Rain fell on the earth

“And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:12)

 

Listening to the story that it rained for forty days and nights in Noah’s time, some people might want how much would be fine if it rains as then when the time of drought like these days. They perhaps say like that because they don’t know well what the real state of floods had been at the time of Noah. Looking at the posts posted on the web sites, many insist on Noah’s flood as a myth made by human imagination doing dispute whether the story of Noah’s flood is real or fake. The Bible is not a storybook made up by man originally. Thus Noah’s flood is not a false record. And Noah is the direct ancestor of the existing human race. That is, people living on Earth now are the descendants born from Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

 

It’s not clear where the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived was located in fact. From the Bible and with reasonable studying by scientists, we can presume the Garden of Eden would had located in some place among the most suitable natural environments for early humans to live in. Since there have been much changes in the natural environment for a long time, including the climate, over time, it is difficult to accurately set the location of Eden under the standard based on current situation. According to the geographical context described in Genesis 2:10~14 can be inferred that Eden had been located at the source of the four rivers, Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates, streaming through the region of Havilah, Cush, the east side of Assyria, and Mesopotamia. So Adam and Eve and their close descendants would have mostly lived near by all over Ethiopia, Sudan, the Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia and etc, where the rivers that touch Eden flow. These areas have warm climates, and are located near rivers that are convenient to live in, to be much similar to the result of archaeological studies trying to find the moved path of early human on the Earth.

It is also difficult to confirm clearly the location of Mount Ararat, where the ark stayed, but it has been known to be eastern Turkey, about 16 kilometers from the border between Iran and Armenia. That is an active volcano still, and the height is 5,137m above sea level. It is almost double the height of Mt. Baekdu, which is 2,744 meters, located in Korean peninsula. As the flood stopped, the ark, which had been floating for 150 days, would have stopped on the ridge of Mount Ararat, one of high parts of the Earth. Certain people may be also suspicious and raise question as how much rain had fallen in 40 days, because of the fact that the entire earth had been covered with water. Many suspect that what is written in the Bible is absurd.

The situation of Noah’s flood would have been quite different from what we think today. The flood occurred when Noah was 600 years old. The springs of the great deep had burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens had been opened, pouring rain for forty days and forty nights. The burst of springs of the great deep written in the Bible is the terms collectively for earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and flooding of groundwater. It is said, the Earth’s radius is about 6,400 kilometers, and its crust is about 5 to 35 kilometers thick. And about 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with the oceans. Geologists have found that not only the amount of seawater of the surface, but also the rocks in the earth’s deep crust, contain a rich amount of water, which is a huge quantity of amount to be filled the ocean 20 times, they say. At the time of the flood, water in the crust would have come up the ground. Refer this site, https://www.creation.kr/Ark/?idx=1288317&bmode=view

<ICE VII> named ice the solid water exists in the mantle below the crust. The difference of temperature and pressure between atmosphere and mantle makes exist the liquid water in atmosphere into the solid water inside the mantle. That is classified as a mineral called Ice VII. Eventually, water also exists both at 800 kilometers below the Earth’s surface, and a huge sea exists at 1,000 kilometers below the Earth’s surface. The huge amount of water is helping the mantle convection, and the water had been used as a tool for the Judgment of flood. After all, the great waters of Noah’s flood were spewed from the sky above, and out of the springs of the deep below. For forty days and nights, water poured from above and below, after then the rain stopped and the springs closed eventually, but water remained for one hundred and fifty days over all the Earth.

 

All creatures, except those brought in the ark, had disappeared from the ground due to the flood. The sudden explosion of water would have caused not only the extinction of plants and animals, but also the terrain and climate to change. Humans, fishes, and animals even such as giant dinosaurs were buried in the soil and became fossils. Noah’s flood was God’s stern judgment on the people who had been indulged in sinful life. Through the flood of judgment, despite the destruction of the natural environment and human beings, there is still sin in the world, so Jesus’ salvation is absolutely necessary to people!

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on July 3rd 2022)