The Science of Creation and the Flood Introduction to Lesson 12 How long did the flood last on the earth? Conditions on the earth after the Flood are discussed. DARWIN S DEADLY LEGACY presents the social impact on our culture after nearly 150 years of the Darwinian evolutionary theory. Conclusion The final lesson will close out the Flood narrative, giving the exact duration of the flood waters on the earth. The environment was changed. The earth was beginning to vegetate after much destruction. The world was harsh, and vegetation scarce. For the very first time permission is given to eat meat. Land bridges remained connecting the now separating continents. The animals and man would be free to roam over the earth via these land bridges for a few more years while repopulating the earth. As they roamed abroad, man would first live in caves for shelter, and later congregate into villages. Accept for tools brought on the Ark, man would begin simply, using stone tools, like is usually depicted for cavemen. Eventually man would disperse around the world, forming in small isolated groups, and in doing so would begin to take on distinctive characteristic that we identify as race. Whatever genes were dealt to these individual groups would eventually result in the variations in mankind we see today. It can be shown that man s skull continues to grow throughout his life, in particular the brow ridge. When we look at Neanderthal skeletons we see the increase in the brow ridge that may be attributed to longevity. Is it possible that Neanderthal lived to extreme ages, similar to what we see in the Bible? One man, Dr. Jack Cuozzo, a dentist, believes that this is the case after studying the fossil skulls of Neanderthal. The conditions after the flood showed that man s longevity, while tapering off, was still long by today s standards. Jack Cuozzo demonstrates in his book the differences between a skull of a Neanderthal child and that of the adult we are more accustomed seeing. To produce the brow ridge change from child to adult that we see in Neanderthal, compared with skull changes in modern man, requires greater longevity. 1 The Bible attests to man s extreme pre-flood longevity, and shows that it tapered off after the Flood until the life expectancy we see today. Is Neanderthal evidence for the longevity rates we see in Genesis? DARWIN S DEADLY LEGACY Video. 1 Jack Cuozzo, BURIED ALIVE, The Startling Truth About Neanderthal Man, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 1998, 155-189. 1
CREATION NOTES LESSON 12 THE FLOOD IS FINISHED Genesis 8:4 1. "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." a. Ararat = Greek Armenia. The words only say that the Ark landed somewhere on the mountains of Ararat. The 1 st century Jewish historian Flaveous Josephus confirms that the Ark landed on the top of a certain mountain in Armenia. Josephus also records that many historians, which he had access to, record the same things and that the Ark was still to be seen on the mountain in his day. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, I.iii.5,6). Couple this with the many sightings of the Ark preserved in ice reported today. Treacherous terrain, bad weather, adverse political climate, ice, and vicious bandits hamper expeditions to the Ark. Modern expeditions have so far been inconclusive. The Ark today is supposedly broken up into two parts, which occurred during a massive earthquake in the region some years ago. b. The Ark rested - This is the second use of the word rest. Genesis 2:2-3 says that God rested from His creative works. Note this: On the Jewish calendar Passover is the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, the very day of the calendar that the Ark had rested on mount Ararat. John 19:20 says that Christ finished His work of salvation. Christ arose in three days and rested from His atoning work on the cross the very day on the Jewish calendar that the Ark of Noah came to rest on Ararat. Genesis 8:5-7 2. "And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth." a. The raven, being a scavenger bird, would probably have no problem finding food floating on the waters. Genesis 8:8-9 3. "Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark." a. The dove, being a clean bird, would not land on, or eat, unclean carcasses that may have been floating on the water. Genesis 8:10-11 4. "And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." a. Vegetation, seedlings, began to sprout again on the earth. 2
Genesis 8:12-14 5. "And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried." a. Between the 1 st month and the 27 th day of the 2 nd month. There must have still been considerable water and mud because in verse 14 we find that Noah waited another 57 days before leaving the Ark. b. At 601 Noah was now beginning his seventh century, his Sabbath, his rest, his millennium. As Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was raptured, the world now is approaching its seventh millennium from creation. There were six days of creation and God rested on the seventh. 6+1. Now take a look at Exodus 24:16: i. EXO 24:16 And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. (a) Moses was called up to the mountain of God, and for six days a cloud covered the mountain, and the seventh day he went to God and stayed there 40 days. 6+1. (b) In Revelation there are seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials, each consisting of six similar things and the seventh different. 6+1. c. How long was the Flood? i. GEN 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. ii. iii. GEN 8:13 And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. GEN 8:14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. 601 st year 2 nd month 27 th day 600 th year 2 nd month 17 th day 1 year 0 months 10 days + 1 day (including the first day) that is 360 days + 10 days + 1 day = 371 days. 6. Noah was in his 600 th year, the 2 nd month and 17 th day when the Flood began and they entered the Ark. a. He was now in his 601 st year, and it was now the 2 nd month and the 27 th day. So they were in the Ark 371 days altogether. (Morris, The Genesis Flood, p. 3) 3
Genesis 8:15-16 7. "And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee." a. God said come in Genesis 7:1, now He says, go. God is still with them in the Ark. Christ says, come in Matthew 11:28, and in Mark 16:15 He says go. b. The Ark has been like the Great Shepherd with Christ as the door through which we find salvation, and from there, go forth to labor in the harvest. Genesis 8:17 8. "Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth." a. All the animals were to be fruitful and multiply. b. Land bridges exposed by the lower sea level because of the water trapped in the ice age glaciers, mentioned earlier, would assure that all areas of land were reachable by both animal and man during this period. The ice age would have probably lasted for several hundred or a thousand years. In addition, the land mass may have been tightly fit together like a puzzle; which may have rapidly separated, during the time of Peleg, into the continents as we know them today. Genesis 10:25 says, "And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided." Peleg means canalled by water, divided, or earthquake. (Strong s; They Came From Babel) i. It may refer to the scattering of people during the dispersion at the tower of Babel. This is possible and indeed may be the correct view, however, in the absence of further evidence, I favor the possibility that the earth began to separate and divide during the Flood, and continued to divide until the time of Peleg; at which time only land bridges remained. The mountains would have continued to be pushed up due to the land movements. This accounts for the fact that Noah s Ark, if at the 15,000 foot level of Mt. Ararat would not have been possible otherwise given the Earth s total water volume. The earth would have probably stabilized by 700 BC. c. Climate and environmental changes would promote variation within each kind to allow them to adapt; but not new kinds, not evolution. This variation within limits is permitted in the genetic code of each kind. Some animals, especially the large dinosaurs, would not be able to adapt to the new environment and would become extinct. There would not be enough oxygen and atmospheric pressure for their relatively small lungs; and also not enough food. Genesis 8:18 9. "And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:" a. They went forth into a barren world strewn with rotting carcasses and bones, with vegetation just renewing itself. b. The weather was now changeable and unpredictable, different from the warm even climate they were used to. The atmospheric pressure was now about half of pre-flood levels, together with increased UV radiation, since the vapor canopy was gone. Man would begin to age more rapidly and would not experience the longevity he previously had. c. Noah was born again into a new world, just as we experience the new birth in Christ. 4
Genesis 8:19 10. "Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark." a. At this juncture in man s history, it would have been natural for him to live in caves as cavemen, using stone implements. Likewise, future families migrating away from Babel would also live in caves in their new lands. This explains the cavemen. Many early settlers in America first lived in a dugout until a sod home was built. Genesis 8:20 11. "And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." a. This required faith for Noah to give a seventh of his flocks to God. Genesis 8:21 12. "And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done." a. The incense of Noah s offering was an intercession for us all, from which we have all benefited. b. God is not removing the curse of Genesis 3:17, but only promising that no worldwide judgment will come until the Great Tribulation. c. The judgment of the tribulation will be torment, not death, until Christ returns for the final battle (Revelation 9:1-6; 16:1-21). The wrath of God is torment, not death. God doesn t need to kill man; man will kill man (Revelation 6:4, 8). Men kill people with war and other means; all a result of man's inhumanity toward man. d. The evidence of the Creation, the Fall, and the Flood is everywhere to be seen, but man is willfully ignorant (dumb on purpose) as Peter said in 1 Peter 3:5. Man prefers a world of his own making, without God. But Peter also says in 1 Peter 3:9 that God is long-suffering, waiting 120 years for man to repent before bringing the Flood. He has now waited 2000 years, since sending His Son, for this wicked generation to turn toward Him. Genesis 8:22 13. "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." a. The principles of uniformity were established by God, after the Flood, in His promise. Evolutionists, rejecting God, would say that all has been uniform from the beginning of time (2 Pet 3:4). The evolutionist willfully forgets the Flood and thus avoids the necessity of acknowledging God (2 Pet 3:5). b. The earth will finally be destroyed by fire (2m Pet 3:12). After this, the earth will once more be restored (Revelation 21:1, 22:1-5). Genesis 9:1-6 14. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the 5
fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." a. Capital punishment - Justice must be severe and swift. Genesis 9:7-17 15. "And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth." a. Reflect again on what Peter said in 2 Peter 3:7-18. 6