Fossils—a Reminder of Easter

Fossils–a reminder of Easter? How could there be a connection between fossils and the message of Christ’s death and resurrection?

One of the problems we have in the church today is that by and large the Bible has been disconnected from the real world. When most church people think of Easter, they especially think of the arrest, crucifixion and death of Christ, followed by His glorious Resurrection.

However, the word Easter to much of the world today invokes thoughts of Easter eggs, bunnies and family get-togethers.

I suggest that because the church, by and large, teaches the Bible as a book of stories, this book has increasingly become irrelevant to a world that has been indoctrinated in billions of years and evolutionary ideas.

Sadly, many today have been taught to believe that the Bible’s geology, biology, astronomy and so on are not credible, as scientists have supposedly shown there never was a global Flood, the Big Bang formed the universe, and animals and humans evolved over millions of years.

Now if one can’t trust the Bible where it touches on geology, biology and astronomy–how can one trust its message of morality and salvation? After all, the morality and salvation message in the Bible is based on the real history that includes biology, astronomy and geology.

For instance, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a man (one of us), a descendant of a man called Noah. Noah escaped a watery judgment by building an Ark that took “biology” (the kinds of land animals) on board, while “geology” was occurring outside. Going further back in history, Christ became a descendant of a man called Adam, who was made from dust, who named all kinds of animals, who was given the sun, moon and stars for signs and seasons, who ate fruit and had to tend a garden, who had his mate made from his side, and was warned under threat of death not to disobey God’s direction concerning a special tree.

You see, the message of salvation and morality is not separated from the history concerning geology, biology and astronomy etc.

Because much of the church has adopted a history of millions of years and/or evolutionary ideas, the message concerning Christ has been disconnected from the history in the Bible and thus in many people’s minds has been relegated to the position of just an interesting “story.”

However, at this Easter in the year 2001, as we begin the 21^st Century, let’s reconnect the Bible to the real world by believing its history. Consider this one practical example:

When I look at a fossil bone (say of a dinosaur), I can observe that it is dead! The Bible’s history connects to this dead bone:

“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Death entered the world because of sin–there were no dead bones (of animals or people) before sin. (Also look at Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21,22).

Now because Adam sinned, I’m reminded that I today, because I’m a descendant of Adam, am also a sinner:

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Because we are all sinners, we cannot live with a Holy God–we would be separated from Him for eternity. However:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

The Son of God stepped into the real history as given in the Bible, beginning in Genesis, to become one of us to pay the penalty for sin:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Because of what Christ did on the cross, there is now a way back to our Creator against whom we rebelled. Man can be redeemed!

This is the message of Easter. A message with real meaning based on real history that connects to this real world.

Yes–fossils and Easter do go hand in hand. If they don’t, then the message of Easter is just a story–but it’s not just a story–as fossils are real, so is the message of Christ’s death and Resurrection.