The Strand Study Bible

GENESIS GENESIS THE ADAGE IS TRUE: Those who have everything but grace have nothing; but those who have nothing but grace have everything 6:19 Atheists and infidels have argued for centuries that Noah’s Ark was not big enough “to hold” two of every kind of animal. However, nobody to this day really knows the exact capacity of the ark. Although the Scriptures give its dimensions in cubits (Gen 6:15-16), the length of the antediluvian cubit is a matter of conjecture, for the earliest cubit known to man was an anatomical measure. Meaning, at various times a cubit in antiquity varied from fourteen inches to six feet. Ellicott’s Bible Commentary notes: It is difficult to fix with precision the length of the cubit of Scripture, especially as the value of the measure appears to have changed in the course of ages. 1 For example: * In the days of pyramid building in Egypt (c. 2600 BC) a cubit, called the Sacred Cubit ( Jere 32:20 ), was fixed at 25 inches. * In the days of Hammurabi, king of Babylon (c. 1700 BC) a cubit was fixed at 22½ inches. * In the days of King David (c. 1050 BC), king of Israel, the Jews had two cubits –one fixed at 18 inches and the other fixed at 21½ inches. In the days before pyramid building there was no set standard for the cubit. The cubit could have been either the length of a man’s arm (c. 18 inches) or the height of a man’s stature (c. 6 feet). If the cubit was the height of a normal man, then the length of the ark was 1800 feet long (18 football fields), 300 feet wide, and 180 feet high, more than enough room to carry every animal that God wanted on the ark. Personally however, I have faith in God enough to believe that since He planned the ark, and He knew the load that it had to carry, that the two probably coincided together rather nicely. 7:6 For though there are but meager written records concerning the pre- Flood world (pretty much, all we really have is Moses’ account in Genesis 1-8), there is but another kind of record, which God has preserved for us in His wisdom. They are called fossils ( Gen 8:22 ). Alfred M. Rehwinkel in The Flood notes: 77

When the enemies of Jesus complained that His disciples and even the children had joined in the triumphant song of “Hosanna to the Son of David,” Jesus replied that if these were silent, the very stones would immediately cry out (my emphasis). When scholars and churchmen refuse to accept divine revelation and are ashamed to give honor to Almighty God, the stones and the material remains of generations and things that have been must cry out, and the indistinct babbling of humanity’s childhood, as recorded in mythologies and traditions, must bear witness. And strange enough, the very men who so frequently close their eyes and ears to revealed truth of Scripture become the instruments in the hands of God to interpret for their fellow men this testimony and thus, like Balaam of old, unwittingly becomes prophets of God, confirming the truth as revealed in the Bible. 2

This record, due to the collapse and reassembly of the first world ( Gen 1:2 a,b,c,d ), including the event here called the Flood , is reliable and true and is written in large and legible letters in the very foundation rocks of our present world. The voice of evidence for the Flood is clear and unmistakable, even if modern geology refuses to hear that voice. Take for example the Cosquer cave which is located in the Calanque de Morgiou in Marseille, France, not very far from Cap Morgiou. The entrance to the cave is located 37 m (121 ft) underwater, due to the rise of the Mediterranean during the flood. It was discovered by diver Henri Cosquer in 1985:

Stenciled handprints were found in a cave discovered by diver Henri Cosquer on the French coast. The entrance is a tunnel now twelve stories (120 ft) below sea level. 3

We must keep in mind that when the geologist enters the field of cosmogony, that is, when he attempts to write the history of the universe and deals with the origin and development of this earth, he is no longer in the field of science, but has entered into the domain of metaphysics and theology. He is then no longer operating with demonstrated and established facts, but with theory and hypotheses. NOTE – According to Eyewitness Expert ( Rocks & Minerals ), each type of rock, from brilliant gemstones to radioactive ores, is made up of a particular collection of minerals. There are over 4,000 kinds of mineral, with new ones being discovered every year. Some can be identified easily by their physical and chemical properties, but laboratory equipment is needed to pin down more challenging examples. Machines called electron probe microanlyzers and X-ray spectrometers bombard specimens with electrons to reveal the atomic structure of their crystals. 3 Geology (the study of the structure, history, and development of the earth and its inhabitants as revealed in the rocks, not the study of the universe and origin) recognizes three categories of rock: 1. Igneous , called primitive or crystalline rock (granite, quartz, and crystals) Igneous rock is the oldest rock, and contains no fossils. 2. Metamorphic , i.e., sedimentary and igneous rocks (marble, slate, schist, gneiss, and quartzite) Metamorphic rock was altered by the heat and pressure in the earth’s crust. 3. Sedimentary , called stratified rock (limestone, sandstone, shale, gypsum, chalk, marl, and clay) Also called secondary rock because it is composed of materials derived from the disintegration of previous rocks, sedimentary rocks are made of particles bonded together by natural cements or solids that settled from “water solutions.” Eighty percent of the rock surface of the world is made up of sedimentary rock, indicating that at some time in the past, the world was covered by “water solutions” (a Great Flood). Secular historians tend to agree. The Columbia History of the World notes,