The new research looked at the Tonto Group, a 500-meter-thick formation, containing the Tapeats sandstone, Bright Angel Shale, and Muav Limestone (as well as two other minor) strata, that is conventionally assigned to the Cambrian layer (this represents the initial stages of the global flood). While evolutionists believe it to be 540 million years old, listen to how they interpret this area based on their studies at Grand Canyon and other places (emphasis added):

• “The Tonto Group holds a treasure trove of sedimentary layers and fossils chronicling the Cambrian Explosion some 540 million years ago, when the first vertebrates and animals with hard shells rapidly proliferated and sea levels rose to envelop continents with emerging marine life.”
• “From the Tonto Group’s 500-meter-thick strata, we’re learning about sea-level rise and the effects of catastrophic tropical storms – probably more powerful than today’s devastating hurricanes – during a period of very hot temperatures when the Earth was ice-free.”
• “Sea levels were so high during this time period, Dehler says, that rocks like the Tonto Group were deposited atop every continent on Earth, as seas bathed the continents in a complex mosaic of shallow marine, coastal, and terrestrial environments.”

Sea levels rose all around the world, bathing the continents and depositing vast rock layers that stretch across continents. That’s all coming from evolutionary scientists—but it almost sounds like they’re describing the initial stages of the global flood as waters began to rise and sea creatures were rapidly buried by these rising floodwaters.

I’ve always said that if the Bible didn’t mention a global flood, most geologists would believe that there was one! The evidence is all around us, and it’s overwhelming.

The article mentions that Grand Canyon is like a crime scene, where detectives must piece together what happened in the past. And that’s true—that’s the nature of historical science. We can’t directly test, observe, or repeat the past, so worldview—what one believes about the past—determines the interpretation of the evidence in the present.

The battle isn’t over the evidence. It’s over two different interpretations of the same evidence because of two different starting points: God’s Word vs. man’s word.

Ken Ham is an author, speaker, and Founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis and its two popular interests: the acclaimed Creation Museum and the internationally known Ark Encounter.

Kevin Laskowski, of Falls Church, Virginia, who is priest-in-charge at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Centreville, Virginia, was among the contestants dealing with the category “Quoting the King James Bible.”

To his credit, Laskowski was able to answer “And the light shineth in” this, which “comprehended it not.”

“What is the darkness?” he correctly responded.

Another clue stated: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green” these.

“What is green pastures?” he answered rightly.

But then came a pair of clues to which the reverend was completely silent.

“Why beholdest thou” this 4-letter thing “that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

The correct response to the triple-stumper was “the mote.”

And the final, $1,000 clue also left all three contestants unable to voice anything.

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils” this phrase.

The correct response is “the breath of life.”

The initial biblical clue stated: “Exodus 20:8 commands, ‘Remember’ this day ‘to keep it holy.’”

It was answered correctly with “the Sabbath;” not by the priest, but by challenger Julia Schan, a stay-at-home mom from Pleasanton, California.

Laskowski was able to answer the alcohol-related Final Jeopardy clue: “Its 15 official state songs include 2 that mention moonshine & 3 played in 3/4 time.”

He correctly responded to win the game: “What is Tennessee?”

Some comments posted online about the priest’s performance include:

“Imagine being an Episcopalian priest and not be able to answer these clues about the Bible. Neither did the other 2 contestants. Fun times.”

“I always chuckle a little when there’s a clergyman on Jeopardy! who doesn’t know bible clues.”

“The Episcopalian priest on Jeopardy only getting two answers correct in the Bible category [bleeping] rules.”

“The priest knew hip hop lyrics yesterday and missed Bible quotes today?? Is he cosplaying us?”

“So the Episcopal priest could barely handle the Bible category? That tracks about right. Catholics and Episcopalians don’t read nor teach the Bible.

“If you wear your clerical collar to be a Jeopardy contestant, you best show up in the ‘Quoting the King James Bible’ category.”

This Episcopalian priest dominated the “it’s also a drink” category, but he grew up Catholic so it checks out. #jeopardy pic.twitter.com/q6rtm7iXPG

— RK Cats (@richksu) November 26, 2024

Watching the Episcopalian priest bomb the “Bible” category on Jeopardy…. pic.twitter.com/09bGlr1hQn

— Joshua Ortegon (@JoshuaOrtegon) November 28, 2024

Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews

Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@wndnewscenter.org.

Yet how many actually read it? Two years ago, Christianity Today noted: “The data said roughly 26 million people had mostly or completely stopped reading the Bible in the last year.”

Meanwhile, as of this writing, the education department of the state of Oklahoma is planning to purchase 55,000 Bibles for the public schools. I’m sure the left is gnashing their teeth over such a plan.

But historically, the Bible was the reason education for the masses was developed in America in the first place. The Puritan forefathers created schools for the masses (a forerunner to the public schools), so that children could learn to read, so they could read the Bible for themselves.

Someone might argue, “Well, that was the Puritans. But surely the Founding Fathers didn’t agree with that.”

But actually, they did argue for that in 1787 and in 1789 when the founders adopted the Northwest Ordinance. As new territories became states in the newly formed United States, they were to follow the same basic template.

Here’s what Article III of the Northwest Ordinance had to say about schools, which were voluntary at that time and often run by churches: “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

The Bible was the chief textbook in one way or another for the first 200-300 years of America – and that’s when the children could read, because of it. It was the Bible that gave birth to Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown and so on.

It was only when the schools explicitly went against the Scriptures that American education went off the rails. Now there are major portions of society who can’t read, despite years of schooling.

Meanwhile, is there a correlation between reading the Scriptures and human flourishing?

Many social science studies have shown that church is good for society, that attending church on a regular basis lengthens your life (on average) and that attending church often improves the quality of your life as well. Dr. Byron Johnson of Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion has spent years assessing studies on the impact of applied religion (generally, Christianity) leading to positive personal and societal improvement. Dr. Johnson even wrote a book showing how Christian belief and practice helps lower criminal behavior. The book is appropriately titled, “More God, Less Crime.“

But what about Bible-reading? A recent study Dr. Johnson wrote, along with M. Bradshaw and S.J. Jang, is entitled, “Assessing the Link Between Bible Reading and Flourishing among Military Families.”

Before exploring their results (which were positive), the study mentions earlier related findings: “Previous research shows salutary associations between multiple dimensions of religiosity (including reading sacred texts) and different aspects of flourishing (e.g., physical health, psychological well-being, character and virtue, social connections and support).”

The abstract of the study noted: “Bible reading may promote overall mental, physical, and social well-being. Implications and limitations of these preliminary findings are discussed.”

The researchers list three of their findings on how the Bible fosters human flourishing: “First, Bible reading is likely to promote psychological well-being by helping individuals develop a close relationship with a loving and caring God who engages in the lives of individuals.”

They continue: “Second, Bible reading may facilitate feelings of divine control that help cope with stress. Third, positive and encouraging messages in the Bible may also promote purpose in life and guidance seeking, which may also enhance flourishing.”

When I started reading the Bible for myself as a young man I found that it was such a great source for knowledge, for wisdom, for direction, for personal relations, etc.

The Bible was important to great Americans like George Washington, whose writings and speeches are filled with biblical phrases, such as “And everyman shall rest under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid.” This was Washington’s vision for America.

Even Jefferson, wisely or unwisely, collected many of the teachings of Jesus (including a few miracles) in a document for Native-Americans, so they too (like us) could benefit from them. People mistakenly call this unpublished work “The Jefferson Bible.” But as Jefferson noted once, the morality of Jesus is the most sublime and greatest moral teaching of all time.

President Lincoln called the Scriptures, “the greatest gift the Savior gave the world.” Indeed, great Americans through the ages were very familiar with the Bible.

As Ronald Reagan once said of the holy book, “Inside its pages lie all the answers to all the problems that man has ever known.”

To promote human flourishing, spread the message of the Scriptures.

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