Global Flood

The Global Flood Episode 17

The Four Great Global Events of Genesis The Flood

As we talk about the Genesis Global Flood and its significance, it is important to, first of all, determine if it was a global or a local event. Did the Flood cover the whole earth or just Mesopotamia?

Genesis indicates that the Flood was global, affecting all of the earth. If this was not the case, then the rainbow that the Lord gave as a sign of His promise would have been a promise given just to the people of Mesopotamia and would have had no significance for the rest of the world. Why does the world need to be reminded that the Lord would never flood Mesopotamia again? This would have been a huge waste of time and space to take four chapters of Genesis to tell a story that is irrelevant to future generations.

Global Flood:

We also need to decide if the story of the Flood is anything more than a myth. It is true that the Flood cannot be proven by science, but the same is true of the uniformitarian view of our earth. Uniformitarianism also can not prove that the earth is a product of processes over millions of years. To be classified as science, it must be able to be tested, observed, and repeated. This is not possible with uniformitarianism.

Scripture is not intended to be a scientific dissertation on geology, but it is a historical record that presents the global Flood as a real historical event. The real question to address is, can the Flood explain the geological landforms, rocks, and fossils that we see today? And the answer is, yes.

Global Flood:

There are two major stages as recorded in the Scripture concerning the Flood – the filling stage, or the inundation stage. This is found in Genesis 7:23-24. The second stage, the receding stage, is found in Gen 8:1-16. Although there is no scientific terminology in either of these passages, there are quite a few geological implications in these passages.

Here are the verses and activity/geological implications:

Gen.7:4 – Extinction

Gen. 7:11 – Tectonic upheaval

Gen. 7:11 – Torrential and violent rain, massive flooding

Gen. 7:17 – Massive amounts of rock and sediment torn up and moved

Gen. 7:18 – The waters and their strength increase, causing erosion and transportation of sediments

Gen. 7:19 – The Flood was deep, covering the entire earth

Gen. 7:21 – The Flood was devastating to life, which is what the fossil record shows

Gen. 7:22 – Dead things buried in rock layers all over the earth

Ge. 7:23 – All air-breathing, land-dwelling life outside of the ark perished

Gen. 7:24 – It took 150 days for the water to reach a maximum depth

Gen. 8:1 – Water draining off the earth carved great ravines, channels, and planation surfaces