The Flood Begins (Genesis 7)

Geological evidence for a worldwide flood is ubiquitous. There are sea fossils on the highest mountains. Complete fossils only exist when there is rapid burial. Some sedimentary rock layers cover whole continents. Some of those sediments were carried very long distances. There is no long-term erosion between most strata, disproving theories that they were deposited millions of years apart. Bent strata reveal that they occurred while they were still mud. Does the popular worldview prejudice us against such evidence?

Why was Noah saved? Did his righteousness protect his whole family? Were clean and unclean, edible and inedible animals known?

Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. (Genesis 7:1-3 WEB)

What did God tell Noah at the beginning of that last week? How long would it rain?

In seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe off from the fertile land every living thing that I have made.” Noah did everything the Lord commanded him. (Genesis 7:4-5 CEB)

How old was Noah when the flood began? When did the flood begin?

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. (Genesis 7:6-10 ESV)

Where did the water come from? Where did Noah go? Who closed the door of the great wooden ship?

The water under the earth started gushing out everywhere, the sky opened like windows, and rain poured down for 40 days and nights. All this began on the seventeenth day of the second month of the year. On that day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. They took along every kind of animal, tame and wild, including the birds. Noah took a male and a female of every living creature with him, just as God had told him to do. And when they were all in the boat, the Lord closed the door. (Genesis 7:11-16 CEV)

How long was the flood? How deep was it? Is it possible to cover the whole earth with water? If all the earth’s land mass subsided, there would be enough water in our present oceans to cover the earth to a depth of 2700 meters. That’s over 1½ miles.

The flood was forty days on the earth; the water grew higher and floated the ark, so that it was lifted up off the earth. The water overflowed the earth and grew deeper, until the ark floated on the surface of the water. The water overpowered the earth mightily; all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered; the water covered the mountains by more than twenty-two-and-a-half feet. (Genesis 7:17-20 CJB)

Did every creature perish? After the rain, how long did the waters last?

Every creature perished—those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died. He wiped out every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. And the waters surged on the earth 150 days. (Genesis 7:21-24 HCSB)

Geological evidence for a worldwide flood is ubiquitous, sea fossils on mountains, sedimentary rock layers covering whole continents, no long-term erosion between strata, and bent strata. Does the popular worldview prejudice us against such evidence? You decide!