Years ago, I visited Israel. Like many believers, I expected the experience would deepen my appreciation for Scripture. What I didn’t expect was how profoundly it would affect my Bible reading after I returned home.
Seeing the land of the Bible provided exciting new context. Distances, elevations, shorelines, and hillsides transformed familiar passages into vivid images. As I read the Gospels, I could better visualize the settings in which Jesus taught. Abstract illustrations became tangible. Of course, the words of Scripture hadn’t changed. My understanding of their context had.
Years later, I discovered that ICR’s research would do something similar by expanding my understanding of how God’s creation testifies to His Word.
I didn’t first encounter ICR as a skeptic. I already believed the Bible is true. I believed Genesis. I believed the Flood occurred as Scripture records. I believed the Lord Jesus is the Creator. Yet as I engaged with ICR’s research on a deeper level, I realized there was far more to these truths than I had originally thought.
Dr. Jake Hebert’s insightful work on longevity made me carefully ponder the remarkable lifespans of the pre-Flood patriarchs. Rather than viewing those ages as isolated details in Genesis, I began to appreciate how they fit within a coherent understanding of the world before the Flood.
Dr. Brian Thomas’ research on original biological materials in fossils showed me that scientific observations can raise important questions that challenge ill-founded assumptions about Earth’s age and history. His work strengthened my confidence that biblical history isn’t disconnected from the evidence we observe today.
The same could be said of Dr. Tim Clarey’s Column Project, an analysis of thousands of boreholes worldwide that collectively shows uniform sedimentary rock layers across continents. The sheer scale of Earth’s flood-formed geological features helped me better appreciate the magnitude of this global judgment described in Scripture.
Yet the most profound impact on my thinking has come through the work of Dr. Randy Guliuzza and ICR’s growing team of scientists as they continue to develop a theory of engineered biology. At first, I viewed this research primarily through a scientific lens. Then I began to recognize its theological significance.
What impressed me wasn’t simply that living things display evidence of an Engineer. Bible-believing scientists, and even some conventional scientists, have long confessed that creatures look engineered. What captured my attention was the extraordinary foresight reflected in that engineered design. Living organisms are equipped with capabilities that enable them to respond to changing circumstances and challenges. In other words, Jesus, our Creator, provided solutions for the creatures before the need ever arose. The more I reflected on that idea, the more my thoughts turned from biology to His intentionality and character.
Scripture reveals a loving creator who is never caught unprepared. The same Lord who designed living things with remarkable foresight also governs His creation with perfect wisdom. He knows the end from the beginning.
If the Lord Jesus provided for His creatures before they encountered their need, how much more can I trust Him with the circumstances I face today? The Creator who engineered life with such wisdom is the same sovereign God who knows my needs before I do.
My trip to Israel helped me envision the pages of Scripture, and ICR’s research efforts gave me a clearer picture of the Creator who inspired them. As my understanding of His foresight, wisdom, and power grew, so did my faith in His providence. What began as a deeper appreciation for biblical context ultimately became a deeper trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator who knows my needs before I do and faithfully provides according to His perfect will.
Stage image: Sea of Galilee
Mr. Gadberry is the director of development and donor relations at the Institute for Creation Research.
