The oldest historical records of mankind in our possession were written by Moses. These are the books of Genesis and Job. In the first of these is given the history of the world from about 4000 B.C. on down to about 1900 B.C. In the first two chapters of Genesis we find an account of Creation Week, when our world and everything in it were made. In Genesis 6 to 9 we are told about the worldwide Flood that occurred about 2348 B.C. (1656 A.M. [anno mundi], or about 1,656 years after Creation).

The effects of that gigantic flood of waters were so dramatic that we find many evidences of it today. It is impossible to properly study origins and earth science without an understanding of the effects of the Flood. For this reason, we are including it in this chapter.

In this chapter, we will obtain a better understanding of the effects of the Flood. We will also see more clearly how those effects prove, not uniformitarianism, but catastrophism. There was a worldwide Flood! It alone can explain so many geographical features on our planet today.

When evolutionists gaze upon the immense ocean, the millions of fossils and thick coal seams in the sedimentary rocks, the sea shells on top of the highest mountains, the deep canyons with small rivers, vast dried-up lake beds, and thrust-up mountain blocks,—they declare that it all came about by the same fairly gentle processes and natural forces that are operating today.

Thoughtful scientists admit that the uniformitarian theory explains nothing about the age of fossils, rock strata, the age of the earth, or anything else:

See chapter 12, Fossils and Strata, for much more information on this.

The evidence is so profound that many secular scientists are indeed turning away from uniformitarianism.

I - FOSSILS, STRATA, AND THE FLOOD

Although this section duplicates portions of our earlier chapter, Fossils and Strata, the duplication is considered necessary, for we will now correlate the fossil and strata evidence with the worldwide Flood. Without doing so, it would be more difficult to properly assess the relationships, implications, and impact of the Flood.

Within that strata is to be found billions upon billions of fossils. These are the remains—or the casts—of plants and animals that suddenly died. Yet fossilization does not normally occur today; for it requires sudden death, sudden burial, and great pressure.

We would not expect to find fossils in granite since the astounding information given in chapter 3, Origin of the Earth, reveals granite to be "Creation rock," antedating the Flood. We there learned that, back in the beginning, granite came into existence in less than three minutes!

Scores of other instances of immense "fossil graveyards" could be cited. Vast quantities of plants and animals were suddenly buried. So many fossils exist that one researcher made a carbon inventory,—and found that at the present time—most of the carbon in our world is locked within the fossils in the sedimentary strata!

There must have been an immense quantity of living plants and animals before the worldwide Flood occurred. Evidence indicates that, back then, our world had no deserts, high mountains, few or no oceans, and plants and animals flourished even near the poles. So the world would have been filled with vegetation and animal life.

It is of interest that evolution bases its case on the fossils. This is because there is no evidence that evolutionary processes are occurring today. Therefore the Darwinists must consider the fossils to be their primary evidence that it has ever occurred at all.

But just as there are no transitional forms today, there are none in the past either! At the present time, all we have are distinct plant and animal kinds. No transitional species are to be found. (We will frequently refer to these basic types as "species," although man-made classification systems vary, sometimes incorrectly classifying sub-species or genera as "species." See chapter 11, Animal and Plant Species for more on this.)

In *Kerkut’s statement, quoted above, it is "the placing" of the fossils in the strata that provides the evidence of evolution. All the Darwinists have to base their case on is placement, not transitional forms. But what caused that placement?

Then the slower-moving land creatures were covered and buried under sediment. Then the more agile creatures (both water and land) were covered. In the fossil-bearing sedimentary strata we frequently find this arrangement, with the smaller creatures in the lower strata and the larger ones higher up.

Yet even the smallest creatures are complex. Just beneath the lowest stratum, the Cambrian, we find no fossils at all! This is both an astonishment and a terrible disappointment to the evolutionists. The lowest-level life forms in the strata are complex multi-celled animals and plants.

Each twig on the imaginary plant and animal "family trees" is a distinct plant or animal type, either extinct or like what we have today (although frequently larger). But there are no intermediate life forms to connect the twigs! There are no branches and no trunk, only "twigs." The rest of the tree is imaginary.

It required massive flood conditions to do all that burying. An immense worldwide catastrophe occurred in the past. It produced the Sicilian hippopotamus beds, the fossils of which are so extensive that they are mined as a source of charcoal; the great mammal beds of the Rockies; the dinosaur beds of the Black Hills and the Rockies, as well as in the Gobi Desert; the fish beds of the Scottish Devonian stratum, the Baltic amber beds, Agate Spring Quarry in Nebraska, and hundreds more. None of this fossil-making is being done today. It only happened one time in history—at the time of the Flood.

Frequently the fossils in these beds come from widely separated and differing climatic zones, only to be thrown together in disorderly masses. Nothing but a worldwide Flood can explain this. And those fossils had to be rapidly buried. *Pinna explains why this is so.

In spite of these facts, there are still science writers who imagine that when an animal falls into mud, tar, or water—and dies,—it becomes a fossil! But such an idea is only fiction.

Above this are the Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian, and they all include sea creatures similar to those in the Cambrian. It is not until the Permo-Carboniferous that the first land animals are encountered.

The worldwide fossil strata give abundant evidence of a great flood of waters that covered the earth. Below the sedimentary strata, with its hoard of fossils, we find the "Precambrian period,"—and no fossils. (Some scientists claim that a few are there, others say they are not sure, while still others maintain that there are absolutely no fossils below the Cambrian.)

The sedimentary strata with their billions of fossils are both a powerful effect and evidence of the Flood. The Precambrian lack of fossils is an additional evidence of it. Evolutionists point to these strata with their fossils as proof of evolution. But throughout the fossil rock we should find transitional—evolving—types of plants and animals. In addition, at the bottom below the Cambrian should be the types that evolved into those in the Cambrian.

There is no doubt that those trees were quickly covered by the strata, otherwise each tree would have decomposed while waiting for a hundred thousand years of strata to form around it. From bottom to top, these upright trees sometimes span "millions of years" of strata. Quite obviously, both the trees and sediments around them were moved into place and deposited at the same approximate time.

Many will recall the explosion of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. Research was done at the site shortly afterward; and it was discovered that the explosion filled Spirit Lake with logs, many of which were floating vertically, due to the weight of their roots. This helps explain what took place at the time of the Flood, as trees were washed into an area and then, while floating vertically in the water, were covered by a rapid deposit of sediment.

As a result of upheaval of ground, combined with successive depositions of sedimentary layers, there are instances in which vertical trees are to be found at more than one level. Given the chaotic conditions at the time of the Flood, this would be understandable. Fossil trees have been found horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and upside down.

(Some oil deposits have been found below the Cambrian level, but it was afterward learned that they seeped there from fossil-bearing strata above.)

Great masses of vegetation, that became the coal we use today, were quickly laid down. Because of Flood conditions, other things were also deposited in those coal strata:

(1) Marine fossils (tubeworms, corals, sponges, mollusks, etc.) are often found in coal beds.

(2) Large boulders are found in them.

(3) Fossil trees are found standing on an angle or even upside down in coal beds.

(4) Washed-in marine sediments will split a coal seam into two.

(5) Sediment "under-soils" will frequently be under them.

(6) Strata of deposited limestone, shale (hardened clay), or sandstone will be found in between coal deposits. These strata are often found scores of times in seams of coal.

Evolutionists maintain that oil and gas require millions of years to form, and could not be rapidly produced from vegetation, as Flood geology would require. But recent experiments have shown that petroleum can be quickly made:

Here is an instance in which recently formed coal occurred:

One example of this is graded bedding. In the strata we will find a layer of coarse pebbles and small stones, with smaller pebbles above them, grading off above to still finer materials such as sand. Below this graded bedding will be another graded bedding where the process has been repeated as another collection of sediments was washed in.

In contrast, the evidence indicates that the fossils in each strata were laid down rapidly rather than slowly. But, in addition, there is also evidence that each stratum was deposited at about the same time as all the other strata!

The primary difference is that each layer has somewhat different fossils in it, but this too would easily be explained by a gradually rising flood that washed in, and then quickly buried great masses of plants and animals. One layer and then the next was rather quickly laid down by the Flood.

Careful research by *Wiedmann in Germany has revealed that there is no observable time break between these, the two most obvious divisions in the geologic column!

This is an important point that *Wiedmann brings to the attention of the scientific world. While most evolutionists maintain that the geologic column slowly formed amid the peace and tranquility of uniformitarian ages, there are other evolutionists who declare that there must have been a succession of several catastrophes that accomplished the task. But *Wiedmann carefully analyzed the two principle boundaries in the column—and discovered that "no worldwide extinctions of species or spontaneous appearances of new species" occurred at these boundaries. This is important. The entire geologic column is an integral unit and was all rapidly laid down at about the same time.

(1) Rapid or no Fossils. Each stratum had to be laid down rapidly, or fossils would not have resulted.

(2) Rapid or no Rocks. The physical structure and interconnections of the strata require rapid deposition in order for them to form into rocks.

(3) No Erosion between Strata. Each strata was laid directly over the one below it, since there is no trace of erosion between them. Each strata was formed continuously and rapidly, and then—with no time-lapse erosion in between—the next strata formed continuously and rapidly over that. And on and on it went.

(4) Layers not Worldwide. There are many "unconformities," where one stratum ends horizontally and another begins. But there is no worldwide unconformity; instead one stratum will gradually grade imperceptibly into another, which thereupon succeeds it with more continuous and rapid deposition, without a time break at any point.

(5) Generally no Clear Boundaries. There is rarely a clear physical boundary between strata formations. Generally they tend to merge and mingle with each other in a zone of considerable thickness.

But instead we find "disconformity" and "overthrusts." A "recent stratum" which should therefore be near the top, will be underneath several "older strata."

This can easily be explained by the turbulence of a single worldwide Flood which laid down all the strata within a relatively short time.

But evolutionary theory is totally baffled by such a situation. So its supporters have invented the theory of "overthrusts." As we mentioned in chapter 12, the Matterhorn—one of the highest and most prominent mountains in Switzerland—is supposed to have moved horizontally many miles from some distant place. Evolutionary theories about rock strata require such a hypothesis. Either the mountains pack up and move to other lands, or evolution dies a sickening death.

The entire Matterhorn rests on top of what is theorized as "younger strata," therefore it is said to have hiked over the hills to its present location. The same is true for the Appalachians, which climbed up out of the Atlantic onto the North American continent. They arrived before the Pilgrims!

But, in reality, overthrusts are but another effect of the Flood. For example, at one point, some land animals and plants were covered by Flood-borne sediments. Then, from some distant location, waters with fish were carried in and deposited in a pile of sediment above the land creatures. And so it went.

A related problem is that, although the very bottom stratum should always be the Cambrian,—in actuality, many different strata are found at the bottom!

How do you solve a problem like that? Amid the confusion of a worldwide deluge, and bursts of massive earth movements and hurricane winds, all kinds of strata patterns could occur. Flood theory can solve questions that evolutionary theory cannot answer.

(2) Creatures buried together—would tend to be buried with other animals that lived in the same region or ecological community.

(3) Hydrologic forces (the suck and drag of rapidly moving water) would tend to sort out creatures of similar forms. Because of lower hydraulic drag, those with the simplest shapes would tend to be buried first.

(4) Backboneless sea creatures (marine invertebrates), since they live on the sea bottom, would normally be found in the bottom strata.

(5) Fish would be found in higher strata since they can swim up close to the surface.

(6) Amphibians and reptiles would be buried higher than the fish, but as a rule, below the land animals.

(7) Few land plants or animals would be in the lower strata.

(8) The first land plants would be found where the amphibians were found.

(9) Mammals and birds would generally be found in higher levels than reptiles and amphibians.

(10) Because many animals tend to go in herds in time of danger, we would find herd animals buried together.

(11) In addition, the larger, stronger animals would tend to sort out into levels apart from the slower ones (tigers would not be found with hippopotamuses).

(12) Relatively few birds would be found in the strata, since they could fly to the highest points.

(13) Few humans would be found in the strata. They would be at the top, trying to stay afloat until they died; following which they would sink to the surface of the sediments and decompose.

Yet, lacking any other evidence to bring forward, it is that very sequence of fossils placement which evolutionists declare to be the primary evidence that animals have "evolved" from one another!

Ecological Zonation

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A more complete explanation of the above chart is given in the pages which follow.

2 - RECORDS ABOUT THE FLOOD

One survey of 120 tribal groups in North, Central, and South America disclosed flood traditions among each of them (*International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 822).

(1) There was general wickedness among men.

(2) God saw that a flood was necessary.

(3) One family with eight members was protected.

(4) A giant boat was constructed.

(5) The family, along with animals and birds, went into the boat.

(6) The flood overwhelmed all those living on the earth.

(7) The deluge covered all the earth for a time.

(8) The boat landed in a high mountainous area.

(9) Two or three birds were sent out first.

(10) The people left the boat with all the animals.

(11) The survivors worshiped God for sparing them.

(12) A promise of divine favor was given that there would not be another worldwide flood of waters.

Another survey of ancient Flood literature and legends is discussed by B. Nelson in The Deluge Story in Stone (1968). In this tabulation, the stories and writings of 41 different tribal and national groups were given.

First, we will list these 41 groups, many of which were ancient races. ("A and B" indicate two different sub-groups; example: Fiji A and B.)

Assyria-Babylonia (A and B), Alaska, Andaman Island, Asia Minor, Aztecs, Brazil, Cherokee, China, Cree, Egypt, Esquimaux (Canada), Fiji (A and B), Greece, Hawaii, India (A and B), Italy, Lapland, Lenni Lenape, Lithuania, Leward Islands, Mandan, Michoacan, Nicaragua, Papagos (Mexico), Persia (A and B), Peru, Pimas, Russia, Scandinavia (A and B), Sumatra, Syria, Takoe, Thlinkut (A and B), Toltecks, Wales.

Second, we will list twelve points in their legends, according to the number of times each is included by each of the 41 groups.

An even larger collection of Flood stories is to be found in *Sir James G. Frazer’s book, Folklore in the Old Testament (1919), Vol. 1, pp. 146-330. There are 11 Hellenic stories from ancient Greece, 6 European stories, 29 Persian and Indian stories, 31 Australian, Southeast Asia, and Pacific stories, 63 North, Central, and South American stories, and 3 African stories related in 185 pages of Frazer’s book; a total of 143 Flood stories. You will find them listed in Donald W. Patten (ed), Symposium on Creation IV (1972), pp. 36-38.

An excellent five-page analysis of confusion-of-tongues legends will be found in James E. Strickling, "Legendary Evidence for the Confusion of Tongues, "in Creation Research Society Quarterly, September 1974, pp. 97-101. Quotations from a number of sources are given.

Noah’s name is found in the stories and languages of mankind. That is a striking cultural evidence of the worldwide Flood which, itself, left so many physical evidences upon our globe. Not only do the rock strata and their fossil contents vindicate the veracity of the Flood story, but the languages of man do also! Here are some interesting facts

Sanskrit (of ancient India) is a basic language, dating back nearly to the time of the Flood. According to the legends of India, Ma-nu was the man who built the boat and then, with seven others, entered it and were saved. Ma is an ancient word for "water." Ma-nu could then mean "Noah of the waters." In Sanscrit, Manu later came to mean "mankind."

The most ancient man in the Germanic tribes was called Mannus. Mannus was also the name of the Lithuanian Noah.

In the Hebrew, "karat" is the same as "Armenia." The prefix Ar means mountain, so "Armenia" probably means the mountain of Meni. According to Genesis 8:4, Noah landed somewhere in the Ararat mountains.

The legendary founder of the first Egyptian dynasty was Menes; and Minos was the man who is said to have been the first man of Crete. The nearby Greeks said that Minos was the son of their god, Zeus, and the ruler of the sea.

The English (as well as all Germanic) words for man comes from the Sanskrit, manu.

The Egyptian god, Nu was the god of waters who sent a flood to destroy mankind. They identified Nu with the rain and the atmosphere. Summerians taught that Anu was the god of the atmosphere. The rainbow they called "the great bow of Anu."

In ancient Africa, the king in the Congo was called Mani Congo. Later, Mani became the title of respect given to all leading men of the country.

In Japan, manu became maru, a name included in most Japanese ship names. Chinese mythology taught that Hakudo Maru came down from heaven to teach men how to build ships. We know that Noah was the first shipbuilder and that all ancient and modern hulls are basically designed in the same manner. The ancient boats were copied from an archtype. The Ark was the great pattern boat. Men who had to traverse the coasts of the new oceans knew that, nestled in the mountains of Ararat, was a boat which had successfully done it. They carefully copied its structural design.

In Japanese, Maru also means a protective circle or enclosure of refuge. The first people to inhabit Japan were called Ainu, and mai means "original man" in some Australian aboriginal languages.

Among the North American Indians, manu became minne, meaning "water" for the Sioux; hence our Minneapolis (city of water) and Minnesota (sky-blue water). Minnetoba (our Manitoba, Canada) meant "water prairie" to the Assiniboines.

In South America, we find the Nahuatl, managuac (our Managua, capital of Nicaragua) which means "surrounded by ponds." The fabled city, Manoa (meaning "Noah’s water"), was supposed to be the capital of the god El Dorado. A number of important rivers in South America are derived from manu: The Amazon (named after the Manau), the Manu in Peru, and also the Muymanu, Tahuamanu, Pariamanu, Tacuatimanu, etc. In all of these, manu means "river" or "water."

The Egyptians invented their picture writing—hieroglyphics, we call them—soon after the Flood. Their word for water was a wavy line. When the alphabet was later developed, that symbol became the letter "m," for mayim, the Semitic word for water. It later became the Greek letter Mu, the Roman letter Em, and our Western M.

The Assyrian name for "rain" was zunnu. The Roman god, Janus (our January), was originally the Estruscan father god of the world and inventor of ships. This could have easily have been derived from the Hebrew word for "God of Noah," and by the Estruscans, who pronounced this Jah Nu.

The Greek sea-goddess was naiade, which meant "water goddess."

The ancient Norse of the Scandinavians called their ship god, Njord (Niord), who lived at Noatun, the great harbor of the god-ships. Noa in Norse is related to the Icelandic nor, which meant "ship."

The original Sanskrit word for "ship" was nau, which later passed into our English word, navy, nautical, nausea (sea sickness).

(We are indebted to Bengt Sage for the above information. See "Noah and Human Entomology" in Creation, the Cutting Edge, pp., 48-52. The publisher, Creation Life Publishers [Master Books], in El Cajon, California has many, many other excellent books. Write them for a book order sheet.)

Creation and the Flood in Chinese

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Because of its ancientness, the pictorial Chinese script has information for us from the very earliest times. In picture writing, it portrays facts recorded in the book of Genesis.

C.H. Kang and Ethel A. Nelson did intensive research into that script and wrote the book, The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language. This is a fascinating volume, one you will want to read for yourself. Here are a few insights from the book:

(1) The Chinese character for Devil is formed from three other characters: man, garden, and private (Genesis 3:1-7).

(2) Tempter is a combination of three words: devil, cover, and tree (Genesis 3:1-6).

(3) Righteousness combines sheep, I or me, and hand (Genesis 4:2-5).

(4) The Chinese word for total is a uniting of eight people who join hands over the earth (Genesis 7:7,13; 8:13-16).

(5) Boat, in Chinese, brings together three words into one. The three words are vessel, mouth, and eight (Genesis 7:7, 13; 8:13).

(6) Rebellion and Confusion have the same script: a linking together of the words for tongue and walking (Genesis 11:4-9).

(7) One example of the unusual discoveries is Garden or Field which is a square. Inside the square are four straight lines radiating outward in a "plus sign" shape. According to Genesis 2:9-14, a river flowed outward in four streams and watered the entire garden.

Kang and Nelson revealed dozens of other Chinese words suggesting a relationship to Genesis. You will find the entire book very interesting. (In 1997, Dr. Nelson, Dr. Ginger Tong Chock, and Richard E. Broadberry released God’s Promise to the Chinese, a book which updated the study using oracle bone characters, the most ancient Chinese writing known.)

As they arrived in their new home after the scattering from the tower of Babel, and formulated their picture writing, the Chinese placed in their "picture words" recollections of those important earlier events: the Fall of Man, the early sacrificial system, the worldwide Flood, and the Tower of Babal. These are four of the outstanding events described in Genesis 3 to 11.

You may recall our earlier mention that the Chinese recorded the solar eclipse of 2250 B.C., the earliest exact historical date in history and confirmed scientifically (see chapter 4, Age of the Earth). Biblical records indicate the Flood occurred very close to that time.

According to Genesis 6:15, the Ark was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. The Babylonian cubit was 19.8 inches [603.504 cm], the later Hebrew regular cubit was 17.5 inches [533.4 cm], and the Egyptian cubit was 20.65 inches [629.12 cm].

The Ark was a barge, not a ship with sloping sides, so it had a much larger carrying capacity. It has been reckoned that, even if measured by the smaller 18.5-inch [563.88 cm] cubit of later times, the Ark would have been so huge that 522 modern railroad box cars could have fitted inside it! One each of every species of air-breathing creatures in the world today could be comfortably carried in only 150 box cars.

For 4,000 years after the Ark was constructed, ships rarely exceeded 150 to 200 feet [457-6,096 dm] in length. It was not until 1854 that a ship was built with a longer length than the Ark: the Eturia, a Cunard liner constructed in England. It was not until after World War II that ships were built which had a larger volume and cubic tonnage—the ocean-going oil supertankers.

Here, according to Genesis 7 and 8, is a brief chronology of events during the Flood (the following figures are based on a thirty-day month):

40 days—Rain fell for forty days (7:4, 12, 17).

110 days—The waters rose and reached their greatest height at some time during or at the close of another 110 days (Genesis 7:24).

74 days—The "going and decreasing" of the waters occupied 74 days, then the tops of the mountains were seen (8:5, note the margin).

40 days—Forty more days passed and then Noah sent out the raven (8:6-7).

7 days—Seven days elapsed and then Noah sent out the dove for the first time, but the "waters were still on the face of the whole earth" (8:8; cf. 8:11, "other seven days").

7 days—Seven days later, the second dove was sent out the second time and found the olive leaf, because "the waters were abated" (8:11).

7 days—After seven more days, the dove was sent out a third time and did not return, because "the waters were abated" (8:12).

29 days—The total so far is 285 days, but comparing the dates in 7:11 with the next event in 8:14 yields a total of 314 days. During that additional 29 days, Noah waited until "the waters were dried from off the earth" to remove the covering from the Ark. By that time the raven ceased to "go to and fro" (8:7).

57 days—From the time when the covering of the Ark was removed, to the day they and the animals left the Ark, 57 more days elapsed. When the "earth" was adequately "dry," Noah left the Ark (8:14).

Some suggest that the flood waters reached their maximum height in 40 days while others think that they continued to rise for the first 150 days.

The fresh olive leaf (which was found shortly after the Ark beached in the Ararat Mountains) would have had as much as four months to sprout from an asexually propagated olive branch buried near the surface of the soil.