Session 9: Is There Evidence for a Worldwide Flood?

(Intro Music starts with first slide - read intro and move forward)

Welcome to Apologetics and the Gospel. My name is Pastor Jonathan White, and I am the Lead Pastor at CrossPointe Family Church in Hurricane, WV as well as a practicing Emergency Medicine Physician.

Question for Today: Is There Evidence for a Worldwide Flood?

The debate on whether there has been a worldwide flood in our earth’s history has become more and more of a topic of debate amongst secular scientists and creationists. Because of the old earth view of secular scientists, there is a consensus among most that there was not a global flood. They believe that there have been many localized floods but none that spanned the entire globe.

It is important to note that there is a glaring bias in both groups. This type of science, which is historical science, takes the same observed data but comes up with hypotheses known as educated opinions to explain what is observed. Creation scientists come acknowledging their bias as starting with the Word of God. This bias is that God was there and we weren’t, so His Word should be the starting place for all knowledge.

Proverbs 2:6 ESV

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

Whereas many secular scientists come from a worldview that denies the existence of God. And those who are theistic in nature do not normally attribute much weight to a literal interpretation of the Word of God - especially the book of Genesis.

Whether there was a worldwide flood or not is not an observable science, and thus it is not provable based on direct observation of the event. This does not mean it is not important or irrelevant, however. We do have historical records as well as geological evidence to go through and analyze.

Time would fail us to be able to hit all of the aspects of this topic today. My goal is to get you thinking more deeply about what is stated as fact in today’s so-called scientific papers and articles regarding this particular issue.

Let’s start with the observations made of our world in geology and archaeology.

Geology and the Flood

Geology is the scientific study of the origin, history, and structure of the earth.

So how does geology support a worldwide flood?

1. Extensive Fossil ‘Graveyards’

There are certain areas throughout the world - one of which is in the Grand Canyon - where there are billions of fossils all together. There are other areas in the US and Europe as well that have ‘graveyards’ such as this.

These ‘graveyards’ lend to a catastrophic disaster such as the worldwide flood. The vast areas across the earth having similar findings at similar depths makes this catastrophic disaster likely to have occured at the same time.

2. Fossils of Sea Creatures at High Altitudes

There are fossils of sea creatures found in the walls of the Grand Canyon at almost a mile above sea level. If that isn’t high enough, how about fossilized shellfish being found in the Himalayas?

A worldwide flood makes the most sense in regard to these findings.

Do these observations prove a worldwide flood? Not entirely. But one must admit that it makes it more likely. There are many other geologic findings that point to a worldwide flood such as the breaking of Pangea into the known continents, similar sediment types found across the world, areas in the rock layers of rapid erosion, and other areas in the rock layers with little to no erosion noted. All of these point to a worldwide flood. There are many creation-based papers going into pain-staking details available at websites by the Institution of Creation Research, Answers in Genesis, among others.

Moving forward, we will address the…

Historical Record of a Global Flood

Numerous records of similar or near-similar accounts of a worldwide flood exist in our historical records.

A few of these are the Assyria-Babylon flood legends 1 and 2, the Persian flood legend, the Chinese flood legend, the Syrian flood legend, the Egyptian flood legend, The Aztec flood legend, the flood legend of India, the Hawaiian flood legend, and many other legends like these.

These flood legends are explained in more detail in a book called The Deluge Story in Stone by B.C. Nelson (1).

Isn’t it interesting that many of these legends have excerpts similar to the Biblical account of a worldwide flood?

One notable legend comes from the Chinese. The nation of China has been largely secluded over the centuries. They have maintained tight borders and independence and a homogenous culture moreso than most other countries of the world.

They record a flood legend in which Fuhi and his wife and their three sons and their wives survive a worldwide flood and then repopulate the earth. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

The vast amount of flood legends coming from vastly different cultures around the world provide historical evidence for a worldwide flood. The most rational explanation for the consistency among these flood legends is that they all share a common ancestor account - namely the Bible. Yet the further these cultures traversed away from their monotheistic worship of the One True God, the more they began to add and take away from the original account. Only those who stayed true to God maintained the truth of what really happened.

The Biblical Evidence

The Bible is extremely clear that there was a worldwide flood. The book of Genesis records that there was rain for 40 days and 40 nights and that all of the water in the atmosphere as well as all of the water from under the ground covered the face of the earth. .

Genesis 7:20–21 ESV

The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind.

Genesis 7:22–23 ESV

Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.

So we see in this Scripture that the tallest mountains were covered by fifteen cubits of water. A cubit is around 18 inches which means that the water covering the earth would have been around 22.5 feet higher than the tallest mountain on the earth. A careful reading of Genesis shows that water actually remained covering the earth a little longer than a year as well.

There is debate on how high the highest mountain was before the flood because most creation geologists assert that many mountain ranges were actually formed during the flood because of the tectonic plates moving under the incredible weight of water covering the earth.

We also see here that every living thing that breathed air was killed. All of the birds, animals, creeping things - as well as every person.

There is no room for localized flooding here. The Bible is abundantly clear that Noah’s Flood was a worldwide event.

The importance of this flood is that it explains the evidence that we saw at the beginning of this discussion. It explains why there are sediment layers all over the earth. It explains why there are seashells found in the layers of mountains that aren’t near the ocean. It also explains why the ice age came. This is a talk for another day, but an ice age would have been inevitable after such a global and catastrophic disaster. The climate would have changed immensely.

As we come to a close, I pray that you take the Bible as the literal Word of God and that you understand more fully that science actually proves the Word of God as true and does not contradict it.

(Slide Closing 1)

This presentation has been put together to strengthen the faith of believers and to challenge the unbelief of others. I pray that you have found this presentation helpful.

Also, please note that this 10-15 minute presentation cannot exhaustively address most issues. My prayer is that it stimulates you to personally research further, and I am assured that you will find the Word of God proven time and time again.

(Slide Closing 2 with outro music)

Feel free to email any ideas you would like to see addressed by emailing me at [e-mail]. There are slides prepared for each of these presentations which can be accessed at our church website at crosspointefamily.church and select ATG. God bless and have a blessed week.