The Flood - Fact or Fiction (For Teens)

Objectives

• Students will have confidence that the Bible teaches of a global flood.
• Students will have confidence that a global flood is scientifically reasonable.
• Students will understand the role of faith in the belief in a global flood.

Materials

The Flood - Fact or Fiction Handout (For Teens)

Introduction

Today we are going to talk about the flood. Before we get into what the Bible says let's play a little advocate.

• What scientific reasons might someone have for rejecting the idea of a global flood?
  • Students may give various answers, don't let the students get involve in rejecting these ideas yet.

• What philosophical/religious reasons might someone have for rejecting the idea of a global flood?
  • A global flood means that God judged sin in a very real and devastating way. Many people may take issue with the idea of that kind of judgement on sin.

The Genesis Flood

The Need

• How does God describe the pre-flood earth in Genesis 6:12?
  • Corrupt, The Hebrew term used here means "marred, i.e., be ruined morally and so be in an impure state, as a figurative extension of an object being in a ruined or decayed condition "

• According to Genesis 6:13, 17, what was God's purpose in the flood?
  • God intended to use the flood to remove the corruption from the Earth.

• According to Genesis 6:18, what was God going to do?
  • God intended to preserve life through Noah. God covenanted with Noah to preserve Noah and his family.

• What responsibility did God give Noah in Genesis 6:19-21?
  • God gave Noah responsibility for preserving the animal kingdom.

The Flood

• According to Genesis 7:10, what area was effected by the flood?
  • The entire Earth.

• According to Genesis 7:19,20, what area was spared from the flood?
  • Everything was covered by at least 15 cubits (22.5 ft) of water.

• According to Genesis 7:21-23, what was the extent of death from the flood?
  • All land animals and humans not on the Ark were destroyed.

• According to Genesis 7:24, how long did the flood waters rise?
  • The waters rose for 150 days.

The Restoration

• According to Genesis 8:1-3, what occurred after the waters finished rising in 7:24?
  • God began to dry out the earth.

Once you account for Genesis 7:1-8:16 we see that Noah and his family were in the ark for a total of 378 days.

• According to Genesis 9:12-17, what promise did God make?
  • God placed his bow in the sky. The Hebrew word for Rainbow and Battle Bow are the same. It seems that God is symbolically placing his Battle Bow in the clouds, putting it away in a symbolic gesture of peace. God promises Noah that he will never flood the Earth again.

Some Challenges

Global or Local

Some argue that the Genesis flood was not a global flood but a local flood.

• What evidence do we have for a global flood?
  • As stated earlier, the Bible claims the flood covered the earth and in particular covered the highest peaks.
  • God also placed his bow in the sky as a promise that he would not flood the earth again. Local floods occur all the time, if God was talking about a local flood then He has broken His promise on many occasions.
• What about things like Mt. Everest? Where did all the water come from?
  • the Bible teaches that the fountains of the deep burst. In other words there was a lot of tectonic and crustal action taking place. It is entirely possible that most of the mountains we see today were formed when the fountains closed and the waters began receding.

The Engineering Problem

Building a ship is not an easy task and the engineering involves far more than taking some boards and nails. Some suggest that Noah did not have the mathematical knowledge required to build a ship the size of the ark.

• According to the Bible, who designed the ark?
  • the Bible never claims that Noah designed the ark. In fact, the opposite is true. According to Genesis 6:14-16, God is the one who gives Noah the details on the ark. The mathematical issues of solving differential equations to account for bending moment, toque and shear stresses would be trivial for the God who designed the universe.

The Animals

In addition to criticizing the building of the ark, critics also attack the Noah's capacity to care for and provide for all the animals of the Earth.

• According to Genesis 6:15,16, how big was the ark?
  • 450ft x 75ft x 45ft, the total volume would have ben 1.4 million cubic feet. The equivalent of 522 railroad boxcars. This is enough space for 125,000 sheep.
• What about food and water?
  • First, we need far less food than we think we need. Second, it was raining for 40 days, water may not have been such a big problem. Third, God could place the animals in a state of hibernation.
• One hundred twenty-five thousand is a lot of sheep, but is it enough? Wouldn't Noah need an enormous ark to hold every possible animal?
  • According to Genesis 7:14 it was not every possible animal, but a grouping called kinds. Within the genetic code of each kind was the potential for a wide variety of animals.

The Role of Faith

Notice that in all of the explanations we give for a global flood we require one thing in common. The God of the universe, the God of creation, must have supernaturally intervened to both allow the flood and protect creation during the flood. The flood is historical truth and as such, any empirical attempt to prove the flood will be met with opposition. In fact, there is really only one testable hypothesis of the entire account, that is God said he would never do it again. In reality the only way to empirically prove or disprove the flood would be to disprove God's promise by having another global flood.

• According to Hebrews 11:6, what does God require from each of us?

• Why do you suppose God has not allowed us to discover irrefutable evidence of Noah's ark?

Supplemental Materials

Noah's ark Thinking Outside the Box