By Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis
1. Flood Legends—Hundreds of legends of a massive flood are found in cultures all over the world. This is a great confirmation of the biblical account and exactly what we would expect as nations traveled around the world passing down the account of the Flood. Various aspects of the Flood would be lost and other parts embellished, and that is precisely what we find.
2. Layers—The amount of sediment that was deposited by the waters of the Flood is incredible (estimates are around 700 million cubic kilometers or 168 million cubic miles). Wow! Only a global Flood can explain such extensive layers of rock that everyone agrees was deposited by water.
3. Fossils—95% of the fossils in the layers are marine organisms. That is what we would expect from a global Flood that overtakes the land. Of the remaining 5%, 95% are plants/trees/algae. The remaining fossils (including vertebrates) are rare.
4. The Door—After Noah’s family entered the Ark, the Lord shut the only door (Gen. 7:16). Jesusis the only door by which we can enter to escape the eternal condemnation of hell (John 10:7–9).
5. Kinds not Species—Genesis 7:14 uses the word “kind” (min), which could be equated with the modern species, genus, family, or even order in special cases (most often it is closer to a family level). Often people mistakenly think kind means the modern concept of “species.” But “species” is simply that—a term used in the modern classification system. So equating the two is not wise. When it comes to kinds, there is a dog kind (including wolves, coyotes, dingoes, domestic dogs, etc.), cat kind (including lions, tigers, bobcats, domestic cats, etc.), elephant kind (including Asian elephants, African elephants, mammoths, mastodons, etc.), and so on. This reduces the number of animals that Noah needed on the Ark—two of each kind (two dogs, two cats, etc.), not two of each species.
6. Global in Extent—Throughout Genesis 6—8, the Bible repeatedly uses universal language to describe the Flood: “all the high hills under the whole heaven” (7:19), “mountains were covered” (7:20), etc. Such language indicates that God was accentuating the massive extent of a global Flood. In the same way that the Flood was a universal judgment, so will be the coming judgment of fire (2 Pet. 3:5–7).
7. Ararat—The Bible indicates that the Ark landed “in the mountains of Ararat” (it doesn’t mention any specific mountain), a region extending from eastern Turkey to western Iran. Many people search for the remains of the Ark on Mt. Ararat, but Noah and his family could have landed anywhere in that region.
8. Eating Meat—Man was originally vegetarian (Gen. 1:29), but God first permitted man to eat meat after the Flood (Gen. 9:3).
9. Animal Death—The vast majority of the rock layers that contain fossils are a testament to the Flood of Noah’s day (of course, there have been local catastrophes, like volcanoes, that have produced layers since the Flood). But these fossil layers could not be evidence of millions of years since we find evidence of death in these layers. Death was the result of sin entering creation in Gen. 3 after Adam and Eve ate of the fruit. In fact, the first recorded death of an animal came after Adam and Eve sinned (Gen. 3:21). It was a direct result of man’s sin, so there is a relationship between human sin and animal death.
10. Carnivores—Although animals were originally vegetarian (Gen. 1:30), after man’s sin brought a curse on all creation, they began eating meat. While the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly when animals started eating each other, it’s obvious this happened before the Flood. The fossil record—most of which was formed by the Flood of Noah’s day—contains the fossils of animal bones in the stomachs of other animals. Thus, some animals were eating each other before the Flood. This makes sense because the Bible says that all flesh had corrupted itself (Gen. 6:12).
Matthew 24:38 “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39 “and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
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