04 Origins 55 The Genesis Flood: 50 Years On Paul Garner At the 1959 Darwin Centennial Celebration Likewise the Reformers accepted way for the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. This in Chicago, Sir Julian Huxley confidently that the Flood had been worldwide in its period of intellectual history was marked announced the triumph of evolution and extent and effects. Martin Luther (1483- by the wilful rejection of biblical revelation the death of creationism. But with hindsight 1546) devoted a substantial part of his and the triumph of ‘scientific’ rationalism. his declaration was premature. For only lectures on Genesis to the Flood account. The Scottish geologist James Hutton (1726- two years later, a book was published that He attributed the present configuration of 1797) was one of the champions of this was to reinvigorate biblical creationism the mountains and oceans to the agency new worldview (Hutton 1959 [1795]). on a worldwide scale. That book was of the Flood, and spoke of fossil fish and While working on his family farm in The Genesis Flood by John C. Whitcomb other animals as the remains of creatures Berwickshire, Hutton observed the way in and Henry M. Morris, a publication which that perished during the catastrophe which erosion gradually wore away at the celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. (Young 1995, p.48). rocks, and sediments slowly accumulated In this article we will trace the The Genevan Reformer, John Calvin in streams, lakes and rivers. history of Christian thought that led to (1509-1564), commenting on Genesis 7:17 He came to believe that these The Genesis Flood being written and wrote: ‘Moses continues to insist on this same slow processes, operating over vast seek to evaluate its impact over the last fact, to show that the whole world was periods of time, were sufficient to explain five decades. immersed in the Flood’ (Calvin 2001, p.79) how the earth’s rock layers had formed Belief in a worldwide flood with The pioneering naturalists of the in the more distant past. There was no geological effects was not a twentieth- seventeenth century also sought to build place in his thinking for catastrophic global century innovation. From the earliest days their thinking on the historical accounts floods like the one described in the Bible. of the Christian church, the universality of recorded in the early chapters of Genesis. In the nineteenth century, the Flood was accepted on the testimony Thomas Burnet (1635?-1715) Hutton’s views were taken up and of the biblical text, and fossils were argued that the present surface of the popularised by Sir Charles Lyell (1797- sometimes regarded as evidence of earth had been shaped by the worldwide 1875) (Lyell 1970 [1830-1833]). Lyell is the cataclysm. Flood (Rudwick 1972, p.78), while John credited with developing the principle of Woodward (1665-1728) thought that uniformitarianism, which can be summed Church fathers the fossils enclosed in the rock layers up in the phrase: ‘the present is the key Tertullian (c.160-c. 225) may well have had were animals and plants that had been to the past’. Indeed, Lyell went even the Flood in mind when he spoke of fossils overwhelmed by the cataclysm (Rudwick further than Hutton in assuming the in the mountains testifying to a time when 1972, p.82). Both men saw the rocks and strict uniformity of geological rates. the globe had been covered by water fossils as a silent testimony to the events (Young 1995, p.26). There are hints that of creation and the Flood. Barren years other Church Fathers had similar views. By the mid-nineteenth century, Procopius of Gaza (c. 465-c. 528) Enlightenment thinking uniformitarianism had been adopted by was explicit: ‘It can be shown clearly in But over the next few decades there was the majority of geologists. There was some many other ways that a universal flood a growing separation in people’s minds opposition to the new geological theories came upon the earth, by which those between ‘scientific’ and ‘religious’ truths. from a group of naturalists and clergymen people are persuaded who believe with The Bible came to be regarded as a source who became known as the Scriptural (or difficulty that these things were explained of moral and religious instruction, but not Mosaic) geologists. by Moses. For even today, in mountains as a reliable source of knowledge about Largely overlooked by modern that are lofty and difficult to climb, marine the physical world. The biblical events of historians, they defended Genesis 1-11 as a remains are found, that is, shells and creation and the Flood were sidelined in reliable historical account, including Noah’s fragments of tortoise shells and other favour of increasingly speculative ideas Flood as a unique global catastrophe, and such things, which even we ourselves about the earth’s past. challenged the idea of long geological have seen’ (Young 1995, p.26). These trends ultimately paved the ages (Mortensen 2003). However, they Origins 55 05 06 Origins 55 were effectively marginalised by the abandoned his efforts to harmonise the Mixed reactions geological community of their day. Bible with old earth thinking. In the Christian world, reactions ranged The next fifty years were barren Ten years later, in September 1953, from fulsome praise to outright hostility. ones for ‘Flood geology’. But in the early Morris visited Grace Theological Seminary An article by the Dutch Reformed geologist twentieth century, a challenge to the in Winona Lake, Indiana, to present a J. R. van de Fliert in the Journal of the geological consensus came from a paper to a meeting of the American American Scientific Affiliation attacked the surprising source. George McCready Scientific Affiliation, an organisation for book as pseudoscience (van de Fliert 1969). Price (1870-1963) was a Seventh-Day Christians in the sciences. But The Genesis Flood was widely read Adventist and prolific author on His subject was ‘Biblical evidence in evangelical circles and proved science and the Bible. for a recent creation and universal enormously influential. He set out to revive the idea that deluge.’ Present at the meeting was John Much to the dismay of its critics, the fossil-bearing portion of the geological C. Whitcomb (b.1924), a lecturer in Old it helped to spark a global revival of record was a testimony to Noah’s Flood. Testament at the seminary. creationism, with new movements being His magnum opus was The new geology Whitcomb was so inspired established in many countries.1 One recent (Pacific Press, 1923), a 726-page textbook by Morris’ lecture that he devoted book attacking Flood geology has referred on Flood geology. four years to the writing of a doctoral to the ‘stunning and baffling explosion’ One of Price’s students at Pacific dissertation entitled ‘The Genesis Flood: of young-age creationism in the second Union College in Angwin, California, was An investigation of its geographical extent, half of the twentieth century (Young and Harold W. Clark (1891-1983). Clark went on geological effects, and chronological Stearley 2008, p.21). to publish two books of his own on Flood setting’, which he completed in 1957 One of the first of the new geology, The new diluvialism (Science (Whitcomb 2006). creationist organisations was the Creation Publications, 1946) and Fossils, flood, As a result of this providential Research Society (CRS), established by and fire (Outdoor Pictures, 1968). However, meeting, the two men became friends. Henry Morris and nine others in 1963. It Price and Clark did not see eye to eye In due course they agreed to work together was founded partly as a reaction to the on a number of geological issues – on the book that eventually became The perceived capitulation of the American differences of opinion that have continued Genesis Flood. Scientific Affiliation to theistic evolution. The to resonate in the creationist community They decided that a project of CRS continues to disseminate the research to the present day. this kind required the perspectives of of its members through a quarterly journal.2 Other lonely voices for Flood both a scientist and a theologian. During In 1969, Morris resigned from geology during the early to middle part of the writing process, they also co-opted his departmental position at the Virginia the twentieth century were Clifford Burdick 21 scientists, nine theologians and two Polytechnic Institute and a year later (1894-1992), a consulting geologist; Byron grammarians to review all or part of helped to found Christian Heritage C. Nelson (1893-1972), a Lutheran minister their manuscript. College (now San Diego Christian College) and author of The deluge story in stone The book was finally published in Santee, California. This was to lead (Augsburg, 1931); and Alfred M. Rehwinkel by Presbyterian and Reformed in to the establishment of the Institute for (1887-1979), a professor at Concordia February 1961, although Whitcomb and Creation Research (ICR), which began as Seminary who published a book in 1951 Morris probably had little inkling of the the research division of Christian Heritage entitled The Flood in the light of the Bible, extraordinary impact it would have on the College, but became independent in 1972. geology, and archaeology (Concordia). evangelical world. Morris served as the president Looking back today, one cannot of ICR until his retirement in 1996. During The Genesis Flood help but be impressed by the courage of his presidency, Henry Morris, with his In 1943, a young scientist called Henry M. these two men. This was a lonely time to biochemist colleague Dr Duane Gish, Morris (1918-2006) came across George be a creationist and there were virtually engaged evolutionists in hundreds of McCready Price’s name in a book and no resources to help.