The world-wide flood that the Bible
teaches took place during the days of Noah is one of those stories that is so fantastically
extraordinary that I think that most people in these days do not believe it
actually happened. Even some people who believe the Bible have serious doubts
about the literal interpretation of the events as they are described in the
Scriptures.
This sermon is not intended to be an
argument for or against any opinion, but because people are often so passionate
about this subject, one can hardly speak on it without addressing some of the
geological and hydrological, as well as a couple other aspects of the flood.
Broadly speaking, although I acknowledge
that there may be some allegorical language used when describing the events on
the flood of Noah’s time, I still accept the events as described as being true.
One does not need to be an intellectual Neanderthal to hold to this view, and
if you care to do some research, there are some good resources available.
I would first like to address two
questions rather briefly so that I can move on to the real topic of this
sermon. The first of the two questions is this: Where did all the water come
from so that the entire earth could be flooded? And the second question is: How
is it possible that one pair of every kind of animal, including the dinosaurs, could
fit on the ark?
Water, Water Everywhere
Because the amount of water needed to
cover the entire surface of the planet is so great, many people believe that
the flood did not literally inundate the entire planet, but was a flood that
may indeed have been great, but perhaps limited to the local area surrounding
that region. To Noah, it would have seemed like the whole earth had been
covered by water, but if there had been astronauts circling the globe at that
time, they would have radioed back to Houston that most of the planet still has
large regions of dry ground (probably Houston would not have been one of these
areas).