Was there a Worldwide Flood?
Was There a Worldwide Flood?
A. Biblical evidence for the Flood
1. Fact of the Flood
In Genesis 6-9, the Bible teaches that there was a great, worldwide, catastrophic Flood. In chapter 6, God announced that there would be a great flood in which all of mankind and animals on the entire earth would be wiped out. He gave the reason for this terrible judgment: the sinful hearts and wicked behavior of mankind.
2. Size of the Flood
Statements from the Bible
In Genesis 6 God says that since the sin was worldwide, the judgment would also be worldwide.
”The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time…So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground… So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth... And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come... I will destroy them with the earth... I myself am bringing the flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh from under heaven... everything that is on the earth shall die’” (Genesis 6:5, 7, 12, 13, 17).
Genesis 7 says that the purpose of the ark, a huge, barge-like boat, was to keep Noah, his family, and the animals “alive on the face of the earth” (Genesis 7:1-3). If the Genesis Flood had been only a small or local flood, building a boat larger than several hundred railroad boxcars would certainly not have been necessary. Surely some people and animals would have been able to escape over the hills to safety! Or God could have communicated to Noah to take his family and all the animals, and escape to a certain spot that would not be affected by the limited destruction of a small flood. (Remember, that’s how God saved Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19.)
Genesis 7:18-23 says that “the waters... greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters... and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered... All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died... Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.” That sure sounds like a worldwide Flood.
Genesis 9:12-14 indicates that God gave the rainbow as a sign that there would never be another worldwide Flood. If the biblical Flood was only a local catastrophe, then God lied, because there have been many devastating localized floods since Noah’s time. And after the Flood, God “…set a boundary...” that the waters could not cross (Psalm 104:6-9). The Flood must have been global.
Arguments from the Bible
Moses, the inspired author of Genesis, and the apostle Peter, in 2 Peter 3, certainly meant to convey to their readers that there was a worldwide Flood. They were not trying to deceive their readers.
Jesus believed in a Flood of global proportions. In Matthew 24:39, Jesus compared conditions surrounding His second coming to the worldwide Flood and its catastrophic proportions.
Under divine inspiration, Peter wrote of a Flood that deluged and destroyed the entire world. “By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water” (2 Peter 3:5-6). Peter then compared the past total destruction of the earth (by water) to the future total destruction of the earth (by fire).
3. Mechanics of the Flood
Water for the Flood
Is there enough rain to destroy the earth today? If all the water that is presently in the atmosphere came down at once, it would form a sheath of water less than a foot in depth around the earth. The Bible indicates that there were two sources for the origin of the huge amount of water: “the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:11-12).
If you’re interested in further study about this specific area, we’d encourage you to check out information from this page and others at the Answers in Genesis website. AIG is an excellent resource that focuses on the Flood.
Natural phenomena following the Flood
Amount of water: Where did all the water go after the Flood? It’s still here! There’s significant evidence that there is much more water on the earth’s surface now than in the past.
Ice at the Poles: Some of the water is frozen in the ice caps at the North and South Poles. These ice caps definitely did not exist in the past, because there’s geologic evidence that both the North and South Poles were once semi-tropical in climate.
Oceans: Erosion of the continental shelves and sea mounts shows that the ocean water is much deeper now than it was in the past.
Formation of mountains: After the Flood, the greater weight of water draining into the oceans caused the ocean floors to sink and the mountains to rise as the earth was coming into isostatic equilibrium. Very high mountains did not exist before the Flood, but came into being by the volcanic and tectonic activity during and after the Flood. (Tectonic activity refers to the forces which cause the Earth’s crust to buckle and fold, and gradually build mountain ranges.) Psalm 104:6-8 suggests the Flood and its aftermath: “the waters were standing above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled... the mountains rose; the valleys sank down..” (NASB).
Continental drift
The continents rest on tectonic plates that are “drifting.” During and following the Flood, the movement of these plates would have been much greater than today. This could have been because of greater tectonic subduction (one tectonic plate sliding under another) in association with the break-up of the “fountains of the deep,” as well as the forces bringing the earth to isostatic conditions (equalizing pressures) with the great increase of water on the surface. Although movement is greatly reduced now, it still exists. For example, the plate on which India sits is still moving into the plate on which Eurasia sits, causing tectonic activity in the Himalayan mountains. Immediately following the Flood the “collision” of those tectonic plates would have caused great uplift, resulting in the mountains of the Himalayan range, including Mount Everest.
Migration of species
Why are kangaroos found only in Australia? Most likely there were land bridges between the continents following the Flood, particularly during the Ice Age that developed soon after the Flood. At that time a great amount of water was precipitated at the Poles as snow and tied up as ice. Land bridges allowed the faster moving species to spread out before continental drift, tectonic activity and melting of the glaciers cut off certain land bridges. (The glaciers began to recede as a result of the buildup of the carbon dioxide layer in the atmosphere, causing a significant greenhouse effect since the time of the Flood.) Marsupials, such as kangaroos, are the fastest moving species because they carry their young in pouches. There are fossil marsupials (including kangaroos) found in many parts of the world, showing that marsupials existed around the world before the Flood.
Ice Age
The book of Job (probably the earliest written book of the Bible) mentions that Job knew of great amounts of ice (Job 37:10; 38:29-30). Because of the rapid build-up of the polar ice cap following the Flood there would have been an “ice age” in the first few hundred post-Flood years. Glaciers would have covered a good portion of present-day Europe and North America. This “ice age” would have lasted until the carbon dioxide layer around the earth built up sufficiently to give a measure of greenhouse effect.
Age of trees
Trees are the oldest living things. Redwoods, sequoias and bristle-cone pines are the oldest trees. The oldest living thing on earth today, a bristle-cone pine in northern California, is dated by scientists at 4500-4600 years old. That tree and others in that forest are first generation trees. There are no stumps or remains of trees that go back any further. These trees started to grow 4500-4600 years ago, to the same time when biblical chronology indicates the Flood occurred.
Climate changes
Fossils at both Poles (like these fossil leaves found in Antarctica), seams of coal at the South Pole, and oil deposits found above the Arctic Circle are clear evidence that warmer conditions existed there in the past. The first mention of variation in climate comes after the Flood, when God spoke of ”cold and heat” (Genesis 8:22).
Frozen mammoths
In Siberia and Alaska, complete frozen mammoths have been found entombed in ice, flesh and all, with undigested food still preserved in their stomachs. These animals were frozen so quickly that their flesh has occasionally been thawed and used as meat to feed sled dogs! In order to get the radical conditions necessary to freeze such huge animals so rapidly, the change in climate must have been very rapid and extreme - a cataclysmic event. Science has found no adequate explanation.
B. Geological evidence for the Flood
Evolutionary scientists accept the theory that the geologic column (the rock layers or strata of the earth) and the fossils contained in these rock layers show a record of evolutionary development over very long periods of time. However, scientists who have a high view of Scripture believe that the rock layers were laid down primarily during the Flood. These rock layers were laid down during a relatively short period of time, and the fossils in the layers are from death during the Flood, not evidence of long periods of time or evolution.
1. Stratified Rock
Construction of stratified rock
Sedimentary rock is formed from sediments that settled out of moving water and then hardened into rock. It covers at least 75% of the earth’s exposed surface, and at least 95% of the earth’s fossils have been found in sedimentary rock. Just the fact that so much of the earth is covered by rock composed of sediments that settled out from water is strong evidence for a global Flood.
Boulders
Boulders are pieces of rock that have been rounded and worn by being tumbled along in moving water, such as a river or flood waters. The inclusion of boulders throughout the geologic column indicates powerful water action throughout the time when the column was building up. This fact fits in well as evidence for a worldwide Flood, since many boulders would be produced and deposited in sediments by the very strong water action of the rising Flood. It’s hard to explain all the boulders if the geologic column represents millions of years of slow and gradual build-up.
Conformities
“Conformities” are sharp, clean dividing lines in the strata between layers of rock, with no evidence of erosion (wearing away by exposure to the atmosphere) between the layers. Conformities are evidence of a rapid build-up of layers of sediments. Conformities make up a high percentage of strata all over the world. This is evidence for a worldwide Flood. There are no unconformities (evidence of erosion between layers) that extend all around the earth. They are limited in extent. If the geologic column were really the record of evolution, we would expect to find mostly unconformities, with much evidence of weathering and erosion between layers, because (in the evolutionary view) long periods of time are required for the different layers of sediment to build up and evolution to take place.
Inclusion of fossils
Does every tree or animal that dies become a fossil? No. Rapid burial under sediments is required. If the dead object is not rapidly buried, it will just rot away and not be fossilized. The fact that fossils are included in the geologic strata (especially large dinosaur fossils, that would need a massive amount of sedimentary material involved for burial) is clear evidence of rapid buildup of sediments from catastrophic water action.
Incised Meanders
Meandering (winding or twisting) rivers that cut sharply through rock layers are called incised meanders. it’s impossible for winding rivers to cut down through solid rock in a twisting, serpentine pattern. Incised meanders show evidence of rapid carving when the sediments were soft, not slow carving of solid rock over thousands of years.
In addition, many canyons (such as the Grand Canyon) could have been formed relatively rapidly by a large volume of water carving soft sediments, as would be the case in the continental drainage and run-off of the Flood waters. Consider the following modern day example. In less than a week, a 25 square mile canyon was carved by mud flows in the soft ash and sediment layers deposited by the volcanic eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980.
The carving of stratified rock around the world is good evidence for a global flood.
Deformation of sediments
In places all around the earth, we can find rock layers smoothly bent or folded together, without cracking or breaking. It’s like many layers of soft modeling clay placed on top of one another and then folded over. We all know that soft layers of clay can fold over without cracking or breaking. The only way rock layers can smoothly bend or fold together is when all the layers of sediment are soft and pliable at the same time, as they would have been soon after the Flood. If the strata had built up and hardened over many millions of years, with long periods of time between each layer, the hardened rock layers would have cracked and broken when tectonic forces disrupted them. It’s impossible to get smooth folds in already hardened rock layers.
2. Widespread Formations
In the geologic column there are huge formations containing similar fossils and the same materials. This shows that each formation must have been deposited from the same source at the same time during a major catastrophe. Two examples:
The “Dakota Formation” covers 200,000 square miles in the western US.
The “Morrison Formation” reaches from Canada to Texas, covering at least 400,000 square miles. No local flood could produce such huge formations.
3. Numerous Turbidites
Around the world there is geologic evidence of many “turbidite” layers. Turbidites are formed by underwater mudflows, or underwater landslides or “avalanches” of masses of silt and mud that flow rapidly and build up quickly into a layer. This happens in a matter of hours, not long eras of time! The existence of turbidites in the sedimentary rock layers around the world is good evidence of a global catastrophic Flood.
C. Paleontological evidence for the Flood
Paleontology is the study of fossils. Everything about fossils fits in well with a worldwide Flood!
The Formation of Fossils: Fossils are formed only when dead objects are buried quickly under pressure in sediments, such as in a mudslide or mud flow (very consistent with flood conditions).
The Number of Fossils: The geologic column is loaded with fossils—millions and millions of fossils. If there must be rapid burial and quick buildup of sediments to obtain fossils, and the geologic strata are loaded with fossils, doesn’t it make sense to consider that the geologic strata layers resulted from a catastrophic global Flood? Does it make sense to automatically assume that they are the result of millions of years of slow evolution?
The Size of Fossils: Large animal fossils (such as huge entire dinosaurs, elephants, etc.) are found in the rock layers, indicating a very large flood and rapid burial. These large fossils are good evidence of the worldwide biblical Flood.
Polystrate Fossils: Polystrate fossils extend through more than one geologic layer. For example, a fossilized tree trunk may stand fairly upright and extend through several rock layers. This shows that the layers had to be laid down in fairly quick succession, or the tree would have rotted before the next layer was laid down. A dead tree couldn’t remain exposed for millions, or even hundreds, of years while the sediments slowly built up around it! The existence of polystrate fossils is strong evidence of the rapid buildup of rock layers.
Ephemeral markings: Prints of raindrops, water ripples, bird tracks, etc., are present all through the rock layers. These markings would have easily washed or weathered away unless they were preserved by being captured and buried quickly. They are clear evidence of very rapid buildup of layers. Incidentally, no hail marks have been found in the geologic column. If the geologic column really represented millions of years, fossilized hail-prints would certainly be observed throughout the column.
The Age of Fossils: The organic matter remaining in some fossils can be dated with radioactive carbon, and fossils thus examined show they are only thousands - not millions - of years old. This puts all plant and animal fossils within the biblical time frame for the global Flood.
The Sudden Appearance of Fossils: There is a sudden appearance of all types of fossils in the geologic column. There is no evidence of evolution, such as single-celled organisms gradually moving to more and more complex forms of life as we move up through the sedimentary rock layers. The so-called “Cambrian explosion” of multiple life forms still has no logical naturalistic explanation. The sudden appearance of fossils overwhelmingly supports the biblical record of a worldwide Flood. It does not support the theory of evolution.
The Perfection of Fossils: No transitional forms (“missing links”) have been found! For example, the archaeopteryx is not a transitional form between reptiles and birds—it’s an extinct bird with wings and feathers. No fossils of reptiles with scales evolving into feathers or limbs partially evolved into wings have ever been uncovered. In fact, as more fossils are found, the boundaries between species have become even more defined!
The Sequence of Fossils
The geologic column, as proposed by evolutionary theory, is actually not found anywhere on earth. Layers of the geologic column are found to be “out of order” in many places around the world. In looking for evidence of a worldwide Flood, we should expect to find exactly what we do find in the rock layers.
Consider the following:
Inverted order: Fossils of “lower” forms of life are found higher in the geologic column than “higher” forms of life, and the same species may be found in many different layers. This is exactly what you would expect to find as a result of a catastrophic Flood. Many various forms of life would have been overtaken by the flood waters and buried chaotically throughout the various sediment layers. Fossils of “higher” forms of life (with organic matter still remaining) have been found in “lower” rock layers that is supposedly millions of years old.
Fossil graveyards: Fossil graveyards, with many species buried together, have been found all over the earth, indicating that many species were overtaken suddenly by a catastrophic Flood.
Specific gravity: The fact that there are more fossils of “lower,” less complex species (invertebrates such as clams and shellfish) in lower rock layers of the geologic column does not indicate evolution. In a Flood scenario, the “lower,” less complex, forms of life would be trapped and buried in the lower sediments because they’re more dense and settle out of moving water before the “higher” forms, which are lower in specific gravity.
Ecologic zones: While we should expect to find marine fossils on the tops of mountains (and we do!) as a result of a worldwide flood, in general the “lower” marine life fossils should be found (as they are) in the lower sedimentary rock layers. This stands to reason, because life in the ecological zone around sea level is bound to have been buried in the early stages of a global flood.
Mobility: A greater percentage of “higher,” more complex animal species in the higher rock layers is not necessarily evidence of evolution. Rather it is evidence that these species had the intelligence and mobility to run to higher ground and escape a catastrophic flood longer than the less mobile, less complex species. This is exactly the evidence we’d what we would expect to find.
Entrapment: The “higher,” more complex species that would have the ability to run to higher ground would have been more likely to drown and float on top of the water, rather than become entrapped and fossilized along with the “lower,” less complex species. Not only would the “higher” forms of life escape from the Flood longer, but because of more hydrodynamic drag (caused by limbs extending from the body), higher forms of life would be more likely to float and decompose, rather than becoming buried and fossilized. This would explain why there are relatively few human fossils compared to an overwhelming number of “lower life” fossils.
D. Archaeological and Anthropological evidence for the Ark
Explorers have searched for Noah’s ark in the Ararat mountains of eastern Turkey for many years. There have been many reports of sightings and remains found, documentary movies, 3D imaging, etc… However, no indisputable evidence has been produced to date. Tricky weather conditions and rigid political situations make it extremely difficult to form expeditions in that part of Turkey. It’s possible that the remains of Noah’s ark still exist and are being preserved in the ice of the mountains. In due time, God may melt back the ice to reveal the evidence. Meanwhile, we have plenty of other evidence for the Flood!
Virtually all cultures around the world today have traditional folklore of a worldwide flood that took place in ancient times. These traditions include the detail that only a few people escaped. The fact that there’s a common “Great Flood” tradition strongly indicates that there must have been an event to start these traditions. Noah and his descendants would have told their Flood story to the next generations. Although details in other Flood traditions became distorted over the years, the worldwide tradition is evidence of the historical event. The Babylonian account of the Flood (the Gilgamesh Epic pictured above) was written before the time of Moses, but the biblical account, written by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the true account of the actual event.
Conclusion
In biblical terms, faith is believing what God has revealed. “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11:7). When God told Noah to prepare an ark, Noah believed God. He believed and obeyed God without much evidence. In fact, the Bible says he was warned about things that had never been seen before!
God asks us to believe what He has revealed, and for us it’s not a blind leap of faith. We have a lot of evidence! People may laugh at us for believing in the literal six-day Creation and the global Genesis Flood, but people probably laughed at Noah, too. Let’s have the kind of courage that Noah displayed, and continue to believe what God has revealed in His Word and His works. The evidence is there!