The CCC Model and its Geologic Implications

Robert E. Gentet

© CRSQ 37: 10-21

Abstract

When early non-evolutionary geologists named the geologic Periods, the ancient Earth theory was already firmly a part of geologic thought. Twentieth century Flood geology has sought to correct this error. Nevertheless, the stratigraphic extent of the Genesis Flood Event (GFE) remains a major enigma and point of controversy among Flood geologists. A major reason for this enigma is the view of the current Flood model that pre-Flood geologic activity was insignificant. The Creation/Curse/Catastrophe model (CCC) of Earth history provides an alternative view that eliminates this problem. If the CCC model of Earth history is found to be valid, the creationist's view of the causes of the stratigraphic record is enlarged and areas for additional, meaningful research become greatly enhanced. The result can only be a better understanding of the earth's turbulent past.

Background History

The early 1800s had already witnessed the discarding in geology of the centuries-old belief in a literal, seven-day Creation Week and a short Earth history. Geologists began the correlation of distant strata through the use of fossils in the early 1800s and soon established the nomenclature for the geologic "Periods." Non-evolutionary geologists who viewed the Earth as very old then devised the geologic time scale. The stratigraphic record and its fossils were generally accepted by these early geologists as evidence of Divine creations spread over immense geologic time (Gillispie, 1951, pp. 98-148).

The Genesis Flood was still expounded in scientific literature during the early part of the 1800s, and then it too became passé later in the century. What had been thought to be possible Flood evidence was later seen to be deposits from the glacial period. Hutton's The Theory of the Earth (1785), Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830), and Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) dramatically changed the way the world's scientific establishment, many churches, and education institutions viewed the Earth's history. This became possible because, even previous to the 1800s, fundamental truths had already been lost.

Earlier Views of the Creation Event

Scripture begins with a basic truth: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). God is immediately introduced into the creation equation. God is seen as the Principle Cause. There is yet another equally important truth. God not only created but He sustains "all things by His powerful word" (Hebrews 1:3). Unfortunately, the notion of God as Sustainer began to be lost in the time of Newton (1642-1727):

He [Newton] believed in absolute time and absolute space, which he associated with God. Newton believed that the age of miracles was over.... Newton believed that God had withdrawn from the universe which He created, and that He operated solely through the laws which He had established at the time of creation.... Logically it led to deism and made agnosticism a reasonable approach. (Klotz, 1985, pp. 32-33.)

See Update on Newton's Beliefs.

More and more God became the "God of the gaps." God became visible only when science seemed unable to supply the answers. As science seemed to supply more and more answers, God faded further and further away. However, Scripture consistently places what has become known as "natural law" squarely in the active hands of God. He is never pictured as distant from His Creation, but rather as the One who began it and still actively sustains it (Acts 17:24-28).

James Hutton (1726-1797) introduced Newton's fundamental error into the early study of geology. It was not an out-and-out denial of God, but the exclusion of God from geologic events. As Gillispie (1951, pp. 48-49) observes:

Certain consequences of Hutton's views became immediately apparent. Most obvious was the vastness of geological time which his theory demanded.... Hutton offered no evidence for a creation, and no denial of it either; he simply had nothing to say about it.... And the whole concept hung upon the proposition that the cumulative effects of minute forces and infinitesimal changes can produce results equal to those of any sudden cataclysm and (though this was never stated) superseding the necessity for any divine intervention.

Newton had unknowingly set the stage for the much later works of Hutton, Lyell, Darwin, and others who had powerful philosophical theories concerning origins and Earth history. Hutton never implicitly excluded God, yet his disregard for Divine intervention in the earth's history has become the hallmark of modern-day geology (Dunbar, 1960, p. 18):

Geology grew up under this [Christian Creation view] influence and, during its early years supernatural explanations were invoked for many natural phenomena.... The uprooting of such fantastic beliefs began with the Scottish geologist, James Hutton, whose Theory of the Earth, published in 1785, maintained that...given sufficient time processes now at work could account for all the geologic features of the Globe. This philosophy, which came to be known as the doctrine of uniformitarianism, demands an immensity of time.

Let it be understood that creationists do not deny in any way proper use of one's God-given senses while researching past geologic events. But on questions of origins, the framework must be what the Teacher has said on matters otherwise unattainable or forgotten. The only other option is a framework based upon human philosophy and that is a poor substitute for the words from the One who was there.

A Return to Flood Geology

George McCready Price (1870-1963) can be credited with the renewal of Flood geology. Modern historians such as Numbers (1992, p. 73) label Price as probably "the greatest" of the "anti-evolutionists" early this century. Beginning in 1902 with Outlines of Modern Christianity and Modern Science, an almost catastrophic stream of Flood geology books/articles emanated from Price. But the real impact of Flood geology literature did not begin until such books as The Flood (Rehwinkel, 1951) and The Genesis Flood (Whitcomb and Morris, 1961) appeared along with many others who followed in Price's steps.

Among current young-earth creationists, particularly in America, variations of Price's Flood model dominate as explanations of the geologic record. In that model, the vast majority of fossiliferous strata is believed to have been formed as a result of the Deluge or its aftermath. In contrast, little geologic activity is pictured as occurring between Adam and the Flood. Furthermore, any pre-Flood deposits generated are viewed as probably destroyed by the Flood (Morris, 1994, p. 106; Austin and Wise, 1994, p. 39; Walker, 1994, p. 584).

Whitcomb and Morris (1961, pp. 239-243) list Scriptural references (Genesis 1:6-8; 2:5-6; 7:11) which to them imply "that the age between the fall of man and the resultant Deluge was one of comparative quiescence geologically." Wise (1992, p. 168), using the same Scriptures, urges caution, realizing that "to determine what the pre- Flood climate was truly like, it is necessary to supplement Scriptural data with physical data." Creationists must be certain that both Scriptural understanding and physical data coincide. Significantly, creationists, using the Flood model, have been unable to reach consensus regarding the extent of the Genesis Flood Event (GFE henceforth) in the stratigraphic record.

The Uncertain Lines

The stratigraphic extent of the GFE has persisted in Flood geology as a major enigma:

Creationists differ on where the pre-Flood/Flood and Flood/post-Flood geological boundaries should be defined.... Although many creationists would seem to include all Phanerozoic deposits less than Holocene among Flood deposits, others would tend to include all the Phanerozoic less the Neogene. Others would tend to include only the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, others would include only the Paleozoic or Lower Paleozoic, while others would remind us that the boundary may have to be determined differently in different places. Much research is needed.... (Wise, 1992, p. 170).

Since Wise's statement in 1992, much more discussion and research have appeared in creation literature. Nevertheless, a resolution has not been forthcoming. Without such resolution, the young-earth creationist cannot understand the stratigraphic record in an orderly way.

A recent book by Vine Deloria, Jr. (1997) details the oral traditions of many American Indian tribes and their intimate encounters with now extinct animals. Various geologic events commonly dated many thousands and even millions of years ago by scientific community are also recorded. Such memories are still vivid within the Indian tribes indicating a much shorter time frame since these events occurred.

Another critical aspect of this question is revealed by Wise during an interview in Bible-Science News (1995, p. 18):

To my knowledge, virtually all creation geologists accept the entire Cenozoic as post-Flood. The real debate among us is whether the Mesozoic should also be seen as post-Flood. The European creation geologists tend to want to make the Mesozoic post- Flood, whereas Steve [Austin], Andrew Snelling, and I would put the Mesozoic as Flood.

The CCC model presents evidence showing that it is totally unrealistic to "accept the entire Cenozoic as post- Flood." Not only is it Biblically unrealistic, it is also geologically unrealistic, assuming a young-earth model is used.

The stratigraphic record often depicts very limited ecological environments. Fossil plants and animals from radically diverse environments are rarely found mixed in random patterns. This factor was often overlooked or rejected by early creationists such as George McCready Price who strongly felt that the geologic record did not present an orderly pattern (1926, pp. 71-72).

Many creationists today realize the geologic record is much more orderly than Price ever imagined. Harold W. Clark, one of Price's own students, is an early example (1968, p. 42):

Then, too, I found that there was much more regularity to the stratified rocks than Price had recognized, and this, too, was developed by explaining this order and system as due to the burial of the ancient life zones rather than to a succession of life during long geological ages.

Clark credited the fossil order to the Flood's ability to bury flora and fauna in sequence of the biozones present. This concept was a great step forward as it acknowledged the general fossil sequence without giving it an evolutionary interpretation.

Nevertheless, well-known creationist geologist Snelling (1995, p. 162) speaks of:

the creationist 'myth' that the geologic column is the product of an evolutionary/uniformitarian 'conspiracy' and so essentially doesn't exist/isn't real.... However, the physical reality of the strata of the geologic column cannot be ignored, as they do exist. The early geologists in Europe, for example, were able to physically trace the stacking of the continuous sequences of strata from country to country, and then later similar (and often identical) stacking of sequences was found on other continents. It is time for creationists to bury their 'myth', face up to the reality of the geologic record (not the time scale imposed on it, of course), and tackle the exciting task of building the Flood model of earth history based on that record.

Wise echoes these same conclusions about the consistency of the order of fossils in the stratigraphic column:

Some creationists for a long time have been arguing that 'there ain't no such thing as the geological column.' But all the creation geologists I know disagree with that... the creation geologists are pretty uniform in their belief that the stratigraphic column is a valid order. But we can't convince the lay creationists community of that.... It's an historical problem. It was George McCready Price's argument, and it's been repeated since then. But if you run up and down hills, looking at strata and beating on rocks, you'd be stunned by the consistency of the order (Bible-Science News, 1995, p. 18).

Watts (1984, p. 21) earlier had cautioned about drawing too much out of the Scriptural account of the Flood and thereby not allowing for the pre-Flood world as "a possible era of fossilization to be considered along with the Deluge year and the post-Flood era."

CCC Model

 The Creation/Curse/Catastrophe (CCC) model advanced in this paper acknowledges the reality of the order of the stratigraphic column. Among its postulates:

• In agreement with the Flood Model: a young Earth, a literal seven-day Creation Week, biozonation as a characteristic of nearly all newly created life forms, a world-wide Flood of great geologic importance, and limited genetic changes within each Genesis "kind." In contrast with the Flood Model: considerable pre- Flood geologic evidence is preserved in the stratigraphic record.

• Genesis One and Two reveal life needing time to "fill" the earth,

• The "Curse" on the pre-Flood Earth was God's direct method of dealing with sinful humanity. It was progressive in intensity and left a fossil record of God's acts in history. The lessening of the Curse after the Flood is promised in the Noahic Covenant and results in God establishing human governments to administer civil crime punishments,

• Geologic "Periods" are, in reality, ecosystems each having characteristic life forms. All "Periods" (ecosystems) were present to some degree on the Earth immediately after Creation Week. Geologic events throughout the pre-Flood times locally stratified changing ecosystems (later interpreted as "Periods" by early geologists). Man's life-sustaining ecosystem ("Cenozoic") is seen in the CCC Model as starting geographically very small and expanding during pre- Flood times allowing the growing human population to eventually fill the Earth. Not all ecosystems ("Periods") are seen as surviving until the Flood, and few except those of the "Cenozoic" appear to be post- Flood.

• The "Periods" tend towards a similar worldwide stratigraphic sequence, because each local ecological succession tends to enlarge its food web, and this food web enlargement is "evolutionary" in appearance. "Evolutionary" geologic succession is actually a reflection of this ecological succession through the course of time since Creation Week (see chart),

• Fossil correlation between distant areas was made possible by the systematic changes of the Earth's past ecosystems. Burial and fossilization of these ecosystems resulted from the intensified Curse during the pre- Flood Earth, the GFE, and post-Flood happenings,

• The fossil record has many time indicators such as footprints which can only rarely, at best, be placed into the GFE itself and most often represent pre- Flood or post-Flood geologic events,

• According to the CCC model, three major worldwide unconformities in the fossil record could be expected: (a) the end of Creation Week, (b) the end of the pre-Flood world and the beginning of the GFE, and (c) the end of the GFE and the beginning of the post-Flood world. Between the (a) and (b) local unconformities may also be found in the abundant, pre- Flood fossiliferous record,

• The pre-Flood/GFE or GFE/post-Flood breaks cannot be expected at the same geologic "Period" worldwide and must be determined in each area through research.

[Click here to see a chart of the CCC model.]

Lack of proper understanding of the pre-Flood world is making location and/or recognition of the GFE within the stratigraphic record controversial with current Flood models. The CCC model is presented in hopes of finding a more accurate interpretation of the geologic record through incorporating a different Scriptural understanding of the nature of the pre-Flood world.

Quantity and Placement of Life on Newly Created Earth

By the end of the Sixth Day, God had prepared the Earth as a fit place for life. Klotz (1970, pp. 489-498; 1985, pp. 193-205) has nicely summarized how the solar system, the Earth and its flora and fauna are all arranged in a way to make the Earth extremely suitable for life.

To Adam and Eve God said: "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28a NIV). Although He could have, Scripture reveals that God did not immediately create a world full of people. He reveals creation of one male directly from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7) and then one female directly from one of Adam's ribs (Genesis 2:21-23). Human habitation was centralized in the beginning and only spread as population increased and opportunity arose. Geologically, this means that human presence within the fossil record at any geographic location should not be expected unless there had been time and opportunity for human migration and the ecosystem would be one that could support human life. In addition, the longer life span for pre-Flood peoples would tend to delay the appearance of human fossils/artifacts in the fossil record.

Life forms other than Man were also created in limited numbers. They also needed time to increase in number before other areas of the earth felt their presence. Notice specifically how the creation of sea creatures and birds is described: "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth" (Genesis 1:23 NIV).

God's blessing on them, later repeated in His directive to humans, implies these creatures were restricted in number and location and required time to fill their ecological niches. In addition, life forms can expand into other areas only when the ecosystem of the other areas can support them with proper food and environment. This principle, incorporating hundreds of years of pre-Flood time and geologic events and resultant changing ecosystems, is fundamental to an understanding of the CCC geologic model.

While a restricted creation is not specifically mentioned in the Scriptures of land animals, we know by observation today--long after the redistribution of the animals after the Flood--that few animals actually have universal distribution. Klotz (1985, p. 135) speaks of six present-day areas of geographical distribution of plants and animals and mentions that "except for the earthworm and the ant, there are no plants or animals which are approximately universal in their distribution over the globe." While a few other examples might be cited, such contemporary observations indicate biozonation should be a norm since Creation Week. Biozonation is commonly accepted as part of the current Flood model (Morris, 1974, p. 117).

These built-in ranges of habitats result in limited mixtures of flora and fauna in each environment or ecological niche. These restricted habitats play important roles in determining what life forms are available for preservation as fossils in each area at any given time.

Eden and Its Garden

Scripture provides some details regarding placement of Adam and Eve on the newly created Earth. Genesis 2:8-9a informs us:

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man He had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food (NIV).

Adam and Eve were placed in a garden with trees that furnished them food. The trees producing fruit "good for food" for humans are classified as angiosperms and are the characteristic flora of "Cenozoic" strata. Also, angiosperms "supply nearly all the plant food for the mammals that now dominate all other life upon the earth" (Dunbar, 1960, pp. 333, 336). Here is clear Scriptural evidence that at least this small portion of the newly created earth was "Cenozoic" in its ecosystem/environment. This would demand some "Cenozoic" strata dating from pre-Flood and/or GFE times.

Where the Garden of Eden was located in reference to our modern-day political boundaries is unknown and open for research. The issue of Eden's extent and location of its Garden is critical and needs to be thoroughly researched. Its location provides a guideline of where to expect (or not expect, as the case may be) to find the earliest human remains in the fossil record. If the Garden had been preserved in the early fossil record, the CCC model predicts that Eden's location would be found on top of basement "Precambrian" strata and contain "Cenozoic" life forms, since clearly Eden is described as having plants and animals consistent with "Cenozoic" types.

We do not know from Scripture the exact geographic extent of "Eden," but the CCC model assumes this "Cenozoic" (angiosperm/mammal) land ecosystem was originally quite limited in extent at Adam's and Eve's creation. The geologic record may later prove useful in making this determination.

Only the area called "Eden" is assumed by the CCC model as having a "Cenozoic" environment at the end of Creation Week. And as the characteristic flora and fauna associated with this ecosystem created for Man expanded in area, surrounding ecosystems became greatly affected. For example, as angiosperms invaded the dinosaur ecosystem ("Mesozoic"), great changes occurred, as we shall later explore.

A basic postulate of the CCC model is that angiosperms and mammals (associated with humans from the ending of Creation Week) became more widely distributed as time passed in the pre-Flood world and human population increased and demanded a larger living area. Biozones expanded or contracted during pre-Flood time as environments changed due to geologic events, ecosystems matured, or other important factors such as migration. This point is crucial in evaluating the fossil record. And now we must examine some Scriptural reasons to expect fossil evidence from the pre-Flood world.

The "Very Good" Earth Becomes Tainted

Genesis One concludes with the announcement: "God saw all that He had made [the previous six days], and it was very good" (v. 31). God was well-pleased with His handiwork, and rightly so, but something was about to radically change.

Adam and Eve were created in harmony with their Maker. Furthermore, God saw to it that their every need was supplied. In spite of this, they yielded to the temptations and lies of the serpent (Satan). Their sin resulted in a four-fold, broken relationship:

The result [of sin] was a fall in four different areas. The relationship between God and man was now broken.... The relationship between man and his fellow man was severed.... The bond between man and nature also was broken, with the ground producing thorns and thistles and the animal world no longer being benevolent (Genesis 3:17, 18). Man also became separated from himself.... (McDowell and Steward, 1993, p. 69).

In the CCC model, we are principally interested in the effects of the Curse on the broken relationship between humankind and the earth itself and its ecosystems. The first result of the Curse is found in Genesis 3:17-19:

To Adam He [God] said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you...By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" (NIV).

Mankind's certain return to the dust is only one aspect of sin. One of the major emphasis of the Genesis Curse is on the ground, the Earth itself. Sin breaks mankind's harmonious relationship with the Earth and its creatures. Ecology and geology immediately become linked to the Curse. The pre-Flood world became an unpleasant dwelling place. The Curse made it a very different world from the "very good" one pronounced earlier at the conclusion of Creation Week.

The Curse Intensifies

Later, when Cain killed his brother, Scripture reveals that the effect of the Curse would intensify:

Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth (Genesis 4: 10-12 NIV).

The Curse intensified: growing crops now became more difficult. Apparently, after Cain's sin, wandering and gathering became the norm for satisfying humankind's need for food. Something drastic seems to have happened to the pre-Flood Earth's ecosystem. Paradise was truly lost. God spared Cain's life, but the Earth itself provided the curse by driving Cain from the ground. Even in modern times, various events such as volcanism can disrupt food production and produce harsh environments (White and Humphreys, 1994). The CCC model postulates that the pre-Flood world was filled with many such disasters.

Direct Divine Government

Cain grew very anxious thinking that a relative would kill him in revenge. God's response to Cain's concern holds an important Biblical principle about the pre-Flood world. When Adam and Eve sinned, God directly intervened and punished them. Later, when Cain killed Abel, God personally delivered the penalty. And when Cain worried that one of his relatives would take matters into his own hands, God's response is very revealing: "Not so, if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance [from Me] seven times over" (Genesis 4:15 NIV).

God not only personally meted out the punishment, but the punishment intensified as sin piled upon sin. And the punishment was directed at the Earth itself. There is no mention of God using capital punishment prior to the Flood event. People seemed to automatically understand that God personally took revenge for sin by increasing the penalty (the Curse) on the Earth. This seems understood by Lamech, because when he killed a man, he states: "If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times" (Genesis 4:24 NIV).

Men prided themselves at fighting God and boasting about their evil deeds! In this regard, see Eusebius (1923, pp. 21-23).  In the long time span between creation and the GFE (at least 1656 years), Scripture tells us: "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people ["flesh"] on earth had corrupted their ways" (Genesis 6:11-12).

It was a world of terror, violent people, and violent ecological disasters from the hand of God, ending in total human destruction at the GFE except for those in the Ark. Neither is there mention in the pre-Flood world of human government inflicting the penalty for civil crimes. That was yet to be authorized by God.

A Change of Government

As the few survivors from the Ark were about to venture out into the post-Flood Earth, for the first time the Lord institutes human government for purposes of punishing crime:

And for your lifeblood I [God] will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man (Genesis 9:5-6 NIV).

This is the beginning of civil government empowered by God to keep the peace among peoples. St. Paul says in Romans 13:1-5:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established [apparently referring back to Genesis 9:5-6, the beginning of nations] .... For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, and agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer (NIV).

While civil governments (city states) may have existed without God's sanction prior to the Flood, they are only mentioned as a God-given, post-Flood development (Genesis 10). Hence, there is a Scriptural reason to suppose that God's pre-Flood punishments were much more severe in their ecological and geological extent than after He instituted human government in the immediate post-Flood world to melt out punishments for civil wrongs.

Easing of the Curse

At Noah's birth, his father, Lamech, foretold the lessening of this Curse:

Lamech... said, "He [Noah] will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed" (Genesis 5:28-29 NIV).

Lamech gives us a glimpse of the severity of the Curse in his day and the prophecy that the Curse would be eased in Noah's time. That it was eased is verified in the Noahic Covenant immediately after the Flood:

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and...sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The LORD ...said in His heart: 'Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease (Genesis 8:20-22 NIV).

After the GFE, God lessened the intensity of Curse upon the ground. In Revelation 22:3 we are told the Curse will only be totally rescinded at the establishment of the future new heavens and new earth. But for now, God has promised that never again will the total ecosystem of the earth (even the seasons) be disrupted as they had been. The diminished Curse today still involves local floods, volcanic activity, famines, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. This present-day condition strongly implies much more intense geologic and ecologic activities on the ground-cursed, pre- Flood world. The present cannot therefore be considered the key to the past regarding geological rates.

God's Noahic covenant in Genesis Eight and Nine applies to all humanity until the end of time. It will only be revoked in a major way at the very end of time because "...the earth is defiled by its people [who have]...broken the everlasting [Noahic] covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth.... " (Isaiah 24:5-6, see also especially verses 1-6, 16-23 NIV). This next universal destruction will end with universal fire on the Earth (II Peter 3:10-13).

The GFE was the culmination of the intensifying Curse on the pre-Flood world. The universal Flood became a geologic benchmark in the ancient world. However, the GFE was not the first catastrophic event recorded in the fossiliferous record. Evidence for the Flood will vary locally, according to the CCC model, depending upon the ecosystem ("Period") present at each locality at the time of the GFE.

An Exceptional Time

The implication for the CCC model is clear. It postulates that the pre-Flood world was a time of exceptional Divine interventions upon the earth. Even in post-Flood times, when God takes a strong hand to show His displeasure over sin, floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, plagues, etc. are cited in Scripture. The fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the ecological events of the Exodus, the turning back of the sundial and Joshua's long day are merely some examples of recorded post-Flood Divine actions.

It is also critical to notice that when God dealt with ancient Israel as a theocracy, He stressed that punishment on the Covenant people would be given with increasing intensity: "But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands...I will punish you for your sins seven times over.... " (Leviticus 26:14, 18, 21, 24, 28 NIV). The final result of this increasing intensity would be a land wasted "...so that your enemies who live there will be appalled" (Leviticus 26:32 NIV).

This increasing degree of punishment in order to bring them to repentance seems indicative of how the Lord has acted in history towards sin. The account of the pre-Flood world is brief in Scripture, but Divine activity appears to have been even more forceful in the pre-Flood world before God sanctioned human government to act on His behalf in dealing out punishments.

Strata from all geologic "Periods" have evidence of time indicators such as changing environments/ecosystems, footprints, nests, in situ growth, rain prints, trace fossils, fossil soils, etc. Young-earth creationists often acknowledge -in varying degrees-such time indicators in the post- Flood world. The CCC model allows ample reason to recognize them in the pre-Flood world as well.

Other Geologic Implications

The question of geologic succession and strata correlation becomes easier to understand when the CCC model is applied. Not only is the Earth viewed as very biozoned at the time immediately after Creation, but the intensifying effects of the Curse over hundred of years of pre-Flood time provided ample reasons for systematic fossil and strata development. It is significant that evolutionary geologists recognize how geologic fossil succession closely resembles ecologic succession today:

At the present time, plant and animal succession occurs whenever newly vacated territory becomes available. Such opportunities arise after forest fires and the draining of swamps, and following the retreat of glaciers, and other similar natural events. In the dim geologic past, however, no outside reservoir of life existed, and not all the space and energy resources could be utilized immediately because nothing had yet evolved to utilize them. At one time, for example, the lands were barren of vegetation; many geologic ages ran their course before plants evolved that could live on dry land. The gradual and lengthy process whereby the energy sources of our planet were utilized successively by plants and animals is called geological succession. It differs in no fundamental way from the ecological succession that occurs today when a new environment appears, except that it requires much more time (Stokes, 1966, p. 370, emphasis mine).

The CCC model removes the immense time assumptions and views fossil, geologic succession as evidence of sequential environmental/ecosystem changes since Creation. Many of these changes seemed to be related to the cursed, pre-Flood Earth. And, contrary to the evolutionary assumptions, life was readily available to move into adjacent disrupted ecosystems. Even in evolutionary thinking, migration has long been credited for the sudden and enigmatic fossil appearance of the angiosperms in the "Cretaceous" (Stearn et al., 1979, p. 339).

Migration has also long been suggested as an explanation to the sudden appearance of the larger mammals in the strata directly above the last of the dinosaurs fossils(Le Conte, 1905, pp. 541-542). Only a few small mammals are known to have existed in the dinosaur ecosystems (interpreted as "Periods" according to ancient Earth geology). But this is exactly what the CCC and other creation models would expect since the larger mammals and the large reptiles lived in two distinct ecosystems and were unable to exist together. After the demise of the dinosaurs in each area, the existing larger mammals from surrounding "Cenozoic" ecosystems could, and did, safely migrate into the vacated ecological niche left by the dinosaurs.

Furthermore, it is important to understand that the dinosaurs are believed to have existed in limited coastal environments/ ecosystems around the world:

The duckbills [dinosaurs] appeared in the late Cretaceous.... In whatever part of the globe they were, they lived on the coastal plains of one sea or another. (As did all the dinosaurs.) We don't know whether they, or any other dinosaurs, also lived in inland areas, because there are no geological formations that preserve inland habitats from the dinosaurs' time (Horner, 1990, p. 72, see also p. 196).

Here is the strongest of indications that the dinosaurs inhabited only a narrow ecological niche worldwide. And equally important is the faulty conclusion that "no geological formations...preserve inland habitats from the dinosaurs' time." This is made on the basis that geologic "Periods" are distinct in time. In the CCC model, habitats other than coastal plain environments would also be forming geologic records simultaneously with the "Mesozoic" coastal plains. The evolutionist would miss their significance. These inland geological formations would be assumed by the evolutionist to be of another time.

The dramatic change to angiosperm vegetation in the dinosaur environment (from "Triassic and Jurassic" to "Cretaceous") may have greatly contributed to the doom of the famous reptiles while at the same time preparing the way for the migration of larger mammals (and man) into those areas. The diet of almost all of the dinosaurs is not thought to have included angiosperms (Stokes, 1966, p. 263).

The significance of this change in food supply in the "Cretaceous" becomes more evident when factoring out immense ages and having ecosystems change in the much shorter time-span in the turbulent, pre-Flood world. The CCC model's interpretation of the fossil record indicates that many types of dinosaurs may have become extinct even before the commencement of the GFE due to a change in the food supply.

Correlation by Fossils

Most areas on the earth have only certain geologic "Periods" represented. The total geologic record is pieced together in an evolutionary scheme from around the world using the known principles of superpositional stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and radiometric dates. Years ago, Henbest (1952, p. 305) summarized the situation:

To reconstruct the history of epochs and periods requires the assembling of records from every known province of the world and connecting them in the proper time sequence. This process not only calls into play every known device of age determination and correlation and cross-checks, but involves the handling of enormous quantities of complicated data whose quality runs the entire gamut of conjecture, speculation, and well-reasoned induction.

Traditional Flood geology has tended to reject the idea of correlation by fossils. Conversely, conventional, evolutionary geology thrives on it. The CCC model proposes there is a "seed" of truth buried deep within the conventional thinking. But the plant that grows out of it looks neither like the conventional model nor the traditional Flood model. The evolutionary-ancient earth theory allows too much time. The Flood model by placing most of the fossiliferous strata into the one-year GFE does not allow enough time.

Evolutionary geologists today acknowledge that more and more catastrophic happenings have been recorded in the strata. Nevertheless, their demand of an ancient age for the Earth continues unabated (Ager, 1981; Huggett, 1989; Donovan, 1989; Berggren and Van Couvering, 1984; Harris, 1990). The conventional solution is to account for most of geologic time in the "nothingness" of bedding planes and erosion surfaces. Conversely, the traditional Flood model has difficulty pinpointing the Flood's stratigraphic location. Some of this is due to the recognition that strata "time indicators" are difficult to fit into a one year catastrophic Deluge. Also, creationist geologist Snelling (1995, p. 162) graphically pointed out his belief that creationists have not adequately explained the reason for the general, orderly succession of fossils.

Homotaxis and Synchronism

None other than the "bulldog" of Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley, an early champion of the theory of Evolution, raised the fur on every respectable geologist when he questioned how correlation by fossils was being handled. As related by Woodford (1963, p. 75):

The presence of successive and dissimilar fossil faunas in the stratified rocks of northwestern Europe was demonstrated by William Smith and his contemporaries as early as 1815. Some forty-five years later, Darwin convinced the scientific community that evolution of stratigraphically lower faunas into higher ones is more probable than alternating creations and extinctions. Soon after the "Origin of Species" appeared, however, Thomas Henry Huxley (1862, 1870) challenged the assumptions, already well established in his time, that two widely separated sedimentary rock masses containing closely similar faunas or floras must have been deposited at the same time. He asked for a sharp distinction between homotaxis (identical or similar succession of faunas or floras) and the kind of correlation that implies synchronism (identical age for each correlated faunal or floral pair). Huxley (1862, p. xlvi) asserted that 'a Devonian fauna and flora in the British Islands may have been contemporaneous with Silurian life in North America, and with a Carboniferous fauna and flora in Africa.'

This shocked the evolutionary world coming from the mouth of Huxley and is still considered the height of geologic heresy over 130 years later. Huxley's geologic "heresy" had hit too close to home. The reader is encouraged to read what Huxley (1898, pp. 272-304, 340-388) said in addresses before the august bodies of the Geological Society (1862) and the Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1870).

This danger of confusing homotaxis and synchronism (Huxley's terms) is at the root of the correlation problem. Creationists need to keep their eyes open to a potential vast pre-Flood application, as well as post-Flood events. Geologic literature is full of concern regarding the effect of migration on correlation. True, this concern is often dismissed by evolutionists because of the old-earth belief. It is assumed that millions of years are available for flora and fauna to become widespread within each envisioned "Period," thus largely negating migration correlation concerns. Allan, for example, rejected Huxley's "bomb-shell" because "...geological chronology [has shown] the rate of dispersal of marine organisms may safely be neglected...," ( 1948, p. 2). Nevertheless, Allan acknowledged the "fundamental assumption" of "geological contemporaneity is the same as chronological synchrony...is current today, it is still a 'constant source of gratuitous speculations, and it is still logically unsound" (1948, p. 2). Allan saw the need for paleoecological studies in geology. Paleoecologic studies have indeed become standard in geologic research since then.

The traditional Price Flood model overlooks the importance of paleoecological and geological changes over time or of migration because of its focus on the one-year Deluge. The CCC model uses ecological changes and migration as positive factors in evaluating both pre-Flood and post-Flood times. It is through such studies that stratigraphic boundaries for the GFE can eventually be better determined for each region on the earth.

Microevolutionary changes (those limited changes which occur within the created Genesis "kinds") are often the basis for strata correlation. In the CCC model the geologic activities of particularly the pre-Flood times (and to a lesser degree, the post-Flood times) allow opportunity for development of local stratigraphic sequences as "kinds" reproduce new varieties, die out, migrate, and ecosystems change. Floras and faunas within their respective ecosystems would be expected to diversify. Later they could migrate to surrounding ecosystems when the food web expanded and could now support them.

Furthermore, since ecological succession follows certain set patterns, we would expect worldwide similar patterns being detected. Ecological succession in each locality allowed the evolutionist's rationale for fossil correlation over great distances.

Tracks and Nests

Various strata worldwide clearly show evidences of time passing. For example, it is now known that strata from the dinosaur ecosystem ("Mesozoic") are replete with billions upon billions of dinosaur footprints found in distinct paleoenvironments, in multiple track layers on top of each other in many areas of the world (Lockley, 1991, p. 125). Layers of tracks may extend over thousands of square miles, yet follow definite paths around paleo-lakes or epeiric seashore environments (Lockley, 1991, pp. 83- 138). Dinosaur nests are also increasingly found. Ingenious explanations not withstanding, a satisfactory answer has not been found in traditional Price Flood geology on how such multiple layers of tracks and nests could have been preserved during the GFE or post-Flood events. Flood geologists have attempted to place such time indicators in the GFE (at all stages, you name it!) or in the post- Flood world (CRSQ, 1996, pages 231-239; See also the special issue of Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, volume 10 [Part 1], 1996).

The CCC model would place the North American "Mesozoic" strata with its dinosaur fossils, tracks, nests, etc. as pre-Flood. It is rightfully noted that a "mighty erosive event" has left the strata containing the dinosaur nests and remains as only "erosional remnants" (Oard, 1996, p. 238). The CCC model would interpret the large, regional erosion as the continental evidence of the GFE. (Deposition is probably off the continent--see Figure 1 for what large floods in post-Flood times have done in this regard.)

When dinosaur tracks and nests are seen as preserved from pre- Flood events, the whole question is more simply understood. The overall nature of the tracks and nests display a time element fundamentally foreign to the one-year Flood event. Furthermore, placing vast amounts of strata with dinosaur tracks, nests, etc. as post-Flood creates unrealistic geological implications for a world in which the Curse is specifically said by the Scriptures as lessened.

The GFE and Stratigraphy

At Adam's creation we should also expect to find strata present that had been formed during Creation Week. It should never be overlooked that much happened geologically during Creation Week before Adam's creation. Creation Week saw the creation of strata that later provided raw material for geologic events associated with the Curse on the earth. Although the Flood violently affected the land, the CCC model predicts that much pre-Flood strata survived the GFE.

We should expect the GFE to record, as a minimum, great erosion (and probably often offshore deposition) brought about by 40 days and nights of rain that created huge runoffs on the land areas. In contrast to the rapid water rising at the beginning of the Flood, Scripture noted how gradually the Floodwaters recessed. Other GFE geologic evidences would include volcanic activity, additional plate movements (the CCC model assumes periodic rapid plate movement at various times throughout the pre-Flood world as well as the GFE itself), etc. Forty days and nights of rain may have doomed most humans and land creatures to death by drowning and decay in the Floodwaters without continental burial, and hence the apparent lack of Flood-related fossils.

Research will have to show how widespread the "Eden" ecosystem ("Cenozoic") had become by the GFE. Was it already worldwide? The Cenozoic landscape is now nearly universal on the earth with small exceptions.

Remnants of "earlier" ecosystems (i.e., Paleozoic and Mesozoic) still exist on the earth today. The most recent finding of such a remnant is the Wollemi pine--previously thought by scientists to be extinct for 150 million years--in an isolated 1.2 acre grove in a rain forest preserve 125 miles from Sydney (Anderson, 1994, p. 5). Here is a tiny "Mesozoic" plant ecosystem (it has been labeled the "Jurassic Bark") in modern-day Australia. It appears to have re-established itself in a limited way after the Flood.

Much of the world at the time shortly after man's creation appears to have been something other than "Cenozoic" (mammals/ angiosperms) since large areas of the world have "Paleozoic" or "Mesozoic" strata directly on top of basement Precambrian. It is hoped that further research will refine this CCC model and in the process supply young-earth creationists with a better interpretation of the world's geologic record.

Figure 1: Palouse Falls in Southeastern Washington State is a minute reminder of post-Flood "Ice Age" floods that severely eroded out thousands of square miles of basalt and loess (thought to be wind deposits). It has been estimated that waters "raged 100 feet above land shown here" at Palouse Falls (Parfit, 1995, p. 58). The waters from Glacial Lake Missoula in western Montana contained the equivalent of the combined total of present-day Lakes Erie and Ontario. When the ancient ice dam was breached, the waters poured in a few days across parts of eastern Washington and down the course of the Columbia River westward into the Portland Basin "...and boomed the sea" (Parfit, 1995, p. 58) leaving some deposits along the way. Although large in comparison to modern-day floods, the event was small in comparison to the Genesis Flood and shows we might expect the GFE to leave grand erosional evidence in many areas.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank many reviewers, both anonymous and known, for their helpful suggestions. And I would like to express my special gratitude for the encouragement from the late Dr. John Klotz, one of the original ten founding members of CRS, who read an earlier version of this paper in 1996 and for his friendship during my studies at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in the early '90s. I wish to point out that Erich von Fange (1990, 1994) has written some excellent general books on the effects of the Curse.

Special thanks as well to Marji, my wife, for her immense patience over the years, her welcome encouragement, her listening ear, and her coining the name for the CCC model. And, thanks to Him who, in His own time and in His own way, provided a "window of opportunity" for the author to write and publish on a subject of interest since high school days.

"Praise the LORD...He has caused His wonders to be remembered...He remembers His covenant forever" (Psalm 111:1, 4-5 NIV).

References

CRSQ: Creation Research Society Quarterly.

• Ager, D. V. 1981. The nature of the stratigraphical record. Second edition. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

• Allan, Robin Sutcliffe. 1948. Geological correlation and paleoecology. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 59:1-10.

• Anderson, Ian. 1994. Pine 'dinosaur' lurks in gorge. New Scientist 144(1957/1958):5.

• Austin, Steven, A. and Kurt P. Wise. 1994. Preflood/flood boundary: as defined in grand canyon and east mojave. In Walsh, Robert E. (editor), Proceedings of the Third

• International Conference on Creationism, pp. 37-47. Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh.

• Berggren, W. A. and J. A. Van Couvering. 1984. Catastrophes and earth history. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

• Bible-Science News. 1995. Speaking to the earth: an interview with Steven Austin and Kurt Wise 33(5):17–21.

• Clark, Harold W. 1968. Fossils, flood, and fire. Outdoor Pictures, Escondido, CA.

• CRSQ 1996. "Dinosaur letter exchange" 32:231–239.

• Donovan, S. K., editor. 1989. Mass extinctions: processes and evidence. Columbia University Press. New York.

• Dunbar, Carl O. 1960. Historical geology. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.

• Eusebius. 1926. The ecclesiastical history. With an English translation by Kirsopp Lake. Volume I. William Heinemann Ltd., London. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

• Gillispie, Charles Coulston. 1951. Genesis and geology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

• Harris, S. L. 1990. Agents of chaos. Mountain Press Publishing Co., Missoula, Montana.

• Henbest, Lloyd G. 1952. Significance of evolutionary explosions for diastrophic division of earth history--introduction to the symposium. Journal of Paleontology 26(3):299–318.

• Horner, John R. and James Gorman. 1990. Digging dinosaurs. Perennial Library, Harper and Row, New York.

• Huggett, Richard. 1989. Cataclysms and earth history: the development of diluvialism. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

• Huxley, Thomas H. 1898. Discourses: biological and geological essays. D. Appleton and Company, New York.

• Klotz, John W. 1955, 1970. Genes, Genesis, and evolution. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis.

• —— 1985. Studies in creation. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis.

• Le Conte, Joseph. 1905. Elements of geology. D. Appleton and Company, New York.

• Lockley, Martin. 1991. Tracking dinosaurs: a new look at an ancient world. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

• McDowell, Josh and Don Stewart. 1993. Answers to tough questions. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville.

• Morris, Henry M. 1974. Scientific creationism. Public School Edition. Creation-Life Publishers, San Diego.

• Morris, John D. 1994. The young earth. Master Books, Colorado Springs.

• Numbers, Ronald L. 1992. The creationists. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

• Oard, Michael J. 1996. Polar dinosaurs: response to garner, robinson, garton, and tyler. Letters to the Editor. CRSQ 32:237-239.

• Parfit, M. 1995. The floods that carved the west. Smithsonian 26(1):48-58.

• Price, George McCready. 1926. Evolutionary geology and the new catastrophism. Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, California.

• Rehwinkel, Alfred M. 1951. The Flood in the light of the bible, geology, and archaeology. Concordia Publishing House, Saint Louis, Missouri.

• Snelling, Andrew A.(reviewed by). 1995. Studies in flood geology by John Woodmorappe. Creation ex nihilo Technical journal. 9(2): 161–163.

• Stearn, Colin W. and Robert L. Carroll and Thomas H. Clark. 1979. Geological evolution of north america. Third Edition. John Wiley and Sons, New York/Chichester/ Brisbane/Toronto/Singapore.

• Stokes, William Lee. 1966. Essentials of earth history. Second Edition. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

• von Fange, Erich A. 1990. Genesis and the dinosaur. Living Word Services, Syracuse, Indiana. 1994. Noah to Abram: the turbulent years. Living Word Services, Syracuse, Indiana.

• Walker, Tasman. 1994. A biblical geologic model. In Walsh, Robert E. (editor), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism. Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, pp. 581-592.

• Watts, David C. 1984. Fossils and the fall. Biblical Creation 7(18):20-21.

• Whitcomb, John C. and Henry M. Morris. 1961. The Genesis flood. The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Philadelphia.

• White, Robert S., and Colin J. Humphreys. 1994. Famines and cataclysmic volcanism. Geology Today Sept.-Oct: 181-185.

• Wise, Kurt P. 1992. Were there really no seasons?: tree rings and climate. Creation ex nihilo Technical Journal: 6(2):168-172.

• Woodford, A. O. 1963. Correlation by fossils. In Claude C. Albritton, Jr. (Editor). The fabric of geology. Freeman, Cooper and Co., Stanford, California.

Further Reading:

• The CCC Model Time Scale

• Another look at the CCC Model

• Research Projects

External Links:

• More young Earth creationists now see the need for geologic activity outside the Flood. Dr. Leonard R. Brand's 2007 Origins paper Wholistic Geology: Geology Before, During, and After the Biblical Flood shows reasons to support pre-Flood geologic activity. Dr. Brand is one of the few having read my CCC Model 2000 article who has published material showing the need for pre-Flood catastrophic events as well.

Another Look at the CCC Model

Robert E. Gentet

© 2007

Abstract

The CCC young-Earth model seeks to understand the Earth's geologic history in the light of the following postulates:

1. Man's sin brought a Curse upon the Earth that was progressive in nature. The effects of the Curse often left a physical, geologic record, before, during, and after the Flood,

2. Various ecosystems were created during Creation Week. Their placements should be consistent with the lowest preserved record in each local geologic sequence. Thus, each local geologic sequence reflects the chronology of ecologic changes since Creation Week for that locality;

3. Geologic "Periods" are characteristic ecosystems existing simultaneously on the Earth. A "Period" is a geographically limited ecosystem with characteristic life forms;

4. Similar worldwide stratigraphic sequences may be understood as similar ecologic successions. Food web growth in each ecosystem closely resembles geologic, fossil succession, giving an evolutionary appearance in widely separated geologic sequences. The ancient Earth paradigm prevents seeing geologic "Periods" as rapidly changing ecologic events in each locality since Creation Week;

5. Each stratum must be carefully analyzed to determine the time frame of its formation. Valid "time indicators" must have a place within the complex history of the young Earth. Time indicators include tracks (such as amphibians, lizards, crocodiles, turtles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals), nests, eggs, paleo-lakes, paleo-rivers, in situ growth, bioturbation, dinoturbation and other evidences of life and environments;

6. Local or regional geologic sequences may reflect numerous pre- and post-Flood catastrophic events in addition to the Genesis Flood Event (henceforth called GFE); and

7. Pinpointing the location of the GFE in any specific location must be based on the total stratigraphic sequence represented and internal evidence at the individual locality. The CCC model seeks to produce a framework wherein any locality can be analyzed using all biblically given time frames – Creation Week events, pre-Flood occurrences, GFE, and post-Flood geologic events. The CCC model postulates that considerable pre-Flood geologic, fossil evidence survived the GFE.

Introduction

We live in a world dominated by the teaching of an ancient Earth teeming with life brought about through the process of organic evolution. Those who accept the Biblical account in Genesis as literal are challenged to present alternatives to the commonly-accepted evolutionary paradigm.

For nearly a hundred years, or more, many young-Earth creationists have embraced what has been known as the Flood Geology model [10, 11, 18]. In its essence, this creation model posits a young Earth only a few thousand years old (generally 6-10,000), a literal seven-day Creation Week, a worldwide Flood in the days of Noah having great geologic significance, and biologically limited changes since Creation within the Genesis "kinds." In addition, the bulk of fossiliferous sedimentary rocks are believed to date from the GFE.

However, some young-Earth creationists have raised various objections to the Flood Geology model and other models have been advanced. Some of these models have post-Flood geologic events forming much more of the fossiliferous record [3, 4, 5, 12, 14, 17].

All modern young-Earth Creation models that I am aware of relegate geologic activity of the pre-Flood world (after Creation Week to the start of the GFE) to minor and therefore insignificant events in the fossiliferous record. This Creation/Curse/Catastrophe (CCC) young-earth model, on the other hand, stresses how all time frames given to us in the Scriptures are important. And the most overlooked time frame is the pre-Flood earth after sin entered the world and the Lord cursed the Earth. There is a long time period between the beginning of the Curse and the day the Flood waters began in Noah's 600 th year.

With this in mind, the CCC geologic model of Earth's history is presented. Like all young-Earth geologic models, it needs to be flexible for any needed changes, and even discarded if shown wrong. The current dilemmas within young-Earth geology models can only be resolved when proper Biblical interpretation and valid geological information are linked. This is no easy task, to be sure. Conventional geologic thought has gone through some much-needed changes in the past 170 years since Lyell. Particularly in the past 40 years, catastrophism has ceased being a "dirty word" among the world's leading Earth scientists.

The Scriptural Background

Raw geologic information needs a framework. For over 100 years in the world's leading educational institutions that framework has been the combined theories of organic evolution and an ancient earth. The conception of an ancient earth began to be popularized by James Hutton in the late 1700s but only with the advent of Darwin's book in 1859 did it become popular to interpret the fossil succession in the rocks in an evolutionary light.

Most early geologists before Darwin were not evolutionists [7]. Many viewed the sudden first appearances of new fossil types in the rock record as due to successive creations by God over long periods of time. It is important to realize the geologic time scale was not formulated using the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin's book initiated wide acceptance of the theory of organic evolution, but this came after the geologic "Periods" were already well-known and accepted. The CCC model takes exception to the immense time frame and some correlation factors associated with the Geologic Time Scale. All young Earth creationists recognize, to one degree or another, the need to account for the unidirectional fossil order found locally in the rocks around the world.

Those who hold to the evolutionary/ancient Earth paradigm reason from that basis. Data is "fit" into that concept and framework. Creationists also accept good geologic (or other) data as factors to be fit into a reasonable framework. And our use of the data, as is also true of evolutionists, will only be as good as the model from which we are working. In the past 200 years, much excellent geologic data has accumulated as thousands upon thousands of scientists have closely examined the earth's crust. Our exception to the current evolutionary paradigm must not be with any valid data, but with erroneous conclusions drawn from data filtered through the assumptions of the evolutionary/old Earth paradigm.

Creationists filter valid data through our concepts of Earth's history, based upon our understanding of the Biblical revelation. Evolutionists reject from their framework the presupposition that God has intervened in Earth's history, and indeed such was even prophesied to happen at the end time (II Peter 3:3-7). While creationists should respect and honor the Word of God as a true historical record of what has happened in the past, they also realize its limitations. We are limited by what the Creator has chosen to reveal concerning the past. We can also unwittingly limit ourselves by misconceptions of what the Lord has recorded for us in the pages of Holy Writ.

On the other hand, we should seek to understand all He has caused to be written by His faithful people on the subject of Creation and post-Creation events. This proper reasoning from Scripture to scientific evidence forms the basis of any sound, Biblical, geologic model of Earth's history.

The CCC geologic model of Earth's history shares some aspects with the current widely-used Flood model. The similarities include such concepts as: a young Earth, a literal Creation Week, all life "kinds" being created with the possibility of limited genetic changes, the fall into sin by mankind's first parents, the worldwide, catastrophic Noachian Flood, and the salvation of all believers through Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice for sin.

With this in mind, this paper concentrates on some of the differences between the CCC model and the current Flood model. In the process, of necessity, much will be left out. Much research remains to be done.

Quantity and Placement of Life on Newly Created Earth

The CCC model emphasizes the need to consider the quantity and placement of the various life forms on the Earth at the end of Creation Week. In the case of human beginnings, Genesis is quite clear that only one man (Adam) and only one woman (Eve) existed when the week ended. Furthermore, they were commanded to "be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen. 1:28). This introduces the need for time. The fact that it took humans many, many generations and years to fulfil that command has important geological considerations.

In the same way, God earlier spoke of the need for sea creatures to "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth" (Gen. 1:22). This plainly tells us that God did not originally create large populations of sea life and birds. It strongly implies restriction in number and location that required time for them to fill their ecological niches. While a restriction in numbers is not specifically mentioned of land animals, we know by observation today—long after the redistribution of the animals after the Flood—that few animals have universal distribution.

These built-in ranges of habitats resulted in limited mixtures of flora and fauna in each environment or ecological niche. These restricted habitats play important roles in determining what life forms are available for preservation as fossils in each area at any given time since Creation Week.

Eden and Its Garden

We must also pay close attention to God's description of man's first home – the Garden of Eden. Scripture tells us that God specifically "made all kinds of trees [to] grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food" (Gen. 2:9).

The trees producing fruit "good for food" for human consumption are classified as angiosperms. In fact, angiosperms are seen to "supply nearly all the plant food for the mammals that now dominate all other life upon the earth" [2, pp. 333, 336].

The CCC model therefore posits that at the close of Creation week, humans, angiosperms and mammals were limited to a small area of the early Earth called "Eden." This ecosystem of man, mammals, and angiosperms spread out from there to inherit the rest of the Earth as time passed and conditions permitted.

In like manner, since other life forms were also commanded to multiply and fill the earth, the CCC model posits that they also were created in specific creation "spreading centers." Exactly where these "spreading centers" were located has much to do with their later fossil record and, indeed, the fossil record should serve as a useful guide.

The Earth Becomes Tainted

Genesis One concludes with God's pronouncement that all He had made was "very good." God was well pleased with all He had created, but shortly something happened that drastically changed the landscape.

At creation, Adam and Eve were in harmony with their Creator. But soon they yielded to the temptations of the devil in the Garden and ate of the forbidden fruit. The result of this broken relationship with God is well known in regard to man's banishment from the Garden of Eden and inescapable return to the dust of the Earth. However, man's relationship with the Earth also drastically changed. God told Adam:

"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you…By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food…" (Gen. 3:17-19).

One of the major emphases of the Curse is on the ground, the Earth itself. Ecology and geology immediately become linked to the Curse. The world became an increasingly unpleasant place on which to live. The Curse invoked a very different world from the "very good" one pronounced at the conclusion of Creation Week. This basic truth is often overlooked in other young-Earth models. Paradise was lost.

The Curse Intensifies

The first sin involved Adam's and Eve's disregard for God's command concerning the forbidden fruit. The next recorded sin in the Bible involved something far more grave than stealing. It involved the taking of an innocent human life. Out of intense jealousy, Cain killed his brother Abel. As a result, Genesis 4:11-12 tells us that the effect of the Curse on the ground intensified:

"Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

The implications of this intensification of the Curse upon the ground are profound. Crop production was no longer the norm. Wandering in search for food became a necessity. God did not deal lightly with the wanton destruction of human life! Paradise was a dim memory. While Cain's life was spared, the Earth itself provided the penalty by withholding one of man's most basic needs: stable food production.

Something drastic occurred in the ecosystems of the Earth. They seemed to be in upheaval as one event after another disrupted normal food production.

Direct Divine Government

Genesis tells us more about how the pre-Flood earth differed from later times. When Adam and Eve sinned, God directly intervened and decreed the punishment. Even as human population grew, as it obviously had by the time Abel was murdered, God did not resort to human justice systems. In fact, He specifically forbade other humans from taking matters into their own hands and punishing Cain. God's response to Cain's worry that someone would harm him is very revealing:

"Not so, if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance [from Me] seven times over" (Genesis 4:15).

God reserved for Himself the prerogative to directly punish the wicked in the pre-Flood world. Those who defied Him suffered a manifold increase in the punishment He had earlier dealt! And for the purposes of understanding Earth's history, we need to especially note that in both the case of Adam and of Cain, the punishment was related to the Earth itself.

People seemed to automatically understand that God personally took revenge for sin by increasing the penalty (the Curse). Later when Lamech killed a man he boasts:

"If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times" (Gen. 4:24).

Rebellion against God became worse and worse. Men seemed to pride themselves in defying God and boasting about their evil deeds and God's reaction to them. This must have filled the pre-Flood world with terror and violence as evil deeds multiplied.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 260-339) is called the "father of church history." His record of the early beliefs and happenings of the church is most valuable and it also provides us with his view of the pre-Flood earth and how God interacted with it.

Speaking of Christ's pre-existence and His part in Creation, Eusebius also adds the sad state of the world and how humanity fell into rebellion after Creation.

"At the beginning, after the original state of blessedness, the first man disregarded the command of God and fell into this mortal state, exchanging the delight of heaven for the curse of the earth. His descendants, who filled our world, showed themselves even worse, except for one or two, choosing a brutal existence and a life not worth living. City, state, art, knowledge, laws, virtue, or philosophy were not even names among them…and in their madness prepared for war with God himself and to fight the famed battles of the giants, trying to fortify earth against heaven and, in their delirium, to do battle with the supreme Ruler himself.

"In response, God sent them floods and conflagrations, famines and plagues, wars and thunderbolts – punishments progressively drastic – in order to restrain the noxious illness of their souls." [9, pp. 25-26]

Notice that not only does Eusebius speak of floods and conflagrations, but specifically says the punishments grew "progressively drastic." This is a key element of the CCC model.

Finally only one man was found to be righteous in the sight of God. The multiplication of the Curse on the ground must have been immense as God personally dealt out penalties in the form of earth shaking events attempting to bring repentance into the hearts of God-rejecting, heartless people.

The Easing of the Curse

At Noah's birth, his father Lamech foresaw the lessening of the Curse: "He [Noah] will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed" (Gen. 5:29).

That the Curse was indeed eased in Noah's time is verified in the Noahic Covenant given immediately after the Flood to all mankind: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease" (Gen. 8:21-22).

We know that God is not speaking in an absolute sense of the Curse being lifted. It is not until the future time of the New Heavens and the New Earth that the Curse will be totally rescinded (Rev. 22:3). We still have the diminished Curse on the Earth today involving local floods, volcanic activity, hurricanes, tsunamis, famines, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. in sizable amounts. This strongly implies far more intense geologic and ecologic activities on the pre-Flood Earth when the intensified Curse during the long pre-Flood time climaxed in the worldwide, catastrophic GFE.

Significantly Matthew 24:37-39 reveals the wickedness of the world just before the time of Christ's return will be similar to the time before the GFE. It is precisely here that God says He will revoke the Noahic covenant with mankind and once again curse the Earth in various stupendous ways, ending with a universal destruction by fire (Isaiah 24; II Peter 3:10-13).

Perhaps we can say, to rephrase an old expression: "The future is the key to the past." Anytime that God directly must punish mankind for sins left unpunished by civil governments, great disaster happens upon the land and its peoples.

It has been said: "It is the floods and the fires, the battles and the bombardments, the eruptions and the earthquakes which have preserved so much of the human story" [1, p. 55]

The CCC geologic model understands the effects from the Curse on the Earth contributed greatly to the Earth's rock and fossil record, especially in pre-Flood times.

A Different Way of Governing

There is no mention of human government being authorized by God in the world before the Flood. Human government began when those few survivors from the Ark were told for the first time that "whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed…" (Gen. 9:6).

This was not giving humans the right to take personal vengeance, but rather civil governments were first authorized and empowered by God to punish evil doers and to reward those who do good. St. Paul 's New Testament instruction in Romans 13 to be obedient to governing authorities refers back to this portion of Genesis 9 where nations were first organized after the Flood.

This new way of governing in the post-Flood Earth impacted the intensity of the Curse. Now God expected authorized human government to punish the wicked. God took one step back from direct punishment of evil doers. The Post-Flood world has been a time when God's punishments have been mainly through the hands of others – authorized human lawmen or even using one nation to punish another.

Even in post-Flood times, however, Scripture is clear that God has shown His displeasure over sin by sending floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, plagues, etc. The fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah , the ecological events of the Exodus, the turning back of the sundial and Joshua's long day are some examples.

The only national theocracy in post-Flood times was God's rule over ancient Israel . During this time period God repeatedly stressed that punishment on the unrepentant Covenant people would be with increasing intensity: "But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands…I will punish you for your sins seven times over…" (Leviticus 26:14, 18, 21, 24, and 28). This increasing degree of punishment in order to bring them to repentance seems indicative of how the Lord has acted throughout history. The Scriptural account of the pre-Flood world is brief, but Divine activity through geologic and ecologic events appears to have been even more forceful before God sanctioned human government to act on His behalf.

The Geologic Record

Each locality on Earth has a geologic history. This history can be examined by studying the local geologic column. Rocks in most areas are deeply buried. It is rare that the entire local column can be directly observed, such as is possible at the Grand Canyon . Nevertheless, each local geologic column can be examined from core drilling samples or elsewhere in the region where otherwise buried layers are exposed at the surface.

Earth scientists have intensively studied wide areas of the Earth during the past 200 years. It was found that each area of the Earth has a sequence of fossils in the various layers that tend to follow a certain order worldwide. This order is usually termed faunal succession. Fossil assemblages in the rocks are not random, but change in character systematically from older layers to younger ones.

Early in the study of geology, three major divisions ("Eras") were given to the fossil record, later termed the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic. These divisions were further subdivided into geologic "Periods," each one envisioned as worldwide in extent and sequential. That is, Paleozoic life forms were buried before Mesozoic, and Mesozoic strata and fossils are below the Cenozoic strata with their characteristic life forms.

The geologic "Periods" are man-defined, but were especially helpful when geology was first formulated in Europe . Profound breaks (such as angular unconformities or specific rock types) were observed to set apart the various geologic "Periods" in Europe . Such profound structural or lithologic changes between the "Periods" did not always materialize in other parts of the world. For this reason, correlation between worldwide areas is done on the basis of paleontology. So-called "index" fossils are now used to identify each geologic "Period." "Index" fossils must have a very narrow range within the geologic column and have proved useful in correlating strata over wide areas. Hence, certain types of fossils identify and are said to be characteristic of each geologic "Period."

As explained by creationist Steven J. Robinson [12, p. 34]:

…Fossils occur in a geologically determinable sequence, where marine animals appear before terrestrial animals, aquatic plants before land plants, and man, together with many other plant and animal species, appears last. Once a particular genus, family or order appears, there is often a relatively continuous record of it until its disappearance. Indeed, certain periods seem to be dominated by certain types of animals, certain types of plants, and certain types of environment. Index fossils are a reflection of this non-randomness at the ‘species' level."

Many questions have arisen among young-Earth creationists as to the significance of this unidirectional trend in the fossil record. It has, in fact, been one of the most vexing questions to be answered adequately. It is precisely here that the CCC model offers various possibilities that young-Earth scientists can use to better understand the meaning of the stratigraphic record.

CCC Model Geologic Implications

Valid geologic data must fit into any biblically-based, earth history model. One important way to begin such a task is to note that geologic fossil succession closely resembles today's ecologic succession.

"The gradual and lengthy process whereby the energy sources of our planet were utilized successively by plants and animals is called geologic succession. It differs in no fundamental way from the ecological succession that occurs today when a new environment appears, except that it requires much more time." (16, p. 370.)

The CCC model views fossil, geologic succession in each region as evidence of sequential environmental/ecosystem changes since Creation. These ecological successions need not require immense time periods.

The CCC model advanced in this paper postulates:

• Man's sin brought a Curse upon the Earth. God's intervention in human affairs because of man's sinfulness often left a physical, geologic record as a witness. The GFE is the climax of numerous geologic events God brought upon the world that eventually perished. The post-Flood geologic record is less substantial than the pre-Flood record because of the change from direct divine judgment to the establishment by God of human governments to carry out justice.

• All the various "kinds" of organisms were created during Creation Week. But the varying ecologic placement and quantity of each "kind" created was directed by God's command to "reproduce and fill the Earth." This is specifically said of the more "advanced" types of animals (fish and birds, for example, and other land animals were also likely created in limited numbers). Time was needed for reproduction and for suitable ecosystems to develop before migration to other regions became possible. The so-called "simpler" sea-life of the early Paleozoic rocks is seen to reflect the first ecosystems affected by the Curse.

• The geologic "Periods" are records of characteristic ecosystems. The world never globally experienced only one geologic "Period" at a time. Eden was "Cenozoic" from the very beginning. But it is obvious from the geological record that other large areas of the Earth's inland seas were "Paleozoic."

• Widely spread similar stratigraphic sequences are understood to be similar ecologic successions that naturally developed worldwide as life multiplied and spread from centers of creation. The general tendency was for each ecosystem to enlarge its food web – that is, increase the number of organisms in its network of interconnected food chains. During this expansion of the ecosystem's food web, one dominant life form might perish or diminish in prevalence as more "advanced" life forms entered the food chain by migration. Through time, flora and fauna migrated, expanded or diminished, and changed to new varieties within the restricted "kinds." Such changes were "frozen" in geologic time as events of the Curse affected the Earth.

• Each local geologic sequence reflects the area's chronology of ecologic/environmental changes during Creation Week, the long pre-Flood Earth time period, the GFE, and post-Flood events. Since food web changes over time closely resemble geologic fossil succession, they give an "evolutionary" appearance to each local geologic column. But it is not truly evolutionary since new types suddenly appear. This general ecologic succession would be true even for widely separated geologic sequences. Before Darwin , geologists interpreted this succession of fossils as evidence of successive creations. With the assumption of an ancient Earth, these successive creations were interpreted to take place over immense periods of time. Later, after Darwin 's time, fossil succession was used as evidence for the Theory of Organic Evolution.

• The Earth's history encompasses many and various events affecting each local geologic column. Therefore, each area must be carefully studied to determine the time frame of its rock formation.

• The strata are replete with valid "time indicators" that must be reckoned with in determining the history of each geologic region. While it is true that many strata were suddenly deposited, it is also true that within the local sequences are "time indicators" showing intervals between catastrophic events. "Time indicators" include animal tracks, nests, in situ growth, rain prints, hard grounds, soils, parallel bentonite (volcanic ash) beds, oyster beds, chalk beds, and other such factors that indicate a passing of time and sequential events.

The GFE and Stratigraphy

Where in each local geologic column is the location of the effects of the GFE? In the traditional Flood Geology model, the bulk of the geologic record is reckoned to be the result of the Flood. However, in the CCC model, many other events associated with the Curse are also taken into consideration. Although the GFE violently affected the land, the CCC model holds that much pre-Flood strata survived the GFE.

The Hebrew word mabbul (translated as "flood") is only applied to the first 40 days of the Flood (Gen. 7:17). It was during these 40 days when the heavens were opened and incredible amounts of water continually fell from the sky. The result was total annihilation of all air-breathing life not preserved on the Ark. The CCC model envisions the destruction of all human and air breathing life outside the Ark in those first 40 days.

Such horrendous and continuous outpouring of rain would result in multitudinous "Super Floods" raging across all land areas. The resulting vast, super "rivers" of water rushed toward the sea and carved out huge sections of the pre-flood Earth. The shear magnitude of the "Super Floods" would carry the eroded material in suspension out to sea for deposition.

Such an enormous rush of waters across the face of all land surfaces would not be expected to bury life forms on the continents. The GFE on the continents would not be noted by fossils but rather by enormous areas of massive erosion. Certainly there is no reason to expect "time indicators" during the GFE on the continents. The GFE should therefore be found somewhere within (and not at the base of) each local geologic column.

Some have claimed that the CCC model presents a "Tranquil Flood" concept. Just the opposite is true! It is rather those models that allow for "time indicators" within continental Flood deposits that invoke evidences of a "Tranquil Flood" concept [12, p. 60; 4, p. 105; 13, p. 60]. Because of the destructive nature of the GFE in the CCC model, there is no time during the Flood itself for dinosaurs to build nests and lay eggs, for crinoids to be buried without destroying their delicate structures, for huge herds of dinosaurs or other creatures to leave their footprints (commonly in normal walking patterns around ancient lakes or along ancient, inland shorelines), etc. Rather, these and many other "time indicators" witness to sporadic events occurring during the pre-Flood (or, in some cases, post-Flood) world.

Creationist Jim Gibson noted four categories of patterns in the fossil record [6]:

• Fossil diversity patterns,

• Fossil morphological patterns

• Fossil ecological patterns

• Depositional patterns.

Fossil diversity patterns speak of the distinct separation of fossils in different strata. While segments of the geologic sequence (composed of so-called geologic "Periods") may be missing in each local geologic column, the order in which organisms are found from the bottom layers to the top remain strikingly similar.

For example, remains of trilobites always occur below dinosaurs and dinosaur fossils are below those of the large mammals. Also, it is often found that at specific stratigraphic levels, various fossil kinds may disappear or seriously decline never to recover to former prominence.

It is noted that "the number of species generally increases as one moves upward through the fossil record" [6]. In addition, the bottom-most Cambrian fossils contain only a few species, but the number of phyla and classes is initially high. Higher up the sequence, the number of species increases but there are few additional phyla making their first appearance.

All this is what the CCC model would predict. As the newly created kinds in each ecosystem multiply, the varieties ("species") would increase but few additional phyla would be noted. Ecosystems become superimposed as time passes and geologic events and environmental changes cause some ecosystems to thrive and others to pass from the scene.

Morphological patterns show increased complexity from bacteria in the Precambrian to humans in the Cenozoic. Complexity is often related to the number of cell types. Interestingly, "morphological stasis is the persistence of morphology through portions of the geologic column" [6]. That is, fossil species tend to look the same at their first and last appearance in the record. The arrangement of the morphological types into hierarchical patterns result in smaller gaps in the lower taxonomic categories and "strikingly distinct" [6] gaps at the higher taxonomic levels of families, orders and classes. Moreover, "fossils from higher in the stratigraphic column resemble living species more than do the fossils from lower in the column" [6].

Such morphological patterns are anticipated based upon the special creation model held by all young-earth scientists. While the Flood Geology model may have difficulty in explaining the appearance of more modern types as one proceeds upward in any local geologic column, it is expected in the CCC model. The modern-day world is composed of those organisms that have managed to withstand the various geologic events during the pre-Flood world and, to a lesser extent, post-Flood times. The pre-Flood world and its various geological events left behind fossils of the life forms that failed to survive.

Fossil ecological patterns tend to increase the number of habitats as one moves upward through the geologic column in each area. This "ecological expansion" shows a move from marine creatures on or close to the sea floor (lowest Paleozoic strata) to additionally include life forms inhabiting swamps or seashores or rivers (middle Paleozoic). In addition to all these previous habitats, the upper Paleozoic includes fully terrestrial species. Mesozoic and Cenozoic "include representatives from all the preceding ecological habitats" [6]. "It is important to note that this trend is not a replacement trend, but an addition trend, because all these habitats are still occupied" [6].

Traditionally, the Flood Geology model has attempted to explain these expanding ecological patterns in the strata by the expanding activity of the Flood. While the lower Paleozoic strata seem to fit the encroaching Flood model picture, the fact that many additional marine groups are found in the upper Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic strata is much harder to explain. Moreover, it is acknowledged that "one would think that a worldwide flood would produce extensive mixing of various types of fossils" [6].

The interpretations based upon the CCC model are much more straightforward. The early disasters that struck the Cursed Earth only affected limited areas of sea life. Furthermore, the degree to which life had spread out from "creation centers" in the early Earth reflected what organisms were even available for fossilization at each site as time passed. This was true for both land and sea ecosystems. The number and type of life "kinds" available in any one particular ecosystem determined what was available for fossilization. Disasters can affect only local ecosystems and environments or particular environments worldwide (i.e. worldwide shorelines, for example, if worldwide sea level changed).

In conventional geology it is recognized that plate movements could affect sea levels worldwide [15, p.318]. The CCC model posits that plate movements have been catastrophic but also episodic in nature since Creation. The intrusions and withdrawals of shallow seas across portions of the continents throughout Earth's history can be thus explained.

Furthermore, other factors came into play as life forms fulfilled God's command to "fill the earth." For example, it has been pointed out that dinosaurs seemed to have had a much higher reproductive rate than do large mammals [12, p.62]. Dinosaurs and the large mammals inhabited separate ecosystems. There is little hard evidence that dinosaurs survived on the same type of plants (angiosperms) as do mammals. The characteristic plants of the dinosaur ecosystems are now rare or missing from the world of mammals. Only a few small mammals are known to have existed in the dinosaur ecosystems. The dinosaurs seemed to have lived out their existence mainly in limited coastal environments/ecosystems around the world [8, pp. 72, 196].

The dramatic change to angiosperm vegetation in the dinosaur environment in the later "Cretaceous" ecosystem may have started the demise of the giant beasts. The change of vegetation and the withdrawal of the Cretaceous inland seas may have so disrupted the ecosystems of the dinosaurs and other creatures that existed as one food web that they failed to survive the transition into the "Cenozoic" ecosystem.

In today's world, we live in a predominantly "Cenozoic" ecosystem with only traces of the plant and animal life from the earlier widespread "Paleozoic" and "Mesozoic" ecosystems. Only those organisms survived into the modern world that could successfully live within the "Cenozoic" ecosystem that spread from Eden with its characteristic angiosperm/mammal food web. The food chain of each creature is distinct. Without adequate food, no creature can survive. The areas outside " Eden " did not fare well ecologically as the "Cenozoic Eden" ecosystem slowly spread across the face of the Earth. Even today, introduction of foreign life forms can cause havoc in ecosystems.

Specific Application of the CCC Model

How can the CCC model be applied to the geologic column in a specific area? One of the most favorite geological sights in the USA is the Grand Canyon region. The actual canyon itself is only a small part of the Colorado Plateau where large segments of Precambrian to early Tertiary strata are laid bare. It is an ideal location for application of the CCC model.

The Colorado Plateau covers a large area of northern Arizona , most of Utah , a part of northwestern New Mexico and most of western Colorado . The many strata of the Plateau lie mostly horizontal. Its undistorted rock record presents an immense geologic laboratory for study because the arid conditions do not favor extensive plant cover.

Creation Week and perhaps early post-Creation Week times are represented by the Precambrian Vishnu schists and tilted Grand Canyon series strata that underlie the Paleozoic sequence in the Canyon. These Precambrian rocks are separated from the overlying Paleozoic by a striking unconformity. The Precambrian rocks seem intimately tied to rapid events of Creation Week itself and perhaps of the early post-Creation Week time.

The early post-Creation Week to the time just before the GFE is represented by the area's Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks. Above the Precambrian in the Canyon area are eight major sedimentary layers, all representative of "Paleozoic" strata. Because they contain abundant fossils and various "time indicators" (burrows, tracks, rain drop prints, possible karst limestone, conglomerates of reworked earlier rocks containing fossils, etc.), the Paleozoic rocks represent successive pre-Flood land and marine ecosystems that once covered the area.

In other areas outside the Grand Canyon , many Mesozoic rocks with their characteristic fossils overlie the Paleozoic. In them are found rich dinosaur remains (fossil bones, nests, eggs and tracks), as well as many other fossils that differ from the ones in the lower lying Paleozoic rocks. Further to the north of the Grand Canyon is Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks where Eocene rocks form the deeply eroded Pink Cliffs. These strata also represent various pre-Flood events.

The GFE is represented by a large erosional break. Proceeding southward from Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon towards the Grand Canyon area, it is readily noted that the Mesozoic rocks are deeply eroded. Before the Grand Canyon area is reached, the Mesozoic rocks disappear entirely. Even further south of the Grand Canyon, the Paleozoic rocks so prominent in the Canyon are last seen at the Mogollon Rim, except for small patches still present such as on Mingus Mountain .

Throughout the American southwest, prominent features such as buttes and mesas bear stark testimony to the enormous erosion that has taken place. Vast areas of the landscape have been denuded of their once former extensive deposits. This unconformity, due to extensive regional erosion, is spectacular evidence of the GFE in this part of the world.

Post-Flood events are superimposed upon this stark landscape by various Cenozoic features, such as the impressive, volcanic San Francisco Peaks located south of the Grand Canyon area. Many other southwest areas also bear witness to volcanic activity since the grand denudation took place. Also to be found are remains of old riverbeds and lakes that once dotted the landscape in more moist times. These superimposed features represent various post-Flood events that have shaped the current landscape of the region.

Conclusion

The various applications of the CCC model will take time and research by many young-Earth scientists. However, the framework is now available for use. Perhaps its greatest contribution is the recognition that the pre-Flood, cursed Earth is fertile ground for geologic history.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all who have encouraged the author over the years to pursue the development of this geologic model. Special thanks to Marji, my wife, for her immense patience over the years, her listening ear, and her coining the name for the CCC model. It is hoped that further research in the years ahead by many creationists will refine the CCC model. In the process, we can all have a better understanding of the fascinating world God has fashioned. "Praise the LORD…He has caused His wonders to be remembered…He remembers His covenant forever" [Ps. 111:1, 4-5].

References

1. Ager, Derek V., The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record (Second Edition), 1981, John Wiley & Sons, New York .

2. Dunbar, Carl O., Historical Geology (Second Edition), 1960, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York/London.

3. Garner, Paul, Continental Flood Basalts Indicate a pre-Mesozoic Flood/post-Flood Boundary, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal , 10:1 (1966), pp. 114-127.

4. Garner, Paul, Where is the Flood/post-Flood Boundary? Implications of Dinosaur nests in the Mesozoic , Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal , 10:1 (1996), pp. 101-106.

5. Garton, Michael, The Pattern of Fossil Tracks in the Geological Record, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal , 10:1 (1996), pp. 82-100.

6. Gibson, Jim, Fossil Patterns: A Classification and Evaluation , Origins , 23:2, (1996) pp. 68-99. See also http://www.grisda.org/origins-23068

7. Gillispie, Charles Coulston, Genesis & Geology , 1951, Harvard University Press, Cambridge .

8. Horner, John R. and Gorman, James, Digging Dinosaurs (Perennial Library), 1990, Harper & Row, New York .

9. Maier, Paul L., EUSEBIUS – THE CHURCH HISTORY, 1999, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids , MI .

10. Price, George McCready, Evolutionary Geology and the New Catastrophism , 1926, Pacific press Publishing Association, Mountain View , CA .

11. Rehwinkel, Alfred M., The Flood in the light of the Bible, Geology, and Archaeology , 1951, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.

12. Robinson, Steven J., Can Flood Geology Explain the Fossil Record?, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal , 10:1 (1966), pp. 32-69.

13. Robinson, Steven J., Dinosaurs in the Oardic Flood, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal , 12:1 (1998), pp. 55-68.

14. Setterfield, Barry, "A Brief Earth History," www.setterfield.org/earlyhist.html.

15. Stearn, Colin, Carroll, Robert L., and Clark, Thomas H., Geological Evolution of North America (third edition), 1979, John Wiley & Sons , New York .

16. Stokes, William Lee, Essentials of Earth History (Second Edition), 1966, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

17. Tyler, David J., A post-Flood Solution to the Chalk Problem, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal , 10:1 (1996), pp. 107-113.

18. Whitcomb, John C., Jr., and Morris, Henry M., The Genesis Flood , 1962, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Philadelphia , PA.

Further Reading:

• The CCC Model Time Scale

• The CCC Model and its Geologic Implications (2000)

• Research Projects

External Links:

• More young Earth creationists now see the need for geologic activity outside the Flood. Dr. Leonard R. Brand's 2007 Origins paper Wholistic Geology: Geology Before, During, and After the Biblical Flood showing reasons to support pre-Flood geologic activity. Dr. Brand is one of the few having read my CCC Model 2000 article who has published material showing the need for pre-Flood catastrophic events as well.

Questions and Answers about the CCC Geologic Model

An interview with Robert E. Gentet

© 2008

1. Question: What's the origin of the CCC model?

The CCC model was a long time in development. When I was in high school, back in the ‘50s, I took a semester geology course. I really didn't know what to do with all the seeming "evidence" for evolution and long geologic ages. I was a member of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod at the time. Their publishing company (Concordia Publishing House) had published a couple of books on the subject – The Flood by Alfred Rehwinkel (1951) and Genes, Genesis, and Evolution by Dr. John Klotz (1955). They presented the case for a recent, six-day creation and universal Flood that created the bulk of the fossil record. These two books were my introduction to Earth history from a Creation viewpoint.

In the late 50s I became a member of another Church. This Church also did not accept the evolutionary theory, but had a form of the "Gap Theory." This interpretation of Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 allowed a large amount of time between the creation of the universe (1:1) and the literal, 6 day re-creation of life on the Earth (1:2ff). During the "gap," the sin of the angels had brought devastation on the Earth.

I believed and defended the Gap Theory for a number of years, until the mid-1980s. About this time, I realized the Gap Theory was not doctrinally defensible with the rest of the biblical record. However, something was also wrong with the popular Creationist idea that Noah's Flood could account for all (or most) of the fossil record.

I earned an MS in geology at Wichita State University in 1982. After earning this degree, I gradually began to formulate a possible explanation. A missing element in the 6-day Creationists' viewpoint was understanding the biblical and geologic record of the Earth after man's sin and the Curse placed upon the Earth as a result. The more I studied the Bible and the fossil record, I began to see a pattern in the strata that fit the biblical record better than any geologic model I had encountered.

In the early 1990's I was elected to the Board of Directors of Creation Research Society (CRS). There I came into contact with Dr. Erich A. von Fange, a professor at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, MI. He likewise had come to understand that a certain part of the geologic record originated between the time of Adam and the Flood. However, he didn't attempt to identify which strata were formed during this long time interval.

By the mid-1990's I had written my first CCC model paper and submitted it for publication in the Creation Research Society Quarterly. It was published five years later in the June 2000 CRSQ.

2. Question: How does the CCC model differ from other Young Earth geologic models?

The main difference is the CCC model's postulate of massive geologic activity between the time of Adam's sin (the beginning of the Curse on the Earth) and the Flood in the days of Noah. This geologic activity left sizable portions of strata with fossils.

3. Question: What are some other differences?

Since it is a Young Earth model, it accepts a literal Creation Week. However, the CCC model emphasizes the need to pay special attention to the details of Creation Week. The biblical record provides possible clues to understanding physical observations of the geologic record. Because the Curse on the Earth began soon after Man's Creation, strata and fossils then began to be formed due to local catastrophic events.

The distribution of plant and animal life on the Earth vastly changed from the time of Creation Week to the Flood and from the Flood to the present day. The original placement of the "kinds" of plants and animals (in various geographic areas) played a vital role in later fossil placement in the geologic record. The original creation locations determined if they were available for fossilization in an area due to geologic events. Then, subsequent migration played a vital factor in the vertical and horizontal fossil order in the strata (rock layers).

The CCC model considers the Genesis 1 account to indicate that specific plants and animals were placed at individual "creation centers." For example, in [the Garden of] Eden God created specific plants and animals that Man finds most useful for food, clothing and shelter such as the angiosperms and mammals. Such life forms are commonly found in the upper geologic layers around the Earth. The lower strata accumulated before these "specialized" life forms had time to proliferate and migrate from their relatively small point of origin in Eden. Today, almost the entire Earth has "Eden type" plants and animals.

4. Question: Did you find any certain "key" that unlocked the seemingly evolutionary sequence of fossils in the strata?

Yes. One day I read in a geology book that the fossil succession sequence in the strata was similar to the food web. The food web is that sequence of life forms that mutually depend upon each other. Each animal, for example, needs a specific food supply. There is a biological web that holds life together in each ecosystem. And, furthermore, these ecosystems have as a base the "simple" one celled forms of life. Only more complete food webs provide subsistence for the "higher" life forms such as mammals and Man.

Then I saw the possibility that the geologic record actually preserved how life migrated from one "creation center" to another as favorable ecological conditions permitted. The food web would become increasingly more complex in each region with the passage of time. The various Genesis "kinds" of plants and animals also branch out into many varieties during this time.

Such is exactly what the fossil record appears to tell us. Creatures suddenly appear in the fossil record in each specific location fully developed just as if out of nowhere. It's not that they hadn't existed elsewhere; they just hadn't inhabited this location because the food web could not yet support them. The geologic record announces their arrival as it is built up in each area due to catastrophic effects. Life forms are killed, then suddenly buried and preserved, sometimes leaving us with great detail in the fossil record.

5. Question: Where did Adam and Eve and other humans live during this "Adam to Noah" time and why don't we find massive gravesites of their bones?

The lack of massive grave sites of humans have been one of the most difficult enigmas to explain in the Flood model. In contrast to the CCC model, the Flood model says that almost all fossils formed as a result of the Flood. Certainly the earth’s rocks are full of fossils of many types and mass burials of various animals and plants are not uncommon. Yet, not a single mass human fossil graveyard has ever been discovered. This would seem totally unexplained if the bulk of the fossil record is from the Flood event as the Flood model postulates. There may have been billions of people living on the earth by the beginning of the Flood. How could they not be fossilized along with the billions of other fossil forms?

This enigma is not as difficult to explain using the CCC model. The Flood model emphasizes the action of the ocean. The CCC model emphasizes what the Bible itself emphasizes. Genesis pictures the destruction as originating from 40 days and nights of continuous worldwide rain. This destruction from the atmospheric rains would cause enormous outflows of maga-rivers into all the oceans off the continents. Land creatures and enormous amounts of land erosion would be carried vast distances by the gigantic continental runoff. This all occurred before the ocean covered all land surfaces.

This is exactly what the CCC model predicts and what the physical record indicates around the world. Many layers containing plant and animal fossils were already present when the Flood began. It is during this time before the Flood that catastrophes and earth-changing events created vast fossil remains over large areas.

But, how could mankind live in such a chaotic world before the Flood? The answer, according to the CCC model, is found in what is now called Shield areas. Shield areas encompass large areas on all the continents. Shield areas are composed of Precambrian rocks. These mainly igneous and metamorphic rocks fundamentally date from Creation Week itself. Where they are not at the surface in Shield areas, they underlie all the rock layers on the continents today. They can rightly be called the “foundations of the earth.”

The Shield areas represent the original land surfaces of the earth from Creation Week. They would be the living areas of the land plants and animals first created. As mentioned earlier, no fossil layers are on top of them. They are rightly called stable land areas. They have not suffered great change since Creation compared with the rest of the earth.

Later, after Creation Week, additional land was added to the Shield areas. Originally, most of this new land was first formed under the shallow seas surrounding the Shield areas. Paleozoic rocks, for example, are mainly marine deposited. Paleozoic rocks lie on top of Precambrian rocks. After elevation into land areas, terrestrial land deposits were added on top of the Paleozoic sea deposits. In the Mesozoic rocks, we witness both sea and land rocks, often alternating on top of each other. The marine deposits would represent later regional sea invasions and retreats on the land.

6. Question: So what does this have to do with the lack of large human fossil burial grounds?

The CCC model follows the biblical record in emphasizing the water that came down from the sky for 40 days and nights. This inundation from the sky created vast flows of water off the continents into the surrounding oceans. The currents would carry the life forms on the land – together with vast amounts of eroded material – perhaps great distances into the oceans. There they rotted and decayed or were consumed by sea life. This would account for the lack of human fossil graveyards on the land from the Flood.

7. Question: Do you have examples of this massive erosion caused by the Flood?

Yes! The whole Earth has preserved vast evidences of massive erosion! One such striking example is the American West where large areas now exhibit buttes, mesas, and plateaus. Large amounts of strata are missing. Similar situations exist worldwide. This means that we have vast evidence of Noah's Flood, but not in the way that many Creationists have envisioned!

8. Question: How was the evidence of the Flood missed by early Christian geologists a couple hundred years ago?

When it was finally understood that fossils were the ancient remains of life, many Christians automatically assumed the fossils represented evidence of Noah’s Flood. When James Hutton in the late 1700s introduced the concept of an ancient earth millions of years old, the modern science of geology began. Unfortunately, many Christians in science accepted this concept, but still held that God gradually created different life forms on the earth spread over millions of years.

It was known that the Flood did not occur millions of years ago. So the Flood evidence was thought to be more recently deposited on-the-surface layers only. This idea was taught until about the mid-1800s when these surface rocks layers were found to be deposited by huge continental glaciers, not the Flood. Soon, all efforts of seeking evidences of the Flood were dismissed.

Thereafter, in 1859, Charles Darwin’s book on evolution was widely and quickly adopted. It presented evidences of the appearances of new species. Unfortunately, at that time, Darwin had been taught an error. Theologians taught the Bible said species are unchangeable. The Bible says no such thing. Some species can and do change while staying within the biblical mandate of “after its kind.”

Each “kind” has a certain range of variation as seen within the system of classification devised long after the Bible was written. But, no “tree” linking all life has been discovered. It is rather a vast “forest of trees” bound to vary only within their individual “kind” limits.

Nevertheless, the social and hence scientific community climate was ripe for a non-biblical based origin of life. Darwin’s ideas were widely accepted and taught that life evolved over millions of years. The biblical record was forgotten and no longer used in any way to discover the true origin and meaning of the geologic record.

9. Question: Aren't dinosaur fossils found around the world and if so, wouldn't that mean that dinosaurs and men lived together?

No, not at all. In fact, fossil evidence shows that dinosaurs lived in rather narrow ecological niches near the ocean shores or inland seas or lakes. The rocks in which dinosaur fossils are found belong to areas which developed around the continental margins. New land was added onto continental margins due to catastrophic occurrences or events which affected the shorelines of ocean basins. These happenings occurred while most people were probably still living in the more stable, inland continental "shield' areas where the ecology was more human friendly. The dinosaurs lived (as ecologic conditions permitted) along the sea shores and inland for maybe 100 or so miles. In spite of "Jurassic Park" fantasies, humans and dinosaurs probably seldom saw each other and if they did, it wasn't a pleasant encounter.

10. Question: Why do you say that the strata were, in general, deposited catastrophically?

The internal evidence of much strata shows catastrophic deposition. There are exceptions, of course, but the mere fact of the presence of billions of fossils in the rocks indicates sudden deposition. It's often been pointed out, for example, that North America was populated by millions of Bison, yet we only know that because we saw them. They were not preserved as fossils. Sudden death and burial is required for fossilization. Amazingly, this seems true even of limestone which is normally portrayed as being laid down exceedingly slowly over thousands or millions of years. This assumption follows the beliefs of the early uniformitarian geologists that "the Present is the Key to the Past" since limestone deposition today is slow. This original uniformitarian idea has now been seen to be misleading. It is now noted that only the "processes" of the present can be invoked, not necessarily present-day slow rates. In some Kansas Mesozoic limestone, for example, are perfectly preserved fish. One large fish even has preserved a smaller fish within it! The larger had obviously just eaten the smaller and the eaten fish is also perfectly preserved. Such perfect preservation strongly indicates that the limestone was deposited very rapidly (no digestion time) and not slowly over long time spans.

11. Question: Isn't the whole matter of the origin of the rocks a basic enigma?

Yes, this is very true. We see massive amounts of shale (originally mud), sandstone (originally sand) and limestone with all kinds of fossil remains preserved in them. Where did all this mud, sand, and limestone come from? To evoke the traditional "Rock Cycle" is not rational. While it is true that weathering breaks down rocks into their component parts, it does not necessary follow that the massive amounts of material needed to create the strata came about by that slow method of decomposition.

12. Question: Then, where did all the rock material come from, if not from the gradual weathering of rocks, etc.?

That's a good question and ripe for much further research. My hunch is that much of it pre-existed elsewhere and was suddenly transported into the region and deposited. First, remember that when God created the earth, He created many rock types (but not fossils in the rocks since fossils are evidence of once living things). We can assume that deposits of sand or sandstone, mud or shale, etc. were a part of the original Creation during Creation Week. These source materials could be re-deposited later and preserve fossils.

Furthermore, we are just beginning to discover what lies deep inside the Earth. There are such things as "mud" volcanoes – volcanoes that spew forth mud instead of igneous material. There are evidences that vast amounts of sand on the ocean floors can be catastrophically transported onto the land, etc. Certain forms of limestone (CaCO3) are precipitated out of water through chemical reactions. This is, in fact, how God set up a system to remove vast amounts of CO2 out of the atmosphere. Otherwise we could end up like Venus with a harmful greenhouse effect that heats its surface to a temperature that would melt lead. We know at certain times in the Earth's history vast amounts of CO2 have been released from volcanic activity. It seems only reasonable that vast amounts of limestone originated quickly in order to keep the proper balance of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere.

Earthquakes can catastrophically destroy mountains and suddenly make large amounts of debris available. The geologic record shows this is what happened in some areas. The recent earthquake in China did this on a smaller scale creating earthen dams. These dams can suddenly burst and create further chaos downstream.

Many fruitful areas of research await us.

13. Question: Do the major eras (Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic) exist as horizontal co-existing fossil ecosystems? It seems that the fossil order is always a vertical Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic in that order. How, then, could they be horizontally expanding ecosystems?

The answer to this question involves many factors:

1. All young earth creation models postulate all life “kinds” existed at the end of Creation Week. Therefore, any fossil order found in the geologic record is a shared question.

2. Life exists in various ecosystems. This is true today and has been from the beginning.

3. Eden, man’s first abode, is described with life forms associated with Cenozoic fossils. Eden (Cenozoic ecosystem) was very limited geographically in the beginning.

4. The biblical indication is that other forms of life besides humans were created in very limited quantities. These other forms were also commanded to “multiply and fill the earth,” as were humans. Therefore, the CCC model envisions various limited "creation centers" (ecosystems) in the beginning in addition to Eden. Their extent is best estimated by findings in the fossil record. The marine Paleozoic seems by the fossil record to have been quite extensive in area.

5. Large land areas on earth today have no Paleozoic/Mesozoic/Cenozoic strata. These areas are called shields. The surface rocks are Precambrian. These shield areas are remnants of the original land surfaces where land life could live in the beginning. Shield areas have remained geologically very stable.

6. The shield areas are remnants of places where land plants and animals lived but were never fossilized. Other areas may also have existed “in the beginning” for land life but are now covered by strata.

7. Paleozoic strata mainly contain shallow marine fossils from non-shield areas. It was here that the beginning effects of the Curse on the earth started recording the fossil burial sequence.

8. The original distribution of life on the face of the globe is unknown. Fossil sequences found around the world record how local ecosystems changed over time.

9. Paleozoic rocks increased the size of the original land areas (shields). God enlarged the land surfaces of the earth in preparation of human population growth and humankind’s future need for additional land.

10. Ecological succession is very similar to geological fossil succession of life. Once the Paleozoic marine areas became new land areas, the preservation of the succession of land ecosystems could begin.

11. Many different ecosystems existed on the shield areas (or other non-geologically active areas) and were not fossilized. These included the more “advanced” ecosystems such as the expanding Eden (Cenozoic). Ecosystems were fossilized in those areas where geologic activity was more common. These active geological areas produced vertical sequences of fossils (advancing ecosystems).

12. The Paleozoic/Mesozoic/Cenozoic sequence is not found in all areas outside the shields. Sometimes entire Periods or even Eras are missing. Mesozoic or Cenozoic rocks, for example, can be found directly on Precambrian in some parts of the world.

13. The location and arrangement of the land masses have changed since the beginning. As we shall learn in the following questions and answers, this helps explain why similar fossil assemblies are now found worldwide.

14. In conclusion, horizontally expanding ecosystems “fed” the geologically active areas causing vertical sequences of fossils to be preserved. Adjacent ecosystems could exist without all being simultaneously preserved.

14. Question: It has been asserted that worldwide ash beds, shocked quartz and some iridium anomalies have been found at the breaks between Paleozoic/Mesozoic (Permian) and Mesozoic/Cenozoic (Cretaceous). These are said to be associated with massive extinctions of life and meteor impact events. How do these findings fit into the CCC model?

The CCC model understands that spectacular volcanic and/or meteoric events have happened in the past and been recorded in the earth’s strata. However, their placement within the biblical time frame isn’t necessarily determined by the Flood or any other biblical event.

Some young earth models place these events after the Flood, while others within the Flood. The CCC model using the Scriptures as a guide postulates two universal strata horizons. The first horizon was caused by the sudden emergence of land on the third day of Creation Week. This caused universal erosion upon all land areas. We find such a worldwide erosion break at the top of Precambrian rocks. The other worldwide erosion break is higher in the geological sequence. It is due to the mega-flooding runoff erosion from the 40 days and nights of torrential rains of the Genesis Flood Event. This worldwide erosion marker is seen locally at various geological horizons, but commonly in the USA it is just after the Mesozoic/Cenozoic boundary (early Tertiary)

The whole subject of mass extinctions in the fossil record is highly controversial. While it is true that a large number of species have disappeared since Creation Week, the reasons for this need not be linked to specific biblical events. They constitute the total result of what the Curse upon the earth caused at various times and ways.

For example, the well-known "Permian Extinction" was not a global event, but rather a catastrophe that struck an ancient internal ocean (Paleo-Tethys) of the world’s super-continent of that time (Pangea). This area contained a Permian ecosystem and the resulting breaking up of Pangea made it appear to be a worldwide event. Instead, it was a local ecosystem (Permian) that was devastated and whose fossils were redistributed by plate movement into various separated regions.

15. Question: The fossil record gives evidence of animals eating other animals. Some say the Bible limits carnivorous animals to post-Flood because of Genesis 1:29-30 and 9:3-5. If this is true, then the fossil record is only of post-Flood events. The CCC model says fossils have been forming since sin entered the world, long before the Flood. How does the CCC model reconcile the Genesis statements with fossils dating from before and during the Flood?

The answer lies in biblical interpretation. Do these Scriptures limit carnivorous animals to post-Flood?

First, it is true that Genesis 1:29-30 indicates that originally both humans and animals did not eat meat. God’s express purpose was that plants would fulfill dietary needs. Yet, it is plain that animals were used for clothing and in sacrifices to God. It is also clear that the world before the Flood became exceedingly lawless. Sin changed everything. Violence filled the world (Gen. 6:11-13). It is reasonable to believe that the animals also became violent in their actions.

If Genesis 9:3-4 is carefully read, it will be seen that only man is given permission to eat meat after the Flood. This is in contrast to the earlier time when both man and animals were given only plants to eat. This implies that some animals had already turned carnivorous.

Genesis 9:5 has been used by some to say “every beast” was given permission to eat meat at this time. Clearly this can’t be true since every beast isn’t carnivorous. Rather, a key in biblical interpretation is the context of the verse in question. What is the actual subject being discussed?

The context is the high value that God places upon human life. If someone is murdered, then the murderer has his own life to forfeit. This could be at the hand of human government, here instituted in Scripture for the first time. Or, the murderer could find his/her end by the hand of an angry relative or even by an animal. The context has nothing to do with diet, but rather the punishment of a murderer.

Fossil evidence of animal violence against other animals is not limited to the time after the Flood. God’s statement about diet in Genesis 9:3 cites only humans. Animals are not mentioned because animals had already turned carnivorous before the Flood. Genesis 9:5 cannot be used because the subject matter (see also verse 6) is no longer diet but what happens when human life is taken.

In summary, the CCC model does not restrict carnivorous animals to post-Flood times. Both the Scriptures and the fossil record reveal carnivorous animals roamed the world after sin entered.

16. Question: Do you have anything further to add about the CCC model?

I would urge the reader to study the two CCC model articles available on the CreationHistory.com website. Then, write me an e-mail with further questions or comments at Contact@CreationHistory.com. I look forward to adding to this question and answer section.

Further Reading:

• The CCC Model

• Is the Earth Young or Old?