Grand Canyon: Defending The Genesis Account of Creation
Photos by Tom Price unless otherwise noted
Calvary Chapel pastors and families join The Starting Point project to explore how the Grand Canyon supports the biblical account of Noah’s Flood
Two rafts, filled with CC pastors and their families, are moored together giving Jay an opportunity to point out the canyon’s undeniable evidence that supports the flood. In the foreground is Pastor Ray Jaramillo (right) of CC Rio Grande Valley, NM, and his son, Ray.
No disaster film could ever capture the cataclysmic event described in the Bible—the Genesis flood. “On that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. … And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth … and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth. … Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.” GENESIS 7:11b,19-21a, 23b-24
As Noah once warned the ungodly of the coming flood, so Christian scientists today share evidence of that flood—seeking both to bolster believers and to urge nonbelievers to repent in these last days.
Shane Algard (right), pastor of Calvary Chapel Lake Stevens, WA, and his son, Aaron, enjoy the spray from the Colorado River as the boat driver navigates the water. The CC pastors learned how to better defend the Genesis creation account.
Evidence in the Stones
Though secular geologists insist the Grand Canyon was carved by the Colorado River over millions of years, a group of Calvary Chapel pastors recently visited the canyon, examining firsthand evidence of a young earth and a global flood—as described in the Bible.
Creation scientist Jay Seegert, founder of The Starting Point Project, leads tours to the Grand Canyon. He explains how the canyon’s iconic multicolored layers and winding river strongly support the Genesis flood. “It’s one of the best spots on the planet to see evidence that there really was a worldwide flood,” Jay explained. “The Grand Canyon was formed through a cataclysmic global event (the flood) rather than over ‘millions and millions’ of years,” contends Jay, who is also president of Logos Research Associates, perhaps the world’s largest group of scientists who are biblical creationists.
“It’s a powerful tour,” agreed Pastor Lloyd Pulley of Calvary Chapel Old Bridge, NJ, who spearheaded the four-day pastor trip. “It’s great information, and you’re seeing it live—looking at dinosaur tracks, going down into the canyon, seeing the Coconino Sandstone layer. So much evidence that would make no sense without seeing it in person.” Lloyd plans to bring a group from his church and encourages other pastors to do so. “Jay would be a great speaker at our Calvary Chapel regional conferences; pastors need to hear this!”
Remarkably straight rock layers, without signs of erosion, indicate that short periods of time elapsed between their formation, lending credence to the biblical worldwide flood. Photo by Jay Seegert
Left: Jay Seegert, founder of The Starting Point Project and international Christian-worldview lecturer, explains evidence for the formation of the Grand Canyon by a catastrophic flood, as depicted in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 6-8. In the background, the Colorado River weaves through the steep-sided canyon.
Right: Calvary Chapel Pastor Chris Wimberly (right) of Selah Hills Church in Georgetown, TX, and his son Canon, get their first glimpse of the Grand Canyon.
Fossils & Floods
Countless fossils lurk in the Grand Canyon’s many layers, demonstrating that the mile-deep canyon formed quickly instead of over millions of years.
“You may have heard the standard story about fossils,” said Jay. “A dinosaur dies, falls into a stream, and sediment buries it for millions of years. But that’s an impossible story. Any creature dying in a stream or on dry land will decompose quickly. The only way to get a fossil is to bury it rapidly. And that’s why we’ve found fossils of a fish eating another fish [from Green River, WY], or fish giving birth—rapid burial.”
Pastor Bill Luebkemann of CC Marlton, NJ, enjoyed the nearby dinosaur fossils: “If a dinosaur walks in mud and leaves footprints, those footprints will wash away in the rain. The only way for them to fossilize would be a global catastrophe that buried it and turned the mud to rock.” Himself an engineer, Bill added, “It’s not unreasonable to believe in Jesus Christ; there is much scientific evidence of the Bible.”
Debi Schneider (middle), wife of CC Santa Barbara, CA, Senior Pastor Tommy Schnieder, is awed by the rock formations pointed out by the raft guide, Castro.
Left: Jay explains to Pastor Tadd Scheffer (left) of Calvary Ellensburg, WA, how a lack of soil and plant life between the rock layers indicate they were deposited rapidly, not over millions of years as taught by secular scientists.
Right: Pastor Bill Luebkemann of CC Marlton, NJ, frames a photograph of a rock formation.
Pastor Kevin Miller (left) of CC Conroe, TX, seated next to his wife, Claudia, smiles in amazement at the beauty of the Grand Canyon.
Impacted by the incredible views are: (seated, L-R) Pastor Bill Luebkemann’s wife, Lynn; Pastor Ray Carter of Redemption Hill Calvary Chapel Lake Havasu City, AZ, and his wife, Leisa; and Pastor Lance Cook of Calvary La Habra, CA, and his wife, Lori.
Layers of Time?
The Grand Canyon’s nearly 40 different rock layers hold clues to their origin. Jay noted how the layers are virtually flat, “stacked like pancakes.” If they were formed over millions of years, with millions of years in between, “You would see erosion in between the layers—soil, plants, bioturbation, animals burrowing, and undulating surfaces,” emphasized Jay. “So these layers would be hilly and uneven, not straight across. Yet they look like they were laid out with a trowel, virtually flat.”
Moreover, there are polystrate fossils (i.e., embedded in across multiple geologic layers)—such as fossilized trees. “That would be physically impossible over millions of years,” explained Jay, “because that tree would have rotted away. Also, they are missing their root systems, which indicates they were ripped up from the roots and redeposited—some even sideways or upside down—as several layers of mud and sediment quickly settled around them. We have these all over the planet because there was a global flood.”
Folded rock formations throughout the globe tell the same story. “The rock layers are so hard, how could they have folded while they were solid? They would have shattered or crumbled. Yet we see 90-degree folds in places like Lulworth Cove in Dorset, England. This shows us they were laid down quickly, while they were still wet, and scrunched up as the earth’s tectonic plates shifted.” Some scientists purport those layers were heated and folded over time, yet microscopic analysis shows no evidence of such heating.
Left: Lance carefully looks over the ledge as it drops off into the canyon.
Right: These layers would have been soft in order to fold without fracturing. They could not have been laid down slowly over millions of years, then harden and fold without cracking. Instead, this demonstrates relatively rapid folding while still soft. Photo by Jay Seegert
Pastor Lloyd Pulley (center) of Calvary Chapel Old Bridge, NJ, encourages his grandson, Trevor, 15, to back away from the edge. Lloyd's granddaughter, Summer, 14, looks on from behind. After taking the educational trip last summer, Lloyd organized the voyage for the CC pastors, wanting them to also hone their defense of the Christian worldview of creation.
Fountains of the Deep
Creation scientists believe the flood caused global upheaval in the earth’s crust. Genesis 7:11b says that in one day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. Jay expounded, “At the beginning of the flood, it wasn’t just raining. Great fountains of the deep were opened. Water, super-heated by magma, shot into the atmosphere, returning as torrential rain. There was also tectonic plate shifting.”
Cataclysmic global changes pushed up mountains, carved canyons, and caused tectonic plates to rapidly shift, theorized Jay. Even secular geologists believe the ocean basin rose a mile higher, pushing water up onto the continents, and receding later. He added, “This is all perfectly in line with the biblical flood.” A recent study estimated 6 quintillion gallons of water exist below the earth’s crust (Nature Geoscience, 2015).
Left: Pastor Lance hikes through Antelope Canyon, carved after the worldwide Genesis flood.
Right: Pastor Tommy maneuvers the tight turns in Antelope Canyon while Leisa Carter surveys what is ahead.
Marine Fossils in the Desert
The flood is also evidenced by countless marine fossils on mountain ranges all over the world, including Mount Everest (5.5 miles high). Psalm 104:6-9 describes how the Lord covered the earth with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At Your rebuke they [the waters] fled … over the mountains, down into the valleys. … You have set a boundary … that they may not return to cover the earth.
“So you have mountain ranges covered with water, mountains being pushed up even higher. That’s how you get sea creatures on the tops of mountains,” Jay observed. Marine brachiopod shells are commonly found in the Kaibab Limestone, the topmost layer of the Grand Canyon.
Pastor Ray Jaramillo of CC Rio Grande Valley, NM, added, “We have a slab in our church with seashells in the rock. We are in the middle of a desert, much like Arizona. This shows there was marine life present in the sediments and limestone here in Arizona and New Mexico.”
Both the Genesis creation and flood accounts are essential to Christianity, Pastor Ray expressed. “If we undermine the Book of Genesis and claim it was all just allegory or a fable, you have undermined all of Scripture. If you can’t trust the very foundation of how we got here, how do you trust anything else that Scripture declares?” Yet, for the past 200 years, many scientists and skeptics have tried to do just that.
Left: Jay pours water in a dinosaur track for greater visibility. The tourist attraction, located on Navajo land, is rarely visited.
Right: Nancy Castillo, Pastor Mark’s wife, examines an interesting dinosaur fossil on the Navajo reservation.
Scoffers in the Last Days
Interestingly, the Bible also prophesies that many in the last days will ridicule the creation account and even the global flood.
Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days … saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? ..." For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 2 Peter 3:3a-6
“Peter is telling us two things that the world is going to be declaring in the last days,” said Pastor Ray Jaramillo. “One, they will be mocking creation; second, they will be mocking the flood.” He speculated, “If the enemy can get you not to believe in the creation and the flood, then he has undermined everything God has declared. Peter warned that this would be the case, in the latter days, before Jesus’ coming.” Ray added, “This is why it’s important for the church to have something that we hold to and defend.”
He is planning a Grand Canyon trip for his church and one for high school seniors in the church’s school. “Before they go off into college, we want to give them something tangible to solidify their faith, knowing what they are holding to and why,” affirmed Ray. “So that when their professors try to point them in a different way, that they would know, having seen with their eyes, that the evidence they hold is true.”
Pastor Chris Wimberly of Selah Hills Church in Georgetown, TX, enjoyed bringing his 9-year-old son Canon on the trip. Canon related, “I didn’t know that Noah’s flood created the Grand Canyon until this trip with my dad. Now I see it so clearly—how it carved out the canyon and left the cool-looking lines on the canyon walls. … I loved seeing how science and the Bible go together.”
Pastor Mark Castillo (far left) of Calvary Chapel Renaissance CA, and others listen as a Navajo Native American shares her view on the dinosaur tracks.
The River Speaks
Geologists speculate that the Grand Canyon was carved by the Colorado River. However, as Jay pointed out, its steep walls tell another story. “When a river carves the earth, it makes a ‘V’ shape, but the canyon has vertical walls. That comes from fast-moving water. Also, if the river carried out all of that sediment—about a thousand cubic miles of dirt—it would have dumped it at the delta. But it’s not there, which tells us that the whole thing was carved catastrophically. The sediments were pushed out across the continent and into the ocean.”
Fast-moving waters can quickly carve out rock and earth, Jay revealed, citing Burlingame Canyon in Washington State. “In just six days, water carved out a canyon 1,500 feet long.”
He also cited Mount St. Helens in the 1980s, when new canyons quickly formed from catastrophic events. First, an earthquake caused a nine-hour volcanic eruption in May of 1980—resulting in a pit 2,300 feet long, 1,000 feet wide, and 125 feet deep near Spirit Lake. Then a volcanic eruption with mud flows in March 1982 carved out a 140-foot canyon in one day. “It’s called the ‘Little Grand Canyon,’” relayed Jay, “and the canyon walls are vertical, like the Grand Canyon.”
Pastor Tommy Schneider of CC Santa Barbara, CA, exclaimed, “This adventure was absolutely fantastic from the beginning to the end. While we were on the Colorado River, Jay shared how the sedimentary layers were evidence of the water moving fast and sheering off the land surrounding the canyon. From the water, we could see firsthand this catastrophic work when God transformed the planet.”
The sun sets over the Horseshoe Bend, where the team rafted earlier that morning.
Connecting the Bible and science has several benefits. Tommy reflected, “It’s great discipleship for those believers who are interested in truth and want to defend their faith. What an incredible way to strengthen and disciple our congregation. Also, it helps build our confidence as leaders, to be able to give a defense for the hope that we have in such an articulate way.” Tommy also praised Jay for his respectful, compassionate manner of sharing the truth with unbelievers.
The Grand Canyon testifies of God’s might and mercy. Pastor Ray Carter of Redemption Hill Calvary Chapel in Lake Havasu City, AZ, observed, “God created the earth in its perfection, and then we fell, and then He judged it through the flood. In his judgment, He was able to do what He wanted with those seas—breaking up the fountains of the deep.” Ray rejoiced, “Our God brings beauty for ashes—beauty after destruction. He can redeem anything, even a fallen world.” Ray Carter commended Jay for his biblical tour, explaining in simple terms how carbon dating has been misused to prove ancient-earth theories. Jay noted the presence of soft tissue in dinosaur bones, which would be impossible if they were “millions and millions” of years old.
Jay Seegert has authored several books on biblical creation, the global flood, and apologetics. He also hosts the Starting Point Podcast, connecting science and faith.
Calvary Chapel Pastors & Wives 2026 Grand Canyon Tour August 4-7
This article originally appeared in Issue 106 of Calvary Chapel Magazine. Copies are still available.
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