In order to see the significance of New Testament applications to the Flood, let’s first look at some of the notable facts revealed in Genesis about the Flood:
- Noah and his family were in the ark one year and 17 days including the seven days they were in the ark prior to the rains coming.
- The water to flood the earth did not just come from the atmosphere, “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up” (Gen. 6:11). Therefore, water spewed from underground in great water/steam eruptions that caused the oceans to breach their shores and cover the continents.
- It rained 40 days and nights over the whole world. That would be impossible today since there is no more than about 1-2 inches of water in our atmosphere at any given time if spread out over the whole globe. As Genesis 1:6-7 suggests, there may have been far more water in the atmosphere prior to the Flood.
- The waters of the Flood covered twenty-two and a half feet above the highest mountains for five months. In that time, much of the surface of the continents would have changed dramatically. Sea-life fossils have been found in the tops of all the world’s highest mountains. Mount Ararat, upon which the ark landed, was made for the most part of “pillow lava,” the result of a volcanic eruption under a large body of water. The mountain was apparently formed under the Flood waters and rose up to become the resting place for the ark.
- It is estimated that over 5 million African mammoths have been quick buried/frozen in the ice along the coasts of Alaska and Siberia. Many of these animals have been excavated with hair still intact, some standing up, and food half digested in their stomachs. This is evidence of a massive cataclysmic event.
- The word Jesus used for the “Flood” in Matthew 24:39 is not the same as the typical Greek word used for a flood of water. The word is kataklysmos from which we get our word cataclysm. This is also important because Jesus testified to the worldwide Flood and used it as a precursor to a future judgment. Peter did the same in 2 Peter 3.
- God brought a wind to blow the waters off the earth. The under water topography off all the continents of the world show deep submarine canyons giving evidence to this water flow from the continents.
God only saved eight people through the Flood. Conservative estimates are that God killed over one billion people in the judgment of the Flood. Peter wrote that just as God destroyed the pre-Flood world, so the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire and the destruction of the ungodly. The people before the Flood did not listen to the warning of Noah and other prophets. How many will prepare for the next Judgment?