The Enduring Word: From William Tyndale to the English Standard Version

October 01, 2026by: Crossway

This article is part of the ESV 25th Anniversary series.

Celebrating God’s Faithfulness

October 2026 marks a significant moment in the life of the ESV Bible and Crossway. Twenty-five years have passed since the ESV was first published in 2001, and, remarkably, as we reflect on this anniversary, the ESV has become, perhaps, the most widely distributed Bible in the world, with more than 369 million copies distributed worldwide. The recent success of the ESV would not have been imaginable in the early days of the translation work, or in 2001, when the first ESV Bibles were coming off the press, let alone in 1996, when a small group of Crossway employees committed to seeking the Lord’s leading during a season of prayer and fasting.

October also marks another even more significant anniversary—one that reaches back five centuries to the very beginning of English Bible translations: the 500th anniversary of William Tyndale’s New Testament.

And so as we commemorate these two important anniversaries, we celebrate God’s faithfulness in revealing himself to us through his God-breathed, inerrant Word and for his kindness in preserving the Scriptures for his people today. The Bible is a sacred treasure, containing the very words of God. This sobering reality means we must approach the publication of God’s Word with humility, awe, and reverence. Further, we must seek to make the Bible accessible to the entire English-speaking world. It was with this conviction that William Tyndale translated the Greek New Testament into English, and that conviction continues to guide Crossway today.

William Tyndale and the English Bible

William Tyndale (ca. 1494–1536) was born in Gloucestershire, England, during a time of very limited access to Scripture. He committed his life to making the Word of God available to ordinary people in their own language. In his now-famous proclamation, he declared that if God were to spare his life, he would cause “the boy that driveth the plow” to know more of the Scriptures than the learned clergy of his day.¹

In Tyndale’s lifetime, the Scriptures were limited primarily to Latin and were inaccessible to the common people. But Tyndale believed that God’s Word was meant to be read, heard, and understood—not hidden away. And so he committed himself to translating the New Testament directly from the Greek.

Tyndale’s resulting New Testament was a work of extraordinary brilliance, especially considering that it was done by a single man under continual threat. Tyndale possessed a masterful command of Greek, along with a sensitivity and gift for accurately expressing its meaning. His aim, however, was not for accuracy alone but for rendering the truth of God’s Word and the message of the gospel with beauty and clarity, in everyday language that ordinary people could understand.

And now, five hundred years later, his words ring with familiarity. In many ways, Tyndale was not only translating the text but also helping shape the English language, establishing words like Passover and scapegoat, and carefully choosing English words and phrases that have endured in both Scripture and the wider language.

Tyndale’s work also came at great personal cost. He was pursued, betrayed, imprisoned, and eventually executed in the autumn of 1536. His final prayer, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes,” was soon answered, and amazingly, within a few years of his death, the king authorized the printing and distribution of Bibles throughout England.²

A Historic Stream

Tyndale’s New Testament stands at the fountainhead of a historic stream of English Bible translations. Reading the 1611 King James Version, one cannot help but notice its reliance on William Tyndale; indeed, more than eighty percent of the King James New Testament reflects his work. From the King James Version flowed the English Revised Version, the American Standard Version, the Revised Standard Version, and, finally, in October of 2001, the English Standard Version, with Dr. J. I. Packer serving as the general editor and Dr. Lane Dennis as the publisher.

The ESV Bible translation stands firmly in this classic stream, sharing much of Tyndale’s New Testament translation as well as his commitment to literary beauty, accuracy, and clarity. And now, five hundred years later, Crossway seeks to carry forward Tyndale’s commitment to making the Bible widely accessible to the English-speaking world.

A Faithful Stewardship

When Clyde and Muriel Dennis founded Good News Publishers in 1938—during the hardships and despair of the Great Depression and the uncertainty of the war—they were driven by a desire to proclaim the gospel during a time of great need. Their vision was carried forward in 1978 by my parents, Lane and Ebeth Dennis, who, after spending time at L’Abri in Switzerland with Francis and Edith Schaeffer, founded Crossway with a commitment to publishing and distributing gospel-centered resources and to reflecting the lordship of Christ in all of life, marked by truth, beauty, and excellence.

One of my strongest memories growing up is of my father, Lane Dennis, the founder of Crossway and the original publisher of the ESV Bible, reading his Bible in the evenings while sitting in his well-worn navy leather chair, with his fingers in his ears to block out all distractions. My dad has always had a profound love for Scripture and a deep abiding appreciation for beauty and craftsmanship. Those two things were never separate in our home.

My parents’ and grandparents’ vision for publishing continues to guide us today as we seek to present the Scriptures with dignity and care. As Clyde Dennis often said, “The best message in the world is worthy of good design and typography.”

This commitment to excellence shapes everything we do, from editorial to design and production. Every Bible we publish is intended to reflect the beauty and authority of the words they contain. Beauty is more than ornamental. It has a theological purpose, pointing beyond itself to the God of beauty himself. Even in a fallen world, beauty bears witness to God’s glory.

With this conviction in mind, we are nearing the completion of a multiyear process focused on redesigning our Bible lines. Throughout this process, we have closely examined the typography, layout, and materials of each Bible, recognizing that each Bible serves a unique purpose. As such, each Bible has its own set of constraints and requires careful decisions regarding size, weight, paper thickness and opacity, portability, and cost. With each Bible, we seek to serve the reader by presenting the biblical text with clarity, care, and a measure of beauty appropriate for the format.

As a part of this effort, we have commissioned a custom typeface through the font foundry Enschedé, working with type designer Peter Matthias Noordzij, to create a font specifically optimized for Bible printing, so that readability can be preserved at small type sizes across more than a thousand pages printed on very thin paper. Our newly commissioned font builds on the legacy of Bram de Does, whose fonts Trinité and Lexicon set a standard for clarity, proportion, and durability in long-form reading. These are the primary typefaces we use in our ESV Bibles.

Every Bible we publish is intended to reflect the beauty and authority of the words they contain.

God Gives the Growth

In recent years, ESV Bible sales have increased significantly, having nearly doubled over the last two years, an encouraging reflection of God’s people reading his Word. More broadly, Bible sales across the industry have grown, even as the overall book market has remained relatively flat. This suggests that many people are asking deeper questions and, in that search, are turning to Scripture. Yet the explanation for such growth is ultimately found not in human effort but in God’s providence.

As the apostle Paul writes, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth (1 Cor. 3:6–7).”

In many ways, we are now reaping the fruit of seeds that were sown in faith by William Tyndale five hundred years ago, seeds that have borne a great harvest for Christ and his kingdom. Our job now is to water, but we must remember that it is God who gives the growth.

Our aim is not only to produce Bibles with excellence but to ensure that God’s Word is made widely accessible. This conviction reflects William Tyndale’s desire that “the boy that driveth the plow” would be able to read and understand the Scriptures.

Each year, more than 22 million print copies of the ESV are distributed through Crossway and our ministry partnerships, most of which are given away, bringing the total to over 355 million copies distributed since the ESV was first published in 2001. Beyond print, approximately 8 billion chapters of the ESV are accessed each year, free of charge, in digital text and audio formats worldwide. Tracts also remain an important part of our publishing ministry, with more than 12 million distributed over the past year.

The Lord has also enabled a ministry of distributing Bibles and Bible resources through charitable giving. Through donor-funded efforts led by our Global Ministry team, over the past five years, we have provided more than 2 million print Bibles and gospel resources around the world—freely—to individuals and communities with limited access to Scripture. These efforts are made possible entirely through charitable support and reflect a basic conviction: that the Bible is not ours to keep but to share. Tyndale labored to place the Scriptures into the hands of ordinary people. In our own context, we seek to do the same, making the Bible as widely available as possible, in forms that can be read, heard, and understood.

Unlike many nonprofits that rely on donations to cover operational expenses, every dollar given to Crossway’s Bible distribution efforts goes directly toward placing resources into the hands of those who might not otherwise have access to God’s Word. And unlike most publishers, we are driven not by profitability but by a desire to serve the church and to support the spread of the gospel.

A good example of this is our current One Million Bibles: Global South Initiative, launched in November 2025 with a special focus on resourcing the Global South with God’s Word and building on the success of our initial One Million Bibles campaign which was launched in 2024 and recently completed.

Celebrating God’s Faithfulness

This fall, we are celebrating God’s faithfulness in the life of the ESV Bible and are honoring these two significant anniversaries with the publication of two special editions: the William Tyndale New Testament, 500th Anniversary Edition and the ESV New Testament with Illuminated Drop Caps. These volumes highlight the connection between Tyndale’s work and the ESV and celebrate the enduring legacy of English Bible translation.

In addition to these special anniversary editions, we are pleased to introduce a newly developed cross-reference system for the ESV Bible. This has been a multiyear project, carried out in collaboration with a team of scholars and technologists with deep expertise in biblical studies, the original languages, and advanced data systems. The system carefully distinguishes between different kinds of connections within Scripture—such as direct references, important context, parallel passages, citations, and shared language or themes—so that each cross-reference serves a clear purpose. Designed with an emphasis on clarity, consistency, and theological usefulness, this updated system seeks to help readers better understand both the meaning of individual passages and the broader unity of Scripture.

We are also excited to release the ESV Symphony of Scripture, Gospel of John. As part of a larger project, featuring the full ESV Bible text scheduled to release in September 2027, our vision for the ESV Symphony of Scripture is that God’s Word will be proclaimed with beauty and excellence through an immersive Dolby Atmos surround sound audio listening experience, bringing together thoughtful narration, richly layered sound design, and a fully orchestrated musical score performed by more than 150 of the world’s best musicians, and shaped by careful exegesis and the unfolding narrative of Scripture. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Thus, our prayer is that listeners will hear and receive the Word of God with clarity, reverence, joy, and faith as they engage more deeply with the meaning, beauty, and transforming power of God’s Word. With each of these projects, we seek to reflect Tyndale’s vision for making the Scriptures accessible to all people.

The Enduring Word

Five hundred years ago, William Tyndale gave his life so that the Word of God might be placed into the hands of ordinary people, even the plowboy. Twenty-five years ago, the ESV was published to continue that same work in our own generation.

Both anniversaries point to the same enduring reality:

The grass withers, the flower fades,
     but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isa. 40:8)

And so we give thanks for William Tyndale, for the generations of faithful translators who have followed in his footsteps, and for the privilege of stewarding the Scriptures today.

As we look ahead, we do so with dependence, trusting that the same God who has sustained his Word in English across five centuries will continue to make it known for generations to come. So let us again look to the Lord to lead us in the years ahead, and, Lord willing, over the next twenty-five years, as we seek to steward and carry forward the publication of the ESV Bible.

And may we do so, as the ESV preface reads, with this acknowledgment in mind:

We know that no Bible translation is perfect, but we also know that God uses imperfect and inadequate things to his honor and praise. So to our triune God and to his people, we offer what we have done, with our prayers that it may prove useful, with gratitude for much help given, and with ongoing wonder that our God should ever have entrusted to us so momentous a task. To God alone be the glory!

Josh Dennis
CEO and President, Crossway

Notes:

1. John Foxe, Actes and Monuments (1563), cited in David Daniell, William Tyndale: A Biography (Yale University Press, 1994), 79–80.
2. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (London Printing and Publishing Company, 1870), 233.

 

The Worship That God Will Not Accept

by: Matthew Boswell

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
     you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
     a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
     —Psalm 51:16–17

“You Will Not Delight in Sacrifice”

There is a truth we have to wrap our minds around regarding worship that comes from Psalm 51:16: There is worship that God does not accept. Already you may be somewhat uncomfortable. You may be asking, “What do you mean ‘worship that God does not accept?’ Doesn’t God receive any worship from anyone who will offer it at any time?” Well, no.

If you go back to nearly the beginning, Scripture teaches this sobering truth. In Genesis 4 both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord, but only Abel’s was accepted. Why? Abel offered his sacrifice in faith, but Cain brought his offering with a heart that was not right before God (Heb. 11:4). It was not merely the offering but the posture of the worshiper that mattered.

Then in Exodus 32, while Moses was up on the mountain meeting with God, Aaron and the people fashioned a golden calf down below. They claimed to worship God but did so by means of a carved image, directly breaking the second commandment. God’s wrath burned hot against his people, and many of them died.

In Leviticus 10:1–2 Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron who were newly ordained priests, offered “unauthorized fire” before the Lord. He had not commanded this of them. Like the Hebrews at Sinai, they attempted to approach God on their own terms. Suddenly, fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them. They died worshiping the right God in the wrong way.

Other examples from Scripture continue to highlight God’s disdain for improper worship. King Saul failed to worship God with heart and obedience more than once and was rejected by the Lord as a result (1 Sam. 13:8–14; 15). A man named Uzzah reached out and touched the ark while transporting it to keep it from falling, and he was struck dead for handling it improperly (1 Chron. 13:5–10). The prophets Isaiah, Amos, and Malachi all cried out to the people of God to try to help them see that God did not want their sacrifices and offerings when they came from empty hearts (Isa. 1:10–17; Amos 5:21–24; Mal. 1:6–10).

With this helpful background in mind, we make our way to Psalm 51:16:

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
     you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

Place yourself in the sandals of an Old Testament worshiper and read the verse again. This statement might come as a shock. After all, scattered throughout the pages of the Pentateuch are God’s own commands regarding sacrifices and offerings. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy speak a great deal about various types of sacrifices, ranging from offerings for intentional sin and accidental wrongs to offerings for thanksgiving and commemoration. God himself instituted these offerings and called his people to observe them with care.

Even more, God did take pleasure in the sacrifices and worship of his people. But only when their offerings were accompanied by sincere hearts. He did not want the worship of people whose hearts were divided, who claimed to love God while they chased after other gods or inwardly despised his word.

So why does David say, “You will not delight in sacrifice”? He isn’t dismissing the sacrificial system. Instead, he’s acknowledging that in his present state, no outward offering can restore what has been broken. The specific Hebrew word for “sacrifice” in the first line of Psalm 51:16 is most commonly associated with the peace offering, a joyful expression of fellowship with God (see Lev. 3; Lev. 7:11–36). The peace offering represented God and sinner reconciled.¹ Obviously, David is not in a state to make this kind of offering. Burnt offerings signified complete surrender and atonement (see Lev. 1), and in the second line of Psalm 51:16 David acknowledges that God “will not be pleased with a burnt offering” either. He rightly understands that even the most costly sacrifice would be empty in God’s sight apart from a contrite heart.² Ultimately, the truth captured in Psalm 51:16–17 shows what is really important to God.³

The point of Psalm 51:16 is not that God opposes worship but that he insists on the right worship being offered with the right heart. So when idols of our own making capture our attention, when our affections are divided, and when our hearts have grown cold, we must turn to the Lord with all humility and pray with the sweet singer of Israel:

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. (Ps. 86:11)

Only God can unite a divided heart. But oh, what hope we have. If you belong to Christ, you have been forever united to him (Rom. 6:5; 1 Cor. 6:17). As imperfect as your worship may be, it is pleasing to God. This is the joy of true worship—not that God receives you based on your performance, the depth of your sincerity, or even the orthodoxy of your practice but based on the merit of Christ, who offered perfect worship on your behalf (Heb. 10:14). In fact, the only way to practice right worship with the right heart is in and through Jesus Christ. If you are in him, you are welcomed into the very presence of God, and he wants you to bring your whole heart. And when your heart feels weak or fractured, you can ask him to unite it again. What comfort we find in the words that poet and hymnist Harriet Auber gave us to sing:

Cleansed from guilt,
     let sin’s dark mazes
Tempt no more our wand’ring feet;
     Then our offerings, prayers, and praises,
Shall a gracious answer meet.⁴

The Worship That God Will Not Despise

While Psalm 51:16 speaks to the worship that God will not delight in, Psalm 51:17 speaks to the worship that God will not despise. Here we reach one of the most stunning phrases in Scripture and learn about the worship that God loves to receive:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
     a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise. (Ps. 51:17)

Against the backdrop of the sacrificial system, these words shine like a diamond. If the point made in Psalm 51:16 is that no physical sacrifice will be accepted, then the point of Psalm 51:17 is that the sacrifice must be a spiritual one. What is more precious in the eyes of the Lord than a thousand spotless lambs or ten thousand perfect doves? A single heart turned in true, brokenhearted contrition. Yes, this is the sacrifice that God not only accepts; it is the very offering that he delights in. In fact, “this is the only damaged offering an Israelite was allowed to bring; every animal had to be perfect—but the heart of the sinner had to be broken and contrite.”⁵

God will not turn away the heart bruised by transgression. He will not refuse the spirit crushed beneath the weight of sin. The broken spirit need not for a moment try to hide its true state. A brokenhearted worshiper does not waste time trying to posture before God. He or she simply pleads for mercy, completely undone. Undoubtedly, the words of Psalm 51:17 have dripped from the lips of countless saints through the ages as they cried out to the Lord in times of incredible sorrow, sin, and suffering.

Why a Broken Heart?

John Bunyan wrote his book The Acceptable Sacrifice on Psalm 51:17, and it stretches more than thirty-five pages long on this one verse. It is chock-full of careful thought and pastoral help as it answers the question “Why is a broken heart so significant in the eyes of God?” I will outline Bunyan’s reasoning because it was so helpful to my own understanding.

The first reason God delights in brokenhearted worship is that “a broken heart is the handiwork of God; a heart of his own preparing, for his own service; it is a sacrifice of his own providing.”⁶ Just as God provided the lamb for the offering when Abraham took Isaac up the mountain to worship, so God provides the necessary offering in all his people: hearts broken under the weight of conviction, now laid bare before him in contrition and repentance. Bunyan wrote of the heart, “That is the cabinet, when unlocked, where God lays up the jewels of the gospel.”⁷ The Lord breaks the hard heart and then binds it up with grace, making it a fit altar for his worship.

Another reason God delights in brokenhearted worship is that a broken heart is humble and submissive. It bows before God in reverent fear and gives God the glory that he alone deserves.⁸ The brokenhearted do not approach the throne of grace with ego and bravado; they go to God with a divine mixture of humility and dependence, offering themselves wholly to the Lord.

It is the costly, free grace of God and his great love for us that fuels our worship.

The third reason a broken heart is so sweet in the sight of the Lord is that a broken heart treasures Christ. Jesus becomes exceedingly dear to the one who has tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Ps. 34:8). As the brokenhearted consider the great love they have been shown in Jesus, they prize him above all else and know him afresh as their great physician, their Savior, and their Redeemer. Bunyan conveyed this truth beautifully with these words: “As bread to the hungry, as water to the thirsty, as light to the blind, and liberty to the imprisoned; so, and a thousand times more, is Jesus Christ to the wounded, and to them that are broken-hearted.”⁹

The fourth reason a broken heart is precious in the eyes of the Lord is that it is a thankful heart, one that is grateful for the grace it has received.¹⁰ The human heart is not one-dimensional but multifaceted; it is capable of being many things at once. So the heart completely broken over sin can at the same time be totally thankful. And because of its sure position before God, a broken heart can even genuinely rejoice in the glorious reality of forgiven sin. With Bunyan’s helpful explanations in mind, let’s now look at how Tim Keller explained the beauty of the broken and contrite heart. He wrote,

What is the broken and contrite heart God wants so much? It is a heart that knows how little it deserves yet how much it has received. To know only the first truth is to be self-loathing, to know only the second is to be self-satisfied—and both kinds of hearts will be self-absorbed. David is talking instead about hearts broken by costly, free grace—knowing both how lost and how loved we are. This gets us out of ourselves.¹¹

It is the costly, free grace of God and his great love for us that fuels our worship. God’s love is undeserved and pure. It is unearned and unwavering. Our love for him does not originate from within us, so there is no room for pride or boasting in our hearts. Rather, when we understand the extent of his grace and choose to receive it with our broken hearts, our love for God flows back to him in response. A broken heart leads to true worship.

Finally, let’s look at how Charles Spurgeon described the broken and contrite heart in one of his sermons. He stated,

A broken heart cannot keep secrets. Now is all revealed, now its essence goes forth. Far too much of our praying, and of our worship, is like closed up boxes; you cannot tell what is in them. But it is not so with broken hearts; when broken hearts sing, they do sing. When broken hearts groan, they do groan. Broken hearts never play at repenting, nor play at believing . . . with broken hearts, the hymn is a real hymn, the prayer is a real prayer, the hearing of sermons is earnest work, and the preaching of them is the hardest work of all. Oh, what a mercy it would be if some of you were broken all to pieces! There are many flowers that will never yield their perfume till they are bruised.¹²

The Mercy of Brokenhearted Worship

Perhaps you have drifted into a pattern of spiritual performance, or maybe you’ve been going through the motions of worship without a heart of worship lately. You can sing to the Lord at the top of your lungs, but if you do so without the right heart posture, your voice will not be pleasing to him. You can pray orthodox prayers that articulate the faith, but if your heart doesn’t fly to God on the wings of those words, you will have fallen short of true worship and communion. You may give sacrificially, but if you do so begrudgingly, your gift will not honor the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). I pray that if you have been playing at these sacred acts, as I have done at times in my life, that the Lord would do a deep work in your spirit.

I pray that you might experience true repenting and real believing. May the next hymn you sing be a real hymn. May the next prayer you pray be a real prayer. May the next Scripture you read wash over you as God’s grace to you. May the next sermon you listen to meet ears tuned to the Lord’s heart. Oh, what a mercy that would be—and may it truly be yours.

Notes:

1. Alec Motyer, Psalms by the Day: A New Devotional Translation (Christian Focus, 2016), 138.
2. Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (1973; repr., InterVarsity Press, 2008), 211.
3. Tremper Longman III, Psalms, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (InterVarsity Press, 2014), 222.
4. Harriett Auber, “Psalm 51,” in The Spirit of the Psalms, or A Compressed Version of Select Portions of the Psalms of David: Adapted to Christian Worship (London, 1829), 50.
5. Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. 2, 42–89, Kregel Exegetical Library (Kregel Academic, 2013), 198.
6. John Bunyan, The Acceptable Sacrifice, in Experimental, Doctrinal, and Practical, vol. 1 of The Works of John Bunyan, ed. George Offor (Banner of Truth, 1991), 709.
7. Bunyan, Acceptable Sacrifice, 709.
8. Bunyan, Acceptable Sacrifice, 710.
9. Bunyan, Acceptable Sacrifice, 711.
10. Bunyan, Acceptable Sacrifice, 711.
11. Timothy Keller, The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms (Viking, 2015), 111.
12. C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (London, 1895), 41:304.

This article is adapted from Create in Me a Clean Heart: Experiencing God’s Abundant Mercy in Psalm 51 by Matthew Boswell.

 People Need the Hope You Have

David Deagel

Paul’s words in Romans 10 begin with love and

concern for his countrymen. Salvation is not

mysterious or unreachable. “The word is near you,”

he says. It is near enough to be believed in the heart

and confessed with the mouth. The promise is

sweeping in its scope, inclusive in its invitation and it

is conditional in its response: “Whoever calls on the

name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

That is glorious news!

Yet, Paul does not stop there. No sooner does he

affirm how salvation occurs than he turns the reader’s

attention outward with a series of piercing and heart

tugging questions. What about those who have not

believed? What about those who have not heard? The

gospel that saved us was never meant to stop with us.

They Cannot Believe What They Have Not Heard

Paul asks, “How then shall they call on Him in

whom they have not believed? And how shall they

believe in Him of whom they have not heard?”

(Romans 10:14). His point is unquestionable and

unmistakable. Hearing must always precede

believing.

People do not accidentally drift into salvation. They

need to study or be taught from the Word of God.

Scripture repeatedly teaches that ignorance of God

and His Word has devastating consequences. Paul

describes those outside of Christ as having their

understanding darkened and being alienated from the

life of God “because of the ignorance that is in them”

(Ephesians 4:18). Similarly, Hosea records the Lord’s

lament: “My people are destroyed for lack of

knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). How can one follow

directions if they have not been given directions?

Hope Must Be Sent Through Someone

Paul continues: “And how shall they hear without a

preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are

sent?” (Romans 10:15). The word preacher here is

often misunderstood. Paul is not speaking exclusively

of pulpits and sermons. He is speaking of proclaimers

(Kerusso), those willing to open their mouths and

speak on Christ’s behalf.

Here is a tough reality that must be understood:

Every Christian fits the description of one speaking

on Christ’s behalf! “We are ambassadors for Christ,”

Paul writes elsewhere, “as though God were pleading

through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Jesus’ great

commission was not limited to a select few; it was

given to all disciples: “Go therefore and make

disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19–20). The

early Christians understood this concept well, as

those scattered by persecution “went everywhere

preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).

God chose people, not angels, visions, or dreams, to

carry the message of salvation. Jesus said, “As You

sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the

world” (John 17:18). God’s plan for reaching the lost

has always included human voices.

The Gospel is a Shared Lifeline

God once warned Israel that if a watchman saw

danger coming and failed to sound the alarm, the

blood of the people would be required at his hand

(Ezekiel 33:6). The principle remains prominent today

when danger is known; there remains a responsibility

to act and speak. Would a Christian honestly and in

good conscience proclaim, “I’m just thankful I was

saved…Someone else will help others.” But isn’t that

too often how we live?

God Calls Gospel Feet Beautiful

Paul concludes this section by quoting Isaiah: “How

beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel

of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

(Romans 10:15). Beautiful feet are not about

appearance, but about the feet that go, feet that move

toward helping and teaching the lost.

The message carried is powerful. The Gospel brings

peace with God, forgiveness of sins, hope beyond the

grave, and an eternal home in heaven. The gospel

changes one’s devotion (Matthew 28:19), direction

(Luke 24:47), and destination (Mark 16:16). The

Gospel moves us from Hell to Heaven, from guilt to

grace, and from lost to found. The Gospel is beautiful,

and that which is carried makes the carrier beautiful

in God’s sight.

Love Must Move Us to Speak

If we truly love people as we are called to love them

(John 13:34; Matthew 22:39), we cannot be content

with their lostness. Love for friends, for family, and

even for enemies compels us to speak.

What Will You Do with the Hope You Have?

You do not save souls; that’s what God does. But

God has chosen to work through willing voices.

Identify someone. Pray intentionally. Speak faithfully.

Share what Christ has done. You were saved by hope,

and now someone else needs the hope you have.

Will you carry it? Will you carry it as a Christian

compelled to speak to the lost from a position of love?

Will you carry it as a Christian who will devote his

life to ministry? Will you consider being well

equipped to share the Gospel by engaging the love of 

JESUS in all we do.

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Biblical Truth and Evidence

 

Earth’s perfect position in the solar system is no accident—it is the result of precise design. If our planet were only 10% closer to the Sun, the searing heat would scorch the surface and make life impossible. If it were 10% farther away, the world would be locked in ice, freezing oceans solid and ending the possibility of life. Even the speed of Earth’s rotation shows evidence of careful fine-tuning. A 10% increase in rotation would unleash winds of 190 to 250 miles per hour across the globe, making survival impossible. A 10% slower rotation would stretch the days and nights so long that daytime heat could climb to 140–175°F, while nighttime cold would plunge to –40 to –60°F. Life could not endure such extremes. Yet Earth exists within this remarkably narrow balance, with its distance from the Sun and rotation working together to provide the conditions necessary for life.

But God has set the Earth exactly where it needs to be. Our perfect distance from the Sun and our precise rotation create a stable climate that sustains water, plants, animals, and human life. The Moon’s perfect distance is no accident either. Its gravitational pull creates tides that refresh and circulate Earth’s waters, while its influence helps stabilize Earth’s tilt and maintain predictable seasons. Without the Moon, Earth’s axis could experience far greater variations, producing dramatic climate changes and disrupting the stability upon which life depends. If the Moon were only 10% closer or farther from Earth, its gravitational relationship with our planet would be significantly altered, affecting tides, ecosystems, climate stability, and the long-term habitability of Earth. The Earth-Moon relationship is another remarkable example of the precision built into our world.

Even Jupiter reveals the Creator’s wisdom. This giant planet acts as a protective shield for Earth, using its immense gravity to draw away or deflect asteroids, comets, and meteors that could devastate life. If Jupiter were only 10% closer to the Sun, it would redirect its shielding effect toward Venus. If it were 10% farther, it would protect Mars instead. Yet in its exact God-ordained position, Jupiter guards Earth. Its immense gravitational influence reaches throughout the solar system, affecting the paths of countless objects and helping shape the environment in which our planet exists. The planets are not isolated worlds scattered randomly through space; they are interconnected parts of an extraordinarily ordered system.

Earth’s atmosphere is no accident. Its precise balance—78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and trace gases—is finely tuned for life. If oxygen were only 10% higher, wildfires would burn with dramatically greater intensity and spread far more easily across the globe. If it were 10% lower, human beings and animals would have far greater difficulty obtaining the oxygen necessary for life. Even the ozone layer is perfectly positioned, shielding us from deadly ultraviolet radiation. Without it, Earth’s surface would be exposed to vastly greater levels of harmful UV radiation, threatening the living organisms that depend upon the protection it provides. The atmosphere is not simply a mixture of gases surrounding Earth—it is a finely balanced life-support system.

Every detail of our solar system testifies to purposeful creation, not chance. The harmony between Earth’s distance from the Sun, its rotation speed, the Moon’s stabilizing influence, Jupiter’s protection, and the precise composition of our atmosphere all point to the hand of an intelligent Designer. Again and again, we see that changing critical conditions by only 10% can produce consequences devastating enough to threaten the very possibility of life. The odds of such a remarkable combination of life-sustaining conditions occurring by accident are beyond imagination. Creation declares the glory of God, and Earth’s delicate balance bears witness to His power, wisdom, and care for life. The heavens are not silent—they testify to order, purpose, and design. For those who doubt, the heavens themselves cry out that there is a Creator—and His name is the Lord.

Jason Asher

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If the Flood Happened, How Did Animals Get Back to Australia?

Jeff Miller, Ph.D.

Creation vs. EvolutionFlood

 Article in Brief

If the Flood happened and killed all land creatures not on the Ark, how did Australia and remote islands get populated with animals after the Flood? Bible believers have several reasonable explanations for such challenges—ironically, options which skeptics themselves often use for their own arguments.

In 2 Peter 3:3-6, Peter warned his readers about a coming time in which individuals would scoff at the idea of the global biblical Flood. There is no doubt that we live in such a time. In fielding criticisms about a global Flood over the years, one argument is perhaps second-to-none in the frequency with which it is used by those who reject the Flood.1 If the Flood killed all pre-Flood land animals on the planet (not on the Ark), then how would land animals have traveled from the Ark on Ararat to remote areas that are only accessible by boat, like Australia, North America, or England? Here are six responses to that question that exonerate the biblical Flood model.

(1) A Knife That Cuts Both Ways

First, it should be mentioned that migration of animals to islands and remote places before the Flood may be an interesting question, but it is not a potential problem for the Creation model. Creationists argue that the world as God created it may have been something of a supercontinent (called Rodinia),2 potentially making travel to places that are now isolated continents or islands much easier. More likely, however, God created animals across the planet already in their designed habitats during Creation week.

After the Flood, however, how can animal dispersion be explained if God was not miraculously involved (which seems to be the implication of the text—e.g., Genesis 8:17-11:9). First, it must be conceded that, ironically, animals in such remote places are as much a problem for the evolutionary model as they are for the biblical Flood model. Whether evolution or Creation is true, animals exist in Australia, have been there for some time, and their arrival must be explained. Whatever explanation the evolutionist uses to explain the existence of animals in Australia may very well be an option for creationists as well.

(2) Closer Continents

It is also important to realize that, as with the evolutionary model, the Creation model has no problem with the idea of plate tectonics—the theory that the Earth’s crust is broken into large pieces that move relative to each other, diverging, converging, and transforming. Therefore, creationists also have no reason to reject the concept of Pangaea—the idea that all of today’s continents were once joined together in one massive continent. In fact, it was a biblical Flood believer by the name of Antonio Snider-Pellegrini who was among the first to suggest that the continents may have once been joined together into one continent3—long before Alfred Wegener, often credited with “continental drift,” was even born. Snider-Pellegrini believed that the Flood may have been the cause of the break-up of the original supercontinent and subsequent rapid movement of its pieces.4

The Pangaea concept may even be implied by the description of God’s activities given in Genesis 1:9. As is often the case, however, the problem creationists have with the conventional version of geologic history concerning Pangaea comes from the assumption of uniformitarianism—in this case, the idea that the pieces of the Earth’s crust have always been moving at the rate we observe today. While the continents are spreading on the order of centimeters per year today, if the Flood occurred, and “all the fountains of the great deep [presumably, the ocean floor] were opened” (Genesis 7:11), surely including volcanic and significant tectonic activity, the separation rate could certainly have been much quicker for a period of time. Evidence for just such an accelerated separation rate has been documented.5 By implication, immediately after the Flood, remote destinations like Australia, Antarctica, and India could have been much closer together than they are today, in keeping with Pangaea models, allowing migration to islands and remote continents before the continents were too far apart.

(3) Frozen Channels

Other possibilities are also available which vindicate the biblical model. For example, according to the Flood model, a great Ice Age/Ice Advance commenced after the Flood,6 caused by warmer oceans (hence, greater precipitation) and increased volcanic activity (due to increased tectonic activity, causing cooler summers from increased volcanic aerosols and ash in the atmosphere). An Ice Age would have allowed animal migration from the Ark across frozen channels. The English Channel, as well as channels to Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland may have been frozen at the time. Significantly, a frozen channel from Russia to Alaska—the Bering Strait—would have allowed animal migration to North America. The water depth between the two is only 100-160 feet deep. With some 30% of the Earth’s continents covered with ice (as opposed to 10% today), the Earth’s sea level would have been significantly lowered making frozen channels common during the height of the Ice Age.

Ironically, in Origin of Species, glacier growth in the past was argued by Darwin to be how animals could have arrived in several remote places, including islands.7 As a modern example of animal movement across frozen channels, in 2018 scientists tracked an Arctic fox’s 76 day journey as it traveled from the far north Norway island group of Svalbard, across sea ice, the Greenland ice sheet, and Kane Basin to reach Ellesmere Island, Canada.8

(4) Land Bridges

Some Flood skeptics superficially observe on a map the location of Australia in comparison to Asia and summarily dismiss the idea of a land bridge nearly connecting Asia to Australia. However, thanks to modern technology, we know the depth of the ocean across the planet. A closer look at the water depth between the islands of the island chain that span the distance between mainland Asia and Australia reveals that the water depth is only dozens to hundreds of feet in many places along the path. Once again, during the post-Flood Ice Advance period, roughly 30% of the Earth’s land was covered with ice, significantly lowering sea level globally. In fact, secular scientists estimate that the Earth’s sea level may have been 400 feet lower at the peak of the Pleistocene Ice Age,9 which would have nearly completely opened a land path from Asia all the way to Australia.

U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Project Office, World Map of Extended Continental Shelf Areas, December 2023, version 1.0. https://state.gov.

That fact has led evolutionary scientists to postulate that that is how humans reached Australia during the Ice Age.10 Gemma Tarlach, writing in Discover magazine, explained,

From the North Sea to the island-dotted tropics between Asia and Australia, from the frigid waters of the Bering Strait to the sunny Arabian Peninsula, now-submerged coastal landscapes were exposed and accessible to our ancestors at multiple times in prehistory, including key periods of human expansion across the globe. The square mileage of these areas now under the seas is equal to that of modern North America.11

Tarlach applies the same concept to the pathway between central Europe and England/Scotland during the Ice Age.

Look at a map of today’s Europe and its northern epicenters of population and commerce: London, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen. Now consider that these hubs were once hinterland, mere fringes of an expanse rich in conifer forests, meadows, rivers and wetlands, all of it teeming with game. Prehistoric travelers could have walked from what’s now central Europe to northern Scotland without even seeing a coastline. As the massive glaciers and ice sheets of the…Ice Age began melting…, rising seas inundated this world. The North Sea was born.12

Bottom line: using the geography of today to draw conclusions about the past is unreliable at best, even according to many evolutionists. Humans and animals could have used land bridges to disperse after the Flood.

(5) Log “Islands”

It is also likely that for some time, remnants of the great forests of the pre-Flood period would have been floating on the receding waters of the Earth until their decay was completed. As is the case from localized floods today, small “land masses” composed of trees and debris are often found floating on the water (e.g., traveling down rivers). Much larger islands of plant material and debris are found associated with larger catastrophes as well. For example:

• Such a land mass of trees can still be seen on Spirit Lake, a result of the eruption of Mount Saint Helens volcano 45 years ago.
• After the 2011 Japan tsunami, an island of debris was spotted floating across the Pacific Ocean towards the U.S. west coast. The island was 69 miles in length and covered an expanse of over 2.2 million square feet.13

Spirit Lake at the base of Mount St. Helen’s volcano, decades after the 1980 eruption. Image: wikipedia.org (Schulz) 2012 license c-by-sa-3.0

But is it likely that animals would be found floating on such debris islands? Some scoff at the idea, but they only do so out of ignorance. After all, three weeks after the 2011 Japan tsunami, the Japan Coast Guard found and rescued a dog that had been floating on one of the tsunami’s debris islands.14 Such a scenario may very well explain the existence of dingoes in Australia. Graham Lawton, writing in New Scientist, even noted that,

After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, around 300 Japanese marine species were found on the shoreline of British Columbia having been carried on artificial debris. Some larger vertebrates, such as tortoises, crocodilians and possibly even hippos, may be able to float or swim. Of course, sceptics can’t just pour cold water on the idea. The presence of particular animals in certain faraway places still requires an explanation, so what have they got?15

Paleontological and archaeological evidence indicates that humans made it to the continent of Australia after the Flood and before Abraham.16 Lawton explained that scientists have long thought that humans could have arrived there accidentally, assuming that

[p]eople must have arrived on the currents after being washed into the sea by a tsunami or flood, perhaps clinging to a mat of floating vegetation or a raft of pumice. This so-called “sweepstake colonization” is often invoked to explain how terrestrial reptiles and mammals make it onto distant tropical islands, and it could plausibly account for the peopling of Sahul. Prevailing ocean currents are favourable and any floating castaways caught in them would have found the vast Sahul “hard to miss”, according to archaeologist Jane Balme at the University of western Australia in Perth.17

Bruce Hardy, the chair of the Department of Anthropology at Kenyan College in Ohio, agreed about the plausibility of the rafting hypothesis for human migration to isolated locations, arguing that migration could have occurred by “natural rafts drifting and leading to human occupation of some of these islands.”18 They could have “drifted to islands atop natural vegetation mats.”19 If humans could drift in such an accidental manner, why not animals?

Lawton agreed, arguing that monkeys and other animals also could have “sailed across oceans on floating islands of vegetation.”20 Colin Barras, writing in New Scientist, said, “We know…that small monkeys somehow made it across the [strong current, dangerous Wallace—JM] line to Sulawesi and clearly they didn’t use boats—in all likelihood they floated over on mats of vegetation”—possibly even dozens of the monkeys.21 In fact, Lawton noted that,

The rafting hypothesis is as old as the theory of evolution itself. In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin pointed out that the flora and fauna of the Galapagos Islands were clearly related to those of South America, while Cape Verde’s were distinctly African…. His point was to discredit the belief that each species was a unique, divine creation, but he inadvertently launched the idea that the inhabitants of distant islands must have somehow blown in from the mainland.22

Concerning how species (e.g., plants, seeds, and invertebrates) dispersed to oceanic islands, Darwin suggested that they could have been transported by seaweed, “floating timber,” “drifted by the prevailing currents,” or could have “floated in chinks of drifted timber.”23 The Galapagos Conservancy, discussing the “raft theory” of how species arrived on the islands, acknowledged that many must have arrived by

sea while swimming or floating, sometimes with the aid of rafts of tangled vegetation. It is likely that the ancestors of present-day Galapagos animals that are good swimmers (sea lions, sea turtles, penguins) actually swam their way to the islands with the help of some swift ocean currents. On the other hand, it is believed that many of the reptiles and small mammals (rice rats) were carried to the islands from the South or Central American mainland on rafts of vegetation. The vast majority of such rafts would have sunk well before they ever reached Galapagos, but it would have only taken a handful of successful rafts to wash ashore to explain the present reptile diversity in Galapagos.24

Caccone, et al. add that “tortoises probably reached the [Galapagos—JM] islands by rafting from South America, 1000 km to the east” using the Humboldt Current.25 A BBC Documentary on the South Pacific reasoned, “As tsunamis strike the coast, rafts of vegetation can be cast adrift. Perhaps animals were caught up in those rafts, too. Could this have been the answer to how these animals [Fijian crested iguanas—JM] made it to Fiji? After all, they are the heartiest of their kind and could have survived long sea journeys.”26

Bottom line: evolutionists cannot “have their cake and eat it, too”—either raft travel is ridiculous or it’s reasonable. In truth, if evolutionists are right, it is not at all outlandish to suppose that massive debris islands would have been found worldwide after the Flood and that animals could have been found floating on them in the years immediately after the Flood.

Migration by Swimming?

Consider: if one believes animal migration by rafting to be a ludicrous idea, what must he think when he hears the evolutionary theory that dinosaurs may have crossed to islands by swimming? Smithsonian Magazine highlighted research published in Cretaceous Research in 2021, in which scientists concluded that, since (according to the evolutionary timeline) Africa was surrounded by water when it was colonized by dinosaurs, “Swimming would have been the only way for the dinosaur to reach prehistoric Africa from Europe or Asia, reinforcing the idea that exceptional events can help species move between distant continents.”27 Referring to the same research, Phys.org noted that dinosaurs must have arrived in Africa by “water-rafting on debris, floating, or swimming,” and added the following telling statement:

Ocean crossings are rare, improbable events, but have been observed in historic times. In one case, green iguanas travelled between Caribbean islands during a hurricane borne on debris. In another, a tortoise from the Seychelles floated hundreds of kilometres across the Indian Ocean to wash up in Africa. “Over millions of years,” said [Nicholas—JM] Longrich [of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath—JM], “Once-in-a-century events are likely to happen many times. Ocean crossings are needed to explain how lemurs and hippos got to Madagascar, or how monkeys and rodents crossed from Africa to South America.”28

While creationists would interpret the data to which evolutionists are referring differently, nevertheless, evolutionists have conceded yet another possibility for how animals could have migrated to various isolated locations.

In a more recent example that gives plausibility to the swimming option, in 2019, a small tsunami that struck the eastern coast of the U.S. during Hurricane Dorian, swept 20 cows and 28 horses from Cedar Island into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina. Three of the cows were later found alive over four miles away on a barrier island in the Outer Banks National Park. Apparently, the cows survived by swimming. One of the cows was pregnant while adrift and later gave birth to a healthy calf.29

Tertiary Ocean Currents—Evidence of the Rafting Hypothesis?

Could land animals have arrived on the Australian continent after the Flood via log mat? As added evidence of the legitimacy of that theory, recent genetic analysis suggests that Australian marsupials originated in South America before moving to Australia.30 When we look at the projections of what the ocean currents are thought to have been like during the Tertiary period (immediately after the Flood), we find that an ocean current was present, traveling directly from South America to Australia.31

Bottom line: if tsunamis are virtually certain to create floating islands of debris, what would be expected from a global Flood with rapid tectonic activity creating enormous earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis?32 If animals and humans are known to be able to travel aboard such makeshift vessels, who’s to say that such mini-“continents,” with various animals along for the ride, would not have been commonly spotted immediately following the Flood? A radically different terrestrial environment, with species clamoring to find food on the newly disheveled Earth, could have caused accelerated dispersal of the Ark’s population from Ararat to Australia before Australia had moved too far from the mainland.

One would want to be cautious not to be too quick to invoke supernatural explanations for proposed scientific problems with Bible teaching, since it can lead to scientific laziness and effectively halt scientific investigation into the great works of the Lord (Psalm 111:2).33 However, when the biblical text suggests that divine assistance may have played a role in a biblical event, it would be poor hermeneutics to dismiss the possibility without consideration. In this case, Genesis 6:20 suggests that God gathered the animals for Noah before the Flood. It is plausible, therefore, to postulate that God would have been involved, at the very least Providentially, in the dispersal of the animals after the Flood. Clearly, He had several reasonable avenues with which to do so that would not have required miraculous assistance.34

(6) Humans Brought Them

Of course, one final possibility as to how animals dispersed to remote islands like Australia would be that humans carried them. After all, evolutionists themselves argue that is precisely how some animals were able to populate certain islands.35 As noted earlier, physical evidence appears to place humans in Australia after the Flood and before Abraham, during the Babel dispersion period.36 Who’s to say they did not arrive with animals in tow?

Lawton argued: “Another option, at least for more recent animal crossings, is that small creatures such as lizards were accidentally or deliberately transported by prehistoric humans. We know that our Stone Age ancestors were skilled seafarers, navigating across hundreds of kilometres of ocean to reach Japan…and perhaps even sailing from South-East Asia to Australia….”37 Granted, human transportation of animals is not available to evolutionists as an option in many instances, since they do not believe humans were on the scene yet (for example, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth). From a biblical perspective, however, humans have been on the scene “from the beginning of the creation” (Mark 10:6).

Conclusion

While post-Flood migration from the Ark to remote places like Australia has often been a charge used by evolutionists against the Bible and its account of a global Deluge, ironically, evolutionists themselves answer their own challenges with plausible options at the creationists’ disposal. Such attacks merely provide the biblical model another opportunity to prove itself to be reliable. “[S]coffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts…. 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…. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…?” (2 Peter 3:3b-12).

Endnotes

1 E.g., Bill Nye and Ken Ham (2014), Uncensored Science: Bill Nye Debates Ken Ham (Petersburg, KY: Answers in Genesis); Janet Kellogg Ray (2021), Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark? The Bible and Modern Science and the Trouble of Making It All Fit (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans), pp. 101-103.

2 Andrew A. Snelling (2014), “Noah’s Lost World,” Answers in Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/geology/plate-tectonics/noahs-lost-world/.

3 A. Snider-Pellegrini (1858), La Création et Ses Mystères Dévoilés (Paris: A. Franck et E. Dentu).

4 Today, creationists argue that Pangaea formed and broke apart during the Flood and, therefore, only ever existed underwater. Rodinia is thought to have been the supercontinent of the pre-Flood world. See Snelling.

5 E.g., Ross N. Mitchell, David A.D. Evans, and Taylor M. Kilian (2010), “Rapid Early Cambrian Rotation of Gondwana,” Geology, 38[8]:755-758; Brian Thomas (2010), “Continents Didn’t Drift, They Raced,” Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/article/continents-didnt-drift-they-raced/; Steven Austin, John Baumgardner, D. Russell Humphreys, Andrew Snelling, Larry Vardiman, and Kurt Wise (1994), “Catastrophic Plate Tectonics: A Global Flood Model of Earth History,” Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, ed. R.E. Walsh (Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship), pp. 609-621; S.P. Grand (1994), “Mantle Shear Structure Beneath the Americas and Surrounding Oceans,” Journal of Geophysical Research, 99:11591-11621; J.E. Vidale (1994), “A Snapshot of Whole Mantle Flow,” Nature, 370:16-17.

6 Michael Oard (2004), “The Genesis Flood Caused the Ice Age,” Answers in Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/fit/flood-caused-ice-age.

7 Charles Darwin (1859), On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: John Murray), https://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F373&viewtype=text&pageseq=2, pp. 346-410.

8 “Argos Used to Track Fox’s 2,700-mile Journey from Norway to Canada” (2019), NOAA NESDIS, July 17, https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/argos-used-track-foxs-2700-mile-journey-norway-canada.

9 United States Geological Survey (2022), “How Does Present Glacier Extent and Sea Level Compare to the Extent of Glaciers and Global Sea Level During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)?” January 27, https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-does-present-glacier-extent-and-sea-level-compare-extent-glaciers-and-global-sea-level; see also Gemma Tarlach (2019), “Return to Aquaterra,” Discover, 40[5]:56, June.

10 See Graham Lawton (2020), “Finding Sahul,” New Scientist, 245[3266]:39, January 25—Due to lower sea levels during the Ice Age, “the Sahul coast would have been significantly closer to the easternmost of the south-eastern Asian islands”; also, Christopher Bae, Katerina Douka, and Michael Petraglia (2017), “On the Origin of Modern Humans: Asian Perspectives,” Science, 358[6368]:1269, December 8; Kate Ravilious (2017), “The First Australians,” Archaeology, 70[4]:49, July/August. Uncovered land bridges are also how scientists are postulating that dinosaurs migrated from North America to Africa [Vicky Just (2020), “The First Duckbill Dinosaur Fossil from Africa Hints at How Dinosaurs Once Crossed Oceans,” Phys.org, November 5, https://phys.org/news/2020-11-duckbill-dinosaur-fossil-africa-hints.html].

11 Tarlach, p. 56; see also Colin Barras (2018), “Stone Age Sailors,” New Scientist, 238[3180]:36-37, June 2.

12 Ibid., p. 62.

13 Danielle Demetriou (2011), “Massive Floating Rubbish Islands from Japan Tsunami Spotted on Pacific,” The Telegraph, April 8, http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8437632/Massive-floating-rubbish-islands-from-Japan-tsunami-spotted-on-Pacific.html.

14 “Japan Earthquake: One Month Later” (2011), The Atlantic: Photo, April 7, http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/04/japan-earthquake-one-month-later/100041/.

15 Graham L. Lawton (2021), “On a Raft and a Prayer,” New Scientist, 252[3365/3366]:52, December 18/25.

16 Lawton (2020), p. 39. Conventional dating methods suggest that humans arrived in Australia 65,000 years ago, during the Ice Age [Danielle Demetrioue (2011), “Massive Floating Rubbish Islands from Japan Tsunami Spotted on Pacific,” The Telegraph, April 8, http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8437632/Massive-floating-rubbish-islands-from-Japan-tsunami-spotted-on-Pacific.html]. Accounting for the continuing, though diminishing, accelerated nuclear decay in the post-Flood years [Jeff Miller (2013), “Don’t Assume Too Much: Not All Assumptions in Science Are Bad,” Reason & Revelation, 33[6]:62-70], 65,000 years correlates to a pre-Abraham date ca. 2,200-2,100 B.C.

17 Lawton (2020), p. 38, emp. added.

18 As quoted in Sam Walters, et al. (2024), “Everything Worth Knowing About Neanderthals,” Discover, 45[3]:33, May/June.

19 Ibid.

20 Lawton (2021), p. 50.

21 Barras, pp. 38-39.

22 Lawton (2021).

23 Darwin, pp. 360,391,397,399.

24 “History of Galapagos” (no date), Galapagos Conservancy, accessed February 11, 2025, https://www.galapagos.org/about_galapagos/history/, emp. added.

25 Adalgisa Caccone, et al. (1999), “Origin and Evolutionary Relationships of Giant Galapagos Tortoises,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96[23]:13223, November 9, emp. added.

26 “South Pacific: Castaways (Episode 2)” (2009), BBC Studios: Natural History Unit, aired May 17. The documentary also postulates that geckos may have reached the Solomon Islands by vegetation raft.

27 Riley Black (2020), “The Top Ten Dinosaur Discoveries of 2020,” Smithsonian Magazine on-line, December 22, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/top-ten-dinosaur-discoveries-2020-180976578, emp. added.

28 Just; The saltwater crocodile is thought to have swam 60 miles from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands (“South Pacific…”).

29 Mark Price (2020), “Cow That Swam 5 Miles to Outer Banks in a Hurricane Was Pregnant. It Just Gave Birth,” The News & Observer, February 20, https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article239953898.html.

30 Clara Moskowitz (2010), “Marsupials Not From Down Under After All,” LiveScience.com, July 27, https://www.livescience.com/6770-marsupials.html.

31 Warren D. Allmon (2023), “Tertiary Period,” Encyclopaedia Britannica on-line, https://www.britannica.com/science/Tertiary-Period. Note that an ocean current is also thought to have been present that led from the theorized location of Ararat to South America.

32 For more information about the modern biblical Flood model accepted by most Creation geologists, see Jeff Miller (2019), “Was the Flood Global? Testimony from Scripture and Science,” Reason & Revelation, 39[4]:38-47, https://apologeticspress.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/1904w.pdf.

33 Jeff Miller (2024), “Is it Ever Appropriate to Say ‘God Did It’ in Response to a Scientific Challenge?” Reason & Revelation, 44[6]:11, June,  https://apologeticspress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2406-web.pdf.

34 An example of a supernatural option would be the miraculous transportation of animals to remote continents/islands.

35 “Enigmatic Falklands ‘Fox’ Might Have Hitched a Ride with Humans” (2021), Nature, 599[7883]:10, November 4.

36 Lawton (2020).

37 Lawton (2021), p. 52, emp. added.

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