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GodSaidManSaid has a series of feature articles covering the great worldwide flood that took place in the days of Noah. We will list them for your perusal at the end of this article. The following two e-mails ask questions that pertain to post-flood issues:
Here is a question that I have been asked and had no answer to. My friend asked me why animals were all over the world. If there was no continental shift like the scientists say, how did the animals get across the oceans after the great flood? Thank you, and I hope to hear a response in the future. —Jim
In regard to continental drift, it may or may not be a historic fact, although many geologists endorse the principle. The only Scripture that I am aware of that Biblical proponents of continental drift point to is found in Genesis 10:25:
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
Peleg’s father was of the same generation as Nimrod, the one credited with orchestrating the building of the rebellious Tower of Babel, where the languages of men went from one to many, and the people separated unto their languages and dispersed abroad into nationalities. This time certainly appears to be the division Genesis 10:25 is referring to. Neither does the issue of how creatures crossed the oceans to populate the western hemisphere, when the only living creatures were originally in Noah’s custody, need continental drift. Dr. Henry Morris and Dr. Martin Clark, deal with this subject in their book, The Bible Has The Answer:
This drifting, if it occurred, may partially explain the distribution of men and animals after the Flood. However, it is not at all necessary to account for such distribution in this way, since extensive land bridges are known to have existed across the Bering and Malaysian Straits following the Flood. Even if migrations had to be carried out entirely on foot, early men could easily have traveled from Ararat to Australia or to the tip of South America in only a few centuries. [End of quote]
The doctors went on to say:
Consequently, continental drift is still an open question among earth scientists. Since the Bible is silent on the subject, it seems best for Bible expositors also to leave it as an open question. In fact, the very silence of Scripture may be an indication that the idea is questionable. If a splitting and drifting of the hypothetical original continent really occurred, in the Biblical context it would have to be after the Flood, and probably about the time of the dispersion at Babel. Early peoples must have been aware of it, in this case, and it seems strange that such a tremendous event of such worldwide effects was not given more recognition in the early chapters of Genesis. [End of quote]
It must be noted that various species of plants and animals have been ferried across the oceans by sundry different peoples down through time.
Where did all the water go after the global flood in the days of Noah? Much of it is still here. During the global flood, many astonishing things happened. God opened the windows of heaven and poured down the rain for 40 days and 40 nights. The great subterranean fountains of the deep were broken up. The topography of the entire earth experienced colossal change. A global restructuring of indescribable proportions took place even to the turning upside-down of mountains.
Concerning ocean levels, The Genesis Flood, written by Whitcomb and Morris, had this to say:
There is, also, much evidence that sea level was once much lower relative to the land surfaces than it is at present, implying either that the amount of water in the ocean was much smaller, or that some parts of the sea bottom have dropped, or both. In the past decade have been discovered great numbers of “seamounts,” which are nothing but drowned islands out in the middle of the ocean. These are flat-topped, and therefore non-volcanic in formation, and are now in many cases more than 1,000 fathoms below the surface. Yet they give abundant evidence of having once been above the surface. Dr. Edwin L. Hamilton, the marine geologist, says concerning them:
They are fossil landforms preserved in the depths of the sea, where they are disturbed only by light currents and the slow rain of pelagic material from the waters above. [End of quote]
Another post-flood anomaly that raises serious questions for the anti-Bible geologists is the submarine canyon. Again from The Genesis Flood:
Submarine canyons constitute another very intriguing indication that the ocean level was once much lower relative to the present seacoast than at present. These are great canyons, similar in every respect to the great river canyons of the land surface but extending under the ocean far out on the continental shelves. Usually they project seaward from a river valley on the land. One of the best known is the submarine canyon extending out some 300 miles to the deep sea floor from the mouth of the Hudson River. These canyons exist in great numbers around every continent of the world.
Their striking similarity to canyons on land certainly would seem to favor the view that they were formed above the ocean. However, this would require a differential lowering of the ocean by at least several thousand feet, and therefore other explanations have been assiduously sought. There have been some geologists who strongly maintained the sub-aerial origin of the canyons, accounting for the sea-level lowering by means of the storage of water in the glacial ice-sheets of the Pleistocene. In a recent review of the problem, W. D. Thornbury, Professor of Geology at Indiana University, says:
The difficulties encountered in explaining the lowering of sea level necessary for the canyons to have been cut by streams seem insurmountable. . . . If Tolstoy’s conclusion that the Hudson Canyon extends down to a depth of 15,000 feet is correct, the magnitude of lowering of sea level to permit subaerial canyon cutting seems beyond any possibility of realization. [End of quote]
The explanation for sea levels and submarine canyons is relatively simple for students of the Word of God. Finally, from The Genesis Flood:
It would seem, on the other hand, that Deluge conditions, as inferred from the Scriptural record, could give a reasonable explanation for their origin. As the lands were uplifted and the ocean basins depressed at the close of the Deluge period, the great currents streaming down into the ocean depths would quickly have eroded great gorges in the still soft and unconsolidated sediments exposed by the sinking of the basins. Then, as these gorges were themselves submerged by the continuing influx of waters from the rising continental blocks, it may well have been that the turbidity currents entering the canyons may have deepened and extended them still further, a process which has continued on a smaller scale throughout the centuries since.
These and other evidences prompted Dr. K. K. Landes, Head of the Geology Department at Michigan University, to say recently:
Can we, as seekers after truth, shut out eyes any longer to the obvious fact that large areas of sea floor have sunk vertical distances measured in miles? [End of quote]
The following excerpt is from the book, The World That Perished:
If the earth’s surface were made completely even, it would everywhere be covered by approximately 12,000 feet of water. Thus, when we read that “the fountains of the great deep” were broken up in the early phase of the Flood year (Gen. 7:11) in such a way that ocean basins pushed their waters over the highest mountains of the continents within six weeks, we have a clear indication that mountains before the Flood were much lower than those of our present world. We have no way of knowing how high “the waters were standing above the mountains” (Ps. 104:6), but it was by a depth of at least fifteen cubits (twenty-two feet) in order that Noah’s Ark, settling about half its thirty-cubit height into the water, might be protected from destruction during the months that it floated on the shoreless ocean (Gen. 7:20). [End of quote]
Be confident that God’s Word stands beyond reproach.
The following e-mail came from Alice:
Dear Sister Alice, yes, there are male virgins. Concerning the last days and the 144,000 ministers—12,000 of every tribe of the 12 tribes of Israel—Revelation 14:4-5 reads:
4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Concerning the bride of Christ, Revelation 19:7-9 reads:
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
This marriage is not a physical one, but spiritual. We enter into the oneness of the Godhead through our total and complete surrender unto our Lord Jesus Christ, a process known as the mystery of Godliness (I Timothy 3:16). Our true fidelity is our surrender unto God’s Word. Physical marriage, as we know it, is not a heavenly issue. Jesus states in Luke 20:34-36:
34 And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
And again in Matthew 22:29-30:
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
Speaking of the spiritual plain, the Word of God records in Galatians 3:26-29:
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The following e-mail came from Lashann:
Dear Sister Lashann, thank you for your edifying message. Requests for information about the author(s) and his credentials are often received here at GodSaidManSaid, and rightfully so. I Thessalonians 5:12-13 reads,
12 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
13 And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
Click onto the following topics for the answer to your questions:
May the face of the Lord shine upon you with light and truth.
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References:
Authorized King James Version
Morris, H.M., M. E. Clark, The Bible Has The Answer, Master Books, pp123-124
Whitcomb, J.C., H.M. Morris, The Genesis Flood, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., pp124-126
Whitcomb, J.C., The World That Perished, Baker Books, p56
