Tag Archives: Noah’s Ark

September 21, 2025 · 10:00

Unfounded Assumptions

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)

Recently, I watched a podcast that I follow. The podcaster (I’ll call him “Primate,” similar to his actual handle) is a Christian whom I respect for his knowledge of Scripture and end-times prophecy. He is also on top of current events taking place all around the world. In the podcast I watched, he discussed Noah’s Ark, suggesting that Noah could not have built the Ark without a lot of assistance. He correctly pointed out that we are not given precise details in the Bible on what was going in the world when God commissioned Noah to build the Ark. We are only given this: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose … There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-2, 4). Biblical scholars have struggled with that over the years attempting to puzzle out what it really means instead of what it actually says, i.e., “the sons of God” (angelic beings) were messing around with human women and producing some kind of hybrids. However, the lack of detail leaves a lot of room for speculation, which is not usually the best way to study or interpret Scripture. Primate concluded that missing details like that were purposefully left out of the Bible by the compilers of our canon for our benefit, so as not to confuse us or perhaps to keep us from the temptation of experimentation in angelic arts.

Primate proposes that in order to fill in the blanks, we have other extrabiblical sources to clear things up for us, like the books of Enoch, Jubilees, Jasher, etc. I have read some of those books, and while some of their content may be true to some extent (and there is no way for us to know that for certain), I believe the Holy Spirit (the Author of our Bible) gave us all that we need to know in order to have a real and personal relationship with the Creator. The extrabiblical books are certainly interesting; however, they may or may not be factual. In any case, they are superfluous to the Bible alone.

However, that was not my main issue with the podcast. My main objection was to Primate’s comments on Noah, so I offered some alternative thoughts based on my several years of research on this particular topic. One of Primate’s arguments was that there were no trees in the place, supposedly the Middle East, where Noah built the Ark. Of course, he has no basis for that assumption. One must consider that the climate in Noah’s day was not like it is today. Genesis 2:5-6 tells us that it did not rain in those days, “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” The fossil record confirms that the pre-flood Earth was tropical everywhere. There is fossil evidence that Antarctica had tropical forests growing.[1] Lush vegetation was everywhere, including in the area of Mesopotamia. Evidence for this are the rich oil fields in the Middle East, which result from the decomposition of plants. That means that Noah did not have to go far to find “gofer wood” to build the Ark. (No one really knows what gofer wood is. It could be some kind of extinct tree, or some think that it could have been a method of cross-laminating timbers to strengthen the hull.)

Primate also suggested that Noah and his sons could not have built the Ark by themselves. He based that idea on the current degraded physical condition of modern humans. We should consider this: God made Adam and Eve perfect human specimens – no physical defects – their DNA was perfect – no mutations, which is why Cain could marry his sister.[2] Even as far as Abraham, the DNA had not degraded enough so that Abraham could marry his half-sister, Sarah. Prohibitions against marriages between close relatives did not come around until Moses and the Law. That suggests that pre-flood people were superhuman, unlike modern mankind. In support of that, consider what Scripture says about Noah. “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9, emphasis mine). “Perfect” translates the Hebrew word “tâmı̂ym” which means “complete, whole, entire, sound.” “Generations” translates the Hebrew “dôr,” which can mean “generation (characterized by quality, condition, class of men).”[3] That suggests that Noah’s lineage had not been contaminated by the activities of the “sons of God.”[4] Primate suggested that because Noah was middle-aged at 500 years+, he could not have done the heavy work required to build the Ark. We should remember that Abraham was still fathering children at 145 years old[5] and Caleb was strong enough at 85 to conquer the hill country of Judah.[6] Primate’s assessment is based on the frailties of modern humans, but that does not apply to pre-flood humans.

Noah was 500 years old when is three sons were born[7] and 600 years old when the flood came[8]. He built the Ark in less than 100 years. John D. Morris, Ph.D., calculated that Noah and his sons could have built the Ark in just 65 years, without any help from angels.[9]

Another mistake people often make is thinking that the Middle East (all the Earth, for that matter) has always looked the same as it does now. Hence, they assume that the Euphrates River described in Genesis 2[10] is the same Euphrates River that we know today. Nothing could be further from the truth when one considers (and most geologists agree) that there used to be one supercontinent, Pangia, that broke up into the seven continents we have today. The Flood changed all of that! So, Earth’s topography was much different pre-flood than post-flood. We cannot assume that things then looked the same as they do today.

I completed the build of a 1:60 scale model of Noah’s Ark in December 2014 and delivered it to the Institute for Creation Research, where it now resides in the Discovery Center. The build took almost five years to complete, which gave me a lot of time to research and think about all that Noah might have included in the Ark. I wrote about that in an article entitled “Building the Ark.” That article covers more detail than what I covered here. It would do good if Christians would be more careful in their reading Scripture and not rely on baseless speculation. “Thy word is truth,” and that is all we need to rely on. Primate and others need to be more careful in how they handle the Word of God. It is sufficient – no need to speculate.

Notes:

[1] “Fossil Trees in Antarctica Preserve Ancient Proteins:” https://www.icr.org/article/fossil-trees-antarctica-preserve-ancient

[2]  Genesis 4:17

[3]  Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions (Published in 1906; public domain).

[4]  Genesis 6:2

[5]  Genesis 25:1-3

[6]  Joshua 14:10-12

[7]  Genesis 5:32

[8]  Genesis 7:6

[9]   “How Could Noah Have Built the Ark All By Himself?” https://www.icr.org/article/how-could-noah-have-built-ark-all-by-himself

[10]  Genesis 2:14

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November 6, 2022 · 11:00

Who Got It Right?

After the Flood_Joseph_Anton_Koch

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.. (Matthew 5:18)

Someone wrote to me with the following question: “Just wondering if you have done any research into the first civilization, according to science, known to man the Sumaritans [sic]. Their writings contain the original creation story that Moses and many others passed down?”

This is a common question that stems from the study of early world history that is based on evolutionary thinking. The inquirer is assuming that because the Sumerians wrote on clay tablets which have been preserved for thousands of years, that theirs is the oldest known written language, and that other cultures were incapable of writing.

The people before the Flood where highly intelligent people (Genesis 4:22-24) and probably had other methods of writing. It is quite possible that Noah had written records handed down from Adam, who died only a few hundred years before Noah was born. Noah’s grandfather, Methuselah, was alive around 250 years before Adam died. It is very possible that pre-Flood people wrote on papyrus or something like it so the genealogical record could be passed on. We might also consider the fact that God only gave Noah some general instructions for constructing the Ark (Genesis 6:14-16). I am sure you would agree that drawing out floor plans on clay tablets would have been rather cumbersome. So it seems reasonable that Noah had something more functional on which to draw his plans for the Ark.

The inquirer’s suggestion is based mostly on assumptions made by secular archeologists. Archeology is not an exact “science;” it is a “forensic” science that is highly subjective. Most secular archeologists are biased on the side of evolution, which influences their perception of what they discover. They assume that man “evolved” 100,000 years ago, and did not become “civilized” until sometime around 10,000 B.C. to 8000 B.C.

Since these “scientists” make assumptions based on evolutionary thinking, it is only fair that I be allowed to make some assumptions based on the biblical record. I am going to assume that Noah carried some sort of “paper” records on the Ark and continued to copy those records using the same medium. Paper records would not last thousands of years like those written on clay tablets, therefore, from our perspective, it “appears” that the Sumerian clay tablets are the oldest written record when in fact they are not, and they were actually pretty crude methods of writing even for their time. I will further assume that Noah and his descendants through Shem had more advanced methods of writing, albeit less durable than clay tablets. Writing on paper (papyrus) would require continual copying in order for the records to be preserved. Now, since no one can really corroborate either assumption, I will suggest that my assumption is just as valid as that of the evolutionary archeologists.

Having said that let me also suggest that the Sumerians, by the time they recorded their origins account and Flood story, had a distorted memory of those events. It is often suggested that Moses borrowed the Flood account from the Epic of Gilgamesh. But when one compares the Ark of Gilgamesh with the Ark of Noah, the two are completely different vessels. In fact, Gilgamesh’s Ark is built in the shape of a cube which would render the vessel extremely unseaworthy, while Noah’s Ark (or a model of it) has been laboratory tested and shown to be incredibly stable. What this shows is the Sumerians got it wrong and the Bible got it right.

The nature of such questions is the result of Satan’s unchanged tactic revealed in Genesis 3:1-5: (1) Create doubt in God’s Word: “Yea, hath God said …?” (2) Deny the veracity of God’s Word: “Ye shall not surely die,” and (3) Accuse God of keeping one from something better: “For God doth know that … ye shall be as gods.” His methods have not changed in over 6000 years, and sadly, even Christians fall for his lies. But the Author of the Bible says, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot [the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet] or one tittle [the smallest distinguishing mark of a Hebrew letter] shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18). So, who got it right? Would you rather believe the words of men, or the Word of God?

 

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October 11, 2020 · 10:00

Jesus And Genesis

But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. (Mark 10:6)

If one wants to criticize and discount the Bible, there is no better place to start than at the beginning with Genesis. Those who reject God find it easier to believe the absurdity that nothing expanded and resulted in everything. They claim to believe the “science.” However, scientific proof requires the implementation of the “scientific method.” As an elementary school teacher just 12 years ago, we still taught the “scientific method” which included observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and falsification. God deniers profess science without employing the scientific method to support their hypothesis. No one observed the Big Bang. No one can experiment to reproduce the Big Bang. (It would be scary if they could!) And no one can falsify the Big Bang, yet they claim to be “scientific.”

The same can said for Creation. Creation cannot be proven by the scientific method. It was a unique, miraculous, one-time event. Creation differs from the Big Bang in that it started with Someone; it did not come from nothing – “In the beginning, God”[1] and God recorded His work in the first chapter of the Book of Beginnings – Genesis. The thinking person (not the God denier – they do not think) only needs to consider the creation account for what it says, recognizing the implied characteristics of the omnipotent Creator’s ability to do what He said He did and compare that to the order out of chaos suggested by the Big Bang proponents. Because of the vast complexity of the universe and life on earth, logic supports creation by an intelligent Creator over life by luck. Of course, some God deniers reject the Big Bang for that very reason and opt to believe that life on earth was “seeded” by extraterrestrials from other worlds, but that raises another question. How did the extraterrestrials originate? That question cannot be answered.

God deniers will not be convinced with logic. They reject God by choice. I am more surprised by those who say they believe the Bible but reject the Genesis account. They have been taught that the Big Bang is a fact and that life on earth arose through the process of evolution. In order to keep their faith in God intact, they rationalize that God somehow used the Big Bang and evolution to create. That makes sense. God can do anything He wants to do and use whatever means He chooses to do it. He is God! However, in reading the straightforward creation account in Genesis 1, one cannot find the logical steps of evolution. God created the universe by His spoken word, not with a bang.[2] He created plant life[3] before He created the sun. He created the sun and moon before creating the rest of the stars as sort of an afterthought.[4] He created marine and avian life before creating the dinosaurs (land creatures). Secular scientists claim that birds evolved from dinosaurs, but Genesis says that birds came first. Furthermore, the Genesis account of creation records that each day of creation was a 24-hour day;[5] that amount of time does not allow for evolution to take place.

Some overly educated theologians dismiss the Genesis account of creation as poetry or allegory. Somehow in all of their education, they miss the fact that Hebrew poetry is distinct by its use of parallelism. There is none of that in the Genesis account. Any Hebrew language novice understands that the first three chapters in Genesis, which take the brunt of the criticism, are written in narrative form like any other historical portion of Scripture. Genesis is not poetry. It presents a factual account, or at least it is factual to the author.

Jesus, who the New Testament credits as Creator[6], affirmed the validity of Genesis. When the Pharisees challenged Him on the question of divorce, Jesus referred them back to Genesis. “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6, emphasis mine). The making of the first human pair is recorded in the first chapter of Genesis. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27, emphasis mine). For the sake of this confused world today, it should be noted that God made one pair of opposite, yet complementary sexes. They were not androgynous with the option to choose their sex. God did not create two males to mate with each other or two females to cohabitate. God designed the sexes for reproduction. Two males cannot reproduce, nor can two females reproduce. The union is not about “feeling” but about “function.” Male and female “fit” together. The way God designed it works. The way modern man has perverted it often ends in tragedy.

Genesis records that Adam’s first son was Cain and the second was Abel. Cain murdered Abel in a fit of jealous rage,[7] and Jesus referred to that as a factual account. As Jesus excoriated the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, He said, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:33-35, emphasis mine). Jesus again affirmed the veracity of Genesis in citing Abel as a real person. As an aside, I find it interesting that Jesus takes credit for sending the prophets – “I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes.” That is what God does. Therefore, Jesus claims to be God.

The Global Flood account in Genesis 6-9 is also a major point of contention with Bible critics, even those claiming to be Christian. However, Jesus vouched for its authenticity. In speaking on the last days, Jesus said, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37-39, emphasis mine). So, to those who claim to be Christian yet reject Genesis, do you reject Jesus’ words as well? If you doubt the first eleven chapters of Genesis, how can you believe the words of Jesus? He spoke of the Genesis account as fact.

Jesus created[8] man in His image[9] knowing the kind of body He would one day inhabit.[10] Jesus accepted Abel’s sacrifice[11] over that of Cain’s, and when Cain murdered Abel, He demonstrated mercy toward Cain by setting a mark on him to spare his life.[12] God had Noah build an ark with only one entrance. The Ark was large enough to accommodate thousands of more people than Noah and his family, but only those eight that believed God and entered through the only door were saved from the Flood. Jesus is our Ark of salvation. He said, “I AM the door.”[13] He is the only entrance to eternal life; there is no other way. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6, emphasis mine).

I understand God deniers rejecting the Genesis account of creation. They are lost and hell-bound. But there is no excuse for Christians rejecting the Genesis account if indeed they believe Jesus’ words.

Reader, if you are questioning the veracity of Scripture, particularly where it comes to creation, perhaps the first thing you need to consider your eternal standing before God. Read my page on “Securing Eternal Life.”

Notes:

[1]  Genesis 1:1

[2]  Genesis 1:1-5

[3]  Genesis 1:11-12

[4]  Genesis 1:14-16

[5]  “A Day Is A Day” – https://erniecarrasco.com/2015/10/25/a-day-is-a-day/

[6]  John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16-17; Revelation 4:11

[7]  Genesis 4:1-8

[8]  John 1:1-3

[9]  Genesis 1:26-27

[10]  John 1:14; Philippians 2:7-8

[11]  Genesis 4:4

[12]  Genesis 4:15

[13]  John 10:9

 

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March 1, 2020 · 10:00

Human Fossils

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. (Genesis 7:22-23)

The fossil record consists of 95% marine creatures, around 4% plant fossils, and only about 1% land animals – dinosaurs, mammals, flying creatures, etc. In this last category of fossils, complete, intact fossils are even rarer. Most fossil remains are found disarticulated, broken, and scattered, testifying to the violent nature of their burial.

Yet, even within this small fragment of the fossil record, human fossils are, for all practical purposes, non-existent. The absence of human fossils frequently raises the question, “Why do we not see more human fossils?” The Bible clearly records that the Flood killed “All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land died” (Genesis 7:22). The fossil record confirms this fact, and according to the Bible record, only eight humans survived on the Ark that Noah built. Yet we find all kinds of animal fossils, but no humans. Given the 1600 years of earth history before the Flood, as recorded in the Bible, where human lifespan exceeded 900 years, earth’s population would have been in the billions. It stands to reason that we should have an abundance of human fossils, but they are as “scarce as hens’ teeth.”

In all the years I served in a creation ministry, I never received a satisfactory answer to the question. The general consensus holds that humans were washed out to “sea” during the flood, drowned and were scavenged so that nothing was left to fossilize. However, that does not really explain how that took place. Certainly, that could have happened to the dinosaurs, and yet we have an abundant, albeit rare, sampling of dinosaur fossils, but no humans.

Recently, I received a newsletter from David Rives Ministries, where Rives writes the most cogent and reasonable response to the question of the missing human fossils that I have heard to date. First, David suggests that humans “would have already been living in areas higher than pre-flood sea level … Then, you can bet when water began to rise, they would have climbed as high as they could… then they would have floated for as long as possible. They may have survived for a short while by grabbing floating logs and driftwood. But with all of the marine creatures swimming near the surface of the water to get away from the mud [generated by the flood waters], there would be some really large predator animals feeding on bodies. When humans couldn’t survive any longer, they would have died and floated on the water’s surface … a lot of them bloated when they died, floating on top of the water as they decayed. Their bones would have scattered as they sank to the bottom of the water … And because many of the bones that fell would have landed on top of most of the flood sediment, then fossilization wouldn’t have taken place. Fossilization requires burial.”[1]

Consider that the flood lasted 371 days. The hot “ocean” waters resulting from the rupture of the “fountains of the deep”[2] and the increased salinity from increased volcanic activity would have rendered the water undrinkable; so even if they managed to find boats, survival for that length of time would have been impossible. If that were not enough, predators in the water were not included in “every living substance [that] was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground.”

Rives makes another good point for the absence of human fossils. He writes, “To make the problem of finding human remains even worse, it appears that a lot of the last layers of the flood to be deposited—the top layers of mud—the ones with the majority of human skeletons—were washed into the ocean basins as the floodwaters began to recede. In other words, fast-moving water swept the very top layers of sediment off to the lowest areas as the water drained, taking much of the human remains with it.”[3] As with dinosaur fossils, human remains would have been ripped apart by the receding waters scattering individual bones over large areas.

Possibly, someone may discover fossilized human bones, and perhaps some have already been found. However, it is very unlikely that a complete fossilized human fossil will ever be found, the lesson we can learn from this is that God’s wrath against sin is not something with which to trifle.

Notes:

[1]  David Rives, “I Believe In the Flood… But Why No Human Fossils?” Creation Club Magazine, March-April 2020, pp. 12-13.”

[2]  Genesis 7:11

[3]  David Rives, p. 13.

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August 11, 2019 · 10:00

The Days of Noah

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:37)

Last weekend was a sad time in American history. First, a mass murder took place at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas followed by another in Dayton, Ohio. The nation reels in the aftermath of such senseless violence groping for elusive answers to a problem with no apparent solution. The left blames the President claiming that his rhetoric is divisive and that it fans the flames of hatred. Others on the left blame the guns, and they want to ban all scary-looking rifles. Others want to legislate stricter gun laws. Even the President now calls for better background checks for gun purchases. Mr. President, we already have background checks for gun purchases. I had an FBI background check for every firearm I possess. Background checks will not stop wackos from getting their hands on firearms or from committing mass slaughter.

Several have accurately identified the problem as a problem of the heart, however, they fall short of coming up with a solution. As a Christian, I know the solution to the problem in every case. The answer is Jesus indwelling every individual heart, or at the very least, a clear understanding of who God is and every person’s accountability to Him. But that is out of the question. God is off-limits in our schools, our institutions of higher learning, in the public square and in our government. As long as that remains true, there is no solution to the growing violence in our nation.

This is a sign of our times. Jesus said that the days nearing His return would be like the days of Noah. What were the days of Noah like? Genesis Chapter Six suggests that fallen angels (sons of God) were somehow “breeding” with human women and producing demigod-like creatures known as the Nephilim (“giants”).[1] Today transhumanists[2] seek to evolve humans to a higher level through gene manipulation. These people, undoubtedly guided by the same “sons of God,” are unwittingly doing the same thing that was going on in Noah’s day.

However, that is not all that took place in Noah’s day. The Bible tells us that people had become exceedingly wicked and violent.[3] Our world grows increasingly evil and violent. The LGBT… movement has forced its way into our society demanding not only tolerance but that we accept their deviance as “normal.” However, that is not enough, they want our children trained at a very early age that such behavior is normal and acceptable. Not only that, but children are encouraged to follow their examples. If this were not bad enough, we have those in our government that promote and encourage this perverse movement, and if we protest, we are the “haters.”

The violence continues. Not only do we have mass shootings, but we are seeing more “peaceful protests” against our elected (Republican) officials that are anything but peaceful. We are living in the “days of Noah,” and Jesus said, “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:38-39). I have heard many sermons preached on these verses and they all minimize the significance of the text. Yes, Jesus said that the people during this time would be conducting their lives as normal, clueless of the impending doom. What these preachers omit is that in the days of Noah, the world was filled with wickedness and violence with much demonic activity taking place.

We should not be surprised or amazed when we see these things taking place, nor should we think that we can solve the problem through any human measure. The only remedy for our sick world is for Jesus to return to set things right. He is the only answer. He is our only hope. Our days are as the days of Noah. That should alert us to Jesus’ imminent return. The time is right. Are you ready? If not, find out how to get ready by reading my page, “Securing Eternal Life.”

Notes:

[1]  Genesis 6:1-4

[2]  Transhumanism – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism

[3]  Genesis 6:5, 11

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