THE UNDERSEA WORLD
OF JESUS CHRIST

The sea is His, for He made it...
Psalm 95:5a

"Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, testing. Aahemmm...ahhh, this is Hans Seismo recording the voyage of the HMS Bathyscaphe. Today, I set out to discover some of the many ways the ocean reveals the glory of our great and loving Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am thrilled by the chance to continue exploring Christ's creation. I know what I am doing is dangerous, but my trust is in Him Who gives me breath!"

Editor's Note:
Our dear Professor Seismo has decided to embark on a somewhat risky mission to explore the depths of the sea. His cause is noble, but his craft is somewhat less than that. (By the way, HMS stands for "His Master's Servant" and Bathyscaphe is pronounced BATH-i-skafe.) You see, the Professor has taken two old bath tubs and welded them together to make a submarine. Ordinary automobile headlights are mounted on top, and he's constructed two robotic arms from tin cans. One of the arms has a deep-fry basket on the end for collecting samples. The other arm has a spoon and a fork for holding objects. He's rigged up a unique propulsion system which he was reluctant to explain. He mentioned something about plutonium conversion. I hope he doesn't blow himself up! With ample provisions, he's ready to set sail from the shores of British Columbia in his nuclear-powered bathtub, destined for somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Godspeed Professor!

Blue Whale

HMS Bathyscaphe Log: Day 5

"My trip thus far has been without incident. I've taken many measurements and am starting to understand the complexity of this ecosystem called the ocean, which covers over two-thirds of the earth. It seems to me that the ocean is like an enormous aquarium which the Heavenly Father very carefully maintains with His watchful eye.

"The Lord keeps the temperature of the entire sea remarkably constant. At any point on the open ocean, the surface temperature may vary only one-half degree Fahrenheit, from night to day (0.3° C.). Between summer and winter, water temperature may change, at most, 14° F. (8° C.).1

"Although the ocean is mostly water, the Lord Jesus Christ has mixed a number of salts into the sea, as well as minerals such as iron, aluminum, copper, silver, and gold. The mineral and salt content remains fairly stable from one part of the ocean to another, but can vary significantly with inland seas. Each gallon of water in the Red Sea, for instance, contains about 15 percent more salt than the rest of the ocean, and the Baltic Sea is one half as salty!

"Hidden from view by this blanket of water, the ocean is full of mammoth mountains and deep valleys. Some of the sea's volcanic peaks2 are actually taller than Mt. Everest. The Marianas Trench, off the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, is six times deeper than the Grand Canyon.3

"Vast regions of the ocean are blue, not because they reflect the blue sky, but because water molecules scatter blue light. Along the coast, and in the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans, water often appears green. Here, we find the greatest variety and abundance of sea life. This emerald color is due to suspended organic particles which reflect green light, and microscopic green algae present in large numbers. I read that the Red Sea probably got its name from a unique algae thriving in its waters. Normally blue-green, these tiny floating plants sometimes undergo changes in color much like autumn trees.4 Jesus again shows us His enormous creativity by temporarily staining the Red Sea waters crimson with algae, from time to time.

"Speaking of plants, out here in the Pacific there are billions of them floating on the water! Collectively, they are called phytoplankton (FY - tow - PLANK - ton), and I've discovered that they are indispensable to the food web of the ocean. Microscopic in size, they are essential nonetheless. Living beside them are tiny animals known as zooplankton. The plants making up the phytoplankton capture energy from the sun, via photosynthesis, and produce food.5 The zooplankton, in turn, eat the phytoplankton.

"Many different kinds of animals make up the zooplankton, and their appearances are both striking and beautiful. Among them are the Radiolaria and the Foraminifera. One reason why the Lord Jesus made plankton with such beautifully complex shapes is to increase their surface area. This helps prevent them from sinking into the dark depths of the ocean and away from the life-giving energy of the sun. Mostly, I think He made them to reflect His awesome beauty!

"Surprisingly, fish are not the most abundant animal in the ocean—copepods are! There are many different kinds of copepods and they make up a large part of the plankton (drifting) population. They are considered crustaceans—smaller versions of shrimp, crabs and lobsters. A tenth of an inch long (one to five mm), the Creator blessed them with a very unusual feature—a single eye! Their value in the ocean is enormous because of the hundreds of larger sea animals that feed on them.

Tropical copepod

"The biggest of the zooplankton are the jellyfish. They are technically known as invertebrates because they have no backbone, or any bones for that matter! Christ made 200 different kinds of jellyfish. During my swing through the Arctic Ocean I came across several which were seven feet wide, although most jellyfish are less than three feet in diameter. Very graceful and fascinating to watch, they brought to mind just how exquisite the Lord God Himself must be. Some were orange and some were blue. Each possessed over 1,000 delicate tentacles, many 100 feet in length. A jellyfish's tentacles are poisonous; they use them to capture fish to eat. OK, I'm just about ready to take the Bathyscaphe down into deeper water."

(Several minutes pass.) "I'm now approximately 300 feet (100m.) below the surface. Although I can still see out the porthole, sunlight doesn't penetrate well at this depth. Hmmm, I wonder what that is?

Uh oh, now I know what Jonah felt like!"

Editor's Note:
A twenty five foot long shark bears down on Professor Seismo's submarine. CRUNCH!!...Yes, you guessed it, the shark has got hold of the bathyscaphe in its mouth.

"Fascinating! You should see all these teeth. There must be at least a dozen or more rows of them, one row after another. I once read that if a shark's tooth falls out a brand new tooth from the very next row takes its place within 24 hours. During a shark's lifetime, it may produce 25,000 or more teeth!

"Like all fish, sharks have excellent senses: A shark can smell a meal from a quarter mile away; it can hear a distressed fish flopping around in the water over one-half mile away, and it's said that if conditions are right a shark could detect the electrical signals of a swimmer's heart from a distance of one mile! Surrounding the snout of a shark are specially created pores called the ampullae of Lorenzini. These pores are able to sense the electricity given off by other creatures. This particular shark must be attracted to the electrical field the submarine is generating. I'm...I'm going to st...stop recording for a ff...few minutes because... this shark is wh...whipping me around li...like...a...mil...milkshake...an...nd...I'm getting a... a headache."

Editor's Note:
Using one of the robotic arms, Professor Seismo removes a large feather from a special storage compartment on the left side of the sub. He breaks free from the shark by running the feather back and forth inside its mouth.

"Yes, a shark is ticklish, too! I'm going deeper now to see what strange creatures the Lord God has hidden in the waters below."

HMS Bathyscope Log: Day 17

"Descending from the surface of the ocean, I observed fewer and fewer species of fish. At a depth of 650 feet (200 meters) I noticed that the outside temperature started to drop quite rapidly. Although it was midday, darkness was increasing, and samples I took of the water showed no more phytoplankton. Apparently plants could no longer survive in the ever-increasing blackness. A little over one half mile down, the HMS Bathyscaphe was engulfed by twilight. What an eery feeling! Occasionally I caught a glimpse of tiny lights moving around the sub. I thought I was seeing things until I remembered that approximately 80 percent of fish at this depth produce their own light through a process called bioluminescence (bi - o - loo - mi - ness - ens).6 At one extreme is the lanternfish. Although only two inches in length, it has approximately 100 tiny lanterns on either side of its body. This multitude of lights is used to confuse other hungry fish. Would anyone really eat something that looked like a miniature high-rise turned on its side? Sometimes, the lanternfish turns off its lamps to prevent being spotted. I'm going to switch the bathyscaphe's headlights on now.

" I read somewhere that one out of five creatures that the Creator Jesus placed in the ocean spends its entire life in utter darkness. This strange, alien world has no day or night and no seasons. With the outside lights on, I can see many varieties of deep-sea jellyfish. Considering that they live in a lightless world, they are quite beautiful. They range in color from maroon to cherry-red, and cream to dark brown. I'm again struck by the thought that no matter where in this universe we explore, we see Christ's beauty reflected over and over again!

"Wait...WOW, you should see the face on that beast! It must be an angler fish, and it's looking straight at me. Our Master's ingenuity really shines in her. On her nose the Lord Jesus Christ has positioned a long stalk with a bright red light of glowing bacteria at the end. The angler fish uses this stalk as a fishing pole, and the light, which is sometimes shaped like a worm, as bait. Other fish, large and small, are attracted to its glow. Once close enough to the angler's mouth, they become lunch. No matter that the curious fish is bigger than the angler; the angler can eat something two or three times its size! I can't decide—does she see the bathyscaphe as a gigantic meal or maybe as her long-lost cousin...

Angler fish

"I'd like to go into the deeper parts of the sea, but I'm afraid my tiny bathyscaphe, in its present condition, can't withstand the tremendous water pressure. I have therefore decided to go to port in Hawaii for a scheduled refitting with a titanium hull. This new hull should allow me to probe into the depths of the ocean."

HMS Bathyscope Log: Day 21

"I have been forced to conserve rations so I have surfaced several times to catch fish. Good thing Hawaii is close by; I'm not sure I can stomach any more anchovy sandwiches! Anchovies, and similar small fish, like sardines and herring, are an important link in the ocean's food web. Herring-like fish eat zooplankton and are then eaten by larger fish—tuna, cod, mackerel, and swordfish. These larger fish are consumed by sharks and marine mammals.

"Curiously, the largest marine mammals—the whales—often eat the smallest ocean animals. This is the case with the blue whale, the most massive animal the Heavenly Father ever created; it is larger than any of His dinosaurs! At birth an infant blue whale weighs 6,000 pounds and is 22 feet in length. The baby gains 200 pounds per day by drinking its mother's milk, and by the time it's weaned, at six months old, it is over 50 feet long. An adult blue may reach 100 feet and 300,000 pounds! The blue whale is so heavy that if God took it out of the ocean and placed it on land, it would be crushed by its own weight.

"The blue whale is a member of a group of creatures called baleen whales. Baleen whales have no teeth; instead, their mouths are lined with several hundred slats that look like horizontally-placed Venetian blinds. These slats are called whalebone or baleen, but are actually made of keratin, the same material Jesus used to make my fingernails. Baleen whales use these slats to strain the seawater of tiny creatures to eat. The blue whale prefers krill, a shrimp-like animal, while the humpback whale (a baleen whale) eats small fish and plankton. In summer, blue whales eat four ton of krill each day. What an appetite!

baleen

"The other large group of whales is the Odontoceti, the toothed whales. These include the sperm whale, the killer whale, dolphins and porpoises, as well as others. The Son of God has given the sperm whale prodigious diving skills. The sperm whale can dive to depths of one-and-a-half miles and can "hold its breath" for 60 to 90 minutes! (Actually, whales breath air out of their lungs through the nostrils on top of their heads before diving.) The sperm whale's favorite snack is the giant squid which lives in the ocean a-half mile below the surface. The giant squid doesn't go down without a fight, though. Many a sperm whale carries the scars to prove it.

"As far as man knows, the giant squid is the largest invertebrate Christ ever made. Up to 50 or 60 feet long, and between one and two tons in weight, the Maker equipped this particular squid with 15-inch eyes, the biggest eyes of any of the Lord's creatures. It has ten tentacles studded with numerous suction cups. Generally, it travels about slowly by beating the fins on either side of its head, in search of fish and shrimp. When startled, it can move quite rapidly by pushing a high-pressure stream of water out of its body, along with a colossal cloud of black ink to hide itself from the sperm whale.

"Toothed whales are able to produce high-pitched sounds, like bats, and use their squeaks as sonar to navigate in dark or murky waters. Using sound waves, a dolphin (technically a small whale) can find a tiny metal pellet in a large pool of water. With lower pitched sounds, it is thought that many whales can communicate over hundreds or even thousands of miles with other whales! The Hawaiian coast is in sight, so I'd better get ready for docking."

Editor's Note:
Four weeks later Dr. Seismo has returned to the open ocean.

HMS Bathyscope Log: Day 49

"This morning, I piloted the sub to the ocean floor. No sunlight usually penetrates below one kilometer (six tenths of a mile). Many fish at this depth have very large eyes—100 times more sensitive to light than our own eyes.7 Some fish have no eyes; they're totally blind. Most of the fish here have a rather bizarre appearance.

Tripod fish

"Compared with the deep waters above, I've discovered a greater variety of fish and fish of a larger size, near the ocean bottom. The floor of the sea is covered with fine mud. In spots, it is a few feet deep; in other areas, it is much deeper. The Heavenly Father gave the tripod fish a wonderful design to deal with this environment. Tripod fish like to sit on top of the mud while waiting for a meal to pass by. To prevent the fish from sinking into the silty ocean floor, Christ has given it three extremely long fins upon which to sit—thus, the name, tripod fish.

"A fair number of benthic creatures (animals of the ocean floor) live far from the light of day. Sponges, sea urchins, starfish, anemones, sea cucumbers, and six-foot benthic worms thrive here. Sponges are interesting because they have no eyes, ears, or nose, and no heart, brain, nerves, stomach, or bones. They can't even move, and yet they are considered animals. Ten thousand different kinds of sponges were created by the Lord—what an imaginative God!

"There is one in particular which fascinates me. Many marine creatures have skeletons made of calcium (e.g., sea shells), but Christ used glass to make the delicate skeletons of some deep-sea sponges. Yes, Jesus made them of glass! One unique creation is a glass sponge (Euplectella aspergillum) made in the shape of a vase. Frequently, a young male and female shrimp make their home inside the vase. In time, the shrimp are unable to leave the sponge because they have grown in size. Therefore, they live their entire lives in this delicate glassy world. Hmmm, I know that people aren't shrimp...still through these lowly creatures the Heavenly Father gives us a marvelous illustration of how fragile marriage can be and how permanent it should be!

"Many benthic animals produce their own light. Christ the Creator placed a red light at the end of the gulper eel's tail, for instance, to attract other fish to eat. Most of the benthic creatures are scavengers, though. They wait patiently for dead plants and animals to rain down from the shallower waters above, like manna from heaven. If deceased creatures floated rather than sank, there would be no food supply and the ocean floor would be devoid of life. God may truly be seen as the Provider under these circumstances.

"At the sea bottom, water temperature stays around freezing throughout the year. Ocean water here doesn't freeze, however, because of the large amount of salt in it.

"I'm not going to try exploring the Marianas Trench in the western Pacific because it's probably too risky. God's Word says that a simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps,8 or in my case, 'his depths.' The Marianas Trench is a deep underwater valley, the deepest in the world, plummeting down almost seven miles (11 km) below the ocean surface! Maybe a newer model of bathtub could withstand the pressure. I'll have to consider it..."

Bathyscope Log: Day 54

"'Lo siento mucho sobre su barco, Profesor Seismo,'9 came a voice from the handsomely bronzed face of a fisherman. This morning, I mistakenly surfaced into the net of a Peruvian fishing boat. It was all my fault, I should have been more careful. One look at the HMS Bathyscaphe and the captain and crew went wild with excitement. They thought they had caught a sea monster! In the panic, one of the deckhands threw a boat hook at the sub...that really messed-up the navigational system. When I popped my head out the hatch they looked confused. I knew enough Spanish to convince them I wasn't Leviathan. They've been very kind to me, considering I tore their net. They promised to take me to the nearest harbor.

"As I watch the South American shore pass by, the same coastline Charles Darwin studied over 100 years ago, I am perplexed at how he could conclude that all this wonderful creation around me just happened by chance. It's so beautiful, so complex, so coordinated, and so nurtured; all made by the hand of my Lord and God. I will never doubt that!"

Editor's Final Comment:
Psalm 95 records that the sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land (verse 5). This is absolutely true, but if we stop reading here we will miss another vital message. The text goes on... come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker (verse 6). We cannot truly worship the Creator unless we have a working relationship with Him. How can we relate to the living God of the universe? In the beginning, the Lord God made people and the rest of creation flawless. Many, many years ago sin entered into the world putting an infinite gulf between us and God. Our intimate relationship with Him was broken. God did not leave it that way, though. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God the Father sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to tell us how we could restore our broken relationship with Him. Christ Jesus died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven, and by the power of His Father, came back to life that we might have eternal life. What does it mean to believe in God's Son? We must commit ourselves to Him and trust in Him with our very lives. Have you ever done that? If not, please take a minute right now, and pray the following prayer:

Dear God, I recognize that I have lived my life independently of you and you consider this sin. Please forgive me through your Son, Jesus Christ--through His death on the cross. Jesus, please come into my heart right now and become my King and my God. I accept your gift of eternal life. Show me how to live the way you want me to live. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.

Please contact us at HIS CREATION if you made this commitment. We want to help!

NOTES:

1. H.V. Thurman & H.H. Webber, Marine Biology, (Columbus OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company, 1984), p. 109.
2. see Volcanic Lessons (Sept/Oct 1994 issue of CREATOR)
3. Philip Whitfield, Oceans, (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1991), p. 8.
4. Francine Jacobs, The Red Sea, (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1978), p. 14.
5. see the May/June 1993 issue of CREATOR
6. Thurman, Marine Biology, 111.
7. Ibid., 111.
8. Proverbs 14:15
9. "We're really sorry about your boat, Professor Seismo" (in Spanish)