Recent earthquakes in California, Iran, and elsewhere have caused many to wonder just how solid the ground is that we stand upon. A well-known insurance company uses as its logo the Rock of Gibraltar as a symbol of its rock solid dependability. However, I imagine that the Rock has experienced earthquakes. In fact, few places on earth have escaped. The cause of earthquakes has been a mystery up until recent times. Today seismologists have a pretty good idea of their cause. We know from the seismic shock waves that the earth consists of several layers of different densities; underlying the crust. varying in thickness from three to forty miles, is a sudden change known as the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, or Moho. Below the Moho lies the semifluid Mantle. Everything above the Mantle is called the Lithosphere.
According to the modern theory of plate tectonics, the Lithosphere is composed of a number of large plates that move horizontally driven by the torsional forces generated by a rotating earth. These tectonic plates are moving different directions, and when they collide or grind against each other, it causes extensive folding of the crustal layers or a shearing along the line of contact. For instance, it is thought that the Himalayas are the result of India colliding with Asia. Along the line of contact are many stress fractures of the crust called faults, and earthquakes are the result of a sudden release of these stress forces.
This idea of the movement of continental plates originated from a theory proposed by Alfred L. Wegener known as the Continental Drift Theory. He proposed that the continents were originally joined into two huge continental masses, the Northern Hemisphere continent of Laurasia and the Southern Hemisphere continent of Gondwanaland, separated by the Tethys Sea. Some tectonic upheaval split these two land masses into pieces, and the pieces have been drifting apart ever since. Wegener originated this theory because of the striking "fit" of the Atlantic coasts of Africa and North and South America. This theory was at first ridiculed by fellow scientists, but the Continental drift theory now seems consistent with our knowledge of plate tectonics.
So, we are all living on shaky ground; it is moving, quaking, erupting all around us. The Bible describes the earth as waxing old as a garment (Isa. 51:6), and it certainly is developing some new wrinkles. We need to consider the ground we stand on, spiritually. Do we have a firm foundation? Is our faith built on the quaking sand of "cunningly devised fables" or blind tradition, or is it built on "nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness"? In these perilous earthshaking days we can be certain that Jesus alone is "the solid Rock."
