The Great Flood

Paul Wong

In California there is an interesting place called Round Mountain Silt Area which is located on the northeastern outskirts of Bakersfield, the city where our family had lived for seven years (1973-1980). This place contains the largest assemblage of fish and marine mammals from the Miocene era in the WORLD. Paleontologists, who are experts on the study of life in prehistoric times by using fossil evidence, believe that area was covered by sea water millions of years ago. The reason they make that assumption is because they have discovered fossilized sharks there. That location is also called "Shark Tooth Hill".  Since the kinds of sharks found “belong” to a certain stratum that is assigned to the Miocene period that covers five to twenty three million years ago, they reasoned that area must have been a sea at one time.

There is another explanation for the existence of the fossilized sharks in the Round Mountain Silt Area. The Holy Bible tells us there was a global flood during the time of Noah and all the mountains were covered by water.

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The depth and duration of the Flood

The tops of all the high mountains under the entire heavens were at least 20 feet beneath the waters surface (Gen. 7:19-20). It would be absurd to think that a flood covering the highest mountains of the Middle East would not affect the rest of the world. In addition, the waters remained at this awesome, mountain-covering height for five months! (Gen. 7:18-24, 8:1-5). A year-long mountain-covering flood is not a local flood but a global one.

Physical Causes for the Flood

The Bible explains that the breaking open of "all the fountains of the great deep" and the "windows of heaven" (Gen. 7:11) were the primary causes. The "deep" refers to the ocean; thus the "great deep" could refer to the vast oceans of the world. The "windows of heaven" seem to refer to the "waters above the (atmospheric) firmament" (Gen. 1:7). These were global causes, producing a global effect.

The Need for an Ark

Noah was given many years of warning, long enough to walk anywhere on earth. The animals also would have lived globally and so could have migrated anywhere. There was no need for an Ark if the flood was local.

The Ark's size, big enough to carry two (or seven for some) of each land-dwelling, air-breathing animal, testifies for a global flood. Building such a huge ship for a local flood for which there was ample warning would be ludicrous.

Destruction of All Mankind

The primary purpose of the flood was to destroy sinful mankind. While the earth's pre-flood population is not given, reasonable assumptions based on Biblical data for average family size, life spans, and age of parent at time of first-born yield a sizable. The earth was “corrupt before God” and "filled with violence" (Gen. 6:11-13) would indicate an earth filled with people. Only a global flood could have accomplished its primary purpose.

Not only were violent inhabitants under condemnation, the earth itself was to be destroyed (Gen. 6:13). The word for "earth" was the same word as used in the creation account (Gen. 1:1). Surely it means the planet, not just a local area.

Promise of No More Floods

At the end of the flood God promised that there would never again be such a flood (Gen. 9:15). But there have been many floods, even regional floods, especially in the Mesopotamian area since Noah's day. If this was merely a local flood, then God broke His promise, and the rainbow covenant means nothing.

Testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ

Our Lord compared the days prior to the flood to the End Time which is immediately prior His Second Coming. He reminded us that "the flood came and destroyed them all" (Luke 17:27). The coming judgment will be similarly extensive. If the flood in Noah's day was local, people living outside the area survived, even though they, too, were sinners. This gives great hope to end-time sinners. Will they be able to escape the coming fiery judgment on sin?

The Testimony of Peter

The apostle Peter also wrote of the coming judgment of the entire heavens and earth (2 Pet. 3:10-12). He based his argument on the historical facts that the creation was of the entire earth (v.5) and that the flood overflowed the entire earth (v.6), causing it to perish. If the flood was only local, does this imply that only a portion of the earth will "melt with fervent heat" (v.10)?

Furthermore, the entire creation will be fully renewed, replaced by "a new heavens and a new earth" (v.13). This shows the Great Flood was global. 

May God bless you

For comments please write first to: ark@pdq.net

Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the President of ARK International.
His ministry also serves as an architectural service company in Houston.
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