The extent of the flood

As we read Genesis 6-8, we see what God's means of salvation and preserving mankind were. That, of course, being the ark that he instructed Noah to build. When we looked at the biblical facts of the flood in a previous post, we talked about all the Bible said with regard to the extent of the flood. What we learned about the extent and scope of the flood is that it was a global flood, not just a local one. It covered the entire Earth and wiped out all of wicked humanity and every living land creature that have ruined God's desire for the world. The Bible says that even the tops of the mountains were covered.

The Hebrew word translated "flood" in Genesis 6:17 is the same Hebrew word that is used in Genesis 7:6, 7, 10, 17; 9:11, 15, 28; 10:1, 32; and 11:10. These texts confirm the extent of the flood. For example, in Genesis 9:11, God said he would never again destroy all life with a flood. If it was just a local flood, all life would have not been destroyed, but only the life in the area in which Noah and his family lived. Also, the Covenant that God made with Noah was a rainbow. This is the symbol by which God told Noah that he would never destroy all life on Earth with a flood again. The fact that rainbows are not geographic-specific indicates that the flood was global.

Now let's take a look at the New Testament. The Greek word used for "flood" in Matthew 24:38 is "kataklusmos," which is the source of the English word "cataclysm." It is also used in Matthew 24:39; Luke 17:27; 2 Peter 2:5. Now considering the context of Matthew 24:38, there is a clue as to the extent of the flood. A legitimate inference can be made from Jesus' words. Jesus compares the days before his second coming to the days of Noah. When Jesus returns, the whole world will see it and be impacted by it. Also, we know that the Tribulation leading up to the return of Christ will be global in nature. Likewise, the descriptions of the people in Genesis 6-8 must have been global as well. Looking elsewhere in the New Testament at 2 Peter 3:3-7, we see what the Apostle Peter taught us concerning the extent of the flood. The Greek word used for "flood" in 2 Peter is the verb form of the word used in Matthew 24 38. There is a lot of depth to what Peter teaches about the flood in this passage. First, like Jesus, Peter compares the return of Christ to the days prior to the flood. Just as people scoffed about the flood prior to its arrival, there will be a worldwide scoffing about the return of Jesus prior to his coming. They will talk about how long it has been promised or predicted without it happening. They will also assume uniformitarianism, meaning that all things continue as they have since the beginning. Inherent in this false scientific belief is that Earth's conditions and processes have remained unchanged since the world came to be. Thus, Peter is describing both a scoffing from people about what the world says about the planet's beginning and what it says about the end of the age.

Next time, we will look more into where all that water came from that flooded the world. We will be doing some Hebrew word studies to help us accomplish this. We will also go back to 2 Peter 3:3-7 and observe everything the text says about mockers, water, time, and judgment. We will learn a lot from studying those keywords. Until next time...