The Truth of Christ does not depend upon the flood (2)

We can regard Jesus' references to "the days of Noah" as metaphorical statements. I have at times referred to the middle ages as "the days of Robin Hood." I did not mean by that that I think Robin Hood is a historical figure. Jesus knew the people of his day were not ready to learn modern science. Rather than explain the truth about the flood he spoke metaphorically and spoke within the story.Let's examine the passage which seems to indicate Jesus believed in the flood. One thing to remember the real point is not the impossibility of a flood but the absurdity of Noah's ark.

There are only about four major passages and Henry Morris advances all four to prove that Jesus believed in a historical flood.[1] Morris was a major force behind the Institute for Creation Research. As an undergraduate I used his evidence to argue with my professer in geomorphology class. He shot Marris down in flames. That for me was one of the defining moments that showed fundamentalism is not the answer.

The passage in Matthew:

"For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:38-39)Morris says:

The Lord Jesus Christ not only believed in the special, recent creation of all things by God (note Mark 10:6-8), but also in the worldwide Flood of Noah's day, including the special preservation of life on the Ark. The Flood in which He believed was obviously not a "local flood," for He compared it to the worldwide future impact of His Second Coming...This is what Jesus said, and what He believed, and therefore, those who are truly His disciples must also believe this. The destructive effects of the Flood can still be seen today, not only in the biblical record, but also in the abundant evidence of cataclysmic destruction in the rocks and fossil graveyards all over the world. To refuse this evidence, as do many modern intellectuals, can only be because they "willingly are ignorant," as Peter said in referring to this testimony (2 Peter 3:5).[2]

He makes several assertions not backed by scripture. Nowhere in the passage does the Lord say that creation was recent, nor does he  say the flood was worldwide. The comparison between the second coming and the flood is the surprise effect not the world wide effects.

There is only one major passage, Matthew. Luke is derived from it. Luke copied Matthew and mark. The passage in Mark doesn't mention the flood. the Passage in Mark says nothing about the flood:" 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but "one flesh." It is not a second statement by Jesus backing belief in a literal flood but does not mention the flood. Luke was not an eye witness but copied Matthew.As for Morris's assertion of physical evidence of the world wide flood, real science laughs at the so-called evidence. That is YEC propaganda.

It is possible that Jesus took Genesis flood account as metaphorical and that he spoke assuming the metaphor. There are physical reasons to assume Jesus knew the flood was not historical. I assume here Jesus really knew the truth of Modern science even though he did not teach it.

For example, the Genesis account seems to be based upon much older pagan accounts,Mark Rlliot quoting Robert R. Cargill:

The worldwide flood described in Genesis 6-9 is not historical, but rather a combination of at least two flood stories, both of which descended from earlier Mesopotamian flood narratives. Note that this does not mean all of the claims made in the Bible are false (or true for that matter); I am dealing here only with the biblical stories of the flood. (Also understand that the "slippery slope" claim of "all of the Bible is true or none of it is true" is simply an unnecessary rhetorical device designed to keep readers from doing precisely what scholars do every day: analyze each claim in the Bible on a case-by-case basis. It is not necessary to accept an "all or none" stance towards the Bible.) Most biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholars argue that the flood is a mythical story adopted from earlier Mesopotamian flood accounts. These earlier accounts include the 17th century BCE Sumerian flood myth Eridu Genesis,(5)(his fn within the quote) the 18th century BCE Akkadian Atra-Hasis Epic,(6) and the Epic of Gilgamesh,(7) which are some of the earliest known examples of a literary style of writing.[3]

There are numerous geomorphological reasons to doubt that there was a world wiode flood.

Phil Senter wrote fine scholarly article following blow by blow the evolution and the rise and fall of flood geology, that is acceptance of the flood among some geologists s He concludes with the seeming demise of the discipline due to the lack of sedimentation denoting a world wode flood:

Unfortunately for the proponents of that view, the hypothesis that a Precambrian Flood occurred and left no sedimentary strata is less scientific than the hypothesis that most or much of the Phanerozoic sedimentary column was Flood-deposited. This is because the latter hypothesis is testable and falsifiable—and has been tested and falsified by the Flood geologists themselves—whereas any hypothesis that a phenomenon occurred but left no evidence for its occurrence is an untestable, unfalsifiable hypothesis. Some may argue that the igneous Hadean and Archean deposits are evidence of the geological catastrophe that caused or accompanied the onset of the Flood, but the equation catastrophe = Flood is fallacious. No recorded geological catastrophe has caused worldwide flooding[5]

He akso quotes Max Hunter:

(2009:88), “It is somewhat ironic…that, almost a half century after publication of The Genesis Flood by Whitcomb and Morris in 1961, the geologic record attributed to the Genesis Flood is currently being assailed on all sides by diluvialists…[and] there remains not one square kilometer of rock at the earth’s surface that is indisputably Flood deposited.”

There are numerous logical reasons why the ark is impossible. For example,  How did they get the animals from the Western hemisphere and Australia? They would need another Ark as big as the first one to haul food and water for all the animals. They  would spend all their t,e shoveling excrement.

I believe that Jesus was omniscient; he knew there had been no world wide flood. We can know that he must have known this since there was no flood. We need not interpret his statements as being literal indications  of belief in worldwide flooding.


Notes

[1]Henry Morris, "Jesus and the flood," Glen Iris Baptist Church website *(2020) https://www.gleniris.net/blog/post/jesus-and-the-flood
Accessed feb 27. 2020

[2]Ibid.

[3]Robert Raymond Cargill quoted in Mark Elliott,"Forget about Noah's Ark; There Was No Worldwide Flood," The Bible And Interpritation, web page, University of Ariozona, (2022) URL:

https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/flood357903
Accessed feb 27. 2020

Mark Elliott received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in Near Eastern Studies. He is also the editor of Bible and Interpretation at www.bibleinterp.com.

Dr. Robert Raymond Cargill is Associate Professor of Classics and Religious Studies at The University of Iowa. He is a biblical studies scholar, classicist.

[4] Robert Schadewald,"Six flood argumemts creationists can't answer," Creation/Evolution JournalVolume 3, No. 3, NCSE:National Center for Science Education, web site, (Summer 1982)URL: https://ncse.ngo/six-flood-arguments-creationists-cant-answer
Accessed feb 27. 2020


[5]Phil Senter,"The Defeat of Flood Geology by Flood Geology:The ironic demonstration that there is no trace of the Genesis Flood in the geologic record," Reports of The Nationsl center for science education.  (May–June 2011). Printed electronically by California State University, Northridge. Retrieved 7 June 2014; Hunter M. Ophiolites: Oceanic lithosphere mixed with continental lithosphere during the Genesis Flood. Journal of Creation 23(3)(2009):84–89 http://www.csun.edu/~vcgeo005/Flood%20geology.pdf
Accessed feb 27. 2020

Phil Senter is a vertebrate paleontologist. He teaches biology courses at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. SENTER is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Fayetteville State University,NC.