Canyon Ministries
[Originally published as A GRAND Canyon]
What makes the Grand Canyon, “Grand“? To some degree, the answer is subjective. The Grand Canyon impacts people in vastly different ways. It evokes a sense of awe in us all, but for different reasons. It may be the size, display of colors, wide-open expanse, wildlife, vegetation, or a wide host of other possibilities. Regardless, I believe each of us can find our fit in one of these areas.
The immense size of the Grand Canyon nearly takes your breath away the first time you see it. Tom Vail, founder of Canyon Ministries, wrote this in Grand Canyon: A Different View:
The Grand Canyon is an awesome display of God’s creation. Carved through limestone, sandstone, shale, schist, and granite, this great chasm stretches 277 miles through the Colorado Plateau. It descends over a mile into the earth and extends as much as 18 miles in width. The Canyon holds within its walls mountains that are taller than anything east of the Mississippi River.
My Scandinavian blood has only one response to that…UFFDAH!
The geological evidence on display in the Grand Canyon strongly supports a global flood and young earth.
One example is the layers.
Dr. Andrew Snelling, a geologist with Answers in Genesis, provides the following brief description of the layers exposed in the Grand Canyon in an article for Answers Magazine:
We find rock layers that can be traced all the way across continents—even between continents—and physical features in those strata indicate they were deposited rapidly. For example, the Tapeats Sandstone and Redwall Limestone of Grand Canyon can be traced across the entire United States, up into Canada, and even across the Atlantic Ocean to England. The chalk beds of England (the white cliffs of Dover) can be traced across Europe into the Middle East and are also found in the Midwest of the United States and in Western Australia. Inclined (sloping) layers within the Coconino Sandstone of Grand Canyon are testimony to 10,000 cubic miles of sand being deposited by huge water currents within days.
The testimony of the Grand Canyon shouts of God who is powerful to create and sovereign to defend His holiness.
- The head-spinning beauty proclaims the creative power of God as He spoke the universe and earth into existence with all authority and power.
- The layers and the fossil record remind us that God is a just defender of holiness and passed judgment upon the sin of the world.
- The worldwide flood recorded in Genesis 6–9 completely reworked the topographical makeup of the earth.
- Our continued presence upon the earth (including the animals and plants) emphatically announces the mercy of God.
- The post-flood world is one of beauty and provision for all that was preserved upon the ark and by God’s sovereign hand.
