"When you change the meaning of the Genesis account from a worldwide flood to a local flood, you must also change the meaning of the reported size of the ark – or at least its purpose. When you change the meaning of the reported size of the ark or its purpose, you must also change the meaning of the number and type of animals that boarded it. When you change the meaning of the number and type of animals that boarded it, you must also change the purpose for which the ark was built in the first place. When you change the purpose for which the ark was built in the first place, you must also change the meaning of the words of the God who conceived the flood. And when you change the meaning the words of the God who conceived the flood, you’re swimming in some treacherous water...."

Introduction

I would like to affirm something to you before I begin my message this morning.

I believe this book. (Hold up the Bible)

This is the word of God. It’s history, its claims, yes, and even its descriptions of miracles are true. This book is the sole basis for true Christian faith. For this book and the faith that comes from it, I make no apology. This book will be the basis of judgment for me and for you in the future. I have staked the direction of both my earthly life and my eternal life on my faith in this book and the God who inspired it. Whenever I speak to you from this pulpit, it will be from this book. Whenever you ask my advice, whatever I say, to the very best of my ability to understand, will be in harmony with this book. I have determined that I will put no other earthly possession on the same high level as I place this book - the word of God.

Probably most of you who know me find nothing in these words to be a surprise. In fact, probably most of you could and would, if needed, make the same affirmation. Yet we live in a sometimes strange world where many of those who claim the Name of Christ do not hold these views as they once did – especially when declarations from this book don’t seem to match the popular thinking of the world. Some do this deliberately. Some do it because for them the meaning of the Bible has been steadily eroded by those who make it their business to try to chip away at its credibility.

One great example of not holding to the teachings of this book, I am convinced, centers around the nature and historicity of the great flood described in the book of Genesis. Let’s take a moment to read a portion of the Bible’s description of it. The following words are from Genesis 7:17-23:

17 Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days; and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. 18 And the water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. 20 The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; 22 of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. 23 Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.

Despite the clarity of these verses there are people who profess Christ today who say that the flood described in Genesis did not have the magnitude that these verses declare. They say it was only a local event confined to a region somewhere in the vicinity of Mesopotamia. They contend, despite the apparent meaning of these words, that the flood described here:

How can someone possibly hold such views given the clear meaning of these verses? The answer does not come from Scripture. Rather, it comes from a desire to harmonize the claims of the Bible with prevailing popular opinions. Apparently some believers, unwilling to be ostracized for holding things that the world has rejected, or perhaps desiring to bridge the gap between believers and unbelievers, consider it their job to try to make the Bible harmonize with the changing views of modern science – an endeavor which, while probably sometimes well intentioned, almost always ends up distorting the meaning of the scripture.

What the Bible actually says and means is supposed to be the final authority in the life of Christian people - even when the world doesn't agree. In this message I want to ask and answer a simple, basic question: Is it possible to fit the claim of a local flood in Noah’s day into the Scriptural account of the flood that we have in Genesis and other passages? I will show you that to try to do so presents some very serious problems regarding what the Bible says. There are too many of these problems for me to cover in this message, so what I have to say will spill over into a second message that I hope to bring to you next Lord’s Day.

So what are the problems with trying to fit a local flood into the Bible's account of the Great Flood? There are at least eleven of them. We'll cover six in this message.

Problem #1: The Need for an Ark.

If the Flood was local, why did Noah have to build an Ark? Knowing, as he did, what was coming ahead of time, he could simply have walked to the other side of the mountains at the appropriate time and missed the whole thing.

Genesis 6:1-3

6:1 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

Genesis 6:13-18

13 Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. 14 Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 And behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.

According to the text in Genesis, God decreed the end of mankind 120 years before the flood came. If God intended only a local flood of some region of Mesopotamia, why didn’t He just move Noah and his family to safer ground sometime before the fateful day? Why go to all the trouble of building an elaborate boat to save them?

You might recall that when God destroyed Sodom, He evacuated Abraham's nephew, Lot. He moved him to safe ground. He didn't have him build an asbestos fortress. This was probably because the fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was a local event. It was far more practical (and possible) to move Lot and his family out of Sodom to safety.

Had the flood in Noah's day been merely local, God could simply have sent some angels (as in Lot's case) and led Noah and his family to safety outside the area to be flooded. They could surely have walked nearly anywhere in 120 years to a safer spot if the flood was to be local. There was plenty of time. Yet God left Noah right where he was and commanded the building of a ridiculously huge boat – a seaworthy craft, probably larger than any sea-going vessel ever made up to that time. If the flood was local, why build an ark?

Problem #2: The Need to Collect Animals.

If the Flood was local, why did God send the animals of every kind to the Ark so they could escape death? There would certainly have been other animals in distant regions to reproduce most of them if these particular ones died.

Or, similar to what I have already pointed out, God could have sent any special pairs of animals needed to perpetuate their kind away from the area to be flooded. Surely if He could miraculously bring them to the ark, He could miraculously send them away – out of the area to be flooded. Yet here is what the text says…

Genesis 6:19-20

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive.

A local flood would make the story of gathering animals of every kind to board the ark meaningless if not ridiculous.

"Oh, but you don’t understand," someone might say, "It was only the domesticated animals God commanded to be loaded onto the ark. God was concerned that many years of man’s domestication efforts would be set back by a local flood. So it was simply cows, goats, ducks, rabbits, chickens, and other tame animals that boarded the ark with Noah. Kind of a floating farmhouse, so to speak."

So where in the text does it say that? My Bible reads, "every living thing of all flesh," and "two of every kind." There is not a single adjective appended to the mention of the animals that would lead us to believe Noah was to gather only domesticated animals. You would need to add something to the text to get that meaning – which is precisely what making a local flood claim does.

Genesis 7:21-23 says,

21 And all flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; 22 of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. 23 Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth;

Not a single mention of domestication in these verses. And if "all flesh" was to perish, then representatives of "all flesh" would need to be represented aboard the ark.

If you’ll check you’ll discover that this passage uses the same terminology to describe the animals that died in the flood as is used in Genesis 1 to describe the animals that God created in the first place. If only domestic animals died in the flood, then did God create only domestic animals during the creation? It’s a fair question of interpretation that must be answered. On this point alone – the statement that "every living thing" that breathed died in the flood – the issue of a local versus a worldwide flood is clear. Involvement of "all flesh that moved" and "all mankind" could only be the case in a flood of worldwide proportions.

Problem #3: The Size of the Ark.

If the Flood was local, why was the Ark so big? If God wanted Noah to go for a boat ride to make a point, a local flood could have been handled by a much smaller vessel with much less effort involved in building it. A local flood would not require a large, seaworthy craft, neither would it need to be big enough to carry enough animals to repopulate the whole earth.

Genesis 6:15-17

15 And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.

To understand these dimensions we need to know the size of a "cubit." According to Henry M. Morris, writing in The Genesis Record," the ancient Babylonians had a royal cubit about 19.8 inches long. The Egyptians had a long and a short cubit of about 20.65 inches and 17.6 inches, respectively. The Hebrews apparently had a long cubit of 20.4 inches (see Ezekiel 40:5 for mention of the Hebrew cubit) and a common cubit of 17.5 inches. Another common ancient "cubit" was 24 inches. Most writers believe that the Biblical cubit was about 18 inches – about the length of a man’s forearm.

Thus, we have an ark somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 feet long by 75 feet wide by 45 feet tall. To help us envision that size, that would be length of the playing area of a football field and a half. That’s a pretty big vessel for surviving only a local flood. It’s also a very big boat for holding only local varieties of animals or only domestic ones. In fact, a boat of such enormous size makes the claim of a local flood seem ridiculous – or, said the other way, the claim of a local flood makes the size of the ark described in Genesis seem ridiculous.

Some who disagree counter this, though. From their perspective, they suggest that though the large ark wasn’t necessary for their survival and was far too large for a local flood, it was intended to be a great object lesson to Noah’s generation – a kind of big, impressive "pulpit" for Noah’s preaching. The purpose of the large ark, they say, was to make a large point. To that I would simply say that if God is into presenting claims larger than He is actually willing to back up by His actions, what should we think of the other great warnings of Scripture? What about the end of the whole world by fire that Peter speaks of in the New Testament. Does God promise to destroy the whole world by fire but only intend a weenie roast? Does God cry "wolf" when He only means "Chihuahua?"

"Oh, but the ark couldn’t have been that big," someone says. "Why, four men (Noah and his sons) could never have managed such a project by themselves."

Who said they worked by themselves? Genesis doesn’t say that. It is fully reasonable to believe they probably hired help just as anyone might do today. After all, they had 120 years to complete the project. Over that time they could have employed hundreds of men. Just because Noah’s contemporaries did not heed his preaching doesn’t mean they would be unwilling to take a construction job with a reliable salary from an honest man like Noah who lived in a world where his neighbors were corrupt.

Do we see a pattern developing here? When you change the meaning of the Genesis account from a worldwide flood to a local flood, you must also change the meaning of the reported size of the ark – or at least its purpose. When you change the meaning of the reported size of the ark or its purpose, you must also change the meaning of the number and type of animals that boarded it. When you change the meaning of the number and type of animals that boarded it, you must also change the purpose for which the ark was built in the first place. When you change the purpose for which the ark was built in the first place, you must also change the meaning of the words of the God who conceived the flood. And when you change the meaning the words of the God who conceived the flood, you may find yourself swimming in some treacherous water.

But we’re only getting started with the problems that arise when you try to change the meaning of the account of the worldwide flood of Noah’s day into just a local event. There is also:

Problem #4: The Need to Collect Birds.

If the Flood was only local, why would birds need to be brought on board the ark? In a local deluge, these could simply have winged their way across to a nearby mountain range to escape. Birds aren’t usually destroyed in a local flood unless they are varieties that cannot fly.

Genesis 6:19-20 says,

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive.

Why bother with birds if what was coming was only a local flood?

Problem #5: The Depth of the Flood.

If the flood was only local, how could the waters rise to 15 cubits (22.5 feet) above the mountains? Water always seeks its own level. It doesn’t stand and collect in mid air. It couldn’t rise to cover the local mountains while leaving the rest of the world with areas of lower elevation untouched. Nor would it even reach the level of the tops of the local mountains until in inundated all areas that were lower.

Genesis 7:19-20 says,

19 And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. 20 The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.

A flood that covered the highest mountains would necessitate a deluge of much greater proportion than any local flood.

Problem #6: The Duration of the Flood.

Many people who are unfamiliar with the Genesis account, having heard only of the "forty days and forty nights" of the rain, have little trouble accepting the idea of a local flood. After all, that’s a lot of rain, but it surely isn’t enough to cover the whole earth! And if that were all that Genesis says, they might be right. However, a little less than a month and a half of rain was only the beginning. I’ll say more about the source of the water later. According to Genesis, the duration of the flood, from the first drops of rain that fell until the earth was declared "dry" was a little over one year.

As to the beginning of the flood, Genesis 7:11 says,

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

As to the end of the great flood, Genesis 8:13-14 says,

13 Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

If my math is correct, from seventeenth day of the second month of the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life until the twenty seventh day of the second month of the six-hundred and first year of Noah’s life is about 370 days.

Living in our day of 24-hour cable news, most of us can get round the clock coverage of devastating local floods all around the world. Can you remember ever hearing of a local flood lasting all year? That would mean it went through spring, summer, winter, and fall and back to spring again. I can’t remember such a flood, either. That’s because local floods don’t last that long. They usually last for a matter of days or weeks and not a full year. News coverage of the trial of OJ Simpson or Scott Peterson might last for a year as the media extracts every last bit of sensationalism from them, but local floods just don’t last that long.

So to make a local flood fit into the account of Genesis we would have to alter what the Bible says about the duration of the flood, too.

Whenever a certain view of Scripture demands a lot of altering of what the text says, I become concerned, don't you?

Conclusion

Let’s see now… So far we have six problems that occur when you try to fit a local flood into the Genesis account of the Great Flood of Noah’s day:

"OK. So what?" someone asks. "What difference does it make whether the flood was local or worldwide? It happened a long time ago. Surely it doesn't effect my faith today, does it? Can't I be a Christian and believe in a local flood? Why interject something else for people to disagree about?"

Believe me, if the only issue at stake here was our understanding of an ancient bit of history, I would drop this subject right away. But it isn't the only issue. As I will show you in next week's message, it does impact our lives today in that what we believe about it will effect our understanding of some critical passages of the New Testament. Please stay tuned.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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