real.
-
It is amazing how much dirt you can move with heavy equipment, but then I think of God and his power. How many payloaders and how many years would it take to dig the Grand Canyon? I personally think that canyon was made in just a matter of days. Scientists and historians believe that the canyon was carved by water over many many years, but let us not forget that water once covered the entire earth during Noah’s flood.
-
“And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.” (Genesis 7:19-20)
-
It has been a while since we have had a real gully washer here in northern Iowa, but there is a reason that we call them gully washers. Even a 3 inch rain coming quickly can carve a pretty good gully out in a field.
-
Still there is a big difference between a two foot gully and a canyon that is 18 miles wide and a mile deep. There is also a big difference between a 3 inch rain and water covering the whole earth. Consider what happened at the end of Noah’s flood. “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.” (Genesis 8:1-3)
-
That much water running off the earth could form some pretty good gullies. However, we do not know exactly what happened. I do not even know for certain that this is how the Grand Canyon was formed, but when we look at science and Biblical history, we realize that it is a possibility to consider.
-
What if all of the water did not run down at the same time? What if much of the water that formed the Grand Canyon was actually held in a huge lake and the outlet to that lake began to erode until a huge torrent of water suddenly broke loose?
-
We actually have a modern day example of this sort of thing happening on a much smaller scale. After Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980 water was released from Spirit Lake on that Mountain and it showed amazing power in carving out new patterns in the landscape.
-
Now imagine the whole earth saturated by the waters of a flood. The flood waters have recently receded but the ground is still saturated and prone to erosion. Suddenly there is a huge earthquake that releases the water of a sea that covers much of North America. That water goes gushing down into what is now the Southwest United States and a grand canyon is formed.
-
Of course what I just wrote is only a theory, but it is a reminder that scientific theory and Biblical history do not have to be enemies.