Font of Appleby

The font of St Lawrence’s Church at Appleby-in-Westmorland is made of the distinctive frosterley marble. Strictly speaking, it is not marble, but coraliferous limestone; however it can be beautifully polished, rendering it a desirable luxury building material. One can make out the fossilised forms of marine invertebrates whose mass destruction Bible believers associate with the great Flood described in the book of Genesis. The apostle Peter links Noah’s flood and the ark in which he and his family were saved, with baptism:

...in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. 1 Peter 30:20b-22, NKJV

The God who freely pardons and receives us (of which baptism is a picture) is also the dread Judge before whom all hearts are open and who punished the ancient world all those years ago. Most modern users of that font may deny Noah’s flood and date the stonework to squillions of years ago, but those dead creatures bespeak the awesome justice of a righteous God.