“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household”
HEBREWS ch.11 v.7
Noah’s flood - Local or global?
Some Christians today see Noah’s flood as being merely a localised catastrophe in the area known as Mesopotamia. They are persuaded to adopt this view, not by Scripture, but by recent geological findings around the edges of the Black Sea. There is ample evidence in the Bible to demolish this misconception. Noah’s flood was most definitely global!
Why didn’t Noah migrate?
Had the flood been local, then all Noah needed to do was to migrate out of the area to a region that would be beyond the boundaries of the intended flood. God had, after all, given such a warning to Lot in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. ‘So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law ... and said, " GET UP, GET OUT OF THIS PLACE; for the LORD will destroy this city!" But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.’ Travelling at 20 km per day (12 miles) 6 days each week, Noah and his family would have put some 3,744 miles between them and the Black Sea in the space of 1 year!
Why didn’t the animals migrate?
Likewise, if the flood was local, all that was needed was for the animals to vacate the region and move to safer ground. This desire to migrate could have been given to the various creatures by the Lord Himself. He did so to the creatures when they CAME to the ark. Noah didn’t search for the animals: they CAME to him. ‘There CAME two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah’ - Darby Translation
Why go to the trouble of building an ark?
Bible chronology seems to indicate Noah took at least 100 years to complete the ark. It was literally a huge undertaking. It was only in 1884, when the Cunard liner Eturia was launched, that the ark was beaten for size. It was totally unnecessary to devote so much time to ark-building when, as stated above, a year’s march could have taken then well beyond the flood zone
Why make the ark so big?
The enormous size of the ark (450 feet x 75 feet x 45 feet) had the equivalent volume to 500 railroad freight wagons. This sizeable volume would be totally unnecessary to carry the small numbers of creatures living in the Black Sea area
The downpour was miraculous
Genesis 7:12 ‘And the pour of rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights’ - The sustained and unrelenting downpour lasted almost 6 weeks! This would result in a flood coverage greater than the Mesopotamian region. Such unremitting rainfall is unknown today.
The expressions used in Scripture indicate it went beyond a local scene
‘And the flood was forty days on the earth ... And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth; and ALL the high mountains that are under ALL the heavens were covered’ - Genesis 7:17-19. The double superlative, ‘ALL the high mountains that are under ALL the heavens’ would indicate global extent.
The water was exceedingly high
‘The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered’ - Genesis 7:20. The highest mountain was covered by 6.75 metres. We know that water seeks its own level. It could not rise to cover the local mountains while leaving the rest of the world untouched!
Birds of a feather fly together
Noah was commanded to take ‘... and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort’ - Genesis 7:14. Why did Noah need to take birds onboard? They only needed to fly beyond the flood-boundary mountain ranges.
