Is World War 3 in the Bible?

Short answer:

Yes. A nuclear war, which could very well be World War III, is prophesied in the Bible, mainly in the book of Revelation. The prophecy, however, is worded with mysterious symbols and metaphors whose meanings have remained hidden for almost 2,000 years since the manuscript was written around 95 A.D. by the apostle John.

Fortuitously, in recent years the symbolisms have been decoded by means of relevant verses in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible interprets itself!

Detailed Explanation:

Apostle John got wind of an end-time global conflict, a world war, in his apocalyptic visions, which he recorded in the last book of the Bible – Revelation. “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:1-3).  

 

Prophetic symbols.

The puzzling symbols have been unveiled by prophecy watchmen who realized that most of the clues and keys which can unlock Biblical mysteries are in the Bible itself. And when Scripture solves its own riddles, we can be sure the answers are trustworthy. Let us search the Holy Book to decipher the hidden meanings of the prophetic symbols in the prophecy.

“Sea.” In a vision the prophet Daniel had around 700 years earlier, he saw some of the same things John recorded in the Revelation. “Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea” (Daniel 7:2).

“Many waters.” In Revelation 13:1, John wrote about a monster with 7 heads and 10 horns from the “sea.” Later, the monster is again seen in Revelation 17:1-5, this time in “many waters”, with a “whore” (prostitute) sitting on it. It looks like the terms “sea” and “many waters” mean the same thing. An angel revealed the meaning of “waters” or “sea” to John. “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

The “sea” therefore stands for a place with many different peoples speaking various languages – such as the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea and centered in Western Europe, then known as the Old World, and today the base of the member-states of the European Union (EU).

 “Earth.” The New Unger's Bible Dictionary defines “earth”: “land as opposed to sea.” When the world was created, at first there was only water. Then, after God gathered the waters together, dry land appeared; and the surface of the planet consisted of two kinds: “sea” and “earth” (Genesis 1:9-10). The two are opposites.

Hence, if “sea” signifies a region with many different kinds of people, “earth” must mean a place with very few or even no people. In that case, if the “sea” is the Old World, then “earth” stands for the New World – the immense, but sparsely populated lands of the Americas, which European explorers came upon during the Age of Discovery.

“Trees.” Through Ezekiel, God likened the Assyrian king and the Egyptian pharaoh to trees. “Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs… To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 31:3,18).

Daniel interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon: “The tree that you saw, which grew and became strong, whose height reached to the heavens and which could be seen by all the earth, whose leaves were lovely and its fruit abundant, in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and in whose branches the birds of the heaven had their home -- it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong; for your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens, and your dominion to the end of the earth” (Daniel 4:20-23).

The kings of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon, were all likened to trees. What do they have in common? History tells us these three ancient kingdoms, actually empires, one after another oppressed and subjugated the Israelites. “Trees” thus figuratively symbolize the enemies and oppressors of Israel.

(Egypt, the most populous Arab nation today, has retained it identity, but Assyria and Babylon no longer exist. Today, their former domains are mostly in the northern and southern parts of the country of Iraq, respectively.)

“Wind.” Several verses contain the word “wind.” “I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity” (Jeremiah 18:17, etc.). Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary comments: “In a figurative sense, war is compared to the east wind…”

“Whirlwind”. A concentrated, spinning form of wind that can be greatly destructive is the whirlwind. “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over” (Daniel 11:40).

Both “wind” and “whirlwind” figuratively mean war, enemy attacks and invasions, often as a manifestation of the wrath of God Almighty.

 

World War III?

Let us now put together the prophetic symbols whose meanings we have discerned. The four angels in John’s prophecy are “on the four corners of the earth…” – denoting the four directions of the compass: north, east, south, and west. So, the scope of their combined powers must be worldwide.

If “wind” means war, the “four winds of the earth” that they are holding back point to global warfare. The angels are preventing a world war from breaking out prematurely. After the angel from the east shall have finished sealing the servants of God,” the world war will break out – World War III?).

The other symbols identify the main battle zones and protagonists: “earth” (New World/the Americas, whose most powerful country today is the United States), “sea” (Old World, primarily Western Europe, home of the European Union’s first and leading member-states), and “trees” (the enemies of Israel, that is, mostly Arab and Muslim peoples).

 

First trumpet.

 “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up” (Revelation 8:7). Let us allow the Bible to similarly interpret the multiple prophetic symbols in the passage.

“Hail”. We read in Isaiah 28:2, 17 – “…the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, cast down to the earth… Judgment will I lay to the line, the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, waters shall overflow the hiding place.” From the foregoing passages, it appears that “hail” means destruction, as well as divine anger, vengeance, and punishment on the enemies of God.

“Fire”. Using the same principle, in Deuteronomy 4:24 we find – “For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.”  And in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 – “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Accordingly, “fire” is a symbol, as well as God's instrument, of judgment and righteous destruction.

“Blood”. Isaiah 34:3 reads, “Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.”  Apparently, “blood” means violent death, even slaughter.

“Earth”. As we have learned, “earth” means the New World (the Americas), whose richest and most powerful country today is the United States. 

 

 America attacked?

We can now reduce into simple terms the first half of the cryptic passage. “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth…” (Revelation 8:7a). America will be the target of a particularly vicious attack. Was it the September 11, 2001, attack (9/11) by a group of Muslim terrorists who crashed three of four hijacked jetliners one after another into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? Or will it be another, more devastating and widespread assault yet to come?

The second part of the prophecy tells of vegetation catching “fire” – “…and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up” (Rev 8:7b).

“Trees”. As we have already seen in Ezekiel 31:3a, 18 and Daniel 4:20-22, “trees” symbolize the enemies of Israel (mainly Arab and Muslim countries).

“Grass”. We next read in Psalm 37:1-2 –“Fret not because of evildoers, neither be envious against workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.” And in Psalm 92:7 – “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever.”  

So, “grass” is a Biblical imagery for wicked people and evildoers. Is the fact that grass is green (traditional color of Islam and Arab peoples) a strong hint that Muslim terrorists are alluded to?

 

America retaliates?

In Revelation 8:7b, it seems that the US will strike back on a third of the enemies of Israel (“trees”) and all evildoers (“green grass”/Muslim terrorists?). Is the prophecy still awaiting a future fulfillment, or do fairly recent geopolitical events apply?

The US accused al-Qa'eda, headed by Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden, of masterminding the 9/11 attacks. They also charged Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring the terrorist group after the attack. The US demanded that the Taliban arrest the terrorists. When the Taliban refused, the US and the UK began a bombing campaign and gave logistical support to Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance rebel forces. A ground offensive by combined Northern Alliance fighters and US special forces soon drove the Taliban from power in December 2001.

Next, in March-April 2003, the US led a military campaign to oust Iraq's Saddam Hussein, whom they accused of producing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and supporting Muslim terrorists. They quickly toppled the Iraqi dictatorship and later captured Saddam, who was sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal for crimes against humanity and subsequently hanged in December 2006.

In 2014, the US led an international coalition in the many-sided Syrian civil war, carrying out air strikes in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the Islamic State (aka ISIS) and other jihadist groups, which were later defeated.

 

First vial (or bowl).

“And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image” (Revelation 16:2).

 “Earth”. As we now know, the “earth” is the New World, primarily its most powerful nation today – the United States.

“Sore”. It seems many Americans will be afflicted with skin ulcerations (“noisome and grievous sore”), particularly those “which had the mark of the beast” and “them which worshipped his image.”

Anthrax? The cause of the sores could be biological weapons. Some countries are known or suspected to be developing this kind of weapon of mass destruction. One such likely WMD is anthrax, a cattle disease that is communicable to humans and causes festering sores that do not heal. In 1979, anthrax spores (inactive bacteria) were accidentally released from a military facility in the Soviet Union, causing 68 deaths.

In 2001, after 9/11, anthrax spores were sent by mail to several US business and government offices. People in several states became ill with inhalational anthrax and several died, while others contracted cutaneous anthrax (skin sores).

 

Second trumpet.

“And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed” (Rev 8:8).

“Great burning mountain”. What could this thing be representing? Thankfully, we can again find the answer in the Scriptures.  “And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain” (Jeremiah 51:24-25). God, through Jeremiah, called Babylon or Chaldea, today in the southern part of Iraq, a destroying mountain that will be burned.

It looks like the “great burning mountain” is today part of Iraq!

“Sea”. We have learned earlier from Revelation 17:15 that the “sea”, a place of many nations and languages, is the Old World, primarily Western Europe, where many member-states of the European Union (EU) are located.

“Blood”. We saw in Isaiah 34:3 and Ezekiel 14:19 in our analysis of the first trumpet that “blood” means violent death or even slaughter.

It appears that the implication of the second trumpet prophecy is awfully dreadful. Iraq (“great mountain burning with fire”, perhaps led by jihadists) will attack the European Union (the “sea”), and about 33% of all its people and animals will perish (“third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died”). Those on board 33% of EU ships, whether military, commercial, or leisure, will suffer the same fate (“and the third part of the ships were destroyed”).

Biological weapons? The reason for the massive and rapid deaths is uncertain. Could it be a biological attack?

 

Second vial.

“And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea” (Revelation 16:3). With the meanings of the prophetic symbols now openly known to us, the interpretation of the second vial or bowl looms unimaginably horrid: Most, if not all, of those living in the European Union, people and animals, will die!

Spiritual death? Does the word “died” indicate physical death, quite literally, or just spiritual death, figuratively? If the latter, then it looks like the present trend in Europe of fewer and fewer people going to church will turn from bad to worse. If all, or at least most, of the inhabitants of EU stop worshipping God, this, to one’s mind, would be much graver – the enormous population of EU would go on living physically, but would have potentially lost their opportunity for spiritual salvation. It seems unlikely, though, considering the phrase “every living soul”, which includes animals that have no mental faculties to accept or disavow God, nor spirits that can be lost or saved. Sadly, it looks like physical death is the literal meaning.

 

Third trumpet.

 “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters” (Revelation 8:10). Let us again dig out the buried meanings of the prophetic images in the Bible.

“Rivers”. Biblical passages couched in metaphors reveal that “rivers” represent attacking enemies and invaders. We see this in Isaiah 8:7 – “Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.” Another example is found in Jeremiah 46:8 – “Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.”

“Fountains”. These have a somewhat more elusive symbolism. “For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills” (Deuteronomy 8:7). Also, “He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills” (Psalm 104:10). “Fountains” or springs are the sources of rivers; so if “rivers” are invading armies, “fountains” must be their homelands where the invaders come from.

 

“Wormwood”.

The star that fell has a very unusual name. “And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter” (Rev 8:11).

For more than 1,900 years since it was written (circa 95 A.D.), the meaning of “Wormwood” in prophecy had remained a riddle no reader could unravel. Botanically, wormwood is an aromatic, bitter plant used as a medicine and whose leaves and flowers add flavor to absinthe, an old-time liqueur now considered harmful. In the Ukrainian language, wormwood is translated as chernobyl, also the name of a city in the Ukraine near where a Soviet nuclear power plant was built in 1977-1983.

Chernobyl accident. On April 26, 1986, one of the nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, releasing an estimated 100-150 million curies of radiation into the atmosphere. Radioactivity from Chernobyl contaminated the atmosphere above the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, reaching as far as Italy and France in Western Europe. Some 200,000 people near the site had to be relocated; but around 6,000-8,000 victims died following the accident.

Was it God’s inkling to us that “Wormwood” means “radioactive” or “nuclear”? In the primitive world of the first century A.D., there was no way John, author of the Revelation, could have used the words “radioactive” and “nuclear”. So, now, having learned the hidden meaning of “Wormwood”, we can more intelligibly paraphrase Revelation 8:10-11.

Attackers nuked? Some one-third of the various attacking forces (“third part of the rivers”) and the homelands they came from (“the fountains of waters”) will be bombed (“there fell a great star from heaven”) with nuclear weapons (“the name of the star is called Wormwood”). One-third of the people there (“the third part of the waters”) will be afflicted with radioactivity (“became wormwood”) and there will be numerous casualties (“many men died”) due to radiation (“the waters were made bitter”).

 

Third vial.

“And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood” (Revelation 16:4). The third vial or bowl is simply a progression (or, rather, deterioration) of things from the third trumpet – with the situation worsening gravely. Many more fighters among the invading forces (“rivers”) and most of the people (“waters”) in their homelands will be radioactively contaminated and lose their lives (“became blood”).

Nuclear war analysis. Discover magazine, in its February 1984 issue, reported that “four American scientists… at the invitation of Senators Edward Kennedy and Mark Hatfield, met in Washington in December (1983) for a three-hour open discussion with four Soviet counterparts. The subject of their discussion: the nuclear winter.”

“Blast, heat and radiation”. “Two scientific reports have recently been published, dealing with the probable effects of nuclear war upon the earth’s climate and the life of the planet. The first discovery is already widely known within the scientific community of climatologists, geophysicists, and biologists here and abroad, and had been confirmed in detail by scientists in the Soviet Union… the already taken for granted estimate that in an all-out exchange of say, 5,000 megatons, something like a billion people would be killed outright by blast, heat and radiation… more than another billion would die later on, from the delayed effects of the climate and radioactive fallout.

“In the same research, new calculations of the extent and intensity of radioactive fallout predict the exposure of large land areas to much more intense levels of radiation than expected. The report is referred to as TTAPS, an acronym derived from the investigators names: Turco, Toon, Ackerman, Pollack, and Sagan… There is no nation on earth free of the jeopardy of destruction if any two countries or groups of countries embark upon a nuclear exchange.”

“Extinction of the biosphere”. The article went on: ”The second piece of work, by Paul Ehrlich and 19 other distinguished biologists, demonstrates that the predictions of TTAPS mean nothing less than the extinction of much of the earth’s biosphere, very possibly involving the Southern Hemisphere as well as the Northern…”

Excerpted from the booklet Nuclear War-Great Tribulation; and the books End Time Decoded  and The Deep Things of God by M.M. Tauson. Printed copies available at Amazon.com For free pdf copies of our e-booklets, click the Booklets and Google Drive tabs on the menu bar.

Early Earth Enigmas (Part 7)

Alternative theories

The absence in the fossil record of transitional forms that would prove the Theory of Evolution has led many frustrated evolutionists to consider alternative theories for the development of life forms on Earth.

 

Theistic Evolution.

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, many Catholics and Protestants accepted Theistic Evolution, the belief that the process of biological evolution was divinely supervised. Theistic evolutionists believe that God created the first cell, then afterward allowed evolution to proceed, intervening only occasionally. He waited for primitive man to evolve into the first perfect human being before endowing him with a soul. The hybrid doctrine is a combination of divine creation and Darwinian evolution.

Botanist Asa Gray (d. 1888), one of Darwin's leading American disciples, embraced a variant of the concept. He argued that, only in special cases like those of human beings and complex organs such as the eye, did God carry out direct special creation.

Geologist Arnold Guyot, a staunch anti-Darwinist, advocated at least three interventions by the Creator: first, when He created matter; second, when He created life; and, third, when He created man.¹⁰²

 

Punctuated Equilibrium.

In an attempt to explain the absence of transitional forms, Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge, American Museum of Natural History curator, jointly proposed the theory of Punctuated Equilibrium in several articles in scientific publications (Mammals in Paleontology, 1972; Nature, 1993; Paleontology, 2007).^103,104,105 Newsweek magazine reported on March 29, 1982: “In 1972 Gould and Niles Eldredge collaborated on a paper intended… to resolve a professional embarrassment for paleontologists: their inability to find the fossils of transitional forms between species, the so-called ‘missing links’.” Their concept: “Instead of changing gradually as one generation shades into the next, evolution as Gould sees it, proceeds in discrete leaps. According to the theory of punctuated equilibrium there are no transitional forms between species, and thus no missing links!”¹⁰⁶ 

Gould and Eldredge speculate that speciation (the change from an old species to a new one) usually occurs in small, isolated, peripheral groups rather than in the main populations of species, making their fossilized remains harder to find. Fossils of the general population are usually found, which creates the impression of the unchanging nature or stasis of most species over millions of years.¹⁰⁷

Panspermia (spores from space).

Sir Fred Hoyle mused that “life could not have originated here on the Earth. Nor does it look as though biological evolution can be explained from within an earth-bound theory of life.”¹⁰⁸ Earlier, in 1908, Svante Arrhenius theorized that spores could have drifted to Earth from other star systems. These gave rise to the first living cells that later evolved into more complex organisms.¹⁰⁹

Nobel laureate Francis Crick similarly proposed that “life on earth may have sprung from tiny organisms from a distant planet, sent here by space ship as part of a deliberate act of seeding”¹¹⁰ Crick gave the old theory, known as “panspermia” (from Greek pan, “of all,” and sperma, “seed”), a new twist: “directed panspermia.” Some people find this plausible. J. Horgan wrote in the Scientific American (February 1992): “Given the weaknesses of all theories of terrestrial genesis (the origin of life on Earth), directed panspermia (the deliberate planting of life on Earth) should still be considered a serious possibility.”¹¹¹

Panspermia, though, fails to answer the question of life’s origin. It merely takes the problem of creation out to space. Just how life arose on a planet many light years away is not explained.

 

Progressive Creation

In the 1930s Russell L. Mixter, a Wheaton College graduate, formed the concept that God created the universe and the various forms of life on earth gradually, over millions and billions of years. Creation was accomplished in progressive steps -- hence the name of the doctrine:  Progressive Creationism. In 1954 theologian Bernard Ramm wrote The Christian View of Science and Scripture, popularizing the idea which no longer demanded a young Earth and the recent creation of man.¹¹²

Progressive Creationism is thus a form of Old Earth creationism, accepting geological and cosmological estimates for the age of the Earth and the universe, while teaching that the successive species of plants and animals in the fossil record were the products of divine creation, not Darwinian evolution. As earlier organisms died off and became extinct, God created new species to replace them.

Most of God’s replacements were typically improved models. Each time, the basic forms or "templates" of previously existing life are used -- with just a few minor adjustments. For instance, the DNA of a gorilla has been found to be 97.8% similar to a man’s; the chimpanzee’s DNA resembles that of a human being by 98.2%.

The leading proponents of Progressive Creationism are Reasons To Believe, organized by astronomer Hugh Ross, and Answers in Creation, another organization set up in 2003 to publish rebuttals to Young Earth Creationists’ scientific claims, which are regarded as pseudoscience.¹¹³

____________________

¹⁰²Theistic Evolution, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004

¹⁰³“Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism,” Mammals in Paleontology, 1972, pp. 82-115

¹⁰⁴“Punctuated Equilibrium Comes of Age,” Nature 366, 1993, pp. 223-227

¹⁰⁵“Punctuated Equilibria: The Tempo and Mode of Evolution Reconsidered,” Paleontology, 2007, pp. 115-151

¹⁰⁶Enigmas of Evolution,” Newsweek, March 29, 1982, p. 39

¹⁰⁷Evolution, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004

¹⁰⁸Fred Hoyle, The Intelligent Universe, 1983, p. 242

¹⁰⁹Cited by Gary Stearman, “Rael, Inc., “Cloning for Life,” Prophecy in the News, February 2003, p. 11

¹¹⁰Francis Crick, “Life Itself – Its Origin and Nature,” Futura, 1982; quoted by Mark Eastman and Chuck Missler, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, 1996, p. 62

¹¹¹J. Horgan, “Profile: Francis H.C. Crick,” Scientific American, February 1992; quoted by Schroeder, op. cit., p. 90

¹¹²Old Earth Creationism, Wikipedia, Internet

¹¹³Progressive Creationism, Wikipedia, Internet

 

(Excerpted from Chapter 5, Early Earth Enigmas, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)

 

Early Earth Enigmas (Part 6)

Divinely designed DNA?

When the cell of a bacterium divides, it becomes two bacteria, not two amoebae. Apple trees bear apples, not oranges. A smooth-coated Siamese cat cannot give birth to thick-furred Persian kittens, although they belong to the same feline family. All living species, as well as varieties within them, stay the same from one generation to the next.

The Creator had apparently intended it to be that way from the very beginning: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so” (Gen 1:24).

Physically responsible for this biological order is a chemical molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which forms part of threadlike chromosomes inside all living cells (except red blood cells and some viruses). In the form of two intertwined chains in a double helix (spiral), like a twisted ladder, each DNA comprises thousands of encoded genes that govern heredity, the transmission of physical characteristics from parent to offspring.

 

“Chicken or egg” paradox.

Proteins depend on DNA for their formation. Yet, DNA cannot form without pre-existing protein. Which came first?

Chemistry lecturer John C. Walton further lamented: “The origin of the genetic code presents formidable unsolved problems. The coded information in the nucleotide sequence is meaningless without the translation machinery, but the specification for this machinery is itself coded in the DNA. Thus without the machinery the information is meaningless, but without the coded information the machinery cannot be produced! This presents a paradox of the ‘chicken and egg’ variety, and attempts to solve it have so far been sterile.”⁹⁴

 

Stored genetic information.

DNA is stored information written in a genetic language with a four-letter (nucleotide) alphabet and grammatical rules, telling the cells how to function and reproduce. Despite having only four letters, through their various combinations DNA is able to maintain the distinctions not only among all species, but also between individuals of each species. The language components in the human gene are identical to that of other organisms, say, a snail. Only the sequence is different.⁹⁵

One of the tiniest one-celled organisms is the bacterium R. coli. Scientists estimate it has about 2,000 genes, with some 1,000 enzymes each. Every enzyme contains roughly one billion nucleotides or letters of the chemical alphabet, comparable to bytes in computer language.

Physicist Jonathan Sarfati reckons that the “amount of information that could be stored in a pinhead’s volume of DNA is equivalent to a pile of paperback books 500 times as high as the distance from Earth to the moon, each with a different, yet specific content. Putting it another way, while we think that our new 40 gigabyte hard drives are advanced technology, a pinhead of DNA could hold 100 million times more information.”⁹⁶

 

Information from intelligence.

Information is nonmaterial and, therefore, could not have originated from matter. Information can only come from intelligence. Co-authors L. Lester and R. Bohlin tell us: “Intelligence is a necessity in the origin of any informational code, including the genetic code…”⁹⁷ The vast amounts of information in the DNA can only have come from an intelligent source.

1962 Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA structure, had said that the more he studied the DNA double-helix, the more he became convinced that it could not have evolved by chance. In his book Life Itself, he wrote: “An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that, in some sense, the origins of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle.”⁹⁸

On December 16, 2010, the History Channel aired interviews with scientists who admitted that evolution of the DNA molecule by chance or accident is totally impossible.⁹⁹

Designed on purpose. Biochemist Michael Behe of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania (Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, 1996) construes that “the straightforward conclusion is that many biochemical systems were designed. They were designed not by the laws of nature, not by chance and necessity; rather they were planned. The designer knew what the systems would look like when they were completed, then took steps to bring the systems about… Life on earth at its most fundamental level, in its most critical components, is the product of intelligent design.”¹⁰⁰

Natural processes, such as mutation, cannot alter the DNA. I.L. Cohen says that “any physical change of any size, shape or form is strictly the result of purposeful alignment of billions of nucleotides (in the DNA). Nature or species do not have the capacity to rearrange them nor to add to them… The only way we know for a DNA to be altered is through a meaningful intervention from an outside source of intelligence – one who knows what it is doing, such as our genetic engineers are now performing in the laboratories…”¹⁰¹

Every living cell (except a few highly specialized ones) carries in its DNA all the information needed reproduce a new, identical organism. To clone an entire human being, the scientist needs just one cell.

 ____________________

 

⁹⁴John C. Walton, “Organization and the Origin of Life,” Origins, 1977, pp. 30–31

⁹⁵Dawkins, op. cit., Oxford University Press 30^th Anniversary Edition, 2006, p. 2

⁹⁶Jonathan Sarfati, DNA: Marvelous Messages or Mostly Mess?, March 2003, Internet

⁹⁷L. Lester and R. Bohlin, The Natural Limits to Biological Change, 1989, p. 157

⁹⁸Francis Crick, Life Itself, p. 88; quoted by Gary Stearman, “Rael, Inc., “Cloning for Life,” Prophecy in the News, February 2003, p. 12

⁹⁹Jan Marcussen, Newsletter, Mid-January Y2K+11, p. 2

¹⁰⁰Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, 1996, p. 193

¹⁰¹Cohen, loc. cit.

 

(Excerpted from Chapter 5, Early Earth Enigmas, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)

 

Early Earth Enigmas (Part 5)

 “Irreducible complexity.”

All organisms, from cells to humans, are “irreducibly complex” – all their basic components have to be in place before they can function. Thus, all species, extinct or extant, appear fully developed. There is no known partially-developed species.

Evolution, though, is believed to work through small, gradual steps, keeping new traits that it finds functional. Will it keep in reserve anything that does not work, even if potentially useful? There are no instances of half-developed appendages or organs in any fossilized or living organism – no budding eyes that could not see or partial wings that could not fly.

Blood clotting. Vital to healing wounds, blood-clotting in animals and man involves 20–30 complex chemical steps. Omission of one step, inclusion of an abnormal step, or alteration of the timing of a step will prevent blood from clotting and lead to death. If the first few of the many blood clotting factors were not immediately useful, the body would not have kept them, unaware that the rest of the factors would also form. How did such a complex, yet precise, process fully develop?

Charles Darwin had confessed in his famous book: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”⁶⁷

The eye. As a human embryo develops in its mother’s womb, some one million optic nerves start to grow from the back of each eye, simultaneous with a corresponding one million nerves from the brain. Each of the millions of nerves from both sides has to make its way through the tissues in between and connect to its counterpart – much like two work teams digging a tunnel from opposite sides of a mountain must meet precisely at the center according to the engineer’s plan.

Most animals, invertebrates as well as vertebrates, have eyes. Even the sea wasp, a jellyfish, has eyes. Among of the strangest are multiple-lensed, compound eyes found in fossilized worms!⁶⁸

Did the eye evolve? Darwin admitted the failure of his theory to explain the development of the eye. “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”⁶⁹

Solomon understood the matter quite well. “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them” (Prov 20:12).

In the sixth edition of his book, Darwin junked the idea of natural selection or “survival of the fittest” as the driving force behind the theory of evolution: “Natural selection is incompetent to account for the incipient stages of useful structures,” he said.⁷⁰

 

Genetic pre-programming.

How does evolution explain metamorphosis -- the form-changing stages in the life cycles of insects, amphibians, and crustaceans? Most of them hatch from eggs as larvae. Were they once all larvae before they evolved into more advanced forms? One may say larvae, just like some worms, reproduced sexually in the distant past. But there is no trace of reproductive organs in any type of larva. And, if a larva could not reproduce, how could it have evolved?

Some insect larvae pass through a cocoon stage when their brains, nerves, muscles, eyes, and other organs dissolve into goo. Does it mean some larvae evolved into goo before becoming, say, butterflies? How did they survive as goo for thousands or even millions of years?

Metamorphosis exemplifies genetic pre-programming. Similarly, ants and termites have the ability to grow wings in order to migrate when their colonies become overpopulated or destroyed. The insects use their wings for just one short flight, before shedding them to seek mates.⁷¹ Obviously, these are not cases of biological evolution.

 

The Cambrian “explosion.”

For nearly 3 billion years since life first appeared on earth, organisms remained microscopic in size: bacteria, protozoan, Ediacaran spheres and discs without mouths and appendages.⁷² Then, suddenly: the Cambrian “explosion.” Time magazine’s cover story in its Dec. 4, 1995, issue tells us in graphic terms: “Creatures with teeth and tentacles and claws and jaws materialized with the suddenness of apparitions. In a burst of creativity like nothing before or since, nature appears to have sketched out the blueprints for virtually the whole of the animal kingdom. This explosion of biological diversity is described by scientists as biology’s Big Bang”⁷³

All anatomical designs. In a quantum leap, life advanced from microbial, amorphous organisms to complex multi-cellular life forms: rotifers, annelids (worms), arthropods, fish – equipped with jointed, food-gathering appendages, intestines, notochords, gills, eyes – all the anatomical designs found in the animal phyla existing today. Oddly, no new phylum has appeared since the Cambrian Explosion. Succeeding developments have been confined to variations within each phylum.⁷⁴

In fact, says Paul Chien, Biology Dept. Chair of the University of San Francisco, the number of phyla has even decreased! “A simple way of putting it is that currently we have about 38 phyla of different groups of animals, but the total number of phyla discovered during that period of time (Cambrian) adds up to over 50 phyla. That means more phyla in the very, very beginning, where we found the first fossils, than exist now… The theory of evolution implies that things get more complex and get more and more diverse from one single origin. But the whole thing turns out to be reversed -- we have more diverse groups in the very beginning, and in fact more and more of them die off over time, and we have less and less now.”⁷⁵

He adds: “Also, the animal explosion caught people’s attention when the Chinese confirmed they found a genus now called Yunnanzoon that was present in the very beginning. This genus is considered a chordate, and the phylum Chordata includes fish, mammals and man. An evolutionist would say the ancestor of humans was present then. Looked at more objectively, you could say the most complex animal group, the chordates, were represented at the beginning, and they did not go through a slow gradual evolution to become a chordate.”⁷⁶

No ancestors. For new life forms to appear, it would have taken hundreds of millions of years for the thousands of mutations needed to alter existing genes. Yet, the fossil record indicates that the Cambrian Explosion transpired in 5 million years or less.⁷⁷ Further, there is no evidence of mutational evolution within the 5-million-year span of the Cambrian explosion.^78,79 Colin Patterson (Evolution, 1978) avers: "Most of the major groups of animals (phyla) appear fully fledged in the early Cambrian rocks and we know of no fossil forms linking them."⁸⁰

Paleontologist Alfred S. Romer corroborates that: “Below this (Cambrian period), there are vast thicknesses of sediments in which the progenitors of the Cambrian forms would be expected. But we do not find them; these older beds are almost barren of evidence of life, and the general picture could reasonably be said to be consistent with the idea of a special creation at the beginning of Cambrian times.”⁸¹

Surprisingly, even staunch evolutionist Richard Dawkins seems to agree: “If progressive evolution, from simple to complex is correct, the ancestors of these full-blown creatures in the Cambrian should be found; but they have not been found and scientists admit there is little prospect of their ever being found. On the basis of the facts alone, on the basis of what is actually found in the earth, the theory of a sudden creative act in which the major forms of life were established fits best.”⁸²

Darwin had acknowledged the possibility of his theory’s demise: “If numerous species… have really started into life at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of evolution.”⁸³ 

Sudden entry and exit. Many scientists have arrived at that conclusion. David M. Raup (Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin, January 1979): “Species appear in the sequence very suddenly, show little or no change during their existence in the record, then abruptly go out of the record.”⁸⁴ Steven M. Stanley (The New Evolutionary Timetable, 1981): “The record now reveals that species typically survive for a hundred thousand generations, or even a million or more, without evolving very much… After their origins, most species undergo little evolution before becoming extinct.”⁸⁵ Harvard University paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould (“Evolution’s Erratic Pace,” Natural History, May 1977): “The history of most fossils includes two features particularly inconsistent with gradualism: (1) Stasis. Most species… appear in the fossil record looking pretty much the same as when they disappear… (2) Sudden appearance. In any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors: it appears all at once and ‘fully formed’.”⁸⁶

George Sim Johnston (“An Evening with Darwin in New York,” Crisis, April 2006) sums it all up: “This is the verdict of modern paleontology: The record does not show gradual, Darwinian evolution. Otto Schindewolf, perhaps the leading paleontologist of the 20^th century, wrote that the fossils ‘directly contradict’ Darwin.”⁸⁷

Darwin confessed to fellow-scientists in his letters: “It (the theory of evolution) is a mere rage of a hypothesis with as many flaws and holes as sound parts…” He considered the possibility that, “I… have devoted my life to a fantasy.”⁸⁸

 

Unscientific theory.

C.F. Morgan (“Evolution Not Based on Fact,” 1998) points out that “true science is limited to observable phenomena. To be truly scientific, something must be observable, documentable, repeatable, experimentally verifiable, and testable, among other things. Conversely, evolution is a philosophical belief about the past based upon subjective interpretations and opinions of scientific data which exists in the present… Evolution is not a fact. It is not even a good theory. It has never been observed, and there is no direct evidence that it has ever occurred. It is no more than a religious or philosophical belief based upon choice, not science.”⁸⁹

Mathematician I.L. Cohen (Darwin Was Wrong: A Study in Probabilities, 1984) confirms that “every single concept advanced by the theory of evolution (and amended thereafter) is imaginary as it is not supported by the scientifically established facts of microbiology, fossils, and mathematical probability concepts. Darwin was wrong… The theory of evolution may be the worst mistake in science.”⁹⁰

Arthur L. Bruce (“Evolution Is a Creation Myth,” 1998) comments: “Actually, evolution is not even a scientific theory because it cannot be tested by the scientific method. It is an unscientific hypothesis or speculation about origins that contradicts the basic laws and facts of science. It is the ‘creation myth’ upon which the religion of secular humanism is founded. Its proper place for study in the public schools is not the science classroom but the social studies or humanities classroom where it should be examined in comparison with the classical myths and other religions of the world.”⁹¹ (In the late 1990s the states of Alabama, Arizona, and New Mexico declared that the subject of evolution can only be taught as one theory of origins and not as fact.)

Austin H. Clark (“Animal Evolution,” Quarterly Review of Biology, December 1928) concedes: “Thus so far as concerns the major groups of animals, the creationists seem to have the better of the argument. There is not the slightest evidence that any one of the major groups arose from any other. Each is a special animal complex related, more or less closely, to all the rest, and appearing, therefore, as a special and distinct creation.”⁹²

Sir Fred Hoyle and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe (Evolution from Space: A Theory of Cosmic Creationism, 1981) conclude: “The speculations of The Origin of Species turned out to be wrong… It is ironic that the scientific facts throw Darwin out…”⁹³

____________________

⁶⁷Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 1859, p. 179

⁶⁸Donald G. Mikulic et al., “A Silurian Soft-Bodied Biota,” Science, 10 May 1985, pp. 715–717

⁶⁹Darwin, op. cit., pp. 146,175

⁷⁰Op. cit., Sixth Edition, The Modern Library, 1872, p. 66

⁷¹Termite, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)

⁷²Schroeder, op. cit. p. 94

⁷³Madeline Nash, “When Life Exploded,” Time, Dec. 4, 1995, p. 68

⁷⁴Schroeder, op. cit. pp. 92-93

⁷⁵Paul Chien, “Explosion of Life,” 30 June 1997 Interview, origins.org/articles/chien_explosionoflife.html, p. 2

⁷⁶Op. cit., p. 3

⁷⁷S. Bowring et al., “Calibrating Rates of Early Cambrian Evolution,” Science, 1993; cited by Schroeder, op. cit., pp. 116-117

⁷⁸R. Gore, “The Cambrian Explosion of Life,” National Geographic, October 1993

⁷⁹R. Kerr, “Evolution’s Big Bang Gets Even More Explosive,” Science, 1993

⁸⁰Colin Patterson, Evolution, 1978, p. 133

⁸¹Alfred S. Romer, “Darwin and the Fossil Record,” Natural History, October 1959, p. 466

⁸²Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 1976, p. 14

⁸³Charles Darwin, op. cit., 1902 edition, Part Two, p. 54

⁸⁴David M. Raup, “Conflicts Between Darwin and Paleontology,” Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin, January 1979, p. 23

⁸⁵Steven M. Stanley, The New Evolutionary Timetable, 1981, p. xv

⁸⁶Stephen J. Gould, “Evolution’s Erratic Pace,” Natural History, May 1977, pp. 13-14

⁸⁷George Sim Johnston, “An Evening with Darwin in New York,” Crisis, April 2006, Internet

⁸⁸Adrian Desmond and J. Moore, Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist, 1991, pp. 475-477

⁸⁹C.F. (Frank) Morgan, “Evolution Not Based on Fact,” May 4, 1998, “Letters to the Editor,” National Institute for Inventors tract

⁹⁰I.L. Cohen, Darwin Was Wrong: A Study in Probabilities, 1984, p. 209-210

⁹¹Arthur L. Bruce, “Evolution Is a Creation Myth,” May 23, 1998, “Letters to the Editor,” National Institute for Inventors tract

⁹²Austin H. Clark, “Animal Evolution,” Quarterly Review of Biology, December 1928, p. 539

⁹³Fred Hoyle and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space: A Theory of Cosmic Creationism, 1981, pp. 96–97

 (Excerpted from Chapter 5, Early Earth Enigmas, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)