Fossils and the Flood: Exploring lost worlds with science and Scripture

As a new believer in my teenage years, the first big challenge to my faith was the differences I saw between what the Bible taught about our origin and what my biology and geography teachers were describing.

Scripture was clear, but my teachers presented a completely different story involving evolution, millions of years, and mass extinctions. What I needed were good quality resources that used God’s Word, alongside a biblical worldview, to interpret the data being produced by scientists.

Paul Garner’s latest book, Fossils and the Flood, is exactly the sort of resource I needed back then; and because our understanding keeps on advancing, it is essential reading for everyone who is interested in creationism today. Beautifully illustrated by Jeanne Elizabeth, this large hardback focuses on the worldwide flood that took place in the days of Noah.

Starting at the beginning, what we know about the world before the Flood is explored. We are introduced to different biomes, major ecological communities filled with the great diversity of life that God created. Some of these biomes are familiar to us today, while others, such as the enormous floating forest which never recovered after the Flood, provide an insight into another world.

The book moves on to the Flood itself: God’s great act of judgment on sin that destroyed the old world. Garner describes the creationist understanding of the mechanism of the global Flood and how it engulfed each biome in turn, resulting in the production of layers of fossil-containing rocks.

After the Flood, the animals and Noah’s family emerge into an unfamiliar world where the animals disperse and diversify to populate the environments we know today. Post-Babel human diversity and the Ice Age are both discussed before more technical matters are considered in the final two sections.

These final sections focus on how fossils form and are classified, before looking at the many different fossil groups. The book concludes with a helpful glossary and a list of recommended resources for those who want to dig a bit deeper.

Fossils and the Flood is a book to cherish. Families will enjoy looking at the rich dioramas that portray the old world, while those engaged in more serious study will be encouraged that it is possible to interpret scientific data in a way that does not contradict Scripture. Resources like this help believers to develop that biblical worldview which confidently asserts the truthfulness and authority of all of God’s Word.

Matthew Clay

Tenterden, Kent