Noah's Flood

Recently I viewed a discussion on the show Prophecy Watchers where host Gary Stearman talks to 2 men who traveled in 2013 to the mountains of Ararat looking for evidence of the remains of Noah's Ark. If interested check here . (Spoiler Alert: They are selling their DVD and book through the show and did not find the Ark but did find 60 feet below a glacier at 17,000 feet material that was organic).

I firmly believe in a real Adam and Eve and that there was a universal flood in which all mankind save 8 were destroyed. However I do not feel bound to recognize an unrealistic date purposed by many creationist who are locked into dating schemes based on the Masoretic text which places creation at 4004 BC and the Flood at about 2350 BC.

A few years ago I wrote a post giving my opinion/research on what should be the proper dating for when Adam lived and when the Flood happened. It was called Dating Da Delug  and is should be very helpful if you are at all interested in placing Biblical truth next to secular history and modern science.

There are two points I want to make here.

The first is that science and history do not trump scripture. As I've expressed before I am always amazed at how much we already have and are continuing to learn about this universe through the sciences. We just need to understand that in some areas scientists make assumptions based on a uniformist view point (everything goes on just as it always has).

The number one tactic of the enemy has always been to marginalize and make ineffective God's revelation and truth found in scripture. In this day and age it is critical that our youth gain a proper perspective about biblical interpretation so that they can trust that what God is saying through the Bible is true.

Since early on as a believer I've always taken a literal view of the biblical text in it's context and have been very comfortable that it really does all work with science and history. Sometimes you just need to dig a bit.

The second is that records of the oldest civilizations only go back 5000 years. Scientific dating methods such as carbon dating cannot really be calibrated more than 2000 years (and are probably mostly accurate no more than 4000 years) and they do not take into consideration pre-flood carbon inputs. A very good case can be made for a flood date of around 3300 BC which is what we get if we use dating from the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. All of a sudden everything fits and makes sense.

Here are some thoughts for you.

The pre-flood world was much different than the one we live in today. The oceans were shallower, the mountains were lower and the cataclysms which produced the flood not only brought huge volumes of water from both above and below but also worked to reshape the continents. The early post flood world was wetter, the Northern regions were uninhabitable and there were logical routes for migrations of peoples and animals.

Mesopotamia was the first region settled, the tower of Babel was built and then mankind spread out further. I believe that all other species had programming in their DNA to allow for quite a bit of change within limits and as they migrated to other regions they adapted to their unique environments, giving us the huge variety of life that we see today as well as in the extinct species.

Once again I recommend you check out my post Dating Da Deluge .  Here are some additional notes adding to what I wrote there.

The Byzantium calendar, because the Eastern Church uses the Septuagint translation, places the birth of Adam at 5509 BC and the flood at about 3242 BC.

The question usually asked is, did the Septuagint translators add time or did the Masoretic translators subtract time? It is my belief that the Septuagint version, quoted by Jesus, the apostles and most early church fathers should have the more accurate dates.

Here is one reason suggested for doing so.

Chief Rabbi Akiva in the early 2nd century, believing an ancient prophecy that the Messiah would appear 5500 years after Adam, and calculating that date had arrived, declared that a man named Bar Kuchva was the Messiah. Bar Kuchva led a revolt against the Romans which was successful for 3 years before the Romans regrouped and crushed the entire people, dispersing the Jews throughout the world.

Not wanting a repeat of this fiasco Akiva and the leading rabbis changed the dates listed in scripture for when a patriarch begat the next patriarch. If scripture said for example that Sela lived 130 years and became the father of Eber the age was reduced by 100, saying instead that Sela lived 30 years and became the father of Eber. Indeed all the dates of when the patriarch became the father were reduced either by 100 years or by 50 years

When the Masoretic text was written many centuries later it incorporated the changes made by Rabbi Akiva and his rabbis.