WAS NOAH'

WAS NOAH'S FLOOD WORLDWIDE?

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May 14, 1997 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - In one of his messages at his evangelistic crusade in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1996, Billy Graham said that he wasn't sure if the flood of Noah's day were worldwide, or if it were only regional. He said that we don't know how much of the world was covered by the waters. The New Bible Commentary, published by InterVarsity Press, takes a similar position with this comment on Genesis 6: "The narrative does not directly affirm a universal flood ... deductions drawn from the assumption that all mankind was destroyed are precarious" (page 88).

Many would claim that it does not matter whether Noah's flood was universal or regional. We disagree. If the Bible plainly states something, it DOES matter whether or not we believe it, and there is no doubt that the Bible does claim that the Flood was worldwide.

THE FOLLOWING FOUR BIBLE FACTS PROVE THAT THE FLOOD WAS UNIVERSAL AND WORLDWIDE:

FIRST, THE LANGUAGE USED IN THE BIBLE TO DESCRIBE THE FLOOD IS LANGUAGE DEPICTING A UNIVERSAL, WORLDWIDE FLOOD. No one living today witnessed the flood, so we are dependent upon the Bible to tell us what happened. Consider the following descriptions of Noah's flood by an Eyewitness:

"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and EVERY THING THAT IS IN THE EARTH SHALL DIE" (Genesis 6:17).

"For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and EVERY LIVING SUBSTANCE THAT I HAVE MADE WILL I DESTROY FROM OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH" (Genesis 7:4).

"And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and THE MOUNTAINS WERE COVERED. And ALL FLESH DIED THAT MOVED UPON THE EARTH, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and EVERY MAN: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and THEY WERE DESTROYED FROM THE EARTH: AND NOAH ONLY REMAINED ALIVE, AND THEY THAT WERE WITH HIM IN THE ARK. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days" (Genesis 7:19-24).

"Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: THE WATERS STOOD ABOVE THE MOUNTAINS. ... Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to COVER THE EARTH" (Psalm 104:6,9).

"For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby THE WORLD THAT THEN WAS, BEING OVERFLOWED WITH WATER, PERISHED" (2 Peter 3:5,6).

SECOND, THE FACT THAT NOAH WAS REQUIRED TO GATHER TWO EACH OF THE ANIMALS PROVES THAT IT WAS A WORLDWIDE FLOOD. If the flood were regional, this would have been a futile endeavor, because animals would have survived outside of the flood area. If Noah's flood was not universal and worldwide, the Bible account of the same is certainly a myth. Either we accept the Bible as the infallible Word of God which it claims to be, and if we do, we accept what it says about a worldwide flood. Or we must adopt the modernistic position that the Bible is man made. The middle of the road position that many scholarly New Evangelicals take, that the Bible is the infallible Word of God but is not correct in all that it says scientifically, is impossible.

THIRD, THE JUDGMENT OF NOAH'S DAY IS COMPARED WITH THE JUDGMENT OF THE LAST DAYS (Matthew 24:37-39; 2 Peter 3:6,7). Since we know that the last days judgment will be universal and worldwide, we can assume the same was true for the first judgment.

FOURTH, GOD PROMISED THAT THERE WOULD NOT BE A FLOOD LIKE THIS AGAIN, YET THERE HAVE BEEN MANY LARGE SCALE REGIONAL FLOODS. If the flood of Noah's day were only a regional one, God's promise has failed. In 1970, for example, flooding in South Asia resulted in an estimated one-half million deaths and left 3,500,000 homeless. If, on the other hand, the flood of Noah's day was universal and worldwide, as the Bible plainly states, God's promise is true.

There is geological evidence throughout the world which testifies to a universal flood. An excellent book on this topic is The World That Perished: An Introduction to Biblical Catastrophism, John C. Whitcomb, Baker Book House. As one wise man has said, if the Flood were not universal, it was the only egg-shaped flood that ever occurred, because the Bible plainly says that the mountains were covered!