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In Genesis 1:6-8 ( the second
day of creation ) God divided the waters that were on the
earth from the waters that He placed above the earth when
He made a "firmament" (Hebrew: raqiya or "expanse")
between those waters.[5] Many have concluded that
this "expanse" was the atmosphere, because Genesis 1:20,
says "let the birds fly above the ground across the face
of the expanse of the heavens."[6] The waters
could be above the expanse and in the expanse. Some have
thought they are clouds. (Job 38:9, 22:30) Others think
of it as a " vapor canopy," surrounding the earth that
caused a greenhouse effect with a pleasant sub-
tropical climate around the globe, even at the poles
where today there is ice. This would have caused the
growth of lush vegetation on all the land. The discovery
of coal seams in Antarctica containing vegetation grown
under warmer conditions, is support for this
idea.
A vapor canopy would also affect
the global wind systems. The mountains were not as high
before the flood as they are today, In today's weather,
the major winds and high mountain ranges are a very
important part of the water cycle that brings rain to the
continents. Before the flood, the weather systems were
different. The temperature was moderate throughout the
world. All the animals and people were used to this
stable climate. After the Flood when the climate
dramatically changed, living organisms had trouble
adapting to the new atmosphere.
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One source of the
waters for Noah's flood was "the windows of
heaven." Genesis 7:12 says that it rained for
40 days and 40 nights continuously. The
canopy had now been destroyed because of the
tremendous rainfall. The large amounts of plants
the animals and humans ate were no longer
plentiful. and some animals died because there
was very little to eat.
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All creatures were created to
eat fruits and vegetables. When vegetation became scarce,
humans and animals had to find other sources for food..
The lush vegetation was gone. The climate was much more
severe. And animals killing other animals for food,
became dominant.. God told man that the animals would
be food for humans after the Flood The Flood also
contributed to the death of many cold-blooded animals
that need a stable environment to survive.
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Genesis 7:11 says that
on the day the flood began ( May17 2319 B.C.)
there was a "breaking up" of the
fountains, which implies a release of the
water, through large fissures in the ground or
in the sea floor. The waters that had been held
back burst forth with catastrophic consequences
and prodigious amounts of water bursting up
through the ground.
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The ocean floor rapidly lifted
up due to an increase in temperature as horizontal
movement of the tectonic plates accelerated. This spilled
the seawater onto the land and cause massive flooding.
Volcanic activity associated with the breaking up of the
ocean floor created a geyser of superheated steam from
the ocean causing intense global rain.This break up of
the fountains of the great deep involved a series of
volcanic eruptions. (Up to 70 percent of what comes out
of volcanoes is water in the form of steam.)
The Flood did not come as a
surprise to the people of Noah's time. The coming Flood
was preached for generations. The Flood was forecast by
Enoch in Genesis 5:25 Enoch was given a prophecy of the
coming deluge when he was 65 years old, from which time
"he walked with God." Enoch was told that as long as his
son was alive, the judgment of the Flood would be
withheld; but as soon as the last remaining descendant of
the Godly line of Shem (other than Noah) died, the Flood
followed. Accordingly, Enoch named his son, Methuselah,
to reflect the prophecy given to him. In Hebrew,
Methuselah's name means "His Death Shall Bring the
Deluge". In the exact year Methuselah died, the Flood
was unleashed on the earth. Methuselah was 187 when he
had Lamech, and lived 782 years more. Lamech had Noah
when he was 182. The Flood came in Noah's 600th year. 187
+ 182 + 600 = 969, the year Methuselah died.
The Bible is specific about the
date the ark came to rest on the mountains of
Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month
(Genesis 8:4). In Noah's day, we find that the seventh
month was the month of Nisan in the ancient calendar.
Later, during the Exodus, God commanded Moses to
establish Israel's "new beginning" by defining the month
of Nisan as the first month (Exodus 12:1,2). Much later,
in the New Testament, the resurrection of Jesus (also a
"new beginning") occurred on the seventeenth day of the
month of Nisan.
God caused pairs of animals to
migrate to the location of the Ark Notice the phrase in
Genesis chapter 6, verse 20: "two of every kind will come
to you." Also, Genesis chapter 7, verse 9 states the
animals "went into the ark to Noah." Noah did not go and
get the animals, God did.
John Woodmorappe in a technical
book "Noah's Ark; A Feasibility Study" has a table that
itemizes the animals that would go on the Ark.
Mammals : 7,428 ... Birds :
4,602 .... Reptiles : 3,724 ... Total ; 15,754
Animals in Ark : 31,508 ... Arks
Capacity : 125,280
Adding extinct animals and
the need for seven of the clean animals we still would
have enough space. The test to differentiate species is
chromosome count and similar body structure thus the
original created "dog" kind that Noah took on the Ark
probably included all the domestic dogs plus the, wolves,
dingoes, coyotes and others
Ararat is a mountain range with
twin peaks located in the northeast corner of Turkey.
Ararat is close to the borders of Iran and Armenia The
mountain provides sustenance for the Nomads that live
there through pure mountain water, valley crops and the
herds of sheep and goats that they keep. Mount Ararat
is a volcano and experienced a serious earthquake in
1840. There have been numerous reports throughout history
of a large boat on a mountain in this region. References
in the 3rd century B.C. suggest it was common knowledge
that the Ark could still be viewed on Mount
Ararat.
According to the Bible, Noah's
Ark was a large type of covered barge. Its overall
dimensions were 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45
feet high.. The size of the Ark makes it the largest
seagoing vessel known before 1850 A.D., and its
proportions are similar to the ocean liners of today. The
Ark was constructed of gofer wood, or cypress, smeared
without and within with resin (kopher) to render it
water-tight. The interior contained rooms distributed
among three stories. The text mentions only one window
measuring a cubit in height, but there probably existed
others in each story to give air and light as well as a
sophisticated water and sewage system A door had also
been set in the side of the Ark; God shut it from the
outside when Noah and his family had gone in. Apart from
Noah's family, the Ark was intended to receive and keep
animals that were to fill the earth again and all the
food which was necessary to feed them for a year and 10
days until ( May 27 2318 B.C. ) .
The Bible records that Noah used
pitch in construction of the ark: "Make thee an ark of
gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt
pitch it within and without with pitch" (Gen.
6:14).
Bitumen found at Hit in Iraq
was a likely source for the pitch used by Noah in
building the ark. Pitch is a thick, tarry, oil product
composed of a mixture of hydrocarbons of variable color,
hardness, and volatility. Bitumen mixed with two or three
parts of mineral and/or vegetable matter makes asphalt or
pitch, a crude but versatile adhesive. Bitumen is a
natural petroleum product derived from kerogen. It can be
encountered by oil drillers in the subsurface, or it can
move up cracks and faults and make its way naturally to
the surface in the form of bitumen seepages. Many bitumen
seeps exist in the Middle East. Bitumen was used
extensively by the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia for
every type of adhesive-construction need, including the
waterproofing of boats and mortar for buildings (e.g.,
"slime" for mortar; Gen. 11:3). The center of bitumen
production in Mesopotamia was (and still is) at Hit in
Iraq, located along the Euphrates River about eighty
miles west of Baghdad . The Hit bitumen occurs in "lakes"
where lines of hot springs are welling up along deep
faults. This water is sometimes accompanied by so much
gas that the latter will burn. In the water, "snakes" of
asphalt collect together, and the Iraqis consolidate them
into lumps. It is likely that bitumen was collected in
this same manner in ancient times, Even today, bitumen is
packaged into reed baskets and floated down the Euphrates
in boats.
The bitumen from Hit has
been utilized by the people of southern Mesopotamia for
thousands of years, as recorded at numerous
archaeological sites. The earliest evidence of bitumen
use is at al'Ubaid (4000 B.C.), where reed matting
plastered with a mixture of earth and bitumen was found
during the excavations of Woolley.
Ron Wyatt
is credited by the Turkish Government with the recent
discovery of Noah's Ark. He has also made important
discoveries relating to Biblical archaeology: including
the discovery of Sodom and Gomorrah, The Red Sea Crossing
and Mt. Sinai in Arabia. The Hebrew manuscripts of
Genesis reveal that actual wordage is that Noah's Ark
landed upon the mountains of Uratu. (The whole
mountainous region in far eastern Turkey.
Ron Wyatt
discovered the remains of a fossilized boat constructed
of gopher wood and an anchorstone in the mountains of far
eastern Turkey which the Turkish government and their
scientists believe to be the actual remains of Noah's
Ark.
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Geological Events and Theories after the Flood
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TESTIMONY OF FLAVIUS
JOSEPHUS
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TESTIMONY OF MARCO POLO AND OTHERS
