Arguments Against Flood are Wrong

Version 2

By Mark Farquharson

Some people argue that the Flood in Noah’s day was local and not worldwide, but they are wrong. Here are some of the arguments against a worldwide flood and why they are wrong.

Argument: Noah could see the distant mountains.

This is incorrect, Noah only saw the distant mountains when the water abated, in fact it does not even say they were distant, it does says they appear, which means they appeared after the water abated, meaning when the water went down.

Genesis 8:5 And the waters came to go and abate until the tenth month. In the eleventh month, on day one of the month, appear the heads of the mountains. CLV

Is the Flood local in extent, but global in judgement?

Argument: The Flood local in extent, but global in judgement, since they believe all humanity lived in the same area. They argue that God destroy all humanity with a local flood, because all humanity lived in the same area. And they refer to the promise God made. They seem to think all flesh, means all humanity only.

Actually this argument is also flawed, it is not just all humanity that is destroyed by the flood, it is all flesh, the covenant to never again flood the earth, is not just between humanity and God, but also every living creature.

Genesis 9:15 and I am reminded of My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living soul in all flesh, and there is not to come a future deluge of water to wreck all flesh. CLV

Genesis 7:21 And expiring is all flesh moving on the earth, of flyer, and of beast, and of living animal, and of every roaming animal roaming on the earth, and every human. CLV

This shows that all flesh does not just mean humans, but all the animals. Are we to believe that all birds and beasts on the land lived only in Mesopotamia. Of course not the animals would have covered the earth. They limit it to just the local animals in the area, but it is all flesh, you can’t say that it is all humanity and not all the animals, but just the local ones. Either it is all flesh meaning all the animals and all the humans or it is only the local animals and local humans, you can’t have it both ways.

Gen 6:17 And, I, behold me! bringing in the flood—even waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the spirit of life, from under the heavens,—everything that is in the earth, shall cease to breathe: REB

All flesh is destroyed that is under the heavens. The heavens including the sky and space. Thus all the flesh on the entire earth was destroyed.

God Regretted that He had Made Humans:

It was point out to me that God regretted making humans.

Genesis 6:5-7 And seeing is Yahweh Elohim that much is the evil of humanity in the earth, and every form of the devices of its heart is but evil all its days. And regretting is Yahweh Elohim that He made humanity on the earth, and grieving to His heart. And saying is Yahweh Elohim, "Wipe will I the humanity, which I have created, off the surface of the ground, from human unto beast, and unto the moving animal, and unto the flyer of the heavens, for I regret that I have made them. CLV

Actually in the text above Yahweh regret making humans, beasts, moving animal, and flyer of the heavens. Thus it was more than just humanity that he regretted making.

Genesis 6:12-13 And God seeth the earth, and lo, it hath been corrupted, for all flesh hath corrupted its way on the earth. And God said to Noah, `An end of all flesh hath come before Me, for the earth hath been full of violence from their presence; and lo, I am destroying them with the earth. {YLT}

All flesh had corrupted its way on the earth, it was not just humans that had corrupted their way on the earth, for all flesh refers to humans and animals. Thus animals had also corrupted their way on the earth. Thus it was not just humans that were to be destroyed, but animals were to be destroyed as well. It was the end of all flesh, not just all human flesh.

Did all humanity lived in the one area before the flood?

Argument: They also state that all humanity lived in the one area before the flood, and that after the flood all humanity again lived in one area. Then after God’s confusion of the languages that is when people start to cover the earth. This is also flawed, we have no knowledge that before the flood every person lived in the same area. It does not say that in the scriptures. What we know is that after the flood people did live in the same area, until God confused the languages. Before the flood the animals would have cover all the earth, and there is no reason to believe that before the flood humanity did not also cover the earth. After the flood all humanity wanted to be in the same area, and they wanted to build a tower in to the heavens. They did not want to be scattered over the surface of the earth. Before the flood there was no reason for them to be all in one area, there is no mention of a reason for them all to be in one area. Why wouldn’t they go off and full the earth? Further more it is not just one area they want to be in, they all want to be in the same city after the Flood.

Genesis 11:4 And saying are they, "Prithee! Build will we for ourselves a city and a tower with its head in the heavens, and make for ourselves a name, lest we are scattering over the surface of the entire earth. CLV

However humanity before the flood did not all live in one city, we know that Cain start a family in a different city.

Genesis 4:16 And forth is Cain faring from before Yahweh Elohim, and is dwelling in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

4:17 And knowing is Cain his wife and she is pregnant and bearing Enoch. And coming is it that he is building a city, and calling is he the name of the city as the name of his son, Enoch. CLV

Cain build the city of Enoch. Thus while there would have been at least one city, Cain went and built his own city.

Time Between Adam’s creation and the Flood:

Another point is the time between Adam’s creation and the Flood. There are a number of different dates given for both, however the must widely used dates are 4004 BC for Adam’s creation and 2348 BC for the Flood. The difference is 1656 years, which is a long time, are we meant to think that for all that time no one travelled outside the local area? Of course people travelled outside the local area.

Command to Fill the Earth:

Genesis 1:27-28 And God created the man in his own image, In the image of God, created he him,—Male and female, created he, them. And God blessed them, and God said to them Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,—and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the and over the bird of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth on the land. REB

When God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth how much of an area were they to fill? Was it just the Garden of Eden? No there is no mention of the garden in the command. Was it just the local area? Lets look at the same command after the Flood.

Genesis 9:1-2 So God blessed Noah and his sons,—and said to them Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth; and let the fear of you and the dread of you be upon every living creature of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens,—over everything that moveth along on the ground, and over all the fishes of the sea,—into your hand, have they been given. REB

Here is the same command, the question is were Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the local area or the whole earth?

After the flood the people want to build and live all in the same city. This was clearly a breach of the command to fill the earth. They did not want to be “scattering over the surface of the entire earth.” Entire earth means to me the whole earth, not just the local area.

Genesis 11:6-9 And saying is Yahweh, "Behold! One people is it. And one lip is for them all. And this they started to do! And now nothing will be defended from them of all that they will plan to do. Prithee! Descend will We, and there disintegrate their lip, that they may not hear each man the lip of his associate. And scattering them is Yahweh thence on the surface of the entire earth. And leaving off are they building the city and the tower. Therefore its name is called Babel, for there Yahweh disintegrates the lip of the entire earth. And thence Yahweh Elohim scatters them over the surface of the entire earth. CLV

Yahweh disintegrated the lip of the people, that is Yahweh made them speak different languages. This course them to scatter over the entire earth. Thus the command would be fulfilled. How much of the earth has been fulfilled after the Flood? Clearly the whole earth has been fulfilled after the Flood, not just one area.

The same command is used before the Flood, thus the command was to fill the whole or entire earth. Was this command fulfilled? There is no reason to believe that it was not fulfilled. Yahweh has made sure that the whole earth has be filled after the flood, and I believe that if before the Flood they had stayed in one area, Yahweh would have made them move to other areas, just like he did after the Flood. Thus the command would have been fulfilled and the whole earth before the flood would have been fulfilled.

Hills or Mountains?

Did the flood waters cover just the local hills in the area?

Genesis 7:19 And the water has the mastery exceeding exceedingly on the earth. And covered are all the lofty mountains which are under the entire heavens. {CLV}

This says it cover all the mountains under the entire heavens, sky and space. I am not sure how it could be just local and cover all the mountains under the entire sky? To cover all the mountains it would have to be worldwide, not just local.

Some say the waters just covered the hills in the area, because the word translated mountain can mean hill.

Strong’s H2022 har

A shortened form of H2042; a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively): - hill (country), mount (-ain), X promotion.

While it can mean hill, it can also mean mountain. For the same Hebrew word means both hill and mountain. If it meant hill the Flood would still not be local, because if it is hill, then it cover all the hills under the entire heavens, that is under the entire sky and space. The other point is that these hills are not some small hills, they are described as lofty.

“Lofty “ Strong’s H1364 gâbôhha From H1361; elevated (or elated), powerful, arrogant: - haughty, height, high (-er), lofty, proud, X exceeding proudly.

Lofty or elevated hills, surely this then is referring to mountains. Thus the flood waters cover all the mountains on the whole world.

How could the waters be above the mountains:

One wonders how the waters got above the mountains of the entire earth. People think that this would be impossible, there is just no way it could happen. However there was another time the waters were above the mountains. The bible tells us in Genesis 1, that the waters were originally above the mountains, but one wonders how that is possible.

Genesis 1:9-10 And God said—Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together, into one place, and let the dry—ground appear. And it was so. And God called, the dry-ground, land, but the gathering together of the waters, called he seas. And God saw that it was good. {REB}

God gathered the waters together to make the ground appear. Which means it was under the water. They were gathered together into areas called seas. The seas before the Flood had a lot of water in them that was originally on top of the land.

God did not use natural forces to get the waters to cover the earth, he used supernatural forces. People seem to want to eliminate God from the process all together, they try to look for natural explanations, they look at the water now on the earth and think, impossible, how could the waters cover the earth. People seem to over look the fact that God was involved in the process. God used his powers to get the waters to cover the earth, that is how they covered the earth. You don’t need to look for some natural process that God used. There is no natural process I know of that could do that.

Boundaries set for the Waters:

Argument: Psalms 104:2-9 does not describe the flood, but the original creation of the earth. Since boundaries are set for the waters at the time of the original creation, the flood in Noah’s day must be local.

Before getting into Psalms 104:2-9 it would be good to know what the boundaries are. What is the boundary that God has set?

Jeremiah 5:22 Me do you not fear, an affirmation of Yahweh? From My presence are you not pained? Who has made sand the border of the sea, A limit eonian, and it passes not over it, They shake themselves, and they are not able, Yea, sounded have its billows, and they pass not over." CLV

In Jeremiah we learn that the sand is the border or boundary of the sea and it shall not pass over the sand. This tells us the coast line is the limit or boundary that God has set. Question, has there been local flooding that crossed the sand? The answer is yes. No matter if the flood is local or worldwide, the water has to cross the limit, otherwise there would not be a flood, local or worldwide.

Is God lying when he said the sea would not pass over it? Of course not, most of the time the sea does not cross the limit set. However when God commands, the sea does pass the limit. If God had not set a limit then the sea could cross the sand {coast line} at anytime, there would be more flooding than there currently is.

The other point is that coast lines change over time. Thus the boundary is not fix in the same place for all of time, it changes overtime. While the boundary is kept, it moves about.

Proverbs 8:29 When He established for the sea its statutory limit, So that the waters may not pass beyond His bidding, When He delineated the foundations of the earth." CLV

He placed a limit, yes, but the waters were not to pass beyond his bidding, thus at the time of the flood he bid the waters to pass beyond the bounds. If God had not done this, then there would have been no flood, local or worldwide. We know that the flood was worldwide, because it destroyed all flesh, both human and animal. Humans before the flood had fulfilled the command to fill the whole earth.

Genesis 7:11-12 in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month. On this day rent are all the springs of the vast submerged chaos, and the crevices of the heavens are opened, and coming is the downpour on the earth forty days and forty nights. CLV

Here we see that God rent all the springs of the vast submerged chaos, thus God made the waters pass beyond the limit set.

Now that we know the boundary that was set, we can turn to Psalms 104:2-9.

Psalms 104:1 Bless Yahweh, O my soul! O Yahweh, my Elohim, You are exceedingly great. You are clothed with splendor and honor;"

104:2 You are muffled with light as a garment. Stretching out the heavens like a sheet,

104:3 The One Who is laying the rafters of His upper chambers on their waters, Who is making the thick clouds His chariot, Who is going on the wings of the wind,

104:4 Making His messengers winds, His ministers a flaming fire,

104:5 He has founded the earth on its bases. It shall never slip for the eon and further. CLV

You will notice things similar to the Genesis 1 account. The mention of light which was created on day 1. Stretching out the heavens which happened on day 2.

This is not the original creation of the first earth. The first earth was created in Genesis 1:1, this is the recreation which started in Genesis 1:3.

Gen 1:2 Yet the earth became a chaos and vacant, and darkness was on the surface of the submerged chaos. Yet the spirit of the Elohim {God} is vibrating over the surface of the water.

He founded the second earth after the first earth was destroyed, it having become chaos and vacant. Since it would not slip for the eon, then this must be the second earth. This discussion is not about that, which means I will not be covering it further here. The question here is, are the verses Psalms 104:6-9, taking about the condition of the earth in Gen 1:2 or the Flood. While one could argue that all the events in Psalms 104:2-9 are talking about the same time, that does not have to be the case as there are time gaps in scripture. You can go form the recreation to the flood.

Psalms 104:6 You covered it with the abyss as clothing; The waters stood above the mountains,

104:7 Yet from Your rebuke they fled; From the sound of Your thunder they hurried away.

104:8 They ascended over the mountains; They descended to the valleys, To the place that You had founded for them." CLV

After the founding of the earth in Psalms 104:5, it says that the earth was covered. The earth in Gen 1:2 was already covered with water. It had no foundation because it was chaos. Of course one could point out that the earth was founded after that and then the waters receded on day 3 as it says in the Genesis 1 account. However the Flood account mentions the waters above the mountains:

Genesis 7:19 And the water has the mastery exceeding exceedingly on the earth. And covered are all the lofty mountains which are under the entire heavens. {CLV}

The waters covered the mountains at the time of the flood. Again it was all the mountains under all the heavens. Therefore Psalms 104:6 can be talking about the Flood.

Psalms 104:9 You placed a boundary that they would never pass; They shall never return to cover the earth. CLV

104:9 Bounds, hast thou set, which they are not to pass over, They are not to return to cover the earth. REB

The CLV translation say that the waters would never pass the boundary, however other translations use “Not.” As I have explained the boundary is sand or the coastline. Waters do cross the coastline when there is local flooding, thus “never” is incorrect. The waters were not to return to cover the earth, however at the time of the flood the waters covered all the mountains under all the heavens, thus the earth was covered. After the Flood the waters were not to return to cover the earth.

Gen 9:11 yea, I will establish my covenant with you, so that all flesh shall not be cut off any more, by reason of the waters of a flood,—neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth. REB

The earth was not to be destroyed by the flood waters.

Gen 9:15 and I have remembered My covenant which is between Me and you, and every living creature among all flesh, and the waters become no more a deluge to destroy all flesh; YLT

There was to be no more a deluge to destroy all flesh.

The Bible does not go into the extent of the Flood:

Argument: No names of places are mentioned as being flood. Thus one does not know the extent. It does mention the place the Ark came to rest.

This is also flawed, it does stated the extent of the Flood:

Genesis 7:19 And the water has the mastery exceeding exceedingly on the earth. And covered are all the lofty mountains which are under the entire heavens. {CLV}

All the mountains under all the heavens. Thus that is the extent of the flood. If the flood covered all the mountains on the planet then all places would have been wreaked by the Flood. There is no need to mention individual places if it is the whole earth. The Ark could have landed on a place that did not exist before the Flood, as the earth was changed.

Since the mount is mentioned people could point to the that area as being the only area deluged. However that appeared after the waters had receded. The waters destroyed all the previous places, the mount was a new place made by the flood, not an old place that was deluged.

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