ORIGINS #4: THE FLOOD
OPENING REVIEW:
In our Origins series, we’ve gone back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
We believe that God’s Word is an absolutely true account of the creation of the universe!
1. “Creation” - the biblical account of creation versus the theory of evolution.
2. “The Fall” - “If God is good, then why is there death and suffering?”
3. “Dinosaurs” - How God created dinosaurs on day six of creation.
THE BIG IDEA: In Genesis 6, the whole world was corrupt, so God destroyed all of the people in a flood, saving only Noah and his family of eight in an ark. Jesus is the ark, and when we are in Him, we are saved from God’s wrath.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DINOSAURS? THE STORY OF THE FLOOD:
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 6:5-10).
• Even though when God created the world, it was originally very good, through Adam’s sin, death and the curse entered into the world.
• Why did God flood the Earth? Death is the penalty for sin.
• “(God) did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 2:5).
• Many people focus on God’s judgment of the wicked in this story, but miss His GRACE.
• God’s desire was that the people would repent and be saved, but they didn’t listen.
• Now if what we’ve learned so far is true, then dinosaurs lived side-by-side with mankind before the flood. How did Noah fit all of the animals – and the dinosaurs – on the ark?
HOW COULD NOAH FIT ALL OF THE ANIMALS ON THE ARK?
• Unbelievers say, “Noah could have never fit all of the animals on the ark!”
• If you ask them, “How big was the ark?” they will say, “I don’t know.”
• Ask, “How many animals did Noah have to fit on the ark?” they say, “I don’t know.”
• It’s unfortunate that most pictures representing the ark are cute little boats with giraffe heads sticking out the windows causing people to doubt the ark could have been real.
1. HOW BIG WAS THE ARK?
“And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks” (Genesis 6:13-16).
QUOTE: “The Ark measured 300 x 50 x 30 cubits which is about 459 x 75 x 44 feet, so its volume was 1.54 million cubic feet… This is the equivalent volume of 522 standard American railroad stock cars, each of which can hold 240 sheep.” (522 stock cars x 240 sheep each = 125,280 total sheep).” (Jonathan Sarfati of Answers in Genesis).
• This ark was huge – it had three decks! It was no little tug boat…
2. HOW MANY ANIMALS DID NOAH HAVE TO FIT ON THE ARK?
“And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.” (Genesis 6:19).
How many animals approximately would that be?
“The total number of land-dwelling mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibian species is less than 20,000 or so. The number of "kinds," the Biblical designation, is probably much smaller. For instance, of the 9,000 bird species, approximately 400 are hummingbirds, with only minor differences in color, size, and habitat. Very likely, they all come from only one or a few kinds, thereby dropping the total number.” (John Morris, Institute for Creation Research).
• Many experts say that there are about 8,000 kinds of animals.
• For example, there were probably only two dog kinds on the ark, and all dog species that exist today came from those two dogs. Evolutionists argue against this, yet they say dogs, humans and bananas all evolved from the same common ancestor? Come on!
How did they fit the dinosaurs on the ark?
• Average size of a dinosaur = about the size of a sheep. Only a few grew to big sizes.
• Dinosaurs lay eggs, and the biggest dinosaur fossil egg found is the size of a football.
• Even the largest dinosaurs were very small when first hatched.
• Noah took young animals on the ark.
• Interesting note – there are about 270 flood legends today – where did they originate?
Why don’t we see dinosaurs today?
THE FIVE REAL DINOSAUR AGES: (www.answersingenesis.org)
• Formed - dinosaurs were created alongside of all land animals on day 6 of creation
• Fallen - through Adam’s sin, death and destruction entered the world
• Flood - 4,400 years ago God judged the world’s wickedness in the flood
- storms, waves, volcanoes and earthquakes caused much fossilization.
• Faded - after the flood, animals including dinosaurs left ark to repopulate earth
- many animals including dinos died out; harsher/colder climate – ice age,
less food sources, people could now kill animals, many became extinct.
- over time, dinosaurs were forgotten / faded from memory – legends.
• Found - from 1800 AD to present, dinosaurs bones/fossils found
WHAT ABOUT FOSSILS AND GEOLOGY?
GEOLOGY DEFINIED: Geology is the scientific study of the origin, history, and structure of the earth; the structure of a specific region of the earth’s crust.
• The geologic evidence supports the idea of a global flood
• The Biblical account of the flood answers some questions that the evolutionists cannot:
1. What caused fossilization?
2. How the geologic column was formed?
• We believe that fossils and the geologic column were caused by the flood.
QUOTE: “The rocks of the earth’s crust now contain the fossil remains of unnumbered billions of plants and animals, buried in water-transported sediments which quickly became lithified. This “geologic column” has been grossly distorted by evolutionists into the record of an imagined 3-billion year history of evolution during the geological ages. Actually, it represents the deposits of the Flood with the fossil order primarily depicting the relative elevations of the habitats—and therefore the usual order of sedimentary burial in the Flood—of the organisms of the pre-Flood world. Many modern geologists are again admitting the necessity of catastrophic formation and burial to explain the (fossils) in the geologic column. The reason why very few fossil men (also very few fossilized flying birds) are found in the rocks is their high mobility and ability to escape burial in sediments. When eventually drowned, their bodies would remain on the surface until they decayed.” (Henry Morris, The Defender’s Study Bible).
CLOSING CHALLENGE:
“3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:3-10).
JESUS IS THE ARK: Altar call for salvation: Come to Jesus (the ark) and be saved!
Just like God provided an ark for Noah and his family – and anyone else who might have believed his preaching – so too God has provided an ark to save us from the coming judgment: Jesus. When we are ‘in Christ’, we are safe from God’s wrath!
Beausejour Community Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor Chris Jordan’s Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/
