Bob Prichard

Topic(s): Miracles, Old Testament

Interest in the flood account in Genesis chapters 6 through 9 has increased in recent years as men have made claims of finding the wreckage of Noah’s ark. Until recently, conservative scholars were almost unanimous in recognizing the story of the flood as the story of a universal, or worldwide flood. In recent years, however, many have decided that the flood was likely only a local flood. Although the idea of a local flood may be gaining in popularity, the biblical account does not allow for a local flood, and the other evidence available to us points to the truthfulness of the biblical account.

Clearly the Bible describes a worldwide flood. For example, God said, “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). Moses tells us, “All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died” (Genesis 7:22). The extent of the flood was such that “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” (Genesis 7:19-20). According to Genesis 8:4, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, mountains of 17,000 foot elevation. According to Genesis 7:24, the waters “prevailed upon the earth,” or were at their maximum level, for 150 days, which would hardly be possible for a local flood.

If, as some modern scholars claim, the flood was just local, in the region of the Tigris and the Euphrates valleys, then why would Noah have needed to build such a large ark, or any ark at all? If the flood were only in a local area, all that Noah would have needed to do was to go to higher ground. The same would have been true for the animals. God would not have needed to send the animals to Noah and his ark for a local flood. They could have just gone to higher ground to escape the flood.

Even apart from the biblical evidence, which just will not allow for a local flood, evidence in other areas points to a universal, worldwide flood. Cultures from virtually every area of the world, from the American Indians, to the Chinese, to the Babylonians, have traditions of a worldwide flood. How does one explain the uniformity of the traditions, apart from the fact that there was a universal flood? Even when their stories differ, they still point to a common event. How, apart from the flood, can one explain that there are marine fossils of many present day mountains? The worldwide flood explains many “puzzles” of science, such as the rapid extinction of the dinosaurs. Geological evidence of a former worldwide warm climate fits well with the Bible’s account of the pre-flood world. The fossil record frequently shows fossils from different so-called “ages” mixed together, as well as evidence of men in numerous fossil “ages.” That worldwide catastrophe, the Genesis flood, is the best explanation of these scientific findings. It does not fit with the assumptions of evolution, but it is still a valid scientific explanation.