Genesis 7
The Fossil Record
1 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation.
The Hebrew word for “godly” is צַדִּ֥יק (zadik), meaning righteous or justified. This was the first mention of justification in the Bible. Justification means that God has declared the sinner as not guilty of any sin. It does not mean that the sinner is innocent. It simply means that the God of the universe has declared the man as not guilty. Like Abraham, Noah believed God and was declared righteous.
2 You must take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, the male and its mate, two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate,
The “clean animals” were those which would be used for domestication and sacrifice. The bloody sacrifices looked forward to the atonement of Christ.
3 and also seven of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of the earth.
God’s purpose for the ark was to preserve offspring on the face of the earth. This would not be necessary if this was only a local flood. If the flood was local, then Noah could have just migrated to safer and higher ground.
4 For in seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made.”
Notice that the seven day week was already in effect before the Flood. All of the antediluvians were given seven more days to repent and turn to God. The rabbi recorded that the seven days were given to mourn the death of Methuselah, but there is no biblical evidence for this interpretation.
A global rain lasting forty days would not be possible under present meteorologic conditions of the modern earth. There is a very strong possibility that the earth was surrounded by an antediluvian vapor canopy, because Genesis 1:6-8 mentioned the “waters above the firmament” (Genesis 1:6-8).
“Every living thing” includes plant life as well. All plants of the pre-flood world were uprooted, transported, and buried in great sedimentary beds, many of which would eventually become the world’s coal beds.
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
Everyone in the pre-flood world was disobedient, except for Noah and his family.
6 Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed the earth.
Noah’s father knew Adam.
7 Noah entered the ark along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives because of the floodwaters.
Noah entered the ark. Everyone in the pre-flood world must have thought that he was a crazy and misguided preacher.
8 Pairs of clean animals, of unclean animals, of birds, and of everything that creeps along the ground,
The clean animals were used for domestication and sacrifice. The unclean animals were the wild beasts of the field. The creepers were the rodents. reptiles, amphibians, and insects.
9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah, just as God had commanded him.
All of these pairs of animals came to Noah by divine guidance. God is so completely sovereign, that there is not a squirrel who can jump from one tree to another without God planning it.
10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth.
When the rain came, the antediluvians knew that Noah was a prophet of God. It is possible that some may have believed before they drowned. If so, then they lost their physical life, but gained their eternal life. Sometimes, people are so hard-headed, that God must use extreme measures to gain their attention.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month – on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
Notice that the pre-flood world possessed a monthly calendar. Before the Flood, there was an underground subterranean hydraulic circle that watered the earth. This subterranean cycle broke, forcing all of the water out of the abyss. There was most likely a vapor canopy above the earth. If this canopy did exist, then it broke open and rained upon the earth.
When Moses was describing the date of the flood, what calendar was he using? Since Moses was writing by the Spirit of God, he was most likely using God's calendar which started at the very beginning of creation. The actual date was probably recorded by one or all three of Noah's sons, since they gave their "signature" in Genesis 10:1. The Hebrew word for "generations" is TOLDOTH, and it probably marks the signatures of Shem, Ham, and/or Japheth.
According to the ancient Old Testament Jewish calendar found in the Book of Genesis, the first month of the year runs from mid-September to mid-October and it is called ROSH-HASHANNA, or "the Head of the Year." Therefore, the seventeenth day of the SECOND month would be around the end of October and the beginning of November. At this date, the Great Flood brought universal death to an entire planet of people who had rebelled against their Creator.
What one must remember is that Noah and his family of eight survived the flood. They knew the exact day of the flood, and they most likely passed this knowledge down to all the generations following them, even to the Tower of Babel. After Nimrod's people rebelled against God, their language was confused, but they still knew the exact day of the flood that brought death to their rebellious ancestors. They celebrated this day as "the Day of the Dead."
Every nation and culture has derived from Noah and the citizens of Babel. Most of the ancient nations have recorded the history of the flood and they all seem to celebrate it in late October or early November as "All Soul's Day." Americans call it Halloween, not knowing that this holiday was originally a celebration of death and a rebellion against God.
12 And the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
This forty day global rain would not be possible under today’s conditions. It would be possible if there was a frozen water canopy placed over the earth. This was the first rain of earth history.
13 On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives.
Eight people entered the ark. After the rain came pouring down, it is very possible that many people on the outside of the ark quit laughing and attempted to enter the ark.
14 They entered, along with every living creature after its kind, every animal after its kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, everything with wings.
The beasts, domestic animals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and insects all entered the ark.
15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life came into the ark to Noah.
Notice that pairs of “all creatures” entered this ark. This included the dinosaurs and extinct animals. These animals were all young animals, since they would have to spend one year on the ark without reproducing. They would have to emerge to repopulate the earth immediately after the Flood. Most of these animals most likely spent most of their time in a state of natural or supernatural hibernation.
16 Those that entered were male and female, just as God commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.
Notice who shut the door. This signified God’s protection of the godly remnant.
17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth.
As soon as the water rose to about 20 feet, then the ark would begin to float.
18 The waters completely overwhelmed the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.
The ark began to float in the area of Mesopotamia. Eventually, it floated all of the way to Mount Ararat, which could be anywhere in the current countries of Southern Russia, Turkey, or Armenia.
19 The waters completely inundated the earth so that even all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered.
The Hebrew for "all the high mountains is כָּל־הֶֽהָרִים֙ הַגְּבֹהִ֔ים (cal ha-harim ha-gabadim), meaning every high mountain on the global world. The author is making sure that the reader understands that this was not a local flood which only covered some small hills in local Mesopotamia.
The Hebrew for the "entire sky" is כָּל־הַשָּׁמָֽיִם (cal ha-shamayim), meaning all of the heavens. The author is making it clear that the water covered all of the high mountains under all of the heavens, meaning that this was a global and not a local flood.
Notice that every mountain in the world was covered with water. If taken literally, then this was no local flood. This is why sea life fossils can be found on the top of every mountain top in the world.
20 The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains.
The waters rose twenty feet above all of the mountains of the world. If taken literally, then this was no local flood.
21 And all living things that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind.
Everything on the earth died. Most of the dead men and animals would end up floating on the water as food for sharks. Many of the men, animals, and plants would be buried into the earth, creating the modern fossil record. Most of the fossil record was caused by the flood, not by uniformitarianism.
22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
Everything on dry land died, meaning this was not a local flood. Notice that the sea life did not die.
23 So the Lord destroyed every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived.
Even the birds were drowned. When the great canopy vapor broke, the hard rainfall from heaven most likely killed most of the birds.
Dr. Henry Morris, the late founder of the Institute of Creation Research, wrote:
The rocks of the earth’s crust now contain the fossil remains of the Great flood. Billions of plants and animals, buried in water-transported sediments which quickly became lithified. This “geologic column” has been grossly distorted by evolutionists into the record of an imagined three-billion-year history of evolution during the geological ages. Actually it represents the deposits of the cataclysmic Flood, with the fossil order primarily depicting the relative elevations of the habitats–and therefore the usual order of sedimentary burial in the Flood–of the organisms of the pre-Flood world. Many modern geologists are again admitting the necessity of catastrophic formation and burial to explain the fossiliferous rocks in the geologic column. The reason why very few fossil men (also few fossilized flying birds) are found in the rocks is their high mobility and ability to escape burial in sediments. When eventually drowned, their bodies would remain on the surface until they decayed.
24 The waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days.
The rain only lasted for 40 days. However, the earth continued to flood for five more months before receding.
In conclusion, the human viewpoint of the satanic world system teaches that the Noahic flood was only local.
The divine viewpoint of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God teaches that the Noahic flood was global.
Human viewpoint teaches that the fossil record was caused by uniformitarianism.
Divine viewpoint teaches that the fossil record was caused by the catastrophe of a global flood.
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Appendix
"In ancient Assyria the ceremonies for the souls of the dead were in the month Arahsamna, which is Marcheswan [mid-October to mid-November]."
In Egypt, it has been known for a long time that Osiris' box or coffin, which floated on water for a year, was a distorted Egyptian memory of the Flood. A well-known Greek historian in the first century A.D. stated that Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld, was on the 17th day of Athyr (corresponding to an Oct. - Nov. timeframe) placed tightly in a box and put afloat on the waters.
In parts of Europe, "November 2 is . . . the Day of the Dead."
In India, the Hindu Durga celebration for those who have died was first tied to their New Year (which began in November)
The "early Anglo-Saxons called November Blood Month," while Celtic inhabitants of Britain observed the beginning of their year in November.
Aboriginal Australians, in the fall each year, put white colored stripes on both their legs and arms to symbolize a skeleton.
In Wales and Scotland, "early November is the time for ghosts to be remembered."
The ancient Peruvian Incas began their year in November with a celebration called Ayamarka - which concluded with the placing of food and beverages on the graves of the departed. The Aztecs also kept a day for the dead in the fall.
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1. SAQ--What is the theme of Genesis 7?
2. Who are the antediluvians?
3. Why were the antediluvians laughing at Noah?
4. What caused the modern fossil record?
5. Give evidence that the flood was not local, but global.
7. How did the global flood kill all of the birds?
8. Why is the global flood not possible today?
9. How many days and nights rained upon the earth?
10. How many days and nights did the waters cover the earth?