THE
DOCTRINE OF THE FLOOD
A
Look at what the Bible Says
Since God has revealed Himself to us in
Scripture, and
the doctrine that He wants taught in His church is nothing other than
what the
Bible says; it should be obvious that those teachers who refuse to
teach what
the Bible says about the flood, even denying that it is true, do so
because
another authority has replaced the authority of Scripture in their
lives. For
that reason, I would hate to be in their shoes on the Day of Judgment.
Because the evidence for the flood is all
around us, those
who deny what the Bible says about the Flood are clearly without
excuse. That
evidence can be seen, not only in the rocks, but in the oral histories,
cultural records, and flood legends found in every part of the world.
The
remains of sea creatures have been found on the top of many mountains,
including
GOD’S RECORD OF THE FLOOD
Genesis 6:5 And God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in
the earth, and that every imagination
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 it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy
man whom
I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the
creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for I am sorry that I have
made them.
[Comment: In verse 5, the
words, “every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”
point to
man’s fallen nature and the fact that the image of God was lost through
the
fall (Romans
Genesis 6: 8 ¶ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
9 These are the generations of Noah:
Noah was a just man and perfect in
his generations, and Noah walked with
God.
10 And Noah fathered three sons,
Shem, Ham,
and Japheth.
11 ¶ The earth was also corrupt before God,
and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth,
and, saw it
was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 ¶ And God said to Noah, The end of all
flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through
them;
and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopher
wood;
you will make rooms in the ark, and shall seal it within and without
with
pitch.
15 And this is the way
in which you will make it: The length of the ark will
be three hundred cubits, the
breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
16 You will make a window in the ark,
and will
finish it to a cubit above; and you will set the door of the ark in its
side;
you will make it with lower, second,
and third stories.
17 For,
behold, I, even I, will bring a flood of
waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, in which is
the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing
that is
on the earth shall die.
18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you will enter the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
19 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.
20 Of fowls after their kind, and of
cattle
after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind,
two of
every sort shall come to you, to keep
them alive.
21 Also take with you every sort of
food
that is eaten, and you will gather it
to you; and it will be for food for you, and for them.
22 ¶ Thus Noah did; according to all that
God commanded him, so he did.
[Comment: Verse 8 - Because the Bible tells
us that
God’s grace cannot be earned, we know that God did not choose Noah
because of
his works (Romans 11:6). Verses 14-16 tell us the size of the ark.
Since the oldest cubit on record is a little over twenty inches long (20.4), the ark may have been five hundred and ten feet long, eighty-five feet wide, and fifty-one feet high.
Verse 20 –
The words, “Two of every sort shall come to you,” tell us that Noah did
not
have to go out looking for the animals, but God caused them to come to
him.]
Genesis 7:1 ¶ And the LORD said to Noah,
Come into the ark, you and all your
family; because you alone have I
found righteous before me in this generation.
2 Of every clean beast take seven pair with you, the male and his female:
and two of the beasts that are not
clean, the male and his female.
3 Also take the birds of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
4
For in seven days I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty
days and
forty nights; and every living thing that I have made will I destroy
from off
the face of the earth.
5 ¶ And Noah did according to
all
that the LORD commanded him.
6 And Noah was six
hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the
earth.
7 And Noah went in, and his sons,
and his
wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters
of the
flood.
8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts
that are not clean, and of birds, and of
every thing that creeps upon the earth,
9 There went in two and two unto Noah
into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And it came to pass after seven
days, that
the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
[Comment: Verse one – Because works can never
make
anyone righteous, it was grace, not works, that made Noah righteous in
the
sight of God (compare, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:19-24, Romans 9:30-32 and
10:3-4).
Verse 9 – The fact that the animals went willingly into the ark tells
us that
the hand of God was at work.]
Genesis
12 And the rain was upon the earth
forty days
and forty nights.
13 ¶ On
the very same day Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of
Noah, and
Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into
the ark;
14 They, and every beast after his
kind,
and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that
creeps upon
the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of
every
sort.
15 And they went in unto Noah into
the ark,
two and two of all flesh, wherein is
the breath of life.
16 And they that went in, went in
male and
female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
17 ¶ And
the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and
bore up
the ark, and it rose up above the earth.
18 And the waters prevailed, and were
increased
greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
19 And the waters prevailed
exceedingly upon
the earth; and all the high hills, that were
under the whole heaven, were covered.
20 And the mountains were
covered; as the waters rose fifteen cubits above them.
21 ¶ And
all flesh died that moved upon the earth, including birds, and cattle,
and
beasts, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, and every
man:
22 Everything that was on the
dry land, in whose nostrils was the
breath of life, died.
23 And every living thing was
destroyed that
was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping
things,
and the birds of the air; and they were blotted out from the earth: and
only
Noah, and those who were with him in
the ark, remained alive.
24 And the waters covered the earth
for one
hundred and fifty days.
[Comment: Verse 11 tells us that the water
not only
came down from heaven, but “fountains” poured forth water from the
depths of
the earth. Because verses 19-22 tell us that all of the “high hills”
and
“mountains” under heaven were covered, and that all of the land
dwelling
creatures “in whose nostrils was the breath of life, died,” we know
that this
flood covered the entire earth.]
Genesis 8:1 ¶ And God remembered Noah,
and every living thing, and all the
livestock that were with him in the
ark: and God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;
2 The fountains also of the deep and
the
windows of heaven were closed, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
3 And the waters receded from the
earth
continually: and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters
had
decreased significantly.
4 ¶ And
the ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of
the month,
upon the mountains of Ararat.
5 And the waters decreased
continually until
the tenth month: in the tenth month,
on the first day of the month, the
tops of the mountains were seen.
6 ¶ And
it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window
of the
ark that he had made:
7 And he sent out a raven, which
went to and
fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
8 He also sent out a dove, to see
if the
waters had subsided from the face of the ground;
9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, for the waters covered the entire surface of the earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her into him in the ark.
10 And he waited seven more days; and
again
sent forth the dove out of the ark;
11 And the dove came in to him in the
evening;
and, lo, in her beak was a freshly
plucked olive leaf: so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the
earth.
12 And he waited seven more days; and
again sent out the dove; which did not
return to him any more.
13 ¶ And it came to pass in the
six hundredth and first year, in the first month,
the first day of the month, the
waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering
of the
ark, and looked, and, behold, the surface of the ground was dry.
14 And in the second month, on the
seven and
twentieth day of the month, the earth was dried.
[Comment: A
comparison of Genesis 7:11 and Genesis 8:14 tell us that, from
beginning to
end, the flood lasted one year and ten days. Verse 4 tells us that the
Genesis
16 Go out of the ark, you, and your
wife, and
your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.
17 Bring
every living thing that is with you out, of all flesh,
both birds, and cattle, and every
creeping thing that creeps upon the earth; that they may breed
abundantly in
the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
18 And Noah went out, and his sons,
and his
wife, and his sons’ wives with him:
19 Every beast, every creeping thing,
and
every fowl, and whatever creeps upon
the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
20 ¶ And Noah built an altar to
the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and
offered
burnt offerings on the altar.
21 And
the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the
LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for
man’s
sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is
evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living
creature,
as I have done.
22 While the earth remains, seedtime
and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not
cease.
[Comment: Verse 21 – The words, “the
imagination of
man’s heart is evil from his youth,” again testify
to
the fact of man’s fallen nature. Verse 22 – This is the first reference
the
Bible makes to seasons, a fact which seems to indicate that the
pre-flood world
had a more uniform climate.]
Genesis 9:1 ¶ And God blessed Noah and
his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread
of you
will be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air,
upon
everything that moves on the earth,
and upon all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall
be
food for you; even as I gave you the green plants I give you all things.
4 However you shall not eat flesh with
its
life, that is its blood, in it.
5 And surely for your lives I will
require a
reckoning; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the
hand of
man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man
shall
his blood be shed: for God made man in his own image.
7 And you, be fruitful, and
multiply; bring
forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
[Comment: Verse 3 – Although men may, or may
not, have
eaten animals before the flood, this is the first place in the Bible
where it
is mentioned, and where God gives His approval. Verse 6 – Likewise,
this is the
first place in Scripture where God requires capital punishment.]
Genesis 9:8 ¶ And God spoke to Noah, and
to his sons with him, saying,
9 Behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your descendants after you;
10 And with every
living creature that is with you, the
birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; from all that
go out
of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
11 I confirm my covenant with you;
that
never again will all flesh be wiped out by the waters of a flood; nor
will
there ever again be a flood that destroys the earth.
12 ¶ And God said, This is the sign
of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living
creature
that is with you, for all future
generations:
13 I set my bow in the cloud, and
it will be
a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I
bring a
cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And I will remember my covenant,
which is between me and you and every living
creature of all flesh; and the waters will never again become a flood
to
destroy all flesh.
16 The bow will be in the clouds; and
I will
look at it, and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every
living
creature of all flesh that is upon
the earth.
17 And God said to Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I
have established between me and all flesh that is upon
the earth.
18 ¶ And
the sons of Noah, that went out of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and
Japheth:
and Ham is the father of
19 These were the
three sons of Noah: and from them the whole earth was
populated.
[Comment: The
fact that the rainbow is God’s sign that the world will never again be
destroyed by water implies that there were no rainbows before the
flood. In
fact, Genesis 2:6 seems to indicate that the ground was watered by a
“mist”
(rather than rain) at that time. And that, in turn, is a strong
indication that
there were major changes in the atmosphere at the time of the flood
(see
Genesis
Psalm 104:5 You set the earth on its
foundations, never to be shaken.
6 You covered it with the deep water as with a garment: the waters
stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled; at the
voice of
your thunder they hurried away.
8 The mountains rising; and the
valleys
sinking down to the place which you have appointed for them.
9 You have set a boundary that they
cannot
cross; or come back to cover the earth.
[Comment: The fact that the waters went down
so
rapidly (see Genesis 8:3-13), is explained by the fact that the low
places
(“valleys” verse 8) sank. If you push down at one place on the top
crust of a
cobbler, other parts of the crust will rise, and some of the liquid
filling may
squirt up through the crust. That illustration may help us to
understand what
happened after the flood, as the weight of the water pushed down the
ocean
bottoms. The uplift that would have resulted may explain, in part, the
mountains
and volcanoes around the Pacific Rim (verse
8).]
CONCLUSION
The historical record of the Flood is just as
much a
doctrine of Scripture as anything else that the Bible says (2Timothy
The doctrine that God wants us to teach
nothing other
than what the words of Scripture say (2Corinthians
Gary
Ray Branscome