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December 23 2006

The Biblical Flood Explained

Introduction

Second only to Creation, the Flood described in Genesis stands out as a most mysterious event. It is presented as the greatest catastrophe the earth has ever witnessed. It wiped out the entire human population of the earth, it destroyed all the beasts, and buried all the trees on earth – except those saved in a vessel called the Ark. An estimated billion people were on the earth before the Flood, and the earth was covered by immense forests. The so-called wild and exotic animals such as the dinosaurs and the mammoths had roamed the earth, but they all perished. If you doubt that these things did happen during the Flood, just read on. You are in for a great surprise.

But that is not all. After the Flood, a new world emerged, the one that we live on. The events of the Flood changed landmarks, topography, climate and food supply drastically. It was more than just a Flood that happened; we shall find what the real event behind the Flood was in the following pages.

Why should you check out the Flood? Because it unfolds earth’s mysterious past called ‘prehistory’. You will realize that the school books have been covering up the mightiest event since Creation and presenting a totally different explanation for past earth events, based on evolutionary models. You have not been told the real origin of fossils and the real story of prehistoric life. My account of the Flood will cover all these items.

Please read all the articles in the Flood Mysteries section to get a complete picture of the Flood and its aftermath. The present article covers the Flood Event and its causes.;

A Universal Flood That Destroyed the Earth

The Bible says there occurred a universal Flood at the time of Noah, hence we call the event Noah’s Flood. This event can be dated by biblical chronology to about 5,000 years ago (more on the dating, later). The account of the Flood is found in Genesis 7-8 chapters; the chapters before and after describe the condition of the earth just before and after the Flood. There is no doubt when we read the Genesis account that the Flood was universal. God had told He was going to destroy the whole earth (‘earth’ is land in the Bible, see Gen. 1:10). Gen. 7:19 says the waters rose above the mountains everywhere. Yet, several skeptics have considered the Flood nothing more than a flood in Mesopotamia or in the neighboring regions. I shall give further evidence below for a universal Flood.

    1. Worldwide Flood Traditions

    At least 67 cultures in the world from all continents and many islands have ancient Flood tradition. Some of them have marked similarities to the Genesis account. The Babylonian story of the Flood discovered on clay tablets is the Gilgamesh Epic. Gilgamesh, a king of Uruk (Babylonia) ca. 2600 BC, went on a epic journey to meet Utnapishtim, the legendary Flood hero who had become immortal after passing through a great Flood. The reasons for the Flood and other details have mythological elements. The common elements include the building of a ship and taking all kinds of animals in it. Byron Nelson, in his book, The Deluge Story in Stone, has tabulated the common features of the Flood legends of many cultures and compared them with the biblical account.

    2. Massive Destruction of Life

    Mass graveyards of elephants, horses, dinosaurs and other creatures are found worldwide. Fossils are distributed worldwide.

    3. Petrified Forests

    Many petrified forests overlaid with lava are found in many parts of the world. Yellowstone National Park in USA has such forests.

    4. River systems, watermarks

    The earth’s major river systems and deltas do not go back to a long past; only several thousand years. The present topography and river systems of the earth resulted from the topographical changes that occurred during and after the Flood.

    Watermarks in old dried up lakes, old river terraces and ancient elevated shorelines found in different parts of the world testify to a watery event and deposition of layers.

    5. Origins of civilizations

    Reliable historic records of the most ancient civilizations do not go back beyond 5000 years before Present. Then the Middle East bursts with a number of civilizations: Chaldean, Assyrian, Babylonian, Hittite and Egyptian. The reason is that after the Flood mankind spread in these regions within a few hundred years.

    6. Radiocarbon dating of fossils

    Direct radiocarbon dating has been possible on many thousands of fossils. An analysis of 15,000 fossil dates give a startling confirmation of a catastrophic death several thousands years ago (to be discussed later).

    These items will be examined in more detain in Article 2 of this section.

The Biblical Account of the Flood

Here we examine in detail the Flood destruction that is narrated in Genesis chapters 7 and 8. It is important to know what the Bible says about the Flood..

The following characteristics of the Flood are noteworthy:

  1. The fountains of the deep burst forth and the windows of the heaven were opened (Gen. 7:11).
  2. Forty days and nights of incessant rain (Gen. 7:12). The Ark was lifted up and it floated (Gen. 7:17)
  3. For 150 days the waters rose and covered all land including mountains to a depth of 15 cubits (Gen. 7:19-20; 24)
  4. Then a mighty wind swept the earth over the waters. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were shut (Gen. 8:1-2).
  5. The waters receded for 150 days (Gen. 8:3).
  6. The Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat exactly five months from the start of the Flood (Gen. 8:4).
  7. It was after one year and ten days from the start of the Flood that the earth became completely dry. God commanded Noah to bring every creature in the Ark outside to repopulate the earth (Gen. 8:14; 18-19).

The total duration of the Flood was one year and ten days. If the pre-Flood year was different in length from the post-Flood year, the exact duration of the Flood would be a matter of conjecture. From the Flood account of Genesis, one Ark explorer, David Fasold, has concluded the year must have been 300 days long. From Gen. 7:24, 8:3,4 we see 150 days equated to five months. Therefore a month should be 30 days. There is no mention of an 11th or 12th month. In the post-Flood world the solar year is a little lower than 365 and a quarter days. and the lunar year is 354 days for 12 lunar months. The Hebrew nation adopted the lunar year (as did other nations) which removed the solar year and the lunar year further apart so a periodic correction was made by adding an extra month. Since we use the solar calendar in most nations, we consider a year 365 days; then we add an extra year every fourth year divisible by 4 except in century years that are not divisible by 400. There will be need for further correction over a longer period in the future. Some geological and celestial events may have affected earth’s rotation and revolution during the Flood event. Perhaps in the pre-Flood world the solar and the lunar years were of the same length, fitting for the ideal World.

Noah’s Ark: Fact or Fable?

Evolutionists and liberal Bible scholars not only disbelieve the biblical Flood, but they also try to discredit the story of Noah and the Ark he had made

‘Show us Noah’s Ark!’ has been the challenge to Christians. It may be stated that until the middle of the 19th century, the biblical story of the Flood was accepted by all Christians. The evolutionists and the rationalists have taken up the fight to question the Bible and to discredit it. Several ancient authors have mentioned the Ark’s whereabouts. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, in his Antiquities mentioned the Ark was still there to be seen. The Koran, the holy Book of the Moslems (7th century AD) states the Ark had landed on Al Judi in the Ararat region. The Bible says the Ark landed on the ‘mountains of Ararat’ (Gen. 8:4). Many Ark explorers have searched Mt. Ararat, a 17,000 ft volcanic mountain peak, to look for the Ark, believing it was lodged in the icy cliffs. So far all such attempts have been in vain. There was nothing to show the world except dubious eyewitness accounts and drawings. The Ararat region of eastern Turkey is shown below.

Then, in 1959, a Turkish pilot flew over the Ararat region for aerial survey purposes and took many aerial photos. One of these turned out to show a boat shape formation about 500 ft long. The picture shown below on the left is a cut-out of the photo that appeared in Life magazine, September 5, 1960 issue. The picture on the right is the view of the formation from the ground level. (Courtesy: Wyatt Archaeological Research).


Noah’s Ark? Life Photo Sep 1960

Ark Remains As It Appears Now

This site is some 17 miles south of Mt. Ararat, yet it is in the Ararat region. The elevation is about 6,000 ft; in fact it is a mountain slope region accessible to people. Interestingly enough, the locals call this the Doomsday mountain. The nearest town, Dogubeyazit, is 12 miles away.

One expedition group led by George Vandeman in mid-1960 reached this site in and saw the formation. However, what they saw was contrary to their expectation. They had expected to see Noah’s Ark remains, but they did not see any. Ever since, most Ark hunters have shunned this region and have gone back to Mt. Ararat – with no success.

Enter Ron Wyatt from Tennessee, a person with little biblical and archaeological background at the time he saw the Life magazine pictures. He was 27 and had to raise some very young children. For the next 17 years he studied about the Ark and ancient civilizations. Finally, in 1977 he and his two sons boldly went to Turkey and with great difficulty and divine guidance (as he admits) reached the ‘Boat’ formation. This started an intensive exploration of the formation for the next decade by himself and with experts using sophisticated instruments such as subsurface radar. The Turkish experts independently conducted their own investigation. Finally, the Turkish government officially declared that the formation was the ruins of Noah’s Ark, and on June 20, 1987, a formal ceremony was conducted at the Ark site to build a Visitor’s Center there. The account of this fascinating exploration may be found in Wyatt’s Newsletters, his book, ‘Discovered: Noah’s Ark’(1989), and in the more recent video, ‘Noah’s Ark’ Ordering information may be found on the website: www.anchorstone.com/wyatt.

Wyatt has made at least 27 trips to the Ark site. However, eastern Turkey is extremely dangerous for tourists, so regular tours are not available. Ron’s findings were confirmed by others who had joined him later such as David Fasold who wrote the book, The Ark of Noah (Wynwood Press, New York, 1988). Fasold takes a different view from Wyatt on the shape of the Ark and its construction Any doubts you may have about the formation will vanish after a careful study of all the evidence shown in the above references.

The boat shape is 515 ft long by actual measurement. The Bible says the Ark was 300 cubits long. It is generally assumed that a cubit is about 18 inches 1½ ft), hence the length would be 450 ft. However, this is the Hebrew cubit of much later origin. The cubit mentioned in the Ark account is the Royal Egyptian cubit of 20.66 inches which was used in Israel even at the time of King Solomon. 300 cubit turn out to be 515 ft. The width of the formation is much larger than the 50 cubits of the Ark. This is because the formation we see today suffered earthquakes and splitting lengthwise to widen it. The top part of the Ark, the roofing, has been gone long time ago. The wooden boat was later on covered by lava flow. All the wood was decayed or petrified. Subsurface radar clearly showed a pattern of many cells or rooms. Iron rivets were used for joints. Soil samples have shown organic carbon present. Wyatt’s museum in Cornersville, Tennessee, has a model of the Ark.

One of the most interesting items found by Wyatt near the Ark site, in a village, was a number of ‘anchorstones.’ These were huge, almost seven feet tall, thin rock slabs with a hole (‘eye’) near the top. Apparently Noah’s Ark used these stones suspended by ropes from either side for balance. They were cut off just before landing. Some of these stones had eight crosses carved on them (later work by Armenian Christians). More information on this and Wyatt’s Ark model will be given in another section (‘Sacred Relics’) or may be found from Wyatt’s website and publications.

The skeptics continue to disbelieve the findings about the Ark. But this is to be expected, because admitting it as truth would undermine the very foundation of evolution theory. Accepting the Ark would imply accepting a Universal Flood.

Noah’s Ark was not a ship like modern ships. It was just a floating vessel. Its stability in turbulent waters have been tested by models. The Ark’s size and tonnage was exceeded only in modern times The Ark could accommodate many thousands of animals. There was no need to carry fully grown up animals such as the mature dinosaurs and elephants (they were surely in the Ark!). Animal care was not a problem if they went into hibernation most of the time. How did the animals arrive in the Ark? We don’t need to assume they all came from the ends of the earth. Like our zoos, Noah probably had a zoo and the animals were just led from it to the Ark. God, of course, could have led the animals from distant lands to the Ark. The wood of the Ark is described as ‘gopher’. Wyatt has recovered a chunk of ‘laminated wood’ from the Ark formation.

Dating the Flood

I have discussed this matter under CREATION MYSTERIES. However, I shall repeat the essential information here. According to the Ussher chronology, the date of Creation is placed 4004 BC, and the Flood is placed at 2348 BC (1656 years after Creation). The chronology of the Old Testament found in our English Bibles would support these dates. This chronology is based on the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament (OT). Unfortunately the oldest preserved OT manuscript goes back only to 10th cent. AD. There is a Greek manuscript of the OT going back to the 5th cent. AD. This is a copy of a 3rd cent. BC translation from Hebrew known as the Septuagint (LXX). This text shows the Flood occurred some 3,300 years BC. All historical records favor the Septuagint dating. There cannot be any civilizations earlier than the Flood that we can find on earth with continuity. Ancient structures such as the Stonehenge and the Pyramids are post-Flood structures, yet they would appear to be pre-Flood structures based on the Ussher chronology. Other than the chronology table, the Septuagint and the Hebrew text show considerable agreement. All quotations in the New Testament are from the Septuagint because Greek was the popular language a the time.

Analysis of 15,000 Radiocarbon Dates

In 1970, Professor Robert Whitelaw of Virginia Polytechnic Institute examined the radiocarbon data reported in the journal, Radiocarbon. He was startled to find that several of these came from specimens which would be considered several million years old by evolutionary dating. Examples are:

Sabre-toothed tiger: 28,000 years (evolution: a few million)
Petrified wood: 10,000 years (evolution: several million)
Carboniferous coal: 1,680 years (evolution: above 300 million)

Radiocarbon dating is not precise beyond 30,000 years, yet these dates were within that limit.

Since Creationists believe the earth’s atmosphere is not more than several thousand years old (this does not imply that Planet Earth and the Universe are only that old), the basic assumption of carbon dating that the C-14(radiocarbon) specific production rate in the upper atmosphere was stabilized long before the Six Say Creation date cannot be trusted. Whitelaw argued that at the time of the Six day Creation, some 7,000 years ago, a plant specimen that died would probably show almost an infinite age The specific production rate of radio carbon was estimated to be 3.4 times higher than since the Flood. However, radiocarbon dating done in the labs ignores this fact and uses the current rate for all specimens, modern and ancient. Whitelaw’s correction showed that the agreement between actual age and measured age would come closer and closer with time, but would be very divergent as we go back in time. Examples are shown below:

 True Age 
Measured Age
1000
1155
2000
2310
3000
3500
4000
4725
5000
5990
6000
12530
6500
19100
7000
Infinite

Using such a correction, Whitelaw converted 9671 radiocarbon dates for land life in all the continents (humans, animals and trees) and 1587 marine specimens. Grouping them in 500 year periods, he produced a statistical distribution of these specimens shown below.


Radiocarbon Dates Prove the Flood: Whitelaw’s Charts

In 1979 he examined another 15,000 dates and selected a total of 20,297 specimens for statistical analysis. The pattern was similar to his earlier analysis. Whitelaw’s articles may be found in (1) Symposium on Creation (V) 1975, and (2) 15th Anniversary Convention of Bible-Science Association, 1979.

The analysis clearly showed that if we adjust the Creation date to 7,000 years Before Present, a massive death of men and animals and trees took place 5,000 years ago, which is the approximate date of the Flood. The specimens after the Flood show a steadily increasing number of deaths starting with zero, due to the increase in population. Marine life also suffered a high rate of death. Even more striking is the fact that marine specimens above sea level (some even on top of the Alps and the Himalayas) are non-existent after the Flood date.

What on Earth Happened?

What really happened during the Flood has been a mystery. The biblical account and other ancient records do not shed much light on the Flood event. The reason is, the survivors of the Flood were shut up in the Ark for the entire period of the Flood. God never explained to Noah the details of the Flood. Noah recorded what he experienced while in the Ark. The Flood started with two major events (Gen. 7:11):

  1. The fountains of the deep burst forth
  2. The windows of heaven were opened

This latter event is connected with the 40 days and nights of rain from above. What about the first event? Apparently there were exploding noises from beneath the waters of the ocean. It would seem that water gushed forth from underneath the oceans from explosions. Any time volcanoes erupt, a lot of steam is given off along with other fumes. Did volcanoes erupt under the oceans?

The truth is, something far more powerful than a few volcanic eruptions occurred. If you look closely the topographical map of the earth (see below), you will see a chain of mid-ocean ridges on the ocean floor connecting all oceans.

Geologists have recognized that these ridges are fracture lines on the earth’s crust. They have estimated some 200 million years ago the continents were joined together as one piece, and they have named this supercontinent Pangea. A model of the Pangea was presented in the section, Creation Mysteries. Since then Pangea broke up as a result of the earth’s Crust breaking up into pieces, or plates, which have since been drifting from each other or drifting towards each other. Thus the Americas are moving at a rate of an inch from Europe and Africa per year. The present separation is about 3,000 miles. The major mountain chains of the world such as the Alps and the Himalayas were formed by the collision of plates bearing these continental masses against each other. In other areas the collision caused one plate to go under the other as in the case of the Pacific plate moving under western edge of the US continent. This process is still continuing, hence the periodic earthquakes in California.

The scientists are correct about the breakup of a supercontinent. But they are completely wrong about the dating of the event because they have used evolutionary dating.

The creationist view is that the breakup of the supercontinent happened some 5000 years ago, and was the main event of the Flood. The supercontinent that broke up was the Good Earth which I described under Creation Mysteries.

How can we prove the breakup of the supercontinent took place just 5000 years ago? The main arguments are given below.

Dating the Breakup of Pangea

The geologists have been able to match plant fossils on wither side of the Atlantic. The plant species they identified belonged to the Mesozoic era on the evolutionary time table known as the Geological Column. This period is between 63 million and 230 million years. Continental Split is believed to have taken place somewhere in the Middle Mesozoic era, the Jurassic period (time of the dinosaurs).

The Creationist response is that all life, past and present, cannot be more ancient than the Six Day Creation. Most fossils are the result of a massive death, and the only massive death since Creation occurred during the Flood. The geological time scale is an artificial one, with no validity at all. The spread of ancient life over 600 million years is an evolutionary scheme. The fossil-containing layers are sedimentary rocks which were deposited during the Flood. The entire fossil column spanning 600 million years was deposited in a one year period at the time of the Flood. We shall see more about it in a discussion of the Geological Column (See ‘Dating of Ancient Life’).

If we extrapolate the present rate of drift of continents from each other, we would arrive at many millions of years, assuming a uniform rate of drift. This is another fallacy. The breaking up of the Crust was an explosive event of unprecedented magnitude, considering the fact that the mid-ocean rides extend some 40,000 miles. The broken parts did not just move at the rates we see today. The mantle rocks beneath the Crust were so hot that the broken plates could move without much friction for many hundreds of miles per hour initially. As the rocks cooled down, the movement began to slow down. It is this slowed down rate we are seeing today. We can assume an exponential decay in the rate at which the plates moved apart or moved against each other.

The schematic figure below illustrates the movement of broken crustal plates with the force of separation. The crustal plates are shown moving away from each other by the explosive force of the breakup assisted by the fluidity of the underlying hot molten rock (magma). Scientists cannot explain why the magma got so hot, but the Creationists know that God had masterminded the event, and some agent unknown to us triggered the overheating. There is suggestion that radioactive rocks were the source of the heat, but is by no means certain.


Continental Split and Drift, Schematic

Where Did the Flood Waters Come From?

Most people assume the Flood waters came from the 40 days of rain. The question is, was there that much water held up above to pour down and submerge all land mass including the mountains?

It has been estimated that if the atmosphere is water saturated, the total water content when condensed would not create more than 30 ft.

The most popular Creationist explanation for the waters from above is that in the pre-Flood world there was a water vapor canopy surrounding the globe, and that its sudden condensation caused the 40 days of rain.

Proponents of this view have re-examined their position and have admitted that to hold that much water, the Canopy had to be immensely thick, and would have to exist a ice crystals. What would hold the Canopy intact? Such a canopy would have obstructed the view of the heavenly bodies – the sun and the moon and the stars. Yet, the atmosphere was clear on the fourth Creation day to view these objects. The Canopy theory falls apart on scrutiny. A further claim was that the Canopy shielded the earth from the ultraviolet rays of the sun which could explain the longevity of the antediluvians.

I have found a much more convincing source of water for the 40 days of rain. Remember, the earth’s crust broke up at the start of the Flood? Huge eruptions under the oceans for thousands of miles literally boiled the ocean and released steam into the air along with volcanic ash. Immense tidal waves were also created. The steam and the ash that went up precipitated as rain for the entire period of the eruptions. This phenomenon is known to all that are familiar with volcanic eruptions. There would be a cooling down of the earth’s atmosphere as well due to the blockage of sunlight.

The oceanic waters not only boiled off and gave the rain, but also swept across all land mass with such force that the soil and all the trees were uprooted into a muddy soup.

The pre-Flood earth did not have the high mountain peaks we have today which are the result of the collision of crustal plates. In my model of the Good Earth, I assumed the earth’s land mass had a gradual slope from the center which was at top elevation where I placed the Garden of Eden. To preserve mild weather, the elevation could not have been more than a few thousand feet above sea level. So it would not require five miles deep water to submerge all land as we have now. The mountain peaks including Ararat are the result of the Flood event. The Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat at about 6000 feet elevation. Mt. Ararat itself came into being from the volcanic eruptions during the Flood.

The Flood: Master Key to Earth’s Riddles

Once we accept the Flood was the most destructive event that ever occurred in the past when there was life on earth, and involved violent eruptions, crustal breakup and complete submersion of all land in water with the destruction and burial of all life, we begin to realize that the Flood is the Master Key to understanding the earth’s past

Would you believe the Flood event can explain the following mysteries of earth’s past and present?

  1. Distribution of continents, earth’s topography, deserts, forests, cold regions
  2. Stratified rock layers, canyons, river systems, petrified rock
  3. Prehistoric life and fossils
  4. The supply of coal
  5. The Ice ages
  6. Human and animal distribution
  7. Origin of civilizations, cultures, races and languages

Some of these have already been described. A more detailed discussion of these items will be given in the next article, ‘The Master Key to Earth’s Riddles’

From the Good Earth to the New Earth The Master Key to Earth’s Riddles

Related Posts

Flood Mysteries

Noah’s Ark Special

Our Visit to the Noah’s Ark Site
October 10-12, 2000


Our Noah’s Ark Visit

My wife and I were part of a group of thirteen people (all from USA except one from Hong Kong) to visit the Noah’s Ark site and view its remains as part of an Anchor Stone International Tour sponsored for the first time in October of 2000. I had been waiting for a trip like this for a long time. Since the early 1990s no organized tour to the site could be arranged due to the political instability in the region which borders with Iran where the Kurd nationalists have been staging violent demonstrations and attacks. During our tour leader’s visit a few months ago to the site he learned the place is safe for visitors. So we became part of the first group of visitors. Our group leader was Bill Fry who runs the Anchorstone web site which features Noah’s Ark and other discoveries. Our Turkish guide was the young and brilliant Zafer who spoke English, Turkish and Kurdish languages, a hard combination to find.

We flew from USA to Istanbul (a city worth seeing for all its history – it was the capital of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires, remnants of which are left behind). The next day we flew to Van in southeast Turkey, and then took a ride on the rented bus to Dogubayazit (pronounced, ‘Doubayazit’), the closest town to the Ark site. See area maps.

  

Since there was still some day time, we proceeded directly to the site, going southeast for about 12 miles. There is a sign post on the road pointing to the right, ‘Nuhun Gemisi’, meaning, ‘Noah’s Ark’. Our group took a picture there, shown on the front page.

We took the right turn and passed through a park and village towards a military base (soldiers are seen frequently in the area, and we had to stop at several check posts on the main road; no photos!). From there we turned left toward the mountain top through zig-zag unpaved roads, climbing 1500 ft over a distance of two miles, taking about 15 minutes for the climb. Deep ravines or crevasses were on our left side. The Ark formation, shown below, is barely visible from the valley base, but then disappears from view due to intervening hills until we get real close to it. The Turkish government built in 1987 a Visitors Center on the hill opposite to the Ark site, and our bus could reach the Center. Many years back only a horse ride or walk would take you up there.

The Ark shape is unmistakable, spanning a distance of 515 ft in a north-south direction. This is exactly 300 cubits as the Bible says, if we assume the cubit is the royal Egyptian cubit of 20.6 inches, as found elsewhere. The front end is elevated from the back end by 125 ft, and the front end faces the mountain ranges on the southern side. In fact, mountains surround the horizon on all sides except the north (tail end) which is the valley. The second photo (by Wyatt Archaeological Research) gives a panoramic view of the boat shape and the Visitors Center.

A spectacular aerial photo of the Ark shape and the surrounding area, sent to me by Michael Bonilla (one of our tour members), and available from WAR, is shown below.

However, far beyond to the north is Mt. Ararat, 18 miles away. Its two peaks are visible on a clear day. The higher peak (Greater Ararat) is about 17,000 ft high. So Noah’s Ark came to rest after traveling from north to south for some distance. The valley must have been still full of water while it sailed through, but the water level had fallen to the level of the present site, about 6500 ft above sea level at the time of landing. I am showing below a photo taken by W.A.R. in 1996 from the Ark site from which the Mt. Ararat peaks can be seen clearly.

On our first day of visit, unexpectedly the place was very windy at 4 pm, and we could barely get out of the Visitor’s Center. After taking some pictures we left for a return visit the following day.

We stayed at the Urartu hotel in Dogubayazit, eating dinner at the Cinar (pronounced, ‘Chinar’ or ‘Shinar’ – remember the Tower of Babel in the plains of Shinar?). Dogubayazit is a rustic town, and its hotels and other facilities are tolerable. Turkish ‘Chay’ (tea) served in small glasses is a specialty everywhere.

The next morning we returned to the Ark site. The Visitor’s Center has many picture displays, and a polite custodian (Hassan) brings tea for visitors. We signed the guest book which has 1500 entries in the last 18 months from all over the world. This was remarkable because very few from America have gone there, and there is virtually no publicity from the travel agencies or books. I wondered how they all came there. My wife numbered all the pages of the guest book while she was waiting inside on the third day of our visit.

Going down from the Visitor’s Center to the Ark site (not more than half a mile away) is no easy task. The ground is rocky with chunks of dark lava stones (this is an area of lava flow) and thorny bushes. Also, we had to cross some crevasses or avoid them; these probably resulted from earthquakes (the last one was in 1978). The Ark appeared to be not very large from the Visitor’s Center, but once we got there, it was really large. We climbed from the tail end (north) to the front end. Along the center is a hump all the way, and it is like climbing a hill. Both sides are raised, as you would expect for a boat. Of course there is no wood to be seen; everything is fossilized. Different colored rocks, light reddish to dark are seen on the top. The elevated sides are dark with heavy rock structure. Overall, in the dry season the shape is like a boat filled with grain and bulging in the middle. The width of the Ark shape is about 160 ft, almost twice as the 50 cubits (88 ft) in the biblical account. This is believed to be due to lengthwise splitting and spaying as the Ark slid down from a higher elevation some time in the past due to lava flow. The large rock near the center is what probably stopped the Ark from further sliding down.

We had heard about iron rivets in the body of the boat shape underground. There was one exposed rivet on the left ridge towards the northern end. Photographs of the raised edge and the rivet are shown below. A metal detector that one of the tour members had brought sensed the iron (or other metals). Previous explorers have recovered at least one full size rivet from the interior.

To reach the steep sides one has to go out and walk along. On the left (eastern) side we saw halfway the gaping hole towards the top that was formed when the 1960 expedition team had dynamited the area to recover something of the boat, but they found nothing. On the right side was a drilled hole for taking sample (Ron Wyatt apparently did this during his visits in the 1977-93 time frame. Read more about Ron later). Shown below are the dynamited area, and an exposed rock in another part which resembles petrified wood.

The western steep side of the boat shape (closer to the Visitor Center) has been studied more carefully by previous researchers. When this side is brushed off, it shows vertical bands of alternate dark and light coloration, evenly spaced. The picture shown below is taken from Wyatt’s photos of the Ark site. If anyone argues that the boat shape is a natural formation, how can the stripes be explained? The darker stripes are the ‘ribs’ of the boat structure! We have already seen that the presence of iron rivets (numerous rivets have been suspected in the interior) also supports the man-made nature of the artifact.

The surrounding land is hilly and rocky, but sheep grazing was going on. Up above on the southwestern hillside was the village of Uzengeli. It is not safe to wander around there too far due to sheep dogs and possibly unfriendly villagers. The village children were in the field, grazing sheep and some collecting rock pieces to sell to visitors. We, of course, collected our samples. Larger size petrified rock pieces were prize items, but at the airport one has to convince the inspectors that you are not taking anything valuable.

We returned to the site the next morning for a last look, and for more pictures. This could very well be the last trip for most of us to the site. It was a dream come true to be at this most ancient and memorable site. Think of it: all mankind descended from the eight survivors of the Flood 5,000 years ago and it started right here at the site.

The Ark site looked dull due to the dry season. It could appear greenish during spring, and the area would be covered with snow in winter months with sub-zero temperatures. Summer is usually the best time to visit.

The site we visited is somewhat controversial because most Creationists hold that the Ark landed on Mt. Ararat. They contend that the Ark shape is natural, not of a man-made object. I shall address this question later.

Visiting the Anchor Stones

About fifteen miles away from the Ark site, northwest of Dogubayazit, is a village called Kazan, also called The Village of Eight. We made a short visit of the village where Kurdish people live. Our tour guide could talk to them. A dozen of the villagers, mostly women and children (some wild boys included) curiously watched us as we passed by their dwelling places (low houses with slab roof, one low door, inside dark). Adjacent to the houses were pens (enclosures with loosely packed stone walls) for keeping the sheep at night. The boys constantly pursued us for money; we gave some candy we had brought, and I took digital pictures and showed them. This was fascinating for even the women who became friendly. We found not too far from the houses something like a graveyard with large stone slabs, some upright and some lying flat. All had crosses on them. One large slab was standing up with a large hole (four inches wide) at the top. It was about seven feet tall, four feet wide and three fourth foot thick (not uniform). This had Crosses and a boat shape carved on them.

The villagers who are Kurdish Moslems are late occupants of this area and know nothing of these stones or the carvings on them; before that Armenian Christians had lived there for centuries. It is believed that they had carved these shapes to portray the Flood and its survivors. Some of the anchor stones have exactly eight Crosses. Why are they called anchor stones? The Ark researchers such as Ron Wyatt and David Fasold believed that these were suspended from the sides of the Ark for stability, and were cut off some time before landing. I think a better explanation is that these dropped when the ropes were broken which explains why these stones are not all in one place. This valley would be filled with water to several hundred feet depth, so there would be no reason to cut them off. Obviously the Ark passed through this area. Another anchor stone lying on the ground nearby had no markings. We asked permission to the village male adults to turn it around to see if there are markings on the other side, but the suspicious people rejected our request. It would have taken all of our strength to turn it over.

A little further away from the village on the way back is an open ground in front of a hill which is believed to be Noah’s village where remains of his house and tomb as well as a n altar have been found. We could not visit this area due to the unfriendly nature of the villagers, particularly the Chief there. Pictures of these, however, are available in publications. I may add that it was Ron Wyatt who recognized the above sites during his first two days of wandering near Dogubayazit in 1977, his very first visit.

On the way to the Kazan village we stopped by the roadside to see a large chunk of petrified rock lying in the field. Its surface had the appearance of a tree bark, and appeared much less dense than normal petrified rock. It was of the same size as the anchor stone.

One last spot where we made a stop was a village at the foot of Greater Ararat on the southern side. There was a stream there where women were washing clothes. Women were carrying water and doing other jobs. To our surprise, some of the houses had dish receivers mounted on the top. Perhaps they have TVs and radios. The school children wore bright uniforms. The adults wore fairly decent clothes. In Dogubayazit we saw men wearing western suit jackets and pants while doing ordinary work.

Turkey became a Republic in 1922 under Kamal Ataturk (Ataturk is a title meaning ‘Father of the Turks’) who led the revolution. The Ottoman rule had ended after World War I due to their defeat. Arabic is not spoken or used for official purposes, though mosques which are everywhere in Turkey use them for prayers. Ninety-eight percent Turkish are Moslems, having been converted from Christianity centuries ago. The only Church we found was in Istanbul.

Brief History of the Site

The site we visited have been known to modern people since 1959, but have been publicized only since 1987 when the Turkish government built a Visitors Center there. Even after that tourists rarely come there due to poor publicity, fears about traveling in a politically unstable region, and some negative publicity by the very people who have been searching for Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat.

The site is sometimes called the Durupinar site after Captain Ilhan Durupinar of Turkey who examined with a stereoplanograph the negatives of the photos taken from the air of the Ararat region in the summer of 1959 by Major Sevket Kurtis, a Turkish student at the Institute of Geodesy at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, under the direction of Prof. Arthur Brandenberger. These were photographed for a NATO project. Captain Durupinar’s job in Ankara, Turkey, was to examine these negatives in the lab there. On September 23, 1959 he came upon the now famous negative plate bearing the Ark shape. He did not know what it was, but the Colonel in charge of the lab assured him it was Noah’s Ark. Later on Dr. Brandenberger examined the plate and was convinced it was the outline of a man-made object. Newspaper reports started appearing from November 1959 in Turkey, Germany and USA. An expedition to the site was organized by George Vandeman in USA, reputed televangelist who ran the weekly It Is Written program. He was joined by half a dozen prominent people including Dr. Brandenberger, Rene Noorbergen (who later wrote The Ark File in 1974), and Captain Durupinar. Eryl Cummings who had explored Mt. Ararat could not go at the last moment (his wife wrote a detailed chapter on the finding in her book, Noah’s Ark: Fact of Fable, 1972). On June 6, 1960, the group reached the site on horseback with military escort. The first day’s exploration involved some digging from the outside and from the inside which brought nothing of importance. The second day they decided to dynamite a spot on one side. After that turned out to be of no value, the team decided to leave. End of the expedition.

Perhaps the best outcome of all these was a one page photo article that appeared in Life magazine, Sep 5, 1960 issue, page 112 (I have a copy that acquired a few years ago). See below.

A young, 27 year old Ron Wyatt in Tennessee saw the Life picture and was captivated by it. He had no way of visiting the site, so he did all he could to learn more about Noah’s Ark, and he even did some experimentation with paper boats floating in water to find out the pattern of landing in a hilly area. Then, in 1975 he read Noorbergen’s book, The Ark File (I bought my copy recently from a used book seller who had only 21 copies left). He contacted all the people who had gone for the 1960 expedition from USA. No one could help him to give directions to the site except that he had to first go to Dogubayazit. In 1977 he decided to take matters into his own hand, and on August 7 he flew to Istanbul with his two teen aged boys (being a single parent). From there he reached Dogubayazit via Ankara and Erzurum, taking three days for the tedious bus and train travel. His cab driver spoke no English, so he and the boys wandered around the Dogubayazit area. On the third day he reached the Ark site (the boys were left at the hotel) after walking up the hill from the valley below. ‘What happened on the first two days, I have already told you. Ron believes he was divinely guided to the location (details are found in his video Discovered: Noah’s Ark and in his newsletter of July 1994, available from Wyatt Archaeological Research, TN).

Ron scraped together enough money from working in a hospital and kept going back to the site for the next 15 years. Soon other researchers joined him. Included were David Fasold, a marine salvage expert from San Diego, Dr. Baumgardner , a geophysicist from Los Alamos National Laboratory and others. They used metal detectors and subsurface interface radar scanners to map the Ark form. A criss-cross pattern of rooms underneath emerged from the scans. Evidence for the use of iron rivets in the structure was also found. At least one rivet has been recovered (later shown on TV). A rectangular chunk of petrified wood was obtained by Ron who got permission to take it home. Examination showed that it had been once laminated wood. What these meant was that the pre-Flood people had advanced knowledge of construction and metallurgy, not surprising when we read Genesis 4:23 about Tubal-Cain who lived before the Flood and had expertise in working with iron and bronze. Ron found a very large heavy flat rock further up hill from the Ark shape which on analysis showed high manganese content. He believed this to be the ballast for the Ark. The manganese containing rock, not native to the area was probably the slag from iron ore processing in the pre-Flood period. The Ark is believed to have been carried further down to the present location by lava flow some time later. It stopped at its present location due to a large outcropping rock there.

In 1978, a year after Ron’s first visit, an earthquake ripped open the western side (closer to the Visitor Center) exposing vertical rib pattern, giving further evidence of the ‘boat’ Light and dark vertical ribs can be seen if we clean up this side.

I have already mentioned that the Turkish archaeologists did their independent study and concluded that this was indeed the petrified remains of Noah’s Ark. The foremost Turkish archaeological expert, Prof. Ekrem Akurgal agrees with this conclusion.

It may be pointed out that after some years of their assertion of the Noah’s Ark site finding, both Dr. Baumgardner and David Fasold (who wrote the first book on the Ark site research, The Ark of Noah in 1988) retracted their conclusions and stated the boat shape was a natural formation. It is known that Dr. Baumgardner had once demanded that he be declared the discoverer of the site, and the Turkish officials declined. As for Fasold, he got into some law suits and to get out of his financial trouble he had to recant his findings to a Creationist financier who was eager to disprove the site. Fasold later regretted it, but it was too late. He died in 1998. I have a three page letter from Fasold written March 28, 1990 in which he mentioned the attack of ICR Creationist group in San Diego on his findings. Fasold and Wyatt did not agree on the construction details of the Ark. Fasold thought of it as a reed boat, while Wyatt assumed it to be a regular boat made with wood (with cabins and decks, of course). It seems that Wyatt may be closer to the truth. The Ark is definitely not rectangular as some models seen in Creationist books (see below).

Ron Wyatt made a model of the Ark and tested it in turbulent waters to prove its stability. A picture of this model with Ron at its side taken by Jim Pinkoski at the first museum Ron had opened is shown below. Replicas of anchorstones were once suspended from its sides, not shown in the picture.


What About Mt. Ararat As The Ark Location?

I have been collecting and reading books on Noah’s Ark Search since the 70s and have gone through books by Cummings (1972), Montgomery (1974), Balsiger/Sellier (1976), Berlitz (1987), Fasold (1988) and Wyatt (1989), as well as newsletters, videotapes and internet articles. Currently there are two main camps with regard to the Ark site. The Creationist camp led by ICR and similar groups had been promoting the Mt. Ararat site for at least 30 years. As Cummings’ book shows, several ‘sightings’ of the Ark way up on the mountain are reported. Yet there is not one single photo to prove it. A sketch of the Ark, broken into two pieces lodged at the end of an ice covered ledge is included in Cummings’ book, 1972 (see Bibliography) shown below.

In some cases the so-called eyewitnesses made up a story when lured by the interviewers with money. In other cases the description of the witnesses fit better with the alternate site. The alternate site proposed by Wyatt, Fasold and the Turkish government holds that the Durupinar site shows the correct Ark remains, and that the Ark is shaped like a boat. This is the site I visited in my recent trip because I am convinced of its authenticity.

A web article written by Drs. Lee Spencer and Jean Luc Lianard examines the merits of the Ararat location and rejects it. You may check the web site:

http://origins.swau.edu/papers/global/noah/default.html
The historical information they give is as follows:
1. The Bible says the Ark landed on the ‘mountains’ of Ararat, not on ‘Mt. Ararat (Gen. 8:4).
2. The ancient Armenians never identified Mt. Ararat (which they called Mt. Masis) with the Urartu region where the Ark landed.
3. The Chaldean version of the Bible uses Mount Kardu (or better, mountains of Kardu) in place of Ararat. Mountains of Kardu/Kardum is identical with Gordyeaen Mountains in Greek which Berosus (275 BC) identified with the Ark location.
4. The Gilgamesh Epic (650 BC) states Mt. Nisir as the landing place of the Ark. The annals of Ashurnasurpal II of Assyria (833-859 BC) places it south of the Zab river
5. Theophilus of Antioch (115-185 AD) said the Ark could be seen in his day in the Arabian mountains. Later Church Fathers also mention the Ark as late as the mid 7th century.
6. The Koran of the Moslems (7th cent.) places the Ark on Al Judi, a mountain in the country of Masur. Judi is believed to be a form of Gordea or Kurd.
7. It was in the 13th century that Willam, a traveler, stated for the first time that Mt. Masis was the Ark location (present-day Mt. Ararat).
8. Ptolemy’s Geographia (1548) mentions the mountains of Armenia as the place of landing. So does the traveler Nicolas de Nicolay (1558). Both state that Mt. Ararat is equivalent to Mount Gordian, a mistaken identification.

The so-called modern findings of the Ark on Mt. Ararat in this century are all questionable. Yet, some Creationists are still pushing for the Ararat site. A June 1993 CBS documentary The Incredible Discovery of Noah’s Ark based on a Sun Classics Motion picture produced by Charles Sellier turned out to be a hoax, and Time magazine wrote an article on the hoax in their July 5, 1993 issue, Phony Arkaeology. John Morris’ picture book, Noah’s Ark and the Lost World (ICR, 1988) acknowledges that the rectangular shaped Ark form on Ararat could be a phantom ship, not real. In spite of all that, the Creationists vehemently attack the Durupinar site and its promoters.

Concluding Remarks

Our Noah’s Ark site trip was a dream come true. I thank God for the opportunity to visit this most historic site. As far as I am concerned, the site we visited is genuine. I am aware of all the criticism, but I have weighed the evidences as I have done of the other Bible Discoveries on my web site.

Have you wondered what Noah would have done if he were alive in our time? I was amused by an ad in Time magazine December 27, 1999 issue shown below:

Noah, the Master Ship Builder, would be making boats for us moderns, most likely for recreation, and not for crossing the oceans or to survive another Flood!

However, Noah would more likely be a Dooms Day Preacher for the second time, preaching to the people of the earth of the coming Judgement by Fire.

Bibliography
1. Noah’s Ark: Fact or Fable? by Violet Cummings (Creation-Science Research Center, San Diego, 1972)
2. The Ark File by Rene Noorbergen (Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1974)
3. The Quest for Noah’s Ark by John Warwick Montgomery (Pyramid Book, 1974)
4. In Search of Noah’s Ark by Dave Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier Jr. (Sun Classic Books, 1976)
5. The Lost Ship of Noah by Charles Berlitz (Fawcett Crest, New York, 1987)
6. The Ark of Noah by David Fasold (Wynwood Press, New York, 1988)
7. Discovered: Noah’s Ark by Ron Wyatt (World Bible Society, 1989)
Other Sources:

Discovered! Newsletters of Wyatt Archaeological Research (W.A.R.) September 1992 to Present
Discovered! Noah’s Ark video by W.A.R.
Surprising Discoveries video by Jonathan Gray (available from the Anchorstone web site)

Web sites:
www.anchorstone.com
www.wyattmuseum.com
www.pinkoski.com
www.arkdiscovery.com (by Kevin Fisher, one of the tour members)


www.arkfind.com (by Mark Johnson, another member of our group

Flood Mysteries

The Master Key to Earth’s Riddles

Introduction

The previous article closed with a brief mention of the Flood as the Master Key to Earth’s Riddles. These riddles or puzzling questions about earth’s past (and present) were:

  • Distribution of continents, earth’s topography, deserts, forests, cold regions
  • Stratified rock layers, canyons, river systems, petrified rock
  • Prehistoric life and fossils
  • The supply of coal
  • The Ice ages
  • Human and animal distribution
  • Origin of civilizations, cultures, races and languages
  • In this article I shall go into more detail each of the above items. The illustration below was drawn by me several years ago for presentations on the Flood. It draws attention to the fact that scientists attempt to answer the above questions using a number of keys because they do not connect all of them together. However, using the Flood Master Key we can answer all these as related to one earth event.

    Distribution of Continents, Uneven Topography, Unusable Land

    If you examine a topographical map of the earth (see under Creation Mysteries, Article 2), you will recognize the land masses (continents, islands) are separated by oceans, and the land masses are very uneven with mountain chains, deserts and ice covered regions. Much of the earth’s land surface is not suitable for agriculture and for living.

    The Creationist view is that when God created the Good Earth (Genesis 1), it was a single land mass and had ideal topography and climatic conditions. All the land mass enjoyed a mild climate. There were no weather extremes. The earth had luxuriant vegetation with forests covering a large part of the earth. As mankind multiplied over a 2,000 year period, they spread farther and farther apart, clearing the forests. Yet, there was abundant land for the wild animals including the dinosaurs and mammoths (considered prehistoric by evolutionists).

    In the previous article I explained how the supercontinent was split and drifted to form the present continents. This event occurred during the Flood. The evolutionists date it at 200 million years ago. This dating was based on the dating of earth’s layers that matched on both sides of the Atlantic. Evolutionists use imbedded fossils to match the layers, and the fossils that matched belonged to the middle Mesozoic era. The fallacy of this dating method will be discussed later. The finding of fossils immediately should give the clue that it was the Flood that caused the death of animal and plant life, and the matching fossils mean the continental split took place at the time of the Flood.

    The uneven topography of the present earth resulted from the collision of crustal plates after the Split and the Drift. It did not take millions of years for the continents to move to their present locations. The magma of molten rock below the plates was hot and fluid, so the plates could move fast initially; the movement slowed down as the magma cooled down. At present the Americas are drifting from Africa and Europe at the rate of an inch per year. This should be considered the nearly flat portion of an exponential decay curve which re[resents the rate of movement with time.

    The formation of deserts is easy to understand. There are no mountain ranges beyond them to stop the rain clouds. Immediately after the Flood there were no deserts; all land was wet. It took hundreds of years to form the deserts. Evidence for vegetation and streams may be found under the sands of Arabia and the Sahara We should not be surprised to see evidence of past human settlements in these regions.

    The cold regions such as Alaska, Siberia, Greenland and the Antarctic continent are the result of the movement of crustal plates bearing these land masses. Drilling work has shown that Antarctica had forests one time. Under the ice in Alaska and Siberia are found the remains of woolly mammoths, five million of them. Some of the carcass unearthed showed no decay, and subtropical plants were found in their bellies.

    Mid-Ocean Ridges and Continental Drift

    The ocean floor is uneven with deep trenches and volcanic peaks. What is more, the ocean floor appears to be cracked for some 40,000 miles. The most conspicuous mid-ocean ridge is in the Atlantic. You can look at any topographical map of the ocean floor and learn more about it. See the map in the first article. The mid-Atlantic ridge was discovered during the oceanic expedition of 1957. The ocean ridges confirmed the suspicion of earlier earth scientists such as Alfred Wegener who in 1901 had proposed Continental Drift. The idea of a single continent goes back as far as the time of the philosopher Francis Bacon in 1620. Another interesting observation on the separation of the continents resulting from the Flood was made by P. Placet in 1668: "The corruption of the great and little world where it is shown that before the deluge, America was not separated from other parts of the world". Antonio Snider’s 1858 book had a map with the Atlantic closed, and he too claimed the deluge had caused the separation of continents.

    Some Creationists have misinterpreted Gen. 10:25 which says what happened during Peleg’s time: ‘for in his days was the earth divided’. Peleg was a descendent of Noah who lived a few hundred years after the Flood. The misunderstanding here is about the division of the earth. What happened during his time was the people of the earth dispersed following the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11) If the earth’s crust had broken up during his time, it would have been a calamity as big as the Flood. Yet there is no indication of such an event, or the destruction of life.

    In April 1974 I wrote an article in the Bible Science Newsletter about Continental Drift. At that time Creationists in America had not included this event in their Flood model. Even today, most Creationists in America refuse to accept it. Just as with the Six Day Creation, these Creationists have misread the overwhelming evidences available to them.

    Stratified Rocks, Petrified Forests, Canyons, Rivers

    Many places in the world show stratified rock layers exposed for hundreds of feet. The most celebrated example is the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The Colorado river flows through the Canyon at a depth of a mile. Geologists and paleontologists have made this a showcase of evolution. Based on their uniformitarian view of the formation of these layers, they assume the layers were formed over millions of years by gradual deposition. What is more, various living forms that died were fossilized and preserved in these layers. We shall see later that such a view is not supported by evidence. The Grand Canyon is considered the best preserved specimen of the Geological Column of time scale, yet it misses many millions of years, and the rock layers do not always show the expected sequence. The Creationist view is that the Grand canyon and other canyons were formed during the separation of the earth; they were not carved out by rivers; on the contrary, the rivers just found their way through the canyon.

    Petrified rock forests are seen in Western USA. In fact not too far from the Grand Canyon is a petrified forest. Tree trunks have been turned to rock but still showing trunk patterns. In other places lava rocks are found in many layers, implying volcanic activity. Again, the volcanic activity during the Flood would account for these.

    The earth’s river systems are the result of the new topography from the Flood event. Many straits and land bridges are also the result of the changed topography. Immediately after the Flood, after the waters had drained off (mostly back to the ocean when the land had been raised again (as in the Six day Creation), many animals could travel long distances and reach remote parts of the earth that are now separated by oceanic water. Following the Flood, glaciers melted and raised the sea level and submerged many land bridges. Why do we not see kangaroos except in Australia? Because these animals had crossed the land bridges but could not go back. Perhaps kangaroos in other parts of the world did not survive the post-Flood living conditions. Hunting was a major activity of humans, and some animal species may have been wiped out by such activity.

    Fossils Tell A Different Story

    Fossils are considered the Showcase of Evolution. Those prehistoric creatures such as the sabre-toothed tigers, dinosaurs and mammoths do not live in our present world, yet evidence for such creatures in the past is preserved in the rocks.

    Evolutionists have created a fable out of the fossil record. They want us to believe the following:

      1. The creatures and plant life represented in the fossil record are several million to several hundred million years old.
      2. They all died at different time periods spanning millions of years, and the earth covered their remains and produced the fossils. The oldest fossil should be expected in the lowest stratum and the youngest, in the topmost stratum.
      3. The progression of life from the simple to the complex is preserved in the fossil record on a time scale spanning 600 million years. This is the time ascribed to evolution of these creatures and plant forms.

    Nothing is further from the truth. The following are the facts:

      1. The fossils are found in sedimentary rock layers deposited during the Flood some 5,000 years ago.
      2. The animals and plant life all died in a short period at the initial stages of the Flood. They were trapped in the mud and fossilized as the Flood sediments accumulated and piled up. There is no clear-cut pattern of different layers showing different life forms. Many different species are found in the same layer. Many parts of the earth show oldest fossils (by evolutionary dating) on the topmost layer, and the youngest at the bottom layer.
      3. There is no well-defined progression of life from the simple to the complex in a neat column of rock strata.
      4.There are no transitional forms of life in the fossil record

    Why are the evolutionary claims false?

      First: The evolutionists are not honest about fossil findings. This will become apparent in a later paragraph (see Fossil anomalies).
      Second: The evolutionary dating of fossils is incorrect. They do not directly date the fossils; instead, they date the layers and assign the date of the layer to the fossil. But even their layer dating is full of uncertainties (see below).
      Third: Fossils are not formed by gradual death and gradual deposition of soil. Fourth: There should be a lot more fossils if evolution did occur. It is estimated that some two million transitional forms should be in the fossil record to prove evolution. None are found.

    The formation of fossils require burial in soft mud followed by compression and the absence of oxygen and bacteria. Otherwise the dead matter would decay completely. The fact that even the tender plant leaves are preserved means that they had not decayed, yet were completely covered by mud and compacted. Slowly the soil particle replaced the plant imprint. In the case of fish and animals, the soil particles replaced the soft parts and the bony structure remained. This is why it is possible to carve out the original shape of shells, ammonites and fish..

    The apparent progression of life forms from the simple to the complex in the fossil record is somewhat expected from Flood geology: the heavier and immobile forms such as the shells would settle down first. The more mobile forms would be buried further up. The smartest of all, man, would die last and would be seldom fossilized or his fossi l would be worn out.

    The number of fossil species in the fossil record is estimated at 130,000 while the number of living species is estimated at 1,105,100. Professor Melvin Cook, author of Prehistory and Earth Models (published by Max Parrish, London, 1966) has computed that if evolution did occur in the past, the number of fossil species should far exceed the number of living species by a factor of 10. Furthermore, he estimated that we should expect one new species in the present world every 200 years. Evolutionists tell us that evolution is so slow that it cannot be observed in time spans of hundreds of years which is why we see no new species!

    Fossil Anomalies

    The following examples are just a tiny fraction of the anomalies in the fossil record

      1. Modern horse hoof in cretaceous coal: discovered in Utah by a mining engineer.
      2. Frozen mammoths in Siberia and Alaska: an estimated five million mammoths are entombed in ice in these places as if overcome by a sudden catastrophe. Some of them have subtropical plants in their mouth and belly. These animals were first drowned in water, later covered by snow and ice as the land masses moved to the arctic regions.
      3. Dinosaur mass graves in Alberta, Colorado and Utah: hundreds of thousands of pounds of smashed bones are found in these locations in mass graves. A catastrophic death is indicated. Mass graves of other animals are also found worldwide.
      4. Dinosaur Footprints and Human Footprints: dinosaur foot prints were found in the same river bed with giant human footprints in Paluxy river bed in Texas (the author has visited this location). The picture below is a photo taken by Burdick who acquired this; the original cut-outs are now kept in the Creati0on Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas. The evolutionists had challended this finding, but more investigations have led to its authenticity being established.

      Dinosaur Footprint and Giant Human Footprint on the same river bed, Paluxy, Texas (from: Genesis Flood by Whitcomb & Morris, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing House, 1961)

      5. Trilobites and shoe prints: These are found in plenty in Antelope Springs, Utah. A piece of shale in the area, when opened, revealed a perfect cast of human footprint. Trilobites are primitive creatures which had become extinct 500 million years ago according to evolution.
      6. Human footprints everywhere: Besides the examples given already, the following may be added: footprints in carboniferous coal reported in Scientific American, January 1940 issue – this magazine stopped publishing such items anymore, and is sold to evolution; in triassic sand stone; in precambrian (granite) rocks. In other words, humans lived during the entire time span of evolution.

    The Formation of Coal and Petroleum

    Coal beds are scattered throughout the world from a few feet to several hundred feet down. In several places alternate layers of coal and rock strata are found. The evolutionists would have us believe that coal was formed over millions of years from trees buried some 300 million years ago. This again is false. Would you believe that you can produce the oldest looking anthracite coal in the lab in a few hours from wood chips? Chemical & Engineering News, May 29, 1972 issue reported such a successful attempt by Dr. Hill of U.S. Bureau of Mines & Minerals, Utah. All that was needed was heating (200-260°C) under high confining pressure.

    There were massive forests in the pre-Flood world which were uprooted by the Flood, carried off in the Flood waters and mud and deposited. Another wave of fresh trees would be deposited layer and so on. It takes 16 ft of wood to be compacted to one foot of coal. Coal could be formed in the years following the Flood. The total coal reserves on the earth match a biomass of trees on earth.

    What about petroleum? Petroleum shows an organic origin. There is evidence marine life that died in massive quantities may have been partly converted to petroleum. But most of the petroleum under the rocks was formed during the formation of the earth itself , since petroleum is a mixture of hydrocarbons and crude carbonaceous matter. Again, lab experiments demonstrated that petroleum could be made in minutes from raw manure, garbage and so on by heat and pressure. Such conditions did exist during the fiery event of the Flood. Natural gas is also a product.

    Dating Ancient Life

    I have referred to this matter several times, but here at last I am going to cover it in more detail. The magic time chart of ancient life is the Geological Column devised by the evolutionists. It is shown below with ages and typical life forms of each age.

    The Geological column is a paper column. Nowhere on earth is such a column representing sedimentary rock layers. If it did, it would be a 100 miles high! The Grand canyon is the tallest part of the column but is only a mile deep. What the evolutionists have done is to date rock layers containing fossils by radiometric dating such as Potassium-argon (Uranium dating is not sensitive enough). Radiometric volcanic and plutonic rock fragments in the sedimentary layers are dated. This itself is questionable. During the Flood event such fragments came out of the earth’s interior into the Flood deposits. The date they give has no relationship to the date of the layer which was deposited during the Flood. Even if it did relate, the fossils in the layers were deposited only a few thousand years ago. The earth’s primitive rocks are five billion or more years old. The sedimentary rocks resulted from the fragmentation of the primary rocks. Their formation is of course much later. Evolutionists date a fossil based on the date of the rock intrusion in the layer where the fossil was found. The next thing they do is that whenever the same fossil is found anywhere else, they don’t date the layer; they simply state the age they determined the first time. The truth is different types of fossils are found in the same layer, and many times the order is reversed. Evolutionists do not reveal these disparities. The circular reasoning goes like this: the fossil is dated by the layer; then the layer is dated by the fossil!

    Elsewhere I presented direct radiocarbon evidence on fossils which showed they are all relatively recent.

    The Ice Ages

    Evolutionists place the Ice Ages in the Pleistocene epoch a few hundred thousand years ago. In fact they postulate four Ice Ages. The formation of the Great Lakes is believed to be due to the movement of glaciers from the north which covered a good part of North America for a time.

    The Flood explanation is much simpler. During the breakup of the earth’s crust, the polar ice caps also broke up, and came dashing down. Later on these melted and formed the lakes.

    Human Ancestry

    The so-called ‘Fossil Men’ you have seen in National Geographic and other magazines are pure myth. The most sensationalized recent findings are those of the Leakys in East Africa where they claimed to have found humanoid bones dating back to 3 million years.

    The truth is, this is an area where the massive death during the Flood deposited human bones and animal bones together, What the Leakys have picked up are just ape bones and skull fragments! Occasionally someone finds a near-modern looking skull fragment in the same type of layer. The radiometric dating used such as potassium-argon date the radiometric rock intrusions in the layer, not the bone fragments.

    Most of the skulls you see in museums are figments of imagination. Evolutionists fashioned theses skulls from a single bone fragment or a piece of skull and gave them whatever shape they wanted. You probably have heard of the Piltdown hoax, and the story of the Nebraska man. The former was a painted skull cast with teeth from a dog and an elephant. The ‘Nebraska man’ was shown as evidence for human evolution during the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, and was later shown to be fabricated from the tooth of a pig. Such is the story of Evolution.

    Human Population, Spread of Civilization

    The Flood model suggests that all present history started with the family of Noah some 5,000 years ago. The human population probably did not rise fast for centuries due to diseases and inhospitable living conditions on earth. It is only in the 20th century we have seen an exponential growth of population. It is estimated that at the time of the Flood nearly a billion people had inhabited the earth. At present there are six billion people on earth.

    After the Flood the family of Noah settled down near the Ark landing and their descendants moved further west into central and western Turkey and then to Mesopotamia, It was while in Mesopotamia mankind under the leadership of probably Nimrod, rebelled against God for which they were punished by God as described in Genesis 11. Their efforts to build a tower reaching to the heavens were thwarted, and their tongue was confused. They were forced to disperse to different parts of the earth. God’s intention was to separate mankind to prevent evil from spreading fast. So man reached the distant continents and islands, but each group was cut off from the rest in such places. Once they moved away from the center of civilization, they lost their arts and were forced to live as primitive people. This is the story of the aboriginal tribes.

    An interesting observation from the Chinese language is that the pictogram for ‘tower’ is made up from the words ‘mankind’, ‘one’, and ‘mouth’ (speech). The word ‘rebellion’ is made up from ‘tongue’ and ‘right leg’ (walking away). See below the Chinese pictograms (from: The Discovery of Genesis by C.H. Kong and Ethel R. Nelson, Concordia Publishing House, 1979).

    It may be pointed out that the Creation and Flood accounts are also remembered in the Chinese alphabet. For example, the word for ‘boat’ is made up of the words for ‘vessel’, ‘eight’ and ‘people’.

    The Origin of Races

    God changed the looks and skin color of the dispersed people to adapt to each region they settled down. Since in the early days these men had to resort to hunting, they needed protection from the wild beasts. The dark color of natives in tropical countries is to be considered a one-time change. This does not happen when a light colored man goes now and lives for years in a tropical country. Only by marriage these colors mix and change. So the origin of races is to be tied to the origin of languages, throughout the two phenomena were separated by years.

    Human Longevity

    The average life span for human beings is only seventy years or less. In the pre-Flood world the life span was much higher by an order of magnitude. Adam, the first man, died at the age of 930; Noah, the Flood hero, died at 950 years. Methuselah was the longest lived man with a life span of 969 years. Only Enoch had a much shorter life span, of 365 years, but he did not die but was translated and taken to heaven.

    After the Flood we see the life span going down sharply. Abraham died at the age of 175. Moses died at 120. The drastic decline in longevity had much to do with the Flood. After the Flood and the changes to the earth, mankind was faced with more inhospitable conditions. Before the Flood, though man had sinned, the conditions on earth were still very good. Some creationists have postulated that the collapse of the water vapor Canopy caused ultraviolet rays to reach the earth which affected longevity. I have shown that the Canopy theory cannot be supported. The secret of longevity was the superior body structure and the favorable environment.

    In the Middle Ages the longevity of life was much lower than it is today. Thanks to medical advances and comforts of life, we are climbing up slowly in longevity, but there is no immediate hope of a much steeper climb, merely because our environment is only getting worse, not better.

    New Testament References to the Flood

    Jesus not only validated the Flood event but reminded his listeners that the conditions on earth at His Second Coming will be similar to the conditions on earth just before the Flood (Matt. 24:37-39). We have no right to disbelieve the biblical account of the Flood!

    Peter also referred to the Flood in 1 Pet. 3:20 and mentioned the eight survivors including Noah and his family.

    Conclusion

    The Flood explanation of past life and events is not only biblical, but also scientifically valid. We should study carefully and believe in the Flood event because it is the Master Key to the past and the present. It is also a reminder of God’s awesome power and His zeal to keep the Earth pure and fruitful. The Earth is made for man to live in unity and harmony, but if we forget our Creator and spoil it, we shall not truly ‘inherit’ the earth.

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