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Water, water everywhere …

by Stacia McKeever,Steve Cardno and Dan Lietha

Published in Creation 25(3):20–23, 2002

water-water-everywhere

About 4,300 years ago (around 2500 BC), God judged the continuing rebellion of the descendants of Adam by covering the Earth with water. Amazingly, we can still observe and experience the effects of this judgment today!

Today, the Earth’s land mass is made up of seven continents. Many creationist scientists suggest it hasn’t always been that way—they think that in the beginning there was just one major land mass (look up Genesis 1:9–10). They suggest that when the ‘fountains of the great deep’ burst open at the beginning of the Flood (Genesis 7:11), this ‘super-continent’ broke apart. With water continuing to pour out from the Earth’s crust, the pieces of land moved to their present locations in a matter of months.

evidence-of-the-Flood

This smashing up of the land, and also bending and twisting pushed up huge mountain chains, such as the Himalayas, Alps, Andes and Rockies. (At the end of the Flood, the waters drained off the land as new ocean basins sank down.) Today, you can sometimes feel slight movements of the land during earthquakes and when volcanoes erupt.

While the waters were violently gushing and swirling all over the Earth, they dumped huge volumes of sediments (for example, lime, sand, clay and silt) in layers across the land. These sediments eventually hardened into rock. We can see some of these layers in places where the ground has been carved out (for example, down in Grand Canyon), or where roads have been cut through the mountains and hills. The floodwaters, filled with sediments, also ripped up plants and trees and trapped and buried lots of animals. Many of the fossils that we find around the world (from our own back yards to the top of Mt Everest) are the remains of creatures and plants that perished in the Flood—fish, frogs, ferns, dinosaurs, coral, whales, etc.

Since the purpose of the waters of that globe-covering Flood was to destroy the world that Noah and his family lived in (Genesis 6:13, 2 Peter 3:5–6), we wouldn’t expect to find much, if any, evidence of what the world was like before the Flood happened. For instance, we can’t know for sure where the Garden of Eden was located, nor has anyone found the remains of pre-Flood towns and cities.

Evidence of the Flood is all around us, and should serve to remind us of God’s judgment on the rebellion of the people of Noah’s day, as well as His coming judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Only byreceiving the free gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9) are we safe from that coming judgment and eternal separation from our Creator God.

Did you know … many secular scientists also believe that the continents split from one land mass? However, they believe it happened over many millions of years, rather than very quickly.

Noahs-ark

All aboard!

The Ark is the only known man-made vessel to have held the entire living human population of the Earth at one time! Genesis 7:13–23.

Noah and his family were on the Ark for one year and 11 days from the time the Ark door was shut until they came out.

Flood time

The age of the Earth when the Flood began: about 1,700 years.

How long ago was Noah’s Flood? About 4,300 years.

Noah’s Flood was not the worst ‘people killing’ event in Earth history! Many people died in the Flood; but the death of all people (past, present and future) is the result of another event—Adam’s sin in Eden! Romans 5:12–19.

Noah’s Flood was the second time the Earth was covered by water. The first time was at the start of Creation Week (Genesis 1:1–8).

How long did Noah have to build the Ark? Genesis suggests that he had around 100 years warning. He could well have been a wealthy man, using hired help. His sons probably helped him, too, once old enough. They were born after Noah was 500 years old, 100 years before the Flood (Genesis 5:32, 7:6).

The waters of Noah’s Flood covered the highest mountain (on Earth at that time) by 8 m (20 ft). Genesis 7:18–20.

Dinosaurs … on the Ark?!?

Dinosaurs-on-the-Ark

Because Noah found favour in the Lord’s sight, God chose to save him, his wife, his three sons and daughters-in-law from the watery judgment. God also chose to save representatives from the animal kingdom: a male and female of every kind of animal that breathed air through nostrils (Genesis 7:22) and lived on the land, or flew, and seven of the ‘clean’ land-dwelling and flying kinds. Seems like a lot of animals to fit onto a boat, doesn’t it?

Consider this …

First, scientists have calculated that there were probably around 16,000 individual animals on the Ark with Noah. Some estimate that over half of the animals on the Ark were smaller than a rat. Further, the Bible doesn’t say the animals were full-grown adults, so they could have been younger, smaller representatives. So even the very large types of dinosaurs (air-breathing, land-dwelling animals) didn’t have to be colossal giants, but instead could have been represented by younger ones that weren’t yet fully grown.

Second, God had Noah build the Ark large enough to hold the equivalent of 522 railroad stock cars (each of which could be filled with 240 sheep)! The Ark was so large, in fact, that it could have included:

  • 16,000 animals, plus cages,
  • drinking water for all on board,
  • food for animals and humans,
  • space for the animals and humans to exercise,
  • room for Noah and his family to have a place of their own.

The Ark wasn’t a luxury liner, but it accomplished its purpose of saving righteous Noah, his family and the animals God brought to it, from the watery disaster.

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