Ken Ham: Noah's flood — it was global

Christian Post ^ | 02/19/2020 | Ken Ham

[SeekAndFind]

In an article in “The Christian Post” on whether the Flood of Noah covered the entire globe, Hugh Ross contended that the Flood was not global in extent but regional.

Taking Genesis as straightforward history, the reader of the text should have little difficulty understanding the account of the Flood in chapters 6–8. We are told that “the fountains of the great deep” burst open and poured out water onto the earth's surface for 150 days. The “floodgates of heaven” were open, producing torrential rainfall. These passages express a flood of global geographical extent. This view is confirmed by the words “all” and “whole” in Genesis 7:19: “And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.”

Furthermore, we read that all mankind was blotted out (except the eight people on the Ark). Genesis 6:7–13 tells us why God sent the Flood judgment: “The Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky.’” The Flood also came to destroy all land animals and birds wherever they were located, not just to kill sinful humans who were not on the Ark.

Furthermore, the Flood account is irreconcilable with a watery event being localized in the Mesopotamian Valley. As noted above, Genesis 7 teaches that “all the mountains were covered.” Because water will always seek its own level, how could the mountains be covered in only one region without also covering mountains in adjoining areas?

Likewise, there is no biblical or logical reason to assume that all humanity before the Flood lived only in the Mesopotamian Valley. Genesis 4 indicates that early man built cities, had nomadic herds of animals, and explored the earth (v. 17–22).

In 2 Peter 3, the Apostle Peter warned of a future time when people would willfully forget that after the earth was created by God, it perished “being flooded with water,” and that the present earth is “reserved for fire until the day of judgment.” Three events are referred to: the creation of the world (Greek “kosmos”), the destruction of that world (“kosmos” again) by a watery cataclysm (the Flood), and the future destruction of the heavens and the earth by fire. In other words, Peter accepted the Flood was global because the creation of the world was global and the future judgment by fire is to be global. This passage leaves no doubt that God’s Word — including in the New Testament — teaches a global Flood.

If the Flood were only regional in extent, why would Noah have even had to take birds on board the ark (Genesis 7:8) when the birds could have simply flown away to safe, unflooded areas? Similarly, why would Noah have needed to take land animals on board the Ark when representatives of those same animal kinds would surely have survived in an unflooded area?

Furthermore, why would Noah have had to build the ark to an immense scale as specified in Genesis 6:15 (about 510 feet long, 84 feet wide, and 51 feet high)? With three decks, the Ark would have had a total area of about 125,000 square feet for all the needed animals (and supplies). Obviously, an Ark of such dimensions would only be required if the Flood were global in extent, which was intended by God to destroy all land animals and birds living around the world (except for those preserved on that Ark). Because the Bible teaches that Noah was warned of the Flood several decades before it came (Genesis 6:3), God could have simply told Noah and his family to migrate out of the region with any required land animals and birds before the Flood started.

Finally, God gave the covenant of the rainbow to remind people He will never again send such a Flood. If Noah’s Flood was regional, then God has broken His promise over and over again because there have been multiple regional floods over the millennia.

Both the Old and New Testaments teach that the Flood of Noah was global. It could not be clearer. For the scientific evidence that confirms a global Flood, we have several articles by PhD geologists and others found on our website of www.AnswersInGenesis.org

This topic is ultimately one about the authority of God's Word, which plainly teaches a global Flood. Why should we accept the ever-changing opinions of fallible men as they reinterpret what the infallible God clearly communicated to us in Genesis?

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Ken Ham is the CEO of the Ark Encounter, an evangelistic attraction that draws well over a million people a year to tour its full-size Noah’s Ark in N. Kentucky.

[cuban leaf]

If the only evidence for the flood that we had was what is said in the bible, there is evidence to support both a global or local event.

Whichever one I choose to believe will not damage my relationship with my Creator nor with my fellow man. And those are the only two things that matter in this life.

[Heartlander]

Adiaphora

[cuban leaf]

Thank you. This is a huge help. It is a pet peeve of mine.

One pastor once told me that he has found that the more a person knows about the bible and its history, the less sure they are about their opinion on anything that falls into adiaphora.

That word makes the sentence much easier. :)

[wildcard_redneck]

When the current interglacial period began there was worldwide flooding as sea levels rose globally and low lying coastal areas were inundated by rising sea levels. There were also catastrophic floods as glacial ice dams burst and released glacial melt water that destroyed all in its path.

Most of the history of mankind lies underwater on the continental shelves and drowned islands that are now called sea mounts.

[DoodleDawg]

BFL

[George from New England]

I am criticized for this take on scripture ...

God did his creation in six days and on the 7th he rested.

Days are defined as a complete revolution of the planet earth. Conceivable is that during the creation God didn’t start the earth spinning as we have it today until end of the sixth day. So if earth was almost stationary for six days those six days could have been centuries by today’s timing.
Whatcha think?

[Rurudyne]

To paraphrase Nixon, we’re all Idaho now?

(Once landlocked)

[DoodleDawg]

Days are defined as a complete revolution of the planet earth. Conceivable is that during the creation God didn’t start the earth spinning as we have it today until end of the sixth day. So if earth was almost stationary for six days those six days could have been centuries by today’s timing. Whatcha think?

I think that the Bible makes for very good theology but very bad science.

[Boogieman]

Well, I’m not seeing what advantage that theory has over the “gap theory” (which already has its own disadvantages).

For one, there’s just the basic problems that come along with a non-rotating (or slowly rotating planet). The temperature variations between one side of the planet and the other would be extreme, and probably neither side would be very hospitable to life.

The other problem is, it doesn’t actually answer any of the objections that materialist scientists have with the Genesis account. In Genesis, man isn’t created until the sixth day, and the expulsion from the garden and the real beginning of human civilization on earth is after the seventh day. So you can stretch Genesis 1 out for thousands of years, or millions of years, but you’d still have a story that says man arrives about 5 or 6 thousand years ago, while scientists say man (just modern homo sapiens) has been around at least 100,000 years.

[RainMan]

Saw an interesting show a decade ago about the flood. It was looking for the scientific validation that the flood could, and did, occur as described. Short synopsis is this: The bible talks about the firmament above, and the firmament below. In modern science we have found planets with dense structures of gas in their atmospheres. If the earth had that at one time, it would be the firmament above. A mesosphere of dense humidity sitting on a stratosphere of denser gases above a troposphere of air. There is ample evidence that the plates that the continents move on are physically separated from the core of the earth (hence they still move and we have earthquakes). The theory goes that the separation was originally a layer of water that was trapped under the plates. The flood event was precipitated by something that shattered the two firmaments. Now, think of a large asteroid crashing into the earth. The impact would create a crater still visible, and possibly still exposed. Now, think of Iceland, the volcanic island that is not a traditional volcano. It is an open scab on the face of the earth. Look at an underwater map of the Atlantic, and you find a "mountain range" called the mid-Atlantic ridge, and it runs right thru Iceland.

The theory goes, an asteroid hit the earth, piercing the mantle in iceland, and broke thru all the way to the core. In doing so, it pierced the "firmament below", which was under enormous pressure. As the water was pushed up and out the hole, pressure dynamics enlarged the fissure as a crack that circled the globe almost instantaneously (like cracking an egg can cause the fracture to go to areas beyond the actual impact). Modeling of this type of event (which they showed in the program) would cause the rushing water to carry loose debris towards the crack, but the debris would not surface with the water ... it would essentially create a mountain ridge. The plates would move away from the crack and occasionally get caught as the water evacuated, which would cause further cracks and twisting. The first parts to drain would be those farthest away (in the Pacific) but they would have the weight of the continent pushing from behind. They would crack and buckle (and you would get the Rockies, Andes, Himalayas) and they would also create a lot of friction on the leading edge, which would create a ring of fire (volcanoes on the leading edge). Any firmament above would also be blown apart by the infusion of water into the atmosphere. What goes up, must come down, so there would be global rain for a while. The water would not go back into its firmament, but pool on the surface, giving us our oceans and seas.

The conclusion of the program was, not only was the story of the flood possible, it was probable.

[rktman]

Due to glow bull warming no doubt.

[cuban leaf]

I read a book called “The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch”. I even got to talk to the author. He had changed a couple of his theories by then since writing the book, but he adhered to the concept.

And the concept is this: A rogue planet with an ice moon got temporarily locked into an orbit with earth. The two planets orbited each other for “forty days”. During that time, the ice moon reached the roasch limit, neutralizing its own gravity, can causing it to fall to earth, most of it forming the poles, and the rest falling as rain.

And every time the two planets orbited each other, new mountain ranges were ripped up on the earth. He compared the earth to a brown paper bag full of molasses, and the gravity “pulled up” an arch of brown paper, forming a mountain range with each orbit.

I’m speaking from 40 year old memory, but that was the jist of it.

It’s all interesting stuff.

[circlecity]

It’s interesting that on many of the tallest mountains, all around the world, they have found fossils of sea creatures.

[maddogtiger]

I would like to direct everyones attention to the Diehold Foundation’s web site and after due diligence
research don’t start to worry,good luck.

[Rurudyne]

My take is a bit different. Mainly based on observing what Scripture requires.

Of living things Genesis requires that all were made before the woman. Not before the man because we are told that the Lord fashioned certain examples from the dust and presented these to the man to see what he would call them, and then after these was the woman made.

Of physical creation itself though there is a potential issue with the fact we use translated into English rather than transliterated, for, IIRC, the word used repeatedly as “create” is really to prepare. That leaves room for the earth being prepared from material on hand created at some point previous to Genesis 1:1 which itself is before the first day (the first day had both evening and morning). That means His saying “Let light be.” may be akin to His calling the dawn to say, as we might, it’s showtime!

Which is to say that Genesis 1:1 may capture the moment of the beginning of a new official epoch. This is not unprecedented in Scripture. The flood marks one age to the next. The giving of the Law may, but certainly the Cross marks a changing of times. And of course the MK will be different from this age and the New Heaven and Earth different from that.

So what Genesis requires is that, at a minimum, the Lord prepared this world, altering its conditions to specifically suit the life He was placing on it (said conditions specifically including any adjustments to that star and moon). We are not told about the beginning of the zero day before the first day, if He had immediately made all physical existence at that moment before He was hovering over the waters or if it was simply a day of no specific significance until He started history.

So if by Young Earth Creationism one means the story of the creation of life on this 3rd Rock then that is vital, but if you seek to demand more and address physical existence itself ... well that is superfluous to what we’ve actually been told.

[Popman]

If the only evidence for the flood that we had was what is said in the bible

There are several similar accounts in several ancient texts.

[BipolarBob]

Ham was on the Ark. That’s right the author was THERE so he knows what he’s talking about.

[circlecity]

Virtually every culture, all around the globe, has tales of a great flood in ancient times.

[alloysteel]

At one time, the Black Sea was at a level much below the Mediterranean Sea, and was not joined. The population group to which Noah belonged lived on the now drowned shores of that inland sea, and when earth tremors sent out great panic among those people, Noah was among the few who accurately guessed a great calamity was about to fall. His ark was built to survive this great inundation as the wall between the Mediterranean and the valley in which the Black Sea was located was sundered and the Bosporus Strait was opened. The waters poured from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea basin, causing a great upwelling of the sea level, and completely destroying every settlement that was around the former shores of the Black Sea. It would have appeared to be the “end of the world” for those in the locality.