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Noah And The Flood
Fascinating Facts
The Genesis Flood was a worldwide catastrophic event that forever changed planet Earth's physical landscape. The world we have today is not the world that was created. Everything was affected, from climate to topography. It was as if God was wiping evil from the world and starting fresh; however, this new world would have the scars of sin deeply embedded in it. Just as Adam and Even could not continue to live in the Garden of Eden after they had sinned, so mankind, after proving their drive for evil, could not be allowed to live in the perfect world God had created.
The World Before Noah And The Flood
What was the world like before the Flood? It was a very different place, one that is hard for us to imagine. The Bible does not give a detailed description of this paradise, but using hints from Scripture and some scientific discoveries, we can formulate a likely theory.
God created one supercontinent surrounded by oceans. Think of it as a massive island with gently rolling hills, beautiful forest glades, and rich farmland. The climate? It was pretty well perfect. No extreme hot or cold weather - just moderate temperatures worldwide all year. No scorching deserts, no freezing tundras, no impassable mountain ranges, no natural disasters. It was an ideal place for human civilization to grow and complete God’s mandate of filling the earth with a Godly race of people.
Evil Rules
Was the expanding population grateful to God for giving them such a beautiful and productive place to live? Were they so horrified by the consequences of Adam’s disobedience and Cain’s punishment that they rejected sin and served their loving Creator?
No. Evil infiltrated the core of every human being, wrapping its insidious coils around every thought that entered their mind until they no longer cared about good and evil. It was all about self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment. Violence, war and crime shredded this perfect world until even the mercy and kindness of God could stand it no more. God’s holy nature cried out for justice. Death was the only reasonable penalty for the hideous acts that had been committed. So, death by drowning was decreed for a human population of up to 10 million people totally committed to the most vile acts of wickedness.
Noah And The Flood
Yet, out of the millions of people on this supercontinent, one man and his small family remained loyal to God. God decided to reboot the human race with Noah, his three sons and their wives. He gave Noah explicit instructions on how to build an ark which would survive the incredible turmoil that was to come.
People have mocked the idea of Noah’s Ark, and most illustrations are so far from the truth that they deserve it. However, careful study reveals that Noah’s Ark was well able to do everything the Bible claims it did. Most illustrations show the Ark with a pointed or rounded bow. This is because ships need this to move through the water effectively to reach their destination. The false assumption is that the Ark had somewhere to go! Think about it. All land was deep underwater. There was nowhere to go! The Ark had one job - to stay afloat in the worst and longest storm this world has ever seen. With that in mind, the Ark was built in a large rectangular shape - no pointed ends. This has been shown to be the most stable shape in water and practically unsinkable.
Even though it probably took from 55 to 75 years to build the Ark, it seems like an impossible project for such a small family. This is based on the assumption that Noah and his sons built the Ark alone. There is nothing in Scripture that dictates this. It is reasonable to think they hired contractors and workers to help them. These workers would have laughed behind Noah’s back at the fool building an odd-shaped boat in the middle of nowhere, but - as we all know - a paycheck is a paycheck.
Noah's Animals
What about all those animals? Isn’t it unrealistic to think that all the animals would fit on the Ark, let alone the food, water and time required to look after them? It sounds like a total fantasy until a person examines the facts. First, the Ark was massive. Its floor space would have held 340 semi-trailers. Second, Noah didn’t need all the varieties of birds and animals we have today. God designed a fantastic adaptability into our genes. All Noah needed was the heads of families. For example, one set of canines is all that is required to produce all the dogs, wolves, foxes, etc. that we have today. And it is quite possible that the original family heads were even broader. It has been estimated that Noah only needed 2,000 animals and birds on the Ark to produce all the variety we have today.
What about the big animals? They would have taken up a lot of space, especially if it included dinosaurs. Those things were massive! Again, this ignores facts. Although some animals are large, the average animal size is that of a sheep. In addition, it assumes it was fully mature animals that came onboard. Most likely, it was baby or young animals so that they would have maximum reproductive capability after the Flood. And even the largest dinosaur came from an egg no larger than a football. The animals on the Ark would need less than half the available floor space. The food needed would have taken about 15% of the space, with another 9% for drinking water. That still leaves about 25% of the space for Noah and his family to live.
Two thousand is still a lot of animals for eight people to care for. True; however, some of the animals were likely in hibernation for a good portion of the time. Researchers have shown how low-tech technology available at the time of Noah could have been used to efficiently perform many tasks, such as feeding the animals and cleaning their pens. Remember that the evolutionary lie of cavemen evolving into more intelligent beings is the reverse of what actually happened. Adam was created able to use 100% of his brain at peak efficiency. That ability has been slowly eroding after the Fall. Its impact would have been minimal by Noah’s time. Noah was a highly intelligent person who figured out the best way to accomplish the mission God had given him.
Did dinosaurs make it on the ark, or did they go extinct during the Flood? The only way they would not have made it on the ark is if they had gone extinct before the Flood. The Bible plainly states that God brought every kind of bird and animal to Noah. God didn’t forget dinosaurs. There is evidence that some varieties existed into the Middle Ages or later. Remember that the word “dinosaur” was first used in 1842 by Richard Owen. Any references to these beasts in previous writings would have used other names such as behemoth, leviathan, monster, dragon, etc.
The Flood Water
When all was ready, the Flood came. Contrary to popular images, although the rain - the floodgates of heaven - contributed to the flood, they were probably not the source of the majority of the water. The fountains of the deep were broken open. Underwater volcanoes, the ocean floor rising, the continent sinking, and massive tsunamis soon had all the land far underwater.
Some may wonder how the Flood waters could have covered the mountain peaks. As we said previously, the mountains we see today did not exist before the flood. They were made during the Flood as the earth’s crust shifted. Therefore, only relatively low hills would need to be covered. There is more than enough water on Earth right now to cover the planet. The Challenger Deep, which is the deepest part of the ocean, is over a mile deeper than Mount Everest is high. We have massive amounts of water on this planet.
Where did all the Flood waters go? Right into our current oceans! As the Flood likely started with the supercontinent sinking and the ocean floor rising, the tremendous geological activities - volcanoes, earthquakes, the supercontinent breaking apart, etc. - would have caused the opposite effect of the ocean floors sinking and the new continents rising. The Grand Canyon and other geological features are the water runoff results. All this activity near the end of the Flood triggered what has become known as the Ice Age.
The Truth About Fossils
The fossils we have today are not the result of long ages but are a record of the order of burial during the Flood. One question that puzzles people is why we don’t find many [or any] human fossils from the time of the Flood. Many people do not realize that 99.75% of the fossil record consists of shallow marine organisms [like shellfish] or plants and trees. Only .25% is of anything else. Most humans and animals would have sought the highest ground available. Humans would have likely made rafts, etc. This means their bodies would have been near the surface when they died. Dead bodies float, decay and become fish food. Few would have made it to the bottom of the ocean to be fossilized.
Although the Flood was a divine judgment on a wicked world, God used natural methods and forces to accomplish His will. This means it can be scientifically studied to understand what God accomplished and how it was accomplished.
Jesus And The Great Flood
Jesus clearly believed in a literal global Flood, as recorded in the Book of Genesis.
And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man: people were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, and they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-27, NASB
Biblically or scientifically, there is no reason for any Christian to doubt the literal history of the global Flood as recorded in Genesis.
References
The Genesis Account by Jonathan D. Sarfati
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