There are many who argue that Noah’s Flood was just a local affair. They say that when God said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth” (Genesis 6:7) He was only talking about the people living in the Middle East—not the whole world.
But the Bible says how much the floodwaters rose—the waters of Noah’s Flood continued to rise on the earth until “all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.” (Genesis 7:19)
“Oh,” the skeptic will say, “The people who wrote the Bible are only talking about their local area. They didn’t know about the rest of the world.”
Even if that were true, that they only knew about the Middle East, then what mountains would they have known about? Jerusalem rises 600 metres above sea level. If the mountains of Jerusalem were covered how much of the rest of the world would have been inundated?
You can check the levels for yourself these days using the Google mapplet at heywhatsthat.com. The above figure shows in red how much of Australia would have been covered if the waters had just risen enough to cover Jerusalem. There is very little of Australia still above sea level.
But the people who came off the Ark settled in the area around Babylon (Genesis 11:2). The Zagros Mountains to the north-west rise 2,000 to 4,000 metres above sea level (You can check using Google maps with the terrain view). At 2,000 metres virtually the whole of Australia would have been underwater.
Remember that the Flood lasted more than a year, and that, after it peaked, the water was going down for many months before those on the Ark saw any other mountains appear above the surface (Genesis 8:5).
When I hear someone say the Bible is only describing a local flood I wonder if they have read what the Bibles actually says about the Flood, or if they appreciate geography of the Middle East.
Note
The mountains of Jerusalem and the Zagros Mountains did not exist before the Flood, but were pushed up toward the end of the Flood. I’m just using them for the sake of the local-flood argument.
Li
I’m not a skeptic but it is a local flood. Remember, the setting was not in Jerusalem or near it, but farther north-east or east-north-east of Palestine. The map of Australia still has some yellow colored parts meaning, it was not underwater. Ergo, no flood leaved a stone untouched. The thing here now is that if it only left Noah and family alive, then, it will complicate things more. Where did the other colored races came from?
Tas Walker responds:
If you go farther north-east as you suggest you move towards the Zagros Mountains that are 4,000 m +. Mt Hermon to the north of Jerusalem is 2,800 m high. There is no problem with the ‘coloured’ races, it’s just a matter of genetics. Go to Creation.com and search for “races” if you would like an answer.
Pat
There are marine fossils on the highest peaks in the Himalayas. I think that says it all.
DigitalArtist
Google Maps showing what levels would be like if certain areas were covered by water does not in any way show the biblical flood actually occurred. That is dishonesty on your part.
You say the old mountains were destroyed and the new ones created by the flood but have yet to present any evidence. Without the evidence it is belief and nothing more.
Yes the passengers were on the ark for more than a year and that creates even more problems and reduces even more the likelihood that the biblical account is a historical accounting.
As far as races, it is clear that Egypt existed prior to the flood, so tell me, how did 2 descendants of Noah (Man and Woman) go to Egypt, learn to speak the oral language, read and write hieroglyphics with no one to teach them? Adopt the Egyptian religion after giving up belief in the God of Noah, even using the exact same gods with no one to teach them and populate the Egyptian area with thousands of people in a mere 300 years? You see in the bible, about 300 years after the flood, Abram visited Egypt, found a pharaoh and everything exactly the same as it would have been before the flood.
Mohammad
Few people have knowledge about the geological time scale and the mountain building processes. Major mountains across the globe started to develop during the Jurrasic period and still is going on. It began 600 million years ago and Noah,s flood happened 7- 9 thousands years ago. Top of the mountains contain marks of marine fossils because they emerged from sea basins as a result of plate tectonic activities. In this process, silt deposited on the sea beds are squeezed up due to pressure created by the two giant continental plates moving against each other. Therefore, one should not mix up the scientific facts with the religious theories.
Hi Mohammad:
You have to realise that the dates the secular geologists assign to mountain building are not facts. They are based on their philosophical/religious belief, a belief that some have called uniformitarianism. Here are a few relevant articles: