Mike

Noah’s Ark before the evidence is in. They Are Drilling for Noah’s Ark — And the Timing Is Hard to Ignore Introduction Something remarkable is happening in eastern Turkey, and whether it eventually proves spectacular or completely ordinary, it has my attention. Researchers are drilling into the strange boat shaped formation known as Durupınar, a site lying south of Mount Ararat that has been argued over for decades. New cores are being pulled from the ground. Investigators are talking about unusual subsurface layers, organic material, radar anomalies, possible cavities, and a layer hard enough that a drill bit reportedly broke several meters beneath the surface. Samples are going to laboratories. More investigation is planned. Naturally, headlines are already running faster than the drill rig. Some people are practically shouting, “They found Noah’s Ark,” while others have already decided that nothing discovered there could possibly have anything to do with Noah. I am not prepared to join either choir. Maybe it is Noah’s Ark. Maybe it is not. There is nothing unbelieving about waiting for evidence, and there is nothing foolish about admitting that the possibility is fascinating. What interests me almost as much as the formation itself is the timing. We are living in a generation in which the coming of the Lord is mocked, Genesis is treated as mythology, the Flood is regularly reduced to a local tribal story, and the supernatural history of the Bible is dismissed before the evidence is even allowed into the courtroom. Yet here we are watching men drill into a boat shaped formation in the mountains of Ararat while Jesus Christ’s own words remain sitting in the Bible: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37). Peter likewise tells us that in the last days scoffers would ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” and would be “willingly ignorant” of the world that “being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:4–6). Does the present investigation fulfill some specific prophecy that says Noah’s Ark must be rediscovered before the Lord returns? No. The Bible never says that. I will not manufacture prophecy where God did not write it. But can a Bible reader look at this strange moment and find the timing interesting? Absolutely. That is why this subject deserves more than hype and more than ridicule. If Durupınar turns out to be nothing but an unusual geological formation, Genesis 6 through 9 will remain exactly as true as they were before the first drill touched Turkish soil. If the researchers someday recover unmistakably worked timbers, structural remains, pitch, joinery, compartments, or other material that strongly points toward an ancient vessel of extraordinary size, Genesis will not suddenly become true because a laboratory gave it permission. The Book was true before the sample arrived. The point is not to hang our faith on a drill core. The point is to examine what is happening, compare it honestly with Scripture, refuse to be stampeded by sensationalism, and remember that Noah’s Ark was never given merely to satisfy archaeological curiosity. It was built because judgment was coming, the world did not believe it, God shut the door, and everybody outside discovered too late that Noah had been preaching the truth. 1. A Drill Bit in a Boat Shaped Hill The Durupınar formation has been famous for a long time because, viewed from above, it looks remarkably like the outline of an enormous boat. It lies in eastern Turkey in the broader Ararat region, though not on the summit of modern Mount Ararat itself. That point matters because Genesis never says Noah’s Ark rested on the particular volcanic peak tourists now call Mount Ararat. Genesis 8:4 says, “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.” Notice the plural. The Bible gives us a mountainous region, not a GPS coordinate. That allows room for

The Moral Law Written Inside the Sinner Introduction A man can close his Bible, lock the church door, curse the preacher, mock the Christian, and announce that God is nothing more than an outdated superstition invented by frightened men; but when somebody cheats him, lies about him, steals from him, betrays him, or mistreats his family, that same man suddenly discovers a whole vocabulary of right and wrong. He may insist that the universe is an accidental collision of matter, energy, time, and blind chance, but the instant he is wronged, he quits talking like a chemical accident and starts talking like a prosecuting attorney. He demands fairness. He cries for justice. He insists that the offender ought to have behaved differently. That little word “ought” is a stubborn thing. It does not come from atoms, animals, appetites, or evolutionary accidents. The atheist may claim that there is no Judge above him, but he carries a courtroom around inside him. He may deny the existence of a divine Lawgiver with his mouth, but every moral judgment he makes testifies against his denial. He cannot live consistently with his own creed because God has left a witness inside the sinner that philosophy cannot entirely silence, education cannot completely erase, and cultural rebellion cannot finally destroy. Romans 1 presents the outward witness of creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1). Romans 2 presents the inward witness of conscience. The sinner is surrounded by testimony and inhabited by testimony. Above him, the firmament declares that there is a Creator. Around him, the order of creation reveals divine power and wisdom. Within him, conscience bears witness that good and evil are not merely personal preferences. The man who has never opened a Bible still knows enough to accuse another person and excuse himself. That does not mean he possesses the complete revelation of God, understands the gospel, or can save himself by obeying his conscience. It means that he is a morally accountable creature who cannot honestly claim that he knew nothing. God did not place the conscience within man as a substitute for Scripture, a replacement for Christ, or a miniature deity hiding in the human breast. He placed it there as a witness—an inward testimony that man was created by a moral God and will answer to that God. The modern world has spent generations attempting to reclassify sin as sickness, guilt as emotional damage, repentance as poor self-esteem, and conscience as an outdated social reflex inherited from primitive ancestors. Yet after all the textbooks have been printed, all the lectures have been delivered, and all the commandments have been renamed, men still hide what they know is wrong. They still make excuses. They still shift blame. They still accuse others. They still want their own transgressions understood and their neighbor’s transgressions punished. The conscience may be trained badly, wounded, weakened, defiled, or seared, but its existence remains a tremendous testimony to the existence of God. It can be corrupted, but it did not create itself. It can be ignored, but it cannot be explained by materialism. It can condemn the sinner, but it cannot cleanse him. The conscience is God’s witness inside the sinner, but Jesus Christ alone is God’s Saviour for the sinner. 1. The Lawgiver Behind the Law Moral obligation requires more than matter. A stone falls because of a physical law, but nobody arrests the stone for falling. A lion kills its prey, but nobody puts the lion on trial for murder. An earthquake destroys a city, but no judge charges the earthquake with criminal negligence. Nature can describe what happens, but nature cannot command what ought to happen. Chemistry can describe the composition of poison, but it cannot tell a man whether he ought to put that poison into another man’s drink. Biology can describe the physical processes involved in violence, but it