WHAT CAUSED THE FLOOD?
Ask just about anyone what caused the great flood in Noah’s day and you will get the same answer — “It rained for forty days and forty nights.”
Actually . . . there was a lot more involved and to understand the scale of this world-wide cataclysmic event we need to take a closer look at what the Scriptures actually describe. The Book of Genesis tells us that THREE THINGS occurred that brought about the greatest catastrophe the world had ever seen: ” . . . all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” Genesis 7:11-12
#1 “FOUNTAINS of the great deep were broken up.”
#2 “The WINDOWS of heaven were opened.”
#3 “RAIN was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”
The flood was not just caused by an afternoon rain shower . . . believe me! The sequence of these events as listed by God are very significant. Let’s take a closer look at all three of these incredible events in the order of their occurrence:
#1 The fountains of the deep erupted.
You may wonder . . . What are these “fountains of the great deep”? Scientists working at the NASA Space Center have identified cracks in the surface of the earth as they examined infrared photographs taken from satellites high above the earth. They refer to these cracks as “fractures” and there are literally thousands of them all over the earth including under the oceans. A NASA scientist by the name of Walter Brown has a fascinating web site describing what is called the hydro plate theory and has written an excellent book called "In The Beginning". You can watch his online video presentation that clearly explains what caused the fountains of the deep to erupt.
When these “fractures” erupted, an unbelievable amount of water spewed up from subterranean chambers deep in the earth. Some scientists believe the water shot up over 10 miles into the atmosphere. At the same time, tsunami waves of water and mud sped around the globe from these thousands of cracks and fractures.
The plants and animals buried by this avalanche of water and mud formed what we refer to as the fossil record composed of both fossils and fossil fuels. It is beyond our comprehension to imagine millions of tropical animals (and humans) caught and buried by such devastation.
When these fractures occurred all over the earth, the huge amounts of subterranean water that shot up into the atmosphere formed massive clouds. The moisture then returned to earth in the form of torrential rains.
The water shooting up into the atmosphere apparently caused another chain reaction with more moisture that covered the earth like a gigantic canopy.
2. WINDOWS of heaven were opened.
The Book of Genesis tells us about the formation of the earth in the midst of waters: “And God said, Let there be a firmament (atmosphere) in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the WATERS WHICH WERE UNDER THE FIRMAMENT from the WATERS WHICH WERE ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT: and it was so.” Genesis 1:6-7
Waters below and waters above the atmosphere. What does that mean?
The Scriptures seem to be describing a moisture barrier between the earth and the outer atmosphere . . . like a covering or canopy over all the earth. God also tells us that ” . . . the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth . . . But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” Genesis 2:5-6 In the beginning the earth was not subject to the devastating storms that we now observe. The entire surface of the earth was a tropical paradise, very similar to what we call a terrarium. Tropical animals and plants would have lived all over the planet including the polar areas that are now covered with ice and snow.
Furthermore, there was no rainbow upon the earth until after the flood. (Genesis 9:13-15) There was plenty of moisture in form of the mist that watered the earth but apparently there was no direct sunlight . . . thus no rainbow! The harmful rays of the sun were apparently shielded from earth before the flood so that man and beast would live much longer than today. We find in the record of Scripture that Noah lived 950 years! Animals would also have lived much longer and reptiles such as dinosaurs would have grown to unimaginable size. Noah himself was not aware of the changed effects of the direct rays of the sunlight until after the flood when he planted a vineyard and the grape juice turned to wine.
The moisture of the canopy descending upon earth would have added to the huge amounts of rain that were already falling because of the clouds formed from the fountains of the deep.
The world has never seen such a catastrophic event since the Biblical flood and God promised that it would never happen again. (Genesis 9:15)
One of the remarkable things that occurred during the flood was the huge amounts of frozen moisture that fell upon the Arctic and Antarctic areas. The moisture of the canopy descending a shorter distance through the atmosphere above the polar caps would not have had time to thaw and apparently fell as hundreds of feet of snow and ice trapping many tropical animals and freezing them within seconds.
The woolly mammoth (pictured below) is on display at the Russian Natural History Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was frozen so quickly that it still had fresh grass and flowers in it’s mouth. The weight of the snow and ice broke it’s back so it was frozen to death in this sitting position. Scientists claim that it suffocated quickly from snow and ice particles. You can read more about the woolly mammoths and other animals suddenly entombed in the arctic ice. It is also fascinating that they are now finding fossils of tropical plants and animals (including dinosaurs) under the snow and ice of both the north and south pole!
3. RAIN upon earth forty days and forty nights.
Some people scoff at the idea of a world-wide flood but the fact is, if the mountains were not as high and the deep valleys of the ocean were not as deep, there would be over 8,000 feet of water all over earth. That’s a lot of water . . . over a mile and a half deep!
The Rocky Mountains and mountains all over the world reveal that they were suddenly uplifted in the not too distant past. At the same time, the deep canyons in the ocean were formed and the water would have rapidly moved from off the higher uplifted elevations into the oceans, thus creating enormous canyons such as the Grand Canyon. There is plenty of evidence that rapidly moving flood waters occurred all over the earth.
Noah's world-wide flood was a terrible judgment from God . . . "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5) Sounds kind of like today's world doesn't it!