A Mammoth Mystery

2 Peter 1:20-21
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake [as they were] moved by the Holy Ghost.”

One of the most important differences between man’s word and God’s Word is that man’s word can sometimes be true, while God’s Word is always true.

When a scientist finds the fossil imprint of a fish, he usually says that he has found a fish and will even give it a name. But what has he really found? Well, just the flattened and deformed imprint of what used to be a fish’s dead body. Everything else the scientist says about the imprint is story telling. The stories might be true, but the important thing is that stories are not facts.

The uncertain nature of such story-telling was illustrated when scientists decided that the Holly Oak pendant, a whelk shell with an engraving of a wooly mammoth on it, is not really evidence that man saw mammoths in North America. According to theory, mammoths disappeared from North America long before the arrival of man. One dating method supported an ancient age for the Holly Oak pendant, but another dating method gave an age of about one thousand years. Scientists have now decided that the carving is modern. In other words, evidence has been selected to support the theory that mammoths disappeared from North America long before the arrival of man.

God’s Word about ancient history is completely trustworthy. Man’s story-telling about ancient history has always been subject to change.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your sure and true Word. Help me to better appreciate the wonderful gift of Your Word and to study it more seriously. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:

Roger Lewin, “Mammoth Fraud Exposed,” Science, Vol. 242, December 1988, p.1246. Photo: Image of mammoth on Holly Oak pendant.