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A number of years ago, certain comments were brought to my attention regarding some beliefs which are held by those people who adhere to the doctrines of the Urantia Book. The comments which were shared with me have to do with the events surrounding the Genesis Flood. I have discussed this topic in previous articles such as "Noah's Ark and the Genesis Flood" and "Nephilim: The Giants of Genesis", as well as in a few others. You may wish to read those to obtain a fuller understanding of the comments which I will be expressing in this current article. In this article I will be quoting from the comments I received, and then I will provide my own remarks, based on what has been said. I hope that this brief study will assist you in understanding the truth surrounding the Genesis Flood -- it was God's Flood, not Noah's Flood, really -- so that you can combat Satan's lies, the purpose of which is only to discredit God and call Him a liar. Remember; if there is any lie involved, it certainly is not on the part of God, but originates from the father of lies himself -- Satan -- and from the sin and vanity of our own deceptive hearts. Consider the following verses:

"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"


"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;"


"God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged."


Regarding the Devil's lying, deceitful nature, consider the following verses and be warned:

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."


"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ . . . And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."


"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices."


"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"


"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."


"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."


"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:"


Let me begin now to address this misguided person's first comment. He wrote the following:

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"Besides, the reality of a global flood would entail the loss of most of the plant life, not only the animals. It would also mean the erosion of the world's deserts and destruction of most habitats."

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What this person states here is indeed true. The world was literally turned upside down topographically-speaking when the Lord destroyed the wicked men of the past by means of the Flood. I explain these events in considerable detail in the aforementioned article. Consider this verse:

"Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:"


As I point out in the aforementioned articles, we are told that all land-based, air-breathing life -- both people and animals -- was destroyed, according to the account that is found in Genesis. Again, consider the following verses which verify this point:

"And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."


Whether or not the phrase "every living substance was destroyed" includes all plant substance is a matter of conjecture. Personally, I am inclined to believe that "all" means exactly what it implies. I will amplify on these verses a bit further on in this article. One thing we do know is that the Lord caused the worldwide ocean to overflow past its natural boundaries. The Grand Canyon is a prime example of the creative and Earth-carving power of the global drainage which occurred following the Flood of Noah's day. In fact, the magnificent and awe-inspiring granite cliffs of Yosemite National Park also stand in testimony of the time when God broke up the very foundation of the Earth as if with a Divine Sledge Hammer. The following verse is witness to this fact:

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."


Following the forty days and forty nights of constant rain, accompanied by the water which came forth from the oceans, as well as from within the depths of the Earth itself, we read how God put a stop to it all in the following verse:

"The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;"


Concerning the granite foundation -- or cornerstone -- of the Earth, and the oceans being placed within their borders, we find the following verses in the Book of Job, as well as in the Books of the Prophets Isaiah and Zechariah:

"He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end."


"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?"


"Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together."


"The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him."


Notice that Isaiah writes "they stand up together". That is a very interesting choice of words. Could this be a reference to the granite base rock being uplifted to form the worldwide mountain chains? Could it also be a reference to volcanoes being raised up spewing out lava? After all, granite is an igneous rock. At any rate, if the Almighty God through Jesus Christ created all of these magnificent wonders of the natural world, is it a great matter for Him to destroy and break them up in a global catastrophe as is described in the Book of Genesis? Certainly not. This same person then went on to say the following:

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"Practically speaking, there is also the impossibility of creating an ark for so many various types of animals and returning them to the environments in which they were specialized. Think of North American or Australian wildlife; how would Noah collect and then subsequently release these?"

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The above comment reflects a total lack of faith in and understanding of the Word of God. It is a prime example of trying to understand things with one's carnal mind of the flesh, using human intellect and knowledge, instead of seeing them with the eyes of the Spirit. I am reminded of the following verses which perfectly describe people such as this misguided person:

"Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!"


"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things."


"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence."


"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."


"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness."


"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."


It is rather obvious -- at least to a Bible-believing Christian -- that this person severely underestimates the power of God, who created the very Universe and all things in it. As the Angel Gabriel told Mary in the Gospel of Luke, after Mary apparently doubted that she could become pregnant without having intercourse with Joseph, and after the Angel also told her that her elderly cousin Elisabeth was likewise pregnant with John the Baptist:

"For with God nothing shall be impossible."


First of all, let me point out that the Scriptures do NOT say that Noah is the one who collected the animals. We are in fact told in Genesis that the Lord BROUGHT them to him, just as He had likewise brought all living creatures to Adam several chapters before when he first named them. Consider the following verses:

"And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and BROUGHT THEM unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof."


"There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah."


"And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life."


Notice how it says that "they went in unto Noah". There was no forceful collecting here, chasing after the wildlife. It is my understanding that they willingly came to him. As I explain in other articles, it was not until AFTER the Flood when it became permissible to eat meat, that the Lord put the fear of man into the animals, as we can determine by these verses:

"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things."


One other point worth mentioning concerning the above statement is that this person is under the assumption that the world was already divided into its various climates and continents at the time of the Flood. As I amply explain in the article "Noah's Ark and the Genesis Flood", there are those people who believe that when the Lord made the dry land to appear in Genesis chapter one, it was actually one solid mass surrounded by a worldwide ocean. They believe that it was not until about one hundred and ten years AFTER the Flood, in the days of Noah's descendant, Peleg, that the Lord began to slowly divide the Earth into its current continents. Consider the following verse:

"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."


This physical division of the Earth is said to have begun after the Lord had separated the inhabitants of the Ancient World into various nations of people following Nimrod and the incident at the Tower of Babel. In fact, some people believe that the incident at Babel was the root of the later Babylonian empire, which itself was the spiritual beginning of Babylon the Great, who we find mentioned in the Book of Revelation. You can read all about these events in Genesis chapters ten and eleven.

To continue, it is believed by these same people that this division of the Old World was accomplished through the natural process of continental drift, beginning with small cracks, then larger fissures, and eventually rift valleys which slowly filled with water as the Earth continued to slowly divide over the next six thousand some years, until today the continents are divided by great oceans. In short, it may have been a slow steady process which was not that cataclysmic in nature. As these great land masses slowly separated, whatever and whoever was living on them at the time eventually became trapped on them.

Some people even go as far as to theorize that the idea of the lost continent of Atlantis was nothing more than the American continents slowly falling below the horizon as they continued to drift westward away from the Eurasian and African land masses. Whether this is true or not, I honestly cannot say. However, if it did occur this way, I would think that it must have taken hundreds if not thousands of years for humans to make this observation. Regardless, I do not believe that Atlantis was some great super-advanced society which sunk under the ocean due to the misuse of nuclear power, as some New Agers like to suggest. Those people even claim that ancient civilizations such as the Atlanteans, the Indians -- from India -- and others possessed flying craft powered by mercury and other substances. In my view, these are the vain imaginations of sinful and deceived men.

It is also possible that it was at the time of the Flood that the Earth was thrown off-balance due to the collective action of the great power behind the tidal waves which were needed to cover the dry land, the water being displaced from the fountains of the deep, and the water raining down from above. Between this awesome power, the physical displacement of the elements, and the added weight of millions of gallons of water pouring down from above, perhaps the entire sphere was shifted. It may be that this shift did in fact result in our current axis which is believed to be responsible for the various climates all around the world. This sudden tilt would explain how the mastodons were washed up to Siberia and immediately frozen. In thinking about this, I had an amazing revelation. Consider these verses from the Book of Genesis:

"And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated."


Here we have a picture of the Lord sending a wind to assuage or calm the waters. How could this wind calm the waters? Doesn't the wind make the water even more choppy? Doesn't the wind create waves? Well, this was a special wind which passed over the entire Earth. And what did it do? I remember reading the account of one person some time ago who believed that the Lord used this wind to totally remove this extra water from off of the face of the Earth, and out into deep space. I believe that the theory was that this is what now constitutes the comets. I may be a bit mistaken about this, being as I read it so long ago. Regardless, I don't buy that theory. I believe that my theory makes a lot more sense.

If you believe as I do that the orignal Earth was a tropical paradise, then it must have been located near the Equator. This extra water had to go somewhere in order for the dry land to appear again, right? Well, what came to me is that while some of the water drained back into the oceans, as well as back into seas, lakes, streams and rivers, and even into caverns underneath the Earth, this wind may have pushed some of the waters off and away from the land, and towards both the north and south poles, where it immediately froze and became the miles-deep ice and snow which now cover the Arctic and Antarctica. I mean, the world was covered in water. It was one huge ocean during the Flood event. So it seems to me that something very supernatural had to occur in order to get rid of it, and make the land habitable again for Noah and his family. It would have been a slow steady process, or maybe not, but such a theory would help to explain where a lot of the water went.

As I thought on this possibility just now, clear as a bell, another Old Testament incident came into my mind. In fact, two incidents came to mind which seem to add Scriptural weight to my theory. Consider the following verses. If God did this on a localized scale, He most certainly could do something similar on a worldwide scale as well, don't you think? Please carefully notice that God used a "strong east wind" to separate the waters during the Red Sea event, just as He used wind during the Flood:

"And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left."


"And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap. And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day. For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them: About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho. On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before."


Let us also not forget that in the Gospels, we learn that Jesus had perfect control over the Sea of Galilee. Not only did He walk on the water, but He calmed the storm and the waves as well. So let's not try to limit what God can or cannot do, due to a lack of faith, as this unbelieving man was attempting to do in his comments to me.

As I explain in my previous article concerning the Flood, most people who are not familiar with the Bible are under the false impression that the Great Deluge only lasted forty days and nights, and that was the end of it. Here are the facts regarding the matter: First of all, it wasn't Noah who sealed the door of the Ark. It was the Lord Who personally locked them up tight. As I explain in other articles, I believe that the Lord -- meaning Jesus -- roamed among His creations in the early days of the world. Consider what we are told in the Book of Genesis:

"And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation . . . And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in."


While I could be mistaken, it seems to me that the Lord was there folks. He beckoned Noah and his family and the animals to come into the Ark. How could He tell them "Come thou and all thy house into the ark" unless He was literally standing there inside the Ark beckoning with His hand? I can just picture it. WOW! Once they were all safely inside, He sealed up the door for them. We are then told that it wasn't until seven days later that the water arrived. In fact, we are given the exact year, month and day, as we see here:

"And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."


A little later on, we are also told the exact year, month and day when the ground was completely dry, and Noah removed the covering of the Ark. Consider this verse as well:

"And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry."


Please go to part two for the conclusion of this article.

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