THE GENESIS FLOOD The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications by FOLKLORE JOHN C. WHITCOMB, JR., Th.D. MATTERS Profess01'of Old Te1tament, G,-aceTheological Seminary, Winona Lake, In4iana and HENRY M. MORRIS, Ph.D. from the Director of the Institute of Creation Research Vice-Pf"eJidentof Chri1tian Heritage College, San Diego, California ALAN DuNDEs FOLKLORISTICS COLLECTION Foreword by JOHN C. McCAMPBELL, Ph.D. Profeu01' and Head, Dept. of Geology, Univef"Jity of So#thweJtern LouiJiana, Lafayette, Louisiana use LIBRARIES UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BAKER BOOK HOUSE Grand Rapids, Michigan THE AUTHORS Jo11NC. WHITCOMR,JR., is Professor of Old Testament at Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake, Indiana. His undergraduate education was completed at Princeton University where, after a two- year delay while in military service, he received the AB. degree, cum Laude, in 1948. He earned the B.D. degree in 1951, the Th.M. in Contents 1953, and the Th.D. in 1957, all at Grace Theological Seminary. Dr. Whitcomb has contributed articles to several theological journals and to The New Pictorial Bible Dictionary, The New Bible Dictionary, Page and The Encyclopedia of Christianity. He has written the commen- xv taries on Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther in the Wycliffe Bible Commen- FOREWORD xix tary (Moody Press), and his Chart of Old Testament Kings and INTRODUCTION Prophets ( 4th edition, 1962) is being used in nearly 200 colleges PREF ACE TO THE SECOND PRINTING xxiii and seminaries. Dr. Whitcomb is the author of Darius the Mede: XXV PREF ACE TO THE SIXTH PRINTING A Study in Historical Identification (Eerdmans, 1959). XXX HENRYM. MORRIShas been Professor of Hydraulic Engineering ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and Chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Virginia CHAPTER I. BASIC ARGUMENTS FOR A UNIVERSAL Polytechnic Institute since 1957. His education includes a B.S. from FLOOD 1 Rice University "with distinction," in 1939, and the M.S. and Ph.D. The Depth of the Flood 3 degrees from the University of Minnesota, in 1948 and 1950, respec- The Duration of the Flood tively. He spent three years with the International Boundary and Twenty-one Weeks of "Prevailing" 4 4 Water Commission, first as Junior Engineer, then as Assistant Hy- Thirty-one Weeks of "Assuaging" 7 The Geology of the Flood draulic Engineer, followed by four years on the civil engineering 10 faculty at Rice. He was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota The Size of the Ark 11 during the period of 1946-1951, and was Professor and Head of the The Need for an Ark 14 Civil Engineering Department at Southwestern Louisiana University The Testimony of the Apostle Pet.er . The Total Destruction of a W1dely-D1smbuted Human from 1951 through 1956. A full Member of Sigma Xi, an Honor 16 Member of Chi Epsilon, and a Member of Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Race . The Total Destruction of Huroamty . 17 Beta Pi, all honorary societies, he is a Fellow of the American Society The Extensive Distribution of the Antediluvian Race 23 33 of Civil Engineers and of the American Association for Advancement Summary and Conclusion of Science, and holds professional memberships in the American Geo- physical Union, the American Meteorological Society, the National CHAPTER II. BASIC ARGUMENTS AGAINST AN Society of Professional Engineers, the Geochemical Society, the Inter- ANTHROPOLOGICALLY UNIVERSAL national Commission for Irrigation and Drainage Research, and FLOOD 36 others. Dr. Morris is Chairman of the Applied Hydraulics Com- Introduction 37 mittee of the American Society for Engineering Education, is a Indians in America Before the Flood The Babylonian Flood Account . 37 member of various other regional and national committees, and has 43 biographical listings in six different "Who's Who" publications. The Presuppositions of Age Determmat10n Methods V vi <'0111,·11t.1· Contents vii 109 All Ma11ki11dNot Descended From Noah's Family 44 nd the "Flood Stratum" at Ur The Sons of Noah Sir Leonard Woolley a d Uniformitarian Geology 111 45 The Local Flood Theory an 113 The Table of Nations 45 Summary and Conclusion The Bible and Racial Distribution 46 ERN GEOLOGY AND THE DELUGE Anthropology and Racial Distribution 47 <'II APTER V. MOD Summary and Conclusion 116 54 Introduction l' . f the Biblical Record 120 Geological Imp icatwn~ o R . fall 120 CHAPTER III. BASIC NON-GEOLOGICAL ARGU- Tremendous Erosion from am . 121 MENTS AGAINST A UNNERSAL Clouds Not the Sourc.eof the Deluge Rams FLOOD 121 Enlarged Ocean Basms 122 Volcanic and Seismic Upheavals .. Universal Terms Used in a Limited Sense 55 123 Most Universal Terms Are to be Interpreted Literally Un recedented Sedimentary Act1v1~y 123 56 Ide~l Conditions for Fossil .FormatI~n Flood The Context Determines the Meaning 56 123 Universal Terms Are Literal in Genesis 6-9 B~cause Uniformitarianism ~ndermmed/iJi: ;iblical Basic Harmony of the Field Data an of the Physical Phenomena 60 124 Noah and the Animals 63 Inferences 124 Gathering the Animals to the Ark Nature of Sedimentary Strata 63 More Water in the Present Oceans 124 The Capacity of the Ark 65 126 Caring for the Animals in the Ark Volcanism 127 70 Earth Movements The "Natural-Supernatural" Philosophy of Miracles 75 128 Postdiluvian Animal Distribution Fossilization f G 79 The Uniformitarian Interpretation o eo 1ogy 130 Three Major Views 80 130 Australian Marsupials The Present: the Key to the Past 131 81 Organic Evolution Rapid Animal Dispersion 84 132 Summary and Conclusion The Geologic Time-Table . 135 86 Methods of Resolving Contrad1ctlo?s S The Inadequacy of Uniformity to Explain the trata 136 CHAPTER IV. UNIFORMITARIANISM AND THE 137 Volcanism and Igneous Rocks 139 FLOOD: A STUDY OF ATTEMPTED Earth Movements HARMONIZATIONS 142 Continental Ice Sheets . Introduction 144 89 Phenomena of Sedimentation Cuvier's Catastrophism and the Diluvium Theory 154 92 Fossil Graveyards . 169 Cuvier's Multiple Catastrophism 92 Contradictions in the Uniform1tarian System Buckland's Diluvium Theory 172 93 Misplaced J:ossjls 176 Lyell's Uniformitarianism and the Tranquil Theory 95 Living Fossils The Rise of Uniformitarianism 180 95 Formations out of Sequence 200 The Tranquil Theory 97 Summary The Language of Scripture 99 The Impermng of the Ark 102 CHAPTER VI. ~I~i~~1~ci'Et~~~~WORK FOR The Olive Leaf 104 John Pye Smith and the Local Flood Theory 212 107 Introduction · H' t 214 The Birth of the Theory 107 The Scriptural Divisions of Geologic is ory viii Contents Contents ix 273 The Initial Creation Itself 214 Early Burial of Marine. Creatures. The Work of the Six Days of Creation Hydrodynamic Selectivity of Movmg Water 273 214 275 The Antediluvian Period 215 Higher Mobility of _theVertebrates The Deluge Burial of Land Ammals and Plants 275 216 277 The Modern Post-Deluge Period 216 Formation of Coal Beds The Beginning of Creation The "Mesozoic" Strata and the Dinosaurs 279 218 281 The Origin of the Solar System 218 The Final Flood Deposits The Origin of the Universe Tertiary Stratigraphy 281 218 284 The Primeval Earth 219 Mammals as Index Fossils The Scientific Basis of Creation Uplifts of the Pliocene .. 286 222 287 The Fi~t and Second Laws of Thermodynamics 222 Continuing Abnormal Conditions The Uruque Processes of Creation Post-Deluge Geologic Activity 288 223 288 The Entropy Principle and Evolution 224 Freezing of Arctic Soils The Geologic Work of Creation Week Siberian Mammoth Beds 289 228 292 The First Day 228 The Glacial Period The Second Day Onset of the Ice Age 292 229 293 The Third Day 229 Ice-Age Theories Creation of "Appearance of Age" The Flood and the Glacial Period 294 232 295 Modern Rejection of This Biblical Doctrine 233 The Theory of Multiple Glaciati~n~ The "Steady-State" Cosmology The Evidence for Only One Glaciation 296 235 303 The "Eternal Oscillation" Cosmology 236 The End of the Ice Age Importance of the Doctrine of a "Grown Creation" Sudden Warming of the Climate 303 237 306 The World That Then Was 239 Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide "Waters Above the Firmament" Residual Effects of the Deluge Period_ . 311 240 311 No Rainfall Before the Flood 241 Continuing Volcanic and Tectomc Disturbances Li~tle olcanic or Tectonic Activity 242 Enclosed Lake Basins and Raised Beaches 313 Geologzc Evidences of Antediluvian Climate 243 Raised River Terraces 318 Universally Warm Climate Evidence of Former Lower Sea Levels 324 243 326 The Supposed Permian Glaciation 245 Summary and Conclusion Explanations of Climatic Change 250 The "Greenhouse Effect" 253 CHAPTER VII. PROBLEMS IN BIBLICAL GEOLOGY The Antediluvian Vapor Blanket 255 Overfl,owed With Water 331 258 Introduction 332 The Destructive Power of Modern River Floods 259 Methods and Results of Geochronology Destructive Power of Ocean Waves The Lead Age Methods 334 261 334 Sedimentation and Fossilization During the Flood 265 Experimental Difficulties Emergence of the Lands Original Lead 335 266 335 New Atmospheric Movements 266 Leaching Isostatic Readjustments 336 268 Lead Isotope Methods . 337 The Order of the Strata 270 Radiogenic Lead Contammatlon Tectonic Origin of Continental Blocks Other Methods 340 271 341 Sequence of Stratified Beds 271 Discordant Ages Contents Contents xi 404 The Rubidium Method 341 Decrease in Life-Span after Precipitation of Canopy The Potassium Methods 342 Formations Implying Slow Deposition 405 406 The Significance of the Radioactivity Data 343 Deposition and Lithification Coral Reefs 408 The.F~ct o~ a "Grown" Creation and "Apparent Age" 344 409 Varzatwns m the Decay Rates 346 Deep-Sea Sediments 412 Supposed Invariability 346