“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
God says He inspired (God-breathed) every single word of the Bible. Peter explains it this way:
“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Paul specifically mentions divine inspiration at least three times:
“For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:11-12)
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
Jesus tells us God’s Word is accurate and dependable down to the last letter:
“For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18)
So we believe and defend that the Bible is 100 percent accurate, from beginning to end, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. Therefore, we believe the Genesis 1 account of God CREATING the heavens and earth in six, literal, 24-hour days, about 6000 years ago. He CREATED all of it out of nothing, speaking it into existence.
“For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” (Psalm 33:9)
“Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, For He commanded and they were created.” (Psalm 148:3-5)
God says that when everything was originally created it was “very good.”
“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31)
So earth was created as a sinless paradise without death or decay. Death only came when the first two humans rebelled and sinned, then death entered the world. The theory of evolution mocks God’s Word by claiming death came long before man. But the Bible is clear—first God created mankind, then he sinned, then death ensued.
God thankfully provided a way ultimately out of the sinful mess, but the infection of sin remained in humans forever, passing down throughout all succeeding generations. The sin of the world got so bad in Noah’s day that God flooded the entire earth with water in JUDGMENT! It’s important to point out the obvious elephant-in the-room at this point—it’s God who defines sin, not mankind.
If God says murder is sin, it’s sin. If God defines adultery as sin, it’s sin. If God defines lying as sin, it’s sin. If God defines homosexual perversion as sin, it’s sin. The Bible is very clear about what is, and is not sin. Humans can’t change God or His Word. And there are consequences to sin, whether we agree with God or not. This judgment was necessary to wipe out the rampant ungodly sinful ways of man who focused on serving the creature, not the Creator.
The flood of Noah destroyed the world and all life that was in it—except for what survived via Noah’s Ark. It was quite a judgment.
“The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.” (Genesis 7:19)
Despite what some yahoos are claiming, this was not a local flood. God says the entire earth was covered in water. In this judgment millions, probably billions, of people perished, plus animals, birds and reptiles. Peter warns us that in the last days people will mock two pillars of the Bible: 1) Jesus’ rapturous return and 2) the global flood.
“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.” (2 Peter 3:3-6)
If God flooded the entire earth with water about 4500 years ago, killing all life except what was preserved on Noah’s Ark, an event of that magnitude should have left worldwide signs we can still observe today. And, as expected, there ARE amazing evidences for any and all to see who wish to know the truth.
Actually, it’s not about evidence because both those who believe in the theory of evolution and those who believe the Bible are looking at the same evidences. It’s just how the evidence is interpreted. When visiting Grand Canyon each year, we see visit a spot where the evolutionists who manage the park have erected a geological column to explain how the sedimentary layers of the earth were formed over billions of years. Yet, we use the same display to perfectly explain the biblical account in the Bible.
The difference is they arbitrarily add billions of years in a secular display in the Grand Canyon, but the Grand Canyon perfectly matches up with the Bible. In order to maintain the evolutionists’ old-earth beliefs, without the magic bullet of “time,” their theory of evolution falls apart. It is the worldview vs. the biblical view. All around the world there ARE layers of sediment, laid down by water according to weight and density, containing millions of dead things.
For those of us who trust God’s Word, we know the water from the flood came not only from the sky but also from below the crust of the earth:
“… all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” (Genesis 7:11b)
This would explain why the sediment was laid down by water according to weight and density (heaviest settles first, next heaviest, etc.) as well as the millions of fossils found throughout all layers. Noah’s flood is the simple explanation for all of this. Yet evolutionists look at the same sedimentary layers and say they were laid down over millions of years. They can’t explain why the same fossils are in every layer and claim it’s just a coincident that the layers are graduated bottom to top, exactly by weight and density. They have to ignore the obvious.
Another example are the nearly vertical solid-rock walls of the Grand Canyon. Scientific evidences that line up with its having been formed quickly over a matter of days or weeks. Yet evolutionists look at the same information and say it happened over millions of years. They can’t explain the almost vertical walls cut out of solid rock, the mile of missing sediment above the canyon or the fact the end of the canyon is a mile higher than the beginning. Hint—the vertical walls of solid rock are found throughout Grand Canyon. Principle of gravity means water doesn’t run uphill!
Science is always changing. Over the years the official explanation of what carved the Grand Canyon has changed. And as more pure science is applied, it will be re-explained again and again, to defend old-earth beliefs. Only the Bible explains the Grand Canyon scientifically. The NEVER changing Word of God is always trustworthy over changing science. I’ve always found it fascinating that when Abraham was alive, one of Noah’s sons, Shem, was still alive on the earth. Abraham could very well have talked to Shem, getting a first-hand account of the horrific world flood.
Maybe that was an additional motivating factor when Abraham “believed God” and left everything he had when God called him to leave Ur and travel to the unknown future Promised Land! Even today, if there was a global flood only a few thousand years ago, and all the families of the world came from the survivors on Noah’s Ark, you would expect there to be similar stories around the earth in other cultures. And that’s what you find. Despite a language division not long after the flood (due to the Tower of Babel), some 300 to 500 different variations of the flood story have survived to this day across all seven continents worldwide.
In fact, MOST cultures around the world have a flood legend. Many authors have documented this phenomenon: John Morris, Ken Ham, Laura Welch, Nozomi Osanai and Bodie Hodge just to name a few. All document the worldwide stories of a global flood with survivors in a boat, with varying degrees of understandable differences. The number of people, the size of the boat and the length of time on the boat may differ, but overall the stories are remarkably consistent. In ancient Babylon, the flood story has a man building a ship to save his family and animals from a flood from a wrathful god. They end up on a mountain top.
Greek mythology has angry gods who planned to flood the earth and destroy humanity. One man takes shelter with his wife in an ark and they survive. Even the American Indians have a flood legend where people took shelter in a boat to survive a flood. Of all the flood legends, 95% have the flood being global, 70% have people in a boat and 57% have the survivors ending up on a mountain top. [4] [5]
This is an incredible observable confirmation that the flood of Noah was both real and recent. If there was no global flood and the earth was millions of years old, you would expect there to be NO flood stories. There’s simply no reason hundreds of cultures worldwide have global flood stories embedded in their history. Could the whole earth even be flooded? The Bible says that before land, before light, before anything, the earth was originally created as ALL water.
“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)
“… the earth was formed out of water and by water.” (2 Peter 3:5b)
Scientists are convinced that there has been flooding on Mars in the past. [1] Some even think the entire planet was once covered in water. They think this despite not one drop of water has ever been found on Mars today. Yet for centuries the same scientists have scoffed that the earth could have had a global flood, despite the fact it’s currently 71% covered by water! [2]
But last year scientists confirmed they have discovered massive volumes of water below the earth’s surface. According to U.S. News and World Report, scientists now believe there is two or three times as much water below the earth’s crust as currently in all the oceans between the earth’s Mantle and Outer core. [3]
And we already know that if we hypothetically smoothed out the earth’s surface around the entire globe by leveling the mountains and filling in the oceans, the earth would be covered with water—two miles deep!
However, Scientists today cannot even give the slightest chance of the possibility of a global flood because it wipes out the evolutionary theories taught as fact in secular schools, explaining the truth behind the massive amounts of fossil layers found worldwide.
“…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7)
But for those whose faith is in the Word of God, we have truth on our side. We can boldly examine the mountains of evidence in the light of scripture and see that the Grand Canyon is God’s remarkable visual reminder of the ramifications of the last time God judged the world. And another judgment is prophesied for the future. The Bible IS true, accurate and trustworthy. God’s worldwide judgment of sin using a worldwide flood did happen about 4500 years ago. And another worldwide judgment is coming in the future. You can take that to the bank!
Endnotes
[1] http://science.time.com/2013/03/11/the-great-and-recent-martianflood/
[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=what+percentage+water +suface&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/16/ study-deep-beneath-north-america-theres-more-water-than-in-all-theoceans-combined/?utm_term=.b2508212106d
[4] http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/ great-flood.htm
[5] http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx? category=9&article=64 © 2017