30th June: Noah’s Flood

Speaker: Duncan Wyncoll

Widely derided as fiction, this momentous event, recorded in Scripture, remains the only explanation for much in our world

Introduction
·         A fairy tale children’s story - But 150 years ago a ‘supernatural, catastrophic, worldwide event’, upheld by scientists. Now a ‘post-Truth’ world
·         You’d think, ‘vast scale perhaps more believable’ – New Orleans, SE Asian & Japanese Tsunami
·         Dr Hugh Ross – Canadian Astronomer, ‘Reasons to Believe’ ministry, Beyond the Cosmos, Creation & Time, The Genesis Question – all argue for Old earth view & local flood. 

Good reasons – we don’t have to resort to an endless supply of miracles…
1.    ¾ of earth’s surface is sedimentary rock
2.    Numerous flood traditions e.g. Aborigines, Islam
3.    Taught in Bible (at least x6 in NT)- we mustn’t despise the word of God; Scripture is often proven to be write E.g. Ur
4.    Christ taught it

Genesis 6.12-15 – What was the ark like? Wouldn’t a flood destroy an ark?
A)   Ark was 150 x 25 x 15 meters – twice the size of the tabernacle
B)   Equivalent volume to 500 double-decker railway trucks
C)   Incredible design & dimensions
-      Not built for sailing but a highly stable barge
-      Most liners 8:1. Ark’s ratio 6:1, optimum ratio for stability – Korean engineers
D)   Only exceeded in 1884 by I.K.Brunel. ‘Great Eastern’ & ‘Great Britain’
(If just a ‘story’ – Moses’ scientific accuracy remarkable…)

Genesis 6.17 (also 7.4 & 7.19-23) - Universal or Local flood?
Was it just the known world? If so…
·         Why build an ark? – 100 years to build – Why not just move house?
·         Why move the animals if it was a local flood? Why put the birds on board?
·         Covered all the mountains, scripture says ‘all’ repeatedly
·         Hebrew word ‘kol’ – double all
·         Bible uses unique words for Noah’s flood – Hebrew; Kataklusmos
·         How could it have covered just the local mountains? Water finds its own level – remember the flood went on for a year. Smaller mountains at that time??
·         If local, then people further afield would have escaped God’s judgement – but Christ said it was on all men!
·         1,650 years from Creation to the flood – it was no ‘local’ population

Matthew 24.37 – ‘but as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating & drinking, marrying & giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, & knew not until the flood came as took them all away’
·         God would have broken his promise of no flood – Genesis 9:11-16
·         All the ancient writers/church fathers say it was Global – Josephus, Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch, Chrysostom, Augustine
·         Uniformitarianism/Evolutionism prophesied! In…

2 Peter 3.3-7 – ‘Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, & saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, & the earth standing out of the water & in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water; perished: But the heavens & the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgement & perdition of ungodly men’ 

Genesis 6.19-21 - How could every kind of animal get into the ark?
·         Land animals & birds only
·         Ernst Mayr (an evolutionist) – estimates there’s about 1 million species
·         Exclude the fish, amphibians, plants, (seeds would survive – proven by Darwin!) worms, insects, bacteria etc ®
·         <20,000 species of animals & birds (<40,000 individuals)
·         It’s estimated ‘Ark could easily fit 125,000 sheep’
·         Obviously young animals – small, longer life ahead, average size that of a rat
·         For dinosaurs/reptiles – they could have taken eggs…
·         One of each kind e.g. one kind of dog ® any dog would do
·         It was dark, just one window ® some have speculated a “hibernation/aestivation state”?

Genesis 7.7-9 – How could Noah have collected all the animals?
·         Noah didn’t gather all the animals – God did!
·         Noah was merely instructed to gather food & ‘admit animals’
·         Land masses were joined, hence all kinds of animal were everywhere
·         Faint echo of this, when animals seem aware of danger – happens in Tsunamis’
·         What about food (<12% volume of ark), water (<10%), bedding & waste?

Genesis 7.11-12 & Gen 8.2 – Where did all the water come from?
·         Genesis 2.5,6. ?No rain on the earth - merely mists. (& no rainbows?)
·         All present clouds would only add 5 cm to sea level
·         Melting of the polar ice caps would add about 30m
Fountains of the deep & windows (floodgates) of heaven
·         ?Greenhouse effect – Climate much more uniform – warm over entire planet
In a catastrophic plate tectonics model, volcanic activity associated with the breaking up of the pre-flood ocean floor ® a linear geyser (like a wall) of superheated steam from the ocean, causing intense global rain
·         ?Radiation shield - Ages dropped dramatically after the flood. Compare pre & post deluge

Genesis 7.6 – the people had great longevity then!
·         Noah was 600 years old – conditions were very different before the flood
·         Something profound happens – much more than meets the eye!

Also Earth must have been formed differently
·         There must have been an addition of water at the time of the flood
·         Almost certainly the earth prior to flood was flatter (less peaks & troughs)
·         Catastrophic (Rapid) plate tectonics, consistent with Young Earth Creation view
·         Global upheaval ® earth’s crust collapses/develops & water drains away

Eg: Krakatoa. Explosion heard 3,000 miles away, 130 ft tsunami, 330mph

Where did all the water go?
Psalm 104.5-9
·         Water receded into the oceans. Deposited as ice/snow at the poles
·         Mountains ascend - now higher post-deluge than pre, & valleys descend
·         Deepest parts of the oceans are greater than 36,000 feet – Blue Planet series

Genesis 8.14 – ‘& in the 2nd month, on the 7 & 20th day of the month. Was the earth dried.’
·         Lasted just over one year (371 days)
·         Total change of the Earth’s landscape – new climate
·         With Appearance or Illusion of being old

Don’t be fearful about believing in Creation: Go on the offensive!
1.    Explain the formation of coal in Antarctica? (no vegetation; heat required)
2.    Observation of trees through seams of coal
3.    How do you explain the fossils? Very rarely formed today, yet fossil graveyards
4.    Estimated millions of mammoths in Siberia & Alaska? (with tropical plants in their mouths – Darwin had no solution)
5.    Palm leaves, with fish/animals in Wyoming, rhinos & camels in Nebraska
6.    What’s the explanation of the Grand Canyon? Colorado river one mile above sea level. Layered over time with erosion? or short-term deposition & rapid erosion?
7.    How do you explain the universal flood traditions all over the world?

What an amazing catastrophe!
Some scientists won’t accept this explanation - although more logical/reasonable
Common problem in other areas of life – outright unbelief & opposition to God
·         Noah’s sermon – building a ship on dry land - scoffing, indifference
·         120 yrs of warning, God didn’t want revenge, but nobody turned – Our lifelong obstinacy
Romans 3.10 – ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’ – God must change us
·         How desperate they must have been to get into the ark when the rain started…

Conclusion
2 Peter 3.9-13 – ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’