THE FLOOD
by Phillip Day

There are literally scores of legends existing throughout the world which tell of a cataclysmic flood that destroyed civilisation. Though these stories are ancient and from all parts of the world, they do appear to describe the same event. Geologist Dr John Morris writes:

“Over the years, I have collected more than 200 of these stories, originally reported by various missionaries, anthropologists and ethnologists. While the differences are not always trivial, the common essence of the stories is instructive as compiled below:

• Is there a favored family? 88%
  
• Were they forewarned? 66%
  
• Is flood due to wickedness of man? 66%
  
• Is catastrophe only a flood? 95%
  
• Was flood global? 95%
  
• Is survival due to a boat? 70%
  
• Were animals also saved? 67%
  
• Did animals play any part? 73%
  
• Did survivors land on a mountain? 57%
  
• Was the geography local? 82%
  
• Were birds sent out? 35%
  
• Was the rainbow mentioned? 7%
  
• Did survivors offer a sacrifice? 13%
  
• Were specifically eight persons saved? 9%
  

Putting them all back together, the story would read something like this: Once there was a worldwide flood, sent by God to judge the wickedness of man. But there was one righteous family which was forewarned of the coming flood. They built a boat on which they survived the flood along with the animals. As the flood ended, their boat landed on a high mountain from which they descended and repopulated the whole Earth.”

This is the tale taught at Sunday school today. Another source writes:

“Stories of the Nochian Flood have been found in almost every civilization in the world. Dr. Aaron Smith of the University of Greensboro collected a complete history of the literature on Noah’s Ark. He found 80,000 works in 72 languages about the Flood. About 70,000 of them mention the wreckage of the Ark.”

In the Chaldean given by Berosus, Xisuthrus is saved from the Flood by building a boat. In Hindu legend, it was Satyavrata in the ark. The Shoo-King, one of China’s ancient sacred books, describes the ‘Great Water’ reaching the tops of the mountains. The Parsees say that when the Earth became wicked, God destroyed it with a deluge. The Zend-Avesta, the oldest sacred book of the Persians, describes the Flood. In Greek mythology, it is Deucalion with his wife, Pyrrha, who step forth from the ark onto a new and desolate Earth. In Celt-lore, Drayan and Droyvach survive the Flood to colonise Britain. The Scandanavian Edda speaks of Coxcox, his wife and six others surviving a worldwide Flood. These and many other tales from countries all over the world substantially agree with the Bible’s story of Noah and his family surviving the destruction of the old world and re-establishing the new.

One theory is that God did not erase mankind with multiple, well-aimed thunderbolts but used the Flood to leave copious evidence for the future to learn of divine judgment on sin. All well and good for church, but the claim of a flood covering the entire surface of the Earth is no small potatoes. One would reasonably expect literally mountains of evidence to be left behind to support such an event. But is it even conceivable that the Earth at some point was covered with water ‘as high as the mountains’? Some believe it was a local flood (the Black Sea theory), since it could not possibly have rained hard enough over forty days and forty nights to produce enough water to cover ‘the mountains of the Earth’. If that were the case, why did God get Noah to build a boat? Why didn’t he just tell Noah and his family to move somewhere else?

Earth is a strange place, not least for the creatures found upon it and deep in its oceans. Theories abound among scientists on what the Flood was, how it happened, and how the extraordinary evidence can be interpreted. This writer has spent the last twenty years examining Flood evidence all over the world and believes it is possible to get close to the truth. We have colossal and very bizarre evidence, some of I cover in my new book, Origins. We have those mammoths and ‘dragons’ (dinosaurs) buried in compromising positions by the thousand. A whale on its tail at Lompoc. Billions of clams found in the closed position indicating they were buried alive, even on mountains. Flood legends all over the world. A population of just 6.7 billion today, pointing to 4,000 – 5,000 years of growth. Recorded history only starting around 1000BC (some say 5th century BC). The Ice Age. The ice caps. A wandering magnetic pole. The Earth tilted over at 23.5o, beset with Chandler’s Wobble, suggesting something hit it. Damage all over the moon, and yet no-one has ever seen a major impact on the moon. Damage on Mars and Mercury. The rings of Saturn still separating in the Poynting-Robertson effect, indicating they are not billions of years old. Huge forests and coal deposits found under hundreds of feet of ice in Alaska and Antarctica…. Where did all the water come from, and where did it go? Interestingly, around 10,000 US scientists believe it may not have been ‘rain’ as such that did it….

For more on this and other fascinating scientific discoveries, settle in by a nice fire over Christmas and read Phillip Day’s extraordinary new book, Origins.