The Strand Study Bible

GENESIS

78

GENESIS

It seems to be no chance coincidence that in the folklore of most riparian peoples there are tales of the Great Flood. The Noachian deluge may also in part have been engendered by the marked increase in precipitation that occurred in early postglacial time in Anatolia and East Africa. 4 Although secular historians credit a glacial melt down for the reason behind a Great Deluge ( Columbia - p. 21), at least they are in agreement with the fact that there was a Great Flood in time past. 7:7 CHRIST spoke of Noah , the ark , and the Flood (Mt 24:37-39). He also spoke of Adam , Eve (Mt 19:4) and Abel (Mt 23:35). It’s hard to question the historical accuracy of the first nine chapters of Genesis without questioning the Lord. John Phillips in Exploring the Scriptures notes:

The quickest way to demolish a building is to attack its foundation. If the foundation can be destroyed, the whole superstructure will fall. It is not surprising, therefore, that some of the heaviest attacks against the Bible have been leveled against its earlier chapters. If a person can be persuaded to pull out the first pages from his Bible, so to speak, it will not be long before the last pages will be falling out also. 5

NOTE – To question the historical accuracy of the first eleven chapters of Genesis is to challenge the deity of Christ 7:10 Biblical statisticians (such as, Lambert Dolphin 6 and Alfred Rehwinkel 2 ) inform us that there were approximately one billion people living on the face of the earth before the time of the Flood ( Gen 7:21 ). Yet only eight survived. You would think that after experiencing the most catastrophic event in human history (the death of approximately one billion people all at once) that the remaining eight survivors would have vowed never to let that happen again to the human race. Yet, in a little more than 100 years, the human race was right back where it was before the time of the Flood (2344 BC) –in rebellion against God (Gen 11:3-9 – 2243 BC). The German philosopher Hegel wrote, “What experience and history teach is this – that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.” 7 Maybe, if we did a better job of remembering, history wouldn’t have to repeat itself so much. THE ADAGE IS TRUE: Those who neglect to remember the mistakes of the past are sure to repeat them in the future

The Continents Before the Flood (Genesis 7:11)

1 Ellicott, Charles John. Ellicott’s Bible Commentary , Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 1971. Print. 2 Rehwinkel, Alfred M. The Flood , Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House. 1951. Print. 3 Eyewitness Expert. Rocks & Minerals , Great Britain, Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2007. Print. 4 John A. Garraty and Peter Gay. The Columbia History of the World , New York, NY, Harper & Row, 1972. Print. 5 Phillips, John. Exploring the Scriptures , Chicago, Ill, Moody Monthly, 1965. Print. 6 Dolphin, Lambert. World Population Since Creation , http://www.ldolphin.org/popul.html 7 Richards, Lawrence O. Bible Reader’s Companion , Colorado Springs, CO, Cook Communications, 1991,2004. Print.