Historical Evidence
Similar stories of a world-wide flood have been among peoples all over the world:
Romans, Babylonians, Gypsies, Mongols, Africans, Australian Aborigines, Hindus,
Polynesians, and American Indians. Dr. Richard Andree found and recorded eighty-eight flood
histories.1 These must have had their common origin in a historical event, the world-wide
flood.
Inland Seas
When Marco Polo went through Central Asia he noted lakes which are now dried up.
Fossil seas are evidence that sea water covered the earth. In different parts of the world, basins
show that they were once filled with salt water. Examples are: Han Hai (Interior Sea) in
China, the inland basin in India, and the basin in the high tableland of Tibet.2 Each year the
Caspian Sea shrinks; the fact that it is becoming less salty shows that its source was sea water.
In the United States the Great Basin was once filled with salt water, Lake Bonneville. Great
Salt Lake is the small remains. Old shore lines are apparent, showing the great size of Lake
Bonneville. Inland salt seas show that the world was once covered over with sea water.
Polystrata Tree Trunks
Tree trunks have been found in different parts of the world that were covered with layer
upon layer of water laid sediments that became rock.3 If it had taken millions of years for the
layers (strata) to be deposited, the upper parts of the trees would have rotted away before the
upper strata were deposited. This clearly shows that the strata were laid down in rapid
succession.
Sedimentary Rocks
Water laid materials formed rock layers which cover much of the earth's surface. These
parallel strata do not have evidence of erosion between them. They must have been laid down
rapidly without time for erosion in between. Vast areas were covered. Nothing like this is
happening today. Even the largest rivers cover only small areas in their floods and deltas.
Where did all the water laid materials come from that became sedimentary rock? Sedimentary
rocks are not now being laid down on the bottoms of oceans. There was a world-wide flood
that tore the surface of the world covering vast areas of the world with stratum upon stratum
in rapid succession without time for erosion in between.4 Tides swept the earth. Volcanic
eruptions sent forth great waves of water, tsunamis, and spewed forth lava, ash and dust upon
the earth. The great fountains of the great deep burst forth.5 The waters above the earth came
down.6
Fossils
Forests were smashed and compressed by waves and layers of water laid deposits, forming
coal. Coal is found all over the world on every continent even in Antarctica near the South
Pole and on Spitsbergen (Svalbard) near the North Pole. Various kinds of sea life are often
found on top of and between layers of coal. Corals and deep sea crinoids often alternate with
coal layers. This shows that the waves were from the ocean that smashed the trees and
vegetation and then deposited them over vast areas in layer upon layer. Vast areas of the earth
are covered with water laid vegetation that became coal under high pressures from the
materials above.7
Vast amounts of animals and fish were buried by water laid material before they had time
to rot. Fossil fish show by the prints of their bodies in the rocks that they were fleeing for their
lives when they were suddenly covered over with mud that became rock. Soft plants and
worms were covered so rapidly that you can see the fossil prints in the rocks. Yes, the fossils
tell us that there was a great flood that swept the earth.
Fossil whales have been uncovered in Michigan. Fossil sharks have been found in the
rocks of Ohio. Fossil fish beds are located near Kemmerer, Wyoming at about 7,000 feet
above sea level. These creatures were entrapped by raging waves of water and materials that
became rock.8
Animal bones have been found in great numbers in hilltop strata and cracks (fissures).
Agate Springs, Nebraska is one example, where it is estimated that 9,000 animals were buried
in one stratum.9
Fossils show that the strata were laid down rapidly by waves of water with mud that
became rock.
Charles Darwin wrote in his Journal of the Voyage of the Beagle under the date of
January 9, 1834:
The bones and skeletons of dinosaurs are found in many parts of the world, deposited in
water laid strata. Some dinosaurs were swept into piles by the water and mud that became
rock. In a park near Vernal, Utah you can see the dinosaur skeletons in water laid rock.
Dinosaur bones are even found in water laid rock on the North Slope of Alaska, above the
Arctic Circle. The climate of Alaska was warm before the flood, when there were waters
above the expanse. Dinosaur fossils have been found in Antarctica. Millions of dinosaurs
perished in the world-wide flood. Dr. Austin, geologist, wrote:
Geologist Clifford L. Burdick reported the discovery of two human skeletons, Homo
sapiens, imbedded in Cretaceous rock near Moab, Utah.12 (Dinosaur fossils are found in
Cretaceous rock.) Humans perished in the flood just as dinosaurs and other creatures did.
Also, notice that the evolutionary time table is not scientific.
Before the flood, different kinds of animals lived in different locations and elevations.
These different life zones caused them to be buried by the great waves of the flood in different
locations and at different levels as the water level rose and as the strata were built up.13
Mountains
Today there is about 48 times as much water in the oceans as there is land above sea level.
Much of the world's mountains rose after the flood, as shown by their twisted and bent
sedimentary strata. Strata were bent without fracturing which shows that they were still soft
when uplifted.14
Was the Ice Age Caused by the Genesis Flood?
Meteorologist Michael J. Oard concluded that the oceans were warm at the end of the
flood. Volcanic ash and dust in the atmosphere reduced the heat from the sun. Moisture from
the warm oceans produced snow on the cold northern lands. Possibly the Ice Age was caused
by the Genesis Flood.15
The Historical Record of the Bible
The history of the world-wide flood is recorded in Genesis chapters 6,7, and 8. The
Septuagint Text indicates that the flood took place about 3400 B.C.16 The sinfulness of
mankind caused God to send the flood. Genesis 7:19-24 clearly states that the whole world
and mountains that then existed were covered over by waters of the flood. All people outside
of the ark perished because of their sins and rejection of God. The world-wide flood tells us
about God, about His judgment on sin.
Jesus Messiah spoke about the flood and His return on the day of judgment:
Jesus put His seal of approval on the historicity of the flood. If you believe in Jesus then
you will believe that there was a world-wide flood in the days of Noah. If the flood had only
been local, there would have been no need for building the ark; Noah and his family could
have left the local area. If the flood had only been local, the ark would have been flushed down
to the Persian Gulf rather than landing on the mountains of Ararat.
The Apostle Peter spoke about the scoffers of our time:
Yes, the world-wide flood in the days of Noah show us that the day of judgment is coming
for us also. Jesus the Messiah will return. You and I will stand before the judgment seat of
Messiah. 2 Corinthians 5:10. This world will be burned up. Now is the time to repent, to turn
to Messiah.
You can be saved from fire and judgment. Noah and his family were saved from the
judgment and destruction that came upon the world in their time.
Germaine Lockwood
A very remarkable classical example of such an isolated hill is found in Burgundy,
France, in the valley of the Soane. The hill is about 1,030 feet above the surrounding
plain with steep flanks on all sides. A fissure near the top of the hill is crowded with
animal skeletons. No skeleton is entire, the bones are fractured, are thrown together in
disorderly fashion, and are unweathered and ungnawed.10
It is impossible to reflect on the changed state of the American continent without the
deepest astonishment. Formerly it must have swarmed with great monsters: now we
find mere pygmies, compared with the antecedent, allied races. . . . What then has
exterminated so many species and whole genera? The mind at first is irresistibly hurried
into the belief of some great catastrophe; but thus to destroy animals, both large and
small, in Southern Patagonia, in Brazil on the Cordillera of Peru, in North America up
to Bering's Straits, we must shake the entire framework of the globe.
The Morrison Formation of the Rocky Mountain region also is tremendously extensive,
occurring from New Mexico to Canada and from Kansas to Utah. It is world-famous for
its dinosaur fossils. Morrison formation dinosaur skeletons are often articulated,
requiring that muscles and ligaments of the large animals were present at the time they
were rapidly buried. Sedimentary formations indicating catastrophic flood processes are
not confined to North America but occur on other continents as well.11
Psalm 104:6-8: . . . The waters were standing above the mountains.
At Thy rebuke they fled;
At the sound of Thy thunder they hurried away.
The mountains rose; the valleys sank down
To the place which Thou didst establish for them.
Matthew 24:37-39: "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of
Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until
the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
(NKJB)
2 Peter 3:5-7: For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of
old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then
existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which now
exist are kept in store by the same word, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men. (NKJB)
2 Peter 3:9-10: The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is
patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But
the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a
roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works
will be burned up. (NKJB)
1 Peter 3:20-22: . . .when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during
the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely
through the water. And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you - not the removal
of dirt from the flesh, but the appeal to God for a good conscience - through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven.
1 Richard Andree, Die Flutensagen, etnologisch betrachtet, cited by Alfred M. Rehwinkel, The
Flood (Saint Louis: Condordia Publishing House, 1951), p. 129.
Byron C. Nelson, The Deluge Story in Stone, A History of the Flood Theory of Geology
(Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1931), pp.170-190.
Arthur C. Custance, "Flood Traditions of the World," in A Symposium on Creation IV, edited
by Donald W. Patten (Grand Rapids: Baker Book house, 1972), pp. 9-44.
2 Rehwinkel, The Flood, pp. 188-192.
J.E. Shelley, The Flood, Pamphlet No. 160 (Santhia, Stoke, Hayling Island, Hants, England:
Evolution Protest Movement).
John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, The Genesis Flood (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,
1966), pp. 313-317.
3 N.A. Rupke, "Prolegomena to a Study of Cataclysmal Sedimentation," Creation Research
Society Annual, III (May 1966), pp. 16-37.
Harold G. Coffin, "Research on the Classic Joggins Petrified Trees," Creation Research
Society Quarterly (Vol. 6, No. 1. June 1969), pp. 35-44.
4 Harold W. Clark, "The Mystery of the Red Beds," Creation Research Society Quarterly
(Vol. 3, No. 2, July 1966), pp. 12-16.
5 Rehwinkel, The Flood, pp. 108-122.
Whitcomb and Morris, The Genesis Flood, pp. 122-23, 261-268.
6 Joseph C. Dillow, The Waters Above: Earth's Pre-Flood Vapor Canopy (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1981).
7 Nelson, The Deluge Story in Stone, pp. 69-81.
Rehwinkel, The Flood, pp. 192-200.
Whitcomb and Morris The Genesis Flood, pp.162-166.
John C. Whitcomb, The World that Perished (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), pp.
81-85.
Steven A. Austin, Catastrophes in Earth History (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation
Research, 1984), pp. 213-14.
8 Ian T. Taylor, In the Minds of Men (Toronto: TFE Publishing, 1987), pp. 88-95.
9 Nelson, The Deluge Story in Stone, pp. 40-50.
Whitcomb and Morris, The Genesis Flood, pp. 154-161.
10 Henry Howorth, The Mammoth and the Flood, p. 216 cited by Rehwinkel, The Flood, p.
180.
11 Steven A. Austin, "Did Noah's Flood Cover the Entire World? YES" in The Genesis
Debate, edited by Ronald F. Youngblood (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990), p. 224.
12 Clifford L. Burdick, "Discovery of Human Skeletons in Cretaceous Formation," Creation
Research Society Quarterly (Vol. 10, Sept. 1973), pp. 109,110.
F. A. Barnes, "The Case of the Bones in Stone," Desert Magazine, (Feb. 1975), pp 37-39.
13 Harold W. Clark, Fossils, Flood and Fire, (Escondido, CA: Outdoor Pictures, 1968).
14 John C. Whitcomb, The Early Earth (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1972), pp. 66,67.
Austin, "Did Noah's Flood Cover the Entire World? YES", pp. 221-225.
15 Michael Oard, An Ice Age Caused by the Genesis Flood (Santee, CA: Institute for Creation
Research, 1991).
Donald W. Patton, The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch (Seattle: Pacific Meridian
Publishing, 1966).
16 Richard A. Teachout, Noah's Flood - 3398 B.C. (Minneapolis: Bible-Science Association,
1971).
Copyright ©1996 by Germaine Charles Lockwood. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Scripture quotations in this work, unless otherwise indicated, are from The New American Standard Bible, Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations from The New King James Bible (NKJB), Copyright ©1979,1980,1982, Thomas Nelson Inc., Nashville, TN. Used by permission.