The Flood Came

Genesis 7:11-12

“In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:11-12)

The period from creation to the flood lasted about sixteen hundred fifty six years. Because most of the dates are not as precisely defined as this one, there could be as much as nine years of variation, a possible error of only about one half percent. Some of the other dates given throughout the Old Testament also give only approximate periods for the same reasons, but the variation is still roughly the same, and the amount of error is negligible for our purposes.

Because we do not know how old Joshua was when he became leader of Israel, or how long after his death it was before his son-in-law became the first judge, the period from Deuteronomy to the second chapter of Judges cannot be determined precisely, although it had to be less than a single individual’s lifetime, and probably more than about thirty years. A fifty year estimate seems fairly conservative here. We also have no clear length of time for the period from Samson’s death till Saul became king, although we know that Samuel started as a young boy, and was old when he anointed Saul king. Fifty years here is a very conservative estimate with a hundred being very possible.

Using these assumptions and the given dates, and recognizing that there can be some variation, we find that the date of the flood was probably around 2600 BC. It may have been as much as a hundred years earlier, or fifty years later. Since we know that even with the far more precise and complete records since Roman times, there is definitely an error of at least three years in our dating to the time of Christ, and possibly ten, we know that even fairly modern dates are not as precise as we are sometimes led to believe. The exact date is not critical, but the timeframe is, because it definitely affects whether evolutionary theory and the Bible record can be reconciled There is no place for the millions of years most evolutionists insist on. Creation must have been about 4300 BC.

Scientific evidence implies that in the early earth there was a vast amount of water in the upper atmosphere, far greater than modern day clouds contain. Genesis 1:7 speaks of the firmament dividing the waters, the breathable atmosphere. Since rain is dependent on the amount of moisture in the upper atmosphere, such an abundance would have enabled far greater rain than we now experience. Some areas of the earth have recorded a thirty inch rainfall in a single twenty four hour period, Forty days of that much rain would be a hundred feet of water. In the modern world, about two thirds of the earth is covered with water, so this would raise the water level by about a hundred fifty feet. Global warming advocates say the melting of the polar icecaps could raise the water levels by about six feet. Think how much more serious raising it by a hundred fifty feet would be, even with modern topography. Knowing the serious flash flooding a single localized inch of rainfall can cause here in New Mexico, I really wouldn’t want to be there.

In addition, scripture tells us, “the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up.” Literally, the vast underground reservoirs of water that now supply most of our water were emptied. This would cause me to expect settling of large areas of land to squeeze out the water. We have no idea how much water is actually trapped under the earth’s skin. There is no way of guessing how much the water level was raised by this, but the breaking up of the fountains and collapsing into the voids would have caused landslides and earthquakes. Many things would have been trapped in such conditions. The rapid trapping and inundation with mineral laden water explains the vast number of fossils we find here on the earth.

Since living material, in wet conditions, tends to rot very quickly, the presence of fossils indicates a rapid covering and solidification of the sediments around it before the material had an opportunity to decay. From developing means of preserving wood and other things we have learned that very high concentrations of minerals and high pressures amust be applied before the wood has a chance to dry to attain maximum penetration. Petrified trees had to be inundated almost immediately to enable petrifaction. The very existence of fossils is scientifically more indicative of a flood than of evolution.

Historic Geology dates rocks based on the types of fossils found in them. If the world has existed for millions of years, and that life evolved a step at a time, the it is logical that rocks containing the earliest fossils would be the oldest rocks. It would also be logical to assume they would be most commonly found beneath the newer rocks. That a nearly exact opposite organization is found in many areas, in some cases covering many square miles is more indicative of a rapid flooding and erosion trapping various organisms than of a prolonged evolution.

Near Glen Rose Texas, fossilized footprints of dinosaurs and humans have been found in the same strata of rock, sometimes overlapping each other. It is unlikely that sediment soft enough to have retained a dinosaur track could have retained it for millions of years while remaining soft enough to take a human imprint. They had to be made within a couple of days of each other, clearly indicating that there were no millions of years of evolution between the extinction of the dinosaurs and the evolution of humanity. The Creation Research Center has shown that most of the scientific evidence offers more support for creation than for evolution.

When Mount St. Helens erupted, a careful study of the effects and results was conducted. Ten years later the same scientists returned to see what changes had occurred. At least one of the geologists became convinced that the times claimed by historical geology were unfounded, after finding that some of the wood had already been turned to coal and various other fossilization and conversion events. As a result, he became convinced of the accuracy of the biblical record.

Hydrological engineers tell us that all of the geological formations supposedly indicating at least seven ice ages could easily have been the result of a single world wide flood, eliminating any basis for many millions of years of supposed existence for the earth.

Ultimately, there is as much or more evidence for creation as there is for evolution. Whichever one chooses to believe is a matter of faith. It indicates our underlying attitude toward God. I have not proven creation to be true, but neither has science proven evolution. I doubt that either can be proven empirically, so I have just tried to present enough to show there is evidence for both sides, For more evidence I would suggest some of the various books by the Creation Research Center as a starting point, but ultimately you will have to choose which you believe.

If it occurred, and I believe it did, the flood was the largest single geological event since the creation of the world. That almost every ancient culture has some legend relating to it indicates that something significant happened, even if it is, as some anthropologists insist, just an adaptation of the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. They still had to have had contact with people who carried it from Babylon at some point, and that they remembered it implies they took it seriously. Almost every legend has some sort of basis in fact, though it may be vastly distorted. The fact that they have become mythological does not destroy the original basis, although it may conceal it. Anyone who has played the game “Gossip”, can understand how the details may be distorted.