A number of years ago, we were gifted with a trip to the Grand Canyon. I still remember seeing it for the first time. No words can describe it! Its beauty is breathtaking. You can watch videos and take virtual tours of the Canyon but nothing compares to seeing it with your own eyes as you drink in the 1,218,375 acres that covers 1,904 square miles. With a maximum rim-to-rim distance of 18 miles and an average depth of 1 mile, the area is home to 450 species of birds, 91 species of mammals, 23 species of fish, 58 species of reptiles and amphibians, 1,443 species of invertebrates, including 292 butterflies and moths, as well as 30 species of exotic animals. In addition, there are 2,544 species of plants, moss, and fungus growing in the Canyon.1
“Though Native Americans lived in the area as early as the 13th century, the first European sighting of the canyon wasn’t until 1540, by members of an expedition headed by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Because of its remote and inaccessible location, several centuries passed before North American settlers really explored the canyon. In 1869, geologist John Wesley Powell led a group of 10 men in the first difficult journey down the rapids of the Colorado River and along the length of the 277-mile gorge in four rowboats.”2
On January 11, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt made the Grand Canyon a national monument. Congress fought Roosevelt’s efforts, so he used his executive power to protect the Canyon. In a statement to Congress, Roosevelt said, “In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”3
After seeing the Canyon, I can say that I approve of Roosevelt’s use of his executive power. What a loss it would have been if the Canyon was ruined by developers! And the loss would have been far greater than just the ruination of a beautiful natural treasure.
A trip to the Grand Canyon affirms the accuracy of Genesis 6:9-8:22. Consider just a portion of these verses.
Genesis 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Genesis 7:11-12 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (12) And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:17-24 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. (18) And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. (19) And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. (20) Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. (21) And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: (22) All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. (23) And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. (24) And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
Genesis 8:1-3 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; (2) The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; (3) And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
“The formation of the Grand Canyon defies the explanations offered by evolutionary geologists. It was carved through a plateau that had already been uplifted by some sort of geologic process.
“The fossil-bearing portion of the geologic record consists of tens of thousands of feet of sedimentary layers, of which about 4,500 feet are exposed in the walls of Grand Canyon. If the thickness of sediments was deposited over 500 million years then some boundaries between layers should show evidence of erosion.
“Dam breaches remind us that rather than forming over millions of years, the Grand Canyon is a testament to the amazing power of a lot of water over a little time (and a testament to the God who made this happen). Water can transform entire terrains in minutes.”4
As Psalms 72:19 says, “And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.”
1https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/management/statistics.htm
2https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/theodore-roosevelt-makes-grand-canyon-a-national-monument
3https://www.nps.gov/thro/learn/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-quotes.htm
4https://answersingenesis.org/geology/grand-canyon-facts/
