wgroom <wgroom@hotmail.com> wrote in news:14e3fbda-eb65-4b7a-a186-
7ad21094489e@hv4g2000vbb.googlegroups.com:
> The catastrophic destruction of men and animals by an overwhelming
> flood in the days of Noah, 2370 B.C.E. This greatest catalclysm in
> all human history was sent by Jehovah because wicked men had filled
> the earth with violence. The survival of righteous Noah and his
> family, eight souls in all, together with selected animals, was by
> means of a huge ark, or chest.-----Ge 6:9-19; 1Pet 3:20; See ARK No.
> 1; NOAH No. 1
>
> Extent Of The Deluge
>
> This was no local flash flood or cloudburst. In fact, the Greek word
> used in the Bible to refer to the Flood, or Deluge, is 'ka-ta-kly-
> smos', a cataclysm. (Lu 17:27, ftn) Local floods come and go in a
> manner of days; this one lasted over a year, the greater portion of
> which was required for the water to subside. How unreasonable to
> believe Noah spent perhaps 50 or 60 years building a huge vessel of
> approximately 40,000 cu m (1,400,000 cu ft) for the survival of his
> family and a few animals through a mere local flood! If only a
> comparatively small area was affected, why the need of bringing into
> the ark specimens of "every living creature of every sort of flesh: in
> order to "preserve offspring alive on the surface of the entire
> earth:"? (Ge 6:19; 7:3) Definitely this was a global deluge, the like
> of which had never occurred before nor has since. "The waters
> overwhelmed the earth so greatly that all the tall mountains that were
> under the whole heavens came to be covered. Up to 15 cubits [c. 6.5
> m; 22 ft] the waters overwhelmed them and the mountains became
> covered." (Ge 7:19, 20) "The end of all flesh has come before me,"
> Jehovah said, hence "I will wipe every existing thing that I have
> made off the surface of the ground." And it was just so. "Everything
> in which the breath of the force of life was active in its nostrils,
> namely, all that were on the dry ground, died....only Noah and those
> who were with him in the ark kept on surviving."--- Ge 6:13; 7:4, 22,
> 23
>
> Timing Of The
> Deluge
>
> The Deluge did not come suddenly without warning. Years of time were
> spent building the ark, time that Noah the "preacher of righteousness:
> also used in warning that wicked generation. (2Pe 2:5). Finally the
> time limit was up "in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the
> second month, on the seventeenth day of the month." The "male and
> female of every sort of flesh" ad been brought into the ark with
> Noah's family, as well as a sufficient food supply for all, and "after
> that Jehovah shut the door." Then the "floodgates of the heavens were
> opened." (Ge 7:11, 16). There was an incessant torrential downpour
> for "forty days and forty nights" ; "the waters continued overwhelming
> the earth: a hundred and fifty days. (Ge 7:4, 12, 24). Five months
> after the downpour began, the ark "came to a rest on the mountains of
> Ararat." (ge 8:5), another three months before Noah removed the ark's
> covering to see that the earth had practically drained (Ge 8:13), and
> nearly two months later when the door was opened and the survivors set
> foot on dry ground again.---Ge 8:14-18.
>
> Noah and his family entered the ark in the 600th year of Noah's life,
> the 2nd month (October-November), the 17th day. (Gen 7:11). One year
> later (a year consisting of 360 days) was the 17th day, 2nd month,
> 601st year. Ten days after that would be the 27th day of the 2nd
> month, when they came out; a total of 370 days, or parts of 371
> separate days, spent in the ark. (Ge 8:13,14). In the log that Noah
> kept, it appears he used months of 30 days each,12 of them equaling
> 360 days. In this way he avoided all the complicated fractions
> involved had he used strictly a lunar months consisting of slightly
> more than 29 1/2 days. That such calculations were used in the
> account is evident from the fact that a five-month period consisted of
> 150 days.---Ge 7:11, 24; 8: 3,4.
>
> The Floodwaters
>
> It has been said that if all the moisture in the atmosphere were
> suddenly released as rain it would not amount to even a couple of
> inches if spread over the earth's surface. So from what source was
> this vast deluge of Noah's day? According to the Genesis account, God
> said to Noah: "Here I [Jehovah] am bringing the deluge [or, "heavenly
> ocean"; Heb., mab.bul'] of waters upon the earth." (Ge 6:17, ftn).
> Describing what happened, the next chapter says: "All the springs of
> the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the
> heavens were opened." (Ge 7:11) So overwhelming was the Deluge that
> "all the tall mountains that were under the whole heavens came to be
> covered." -- Ge 7:19
>
> Where did the "heavenly ocean" come from? The Genesis account of
> creation tells how on the second "day" Jehovah made an expanse about
> the earth , and this expanse (called "Heaven") formed a division
> between the waters below it, that is, the oceans, and the waters above
> it. (Ge 1: 6-8). The waters suspended above the expanse evidently
> remained there from the second "day" of creation until the Flood.
> This is what the apostle Peter was talking about when he recounted
> that there "were a heavens from of old and earth standing compactly
> out of water and in the midst of the water by the word of God." Those
> "heavens" and the waters above and beneath them were the means that
> God's word called into operation, and "by those means the world at
> that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water." (2Pet
> 3: 5,6). Various explanations have been offered as to how the water
> was held aloft until the Flood and as to the processes that resulted
> in its falling. The Bible simply says that God made the expanse with
> waters above it and that he brought the Deluge. His almighty power
> could easily accomplish it.
>
> Since, as the Genesis account says, "all the tall mountains" were
> covered with water, where is all that water now? Evidently it is
> right here on the earth. It is believed that there was a time when
> the oceans were smaller and the continents were larger than they are
> now, as is evidenced by river channels extending far out under the
> oceans. It should also be noted that scientists have stated that
> mountains in the past were much lower than at present, and some
> mountains have even been pushed up from the seas. As to the present
> situation, it is said that "there is ten times as much water by volume
> in the ocean as there is land above sea level. Dump all this land
> evenly into the sea, and water would cover the earth, one and a half
> miles deep." (National Geographic, January 1945, p. 105) So, after
> the floodwaters fell, but before the raising of mountains and the
> lowering of seabeds and before the builldup of polar ice caps, there
> was more than enough water to cover "all the mountains," as the
> inspired record says.--- Gen 7:19.
>
>
> Effect On The Earth
>
> With the Deluge great changes came, for example, the life span of
> humans dropped very rapidly. Some have suggested that prior to the
> Flood the waters above the expanse shielded out some of the harmful
> radiation and that, with the waters gone, cosmic radiation generally
> harmful to man increased. However, the Bible is silent on the
> matter. Incidentally, any change in radiation would have altered the
> rate of formation of radioactive carbon-14 to such an extent as to
> invalidate all radiocarbon dates prior to the Flood.
>
> With the sudden opening of the 'springs of the watery deep' and "the
> floodgagtes of the heavens," untold billions of tons of water deluged
> the earth. (Ge 7:11). This may have caused changes in the earth's
> surface. The earth's crust is relatively thin (estimated at between
> 30 km [20 mi] and 160 km [100 mi] thick, stretched over a rather
> plastic mass thousands of kilometers in diameter. Hence, under the
> added weight of the water, there was likely a great shifting in the
> crust. In time new mountains evidently were thrust upward, old
> mountains rose to new heights, shallow sea basins were deepened, and
> new shorelines were established, with the result that now about 70
> percent of the surface is covered with water. This shifting of the
> earth's crust may account for many of the geological phenomena, such
> as the raising of old coastlines to new heights. It has been
> estimated by some that water pressures alone were equal to "2 tons per
> square inch," sufficient to fossilize fuana and flora quickly.--See
> The Biblical Flood And Ice Epoch, by D. Patten, 1966, p. 62
>
> (What evidence proves that there was a truly
> global deluge)?
>
> Other possible evidence of a drastic change: Remains of mammoths and
> rhinoceroses have been found in different parts of the earth. Some
> were found in Siberian cliffs; others were preserved in Siberian and
> Alaskan ice. (PICTURE, Vol. 1 p. 328) In fct, some were found with
> food undigested in their stomachs or still unchewed in their teeth,
> indicating they died suddenly. It is estimated, from the trade in
> ivory tusks, that bones of tens of thousands have been found. The
> fossil remains of many other animals, such as lions, tigers, bears,
> and elk, have been found in common strata, which may indicate that all
> of these were destroyed simultaneously. Some have pointed to such
> finds as definite physical proof of a rapid change in climate and and
> sudden destruction by a universal flood. Others, however, favor
> explanations for death of these animals that do not involve an earth-
> wide catastrophe. Proof that the Flood occurred is not dependent on
> such fossils and frozen animal remains.
>
> Flood Legends
>
> Such a cataclysm as the Deluge, which washed the whole world of that
> time out of existence, would never be forgotten by the survivors.
> They would talk about it to their grandchildren and their childrens'
> children. For 500 years after the Deluge, Shem lived on to relate the
> event to many generations. He died only ten years before the birth of
> Jacob. Moses preserved the true account in Genesis. Sometime after
> the Flood, when God-defying people build the Tower of Babel, Jehovah
> confused their language and scattered them "over all the surface of
> the earth." (Ge 11:9) It was only natural that these people took
> with them stories of the Flood and passed them on from father to son.
> The fact that there are not merely a few but perhaps hundreds of
> different stories about that great Deluge, and that such stories are
> found among the traditions of many primitive races the world over, is
> a strong proof that all these peoples had a common origin and that
> their early forefathers shared that Flood experience in common.---
> CHART, Vol. 1, p. 328
>
> These folklore accounts of the Deluge agree with major features of the
> Biblical account: (1) a place of refuge for a few survivors, (2) an
> otherwise global destruction of life by water, and (3) a seed of
> mankind preserved. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the Druids
> of Britain, the Polynesians, the Eskimos and Greenlanders, the
> Africans, the Hindus, and the American Indians----all of these have
> their Flood stories. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
> (Vol. 2, p. 319 states: "Flood stories have been discovered among
> nearly all nations and tribes. Though most common on the Asian
> mainland and the islands immediately south of it and on the North
> American continent, they have been found on all the continents.
> Totals of the number of stories known run as high as 270.....The
> universalality of the flood accounts is usually taken as evidence for
> the universal destruction of humanity by a flood and the spread of the
> human race from one locale and even from one family. Though the
> traditions may not all refer to the same flood, apparently the vast
> majority do. The assertion that many of these flood stories came from
> contacts from missionaries will not stand jup because most of them
> were gathered by anthropologists not interested in vindicating the
> Bible, and they are filled with fanciful and pagan elements evidently
> the result of transmission for extended periods of time in a pagan
> society. Moreover, some of the ancient accounts were written by
> people very much in opposition to the Hebrew-Christian tradition."---
> Edited by G. Bromiley, 1982.
>
> In times past, certain primitive people (in Australia, Egypt, Fiji,
> Society Islands, Peru, Mexico, and other places) preserved a possible
> remnant of these traditions about the Flood by observing in November a
> 'Feast of Ancestors' ofr a 'Festival of the Dead.' Such customs
> reflected a memory of the destruction caused by the Deluge. According
> to the book Life and Work at the Great Pyramid, the festival of Mexico
> was held on the 17th of November because they "had a tradition that at
> that time the world had previously been destroyed; and they dreaded
> lest a similar catastrophe would, at the end of a cycle, annihilate
> the human race." (By Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, Edinburgh, 1867, Vol
> II, pp. 390,391) Notes the book The Worship of the Dead: "This
> festival [of the dead] is.... held by all or about on which, according
> to the Mosaic account, the Deluge took place, viz., the seventeenth
> day of the second month---the month nearly corresponding to our
> November." (By J. Garnier, London, 1904, p. 4) Interestingly, the
> Bible reports that the flood began "in the second month , on the
> seventeenth day of the month." (Ge 7:11) That "second month"
> corresponds to the latter part of October and the first part of
> November on our calendar.
>
> Scriptural
> Confirmation
>
> Stronger evidence of the historicalness of the Deluge than the pagan
> traditions of primitive people is the endorsement other Bible writers
> gave under inspiration. The only other place where the same Hebrew
> word (mab.bul', deluge) occus outside the Genesis account is in
> David's melody where he describes Jehovas as seated "upon the
> Deluge" (Ps. 29:10). However, other writers make reference to and
> confirm the Genesis account, as, for example, Isaiah. (Isa. 54:9)
> Ezekiel also endorses historocity of Noah. (Eze 14:14, 18, 20. Peter
> draws heavily upon the Deluge account in his letters. (1Pet 3:20; 2Pe
> 2:5; 3:5,6) Paul testifies to the great faith Noah displayed in
> constructing the ark for the survival of his household (Heb 11:7)
> Luke lists Noah in the lineage of Messiah's forebearers-- Luke 3:36
>
> Even more significant is what Jesus said about the days of the Deluge
> as recorded by both Luke and Matthew. Far more than just a simple
> endorsement of the veracity of the Deluge account, Jesus' words show
> the pictorial and prophetic significance of those ancient events. In
> answer to the disciples' question, "What will be the sign of your
> presence and of the conclusion of the system of things"? Jesus said,
> among other things: "For just as the days of Noah were, so the
> presence of the son of man will be. For as they were in those days
> before the flood drinking, men marrying and women being given in
> marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took
> no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence
> of the Son of man will be." (Mt. 24:3, 37-39; Lu 17: 26, 27). There
> is, therefore, abundant, evidence from the inspired Holy Scriptures
> themselves to support the authenticity and genuineness of the Deluge
> account. It does not rest on mere traditions of men, on the folklore
> of primitive people, or on geologic and archaelogicial findings.
>
> Insight On The Scriptures, pgs. 609-12
>
Does the WTS know of your plagiarism?
--
"These clowns are all Jokers!" - Rasta Khan
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