Genesis Apologetics K8 Student Zone-Evidence for the Global Flood (6-8 Grade)

Well, hello and welcome to The Zone. I'm your host, Big Wave Dave. This is the second in our two-part series about the global flood. Today, we're going to look at evidence. Let's start with this question.

Whether the Flood Was a Real Historical Event

Was the flood a real event or is it just a story? Most people would agree that the biblical accounts of Jesus and Abraham are history. And yet, when it comes to the flood, people aren't sure what to think.

Some people think it's just a story to prove a point. But have you considered that the book of Genesis includes four chapters and a lot of details about the flood? And other parts of the Bible talk about the flood too.

For example, in the Old Testament, there are several references to both the flood and Noah. In the New Testament, there are references to Noah, his son Shem, the flood, and the ark. And our Savior, Jesus Christ, talked about the flood as a historical event.

Okay, that's what the Bible says, but do we have evidence? Yes, we do. But first things.

First.

The Catastrophic Nature of the Global Flood

Sadly, when people hear the word Noah or the flood, they tend to think of cute cartoon arcs like this one. But that has nothing to do with the real flood. But the real flood was a cataclysmic, terrible event that lasted 370 days.

At the beginning of the flood, the fountains of the great deep burst forth. There were massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions all over the world. The crust of the earth split and the tectonic plates began to move.

There was a lot of rifting and subduction. All of this created massive tsunamis, wave after wave, that pushed the water onto the land and buried billions of creatures. At the end of 150 days, the entire earth was covered with water.

And sadly, all of the land animals and all the people that weren't on the ark perished. Okay, so now that we have a better understanding of what the flood was really like, let's look at the evidence. The first line of evidence is the fossil record.

We have billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the world. Now the fossils are laid down in what scientists call the geologic column. Some people say that this is proof of evolution over millions of years.

However, it is actually proof of.

The global flood.

These are the characteristics of the fossil record. Let's take a closer look. Let's start by talking about dinosaurs. In the central part of North America, there is a huge flood deposit called the Morrison Formation.

It covers 700 ,000 square miles and includes over 100 dinosaur quarries. The scientists working on this have discovered something very interesting about the way these fossils were buried. A lot of them are buried in a matrix of mud, sand, and ash.

Given what we know about the flood, that is exactly what we would expect to find. When we find dinosaur fossils, most of them are busted up and washed into these massive graveyards like this, and they are mixed in with lots of other creatures like frogs and lizards, and even clams.

Huh, how did clams get mixed in with land creatures? When you take a look at the quarries all over North America, you will discover that a lot of the dinosaurs perished in floods, and they are buried with brain creatures, shark teeth, even fish like this one here.

And when scientists do find complete skeletons, they often show signs of rapid burial and violent death. This poor guy drowned in mud. What a way to go. And he is not the only one. There are lots of different creatures that look the same way.

Even the mighty T-Rex was knocked down and buried. Let's think about that. What could do that to something as powerful as a T-Rex? The fossil record also shows signs of rapid burial. This poor fish was buried while eating his lunch.

And so was this one, and this one too. And did you know that we have found marine fossils on top of the highest mountains in the world? Even Mount Everest. How did marine fossils get on top of Mount Everest?

Great question. Check this out.

Flood waters have really risen high enough to cover all 29 ,000 plus feet of Mount Everest? Well, secular and creation scientists agree that the flood waters didn't rise high enough to cover the mountains.

The mountains were small and more level, and were uplifted by the collision of continental plates to the heights that they are now. Sedimentary layers containing marine creatures were also uplifted to the higher elevations.

That's how come we can find fossils of sea creatures atop the mountains of the Himalayas.

It's interesting that Psalm 104 talks about when the mountains rose up and the valleys sank down. Some experts believe that these are references to the global flood. Another thing to consider is that scientists have found soft tissue in dinosaur fossils.

The Institute for Creation Research has found over 120 reports of soft tissues found in dinosaur and other fossils that are supposed to be millions of years old. These discoveries have been published in scientific journals like this one here, and include the following soft tissues.

There are a lot of them. But here's the problem. Laboratory tests show that soft tissues like these cannot last millions of years. Therefore, these fossils cannot be that old. So when it comes to the fossil record, here are some things to consider.

We have found dinosaurs buried in mud, sand, and ash. We see marine and land creatures buried together. The fossil record shows signs of violent death and rapid burial. We have found marine creatures on top of the highest mountains in the world.

And we have found soft tissues in ancient fossils that are supposed to be millions and millions of years old. What could explain all that? Well, that would be a global flood, just like the Bible teaches.

How Flood Waters Could Produce the Fossil Sequence

So okay, what about the sequence? After all, the fossils kind of follow the sequence. What created that if it wasn't evolution? If you recall, the flood lasted 370 days. During the first 150 days, the waters rose.

The tsunamis were pushing higher and higher onto the land. And as they rose, they buried creatures according to where they lived, not when they lived. At the end of the 150 days, the Bible says that waters covered the entire earth.

After that, the waters started to recede. The waters drained back into the ocean basins. When they did that, they carved out a lot of the canyons and different geologic features that we see today. During the final phase, the earth dried out and the plants began to grow back.

Eventually, that sediment hardened into rock and created what we call the fossil record. So that's the first line of evidence. Let's talk about the second, the geologic layers. According to conventional geologists, the Grand Canyon was carved out by the Colorado River over millions of years.

But here's a question. Could it have been created by a lot of water over a short period of time? So in 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted violently, and when it did, it totally transformed all.

The surrounding area. Check this out. Now this is what the area around Mount St. Helens.

Looked like after the eruption. People that saw it said it looked like the surface of the moon. The eruption snapped off tens of thousands of trees like they were toothpicks and destroyed old-growth forests like this one almost instantly.

Now a lot of those trees washed down into Spirit Lake and are still there today. The eruption at Mount St. Helens created a lot of new features, including canyons like this one. Steppe Canyon is over 700 feet deep and yet it only took 5 months to create.

Although many people believe it took millions of years to form the layers of the earth, it can happen very quickly under the right circumstances. This is the top portion of a 600 foot thick deposit. Let's take a closer look.

This first section was laid down during the initial eruption in just one day. Now about a month later, Mount St. Helens erupted again and laid down this section. What's very interesting about this section is that it contains over 100 individual layers, yet it took only one day to create.

The final section was created about 2 years later when Mount St. Helens erupted yet again and caused an enormous mud flow. This section here was laid down in just one day. As you can see, it doesn't take millions of years to create layers, just the right circumstances.

It's also interesting to note that the strata from Mount St. Helens area and parts of the Grand Canyon are very similar. Here's one final clue. All over the world there are these bent rock layers and some of them are really thick.

So thick rock like this doesn't bend. So it tells us that they must have been laid down very quickly and then bent while still soft. The third and final line of evidence are the flood legends. We have over 300 legends from all over the world.

Flood Legends as Historical Memory of Babel

Now that makes sense since the Bible tells us that all the different people groups came from an area called Babel. When the people spread out over the earth, they brought the flood stories with them. Although some of these stories have become distorted over time, a lot of them contain 8 common elements with the Bible.

They talk about somebody chosen, animals being saved, and so on. Why is this significant? Because when there is something that happens in our history that is really important, people remember it and they tell it to the next generation and so on.

Well, this is the evidence. As you can see, there is quite a bit actually. Now if you want to learn more, please go to our YouTube channel and check out our videos. Well, I'm Big Wave Dave and that's all the time we have together.

I hope to see you soon here on the zone. God bless you and have a great day.