Understanding Noah's Flood (The Great Deluge)... For "Dummies"
Just as the "For Dummies" series attempts to teach complicated subjects on an elementary level, we have attempted the same to help people of all faiths--as well as those with no faith--to know enough about Noah's Flood to decide for themselves whether they want to believe that the Great Deluge recorded in the Christian Bible ever took place. Scientific terms are avoided as much as possible.Fossils! Fossils! Fossils!
There are literally billions of fossils all over Earth. So many that some museums simply do not want to accept any more. The presence of billions--some say trillions--of fossils is extremely significant. Why? Because a fossil is the preservation of what was once alive at least 10,000 years ago... in the eyes of those who believe Earth has been around at least that long. In any event, fossils are preserved forms of life, many with such detail that they could be called detailed "drawings" or snapshots of ancient life.
A good reason to start with the significance of so many fossils everywhere in the world is the fact that preservation of the dead is NOT the norm. Instead of preservation, God orders DECOMPOSITION after death, and a return back to the dust. We read, "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts... All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20).
Becoming a fossil requires unusual conditions that just aren't normally present. Therefore, the worldwide presence of billions of fossils is the tangible evidence of a deviation from that norm. So, when we contemplate whether Noah's flood actually took place, let us start with asking: What caused so much preservation of the dead all over the world instead of the normal, God-ordered decomposition and return to the dust after death?
Marine Fossils On Mountain Tops! But That's Not Evidence Of Noah's Flood?
"No, it is not!", comes the answer from evolutionists. So, let's consider these quick, easy-to-understand facts: Marine fossils have been found in mountains on all seven continents. Sharks and octopuses in the Rocky Mountains. Whales, sharks and penguins at 12,000 feet in the Andes. Sharks in the Appalachian Mountains. And the list could go on. Marine fossils have even been found as high as at the peaks. What we're really talking about is a global graveyard where massive death occurred. Many creatures died rapidly. While that might sound like the evidence that silences all arguments against The Great Deluge, evolutionists have an answer: "That does not mean water rose during a global flood so high that it covered even the peaks of mountains. Instead, layers of sediment continued to build up near the shores of a shallow ancient sea. The ground of those shores then started to push up, which created mountains. So, mountains are nothing but 'pushed up sea shores'. The marine fossils found on them is evidence that those mountains were once under the sea. The sea did not rise above the mountains, but rather the mountains rose up out of the seas."
That statement is one of many that should actually strengthen belief in the divine inspiration behind the Christian Bible. Indeed parts of the seashore were pushed up into mountains. Perhaps some were lower mountains that were pushed up higher. Perhaps some were newly formed. In any event, the Bible agrees with this. We read, "Who laid the foundations... They (the foundations) go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys..." (Psalm 104:5,8). The word "by" does not mean "next to". It is referring to ground pushing up into mountains. The Living Bible Paraphrased 1971 puts it in a plainer language: "You spoke, and at the sound of your shout the water collected into its vast ocean beds, and mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed".
We really should ask ourselves how the psalmist knew geology around 3,000 years ago? It cannot be argued that he is describing seabed becoming mountains through upward movement. It wasn't until the 1960s that scientists leaned of plate tectonics, which is what the psalmist describes. And this is not the only biblical passage that is in perfect agreement with geology and other natural sciences. Now then, if those marine fossils in Earth's mountains didn't come from the oceans rising above the highest mountains, doesn't that mean there's no way to prove there was a global flood whose waters rose as high as some mountains? No, it does not.
On all seven continents there are sedimentary rock layers. For simplicity, let's just call them rock layers. They are literally layers of rock in which millions of fossils are found. These layers are not seashore pushed up into mountains. They are layers formed by gargantuan violent ocean waves (tsunamis) washing over land, and depositing a layer of sediment. One of those structures is the Colorado Plateau where a plethora of marine fossils are found as high as 9,000 feet. And these structures range from 350 - 1,500 miles in length. Now, if all those rock layers we see on all seven continents were formed by the ocean overflowing land within the same time period... as much as within a single year, that would be nothing less than a global flood. A worldwide catastrophe.
There is no way around this truth. Therefore, evolutionists must resort to changing time to make it appear that this flooding over the land occurred in stages over millions of years. If we say that there are millions of years between the formation of a sedimentary rock layer, we avoid having to admit that we have evidence of Noah's Flood. And this is where very problematic dating methods, such as radiometric dating, come in. We don't need a degree in science to know something is terribly flawed with this method. To put it in simple terms, scientists must make assumptions about the layers of rock they are dating when employing this method. They then based their findings on their assumptions, which have provided erroneous dates on a number of occasions. Why must they make assumptions? Because they are not eyewitnesses to the global flood. Since no one alive is an eyewitness, no one should make the assumptions they are making. Everyone should stick to the physical evidence still around today, because those fossils, rock layers and other structures speak to us about their past. What is it that we can see that should lead us away from even entertaining the thought that there are millions of years between those rock layers filled with marine fossils?
First, they are sometimes called "pancake" layers, because they are virtually flat. One stacked on top of the other... like pancakes. That is significant. If there were millions of years between the layers, where is the vast erosion that would represent that amount of time? Wouldn't that be enough time to erode completely away? Yes. But the fact is, the layers are still here, and can be visually inspected. They are still virtually flat. One on top of the other. So, saying that there simply are no signs of millions of years is not an assumption. It's a verifiable fact. We all know what erosion is. Next, we ask ourselves why we don't see the erosion we should see if millions of years have passed. Answer: There was no time for erosion. There was a global catastrophe that didn't allow for enough time to be eroded away. This is not an assumption. We have "pictures" of a catastrophe in the fossil record.
The fossils in those rock layers all over the world tell us a worldwide catastrophe indeed occurred. Many of the fossilized animals died rapidly. Some might have died almost instantly as we see fossils of animals that died while giving birth. Fossils show prey in the mouth of their predator. Both die together. The hunter and the hunted dying together indicates virtually instant death. Entire schools of fish died in simultaneous motion. Octopus fossils show ink sacs still intact. Those sacs start to break down within hours after death. Some are shown with tentacles spread, in a natural living position. Insects are fossilized with their wings spread, still in flight. Jellyfish--which also appear in the fossil record--melt into slime in under twenty-four hours after death... unless buried alive. Clearly something catastrophic was going on worldwide. Noah's flood was not just about it raining for forty days and nights. Genesis 7:11 also tells us "the fountains of the great deep were broken up." The "great deep" is the abyss. The floor of the ocean.
Now, it should strike us strange that the Bible would describe what it took man thousands of years to discover: That there is massive amounts of water under the ocean floor. And that there were explosions on the sea floor in the past. Modern scientists admit that they know there is water under the sea floor, and that there were violent explosions that tore up part of the seafloor. The water under the sea mixed with the water of the shallower ancient oceans, which mixed with the rain. There is no wonder water covered even the mountain tops. Our wonder should be how the author of Genesis knew there is water under the ocean floor, and that there were seafloor explosions. That points directly to knowledge by divine inspiration.
It makes absolutely no sense to attempt to separate those rock layers deposited by ocean waves rushing over land by millions of years. They happened within a single year. No one can deny the fossils that are worldwide, and that they are snapshots of a global catastrophe. Catastrophic times in nature have shown even the modern world repeatedly, and in no uncertain terms, that we cannot trust what evolutionists tell us about time, and certainly not when there is a catastrophe.
Mount St. Helens: Little Grand Canyon Was Carved In A Day!
Scientists who believe in evolution told us the rock layers of the Grand Canyon needed 1.8 billion to 270 million years to form. The canyon itself, 5-6 million years. But, in 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted, and that "small" catastrophe cut a canyon system up to 140 feet deep, of which the most famous is Little Grand Canyon. Only three years were needed to deepen the canyon to 140 feet. Geologists explained that the canyon system and rock layers could form so quickly, because of the soft sediment and lots of water. And would not Noah's flood have provided soft sediment and loads of water?! Never should we even entertain the idea of trusting evolutionists' dating methods, which can't even come within one millennium of being correct. What is more is that the formation of the Little Grand Canyon is only one of a number of contemporary examples of the deception of evolution theory and so-called scientific calculations of time.
Coal, Varves and Sand Dunes Do Not Prove Millions Of Years Either
Scientists point out that the presence of coal, varves and layers made from sand dunes in the flat rock layers prove time lapses of millions of years, since those things take millions of years to form. We really need not trouble ourselves learning what coal, varves and sand dunes are. We've seen enough to know that evolutionists play with time in order to deceive. To simplify it all, the eruption of Mount St. Helens taught us that structures that supposedly need millions and billions of years can form in a matter of a day to a few years.
As for coal, the break up of the super continent, also known as Pangea, had to have involved ripping up entire forests, and burying them in the sedimentary layers.
Pangea: Super Continent Of The Ancient World
We know the pre-flood world was one super continent. Geologists have found the same animal on all seven continents. Lystrosaurus, a small dinosaur, was found in Brazil in South America, but also found in South Africa. The lystrosaurus could neither swim nor fly. How then did he get from South America to Africa... or vice versa? Fossils of crocodiles have been found at the north pole. There are fossilized palm leaves and crocodiles in Canada. And forests have been found under two miles of ice.
Again, we find that the Bible records this information thousands of years before it was discovered. We read, "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth..." (Genesis 1:9-10)
Misconceptions About The Animals On Noah's Ark
An often quoted argument against the validity of Noah's ark is that it would have been impossible to take even one pair of every species of animals on board the ship. First, how would he catch them? Second, there's no way over a million animals could have been housed on that ark.
Bible-believing scientists continually remind us that Noah did not capture any animals. Scripture plainly tells us that God sent them to him. We read, "Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive." (Genesis 6:20). God sent the animals to Noah.
Thank God for these Christian scientists who also remind us that the Bible says the Lord sent a pair of each "kind" of animal, not a pair from each "species". Huge difference! God did not send a male and a female tiger, a male and female leopard, a lion and a lioness, a male and female cheetah, a male and female lynx etc. No. Those are species of the cat kind (family). Their kind is the feline family. He sent only one male and one female animal that was a feline. Which feline? We do not know, and it does not matter. The pair of animals was feline. The same can be said for the canine kind/family, and for all the rest of the animals: Not two wolves, two coyotes, two German Shepherds, etc. but rather one male and one female canine. From the one couple of each kind branched the vast number of species we see today. Each species remaining within his kind (family).
But evolutionists claim that speciation (one kind branching into various species) takes thousands to millions of years. If Noah's flood only happened a little more than 4,000 years ago, how did we get so many species today? It has been proven that speciation is not a thousands-to-millions-of-years process. We leave the sharing of that evidence to the brilliantly written article: The Case for Rapid Speciation
What Is the Big Deal Over Noah's Flood?
A final worldwide destruction is coming for the same reason Noah's flood occurred: Worldwide unrighteousness and violence to which the God of Israel is going to put a final end. When we open our eyes to the truth of the global flood of Noah's day, we have time to repent of our unrighteousness in preparation for the coming global judgment of fire. We read, "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men... the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (2 Peter 3:7,10)
Jesus speaks of the world being as it was in the days of Noah when that judgment comes, which is when He comes (Matthew 24:37-39).
What kind of fire will that be that will burn up a planet whose surface is more than 70% water, and with oceans still remaining under its oceans!
"For our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:23)