Digging Deeper for What is Hidden: Buried Secrets Get Uncovered
Dr. James J. S. Johnson
For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither is anything hid, that shall not be known and come into manifestation.
LUKE 8:17
Buried secrets sometimes surface, revealing what was previously hidden. However, if no one is willing to do some diligent digging, much of what is concealed will remain undiscovered.(1),(2)
Last year some “grave secrets” were uncovered—human bones from a Viking cemetery, concealed in a coastal cliff near Orkney’s Newark Bay.(1) No gravediggers triggered this coastal cemetery’s discovery—rather, it was extraordinarily stormy weather.
Recent storms … have [taken] their toll on a soft sandstone cliff where the [insular coast’s] graveyard is found. As a result bones are starting to stick out after being exposed and … some are falling down onto the beach. … The size of the Viking cemetery has yet to be determined, though hundreds are thought to have been [there] laid to rest.(1)
[see Steve Palace quotation cited below]
Sometimes discoveries are surprises, unintentionally found.(3) Even so, fortuitous discoveries can be expanded by “digging deeper”.(1),(2),(3)
Digging Deeper in Biblical History
The Bible’s record of Earth history is completely accurate and reliable. If puzzle pieces don’t seem to fit, dig deeper—Scripture withstands scrutiny.
Years ago, critics scoffed at how Scripture reports King Belshazzar offering “third” rank (in the Babylonians empire) to whomever could explain the miraculous handwriting on the wall (Daniel 5:7,16).
Since Joseph was promoted to second place in Egypt (Genesis 41:37-45), why was Daniel only offered “third” place?
In 1924 ancient records were found, showing that Belshazzar’s royal father, King Nabonidus, commissioned his son Belshazzar as regent (co-king, having second place) while Nabonidus went off to faraway places. Belshazzar was thus #2 in Babylon’s empire, so third place was the highest Belshazzar could offer to Daniel.(4)
Digging Deeper in Creation Science
Likewise, generations passed—after Darwin announced his “natural selection” theory—and few bothered to “check under the hood” to see if there really was an empirically verifiable “process” that matched Darwin’s catch-phrase “natural selection”, which served as a substitute creator-deity to think, favor (or disfavor), and “select” animals to survive and/or thrive in the fallen world of nature.
Thankfully, Dr. Randy Guliuzza (of the Institute for Creation) undertook the herculean task (under God) of “checking under the hood”, digging deeper into evolutionist research literature, diagnosing an etiological bait-and-switch scam like the Emperor’s New Clothes.(5)
Patiently (while enduring opposition from adversaries from both outside and inside “the camp”)—detail by detail, inspection after inspection—Dr. Guliuzza has dug deeper, uncovering grave secrets, and has repeatedly reported his studies as a mountain of bioengineering research and analysis.(5)
Meanwhile, popular “sound bites” tickle ears. Shallow scholarship is lauded. Why? Wide-but-shallow brooks babble louder than rigorous rivers that run deep.
It’s good for Christian scholars to write readable Scripture-informed articles, such as insightful reports that explain investigated facts of creation science and Providential history. However, Christian scholars should simultaneously aim at professional scholarship norms that exhibit analytical depth, after investigatively digging deeper.
It’s part of the Berean tradition (Acts 17:11). Because digging deeper—finding more truth—will strengthen (not weaken) your faith in God and in His Word.
References
1.”Newark is partly composed of soft boulder clay, meaning the island is prone to landslides. … The location was in use for around a thousand years (550 AD – 1450 AD) and has many secrets yet to reveal.” Palace, Steve. 2020. Ancient Viking Cemetery Exposed by Powerful Storm. The Vintage News (March 21, 2020), posted at https://www.thevintagenews.com/2020/03/21/viking-cemetery/ .
2. Literally hundreds of disinterred Viking skeletons (from the so-called “Great Heathen Army”) now illustrate how evolutionists’ uniformitarian assumptions fail forensic science realities. See James J. S. Johnson, “Viking Bones Contradict Carbon-14 Assumptions”, Acts & Facts, 47(5):21 (May 2018).
3. Daniel Criswell, “The ‘Evolution’ of Antibiotic Resistance”, Acts & Facts, 33(12):n.p. (December 2004), discussing Alexander Fleming’s providentially fortuitous discovery of penicillin.
4.See John C. Whitcomb, Jr., Daniel (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1985), page 77-79. Dr. Whitcomb notes (page 79): “Belshazzar the king … [was] subordinate king under his father, Nabonidus, during the final fourteen years of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (553-539 BC)”. Belshazzar matches the Babylonian king BEL-SHAR-USUR mentioned on a cuneiform found as early as A.D.1861, as well as the Babylonian “crown prince” who “was regarded as king” in the Nabonidus Chronicle publicized in A.D.1882. (See Whitcomb, at page 77.) According to Dr. Whitcomb (pages 77-78), Belshazzar was “left in full control of the [Babylonian] army from at least 549 to 545 BC while [King] Nabonidus was establishing a new military and commercial fortress at Teima in northwest Arabia.”
5. See, e.g., Randy J. Guliuzza, “Darwin’s Sacred Imposter: Natural Selection’s Idolatrous Trap”, Acts & Facts, 40(11):12-15 (November 2011). See also, e.g., Randy J. Guliuzza, “Natural Selection Is Not ‘Nature’s Intelligence’”, Acts & Facts. 39(5): 10-11 (May 2010). See also Luke 8:17.
Pine Jays, Providence, Plus 