Your Answer:  Springs of the Sea

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"Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep? Job 38:16 (NAS)   

In Job chapter 38 and 39, God is asking Job a number of rhetorical questions.  God wasn't expecting Job to answer these questions; rather, God was reminding Job of how little mankind knew at that time about the things that God had created.

Springs in the Sea

The existence of  water springs in the oceans were not discovered by scientists until A.D. 1970 (just over 35 years ago).  Although God spoke to Job about them thousands of years ago, it was impossible for man to see the springs as they lie in some cases two or more kilometers below the surface of the ocean.

Galapagos Rift (spreading ridge) off the coast of Ecuador.

In A.D. 1977, scientists discovered hot springs at a depth of over 8,000 feet, on the Galapagos Rift (spreading ridge) off the coast of Ecuador. Since the early 1970s, scientists had predicted that hot springs (geothermal vents) should be found at the active spreading centers along the mid-oceanic ridges, where magma, at temperatures over 1,000°C, presumably was being erupted to form new oceanic crust. Also discovered near the springs were abundant and unusual sea life -- giant tube worms, huge clams, and mussels -- that thrived around the hot springs.

Other Evidence from Oceanography:

Recesses in the Sea - The Trieste in 1960:

 The existence of deep recesses in the ocean was not fully understood until 1873 A.D. (although they were mentioned thousands of years earlier in Job 38:16).  

For centuries before 1873, scientists believed that the seashore was nothing but a shallow, sandy extension from one continent to another:

"In 1873, a team of British scientists working in the Pacific ocean found a "recess" 5 1/2 miles deep. Later, another team of researchers discovered another trench 35,800 feet deep (over 6 miles down). Trenches now are known to be found in all three major oceans, but the Pacific ocean is unique in that it has a semi-continuous peripheral belt of trenches and deep sea troughs. Extensive studies have now been conducted on the Marianas Trench off the coast of Guam. The bathyscaph Trieste has traveled down almost seven miles into that trench. The best known trench is perhaps the one off the coast of Puerto Rico, with its deepest point known as the Milwaukee Depth."(1)

The Hydrologic Cycle:

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:7 -- "All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again." (NAS)

 

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 11:3 "If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth..." (NAS)

The prophet Amos wrote in Amos 9:6 "The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens, and has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth, the LORD is His name." (NAS)

The water cycle (also called the Hydrologic Cycle) is commonly understood in science today:

"The idea of a complete water cycle was not fully understood or accepted until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (A.D.). The first substantial evidence came from experiments of Perrault and Edme Mariotte. These scientists demonstrated that the flow of the Seine River could be accounted for by precipitation. Astronomer Edmund Halley also contributed valuable data to the concept of a complete water cycle."(2)

The Bible had indicated a water cycle over 2,000 years before this time.

Seaworthiness of Noah's Ark

"Until 1858 (A.D.), the ark (Noah's ark) was the largest sea-going vessel of which we have any written record. In 1843 (A.D.), when Isambard K. Brunnel built his giant ship, the Great Britain, he constructed it to almost the exact dimensions of the ark (a ratio of 30:5:3 -- the ark measured 300 cubit in length, 50 cubits in width and 30 cubits in height--Genesis 6:15). As it turns out, these dimensions are the perfect ratio for a huge boat for seaworthiness and not for speed. Shipbuilders during World War II used that 30:5:3 ratio to build the boat that eventually was nicknamed "the ugly duckling" - a barge-like boat built to carry tremendous amounts of cargo."(2)

USS Great Britain, launched in July 1843, now preserved in her original building dock in Bristol, U.K.

Paths in the Sea:

In the Book "Pathfinder of the Sea" written by Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, United States Navy:

Matthew Maury undertook a research project based on Scripture. Maury was in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments in the Hydrographic Office of the United States Navy from 1841-1861 (A.D.). One day in reading Psalm 8:3-8: " When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." Maury thought, "and if the Bible says it, I believe it." He was also aware of Ecclesiastes 1:6, which states: "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits." Maury, on the basis of the Bible, concluded that there are well-established wind circuits, and that there are literally "paths in the sea" - that is, definite currents in the ocean.

Maury reasoned that if these wind currents and ocean currents could be located and plotted, this information would be of great value to marine navigators. Utilizing this information, the sailing vessels could be directed along routes that would take advantage of these sea and air currents, reducing by many days the time required to traverse the seas.

Maury found and plotted the wind circuits and the ocean currents. The ocean currents include, for example, the great Gulf Current - a "path in the sea" forty miles wide and 2000 feet deep flowing from the Gulf of Mexico up through the Atlantic. This current has a tremendous influence on the climate of England, Ireland, Europe, and the Scandinavian countries. The average winter temperature on the west coast of Norway, for example, is about two degrees centigrade, or two degrees above freezing. Ordinarily, of course, we would expect far lower temperatures for a country that far north.

Other paths of the seas that come to mind are the California and the Japanese currents. The California current brings cold water from Alaska down along the California coast. As a result, even those of us living in the San Diego area do not have warm ocean water to swim in as they do, for example, in the Hawaiian Islands. This cool water, furthermore, dissipates tropical storms that would otherwise push their way out of the south Pacific into the southern California area. As a result, California rarely receives rain in the summer months. Maury's native state, the State of Virginia, has acknowledged the great debt navigation owes him, having erected monuments to his memory. On these monuments may be found a plaque that reads as follows: "Matthew Fontaine Maury, Pathfinder of the Seas, the Genius Who First Snatched from the Ocean and Atmosphere the Secret of Their Laws. His Inspiration, Holy Writ, Psalm 8:8, Psalm 107:23, 24, and Ecclesiastes 1:6."

Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, United States Navy "Pathfinder of the Sea."

Footnotes:

(1) In Defense of the Bible's Inspiration, Bert Thompson, Ph.D., Apologetics Press, 1999.

(2) Institute for Creation Research.


How could the Bible contain all these scientific facts from oceanography thousands of years before they were discovered by scientists?

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