I was always at odds with my dad over the Bible. He refused to believe the Bible seriously, and he was somewhat shocked that I did. He knew I was a Christian, but he didn't think that I believed the Bible literally.
One day about four years ago, when he learned that I seriously did believe the Bible literally, he looked at me incredulously, and drew in his eyebrows, and in a lowered voice said, "Do you actually believe in the flood?"
And I said, "Sure, I have no problem with it."
My dad straightened up and scolded me (I was 40 years old and he was 76), and shook his head, and said, "God gave you a brain... use it! Think! Where did all the water come from? Where did it go?" And then he said, "It hurts me that you should choose to believe such nonsense."
My dad passed away about a year later, and I'll remember that day for the rest of my life. I think about it, but I am not ashamed. I think about the alternative that he would have had me believe: that pagan, communist, atheistic view of old earth, uniform geology, gradual evolution of one species into another, with no explanation at all of how dead, inanimate matter, forms living cells, with enough knowledge to eat, digest food, expel waste, and reproduce before it dies. And he thinks my convictions are nonsensical?
I have no problem believing in a six day creation and a young earth. I have no problem believing in the flood.
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
- Matthew 24:37-39
Jesus Christ believes in the flood: why shouldn't I? He's my Saviour; he bought my body and soul with his own blood. I am not my own; I was bought for a price (1Cor 6:19-20). He rose from the dead, and shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. (Acts 1:3) Why shouldn't I believe what he believes?
Biblical miracles should simply be accepted as fact. In the case of the flood, which was known to have annihilated all life on earth, it is certainly implied to have been a geological cataclysm.
Now the world is willing to admit that a geological cataclysm did occur some time in the past, and they'll readily attribute it to a meteorite collision, or something like that.
Some folks assume that the flood was local. One notion that I heard was that Gibraltar closed off the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea, and the latter was significantly below sea level. Civilization of the time was built up along the existing Mediterranean shore. When Gibraltar gave way to the sea pressure, the whole area as massively flooded. However, this does not fulfill the Bible definition that the entire earth was flooded and everything that had the breath of life upon the dry land died.
It is reasonable to have an opinion of what actually happened in the flood. This is my opinion.
First of all, we take the Genesis account given in the KJV 1611 as literal fact, word for word.
Secondly, remember that in Genesis 1 it is the dry land that is called earth;
9 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.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
- Genesis 1:9-10
Third, I do not believe that mountains, peaks, and cliffs existed in the pre-flood world as we know them today. Notice this verse,
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
- Isaiah 40:4
Fourth, remember that the flood was a damning judgment upon the earth, as part of the curse upon the earth. So things are made crooked; valleys are made, mountains are formed.
One might wonder about natural hazards in Adam's day, such as falling from a cliff. I don't think there were any cliffs around.
Where did all the water come from? We know that.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
If you don't believe in windows in heaven, then you'll be trampled by a hungry mob;
19 And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
20 And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.
- 2Kings 7:19-20
So we'll just take the water source as a given. But where did it go?
13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
- Gen 8:13-14
So where did the water go? Well who says it went anywhere? I am perfectly satisfied to believe that it is all still here.
Putting the pieces together now, my opinion is that before the flood there were much shallower oceans, and one super continent with rolling meadows and hills, and not overly high above sea level. The flood covered the highest mountains, but who said Mt. Everest was even there? How do you know the highest mountain of the time was barely 5,000 feet above sea level?
So God drops enough water on the planet to raise the ocean levels sufficiently to cover all of the dry land. He breaks open the fountains of the great deep, and under the flood waters, breaks up that continental mass.
Once all life is destroyed and God has accomplished his judgment, he reshapes new continents, raising continental shelves high enough to break the higher water surface. One of the effects of doing this is a rapid formation of new mountains: growing at a rate of several feet per day before stabilizing at their near present heights.
This is a reasonable assumption, since the goal was to delay the depravity of man sufficiently to accomplish his purpose in redemption. When man made another attempt to unify himself, God confused the languages and scattered man over the whole earth. He now had continents separated by vast oceans to keep man separated long enough.
Then he went looking for a friend with whom to make a covenant. That man turned out to be a Shemite named Abraham, and the promise would go through his son of promise, Isaac, born not in bondage, but in freedom. And then to Jacob, renamed Israel, and on to his twelve sons. The Messiah would then come through Judah.
You see, it's perfectly simple. Haven't you ever gone to the beach and played in the very shallow water. Haven't you reached into an inch or two of water and pushed up a mound of sand so that it formed an island, and you saw the exposed sand begin to dry out? Is it so hard to believe that God did that with continental shelves?
Is it so hard to believe that plate tectonics, continental drift, faults, earthquakes, volcanoes, and the mid-Atlantic ridge, are all by-products of the geological cataclysm behind the flood?
It all makes sense to me, and I am satisfied that it fits the Bible account.
Now I don't argue this point with other Christians. I may not be right. The geological particulars are not given. All I have here is an explanation - an opinion of what I think actually happened.
One day about four years ago, when he learned that I seriously did believe the Bible literally, he looked at me incredulously, and drew in his eyebrows, and in a lowered voice said, "Do you actually believe in the flood?"
And I said, "Sure, I have no problem with it."
My dad straightened up and scolded me (I was 40 years old and he was 76), and shook his head, and said, "God gave you a brain... use it! Think! Where did all the water come from? Where did it go?" And then he said, "It hurts me that you should choose to believe such nonsense."
My dad passed away about a year later, and I'll remember that day for the rest of my life. I think about it, but I am not ashamed. I think about the alternative that he would have had me believe: that pagan, communist, atheistic view of old earth, uniform geology, gradual evolution of one species into another, with no explanation at all of how dead, inanimate matter, forms living cells, with enough knowledge to eat, digest food, expel waste, and reproduce before it dies. And he thinks my convictions are nonsensical?
I have no problem believing in a six day creation and a young earth. I have no problem believing in the flood.
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
- Matthew 24:37-39
Jesus Christ believes in the flood: why shouldn't I? He's my Saviour; he bought my body and soul with his own blood. I am not my own; I was bought for a price (1Cor 6:19-20). He rose from the dead, and shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. (Acts 1:3) Why shouldn't I believe what he believes?
Biblical miracles should simply be accepted as fact. In the case of the flood, which was known to have annihilated all life on earth, it is certainly implied to have been a geological cataclysm.
Now the world is willing to admit that a geological cataclysm did occur some time in the past, and they'll readily attribute it to a meteorite collision, or something like that.
Some folks assume that the flood was local. One notion that I heard was that Gibraltar closed off the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea, and the latter was significantly below sea level. Civilization of the time was built up along the existing Mediterranean shore. When Gibraltar gave way to the sea pressure, the whole area as massively flooded. However, this does not fulfill the Bible definition that the entire earth was flooded and everything that had the breath of life upon the dry land died.
It is reasonable to have an opinion of what actually happened in the flood. This is my opinion.
First of all, we take the Genesis account given in the KJV 1611 as literal fact, word for word.
Secondly, remember that in Genesis 1 it is the dry land that is called earth;
9 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.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
- Genesis 1:9-10
Third, I do not believe that mountains, peaks, and cliffs existed in the pre-flood world as we know them today. Notice this verse,
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
- Isaiah 40:4
Fourth, remember that the flood was a damning judgment upon the earth, as part of the curse upon the earth. So things are made crooked; valleys are made, mountains are formed.
One might wonder about natural hazards in Adam's day, such as falling from a cliff. I don't think there were any cliffs around.
Where did all the water come from? We know that.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
If you don't believe in windows in heaven, then you'll be trampled by a hungry mob;
19 And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
20 And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.
- 2Kings 7:19-20
So we'll just take the water source as a given. But where did it go?
13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
- Gen 8:13-14
So where did the water go? Well who says it went anywhere? I am perfectly satisfied to believe that it is all still here.
Putting the pieces together now, my opinion is that before the flood there were much shallower oceans, and one super continent with rolling meadows and hills, and not overly high above sea level. The flood covered the highest mountains, but who said Mt. Everest was even there? How do you know the highest mountain of the time was barely 5,000 feet above sea level?
So God drops enough water on the planet to raise the ocean levels sufficiently to cover all of the dry land. He breaks open the fountains of the great deep, and under the flood waters, breaks up that continental mass.
Once all life is destroyed and God has accomplished his judgment, he reshapes new continents, raising continental shelves high enough to break the higher water surface. One of the effects of doing this is a rapid formation of new mountains: growing at a rate of several feet per day before stabilizing at their near present heights.
This is a reasonable assumption, since the goal was to delay the depravity of man sufficiently to accomplish his purpose in redemption. When man made another attempt to unify himself, God confused the languages and scattered man over the whole earth. He now had continents separated by vast oceans to keep man separated long enough.
Then he went looking for a friend with whom to make a covenant. That man turned out to be a Shemite named Abraham, and the promise would go through his son of promise, Isaac, born not in bondage, but in freedom. And then to Jacob, renamed Israel, and on to his twelve sons. The Messiah would then come through Judah.
You see, it's perfectly simple. Haven't you ever gone to the beach and played in the very shallow water. Haven't you reached into an inch or two of water and pushed up a mound of sand so that it formed an island, and you saw the exposed sand begin to dry out? Is it so hard to believe that God did that with continental shelves?
Is it so hard to believe that plate tectonics, continental drift, faults, earthquakes, volcanoes, and the mid-Atlantic ridge, are all by-products of the geological cataclysm behind the flood?
It all makes sense to me, and I am satisfied that it fits the Bible account.
Now I don't argue this point with other Christians. I may not be right. The geological particulars are not given. All I have here is an explanation - an opinion of what I think actually happened.
Creation vs. evolution is such a controversial topic. I am glad to see that as a believer, you chose creation.
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