GLEANINGS - GenesisSample

Was the flood local or global?

Many people claim that the flood of Noah’s time was only a local flood. They claim it was confined to somewhere around the Mesopotamian region and never really covered the whole earth.

The idea of a local flood is totally inconsistent with the Bible for the following reasons

1. The flood destroyed all life under the heavens (6:17) The “fountains of the great deep” burst open and poured water out onto the earth's surface for 150 days (five months) and simultaneously, and for the same length of time, the “floodgates of heaven” were open, producing torrential global rainfall. This resulted in every creature “in whose nostrils is the breath of life” perishing.

2. The waters rose at least 20 feet above all the high mountains (7:19-20). Water seeks its own level. It could not rise to cover the local mountains while leaving the rest of the world untouched.

3. The flood lasted more than a year (Gen. 7:11, 8:14)—surely an excessive amount of time for any local flood.

4. The final fiery judgment of the whole earth is compared to Noah’s flood (2 Peter 3:3-7)

In 2 Peter 3, the coming universal judgment by fire is likened to the judgment by water of Noah’s Flood: the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. If the Flood was local, the end-time fire will be local as well. And that’s just not so.

5. If the flood were local, why did Noah have to build an Ark? He could have walked to the other side of the mountains and escaped. If the flood were local, why was the Ark big enough to hold all the different kinds of land vertebrate animals in the world? If only Mesopotamian animals were aboard, or only domestic animals, the Ark could have been much smaller.

6. The New Testament speaks of the flood as global. In 2 Pet. 2:5 we read “did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.” 1 Pet. 3:20 says “a few, that is eight people, were saved through the water” These statements presuppose a global Flood, not some localized event.

The flood was clearly of divine origin and was a radical cleansing judgment intended to check humanity’s rampant evil.

APPLICATION QUESTION:

The flood is a warning that “God’s Spirit does not always strive with man.” There is grace, but there is also judgment when the grace is rejected. In what areas of your life are you presuming on the grace of God and living a casual life?

QUOTE:

Your children will go to public school and they will be trained for somewhere around 15,000 hours in ungodly secular thought. And then they'll go to Sunday school and they'll color a picture of Noah's ark. And you think that's going to stand against the lies that they are being told? Paul Washer

PRAYER:

Lord, I thank You for showing me that there is grace, but there is also judgment. Help me never to reject Your grace. Amen