Was The Genesis Flood Local?

Over the years, there have been scientists and common man alike who cannot accept that the world was once all underwater, that it was covered by a Global Flood just a few thousand years ago. This topic has been briefly dealt with in past entries, but the time has come to fully address the question. (See series: Evidence for a Young Creation, NIV used in this entry, Photo credit to: Answers In Genesis, ECB Videolink)

Before getting into anything, we must first and foremost examine what Scripture tells us about this flood. Did God indicate a local flood - or does Scripture clearly indicate a global flood? God tells Noah in Genesis 6:17-18, "I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark - you, your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you."

God says in Genesis 7:4, [this is after Noah has built the Ark] "Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." The text goes on to describe Noah bringing every creature (save for water creatures) onto the ark. Genesis 7:17-22 may answer the question as to whether the flood was global or local.

"For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. [22 ft.] Every living thing that moved on the earth perished - birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and the entire human race. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died."

Genesis 7:23b concludes, "Only Noah was left, and those with him on the ark." Now, the floodwaters are as follows, "springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened." While many believe that a Water Vapor Canopy, which I once believed myself, after careful investigation, if the world had a Water Vapor Canopy, the World would become superheated and inhospitable for life. Some theories show that God may have sent actual rain from heaven, or any number of other things.

But what about the springs of the great deep? In previous entries I have mentioned this as underwater springs, but have not given much detail. Though these will be explored further in an upcoming series on the Flood, its evidence and what took place during the flood, the source was great subterranean pools of fresh water, which broke open due to volcanic and seismic activity. This water shot upwards, much coming out of what is now the Mid-Atlantic Ridge - and at the same time, dividing the continents, leaving the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as a sort of Flood-Scar.

Local Flood: Waters Covered The Mountains?

Now, after the waters had begun to recede and the mountaintops became visible, Noah sent out a raven, followed by a dove. "But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth." (Genesis 8:9) After dry land was found, the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. (Genesis 8:4) Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord, and God spoke to him.

"I will establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life by destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." He continues, "Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the Earth." (Genesis 9:11, 15-16) *Note: Some believe that God created the rainbow there and then as a sign. On the contrary, the rainbow was already in existence; this is not the only time God has used a pre-existing thing as a covenant. (Jesus used bread and wine to signify the New Covenant.)

We can determine that thus far, Scripture is clearly indicating a world-wide flood, not a local flood. Here are a few points to consider: (From Answers In Genesis)

• "If the Flood was local, why did Noah have to build an Ark? He could have walked to the other side of the mountains and missed it. 
• If the Flood was local, why did God send the animals to the Ark so they would escape death? There would have been other animals to reproduce that kind if these particular ones had died. 
• If the Flood was local, why was the Ark big enough to hold all kinds of land vertebrate animals that have ever existed? If only Mesopotamian animals were aboard, the Ark could have been much smaller. 
• If the Flood was local, why would birds have been sent on board? These could simply have winged across to a nearby mountain range. 
• If the Flood was local, how could the waters rise to 15 cubits (8 meters [22 ft]) above the mountains (Genesis 7:20)? Water seeks its own level. It couldn’t rise to cover the local mountains while leaving the rest of the world untouched. 
• If the Flood was local, people who did not happen to be living in the vicinity would not be affected by it. They would have escaped God’s judgment on sin. If this happened, what did Christ mean when He likened the coming judgment of all men to the judgment of ‘all’ men (Matthew 24:37–39) in the days of Noah? A partial judgment in Noah’s day means a partial judgment to come.
• If the Flood was local, God would have repeatedly broken His promise never to send such a flood again."

Common sense, logical deduction, and the words of the Creator himself tell us that this flood was global, not local. Peter talked about this several centuries ago. "But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same world the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." (2nd Peter 3:5-7) If the flood was partial, that would indicate a partial judgment to come - which goes against clear teaching.

As mentioned earlier, water seeks its own level, and what is now known as Mt. Everest was once covered with water and uplifted afterward. If we evened-out the ocean basins and flattened the mountains, there would be enough water to cover the entire earth. Psalm 104:6-8 says, "You covered it with the deep as a garment, the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys..."

In other words, due to volcanic and seismic activity, the mountains rose and the valleys were formed. The even-ness of the earth now became the scars of a world-wide flood. But if this were so, we would expect to find evidence, correct? We do. For example, we find rock layers, bent, twisted, and contorted. In fact, some of these are folded at right angles without breaking. If someone tried to bend a rock, would it not break?

It is because these rock layers were laid down during the flood while they were still "soft," called sedimentary layers. When the earth rose in various places due to the springs of the great deep bursting forth, this allowed the soft sedimentary layers to rise and bend. The flood not only accounts for these bent rock layers, but unconformities as well. Many believe that rock layers are found in nice, clean layer after layer. Not so.

We find layers buckled, twisted, contorted, what have you. We find trees, aquatic life, land life, birds, the like all in the same layer - along with dinosaurs. We also find buckled up mountain ranges all across the globe. When the water erupted from below, this caused the mountains to rise and "squeeze together" up above the water, just like we find today. In fact, we find several mountain ranges following coastlines - mountains in Asia line up with those on the West Coast of North America.

Mid-Atlantic Ridge Illustration

Science has found that the continents, at one time, were a super-continent. (They call it Pangaea) The truth is, due to the springs of the great deep bursting forth, this caused "cracks" on the earth, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which began to split the continent into what we find today. Now, if such raising and lowering had actually occurred, would we not find evidence?

We not only find fossils, sea shells for example, on the tops of mountains - we find tons. For example, when Edmund Hilary climbed Mt. Everest in 1953, at the 26,000 ft level, he stuck his pick into the ground to pull himself up, and he noticed sea shells. For the next 3,000 feet - all the way to the to - he noticed these shells. High in the Andes Mountains, we find large fossilized oysters at the 13,000 feet level.

Now, this is odd because when a clam dies, its muscles relax, and its shell opens. This shows that the clams found on the mountain-tops died very rapidly. According to the biblical account, we see that the springs of the great deep caused a massive burial of all different types of marine life at the bottom of the ocean - so that as the water burst forth, it caused the ground at lower elevations that were filled with dead marine life to buckle up, into mountains at higher elevations, just as we find today. We not only find sea shells, but we also find whales.

This is what the New York Times had to say about the Whales, "Scientists have found fossil whales and other marine animals in mountain sediments in the Andes, indicating that the South American mountain chain rose very rapidly from the sea... Nearly all the fossils embedded in surface rock and easy to pick up. Best of all, despite weathering, many of the smallest fossils were remarkably intact and will be easy to study."

Alcide d'Orbigny, a contemporary of Charles Darwin, said the following, "They were laid down by a flood catastrophe which destroyed the megafauna and rapidly lifted the Andes to their present heights." Even the secular media has admitted that this was likely the result of a catastrophic flood - and the rising of the mountain chain, just as the biblical account confirms, as well as a Global Flood. We also find rapid burial of plants and animals, rapidly deposited sediment layers spread across vast areas, sediment transported long distances, rapid - or little erosion between strata, and we find that many strata were laid down in rapid succession - all of which confirm a global flood.

The evidence is all around us, and the Scriptures themselves indicate a global, not local, flood. Geology confirms the account, history confirms the account, what we find in this flood-scarred world confirms what we read in God's Word. As aforementioned, the different evidences for the Global Flood - confirming that the Biblical account is the true account and that flood legends are merely based off the historical event - and different questions pertaining to this event will be addressed in an upcoming series.

Yes, it is true that there was a flood near the Black Sea, but this was not the Genesis flood. I trust this entry has proven insightful and informative. Thank you for reading this entry of "The Truth." Feel free to comment below, email vexx801@yahoo.com, or visit the facebook. Take Care, and may God bless. Troy Hillman

Sources:
Henry Morris Ph.D. "Geology and the Flood." Institute for Creation Research. Web. 21 Dec 2010. http://www.icr.org/article/geology-flood/

"Noah's Flood covered the whole world." Answers In Genesis. Web. 21 Dec 2010. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v21/n3/flood

Ham, Ken and Lovett, Tim. The New Answers Book 1. 12th Ed. Master Books, 2006. 135-138. Print.