4: The Flood and What It Means for Earth History
Genesis 6–9 describes a global Flood sent as judgment on a wicked world. The language is comprehensive: “all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered,” “all flesh died,” and the waters prevailed for 150 days before receding. The Ark was built to preserve two of every kind of land animal and bird, plus Noah’s family. After the Flood, God established the rainbow covenant promising never again to destroy the earth by water. The New Testament treats the Flood as historical (Matthew 24:37–39; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:5–6). This event reshaped the earth’s surface. Rapid burial of plants and animals in water-laid layers, fossil graveyards, and marine fossils on high mountains are the expected results of a year-long global catastrophe. The post-Flood Ice Age, triggered by warmer oceans and volcanic activity, accounts for many glacial features without requiring multiple long ice ages over hundreds of thousands of years. Continental sedimentary layers and the fossil order (broadly marine b...