Noahic Flood - Part Two
The antediluvian world had one continent. It is very likely that the oceans were less salty, the mountains not as high, the oxygen content of the atmosphere more rich, the pollutants from natural sources much less. It was also a world that was not pleasing to God.
Genesis 6:5-7 - 5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them."
Had Genesis ended right there, we would not be reading Genesis because all the world would be gone. But then we read Genesis 6:8 -"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
By one man, Adam, sin had entered into the world. Later by one man, Jesus Christ, sin's penalty would be paid. In this instance, one believing man caused God to decide to save mankind and the line of Adam through Noah and his immediate family.
WHAT WAS GOD'S PURPOSE?
1) God intended to destroy the culture and ecosphere that existed before the flood.
2) God intended to wipe out all of mankind other than Noah's family
3) God intended to save animal life to the extent that representatives of each kind would be preserved.
WHAT WAS GOD'S PLAN?
1) Protect the people and the animals he wished to preserve in a vessel that could withstand the flood conditions before, during and after the 150 days of the primary flood stage.
2) Keep enough aquatic life, insects and other organisms alive to repopulate the globe with a viable ecosystem.
3) Destroy the former world using flood waters, earthquakes and volcanic activity so that the previous works of men would be unavailable to the survivors.
Genesis 6:9-22 - 9 This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress [a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. [b] 16 Make a roof for it and finish [c] the ark to within 18 inches [d] of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them."
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
So God brought forth the flood, beginning with 40 days and 40 nights of rain.
Genesis 7:11 & 12 - "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights."
HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Here is where it gets trickier. God caused it to rain for 40 days and 40 nights. In addition, water that was under the earth was released in association with earthquakes and volcanic activity. The one continent was not simply immersed, but was ripped asunder and completely redone. The surface of the earth was largely washed away and laid down again in sedimentary layers. Some layering would have taken place at the beginning of the flood events as much of the ocean's floors were subducted during the continental division. Flood waters layed down sediments, underwater avalanches produced sediment flows and volcanic activity and earthquakes played a part.
Most dwellers of the oceans floors would be buried in the first waves of sediment. The more developed animals would have been better equipped to evade the disaster in some areas, although quickly buried in mudslides and avalanches in others. Some would survive the first onslaughts but all would be eventually overcome. The fossil record is one of quick, catastrophic burials of every kind of living organism.
The ocean, which was not likely nearly as saline as the ocean's today, was inundated with new, fresh waters from underground. The waters, heated above normal temperatures, helped to cause the entire surface of the planet to be liquid water with no ice formation. The brackish waters would be likely a bit less saline than had been previously and more saline than the fresh waters that were available. Some fish varieties would be able to withstand the difference and some would not.
Large floating islands of vegetable debris would provide a haven for some insects, for seeds, for other organisms. No doubt many of these varieties of life would also become extinct during the flood. But some types did survive. Much of the plant life found on earth would be buried and the intense heat and pressures of the flood events would help form vast pools of crude oil under the new earth.
As the continents divided and the ocean floors deepened and new, taller mountain formations appeared, the dry land began to emerge. Some new sediment deposits could occur. Minerals from under the ground and those on the earth began to leach into the new oceans. Rivulets, and then canyons, would form in the new sedimentary layers of the earth, carving spectacular formations in the process.
It was over a year's time from the beginning of the Noahic journey that Noah and the rest of the Ark's passengers would have, er, dismembarked. Littered over the countryside would be plant life newly begun, some not-so-fresh carcasses of every kind, clumps of dead plant matter everywhere. It would have been like stepping out onto a new planet.
New continents, new oceans, new climates. Oddly, the somewhat warmer ocean temperatures would produce much more moisture in the upper climes during the winters, so that great quantities of snow would fall and in fact glaciation largely from snowfall and of course bodies of water left behind by the flood would produce an ice age, and said glaciation was fed by large amounts of winter snowfall for undetermined years. Polar ice caps formed as the ocean temperatures normalized. Soon the dryer winters would leave to the melting of the glaciation that covered much of the temperate regions. The still-new rock layers would be more easily cut by running waters. The shifting of the new earth would make rock layers bend and fold like taffy, leaving spectacular formations for modern man to observe in wonder.
There were apparently many land bridges available for the spread of animal life that are no longer there. In fact, some processes since the flood have changed the world considerably. Today's ocean is far more saline than that of the floodwaters. Waters running off of the earth would have added more sodium and other minerals to the water. Over time, the aquatic life able to adjust to saltier water would survive. Even today, waters become more saline in the oceans. Meanwhile, the available inland seas and rivers are freshwater. Yet Salmon are born in the freshwaters, head out to sea in saltwater to live, come back to the fresh headwaters of their birth to spawn. It is not amazing to think that the floodwaters, mixed from ocean and fresh and underground stores, would have kept many kinds of fishes and other aquatic creatures alive.
Once the animals of the Ark were free to go, they spread over the available earth, some varieties not adjusting well to the post-flood conditions and the presence of man...and enmity with him.
Genesis 9:1-7 - 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."
Had God kept a certain relationship between animals and mankind before the flood? Had man been designed as a vegetarian race and had animals lacked fear of mankind? Had it been yet another sin against God for a man to kill and eat meat? These verses suggest that this had been the case. Thus whereas a predatory cat of the Lion kind would have been no threat to mankind previously, and vice versa, now a new paradigm had been entered into in the world. God would permit the slaughter and consumption of animals, but he would also put a fear of man into those same animals, giving them a fighting chance, as it were, to survive even if hunted.
Among the animals brought into the Ark were dinosaurs, according to the evidence. That will be an entire posting later on. But the Bible records the existence of saurians hundreds of years after the Flood and all peoples around the world have records of interactions with dinosaurs. Now with a new fear of man linked with a tendency to see man as game, dinosaurs would have become both hunter and hunted. No longer would Fred Flintstone be glad when Dino knocked him to the ground, for Dino was likely going for his neck!
Few things bring on more ridicule from macroevolutionists than the idea of dinosaurs co-existing with mankind. It of course does not fit the idea that dinosaurs actually evolved into other creatures. I remember reading a long article in the pre-computer days (wish I could find it now) in which the author laid out his case for Tyrannosaurus Rex evolving into a Robin. I took delight in watching a few Robins tilting their heads, listening for worms, getting ready to peck. T. Rex had certainly downsized!
But from the fossil records it seems quite clear that dinosaurs were among the most numerous of pre-flood wildlife. It only makes sense that God would have their kinds represented in the next world. Particularly in a world that would have so many new ecosystems in so many new places. Dinosaurs may have played an important part in the world of our ancestors. But then eventually they became a scourge to be destroyed, as historical records tell us.
This post contains a great deal of general information. One specific post to come will discuss the salinity of ocean water and one will go over evidences for the existence of dinosaurs both during and after the flood. Other posts will come from the discourse that habitually follows as commenters challenge statements and ask for other evidences or more specific references. It should be an interesting topic.
Genesis 6:5-7 - 5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them."
Had Genesis ended right there, we would not be reading Genesis because all the world would be gone. But then we read Genesis 6:8 -"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
By one man, Adam, sin had entered into the world. Later by one man, Jesus Christ, sin's penalty would be paid. In this instance, one believing man caused God to decide to save mankind and the line of Adam through Noah and his immediate family.
WHAT WAS GOD'S PURPOSE?
1) God intended to destroy the culture and ecosphere that existed before the flood.
2) God intended to wipe out all of mankind other than Noah's family
3) God intended to save animal life to the extent that representatives of each kind would be preserved.
WHAT WAS GOD'S PLAN?
1) Protect the people and the animals he wished to preserve in a vessel that could withstand the flood conditions before, during and after the 150 days of the primary flood stage.
2) Keep enough aquatic life, insects and other organisms alive to repopulate the globe with a viable ecosystem.
3) Destroy the former world using flood waters, earthquakes and volcanic activity so that the previous works of men would be unavailable to the survivors.
Genesis 6:9-22 - 9 This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress [a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. [b] 16 Make a roof for it and finish [c] the ark to within 18 inches [d] of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them."
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
So God brought forth the flood, beginning with 40 days and 40 nights of rain.
Genesis 7:11 & 12 - "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights."
HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Here is where it gets trickier. God caused it to rain for 40 days and 40 nights. In addition, water that was under the earth was released in association with earthquakes and volcanic activity. The one continent was not simply immersed, but was ripped asunder and completely redone. The surface of the earth was largely washed away and laid down again in sedimentary layers. Some layering would have taken place at the beginning of the flood events as much of the ocean's floors were subducted during the continental division. Flood waters layed down sediments, underwater avalanches produced sediment flows and volcanic activity and earthquakes played a part.
Most dwellers of the oceans floors would be buried in the first waves of sediment. The more developed animals would have been better equipped to evade the disaster in some areas, although quickly buried in mudslides and avalanches in others. Some would survive the first onslaughts but all would be eventually overcome. The fossil record is one of quick, catastrophic burials of every kind of living organism.
The ocean, which was not likely nearly as saline as the ocean's today, was inundated with new, fresh waters from underground. The waters, heated above normal temperatures, helped to cause the entire surface of the planet to be liquid water with no ice formation. The brackish waters would be likely a bit less saline than had been previously and more saline than the fresh waters that were available. Some fish varieties would be able to withstand the difference and some would not.
Large floating islands of vegetable debris would provide a haven for some insects, for seeds, for other organisms. No doubt many of these varieties of life would also become extinct during the flood. But some types did survive. Much of the plant life found on earth would be buried and the intense heat and pressures of the flood events would help form vast pools of crude oil under the new earth.
As the continents divided and the ocean floors deepened and new, taller mountain formations appeared, the dry land began to emerge. Some new sediment deposits could occur. Minerals from under the ground and those on the earth began to leach into the new oceans. Rivulets, and then canyons, would form in the new sedimentary layers of the earth, carving spectacular formations in the process.
It was over a year's time from the beginning of the Noahic journey that Noah and the rest of the Ark's passengers would have, er, dismembarked. Littered over the countryside would be plant life newly begun, some not-so-fresh carcasses of every kind, clumps of dead plant matter everywhere. It would have been like stepping out onto a new planet.
New continents, new oceans, new climates. Oddly, the somewhat warmer ocean temperatures would produce much more moisture in the upper climes during the winters, so that great quantities of snow would fall and in fact glaciation largely from snowfall and of course bodies of water left behind by the flood would produce an ice age, and said glaciation was fed by large amounts of winter snowfall for undetermined years. Polar ice caps formed as the ocean temperatures normalized. Soon the dryer winters would leave to the melting of the glaciation that covered much of the temperate regions. The still-new rock layers would be more easily cut by running waters. The shifting of the new earth would make rock layers bend and fold like taffy, leaving spectacular formations for modern man to observe in wonder.
There were apparently many land bridges available for the spread of animal life that are no longer there. In fact, some processes since the flood have changed the world considerably. Today's ocean is far more saline than that of the floodwaters. Waters running off of the earth would have added more sodium and other minerals to the water. Over time, the aquatic life able to adjust to saltier water would survive. Even today, waters become more saline in the oceans. Meanwhile, the available inland seas and rivers are freshwater. Yet Salmon are born in the freshwaters, head out to sea in saltwater to live, come back to the fresh headwaters of their birth to spawn. It is not amazing to think that the floodwaters, mixed from ocean and fresh and underground stores, would have kept many kinds of fishes and other aquatic creatures alive.
Once the animals of the Ark were free to go, they spread over the available earth, some varieties not adjusting well to the post-flood conditions and the presence of man...and enmity with him.
Genesis 9:1-7 - 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."
Had God kept a certain relationship between animals and mankind before the flood? Had man been designed as a vegetarian race and had animals lacked fear of mankind? Had it been yet another sin against God for a man to kill and eat meat? These verses suggest that this had been the case. Thus whereas a predatory cat of the Lion kind would have been no threat to mankind previously, and vice versa, now a new paradigm had been entered into in the world. God would permit the slaughter and consumption of animals, but he would also put a fear of man into those same animals, giving them a fighting chance, as it were, to survive even if hunted.
Among the animals brought into the Ark were dinosaurs, according to the evidence. That will be an entire posting later on. But the Bible records the existence of saurians hundreds of years after the Flood and all peoples around the world have records of interactions with dinosaurs. Now with a new fear of man linked with a tendency to see man as game, dinosaurs would have become both hunter and hunted. No longer would Fred Flintstone be glad when Dino knocked him to the ground, for Dino was likely going for his neck!
Few things bring on more ridicule from macroevolutionists than the idea of dinosaurs co-existing with mankind. It of course does not fit the idea that dinosaurs actually evolved into other creatures. I remember reading a long article in the pre-computer days (wish I could find it now) in which the author laid out his case for Tyrannosaurus Rex evolving into a Robin. I took delight in watching a few Robins tilting their heads, listening for worms, getting ready to peck. T. Rex had certainly downsized!
But from the fossil records it seems quite clear that dinosaurs were among the most numerous of pre-flood wildlife. It only makes sense that God would have their kinds represented in the next world. Particularly in a world that would have so many new ecosystems in so many new places. Dinosaurs may have played an important part in the world of our ancestors. But then eventually they became a scourge to be destroyed, as historical records tell us.
This post contains a great deal of general information. One specific post to come will discuss the salinity of ocean water and one will go over evidences for the existence of dinosaurs both during and after the flood. Other posts will come from the discourse that habitually follows as commenters challenge statements and ask for other evidences or more specific references. It should be an interesting topic.