Category Archives: Existence of God

Bring to mind, please, a tree which you have admired: a tall tree – a monarch of the forest, perhaps. There it stands, a magnificent specimen, towering against the sky.

Now, if you please, imagine that you must climb that tree to the very top, with a 60-pound pack on your back. As soon as you reach the top, you must leave your burden and descend, only to start up all over again with a fresh load. Furthermore, you must climb this tree 12 times during the day. And you must make a similar number of trips up the tree every day in the future.

That assignment would quickly wear down the strongest man, wouldn’t it? Fortunately, no one is likely to give any of us such an order. But our imaginary task is no more than the actual task which the tree itself must perform every day, if it is to live and thrive.

The weight which every tree must lift is water, and it can amount to quite a lot. A large birch tree, for instance, requires about 90 gallons of water per day in the growing season. That means lifting 720 pounds up to 100 feet or more – or, in the case of the really tall tress, up to 300 feet or more.

We would grunt and groan a good deal if we had to carry such a load, but trees manage the task very efficiently and quietly. How do they do it? Scientists have pondered that question for many years, but they really don’t know the answer.

Four possible solutions have been investigated. First, the water might be pushed up from below, either by “root pressure” or by capillarity (which is the tendency of water to rise in very thin tubes, or capillaries). But neither root pressure nor capillarity can provide anywhere near enough force to push a water column to the top of tall trees.

The second possibility would be that the leaves at the top of the tree suck up the water from the roots. But such suction pressure is limited by atmospheric pressure, and can only lift a column of water about 33 feet.

A third possibility might be that trees raise the water by stages, with cells acting as miniature pumping stations. But this was found to be just an empty idea when an experimenter introduced picric acid into the water vessels in tress. This poisonous substance, which would have killed the cells as it rose, thus shutting down their supposed pumping capacity, did not stop the continued ascent of the tainted water.

Scientists studying the problem know of only one other possible mechanism, and that is the force with which water molecules cling to each other. This force, called “cohesion,” has been measured, and was found to be more than adequate to lift water to the top of the tallest tree. In this theory, as water is evacuated from leaves into the surrounding air, it exerts a cohesive tug on the column of water stretching down the twig and branch to the trunk and thence to the root. It is the best answer science has been able to come up with.

But this solution also has grave problems. For one thing, it depends upon the water column being continuous from leaf to root. But experiments have not verified that this is the case, for very often gaps have been found in the water columns.

Another very serious objection came to light when it was found that if a tree trunk is sawed more than half-way through, and then sawed again, a foot or so above or below this cut, but from the other side, the tree continues to live though it ought to die. Theoretically, all its water vessels have been severed, but the tree may not even wilt. (“Plants and Water”, J. Sutcliffe, Edward Arnold Ltd., London, 1968, p. 75.) The tree will, of course, have to be braced for much of its support has been destroyed.

It all comes down to this: After a century of study by some of the finest minds in the scientific community, no one really knows how a tree waters its leaves. The tree applies principles which continue to defy man’s understanding. Yet trees have no mind at all with which to organize their components. Can it be that non-intelligence can create such living wonders as we see trees to be? Impossible! The trees have not created themselves! They were obviously designed by a very great intelligence. We call that intelligence God.

Wisdom is one of God’s chief characteristics. As the Bible says: “By wisdom Yahweh [that is, God] founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens.” (Proverbs 3:19)

But God is much more than Intelligence. “God is light” (1 John 1:5), the Bible says, and this speaks of his holiness. God is also a “consuming fire” (Hebrew 12:29), and this refers to His role as Judge over all the earth. Finally, and best of all, the Bible says “God is love” (1 John 4:8). In God’s love, mercy is added to judgment, and salvation is offered to the world, through His Son, Christ Jesus.

It is true that only God could make a tree. It is equally true that only God can give us hope and peace and forgiveness.

(Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Most of the time, the Norway lemming is one of the most ordinary creatures you could imagine. It is only when his generation sets its mind on moving that the lemming becomes out of the ordinary.

Norway lemmings are shy little rodents which inhabit the waste spaces of northern Scandinavia. They like to feed upon roots or shoots, or tender twigs, or grass: whatever vegetation is at hand. They raise their families in the summer time and, like all small animals, try their best to avoid predators.

As long as things go on like this, the normal routines of life and occasional violent death occupy their colonies in the alpine meadows. But about every fourth year, unusual things begin to happen, and build to a climax that ends in the mass destruction of many thousands of lemmings.

The onset of what are called “lemming years” is first signaled by a major change in breeding patterns. Instead of two annual litters of about 5 each, female lemmings produce four litters of 6 to 8 each. This very nearly trebles the population in a very short time, without any commensurate increase in available food. By Autumn, the animals are no longer shy, as they are driven by hunger to gather food where and whenever they can find it.

Eventually, something tells the lemmings that it is time to migrate. In Scandinavia the mass movements always start from one of five regions, and follow old paths to the same goals. In the far north of Norway, for instance, the goal appears always to be either the Lofoten Islands to the northwest, or the Gulf of Bothnia to the southwest.

Once begun, a strange “migration fixation” comes over the scurrying horde. Though scarcity of food triggered the migration, after the flood of lemmings has reached ample food supplies in the lower valleys they will not turn aside nor slow the march in order to fill their stomachs.

Nor do they allow obstacles to turn them from their appointed course. Even though they are not good swimmers, the leading animals plunge recklessly into swift rivers, urged on by ceaseless pressure from the following ranks. Thousands often perish in such crossings, but the rest push on heedlessly.

Neither do the migrating lemmings make any effort to evade the onslaughts of wolves and other carnivores, including legions of predator birds, which swarm to the feasting grounds. Indeed, nothing stops the lemming’s advance, as long as there are lemmings left, until they reach the sea. And when that happens, the remnant of the horde keeps right on marching into the fatal waters. Rarely are there more than a few survivors.

Back on their home grounds, the lemming population is gradually built up again by the few who did not emigrate. Lemmings will be scarce for a year or two, but after another four years there is usually once again a population explosion, and the migration is repeated.

There are puzzling aspects to this periodic pattern of self-destruction. We noted, for example, that the condition is largely brought about by a sudden increase in the number of young produced. Thus, the migrations are not simply a unique method of handling a problem of surplus numbers. If lemmings had “evolved” this solution, they would have been better served had they omitted the spurt in breeding during “lemming years.” It makes no evolutionary sense.

The fact is that no one knows what causes the periodic massive jump in numbers, nor why they behave so strangely while on the march. They respond to orders that we can neither detect nor comprehend, and which seem in some ways to be harmful rather than helpful to the species. Nevertheless, the system works: The over-all population of lemmings (and the consequent numbers of predators) remains in balance with their environment.

It should be sufficient for us that Someone understands, and has the situation well in hand. We can rest assured that the One who created lemmings and established the pattern for their generations is well able to see to their needs… and to ours also. God Himself tells us in the Bible that, ““… my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” says Yahweh [that is, God]. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The Bible also assures us that this God, whose thoughts and deeds are incalculably beyond us, is also the Preserver and the Rock of refuge for His children in time of trouble. How comforting this is! How wonderful to know that when we reach the limits of our understanding, or strength, or resources, God’s power to help is yet unlimited. Let us draw near with our hearts to this God of all!

(Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

The thousands of sportsmen and commercial fishermen who take salmon from northern Pacific waters generally pay scant attention to the circumstances that make their harvest possible. They are more interested in the catching and eating than they are in studying the life-cycle of this large, handsome fish. Yet, accompanying each mature salmon making its way back to the creek or pool in which it was spawned are mysteries so great we can only term them miraculous.

Consider, if you will, that as infants those same fish swam as much as hundreds of miles downstream to the ocean. Then as they grew up they traversed thousands of miles of open sea. And, according to their species, they may be gone for as little as a year, or as long as four years. Pink salmon return to spawn after 12 to 14 months, having traveled some 3,000 to 4,000 miles at sea. Sockeye salmon repeat a 2,000-mile circuit every year for three years before heading inland to their spawning grounds. And Chinook salmon may be at sea for four years before turning toward home. (The incredible Salmon, Clarence P. Idyll, The National Geographic, Vol. 134, No. 2, August, 1968, p. 202)

Regardless of how long they have been gone, or where they are when they receive the mysterious biological signal that it is time to breed, the salmon follow a precise time schedule. Though they may approach the home estuary from a hundred different compass points, and be as much as 1,200 miles away when the call comes, almost all healthy salmon of the same species arrive within a three-week period. One such run, estimated at 50 million Sockeye salmon, gathered within that three-week period in Alaska’s Bristol Bay every year of a recent 10-year survey.

But their sense of timing is only one of the mysteries concerning salmon. Perhaps a greater mystery is how they find their way back across the trackless ocean to the correct estuary, and then up-river, taking only the correct forks, until the tiny tributary which will return them to the place of their birth is reached. How do they do it?

Strangely enough, the answer seems to be: they smell their way home! It is hard to believe that the odor of the “home pool” could persist through successive dilutions of the confluences of the waters, from creeks to streams to small rivers to major rivers, and at last to the ocean itself. Nevertheless, if salmon are deprived of their sense of smell, they are utterly unable to locate the correct stream from the several choices they must make. Researchers have tested this by removing the olfactory organs from a number of salmon and then releasing them. No longer were they able to “sniff” their way up the scent trail. (Water, the Wonder of Life, Rutherford Platt, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., p. 188)

The baby salmon are imprinted with the smell of their birth waters within about a week of hatching, and they never forget it. This odor is a composite derived from decaying roots and other plant life, plus living and dead insects in the water, and finally, dissolved mineral crystals from sand and pebbles lining the bottom. The particular “mix” is unique for each location, and while we might not be able to tell the difference, the salmon rarely miss.

Still another mystery is what motivates these fish to struggle against swift currents, sometimes leaping 8 or 9 feet in the air to clear waterfalls or climb fish ladders, exhausting and often battering themselves for the privilege of propagating the next generation, and then dying – for unlike other fish, including its Atlantic cousin, the Pacific salmon invariably dies shortly after breeding.

We are left with several questions: How can Salmon find the path, even out in the wide ocean? How do they know when the time has come to go home? And why will only their birthplace do for their spawning bed, when hundreds of similar sites are available, many of them closer than their own?

Science can only suggest answers. The odor of the natal spawning beds are believed to remain detectable even when mingled with 10,000 other smells and diluted in the vast ocean. The time signal is thought to be sent by hormones operating in the body. And the powerful homing instinct that can only be satisfied by the waters of each fish’s nativity is believed to be somehow connected to a survival trait in the species.

We will not say that these answers are far-fetched. But they do, on sober reflection, seem to require greater miracles than the one simple miracle of divine creation. God can make anything happen, including showing the salmon its path toward home, and motivating it to fulfill its function in life.

God cad also show man his pathway to his proper heavenly home. As the Bible says: “You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

Furthermore, this path of life for man includes illumination of our purpose in existing. The Bible also states that “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

So what God does routinely for the salmon, He is desirous of doing for us. But if we would indeed be guided by God, we must first obey the instinctive signal built into each of us that it is time to turn toward “home” – that is, heaven. Let us seek our God!

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

The shell of a coconut is one of the hardest substances in the plant kingdom. Almost anyone who has ever tried to open one will testify to that fact. But inside that tough shell is rich, tempting food and the “meat” of the coconut is desired by man and beast.

However, very few beasts have either the ingenuity or the tools to be able to harvest the coconut meat. One which is able to enjoy coconut meals is the Robber Crab – also called, very appropriately, the Coconut Crab – of the Southwestern Pacific and Indian Ocean shore-lands. The way in which the Robber Crab secures its dinner displays several marvels of adaptation, as we shall see.

There are tales around South Pacific islands of Robber Crabs climbing tall coconut trees to knock the delicious nuts loose, but his seems to be an exaggeration. These big crabs actually can climb trees, but no one has actually seen one ascend high enough to reach the coconuts. Instead, they make their meals upon fallen nuts.

And this is the way a Robber Crab goes about piercing the coconut shell: He first selects the end of the nut with the three “eyes” (which are not eyes, of course, but plugs in the casing). These plugs are quite hard, but not so hard as the rest of the shell. The crab then patiently tears away the outer protection fibers, exposing the brittle shell. Then the crab selects one of the “eyes” and begins steadily tapping it with his front pincers. These pincers are unusually large and heavy, so the crab is able to apply considerable force with its hammer-blows.

For some little while there seems to be no effect, but the crab is not dismayed. It knows that sooner or later the coconut fortress must crumble. And eventually that is what happens, as the repeated blows weaken the plug and finally break through.

Then the Robber Crab brings another specialized tool into play. Its hind pair of legs are not legs at all, but small pincers. The crab inserts one of these pincers into the hole it has opened and begins deftly extracting the precious white “meat.” Dinner has been a long time preparing, but now is served!

Altogether, it is a remarkable performance. Utilizing at least three specialized adaptations which perfectly fit the crab to its coconut diet: First, of course, is the instinct to eat coconuts. This includes not only recognition that inside the unappetizing husk is rich fare, but also the persistence needed to finally win through to the prize. Also, included is the awareness of the “eyes” as the weakest point to attack.

Secondly, the heavy pincers able to deliver hammer-blows, together with the necessary musculature to wield them, are vital adaptations. But the crowning adaptation is the substitution of an additional set of pincers for the back legs. Our crab carries both hammer and knife and fork!

So the Robber Crab is most excellently suited to its sphere. And we are entitled to ask how this came about. Did the crab design itself, or was some other agency responsible? Let us consider the circumstances: The crab could not develop an appetite for coconuts until it was able to achieve its goal. But it could never achieve its goal of feasting upon coconut meat until it could first open the shell and then extract the meat. But it could do neither of these things before its tools were perfected. Its hammer, for example, had to be not only heavy enough to be effective, but also hard enough to batter the shell without itself cracking. Even after the coconut was broken open, the crab’s efforts would still be in vain without the special pincers for cutting out bites of the meat. The frontal pincers are too bulky and cumbersome for this purpose.

So none of these arrangements could help the crab without the others. Neither could they have been effective in a supposed crude or incomplete “dawning” stage of development. The Robber Crab needs all of its powers fully developed in order to conquer its stubborn meal!

There is only one being capable of matching the diner to its dinner so aptly, and that being is God. It is Almighty God, the great Creator and provider who has done this work, and left it as a witness to Himself.

Let us hear the early prophet Job as he tells us that God does “marvelous things without number” (Job 5:9). “But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you…,” he advises (Job 12:7), and we have just seen that this is true.

Job further tells us that the evidences of God’s handiwork in nature “are but the outskirts of his ways” (Job 26:14), and this also is true. God wrought wonders in nature, but His crowning achievement is man – for God made man in His own image (Genesis 1:27), implanting a spark of His own divine nature in our flesh of clay.

When we sense a yearning in our hearts to know God, it is but a desire to claim our rightful heritage, for we were made to have fellowship with God. But long ago humans became twisted and deformed, so that as Jesus said, we must be “born anew” if we would see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3-5).

Let us rejoice that God has shown us a bit of His creative power, and let us develop a holy yearning to know Him better.

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Australia’s great kangaroos are marvels of nature. They hop like grasshoppers – only further; they eat grass like sheep – only better; they box like men – but never in anger; and they carry their young about in built-in nests that offer all the comforts of home.

An adult great gray kangaroo, for example, can jump 9 meters at one bound. (The record observed leap measured 13.5 meters!) When fleeing from danger, they attain speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour (almost 50 kilometers per hour). But if a kangaroo cannot outrun his pursuer, he heads for water if possible. Kangaroos have been known to sit in waist-deep water and drown pursuing dogs by holding their heads under water. But if there is not enough water around, a kangaroo will use the great claws on his hind feet as defensive weapons. And they can be deadly.

Australian sheep ranchers in some districts have found that raising sheep seems to be good for kangaroos. The more sheep a rancher has, the more kangaroos he will probably also have. This occurs because the sheep eat down the best of the grass but leave the poorer grass, which then takes over the range. Kangaroos thrive on the less succulent grass which the sheep spurn, so the land supports more and more kangaroos even as it can accommodate fewer and fewer sheep.

As for boxing, young kangaroos do this among themselves for sport. When they are trained to box with men, the trainer’s chief object is to make sure they don’t “forget themselves” and use their deadly feet.

But it is the kangaroo’s portable nursery which is its greatest marvel. To appreciate this nursery fully, we need to look at its occupant. If you had never seen or heard of kangaroos, but somehow had an opportunity to examine a just-born specimen, you couldn’t possibly imagine what the moist little lump would look like when it grew up.

That’s because kangaroos at birth resemble nothing so much as an extremely undeveloped fetus. They weigh only a gram or less (1/30th of an ounce!) and are only about 2 centimeters long. But more importantly, their limbs, are merely lumpish precursors of what they will become. The babies can neither see nor hear. They cannot even suck their mother’s milk.

But there is one well-developed part of the baby kangaroo – and that is fortunate indeed for it. The toes and claws of its front feet are needed immediately, for the baby must crawl from the womb exit up to its mother’s pouch – a distance many times its own length. Mother kangaroo watches intently during the three to five minutes this trip takes, but she will not intervene unless junior becomes unduly distressed.

Once in the warm pouch, junior squirms around until he finds one of the two milk-producing teats. When he takes this into his mouth, the end of the teat swells up, so that he could not get loose from it even if he wished. But that’s the last thing he wants! He wants food and warmth and shelter, and mother’s brood pouch supplies all of these. Mother kangaroo even has special muscles which pump the milk into her baby’s mouth.

In effect, junior has found a second womb in which to finish his development. It will be several months before he will be able to detach himself from the milk supply. By that time his weight will have increased more that 1,000-fold, to several kilograms. He will then sport a coat of soft fur, and he will look like a young kangaroo. He will also have developed a great curiosity about the outside world, so he’ll begin spending a lot of time with his head outside the pouch. When his mother stops to graze, he may hop out and nibble the grass himself. During this stage of growth he makes friends with other kangaroo youngsters, and he may even invite one home for a short visit, just as human children do.

Eventually, junior outgrows the pouch, but he will still return at lunch time for several more months. But when he’s ready, mother kangaroo lets him know it’s time to make his own way in the world. And by this time she needs the pouch for the next baby.

In fact, she’s had that next baby on the “back burner” for quite some time. Kangaroos normally mate again shortly after giving birth, even though the mother’s pouch is needed by the prior occupant well beyond the usual 30 to 40-day gestation period. But thanks to a special provision, the new fetus stops developing at an early stage and just quietly waits until the mother can give undivided attention to the new baby. When the way is clear, some mysterious signal is sent, and the fetus resumes development.

There are a number of features about the rearing of young kangaroos that make us realize that an intelligent Creator arranged it all. The undeveloped fetus and the “second womb” dovetail much too neatly to be accident. It would be ridiculous to argue that need forced the evolution of this arrangement, for the mother’s needs and baby’s needs are very different. In fact , the needs here are all on the infant’s side. The mother had no biological need to equip a nursery for her offspring. But even if a lengthy succession of kangaroo mothers felt so inclined, they wouldn’t know how to go about it. That needed a Master Designer and an All-Powerful Arranger.

More proof of prior planning is revealed by the sped-up development of the infant’s front toes, enabling it to reach the pouch. The swelling of the teat inside the baby’s mouth, and especially the mother’s ability to pump milk into it, add to this proof. Each generation of infants would have died without these provisions.

The crowning proof of God’s design is the arrested development of the next baby until the earlier one is ready for independence. The overruling urge of life, one commenced, is to grow to maturity. Once the egg is fertilized, nothing can stop its development but death. That is the universal norm. But here is an exception. The kangaroo egg is fertilized; it begins the normal process of reproducing by cell division, until about the 100-cell stage is reached. At this point it just stops, like a train on a siding. Then, when the “all-clear” signal comes, it gets back on th main track just as if nothing had happened. This could never be a “learned” response. It had to be built into kangaroos from the beginning.

So we see that yet again, the beasts of the earth teach us about God, as Job told mankind long ago, “Who doesn’t know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh [that is, God] has done this…” (Job 12:9) But Job also knew that it is never enough merely to acknowledge God as Creator. He went on to say of God: “in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind” (verse 10).

God controls whether we live or die. In His hand is our very breath. Thus it is vital that we know what God is like – whether He is cruel and vindictive, or anxious to be a loving Father to us. We need to know how to approach Him, and how to please Him. And God has been pleased to give us this information, in a book we call the Bible. It tells us about God, and about ourselves. It tells us also about God’s only begotten Son, and why he came to earth to die. It tells us how we may become sons and daughters of God, through belief in His Son. It is truly the most important book in the world. But it reveals its riches only to those who truly seek.

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Can you imagine a snake wearing spectacles? And, if a snake did wear spectacles, how on earth would it keep them properly pushed up on its nose? Yet snakes do wear spectacles. Every single snake that has ever lived has worn them, and every snake in the foreseeable future will wear them.

Obviously, we are not talking about spectacles manufactured out of glass or plastic, with frames and ear-pieces, such as humans often wear. Instead, the snake’s spectacles are transparent scales which are part of their skin. They really are called “spectacles” or “lenses.” These scales fit so snugly over their eyes that normally an observer cannot see them at all.

When the snake is ready to shed its skin, the old skin – including the spectacle-scales over the eyes – separates from the new skin formed beneath, and an oily liquid fills the space between. The snake’s eyes at this time appear to have a blueish-white film over them, and the snake is blind.

The tough transparent covers over its eyes are only of several striking ways in which snakes are uniquely equipped to live with their physical limitations. Did you know, for example, that snakes hear through their jaw-bones, and through their lungs? They have no external ears, not even openings in the skin leading to their inner ears. Instead, ground vibrations are transmitted through the jaw-bone to other bones on the skull, and thence to the inner ears. They can detect even the pitter-patter of tiny mouse feet in this way.

But snakes can also hear sounds that move only through the air, by means of a special nerve in their lung chambers. Tests have shown that snakes can hear people speaking softly as far as ten feet away.

Of course, a snake’s most obvious adaptation to its circumstances answers the question of how it gets about. Having no legs, it can only slither. But how does it slither? Chiefly by advancing several of its approximately 200 pairs of ribs and their attached abdominal plates at the same time. As these plates gain a purchase on the ground, the next section of ribs and plates advances in turn and anchors, allowing the leading section to move on again. This advance-and-hold sequence is repeated down the full length of the snake. If we could see the snake’s bare skeleton as it moved forward we might be reminded of the rows of of oars in ancient ships, as they moved back and forth in concerted motion. Cumbersome as this motion seems, some snakes can cover the ground quite rapidly, and a few can even climb trees.

Since snakes cannot hold their food up to their mouths, as we hold a sandwich, the only way they can eat is by “wolfing” their food in one piece. To make this possible, their teeth are curved to the rear, and their jaws are segmented so that they can be pushed forward over the prey independently.

If you were to watch closely as a snake swallows a rat, you would see one side of the lower jaw inch forward over the rat’s body and establish a anchor point. Then the other side of the lower jaw would advance on its side, followed in sequence by the upper jaw. In this way the jaws seem to “walk” over the snake’s meal.

Sometimes the meal is considerably bigger than the normal opening of the snake’s jaws, but this is not a problem. The snake’s lower jaw is designed to unhinge from the upper, and also to separate in the middle, where it is connected by an elastic muscle.

Snakes breathe through their mouths, and this could be a big problem while they are laboriously swallowing their meals, were it not for still another special design feature: Whenever the snake’s throat is stuffed with the body of its victim, the opening of the snake’s windpipe automatically moves forward from its normal position in the throat to the front of the lower jaw. This allows the snake to continue to breathe normally.

Someone should get a lot of credit for all these really ingenious arrangements which make it possible for snakes to thrive despite their obvious handicaps. But to whom should the credit go?

The theory of Evolution teaches that snakes themselves are responsible, just as every creature got where it is by its own strength or quickness, or wit or blind luck. According to this theory, life began by accident, and has continued through survival of the fittest.

But let us test this theory by the snake. Snakes wear spectacles made of transparent scales. How did they evolve? Remember that evolution is supposed to bring change by exceedingly tiny increments, over a vast period of time. Since snakes go on their bellies, their eyes obviously need protection, but they could not wait tens of thousands of years for it. It would be particularly hard for them to wait for the covering scales to become transparent, since they would be totally blind in the meantime!

The same argument holds true for the other adaptations. No snake could wait very long for substitutes to develop for his ears – his dinner depends too heavily on them! Nor could any amount of trial-and-error progress account for jaws which unhinge to admit large prey. (Can you imagine the sorry state of a patriarchal snake which got its jaw unhinged and couldn’t get it back into place?)

Enough. Even if one does not like snakes, it should be apparent that great wisdom went into their creation. They, like all the world, give witness to the vast Intelligence responsible for the universe. This Intelligence is God. As His book, the Bible, declares: “Yahweh [that is, God], how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.” (Psalm 104:24)

How revealing of God’s nature it is to realize that He has amply provided for the needs of snakes, even though snakes have from the very first been symbols of Satan – that great enemy of man, and pretender to the throne of God, Himself (See Revelation 12:3-9 and Isaiah 14:12-15). God provides even for those who hate Him, as Jesus Christ declared in Matthew 5:45: “…For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”

Does it make no difference, then, whether we know God and serve Him? Indeed it does! We are not dumb brutes of the animal kingdom, but humans made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) – made for close fellowship with God, as our first parents fellowshipped with Him (Genesis 3:8-9). The Bible tells us how we can become children of God and walk in love with Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ. But the Bible also identifies those who fail to come to God through Jesus as “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) – that is, God’s wrath, which will be meted out at the consummation of time. God allows His enemies to live and even prosper for the present, but a day of reckoning is coming. Let us by all means seek His face, while it is turned toward us with love and invitation!

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Consider the crocodile. See him quietly sunning himself on the bank of a muddy tropical river. Ugly specimen, isn’t he? With that knobby hide, and bulbous eyes, he’ll never win a beauty contest. Notice, too, that great maw of his, with all the ferocious teeth! And don’t forget his tail: it’s a fearsome weapon also!

No, you’re not likely to want a full-grown crocodile or alligator for a pet. But they do have a place and a purpose in life; and as we shall see, they are uniquely fitted for the life they lead. In fact, we can identify at least five special adaptations that make it possible for these large reptiles to succeed in life.

First, and most obvious, is the location of the crocodile’s eyes, ears and nostrils. By no coincidence at all, they are located on the upper surface of his long head, so that they are out of the water when he is floating just below the surface. Thus, he can pretend to be just a harmless old log, floating in the water, while actually he’s as ready for action as a cocked and loaded gun.

Secondly, if we examine his eyes more closely, we find that crocodiles have the usual two eyelids, plus an extra. This third eyelid is a transparent membrane which can sweep from side to side, much like a windshield wiper on an automobile. But besides keeping the eye clean, this membrane also protects the eye under water and keeps it moist when it is out of the water.

Thirdly, examine the ears – if you can find them! They are simply tubes of skin, located behind the eyes, which carry sound down to the inner ears. They are equipped with muscular valves to pinch them shut when the crocodile submerges, keeping water out of his ears.

Fourthly, his nostrils are also worthy of close scrutiny. Not only are they air scoops which are cunningly disguised as woody knobs on the floating “log,” but they also have special muscles to close them while under water.

Finally, and perhaps the most unusual adaptation of all, is his stomach – or rather, his stomachs. The crocodile masticates his food the same way as do toothless birds – in a “gizzard”. Of course the crocodile has teeth, as we all know. But they are only knives, for gripping and killing his prey. He has no grinders to chew his meat. Instead, the forepart of his stomach consists of a powerful muscular chamber, which does his chewing for him. The crocodile instinctively swallows stones to provide the hard cutting surfaces needed to shred his food. These stones remain in the crocodile’s “gizzard”.

Taken all together, these adaptations help make the crocodile the fearsome and efficient predator that he is. Without them, we probably would never have heard of such a beast, for he would have died out long ages ago.

But how came the crocodile be all these specialized adaptations? Did he grow them, at the rate of a tiny fraction of change per generation, as evolutionists seem to believe?

Think again! The crocodile is too slow and cumbersome on land to catch prey. His hunting domain is the water, and all his adaptations are pointed toward improving his efficiency in this element. His generations could never have waited out the hundreds of thousands of years supposedly necessary for these adaptations to evolve. He needed them from the start.

And he had them. In the beginning, “God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25)

When the Bible says that “God saw that it was good,” part of the meaning is that the creatures were fully formed; complete, and ready to function as intended – able also to reproduce themselves exactly as they were. They would not have been “good” otherwise. They would have been partial and incomplete.

In a fuller sense, the words “God saw that it was good” means that He looked upon all the He had created, and found it good. He had made the world sweet and clean. All was in perfect harmony. There was no anger nor wrath, neither jealousy nor covetousness when the world was new. Neither was there death nor destruction.

All these evils entered the world and distorted it after man brought sin into the world. This is why the Bible says, “For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.” (Romans 8:22) The world eagerly awaits the future time promised when, “The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox… They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh [that is, God], as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9)

We don’t know what crocodiles and alligators will eat in that glorious time, but God will supply their needs then, just as He does today, and always has – just as He has provided for man’s physical needs, and longs to provide for all our spiritual needs as well, in His Son, Christ Jesus.

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Everyone knows what warts are. They are ugly little excrescences that appear on our skin. They seem to, and actually do, have a life of their own. They are made from our bodies, but don’t belong to our bodies. They even develop their own blood supply, tapping into the body’s arterial system for a source of oxygen and nutrients.

But what causes warts? Not everyone knows, and down through the years a lot of wild guesses have been made. One very popular – but false – notion was that touching a toad brought on warts. (That must have seemed very logical, given the predilection of boys both to pick up toads and to develop warts on their hands; but in reality there is no connection between the two events.)

Modern medical science has discovered that warts are caused by viruses. They are, in essence, a disease, and are transmitted like any other disease caused by viruses or bacteria. That is, they are passed on by a carrier. So it isn’t touching a toad that causes a wart, but touching another wart, or a hand which has touched one, or a doorknob that hand has touched, and so on.

Warts are basically harmless and tend to disappear of their own accord, given sufficient time. However, warts which chance to develop on the sole of the foot – called planter warts – can become quite painful and require treatment to remove them, simply because of their location.

But the intriguing aspect of warts is that they are caused by viruses. Here is something visible, caused by something invisible – for viruses are so small they can only be seen under the extreme magnification of an electron microscope. How does the virus cause this relatively huge growth to develop? Even more intriguing, how does it cause the wart to grow its own parasitic blood system? And what does the virus employ as building material for its project?

We know the answer to the last question: the virus uses the cells of the host body which it finds at hand. Somehow it forces the human body – our bodies – to abdicate control over those cells. Our bodies continue to supply everything needed for the life of those cells, but they are now under the control of an invading alien – the virus.

If you have heard about plant galls, in which certain insects and microbes are able to redirect the development of plant tissues, you will note an immediate parallel. The gall wasps force hickory trees to build cozy structures to house the next generation of wasps. The wasp larvae dictate this development through a complex chemical they secrete which overrides the plant’s own chemical blueprint.

Very much the same situation seems to be present in the development of warts – with the difference that humans are the victims and viruses are the aggressors. It may well be that ultimately researchers will discover that something similar happens when cancers develop in the human body.

Be that as the future will determine, it is amazing that something so tiny can enforce its will upon parts of our bodies, and make us build it a home of its own design. The question of intelligence cannot properly be asked about a virus: its structure is so simple that scientists cannot even be sure whether it is alive! And yet, beyond any reasonable doubt, vast intelligence created the mechanism that viruses use to redirect our cellular growth.

Once again, when we peer beneath the surface of the commonplace, we discover the signature of God! The evidence of His handiwork is everywhere, from the greatest stars in the heavens to the smallest particles in the atom.

“Yahweh’s [that is God’s] works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them… He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered… He has shown his people the power of his works…” (Psalm 111:2, 4, 6)

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Everyone, at some point in his life, knows at least two important things about God: This is the clear teaching, both of the Holy Bible and of ordinary experience.

What are these two things? And why, if this knowledge is truly universal, does not everyone acknowledge God? The answers to these questions may tell us much about ourselves, as well as about Almighty God.

First, what are the two great attributes of Gos which every man and woman either has known at one time, or shall know at some time in the future? The answer is found in the New Testament book of Romans, chapter 1, verse 20: “For the invisible things of him [that is God] since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they [who do not acknowledge and serve Him] may be without excuse.”

So we see that the Bible proclaims that God’s power and His divinity (Godhood) are the two vital attributes that everyone, from the beginning of time has clearly seen. The Bible does not say these things might be seen, but that they are seen – and not only seen, but perceived (understood) as well.

But while many will find a glad echo in their hearts at these words, many others will wonder if this is so, because they do not find this truth in their hearts at present. But who cannot remember, as a child, listening in awe or fear, as God’s power was displayed in the lightening and thunder of a great thunderstorm? Think back with me: childish hearts, and childish thoughts – yes, but God was very close to you at those moments.

Or, again, who has not thrilled in his heart at childhood’s first glimpse of a majestic snow-capped mountain, or another of God’s mighty creations? God was very near, and His testimony was loud in your heart at that moment. And at that moment, you knew that God was God. In your childish simplicity, without any teaching from others, you knew that God was powerful, and that He was in charge.

But that moment passed. After awe came denial, for the heart of man resists the obvious consequences of knowing God – for if we know God, we know also that our duty is to serve Him. (cf. Psalm 94:3-12) But man hates to serve One whom he does not love. And we cannot love God unless we come to know Him closely. Without this intimate knowledge, man pictures God as someone like himself, but with greater power. He conceives God in one of three principal ways: In the first, He is a super-man, with all of man’s desires and lusts, quick to take offense and quick to bring vengeance upon all who oppose His smallest wish – and abundantly powerful to bring all this to pass. This is the pagan model of the ancient Greeks, who took the awareness of God built into them, and fractured and re-molded that awareness into a multitude of gods in their own image.

The second concept of God, fashioned by peoples who had no true knowledge of Him, made God to be a remote and uncaring Deity, who made the world and peopled it with the races of man, but then withdrew and took no further interest in them. To help them in their hours of need, men created other, lessor gods. These were gods whose favor might be purchased with sacrifices and devotions, to bring better harvest, or victory in battle, or to make the womb fruitful.

The third substitute for the true God which man has made is to crown man himself with godhood. This is the “modern” form of idol worship. Being himself divine, man needs look no higher – so says the modern heresy. But it is the emptiest of all! If there is no God, then all life is meaningless. Man is a helpless leaf, swirling upon racing torrents of flood waters, going nowhere, without sense or purpose.

Why has man so stubbornly resisted knowledge of the true God? It is because he has a powerful desire to manage his own affairs. Diverse as the false gods are, they all share one characteristic: They can be managed, if properly approached. Their favors can be purchased, if the sacrifices offered are sufficiently costly. Men have been known to kill their sons to placate angry gods; others have enslaved themselves to demons; and others live all their lives in fear of overstepping the exceedingly narrow bounds which their gods supposedly have put upon their lives.

How pitiful is their plight! And how unnecessary! For God is neither a petulant god of lusts and angers on the one hand, nor remote and uncaring on the other. We could learn this from nature itself, if our eyes were truly open. As the Bible says, “…he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) This speaks of God’s immediate management of nature, and also His great patience with sinners.

But nature alone cannot tell us all we need to know about God. For that, you must turn to His Word, which He has given to man for that very purpose. And the central lesson in that Word, which is the Bible, is that God sent His Son to earth to lead wayward men back to their Creator. Come to the Son, Christ Jesus, and you will find the Father. “If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

The more we learn about the conditions under which life is possible, the more remarkable it seems that life as we know it can exist at all. Consider, for example, some of the many delicate balances in nature which are vital for life on earth:

The distance of our earth from the sun is one of those balance points. Were the earth as much as 5 percent closer to the sun, or merely 1 percent further away, scientists calculate that life on earth would be impossible. The danger, they believe, would come from a run-away “greenhouse” effect if we were too close to the sun, or alternatively, run-away glaciation if we were too far away. Just as greenhouses accumulate heat, so it is believed that a closer earth would have built up a thick atmosphere and a high temperature surface as, indeed, our neighboring planet Venus has done. As for glaciation, it is widely known that the earth has already survived a major crisis some thousands of years ago, when glaciers overspread about 10 percent of the earth. “Some estimates indicate that the earth was within one-tenth of a degree (F) in average temperature from becoming… too glaciated for life to continue,” according to a popular scientific writer. (Robert M. Powers, “The Coattails of God,” Warner Communications, N.Y., 1981, p. 106-107)

There are many other critical balance points. For instance, it is estimated that if the earth rotated on its axis at much less than its actual 1,000 miles per hour, each segment would alternatively be too long exposed to the sun’s heat and then too long deprived of it; and would, therefore, burn and freeze in daily succession. Vegetation could not live in such a condition.

Again, if our moon were much closer to the earth, its tidal force would cause twice-daily flooding of the earth’s continents.

Still another critical balance point is the depth of our atmosphere. If it were much thinner, many of the meteorites which constantly bombard the earth would blaze through to the surface, starting fires and causing other great damage. As it is, the vast proportion burn up harmlessly in the air.

There is another type of bombardment from space, of which we are hardly aware – for cosmic rays are invisible and undetectable by our unaided senses. Yet life would probably be impossible if we were not protected from their deadly effect by a thin layer of ozone in our upper atmosphere.

Still another balance point is the wonderful relationship between plant and animal life which provides just the right amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air. Animals must have oxygen to breathe, and then they exhale carbon dioxide as a waste product. Plants require this carbon dioxide to support their life processes; and give off oxygen in return. It it were not for this marvelous replenishment of each substance, neither the plant nor animal kingdom could long continue.

Also contributing to this essential balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is the amount of water in our oceans and seas. It is estimated that if they were a few feet deeper than they are, the greater volume of water would absorb so much of both the oxygen and carbon dioxide from the air that life could not exist. (From Dr. A. Cressy Morrison, former president of the New York Academy of Science, quoted April 16, 1985.)

On the other hand, we are dependent upon the oceans not only as a vital source of water vapor for rain, but also upon their capacity to store and distribute heat, thus greatly moderating extremes of weather around the world.

These are only some of the critical balance points which make life on earth possible. What are the chances that all these “just happened?” Probably not nearly as good as the chances of a tornado accidentally assembling all the thousands of parts of a modern jet airliner, merely blowing across a junk yard which contained all the disassembled parts!

All are free to believe in that sort of statistical monstrosity if they wish. But we believe the evidence clearly shows that life is not an accident at all, but the deliberate creation of One who knew exactly what He was doing. If we meditate on this, we will be led to, “…Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.” (Job 37:14)

(Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)