Biblegems #191
Question: Why are so many skeptical of the
biblical account of a global flood and the geological evidence that supports it?
Skeptics of
the Global Flood generally cite these 3 arguments:
1) The Global Flood belief is based on only two “mythological”
passages in Scripture, Genesis 7:2-3, and Genesis 7:11-12.
2) Biblical Flood theories are all invented to support the
Global Flood belief.
3) Geological evidence supporting the Global Flood is thin,
pseudo-scientific and unconvincing.
Let’s look
at each of these in turn.
Argument #1 is wildly incorrect on two counts.
“Myth”
The Flood
account in Genesis does not fit the dictionary definition of a “myth.”[i]
While
approximately 270 cultures around the world have maintained a memory of the
Flood, and most of these have taken on a mythological nature, Genesis is unique
in that it is a carefully recorded eyewitness account, including specific names,
dates, duration, locations, materials used in constructing the ark, pre- and
post-Flood conditions, etc. These are details intended to locate the
catastrophic Flood historically for the sake of future generations.
Only 2 Flood References
Genesis
chapters 6-8 contains a wealth of information describing the dynamics of the
Flood event, including conditions prior to, and after the Flood itself. The Bible
contains many other references as well, not only to the Flood but to the pre-Flood
environment. Here is just a sample: Gen. 1:1-2, 9-10;
Job 22:16; Psalm 90:5; Isaiah 54:9; Matthew 24:38;
Luke 17:26, 27; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:5.
Argument #2, “Invented”
Flood Theories, is also incorrect.
All
the information from which the Flood related theories are developed have their
basis in the Bible. The best theories are developed from the clear, unforced
evidence in Scripture then tested against geological and other pertinent
evidence in nature and history. For example, the hydroplate theory is one
possible interpretation of Genesis 7:11-12:
“In
the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second
month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the
floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days
and forty nights.”
Understanding this as a reference to a pre-Flood layer of water lying
beneath the earth’s mantle has further biblical support. Genesis 1:2, 6-10 and
2 Peter 2:5 describe the earth at its creation being completely covered in
water, from which the dry ground emerged as one land mass, with water beneath.
This underground ocean of water suddenly and catastrophically burst through the
mantle. This is the clear, “face value” meaning of the words. Massive
earthquakes shifted the tectonic plates, creating our present-day continents,
mountain ranges, canyons and deep ocean basins.
Argument
#3, Lack of Geological Evidence, is likewise incorrect. For example,
“An obvious indication of global
water activity is the very existence of sedimentary rocks all over the world
which, by definition, were formed by the erosion, transportation, and
deposition of sediments by moving water with the sediments gradually converted
into stone after they had been deposited…” and “…the existence of fossils in
the sedimentary rocks. The depositional processes must have been rapid, or
fossils could not have been preserved in them.”[ii]
God’s Word is true and trustworthy, and the evidence is there for all who have eyes to
see.
Ps. 118:8
It is better to take refuge in the
LORD than to trust in man.
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