He calls me very often, thank you brother, and it's fallen to me the privilege of giving him this very honorary plaque that I have concealed. And in this plaque, brother, it says service award, and on it we have a dove with an olive branch in its mouth. And you know obviously what the olive branch is all about. It harkens back to the dove that was sent out and brought an olive branch back from his investigation of the new world and brought it to Noah and he knew then that God had promised a new world. And on this it says Dr. John C. Whitcomb continuous service to the Lord Jesus Christ 1951 to 2008 and he's still going you know and I did a little math and that's 57 years that's as long as I am old and from the Conservative Grace Brethren Churches International 2008 the Lord bless you brother I've been very blessed. My father was at Grace Seminary as Dr. Whitcomb came on the scene there. Back in 1951, I think Dad got there about fall of 49 or something. But so we had our first acquaintance with Dr. Whitcomb then. And then I came to school and he was still there. So I got to, I've raked leaves in your yard, Dr. Whitcomb. Do you remember that? We are still recovering. I think I put plastic on your porch or screen or something to screen it in. You remember that, don't you? It'll never be the same again. He once told me of all the students he has ever had, I was one of them. Okay, we just rejoice that he's able to be with us, and we're going to solicit questions from you. We've got a tall mic, a middle size, and a baby size. This one has Bob written on it. Dr. Whitcomb, my wife keeps asking me, and I don't have a good answer. Why did Eve not question a snake talking to her? When do snakes talk? Did you all hear the question? Why did Eve not question the voice that she heard from the serpent? And I think the answer is that she was naive. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said, Eve was deceived, but Adam was not deceived. Now think for a minute of what that meant. It meant that Adam had named all the animals. He had classified them as creatures, beautiful creatures, designed by God. But at the end of that day of experience that he had, day one of human history, he discovered something that deeply depressed him. Nothing was answering him. No animal talked to him. He became increasingly frustrated and lonely. And that was God's way to prepare him for a companion that he could share with in love, of course, in conversation, and in death. But Eve did not have that experience. She didn't know that much about the animal kingdom. And she was tempted, here's my point, so soon after she was created, not months and years later, she had not had time yet to learn that animals don't talk. Now if Satan had spoken to Adam through the mouth of the serpent, I think he would have said, who's back there in the bushes? No animal talks to me. There's a problem here. What's going on? Now Satan, of course, knew that. Let's not underestimate how clever Satan is. He could not approach Adam that way. And God made it clear to Adam, because you listen to the voice of your wife, not the voice of Satan. So in my humble opinion, Adam did not hear Satan's voice through the mouth of the serpent, but Eve did. And of course she responded immediately, not understanding of course the significance of what was happening satanically, demonically, and was trapped in a situation that Satan knew he could win. Now the bigger question I have, since we're asking questions, Why did God allow that to happen? God knew that she couldn't handle that level of temptation. But I always have to balance that with another statement that God has given. There is no temptation taking you but what? Such is common demand, but God is able with the temptation also to make a way of escape. So we can say, on that basis, she did not have to fall. She was responsible for her choice. She wasn't trapped in a situation that was hopeless. And that's a dilemma. That is a tension in biblical teaching. And of course we know from the New Testament, God says you're not a helpless victim of Satan's temptations. Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God and resist the devil and what? He will flee from you. So we have to back off and say, well, That was a very brilliant, effective temptation that Satan used, because that animal was so attractive, fascinating in its body movements and color, and she was attracted by the color and the beauty and so forth, but she wasn't a helpless victim. She had to make a choice. And of course, I guess you'd say an even bigger problem is, why did Adam believe her statements about the fruit and follow her in disobedience. These are things that theologians for centuries have struggled with. And all I can say is that when we see Jesus and are like him, when we see him as he is, we'll take all our questions and say, Lord Jesus, explain this to me. And his first Q&A period will last one million years. So when we go to heaven, let's take our questions with us. Thank you. Appreciate that. Who else has a question this evening? Keith Merriman. Dr. Wickham, it was noticeable to me at the Creation Museum, the video that was in the Ark Room about the Great Flood, there was no depiction of the vapor canopy. It just showed the ocean depths breaking open and then coming up and covering the world. I wondered if you might, did you notice that? Was there a reason they haven't done that? And maybe explain a little bit more about what that vapor canopy was and how that affected the earth as well as the deeps opening up. The question is, why is the concept of the vapor canopy not prominent at the Creation Museum. And I think the answer is this, that the vapor canopy is a very controversial issue in creation science today. The science of the vapor canopy is difficult. If there was that much water above the atmosphere before the flood, which took 40 days and nights, you remember, to condense and collapse back onto the earth, to rejoin the earth waters from which it was divided on day number two, The heat that would be trapped on this planet would be so enormous that nothing could have lived. It's a science problem that has never been solved. And that's why some creation scientists back off and say, well, maybe that vapor went beyond the solar system or somewhere. Others don't know exactly how to handle that. But I think there's a reverse trend now. Henry Morris and some of the Institute of Creation research men like Baumgartner and Vardaman have concluded that even though we can't scientifically explain the vapor canopy, we must assume biblically, theologically, there was one because it sort of says so. The water above the firmament, firmament rakia in Hebrew means empty space. It was vast amounts of water that God lifted up there, and somehow, He may tell us someday, He may not, He was able to suspend that mass of water up there, perhaps in molecular form, H2O, not droplets, but molecules that you can't see. Water vapor is different than clouds. You can see the sun, moon, and stars right through it. But you couldn't see that water vapor. And God miraculously, or can we say providentially, controlled the heat problem. Now there are so many other things we can't explain in Genesis 1. We touched on one of those I think earlier this morning. Namely, How could all the animals be harmless and vegetarian and not within a few years completely overpopulate the world? I mean, if no animals were dying or killing each other, then the balance of nature that we know today would have gotten totally out of control and we back off and say well now Lord this is a science problem but you are very intelligent and we think you can control the situation even if you don't tell us how and as soon as you can explain to me how he got Lazarus out of the tomb at Bethany then we can talk about how he did what? Created the world. He says, trust me, this is what I did, and this is what happened, and how it happened, in terms of the scientific mechanism, he has chosen not yet to reveal. That's to me a basic fundamental principle of how to approach creationism. Because many people are going to say, well, there's so many problems, it couldn't really have happened unless we can explain it. We say, now just a minute, what's your alternative? Evolutionism, which is contradictory to every known process of the living world, and the fossil record, and the second law of thermodynamics. And so there's no explanation, friends, for how the world got here, except what? God said, and we believe. Any other questions? Yes. My question is about the dinosaurs like T-Rex. How come like he has so short of arms but was able to kill his prey and like, you know, eat without using his arms because his arms were so short? Thank you. That's my question. How many saw T-Rex today? How many felt warm toward him? Our question from our brother from Oroville, how come he had such tiny front arms that couldn't even reach his mouth? What were they for? I hate to mention my opinion. I think they were to hold people. You know, folks, there's so many things about dinosaurs we don't understand. Nobody has ever seen a live dinosaur of the kind that was on display at the museum. Namely the 30-foot ones, the raptors, the 95-foot-high brachiosaurus, ankylosaurus, triceratops. By the way, any eight-year-old can name 900 kinds of dinosaurs. It's an absolutely fascinating study. What were all these different Features of these dinosaurs for how did they function and with in most cases we'll never know we'll never know now I have lived in Florida for five years and we have a million dinosaurs still down there and We can see things that they do that help us to understand certain basic principles of how giant reptiles function And the more we learn the more amazed we are how different they are from mammals. But we say well Lord in one way we're so frustrated we can't understand how they operated. In another way we say Lord thank you they're gone forever. How many are glad they're gone? 42. Thank you. Every teenager says I want my dinosaurs back again. But we'll never know exactly how they were. In fact, paleontologists who study these things. And that was one of my courses at Princeton University when I was still a godless evolutionist back in 42. Paleontologists constantly debate with each other. How did these huge dinos move? Did they run like this or like this? Were their long tails up like this? as they ran sort of like on a horizontal level with their whole body, how did they function? And it's very difficult to solve some of those problems. Some of those dinos were so gigantic, we wonder, well, how could they even move at all? Maybe they just sat on the water and their heads sticking up a little bit like Brachiosaurus. We just don't know many of those things. And so we're discovering more and more and more about the dinosaur world as we study the few giant reptiles we still have left. And you can name them, can't you? I mean, the alligators of Florida and even bigger in Africa are what? Crocodiles. And then down in Indonesia, the Komodo dragon lizard, the biggest lizard in the world, only discovered in this past century. And see how they function and move. And we say, well, Lord, help us to make the right conjectures here as we extrapolate from present observed functions of giant reptiles and lizards into the past. And that is a fascinating thing. Often very, very frustrating as well. So that was a good question. And again, it's so hard to answer. And I say, Lord, I myself, I count with the rest of you 42 people. I am profoundly thankful that the giant flesh eating reptiles are gone forever. Thank you. Next question. Right here, brother. Brother Williams. Glad to see you back, Brother Williams, from California. How many are glad to see Larry back? Dr. Wickham, what are black holes? We hear about them in science lectures and read about them in the paper, magazines. Are they something that are real or is this just another deception by Satan? How many have you ever heard of the black hole? Astronomers are absolutely frustrated by the evidences they have that such things exist. By definition, a black hole is some kind of a negative part of the universe that sucks in everything around it, including light. See, by definition, you can't even see one. So if you can't see it, that makes it scientifically impossible to describe it. And all you can do is take by inference the way it affects its surrounding areas of the universe, of the stars in that area, and see how somehow the effects, they superimpose a model, you see, upon what they find. And just guess, well this must be some kind of a black hole that just sucks everything into it and it just sort of disappears down into a sub-atomic level. And it is an awful thing to even imagine existing anywhere in the universe. Something enormous that is totally negative, completely destructive. And one way to describe it, as I would at least, is that when God cursed the world because of Adam's sin, he cursed the universe as well. And many things then took place in the universe and across the solar system that would not have happened if the king of the world had not rebelled. You say, where is the evidence for that? Across the solar system you see in our moon out there, and the other planets and their moons, pockmarks, craters that show disaster that's come from somewhere, for some reason, somehow, upon the solar system. And creation scientists are working hard, especially the astronomers. I'd like to pay tribute to creation astronomers who are making excellent discoveries of how, when, and biblically, these things occurred that changed the world. There's Donald Young, my co-author of the book called Our Created Moon. There is Hartnett of Australia. There's Faulkner of North Carolina. There is Humphreys of California, at least with the Institute of Creation Research out there. And Jason Lyle of Answers in Genesis right here. How many have heard his lecture on astronomy in the planetarium? Just that wasn't open today. So I didn't know if any of you heard that. These astronomers, friends, are highly qualified. And that's an area that is very exclusive because you practically have to be a genius in mathematics to even begin to evaluate analyze what's going on in outer space. And very, very few men seem to be qualified to think that way. Mathematics is just a beautiful expression of the mind of God that characterizes the whole universe. And for one moment in 1947, after I came back from Europe, Some of you have heard me tell this. I met one of the greatest mathematicians the world has ever known, Albert Einstein. He came to one of our gospel meetings at Princeton when we had a film called The God of Creation by Erwin Moon of the Moody Institute of Science. We invited the whole faculty and student body to come, and he walked in. He was fascinated with the complexities of the cosmos, of the universe. He was not an atheist. He said, God doesn't play dice with the universe. But he discovered mathematical laws and principles of relativity, as you know, and so forth, that have revolutionized our understanding of the complexities of the universe we never could have fathomed before. And the more you learn, the more complex and marvelous things become, until you say, Lord, I surrender. I agree with you. I believe you. That in the fourth day you said, it says, and God made two great lights. The greater light to rule the day and the what? The lesser light to rule the night and what? And he made the stars also. He didn't have to say anything. He didn't have to do anything. He just thought a thought. I want the stars. There they are. How many of you are impressed with him? Thank you. And someday, perhaps, he'll answer that question. Sit down, dear child. We have a 55-year lecture now on black holes. Thank you. Next question. A DVD that analyzes the age of the world, a recent creation, on the basis of our population today. If it's 100,000, it would be an exponential number. If it was 5,000 years ago or 4,500, the flood, it would be 6.3 billion. Have you seen that, sir? I have not seen that. You have not seen it. I just wanted your evaluation of it. Is there a flaw in their thinking, in their calculation? They base it on known ways that population grows from past history. And they're saying that the population would be astronomical if it was that many years. Right. It's a good, good argument. Namely, that if the human race has been on this planet for even one million years, to say nothing of 10 or 15 that evolutionists have to have. They are so desperate for explanations of how we got here. They just solve the problem by adding millions and millions of years. It's a magic wand. Wind waved at earth history problems solves everything, right? Just add millions of years. It's a marvelous wand of magic, but it's a complete failure. Why? Because the population growth rate of mankind, even with all kinds of horrible circumstances, like crime and war and disease and abortions and whatever, that Satan uses to eliminate people, the image of God he doesn't want on this planet. He wants to destroy people. Even with all those negative factors, If eight people walked off of a gigantic barge four or five thousand years ago, five or six maybe, you know how many people would be here? Six billion. That's how many we have. Wonder if eight people walked off of a barge a half million years ago. The solar system could not hold how many people there would be. That is a very hard problem for uniformitarian evolutionists to answer, to solve. So we say, well Lord, even with all the negative factors, look at the amazing number of people on this planet. Of course, Satan has led the government of Beijing and China into what policy? one child per family, period. That's not true of the ethnic minorities of China, but the major population units of China. And I say, don't we want to limit population growth? Aren't we adding problems? And the answer, of course, that God gave, which has never been rescinded, to Adam and Eve was what? Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth and God in effect says I'll take care of any population problems, you obey me. See? And so we say now just a minute here. How many people were there when the flood came then? You just look at Genesis 5 and add up those numbers. Every person mentioned who was a father says he begat a son who's named. And after that son, there were sons and daughters, plural. Every person had at least five children. I mean, think of how many more they could have had. Noah didn't have three of his most famous sons until after he was 500 years old. Henry Morris has estimated, he was a great mathematician, there could have been, at the time of the flood, 1656 years since creation, one billion people on this planet who died in the deluge. And I say, well Lord, we have no idea how many people this planet could hold. But by the time the thousand year kingdom has ended, The population will be astronomical. Why? No abortions, no death, no sickness, perfect government, perfect administration, and therefore every square foot of this planet can be what? Utilized for God's purposes to fill the world with his image and likeness. And I say, Lord, help me to realize that all these artificial efforts To eliminate people from the earth is not your plan, but the plan of Satan. And I say, well, Lord, help me to see through this problem from your perspective in the light of your word. Question? Anyone else? Over here. This young lady's gotten up three times. I'll try to repeat your question. Why didn't Noah take the dinosaurs on the ark? I think I heard the question, why did he not take dinosaurs on the ark? Are you ready for the shocker? He did. He did take dinosaurs. You say, where's the verse? Oh, this is my favorite dinosaur verse. Genesis 7, 7. Listen to this one. Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. Eight people. But what else went in? Of clean animals and animals that are not clean. How many animals is that? Every kind of air-breathing animal on this planet. Very few of them were clean, acceptable for sacrifice. Sheep, goats, bulls, turtledoves, pigeons, that's about it. And all the other thousands of kinds of beautiful God-created animals were ceremonially, sacrificially unacceptable by God. But every one of them, it says, went in. You say, now Lord, I have a question. Were 8,700 kinds of birds in the Ark too? Yes, he added a footnote. And birds. Thank you. How many believed the birds were there? How many of you saw them? You say, Lord, faith is the substance of things. Hope for the evidence of what? Things not seen. Lord, you said it. You were there. You don't lie to people or deceive people. There were 8,700 kinds of birds in the ark. But Lord, I have another big question, just like this young lady. Are you ready for the big one? Were dinosaurs in the ark? You ready for the verse? And everything that creeps on the ground. Wow! Dinosaurs in the Ark? I mean, how could they even fit in the Ark? It's like God saying thank you for asking? Let me tell you how big that barge was. 1,395,000 cubic feet. So big that 150 railroad stock cars could fit in each of the three decks. Friends, 52 freight trains of 100 cars each. Incredible. And I say, well now, what does that mean then? It means that every kind of animal that lives on this earth today, and walks on the ground, could fit in one of the three decks. That leaves two extra decks for two each of every kind that's ever lived, that's now extinct, including thousands of kinds of dinosaurs. plus food for them all, plus Noah's family. The ark was absolutely gigantic. God said it's sufficient, it's adequate for my God-intended purpose, trust me. Now of course we have to be careful here The dinosaurs that went in the ark weren't all the oldest representatives of their kind, because what happens to a dinosaur the longer it lives? It gets bigger and bigger and has no growth limit. So God would have picked a younger pair that would walk into the ark and represent its kind and lay its eggs in the post-flood world. Problem solved. Then where did all these thousands of skeletons, fossils of dinosaurs come from? Those were the ones that did what? Missed the boat. And were smashed by the hydrodynamics of the deluge, fossilized. But the animals that went into the ark, including those reptiles, were under complete control. There was no danger. Because Genesis 8 says God did what? God remembered Noah and the animals that were with him in the ark. That means he took care of them, controlled them, and there was no bloodshed or violence inside the ark at all. Because, friends, they went in two by two. and came out a year later two by two, including the rabbits. And there was no multiplying because God apparently put them all to sleep in a supernaturally imposed hibernation experience and they didn't awaken until the flood ended a year later. Everything was under control in the ark, including the dinosaur kingdom that was represented there. Now we know one of the greatest dinosaurs who ever lived was in the ark. Behemoth. You say, how do you know? Because he was there in the Jordan River after the flood ended. Job saw him. Job chapter 40 verses 15 and following. Behold Behemoth. He's in the Jordan. And I say, well that is amazing. God is so brilliant. He could handle dinosaurs in the ark. And I say, well, Lord, the bad news about those poor dinos in the Ark is that when the flood ended and they came out, the whole world had changed. The Ice Age had begun. The ark landed in what is today northeastern Turkey and southern Russia, where it's cold at night in the winter. And these ectotherms, these cold-blooded reptiles, had two choices. Either migrate down into the Jordan, like behemoth, or Africa, like crocodiles, or begin an irreversible death parade to extinction. And that's what happened to the majority of the great dinos. They died out forever. God's visual aid of what the curse The most spectacular animals that have ever walked the earth disappeared one after another after another and the vast majority of the dinosaur kinds are now gone so sad and Yet friends in a way we say thank you Lord. You did break the backbone of dinosaur Dominion in the deluge We're discovering amazing, amazing things about what God did in the creation of, the cursing of, and the destruction of the dinos in human history. One question I have an opinion, but I can't answer for sure. When the kingdom comes, will dinosaurs be brought back? the ones that became extinct, will we see them on the earth again? My opinion is no. Anything that becomes extinct is gone forever because God is no longer creating anything new. He says so in Genesis 1. He ceased, He ended, He finished creation. And when anything becomes extinct, it's gone. That's my opinion. But of course God can surprise us any way He chooses. But thank you for that question. about dinosaurs in the ark. Any other question? Yes, sir. Sir, my question regards the kingdom and during a thousand year reign of Christ, everything is at peace. because of his ruling. Now at the end, if Satan is loosed for a season, what happens then with the animal kingdom? Alright, what happens to the animal kingdom at the end of the millennium when Satan is released for a short season? That's one of the most discouraging footnotes in Bible prophecy. Here's a perfect government, a perfect religion, a perfect environment. All the animals now are harmless when the kingdom comes. Everybody who enters the kingdom alive is born again. Unregenerate people are removed. Satan is gone. Demons gone. Unbelievers gone. I mean, so wouldn't you think the Bible would say, so everybody lived happily ever after. Wrong. One thing is not changed. Those who enter the millennium alive, as survivors of the tribulation, have a what? Sin nature. They're born again, just like you and I, I trust tonight. But they're what? They're possessed of a sin nature. They're not yet glorified. And as the centuries go on and on through the millennium, a thousand years, Billions and billions of people are born, grow up. They have children, grandchildren, so forth. And the vast majority of these dear friends finally rebel against Jesus. Because even a perfect environment doesn't make you born again. We know that. That's the error of the social gospel, isn't it? Just give people everything and they'll all be Humble, gracious, godly people. Wrong. So by the end of the millennium, there's a colossal rebellion as God must, can I put it that strongly, must give those people a choice. If you don't love me, Jesus said, I have an alternative, I have another choice for you. Satan, come back here. Billions of people love you. They want you to come back. They are praying for the second coming of Satan. And he'll come back, dear friends, and the number of people that will follow him are as the sand of the sea for multitude. And then God does what? He destroys the world with fire. Everything in it, all the moon, other planets, their moons, the sun, other stars, galaxies, the heavens and earth flee away from him who sits on the throne and there's no place found for it. No place. It's gone. And he creates a new heavens and a new earth in which dwells righteousness forever. Now friends, my opinion is, and this is not easy to prove, of course, that when God creates a new earth, There will be no more animals at all. Animals were designed by God to function on this earth only for people who are non-glorified. Animals have a very significant function on this earth for non-glorified people. to help them, to teach them, to show them many, many things about the world, about God, about us, that we otherwise would never know. But when this system has ended, at the end of the millennium, I think the animal kingdom will have served its purpose under God, and there won't be any more forever. We will not need them anymore. Because when we see Jesus, we'll be like him. We'll see him as he is and we'll be sufficient. He'll be sufficient for us at that time. So that is my opinion. I know it's not shared by everybody, but this is not an easy thing to solve, is it? It's just that the Bible makes one thing clear. Everything we know about this earth, this world, is gone. Totally gone. Any other questions? Why are there no human fossils? Why are there no human fossils? Well, number one, a very few have been found that are deeply buried in the fossil strata. human footprints in Africa, hundreds of them, very deeply buried. They have found in England a deeply buried human skull, a swan's comb skull. In Italy, the Castanedolo skull. Here and there, very rare discoveries of deeply buried human parts of skeletons. Why? My opinion is, if you look carefully at what happened when the flood came, friends, this gets complicated, but think for a minute with me. When the flood came to this earth in the days of Noah, For 120 years he had been telling the world what the flood is coming, the judgment is coming, the only escape is entering this ark. By faith you enter this ark with us as the sole place of refuge. People mocked, ridiculed, laughed, but you know what God was doing through Noah during that 120 year period? We read in the New Testament in 1 Peter 3, the long suffering of God continued while the ark was being prepared. They listened, they heard, they knew the alternatives. But when the flood came, friends, it was too late. They had ridiculed, rejected the message. The door was shut by God. And what happened next? Now think of it. In seven days, In seven days, the world was treated to an absolutely horrible scene. Every kind of bird and mammal and reptile in the world was moving, led by an unseen hand, into the sole place of refuge, Noah's Ark. The people were already in it, eight people. But now the animals came in. Everybody saw this. Most creation scientists believe there's only one continent, Pangaea. because all the animals could walk to the ark from where they were, every kind of air breather. When people saw that happening, gripped in total terror, they fled to the hills, thinking, we'll surely survive this temporary, limited catastrophe. Famous last thoughts. The higher they climbed, the higher the waters rose, and watch now, and picked them off one by one by tens, hundreds, thousands and millions, and they all drowned. That's the key. They weren't fossilized. Why not? Because they drowned. That's the opposite. No one who's ever drowned in any ocean has ever been seen again. Why? Because scavengers will annihilate the remains. And not one fossil is being formed in any ocean basin today. Scavengers will annihilate any dead fish or half-dead one. And God keeps the ocean basins from becoming great garbage dumps. The same is true of the continents. Creation scientists are amazed at this. Fossilization is extremely rare in the history of the world. I mean, there are no fossils being formed in the world anywhere today, on the land or in the ocean. So why don't you find fossils of people with fossils of animals? Because they weren't all sitting in the bottom of the ocean or on a shoreline waiting for waves of mud to cover them and cut them off from oxidation, decay and predators and what fossilized them. They were fleeing to the hills and thus were picked off by rising water and drowned and vanished forever. Now that, friends, is a horrible thing to think about. But we have found just enough of them to realize that here and there, now and then, in rare situations, and of course we have explored how much of the crust of the earth, a tiny, tiny percentage. There surely are some more here and there. Footprints, skulls, so forth. But you know what happened when the Titanic sank, don't you? Fifteen hundred people went down. Not one tooth, bone or skull of any of those people was ever seen at the bottom of the ocean when it was explored a few years ago. And I say, well, Lord, whatever the circumstances of how these things happened, to the human race at the deluge. Help us to patiently wait to think through the issues and realize what you are trying to tell us about the magnitude of the disaster of the deluge. I appreciated your message this morning. I have a curiosity about the woolly mammoths. Those have always interested me. And I remember reading about them in the world that perished, which I really have enjoyed. There seems to be some new theories, new speculation about what took place. I was wondering if you could summarize that and tell us where you're at in that whole item. Thank you. How many have ever heard of woolly mammoths? All right. Gigantic. a type of elephant with huge tusks covered with long hair. And they have been discovered in various places in the northern hemisphere, in La Brea Tar Pits in California, in Siberia, northern Alaska. In fact, when I was in Alaska some 20 years ago, I guess, in Fairbanks giving a lecture, someone said, Sir, would you like to come with me? I have something in the back trunk of my car out the parking lot I want to give to you. He said, here is a mammoth tusk that fell out of the river bank of the Yukon. I still have it now, friends. We now have discovered some complexities. These mammoths were not buried by the flood. They were buried by what we call post deluge catastrophism. When the ice age began after the flood ended, the ocean waters were warm. The precipitation was enormous in the form of rain, of course, and in the higher latitudes in form of snow. And even to this day, Greenland has 10,000 feet of ice. The Ice Age isn't all over with yet, in spite of what the global warming people talk about. It is not disappearing. There are little phases, of course, of climate. But the Ice Age had an enormous effect on this planet. And many, many kinds of animals that somehow could thrive in those Arctic zones, were destroyed when the Ice Age catastrophically ended. And this has been described in several excellent books that are on sale at the Answers in Genesis book room. The by Michael Ord, some of you saw his lecture at the museum, Michael Ord on what happened to the during the Ice Age to the mammoths. And we've tried to explain a little bit about that in our book, The World that Perished. But after the flood, There were great catastrophes for hundreds of years, not millions, hundreds of years after the flood because of the vast adjustment of the earth from the tremendous change in the climate and the temperature of the oceans that caused many kinds of creatures to disappear forever. So that is the best explanation. I mean, it is it's not an easy concept to explain, but that would be my understanding of the general trend of thinking among creation scientists about the the extinction of such creatures as the giant sloth, the mammoth and the saber tooth tiger and creatures like that. They were not destroyed by the flood, but by post flood residual catastrophism. Okay. Brother Farner? My brother Sebastian showed me a scripture in Revelation chapter 22 that we would just like for you to explain in the context of the perfection of the eternal state. In verse 3 it says there shall no longer be any curse. In the verse previous it talks about the tree of life that is healing for the nations. Would you explain the terminology there and how those things are related? Yes, in Revelation 22, end of chapter 22, verse 2, we read this, that in the eternal state in the new earth, there will be the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Now, if you read that one way, you will see a problem. Why do the nations need healing? Are people going to be sick in the eternal state? That's one way to look at it. But the way the Hebrew Jewish mind understood those kinds of statements is that the reason that there's going to be healing is because God will use that as a mechanism not to make sick people well, but to keep well people from ever getting sick. It's a Hebrew form of expression that means nobody will ever be sick. And God has various means, apparently, for accomplishing that. And that's one of them. So we say, well now, Lord, tell us about this river and these trees, because it sounds a lot like the one that's going to be here in the millennium. Right. In Ezekiel 47, you see a very similar situation, where a river comes out of the temple in Jerusalem and goes down into the Jordan River Valley, and gets wider and wider. You remember Ezekiel was told how to watch that and to interact with it. And it would have amazing healing effects. In fact, it would heal the Dead Sea, and the Dead Sea would become a living sea with fishes swimming in it. From Engadi, fishermen will cast their nets in the Dead Sea again. That is an amazing thing, because there are certain aspects of the millennium, which you understand is totally different than the eternal state, that are a foretaste, a hint, of what's going to happen in the future new earth, in the new heavens above. So these are tantalizing details that God has given to us that we can't explain scientifically, except to say, thank you Lord, Whatever we need, you'll provide for it in ways we can't even begin to imagine today. Any other questions? Yes, sir. Thank you for your work and faithfulness, first of all. Thank you. My question is this. I know we as conservatives like to joke around a lot about the global warming fad, as it seems to be, but I've never heard anything about it other than jokes. And my question is, What is it and what is this information that the left is presenting and how is it relevant to biblical matters? Thank you. What is global warming? Is it a real danger? Is it very serious? Is it exaggerated? What does it mean? We constantly hear about these things. How many have ever heard of Al Gore? He received the Nobel Peace Prize. I don't know how many millions of dollars that is. But my friends in the creation science movement worldwide do not think he deserved that. Are you shocked? What is global warming anyway? Well, many creation scientists have looked into this question because it's become a huge political football and it's going to damage the whole economy of this country and any other country that goes into this seriously to to make it more and more difficult. for nations and industries and communities to survive. And it's going to hurt, it's going to make prices go up, and the poor people will suffer the most, and nothing is going to be helped because it's a divine program, ultimately, that God announced when the flood ended. Are you ready for this? He said, eight things you can count on while the world remains. Eight of them. Said to Noah. Seed time and harvest, summer and winter, Day and night, and what? Cold and heat. While the world remains, count on those eight things. Now what we're saying to God is, the world is out of control, we're going to change the weather. It's like God saying, oh really? Try it. We are wasting billions of dollars. I'm quoting many excellent authorities on this, friends. That isn't my specialty. But I quote these men. We are wasting billions and billions of dollars trying to control the weather. CO2 emissions and so forth from industry and automobiles and whatever's. And it is not going to work. It's not going to solve the problem. And but there are cycles, you see, in weather. Patterns, in fact, this winter in Indiana for months, we were desperate for global warming to happen. We've never been so miserable. It's almost like God saying, watch me. And I say, Lord, help us to use common sense here and stay within the boundaries that you have committed to us in terms of responsibility and control of our immediate environment. And so we realize, friends, that some of these things, I mean, we want to take warnings seriously if people are experts on these matters. We are suffering many great disasters in this country, flooding, Fires in California, earthquakes here and there that we don't remember very well from previous generations, in fact. And without being facetious. There will be a global warming. in the Great Tribulation. Absolutely, incomparably horrible. And God says, you watch for that, trust me, I've told you about it in the book of Revelation, it's coming. And you'll know then, the whole world will know that God is the source of it and they'll curse him because of it. So I have a good gospel tract on global warming that we hand out occasionally to people. But these are serious things, friends, to listen to godless men. saying we are going to change the world, we're going to eliminate population growth, we're going to change the climate, and do this, this, and this, which has no basis in reality to say nothing of scripture, for us to overreact to these things in a wrong way. And I say, Lord, help us. When all else fails, help us to exercise some God-given common sense, and hopefully we'll survive a little longer to do your will. John, John Farbach. Dr. Whitcomb, the museum today had a very early date for the age of the earth. You and I talked about it briefly. They said 4,300 years. And we know that take 2,000 years to the time of Christ. We know there were ancient Egyptian dynasties older than 2,300 years before Christ. Have you talked to them at the museum about that? I mean, I feel like you used to teach, if I'm not mistaken, six to ten thousand years, the age of the earth. Have you talked to them at the museum about that early date that they put down there? Are you all familiar with the situation on chronology? You see, Answers in Genesis rightfully insists the Earth is not millions and millions and millions of years old. It's not millions, it's thousands. But this minor question, comparatively speaking, is, well, how many thousands? Now let me make it clear, that has nothing to do with evolutionism at all. I mean, you can't have anything evolving in 10,000 years as opposed to 6,000. That's silly. But Henry Morris and I discussed that in our book, The Genesis Flood, next to the last chapter on the date of the flood. And we've pointed out various passages in scripture which we thought not only allowed for but demanded extra time. I mean, look at the opening verse of the New Testament. Jesus Christ is son of David, the son of Abraham. Now, if you didn't know the Old Testament, you'd think that Abraham was his grandfather. But in the Hebrew mind, father, there's no word for grandfather. There's no word for grandson. It's just father and son. And how many links there were between the names, you have to discover some other way. Three whole links are left out in Matthew 1, in the genealogy of Jesus, deliberately. because the author assumed you could check in a book of Kings or Chronicles and find out how many links there really were, but they don't all have to be repeated every time. So we came to the conclusion that the Genesis flood was probably at least a couple thousand years earlier then you would get just from adding up the numbers in Genesis 11, for example. And so we feel that that fits what little we do know of ancient history. But it isn't a matter of ancient history telling us what the Bible means. It's that the Bible itself tells you that there are gaps in the genealogies. One of my favorites is in Exodus 6, where it says that Amram took Jochebed to be his wife, and she begat Aaron and Moses. Friends, that was 300 years later. We know that. from comparing the genealogies. So how could they have begotten Aaron and Moses 300 years later? Because the Hebrew mind, remember, doesn't require that a son be the next in the line. It could be a descendant, or an ancestor as the case may be. So this is, in my opinion, a very minor issue. On what? On evolutionism. on creationism. May I make an emphatic statement? It has nothing to do with the evolution controversy at all. It's just a matter of how to properly interpret Bible history in the way the Bible describes the passing of time and generations. Thank you. One more question? Here's one right here. Here's a big man and here's a short man. I think the short man comes first. Do you think there ever could be a life on another planet or what? Okay, did you hear that? Is there life on other planets? I'm happy to announce God has solved the problem. He told us in Isaiah 45, 18, the earth The earth has he given for life. Now let me quote it correctly. My memory doesn't always serve me perfectly and things like that. But Isaiah has a very fascinating statement about this. Isaiah 45 18. God introduces himself on this subject. He wants you to know he's he's very intelligent about this. Thus says the Lord who created the heavens. He is the God who formed the earth and made it and established it. Now watch. He did not create it, the earth, to be a waste place, an empty place, tohu, but formed it, the earth. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none else." Watch the statement. He formed the earth to be inhabited. And that's why it is. And that's why no other planet is. He exclusively prepared this planet for life. Now you know what's happened in recent years? Astronomers have been amazed to discover the almost infinite improbability of physical life existing on any planet in the universe. You have to have just the right size of a planet with the right magnetic field, the right amount of water, the right amount of the right kind of air, the right kind of a moon at the right distance, the right kind of a sun at the right distance, and everything has to be absolutely perfect for any life to exist at all. It just doesn't happen every other Tuesday somewhere. And I say, well, Lord, help me to fathom the significance of this. You created one planet for life. And as to this planet, your son came to become a member of the human race. And as to this planet, you're coming back again, not Mars, Jupiter, Neptune or Andromeda. You're coming here. And what's the verse on that? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, not Mars, as it is in heaven. And friends, that is sufficient to settle the issue for creationists. Yes, other planets, by the trillions, I mean, how many planets are there out there? But there's only one that God tells us was designed to be inhabited. You say, well, what about all these extraterrestrials? There aren't any. Thank you. The next time you find an extraterrestrial walking around, please phone me collect. I know that's so disappointing because science fiction fills our minds with strange beings coming around. Someone has said facetiously, if a strange being from some other planet, you know we have SETI now, the government is paying millions of dollars for this system. Search for what? Extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI. They're trying to hear some voices out there saying, we're coming, or how are you doing? All we get is static. We really get our money. That's our tax money. We need our money back. There's nobody there except God who says, why are you searching for extraterrestrial intelligence? I've already been here and I wrote a book. How about terrestrial intelligence in the form of the Bible? What's wrong with that? So quit searching. It's here. Thank you. Our conservative Grace Brothers International should make the world know we have found intelligence already inscripturated and personalized in Jesus. And that's good news. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Any other questions? If if a star, some of the stars are like 10 or a million light years away, how can six hundred six thousand years? We receive the light in six thousand years. Great. Good question. If if some stars are billions of light years away, how could Adam have seen the stars, you know, during his lifetime to say nothing at the beginning of his life? And the best answer I've ever found is that everything God did in Genesis 1 and 2 was supernatural. Example, how long did it take God to make Adam grow up? Full grown, with a superficial appearance of history he didn't have. Same for Eve. If I had seen Adam in the garden, I'd say, sir, where did you come from? Well, how long have you been here? Well, sir, you may be surprised, but I'm one hour old. One hour old, you're full grown, but I never grew up, you see. One hour ago, I was in the ground over here. And if you were a uniformitarian, you couldn't believe that. A uniformitarian determines past history on the basis of observation and experience. And nobody's ever seen anybody get created. Ever. In this world today. God says, but I have. And let me tell you something. Everything I created was full grown. Full grown trees with fruit on their branches. By the way, let's have a PowerPoint here for a moment. Let's take a look at it. This is amazing. We can dim the lights a little bit. Thank you. This is one of the basics of biblical creationism, friends. This is an amazing thing that God tells us to believe. Not just that the days were literal days. 24 hours each, followed by a 24-hour day of rest that God did not need, but Israel did. You see? You save the time block. Wow! That's not some fuzzy, fluffy thing. That's solid stuff now. Chronology is solid here. Literal days, one after another, all attached to numerical adjectives. Day one, second, third. That means 24-hour literal days. And an evening-morning formula. There was evening and there was morning, day one. Evening and morning, second day. Evening and morning. That means what? One cycle of the Earth on its axis. In reference to a fixed astronomic light, for the first three days it was what? A localized astronomic light. Before the Sun existed. On day four, the sun replaced that temporary light, but all the days are still 24 hours. That was God's way to show the sun is not ultimate, eternal, or divine, is an afterthought, not essential, and therefore the Egyptian idolatry of sun worship was blasphemy. Very important theological issues here. But look at this. The manner in which these, excuse me, the order in which these things were made. Look at this. Earth first. Sun, moon and stars later. Full grown fruit trees first. Marine creatures later. Whales first. Mammals later, day six. Birds first, reptiles later, from which they supposedly evolved. It's like God doing everything deliberately, intentionally backwards from evolutionary presuppositions. This is a devastating blow to any uniformitarian evolutionary frame of reference on origins. Devastating. But here's the point that was just raised here. Now watch. Everything God created was full grown and functioning. God didn't just plant some fruit trees on day three and wait until Adam and Eve to wait 50 years for them to grow up so they can have fruit. He knew they had to have the fruit now on day six. Full grown trees with an appearance superficially of age they didn't have. My opinion is they didn't have growth rings in their trunks because they never grew. They were created full grown. full-grown people on day six. Did Adam have a navel? Well, Ken Ham wrote a whole book on this. This is an important point, believe it or not. He could not have had one. Why? Because the navel is a clear, empirical, scientific proof that you came from where? From a mother. Thank you. So for nine hundred and thirty years, Adam walked around. Whenever he went swimming, I'm sure people would say, now, wait a minute, there's something about you, sir. I'd like to have a little discussion. And he would say, you're right. Let's talk. I had no mother and neither did Eve. So you see, friends, there's there's the sign of what the full I mean, things were full grown and functioning at the beginning. And that's where light came from, from other planets. God flooded the universe instantly with the light he wanted there. Now there are complexities to that problem that creation astronomers have worked through very, very carefully. We don't know the exact speed of light. We don't know the exact thermodynamic conditions that brought our universe into its present form. But God created a functioning, mature world system and Adam and Eve didn't have to wait many years for the first light to blink on from other stars. It says so in Genesis 1, let these lights be for days and seasons and years and let Adam be able to see them. He could marvelously quote that Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork, day into day, night into night. He could see it himself. So my opinion is, friends, that not just the duration of creation, and the order in which things happened. But the manner in which things were created are three vital fundamental issues in creationism as opposed to uniformitarian evolutionary compromises of the Genesis 1 record. And that is a significant point. God knew how to handle that one, even if we can't explain it rationalistically. Again, I think of Jesus saying to Lazarus, come forth, Was that a big problem to overcome? No. I mean, instantly, the man stood there fully alive, fully well, no convalescence, recuperation necessary, and if he hadn't said, Lazarus, come forth, every dead body on this planet would have risen. He has incredible power. And I say, Lord, help me to honor you and reverence you and respect you, even in Genesis chapter 1. Folks, I think our time is up. I appreciate that. Wonderful. I mean, those questions were very, very well thought out and appropriate. Thank you so much for that. And appreciate so much this service award. Norman, I are so thankful that God has given us these years since 1951 to serve in teaching functions and writing for our Grace Brethren movement worldwide and appreciate your prayers that we might continue a little longer, a little longer until Jesus comes. Wouldn't it be great to have our conference interrupted by the rapture? Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Wickham. I'm constantly amazed by your youth and vitality. He's the energizer. Well, I hate to say energizer bunny, but he goes on and on and on and on. But we are so grateful that God has loaned you to us in this special relationship that has warmed your heart toward this little relatively insignificant group of churches in all the world around us. We'll let it go at that. Thank you so much for being with us and for this time we spent together. Thank you.