Slides: The Genesis Flood and Current Controversies

The Genesis Flood and Current Controversies
by David Feddes 

Controversial claims

• Floodwaters covered the whole earth.

• Ark held ancestors of all today’s animals.

• God punished the world in his wrath.

• Even the best people are evil from youth.

• Atoning sacrifice is necessary.

• God preserves earth and its seasons.

• Growing population is a blessing.

• People may use and eat animals.

• Murder deserves the death penalty.

1. Worldwide flood

All the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened… And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. (Genesis 7:11,19).

Some Bible scholars say that the great flood was local and not worldwide.

• Why build an ark? Just move elsewhere.

• Would a local flood cover mountains?

1. Worldwide flood

• Flood/ark stories are found among natives of ancient Babylon, Alaska, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, India, Greenland, Africa, Hawaii, Greece, and more

• Fossils show that all parts of earth—even high on Mt. Everest—were once underwater.

• If earth were smooth, it would all be covered with water 8,000 feet deep.

Water obeys the Lord

• Red Sea: The Lord drove the sea back… and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. (Ex 14:21-22)

• Jordan: The waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap … and all Israel was passing over on dry ground (Josh 3:16-17).

• Sea of Galilee: “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:25)

1. Worldwide—never again

• I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Gen 9:15)

• You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled… The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. (Psalm 104:6-9)

2. Ark held ancestors of all life on land.

• The ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high. Volume over 1.5 million cubic feet.

• In meters, that's about 137 x 23 x 14, or about 43,000 cubic meters.

• This would be the volume of 569 railroad cars, each capable of holding 240 sheep.

• The ark was not a cute little boat. It could hold over 135,000 animals the size of sheep.

2. Ark held ancestors of all life.

• Animals on ark were likely not full grown.

• Fewer kinds may have been on the ark and later became more species (cats, bears, finches)

• Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” (8:17)

3. God punished the world

• The world that then existed was deluged with water and perished… the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:6-7).

• For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man… they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matt 24:37-39)

4. Even the best people are sinful

• I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. (Genesis 8:21)

• Noah became drunk. (Genesis 9:21)

• David: I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)

• The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. (Jeremiah 17:9)

• None is righteous, no, not one. (Rom 3:10)

5. Atoning sacrifice is necessary.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. (Gen 8:20)

5. Atoning sacrifice is necessary.

• Then Noah built an altar to the Lord … and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again… strike down every living creature.” (Gen 8:20-21)

• … a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord (Leviticus 1:9,13,17)

• Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph 5:2)

6. God preserves earth and seasons.

• “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (8:22)

• “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (9:15)

• Even so, people panic about climate change and the extinction of all life.

Global warming

• Is the globe really warming?

• How much effect do humans have?

• Would warming be bad or good?

Global cooling crisis

•   “The world's climatologists are agreed” that we must “prepare for the next ice age.” (Science Digest, February 1973)

•   “A major cooling of the planet is widely considered inevitable.” (NY Times, May 1975)

•   “A new ice age must now stand along-side nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery.”

       (International Wildlife, July 1975)

We must save the planet! (from cooling or warming or…)

• Government gets more control.

• Scientists get more grant money.

• Reporters get more attention and sales.

• Secular environmentalists get a noble ideal and mission of salvation without religion.

Before saving the planet, love a neighbor.

Next time you look at a rainbow, thank God that He saves the planet.

7. Growing population is a blessing.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth… And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it.” (Genesis 9:1,7)

Be fruitful and multiply?

• “The abortion question is not just about women's rights, but about life on the planet –environmental catastrophe awaits the world if the population continues to grow at its present rate.” (Molly Yard,  President of NOW—National Organization for Women)

• Next time you see a rainbow, thank God for blessing his earth with billions of people and countless animals.

8. People may eat animals.

The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered.  Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. (Genesis 9:2-3)

Animals equal to people?

"We have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth… The smallest form of life, even an ant or a clam, is equal to a human being… When it comes to feelings, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They all feel pain. There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. 6 million Jews died in concentration camps, but 6 billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughter houses.” (Ingrid Newkirk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals PETA)

No right to use animals

• Supporters of “animal rights”: drinking milk, wearing wool, owning pets is like slavery.

• Medical research using animals is evil. “Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it.” (Ingrid Newkirk)

• “We're not superior. There are no clear distinctions between us and animals,” claims Michael Fox of the Humane Society. “The life of an ant and the life of my child should be granted equal consideration.”

Animal liberation

"Christianity is our foe. If animal rights is to succeed, we must destroy the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. It can no longer be maintained by anyone but a religious fanatic that man is the darling of the whole universe, or that other animals were created to provide us with food, or that we have divine authority over them, and divine permission to kill them."

(Peter Singer, Princeton ethics professor, author of Animal Liberation)

8. People may use and eat animals.

• "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you" (Genesis 9:3).

• "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal" (Proverbs 12:10). Never inflict needless pain. Avoid destroying endangered species. Take good care of pets and livestock.

• Jesus ate lamb at Passover and ate fish. (Luke 24:43) He valued animals but also exclaimed, "How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!" (Matt 12:12) Jesus said, “You are worth more than many sparrows." (Luke 12:7)

9. Murder deserves death penalty.

• Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. (Genesis 9:6)

• Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 21:12)

Death penalty for convicted murderers:

Honors the victim’s value,

Makes sure a killer will never murder again

Warns other potential killers of punishment

Treats the killer as a responsible person

Controversial claims? Revealed realities!

• Floodwaters covered the whole earth.

• Ark held ancestors of all today’s animals.

• God punished the world in his wrath.

• Even the best people are evil from youth.

• Atoning sacrifice is necessary.

• God preserves earth and its seasons.

• Growing population is a blessing.

• People may use and eat animals.

• Murder deserves the death penalty.

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

(Genesis 8:12-13)

Life Under the Rainbow

Remember God’s sovereignty.

Trust God to maintain earth’s patterns despite humanity’s ongoing evil.

Recognize human dignity.

Multiply, honor, and protect people. We remain God’s image-bearers, worth more than the animals God made.