Dear Mike,

Thank you for your many wonderful articles. I’m interested in finding any scriptural evidence concerning the great flood. There are just too many variables that don’t seem to be logical.

• How did the eight survivors populate the earth so quickly?
• How did the animals find food after the ark was opened, as “every living creature was destroyed.

Just a few questions that seem to keep coming my way, and I haven’t a clue to this mystery.

Thanks

C____

Hi C____,

It is good to hear from you.

The answer to your first question is simple. Noah and His descendants populated the earth just as Adam and Eve. People were still long- lived for some time after the flood and:

Gen 11:11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

This phrase “and begat sons and daughters” appears nine times before the flood and eight times after the flood. That is the answer to your first question.

Your second question is not quite so simple. We are not called to convince this world of the truth of God’s Word. Believing God is a matter of faith, and that “is a gift from God.”

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it [ that very faith] is the gift of God:

Contrary to what is taught in orthodox Christianity, faith is not ‘substance.’ It is not blind but neither is it tangible. Look at this verse in Peter:

1Pe 1:8 Whom [ the risen Christ] having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

The word translated ‘substance’ in Heb 11 is hupostasis in the Greek. It appears four other times in the New Testament and is always translated ‘confidence.’ It should also be translated ‘confidence’ here in Heb 11:1.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance [ Greek- confidence] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Any one who really believes that faith is something scientifically believe that Christ rose from the dead. Such an idea requires faith in something that was indeed backed up with more than ample evidence, but it is not scientifically demonstrable and as Peter points out, we have not seen Him. And look at what Christ told Thomas:

Joh 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Feeling a physical substance is the exact opposite of faith. “Blessed is he that believes though he has not seen.” That is faith. It is confidence based upon evidence. There is plenty of evidence that Christ has risen from the dead. The apostles died for their faith in this evidence. But no one to date can scientifically demonstrate how Christ was resurrected from the dead. Believing in a resurrected Christ requires faith. And without faith it is impossible to please God.

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him [ God]…

I could not begin to give technical answers to your questions. If I am willing to believe that Christ created the heavens and the earth in six 24 hr. days (Ex. 20:11), feeding the animals that came off the ark is a minor miracle indeed in comparison. I am not saying that it took a miracle. The dove brought back a green olive leaf, so not all plant life was killed. And there would have been plenty of dead carcases to have fed any carnivores. I’m just saying that feeding all the animals that came across the flood would be a minor miracle, if a miracle were needed, in comparison to creating the universe in six days. Everything was done as it was spoken in that creation, and it was done “instantly”:

Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

The Hebrew for ‘suddenly,’ is pithome. It is Strong’s number 6597 and according to Strong’s it means ‘instantly.’ If indeed this verse is true, and it is, then there is no room in the scriptures to try to explain the existence of the dinosaurs as being before Adam and Eve. There is absolutely no scriptural grounds for an eon between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2. This is the truth of both scripture and true science:

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is…

These two scriptures can be proved to be true. The egg did not come before the chicken. As a farm boy, I can personally vouch for the fact that eggs that are not incubated by an adult hen will always rot. They never once just happen to have the proper temperature to hatch out on their own. This being so, I find it easy to believe that the scriptures are also trustworthy concerning the events surrounding the flood of Noah.

I don’t pretend to have the expertise to explain all the details surrounding that great worldwide flood. I do believe that the waters “covered the highest mountains,” and that it all happened just as reported in Genesis. Read the book entitled ‘The Genesis Flood,’ by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb for answers concerning many of the details about the flood of Noah. The scriptures are but a brief outline of the entire history of mankind. Their purpose is never anything but spiritual lessons for those “on whom the ends of the ages have come.” You certainly will not find a scripture detailing exactly how God did it, but rest assured He did provide nourishment for all creatures coming off the ark after the flood.

If you have no trouble believing that God fed millions of people with food and water for forty years in a desert, then you will have no trouble believing that ‘He is true and every man is a liar:’

Isa 48:21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
Exo 16:4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day…

If God can do this for forty years, then He can also supply food for the creatures He brought through the flood.

Rom 3:4 … Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar…

I know this is probably not the answer you would have liked but I hope this is of some help to you.

Mike