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‘More than a pile of stones’

The real meaning of the Giant’s Causeway and structures formed during Noah’s Flood

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Giants Causeway fridge magnet

Photo: Phil Robinson

After the death of Moses, Joshua took command of the Israelites and he proceeded to lead them over the River Jordan into Canaan. In order to cross the River Jordan, which was in flood at that time, God cut off the flow of the river allowing the nation to cross. After this miraculous event Joshua was commanded to use twelve men, one from each of the tribes of Israel, to set up twelve memorial stones. This was so that when their “children were to ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’” (Joshua 4:6) they were to be told how a wonderful act of God allowed Israel to pass through the flooded River Jordan on dry ground. The twelve stones used by the nation of Israel were ‘more than a pile of stones’; they had taken on a spiritual significance relating to a particular act of Almighty God in history.

The battle over worldviews rages

I recently purchased a fridge magnet at the Giant’s Causeway which had a picture of the famous basalt columns with the slogan ‘More than a pile of stones’. The rationale for the slogan likely stems from the national pride in the magnificent stones at this World Heritage site. However it also reflects a much larger debate in recent years concerning how and when the 40,000 interlocking basalt columns were formed. The debate regularly sees calls to censor any creationist interpretations of the site, and attracted world attention in July 2012 when the new Causeway tourist centre included a small reference to the existence of this alternative viewpoint. Secularists were quick to mount a noisy objection. CMI has published a number of articles explaining, for instance, how the Causeway would have formed during Noah’s Flood and the significance of the reddish inter-basaltic beds at Giant’s Causeway.

Giants Causeway basalt columns
Photo: Phil Robinson

The information leaflet that is handed to visitors at the Causeway’s visitors centre states that the columns are, “an epic 60 million year–old legacy to the cooling and shrinking of successive lava flows”.1 In stark contrast, thinking within the biblical worldview, we can identify the basalt columns as a testimony to the mighty acts of God during the Flood at the time of Noah, some 4,500 years ago.2 From a biblical worldview the stones let us, “look to the past in order to become orientated to the present – and thereby gain confidence for the future”.3 Just as the stones that Joshua set up were to be a memorial to the mighty acts of God, so too is Giant’s Causeway a reminder of the Flood—it’s a testimony to God’s past judgement upon the wickedness of man, pointing us to the future return of Jesus Christ and His coming Judgement.

Learning and teaching the spiritual lessons

Photo: Phil RobinsonGiants-causeway

In the current battle of worldviews we need to take back the history of these stones. As with all rocks that were formed during the Flood they are not just a ‘pile of stones’, but have a huge spiritual significance. As a visible demonstration of God’s judgement on mankind’s sin, the stones give us the opportunity to tell our children and many other people of God’s actions in history. No matter what part of the world you live in, there will be rocks in your locality that were formed during the Flood of Noah’s day. It is time to increasingly ‘take them back’, renouncing the millions of years and the naturalistic interpretations attached to such formations, and explaining their true origins and spiritual significance. Obviously this will require careful study of the local rocks from a biblical geological perspective, but for those who are serious about making the effort, Tas Walker’s ‘Biblical Geological Model’ is a good place to start.

The hope is that in doing this, “Instead of complaining that God has hidden himself, [people] will give him thanks for revealing himself as much as he has.”4 Such real life geological examples can then be used to orientate and point people to the truth of the Bible and the need for their salvation which can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ—see Acts 4:12. There is overwhelming evidence found in the stones all around us, consistent with a worldwide Flood at the time of Noah; for examples see polystrate fossils, fast octopus fossils, hundreds of jellyfish fossils, flat gaps and much more at Geology Q&A’s. God has not hidden from view the evidence of His previous judgement of sin.

What are you doing to take back the stones where you live?

Published: 28 August 2014

References and notes

  1. Giant’s Causeway: Shaped by Imagination, Tourist information leaflet printed by the National Trust, 2014. Return to text.
  2. CMI has produced a leaflet, outlining how the Causeway was formed during the Flood, which can be viewed and printed from, https://dl0.creation.com/articles/p097/c09724/giants-causeway-s.pdf. Return to text.
  3. Shepherd’s Notes, Joshua/Judges, Broadman and Holman Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1998, p. 14. Return to text.
  4. Pascal, B., Pensées (Revised edition), Penguin Classics, 1995, p. 117. Return to text.

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