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When you honestly think through all these considerations it becomes quite clear that the
        fossils of the earth's sedimentary rock layers have been there a long, long time. The only possible
        exception to this general rule would be rare and scattered locations where assorted drowned ani-
        mal and human carcasses may have lodged in crevices and caves in the earth as the Flood waters
        receded. There they would have been quickly covered with silt run off and became fossilized in
        situ. Some creationists have cited such reported finds as proof that ALL high area fossils origi-
        nated during Noah's flood. This simply is not true. More about this later.


                                    What Does the Bible Really Say?


               By now we should understand that simple rainfall generated by the dynamics of our present
        atmosphere CANNOT account for Noah's flood. Today we know that water evaporates mainly
        from the world's oceans, condenses in the form of clouds and then falls to the earth as rain. Even if
        Noah had built his ark on the beach and rain fell in great quantities from the present atmospheric
        conditions, the oceans would not have risen at all. Water falling as rain over the land areas would
        flow right back into the oceans. In fact, the oceans would actually have diminished in size because
        the great basin areas of the world would have captured a large percentage of the rainwater and that
        water would not have returned to the sea. States Ernest Martin:

               The only way the oceans can rise is if water comes from some source other than the ocean itself such as
               ice caps melting or something similar. Simple rain, no matter how hard it comes down, will not cause the
               oceans to flood the earth because most of the water will quickly return to the oceans. One has to look
               elsewhere for the water that Moses said was the cause of the flood of Noah. It was no doubt that it was the
               water from "the windows of heaven" that primarily caused the flood.

               If we consult the Bible we find this is exactly what Moses tells us. If we correctly translate
        a particular word that Moses used in the Genesis account, we find that he plainly informs us that
        the main bulk of the water descended "from above." In fact -- and take note of this -- he even tells
        us HOW MUCH water fell to the earth over the forty-day period. Explains Ernest Martin --


               The theologians who translated the King James Version completely misunderstood what Moses meant in
               Genesis 7:20 by rendering the Hebrew as: "Fifteen Cubits UPWARD did the waters prevail; and the moun-
               tains were covered." Notice the italicized word "UPWARD." Because most theologians automatically as-
               sumed that Moses meant that the mountains (even the highest of them) were completely submerged by the
               flood waters, they were led to translate the Hebrew word MALEMELAH (which actually means "FROM
               ABOVE") by the word "upward." This is a major mistake. It transfers a meaning to the word that gives the
               English reader the very opposite impression from what the Hebrew intended (Solving the Riddle of
               Noah's Flood, pp. 19-20).

               Notice that Moses did not describe Noah's flood as an ocean deluge. The words "sea" or
        "ocean" do not appear in Genesis 6-8. Genesis 7:20 has 15 cubits (23 feet) of water falling from
        above: "Fifteen cubits FROM ABOVE did the waters prevail; and the mountains [could also be
        'hills'] were covered." If, after the ark grounded, Noah surveyed the flood damage and concluded
        that the flood was more than ten thousand cubits deep, why would he (or Moses) forget to mention
        such an impressive number while remembering to mention an insignificant number like 15 cubits?
        Fifteen cubits defines the amount of rain that fell. It was not a deluge, but it was enough to breach
        the levees and cover the lowlands and some hills with water for many, many miles in all


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