Sunday, August 13, 2017

The Worldwide Flood


The Worldwide Flood


The worldwide flood, sometimes referred to as Noah’s flood has been rejected by liberal theologians and modern secular science and viewed as a “biblical myth or fairy” comparable to Jesus walking on water or God creating the universe in 6 days.

Is there any evidence that the biblical flood story actually happened?

Many Christians would say that the best evidence for the biblical flood is the bible itself. Jesus and the apostles referred to Noah and the flood.

Matthew 24:37-39 (NASB)
37  "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.
38  "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39  and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Luke 17:26-27 (NASB)
26  "And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27  they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Hebrews 11:7 (NASB)
7  By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.  


1 Peter 3:20 (NASB)
20  who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

2 Peter 3:5-6 (NASB)
5  For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
6  through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

2 Peter 2:4-5 (NASB)
4  For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5  and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;


Ok, but is there any non biblical evidence of a worldwide flood?

According to Dr. Duane Gish, PhD, University of California, Berkeley 1953 in his popular book Dinosaurs by Design, there are more than 270 such stories, most of which share a common theme and similar characters. So many flood stories with such similarities surely come from the Flood of Noah’s day.

A wealth of deluge legends
MESOPOTAMIAN  Tablets excavated from Iraq recount the myths of ancient Mesopotamia. They speak of a vanished culture in Sumer and of a king Gilgamesh. He was renowned for his great wisdom and knowledge. Gilgamesh related the story of a worldwide flood. This was told to him by Utnapishtim, a king of a pre-flood civilisation and a survivor of the catastrophe.
The story relates that Ea, lord of the waters and man’s guardian, warned Utnapishtim of the deluge by which the gods planned to exterminate mankind. Ea told Utnapishtim to “tear down your house and build a boat” and to “take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures. … each side of the deck measured one hundred and twenty cubits, making a square”. There were seven decks in all. The flood itself was frightening and full of fury. Utnapishtim recounted that ‘the god of the storm turned daylight to darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup’. Once the tempest had subsided, Utnapishtim ‘looked at the face of the world and there was silence, all mankind was returned to clay. The surface of the sea stretched flat as a rooftop … on every side was the waste of water’. Utnapishtim loosed a dove who returned finding no resting place, and then a swallow with the same result. Finally, a loosed raven did not return. The boat came to ground on a mountaintop and Utnapishtim offered a sacrifice.
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS  The North American Indians have several flood stories. One from the Choctaw tribe tells how, long ago, men became so corrupt that the Great Spirit destroyed them in a flood. Only one man was saved—a prophet whose warnings the people disregarded, and whom the Great Spirit then directed to build a raft from sassafras logs. After many weeks, a small bird guided the prophet to an island where the Great Spirit changed the bird into a beautiful woman who became the wife of the prophet. Their children then repopulated the world.
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL FLOOD STORIES  Likewise, there are several Australian Aboriginal flood stories. One tells how, long ago, there was a flood that covered the mountains so that many of the Nurrumbunguttias, or spirit men and women, were drowned. Others, including Pund-jil, were caught up by a whirlwind into the sky. When the waters receded, and the mountains appeared again, and the sea went back into its own place, the son and daughter of Pund-jil ‘went back to earth and became the first of the true men and women who live in the world today’.
ANCIENT CHINESE  Early Jesuit scholars were the first Europeans to gain access to the Chinese ‘book of all knowledge’ from ancient times. This 4,320-volume collection told of the repercussions of mankind’s rebellion against the gods: “The Earth was shaken to its foundations. The sky sank lower towards the north. The sun, moon, and stars changed their motions. The Earth fell to pieces and the waters in its bosom rushed upwards with violence and overflowed the Earth.”
Another story, in the folklore of the Bahnars, a primitive tribe of Cochin, China, tells of how the rivers swelled “till the waters reached the sky, and all living beings perished except two, a brother and a sister, who were saved in a huge chest. They took with them into the chest a pair of every sort of animal …”.
EGYPT  Flood stories from the continent of Africa are rare, but one from Egypt tells of an ancient creation god, Tem, who “was responsible for the primeval flood, which covered the entire earth and destroyed all of mankind except those in Tem’s boat”.
PERU  The Incas of Peru also had a tradition of a deluge. “They said that the water rose above the highest mountains in the world, so that all people and all created things perished. No living thing escaped except a man and a woman, who floated in a box on the face of the waters and so were saved.”
SCANDINAVIA  The stories of the Teutonic tribes of Scandinavia are vivid and describe terrifying events. The imagery of these legends emphasizes the size of the cataclysm. One such tale portrays the chaos of the world when the mighty wolf Fenrir shook himself and “made the whole world tremble. The aged ash tree Yggdrasil [envisaged as the axis of the earth] was shaken from its roots to its topmost branches. Mountains crumbled or split from top to bottom … ”. Men “were driven from their hearths and the human race was swept from the surface of the earth. The earth itself was beginning to lose its shape. Already the stars were coming adrift from the sky and falling into the gaping void. … Flames spurted from fissures in the rocks; everywhere there was the hissing of steam. All living things, all plant life, were blotted out. … And now all the rivers, all the seas rose and overflowed. From every side waves lashed against waves. They swelled and boiled and slowly covered all things. The earth sank beneath the sea …”. Then slowly “the earth emerged from the waves. Mountains rose anew … . Men also reappeared. … Enclosed in the wood itself of the ash tree Yggdrasil … the ancestors of a future race of men had escaped death.”
SOUTHWEST TANZANIA Once upon a time the rivers began to flood. The god told two people to get into a ship. He told them to take lots of seed and to take lots of animals. The water of the flood eventually covered the mountains. Finally the flood stopped. Then one of the men, wanting to know if the water had dried up let a dove loose. The dove returned. Later he let loose a hawk which did not return. Then the men left the boat and took the animals and the seeds with them.
INDIA  A long time ago lived a man named Manu. Manu, while washing himself, saved a small fish from the jaws of a large fish. The fish told Manu, "If you care for me until I am full grown I will save you from terrible things to come". Manu asked what kind of terrible things. The fish told Manu that a great flood would soon come and destroy everything on the earth. The fish told Manu to put him in a clay jar for protection. The fish grew and each time he outgrew the clay jar Manu gave him a larger one. Finally the fish became a ghasha, one of the largest fish in the world. The fish instructed Manu to build a large ship since the flood was going to happen very soon. As the rains started Manu tied a rope from the ship to the ghasha. The fish guided the ship as the waters rose. The whole earth was covered by water. When the waters began subsiding the ghasha led Manu's ship to a mountaintop.
MEXICO The Toltec natives have a legend telling that the original creation lasted for 1716 years, and was destroyed by a flood and only one family survived.
Aztec- A man named Tapi lived a long time ago. Tapi was a very pious man. The creator told Tapi to build a boat that he would live in. He was told that he should take his wife, a pair of every animal that was alive into this boat. Naturally everyone thought he was crazy. Then the rain started and the flood came. The men and animals tried to climb the mountains but the mountains became flooded as well. Finally the rain ended.
Tapi decided that the water had dried up when he let a dove loose that did not return.

In fact, literally hundreds of flood traditions have been preserved all over the world, with traditions abounding in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, as well as both of the Americas, and the Genesis account shares similarities with most of them. Of the flood traditions which have survived to the present time, about 95% describe a global cataclysmic deluge, 88% tell of a favored family of humans saved from drowning to reestablish the human race after the deluge, 66% say the family was forewarned of the coming cataclysm, 66% blame the wickedness of man for the deluge, and 70% record a boat as being the means by which the chosen family (and animals) survived the flood. More than one third of these traditions mention birds being sent out from the boat.
Why would hundreds of totally separate people groups in all continents of the world have knowledge, distorted as it may be, of a flood which destroys all humanity except for one family which is saved in a floating object?



What about scientific evidence?
Massive Fossil “Boneyards” All Over the World
“….Massive fossil graveyards of dinosaurs still exist all over the world. The Morrison beds in North America, the dinosaur beds in Montana, in the Rocky Mountains, in Alberta, the Dakotas, China, Colorado, Utah, Africa, etc., etc., contain literally millions of dinosaur fossils piled together in tremendous heaps. Ten thousand Hadrosaurs were found on Egg Mountain alone, jumbled together in what appears to have been a mass death. Would this happen under normal, uniformitarian conditions?
Think about it.
Millions of buffalo were slaughtered on the North American plains during the last century, so this should be an ideal reason why multiplied thousands of fossil buffalo should be scattered all over the place.
Are there any great buffalo fossil graveyards to be found? Most assuredly, there are not. Their remains were disposed of by the normal ravages of the weather, scavengers, and decomposition. So why are there great fossil graveyards of dinosaurs, where the bones of millions of these beasts lie entombed in vast heaps, together with the piles of fossilized mammals, fish, insects, plants etc., testifying that they all perished together in a great mass death?

HOW FOSSILS ARE FORMED….. Let us find out what modern science has to say about the process of fossilization.
“Effective fossilization usually depends on having hard parts, such as bones or shells, and being buried immediately after death. The work of predators and scavengers and the weathering effects of rain, heat, cold, and wind often serve to destroy most or all of an organism before burial takes place.”
“Once an organism dies, it is seldom buried immediately …. . .The point of ultimate burial and fossilization may be hundreds of miles from the place of death.”
Science gives us three conditions necessary for the preservation of fossils.  
First, an organism must have hard parts like teeth, bones and shells that are preserved, but that is not all that is necessary, (else we would find numerous buffalo fossils in North America).
Second, they further state: “ the organism must not be destroyed immediately by other organisms or by the action of climatic or geologic forces.
Third, the organism must be protected immediately from decaying. This usually takes the form of rapid burial, which also protects the organism from being totally destroyed.”
What natural occurrence then could account for the great dinosaur graveyards under these conditions, simultaneously killing and burying multitudes of dinosaurs, mammals, birds, fish, etc. in huge numbers, many of them apparently dying in the prime of life, some of them caught in the very act of eating smaller animals that became preserved as fossils too?
It had to be something sudden, to kill them in what appears in many cases to be an unnatural, violent death; it was something universal that destroyed them in every part of the earth at roughly the same period in history; it was something that swiftly covered them up to “mummify” their remains so that the normal exposure to water or air and other predations wouldn’t obliterate their remains, and it did this on a massive scale to create such numerous and extensive fossil graveyards.
There are vast fossil graveyards found on every continent and large amounts of coal deposits that would require the rapid covering of vast quantities of vegetation. Oceanic fossils are found upon mountain tops around the world. Cultures in all parts of the world have some form of flood legend. All of these facts and many others are evidence of a global flood.
The vast deposits of coal and oil throughout the world are the result of a worldwide flood that would have buried and sealed massive amounts of carbon in the form of plants that became coal and oil—NOT slow processes over millions of years. Although widespread surface coal and fossils of tropical plants have been found in polar regions, such evidence has been largely ignored by secular geologists because it implies a worldwide flood, a post-diluvium Ice Age, and a young earth.
Is there any geologic evidence of a global flood.
Vast horizontal strata point to a global flood. In our southwestern states, where they are well exposed by erosion, but also across the continent and everywhere in the world, thousands to hundreds of thousands of square miles of flat, horizontal strata, from a few feet to hundreds of feet thick are found. At no location on the earth may the production of similar sedimentary deposits of like extent be observed today. These formations are composed of sandstone, graywacke, shale, conglomerate, limestone and other types of rock. Some of them extend for thousands of miles, spanning whole continents. For example, the St. Peter sandstone, composed of clean quartz grains, has been traced in twenty states from California to Vermont. The Shinarump conglomerate in the Southwest covers some 125,000 square miles, and another conglomerate blanket is reported to extend from New Mexico to Saskatchewan and Alberta.

 

A continental blanket of clean sandstone, before being deposited, required a steadily flowing current traversing a great distance to separate the sand from silt and gravel. A continental blanket of conglomerate required a continent-sized maelstrom of water in violent, chaotic motion to dump an ungraded mixture of material of all sizes across thousands of miles of terrain. Tremendous water action such as that which would be produced by a global flood seems to offer the only reasonable explanation for the observed facts.

 

In the walls of the Grand Canyon, we can see that the whole horizontal sedimentary strata sequence was folded without fracturing, supposedly 440 million years after the Tapeats Sandstone and Muav Limestone were deposited, and 200 million years after the Kaibab Limestone was deposited. The only way to explain how these sandstone and limestone beds could be folded, as though still pliable, is to conclude they were deposited during the Genesis Flood, just months before they were folded.
As the ocean waters flooded over the continents, they must have buried plants and animals in rapid succession. These rapidly deposited sediment layers were spread across vast areas, preserving fossils of sea creatures in layers that are high above the current (receded) sea level. The sand and other sediments in these layers were transported long distances from their original sources. We know that many of these sedimentary strata were laid down in rapid succession because we don’t find evidence of slow erosion between the strata.


What was the pre-flood world like?
1. Water canopy.
2. World Uniformly Warm
The greenhouse effect would have meant that the earth was uniformly warm and mild. The latitudinal differences in temperature would have been minimal. There would have only have been only mild air movements. The great storms of the present world would have been altogether absent in the antediluvian world.
3. Pangea and land masses much more level.
4. No Rain. Genesis 2:5 says that God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there is no indication that this situation was changed before the time of the Flood. The watering of the earth was accomplished primarily by a sort of a ground fog, a mist that "rose up, and watered the whole face of the ground" (Genesis 2:6).


OK, but why would God destroy all humanity along with the animals?

REASONS FOR THE FLOOD

Genesis chapter 6 gives four reasons why God sent the Flood:
Genesis 6:5-12 (NKJV)
5  Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6  And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7  So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." 8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9  This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10  And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12  So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.  
  1. 'The wickedness of man was great in the earth' (v. 5).
  2. 'Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually' (v. 5).
  3. 'The earth was filled with violence' (v. 11).
  4. 'The earth...was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth' (v. 12). (All the people on earth had corrupted their way.)
The historical biblical record states, 'And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt' (Genesis 6:12). This is in sharp contrast to God's declaration when he had finished creating the heaven and the earth, namely, 'And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good' (Genesis 1:31). It is astounding to consider that in the tenth generation from Adam the human race had become so wicked, evil, violent and corrupt that it was not fit to go on living. And of all mankind only four men and four women were spared, because they did not go with the great sin drift.
In the well-known story of Cain and Abel, the first man born on the earth also becomes the first murderer. A few points in this account are significant:
  • Cain killed Abel after a quarrel over a sacrifice to God. Cain brought a sacrifice, but God would not accept it because it did not meet His standards. While Abel's offering showed his complete submission to God, Cain's hints at grudging worship of God - and that done in his own way.
  • Becoming angry and sullen over his rejection, he quarreled with and killed his brother. Then, he lied to God's face! He had no fear of God or the consequences of sin.
  • Cain's retort to God's inquiry as to Abel's whereabouts is also significant: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain's attitude of indifference toward his fellow man greatly influenced later generations.
  • Coupled with his entirely selfish attitude, Cain tried to take advantage even of God's curse upon him. Using a "woe is me" ploy, he "convinced" God to guard his life from anyone avenging Abel's murder.
The way of Cain - idolatry, murder, deceit, selfishness, hypocrisy - saturated Pre-Flood society to the point that God, seeing the wickedness of man, regretted He had even created humanity (Genesis 6:5-7).
Genesis 6:1-2 (NASB)   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.
1. Who were the Sons of God and the nephilim?
When man began to multiply, the separate families of Cain and Seth would come into contact. The daughters of the stirring Cainites, distinguished by the graces of nature, the embellishments of art, and the charms of music and song, even though destitute of the loftier qualities of like mindedness with God, would attract attention and prompt to unholy alliances. The phrase “sons of God,” means an order of intelligent beings who “retain the purity of moral character” originally communicated, or subsequently restored, by their Creator. They are called the sons of God, because they have his spirit or disposition. The sons of God, therefore, are those who are on the Lord’s side, who approach him with duly significant offerings, who call upon him by his proper name, and who walk with God in their daily conversation. BN
the sons of God saw the daughters of men-– By the former is meant the family of Seth, who were professedly religious; by the latter, the descendants of apostate Cain. Mixed marriages between parties of opposite principles and practice were necessarily sources of extensive corruption. The women, religious themselves, would as wives and mothers exert an influence fatal to the existence of religion in their household, and consequently the people of that later age sank to the lowest depravity. JFB
This matter of “the sons of God” and “the daughters of men” is something that has caused no end of discussion. There are a great many good men who take the position that “the sons of God” were angels. I personally cannot accept that at all. Most of my teachers taught that the sons of God were angels, and I recognize that a great many of the present–day expositors take that position. However, I cannot accept that view, because, if these were good angels, they would not commit this sin, and evil angels could never be designated as “sons of God.” Also, the offspring here were men; they were not monstrosities. I do not know why it is assumed by so many that the offspring were giants. JVM
“Sons of God” ( vv. 2 , 4 ) possibly refers to godly men, and “daughters of men” to sinful women (significantly, they are not called “daughters of God”), probably from the wicked line of Cain. If so, the context suggests that vv. 1-2 describe the intermarriage of the Sethites (“sons of God”) of ch. 5 with the Cainites (“daughters of men”) of ch. 4 , indicating a breakdown in the separation of the two groups. NIVSN
The uniform Hebrew and Christian interpretation has been that verse (Gen 6:2) marks the breaking down of the separation between the godly line of Seth and the godless line of Cain, and so the failure of the testimony to Jehovah committed to the line of Seth (Gen 4:26). IC
the sons of God  They were godly Sethites who married ungodly women. I prefer this view. Arguments in favor of this view follow with responses. a. The Old Testament often refers to the godly as God’s sons (e.g., Exod. 4:22). Response: This would have to be an exception to the technical use of “sons of God” as a reference to angels in the Old Testament.b. Moses had already established the concept of a godly line in Genesis (4:26). c. Sonship based on election is common in the Old Testament. d. Warnings against marriages between believers and unbelievers are common in the Pentateuch. CN
 

 John 1:12 (KJV) 12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

"Giants" is the Hebrew word nephilim, which has little or nothing to do with being tall and muscular but refers to cultural leadership. God is describing the culture immediately before the Flood. Nephilim has to be seen in that context. These Nephilim - giants not in size but in influence - were establishing evil, deceitful, violent, and enslaving leadership. They were "men of renown," which literally means they were men of name. In other words, they had a reputation, but that term is used in a derogatory sense. These were not good characters.
 
11  Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12  God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
Filled with violence?
We have two lines of people at this time, the line of Seth and the line of Cain. Seth and his descendants were followers of God.
jwhGenesis 4:26 (ESV)  To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.
Acts 2:21 (NLT) But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’
Cain was a murderer and his offspring were murderers.
Genesis 4:23-24 (NLT)  One day Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; listen to me, you wives of Lamech. I have killed a man who attacked me, a young man who wounded me. 24 If someone who kills Cain is punished seven times, then the one who kills me will be punished seventy-seven times!”
Lamech looked to Cain as his role model. Cain and Lamech were the famous bad men of the time. Much like today many look up to criminals and murderers as their icons. The famous legends of the American old west were murderers and killers. Billy the Kid, Johnny Ringo, John Wesley Hardin, Wild Bill Hichock.
I would suggest that many of the righteous line of Seth were murdered by the Cainites.
God’s people, if they truly are God’s people and not just using religion to oppress others, do not murder the ungodly people. It’s the ungodly who murder the followers of God.
“The two words, ‘corrupt’ and ‘violence,’ give us respectively the character and expression of the sin, the cause and the effect [v. 11]. The corruption has led to violence, for badness always leads to cruelty in one form or another. A life that is wrong with God necessarily becomes wrong with its fellows.” “Whereas God has blessed the human family with the power of procreation to fill the earth (1:28; 9:1), these culprits have ‘filled the earth’ by procreating ‘violence’ CN
It appears God wanted to put an end to the problem of violence and murder in the new world and thereby enacted capital punishment to deter the natural disposition toward evil and violence.
Genesis 9:5-6 (NASB)  “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6  “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.
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…………. 17  “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. 18  “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

Is it possible for a man and his 3 sons to construct a boat big enough to hold all the animals?

Yeah but there are millions of species of animals on the earth.

Genesis 6:19–20 ‘And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive.’
Genesis 7:2–3 ‘Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.’

Notice the word “kind” which is not the same as the modern designation “species”. The designation of “kind” is thought to be much broader than the designation “species.” Even as there are over 400 dog breeds all belonging to one species (Canis familiaris), so many species can belong to one kind. Some think that the designation “genus” may be somewhat close to the biblical “kind.”
Nevertheless, even if we presume that “kind” is synonymous with “species,” “there are not very many species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. The leading systematic biologist, Ernst Mayr, gives the number as 17,600. Allowing for two of each species on the ark, plus seven of the few so-called “clean” kinds of animals, plus a reasonable increment for known extinct species, it is obvious that not more than, say, 50,000 animals were on the ark”.
Some have estimated that there were as many as 25,000 kinds of animals represented on the ark. This is a high-end estimation. With two of each kind and seven of some, the number of animals would exceed 50,000, though not by very much, relatively speaking. Regardless, whether there were 16,000 or 25,000 kinds of animals, even with two of each and seven of some, scholars agree that there was plenty of room for all of the animals on the ark, plus food and water with room to spare.
The Flood wiped out all land animals which breathed through nostrils except those on the Ark (Genesis 7:22). Insects do not breathe through nostrils but through tiny tubes in their exterior skeleton.
In the original Hebrew, the word for ‘beast’ and ‘cattle’ in these passages is the same: behemah, and it refers to land vertebrate animals in general. The word for ‘creeping things’ is remes, which has a number of different meanings in Scripture, but here it probably refers to reptiles. Noah did not need to take sea creatures because they would not necessarily be threatened with extinction by a flood. However, turbulent water would cause massive carnage, as seen in the fossil record, and many oceanic species probably did become extinct because of the Flood.
The Ark measured 300x50x30 cubits (Genesis 6:15), which is about 140x23x13.5 metres or 459x75x44 feet, 1 and ½ football fields long and ½ football field wide with 3 floors high. Its volume was 43,500 m3(cubic metres) or 1.54 million cubic feet. To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent volume of 522 standard American railroad stock cars, each of which can hold 240 sheep.
The average animals is the size of a sheep therefore the 16,000 animals, 2 of each unclean kind and 7 of each clean kind would only occupy 1200 m3(42,000 cubic feet) or 14.4 stock cars. Even if a million insect species had to be on board, it would not be a problem, because they require little space. If each pair was kept in cages of 10 cm (four inches) per side, or 1000 cm3, all the insect species would occupy a total volume of only 1000 m3, or another 12 cars. This would leave room for five trains of 99 cars each for food, Noah’s family and ‘range’ for the animals. However, insects are not included in the meaning of behemah or remes in Genesis 6:19-20, so Noah probably would not have taken them on board as passengers anyway.
Tabulating the total volume is fair enough, since this shows that there would be plenty of room on the Ark for the animals with plenty left over for food, range etc. It would be possible to stack cages, with food on top or nearby (to minimize the amount of food carrying the humans had to do), to fill up more of the Ark space, while still allowing plenty of room for gaps for air circulation. We are discussing an emergency situation, not necessarily luxury accommodation. Although there is plenty of room for exercise, skeptics have overstated animals’ needs for exercise anyway.
Even if we don’t allow stacking one cage on top of another to save floor space, there would be no problem. The standard recommended floor space requirements for animals that all of them together would have needed less than half the available floor space of the Ark’s three decks. This arrangement allows for the maximum amount of food and water storage on top of the cages close to the animals.

OK, but do we know where the Ark actually landed?
 
Genesis 8:3-4 (NIV)
The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4  and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Notice the scripture says “mountains of Ararat”. It does not say that it rested on Mount Ararat
The “Mountains of Ararat” in Genesis clearly refer to a general region, not a specific mountain. Biblical Ararat corresponds to Assyrian Urartu (and Persian Arminya) the name of the kingdom which at the time controlled the Lake Van region.
3 times in the bible the land of Ararat is mentions as being an actual known place.


2 Kings 19:36-37 (ESV)  Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. 37  And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
Isaiah 37:38 (NLT)  One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.
Jeremiah 51:27 (HCSB)  Raise a signal flag in the land; blow a ram’s horn among the nations; set apart the nations against her. Summon kingdoms against her— Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.

There is strong evidence to support the fact that the mountain traditionally know as Mount Ararat in Turkey could not possibly be where the Ark landed.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia agrees with the aforementioned hypothesis that the Ark of Noah would lie in a distinct mountainous region: “The Ark is said to have rested upon the mountains of Ararat, i.e., in the mountainous region of Armenia, the plural showing that the mountain peak known as Ararat was not referred to, this peak lies outside the general region.”
This also makes sense in light of Genesis 8:5 which states: “And the water decreased steadily until the tenth month. And on the first day of the month the tops of the mountains became visible.” (NKJV)
This verse indicates that other mountain peaks became visible subsequent to the ark of Noah landing on the mountains of Ararat. In the Elborz Mountains of Northwestern Iran, there are fifteen peaks over 14,000 feet. Conversely, Mount Ararat virtually stands alone in Eastern Turkey. The Elborz Mountains seem to line up better with this verse than Mount Ararat.

Why wouldn’t God allow Christians to find the ark and show the world that the bible and God is true?
Think about it. People would be flocking to this mountain and soon it would turn into a tourist trap. Then people would begin to worship the mountain. The Ark itself would be reconditioned, complete with central air, a petting zoo for the kids and handicap approved restrooms.
Merchants would begin selling fake ark paraphernalia. Tours would be sold to vacationers from all over the world. The Catholic church would build a huge cathedral at the base of the mountain and the Pope would come and bless the mountain. Universal Studios would buy the movie rights to all Ark movies and photographs. Developers would subdivide the entire mountain and begin selling condos all around the slopes and some Christians would propose a Noah’s Ark Amusement Park and Hotel complex.
I think God has enough trouble with idolatry and materialism without turning Noah’s Ark into Wally World.






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