Gen 7:17
“And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.”
– English KJV
” ויהי המבול ארבעים יום על הארץ וירבו המים וישׂאו את התבה ותרם מעל הארץ׃"
– Hebrew Text
“Hayah mabbul 'arba‛ı̂ym yom ‛al 'erets rabah mayim nasa' 'eth tebah rum ‛al 'erets”
– Hebrew Pronunciation
We have seen that the Bible indicates a literal 6 day creation. We have also seen that modern science, especially the field of genetics, does not actually support the evolution theory.
This creates a lot of questions that the evolution theory has already tried to answer.
How did the canyons form?
Why are there huge oceanic trenches?
How do we explain reversed magnetism in the ocean bed?
Why does Mars have canyons that seems to have been made by water?
How do we explain the layers of strata?
How do we explain frozen mammoths still in the standing position?
Where does the ice-age fit into the Bible?
Where is/was the Garden of Eden?
Where did the flood waters come from?
Where did the water go?
These are fair questions that Atheists (as well as Christians who believe in Evolution) ask and it is very important that Christians have good answers to these questions, just like it is important for a Christian to be able to answer many spiritual questions (such as how to become born again; the purpose of baptism; etc). I believe that the Bible gives a perfectly acceptable explanation that systematically answers all of these questions: The Flood.
The Flood:
Genesis speaks of a catastrophic flood that destroyed the pre-flood world. Only Noah, his family and 2 of every sort of animal (and 7 of some) were spared. The flood was the judgement of God on the great sin that infested the pre-flood civilizations. The Bible indicates that the Earth was created approximately 6000 years ago and that the flood happened about 4400 years ago.
Why A Flood?
A question that often comes up when talking to people about the flood is “Why did God use a flood?”. The animals didn’t sin, why do they have to be punished? Why didn’t God just kill the evil people, just as the firstborn was killed in Egypt a few centuries later?
I think that there are at least two good reasons why God used the flood. Firstly, God did it because a world-wide flood would leave behind evidence, where a supernatural miracle would not. We have evidence all over the world for a world-wide flood, but no evidence (other than the Bible) of the death of all the firstborn in Egypt during the tenth plague…
The second reason why God would use a flood is because Noah would take time to build a boat... The Bible does not specifically say how long it took Noah to build the ark. We know that in Gen 5:32 Noah is 500 years old. We know that he was 600 years old when the flood came. How long it took to build the ark would depend on how much time passed between Gen 5:32 and when God commanded Noah to build the ark. Whatever the time period, we know that it would have taken a long time and that time period would have given the rest of the world an opportunity to repent.
Did you know that it probably never rained before the flood? Scripture seems to indicate that the first rain drops was during the flood. This is interesting because that would mean that Noah would have been trying to warn the people of something that has never happened before. People did not take him seriously because he was telling them about things they have never seen before. They must have through that he was going crazy! Today we face the same problem. We are trying to warn the world of a coming judgement that has never been seen before. People don’t always take us seriously because we are preaching about something that has never happened before and, like Noah, many people think that Christian evangelists are just plain crazy.
How Does A Flood Answer The Questions?
There is no doubt that there was a very large body of ice covering large parts of the Northern and Southern landmasses. There are Mammoths that have been found frozen in a standing position with undigested food in their mouth. There is no doubt that these things happened, the question is “when?”…
We also have evidence of large landscapes that have been eroded away. The question is “when did this happen?” Slowly over millions of years, or quickly over a short period of time?
There are two theories about the flood. They are very similar; however, the major difference comes in with the “Ice Age”. The one theory is that the Ice-Age caused the flood; the second theory is that the flood caused the Ice-Age. As with evolution, it is not possible to prove either of these theories, however, it does offer us something other than the farfetched evolution baloney.
First we need to look at the pre-flood world.
The pre-flood world was probably one super continent, containing lush vegetation, rivers, small oceans and minor mountain ranges. The Bible is clear that the earth was created upon the waters (Ps 24:1-2 / Ps 33:7 / Ps 136:6). There were large bodies of water trapped underneath the surface of the Earth, remaining there under extreme pressure from the rocks above.
The Bible states that the fountains of the deep burst open (Gen 7:11-12). The pockets of water burst through the surface of the earth, flooding the whole world.
A) The Hydroplate Theory: (Dr Walt Brown)
The first theory is that the flood caused the Ice Age…
A small, microscopic crack formed in the crust of the Earth, which rapidly grew in size. The crack, following the path of least resistance, could have encircled the entire world in only a few hours.
The subterranean water was under extreme pressure from the kilometers of rock above it pushing down. Due to this pressure, the water exploded through the crack in the crust. Dr. Walt Brown’s calculations show that the water could have shot up to 30km into the atmosphere, causing torrential rains such as the world has never experienced (before or after).
The Bible states that the fountains of the deep burst open on one day. Some of the water shot up so high into the atmosphere, beyond the cold stratosphere, that it froze into super cold ice crystals, creating large landscapes covered in ice on the North and South. Since water crystals can easily be magnetized they would naturally be pulled to the north and the south poles, creating the ice caps still visible today and, in some places, burying, suffocating and instantly freezing many animals. Explaining the signs of the Ice-Age(s) we have today.
The high pressure of the fountains eroded the rocks at both sides of the crack in the crust.
This created huge quantities of sediments that flooded the face of the earth, trapping and burying plants and animals, creating the fossil record. Many forests and animals were swept away and accumulated in areas where they were then buried, creating pockets of coal (plants) and oil (animals) through processes we can duplicate in laboratories today.
When the erosion on the sides of the crack became great enough, the basalt underneath the crust lifted up, due to the high pressure it was under. This gave birth to the Mid-Atlantic ridge, visible as cracks and around the earth today. The continental plates (still with lubricating water pockets underneath) slid downhill, away from the rising Mid-Atlantic ridge.
These plates eventually ran into resistance where they then compressed, crushed, thickened and buckled. The portions that buckled up formed our mountain ranges, the portions that buckled down formed the ocean trenches.
As the hydroplates slid away, it opened deep oceanic basins, into which the floodwater retreated. This is where our oceans are today. Many of these trenches filled with water was trapped inland, creating the giant inland lakes we find today. As the rain continued to come down these filled with more water. Some of these lakes filled to the brim spilled over, creating a notch in the lowest part of the dam wall. As the water flowed through the notch it would increase in size and more water would flow through. This process would continue and speed up until the water flowed freely and cut through the soft sedimentary rock, creating many of the canyons we have today. Grand Canyon could have been formed in a matter of weeks.
An interesting fact is that cold rock holds a magnetic field, where hot rocks will lose it much quicker. As the new seabed buckled, trenches formed. The rock on top of these trenches cooled at a different rate from the rock inside the trenches. This would have caused the stronger and weaker magnetic fields found within the rocks today, which evolutionists use to give evidence for the theoretical magnetic reversal process.
A) The Hovind Theory: (Dr Kent Hovind)
The second theory is that the Ice-Age caused the flood.
The two theories are very similar, however here is where they differ:
Many creationists believe that an ice meteor came from space and broke up before it neared earth. Much of the ice was caught by the gravity of planets and formed many of the ice rings we see today. Many of these items crashed into the planets and moons (explaining why there are so many craters on the moon, yet we see so few impacts), a large quantity hit Mars in a liquid form, explaining the large canyons on the face of Mars, some of which are bigger than the Grand Canyon (scientists believe that many of these canyons formed in a short time – much shorter than a year, perhaps even a few weeks)
A lot of the remains entered Earth’s atmosphere, breaking through and destroying a canopy of ice or water held suspended through the earth’s magnetic field. These particles were magnitized and were naturally attracted to the north and south poles, forming the icecaps we see today, as well as creating large ice covered landscapes. This new added weight caused the ground to crack and caused the waters of the deep to burst out. From here the theory continues in much the same way as the first theory.
Both of the above mentioned theories have much more detail, however, we do not have the time or space to explain it them in full. There are also other theories, however, these two are the most popular and explain most of questions about land formations etc.
Remains Of The Flood:
There are hundreds of mountain ranges that looks as though a flood could have formed them. The delta’s we have (such as the Nile Delta), could have been formed in a matter of days by water trapped inland that flushed out to sea just after the flood.
There are over 60 flood legends from around the world.
There are also a lot of evidence that the remains of Noah’s ark have been found. This cannot be proven beyond doubt, however, the evidence strongly suggests that a formation found in the mountain range of Ararat is Noah’s Ark. I highly recommend the Kent Hovind Creation Seminar DVD’s as they reveal much more insight on this topic. (Specifically the 2007 Seminar Edition).
Problems in the Evolutionary Timeline:
I cannot end this study without pointing out a few problems with the evolution timeline.
Pangaea:
Pangaea is the theory of a super continent that drifted apart over millions of years. Here are a few arguments evolutionists use to prove it:
- The continents seem to fit
First of all, just because they seem to fit, does not mean that they ever did. There are many things that “seem to fit” but never did. Houses seem to fit together, but that does not mean that they split apart over millions of years and the road formed between them… My finger and an electric outlet also seem to fit well together, but they were just not made for each other…
Secondly, they only seem to fit due to the water level of the ocean. Once the water level is dropped their shapes quickly changes and the “perfect fit” theory falls away.
- Similar fossils are found on opposite ends of the ocean.
This may be true, but what they fail to mention is that the same fossils are found almost all over the world! Secondly, many of these fossils are of creatures that supposedly evolved long after the continents split apart! This is actually evidence of a world-wide flood! How far could a catastrophic flood carry the body of that animal?
Here are a few more problems…
They shrunk Africa by 35-45% to make it fit.
The entire Mexico & Central America is gone.
They rotated Europe and South America clockwise, but Africa was rotated anti-clockwise just to make it fit.
There are many more problems, but we just do not have the time.
Erosion of the mountain ranges:
With the current rate of erosion, the entire earth will be flat in about 14 million years. If the earth is billions of years old, why are there still high mountain ranges?
With erosion of the land, sediments are continually flowing into the oceans. Why are there only a few thousand years worth of mud in the oceans? Shouldn’t there be more?
Coral Reefs:
The great barrier reef near Australia is the oldest reef on the planet. During World War 2, parts of the reef was damaged. Scientists watched it grow for over 20 years and concluded that it is only about 4500 years old. If the earth is millions of years old, why isn’t there an older reef somewhere?
Deserts:
The Sahara desert is the largest desert in the world. It grows larger by about 5 to 10km every year (the process is called desertification). Calculations show that the Sahara desert is under 5000 years old. If the earth is millions of years old, why isn’t there an older desert somewhere?
Fossilized Clams on Everest:
Fossilized Clams on Everest is used as evidence for the theory that India slowly, over millions of years, slammed into Asia and formed the Himalayas. I agree that the Himalayas were formed because India slammed into Asia, however, I believe that happened during the flood. The evidence is that huge quantities of the clams found on Everest is still in the closed position. The formation of the mountains using plate tectonics cannot explain why they are petrified in the closed position. If it was plate tectonics, they would be open. No, these clams were buried quickly and alive, which can best be explained by a flood.
Conclusion:
This has been a long study and we have hardly scratched the surface of this subject. What we do know is that there are major problems with the evolutionary explanation of how things happened and that many things are far better explained by a flood.
There are over 60 flood legends from around the world which describe a family surviving a catastrophic flood very early on in their history. Perhaps the flood legend is so prominent in human history because it actually happened…
