For many decades scientists, skeptics and certain scholars have said the Genesis account of Noah’s flood is the story of a large local flood not a worldwide flood. Does a local, megaflood match the Biblical description found in Genesis chapters 6-8. The short answer is no. The Bible describes a world wide flood that covered all regions of the globe.

The Bible represents the flood in Noah’s day as a historical fact and the Biblical description of this flood indicate the flood was global. The Bible clearly says the flood covered all the mountains on the earth. (Genesis 7:20) Scripture says the flood waters were 45 feet higher than the tallest mountains. Everyone knows water runs to the lowest point. For water to climber higher than all the mountains it must have covered the earth. Only when the water had no where else to go could it begin to rise to the heights described in Scripture.

God’s stated purpose in the flood was to destroy all air breathing life on the earth except those on the ark. “So the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:7) “And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Genesis 6:13) “I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” (Genesis 7:4) God did not declare destruction on a region or a nation, but on the entire world. For God’s purpose to be fulfilled the flood had to be global.

Furthermore, ample evidence exists showing the earth was once entirely covered with water. The clearest evidence is the layers of rock found on every continent. Most of these layers are made up of sedimentary rocks. Sedimentary rock is the name scientists have given to rock formed in water by grains of sand or other mineral sinking to the bottom and being compressed together to form stone. The global presence of sedimentary rock is evidence of a global catastrophe which covered the earth with water.

The only way anyone could read the Bible and conclude it is referring to a local flood is to first believe the Bible is a collection of myths. The mythologizing of Biblical history undermines all of Scripture, even if the myths are believed to have spiritual value because they teach important lessons about God and man. For example, if the flood was local, then what exactly is the nature of God’s promise in Genesis 8:21, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done”? If the story of Noah is a myth, is God’s promise a myth? Is the promise to be understand as a promise to not judge people? Is the promise a fable showing that God is merciful? What mercy is there if the wicked men, the judgment, the deliverance and the promise are all myths? If Noah’s flood is not true as described in the Bible, how would anyone know if any of the rest of the Bible true? Treating Biblical history as myth makes the Bible nonsensical, incomprehensible and ultimately worthless. Only by believing God’s Word to contain the literal records of actual history can any one understand or believe what God has said.