Students Of Success

One of the common claims by young earth creationists is that if
Noah’s Flood were a local flood, then God has broken his promise
many times. According to The Answers Book, chapter 10,

“If the Flood were local, God would have repeatedly broken His
promise never to send such a Flood again. There have been huge
‘local’ floods in recent times: in Bangladesh, for example,
where 80% of that country has been inundated, or Europe in
2002.”(Footnote 1)

Is there any truth to this claim? Do the local floods we see
today constitute a breaking of the covenant God made with Noah?
First, let’s read the covenant in Genesis 9:8-15.

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9
“Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and
with your descendants after you; 10 and with every living
creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every
beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark,
even every beast of the earth. 11 And I establish My covenant
with you; and all flesh shall never again be shut off by the
water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to
destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the
covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living
creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13 I
set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a
covenant between Me and the earth. 14 And it shall come about,
when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen
in the cloud, 15 and I will remember My covenant, which is
between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and
never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all
flesh.” To answer this question, one must look at exactly what
the covenant says. First, who is the covenant with? This is
contained in verses 9-10. Clearly, it was made with Noah and his
sons, and their descendents. It was also made with every living
creature that is with Noah. At the end of verse 10, God extends
it to “even every beast of the earth.” There is no question who
the covenant is with, however it is interesting that God makes a
distinction between the living creatures with Noah (with every
living creature that is with you), and the rest of the creatures
(even every beast of the earth). Why would God make this
distinction? If all the animals were killed, and Noah had all
the survivors on the ark, then it was useless to extend the
covenant beyond the ark’s inhabitants. This indicates that the
flood was local, and there were animal populations outside of
the inhabitants of the ark. If every living thing were on the
ark, the term “even every beast of the earth” gives no
additional meaning to the text.

But what is the exact covenant? This is in verses 11 and 15.

11 “And I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall
never again be shut off by the water of the flood, neither shall
there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 15 “and I will
remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every
living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water
become a flood to destroy all flesh.”

The key term to examine is “all flesh.” What is the meaning of
this term? This is tied to the beginning of the ark story, where
God stated the purpose of the Flood.

Morris and Whitcomb in their book, The Genesis Flood, (Footnote
2) say the purpose of the flood was to destroy both man, beast,
creeping things, and birds. The key is in Genesis 6:12:

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for
all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. (KJV)

The purpose of the flood was to wipe out this corruption. The
main meaning for the Hebrew word for flesh in the Flood
chapters, bâsâr, is person or man. The Hebrew dictionary doesn’t
even make it possible to extend this to animal flesh. God is not
talking about the corruption of the animal kingdom, but about
man’s corruption. This is corrected in some other translations
(NIV=”people”; Amplified=”humanity”). The purpose of the flood
was to wipe out man, not animals. Yes, animals in the flooded
locations would be killed, but they are not the target of God.

The main point of the covenant is that man shall never again be
wiped from the face of the earth. Local floods since the time of
Noah have never wiped man from the face of the earth. Yes, many
have been killed, but never to the scale of Noah’s Flood, where
only eight people were left alive.

When local floods occur today, they come nowhere close to wiping
out humanity. The Answers Book lists the Bangladesh floods,
where thousands have died. Yet there are billions of people
still on planet earth after those floods. Clearly this does not
compare with Noah’s Flood, where more than 99 percent of mankind
was wiped out. Even the Tsunami of 2004, which killed hundreds
of thousands, cannot compare to Noah’s Flood.

In local floods today, less than 1/100th of one percent of the
worlds populations are killed. In Noah’s flood, almost 100
percent of mankind was killed. There is no comparison.

God extends his covenant to the creatures of the earth as well,
saying that they would also be spared from floods of the
magnitude of Noah’s Flood. Yes, animals are killed when local
floods occur, but they do not come close to the magnitude of
Noah’s Flood, where an entire species was almost wiped out
(humankind, except for Noah’s family).

The only other term to consider is “neither shall there again be
a flood to destroy the earth.” We cannot know the extent of
Noah’s Flood geographically…we can only assume that it covered
all the lands inhabited by humans at the time. Although local
floods do harm the earth, it is a safe assumption that the
extent of Noah’s Flood has not been repeated. It may also be
important to note that the Hebrew word for earth, ‘erets, also
means land in general, such as a field, or nations, or even
“ground”.

Conclusion

Clearly, God has not flooded the earth in the same way he did
during Noah’s time, with the same impact. God has not broken His
promise. Mankind has never been wiped from the face of the earth
again. This claim made by young earth creationists has no basis
in fact.

1 Was the Flood global?, The Answers Book (web version),
answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/AnswersBook/global10.asp

2 Henry Morris, John Whitcomb, The Genesis Flood. Baker Book
House, 1961. pp. 11-14