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READERS CORNER
SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE FLOOD:
Gen. 7:10-12 “And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”
Notice the sequence, the “fountains of the great deep broke” AND “the windows of heaven were opened.” Japanese researchers have discovered that there is an area between the earth's crust and the mantel that contains more than ten times the amount of water that is on the surface of the earth.
Psa 104:5-9 “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which Thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the earth.” It seems that King David knew all about what the Japanese just discovered-there's a lot of water under the surface of the earth.
As a side point, it seems that Noah, his family and the animals were set-aside beginning on the 10th day of the Second Month and then seven days later the flood came. On the 10th day of the First Month, at the time of Moses, each family set-aside a lamb and then the first-born were saved on the 14th of the First Month. Those who for some legitimate reason are not able to keep the Passover in the First Month, then keep the Passover in the Second Month. Since the Bible gives exact dates, the dates must mean something.
Matt 24: 37- “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” We don't know the day or hour when Christ will return but the message seems to clearly indicate that knowing what has happened in the past will be a key to understanding what is happening in the future.
Isaac Vail, in 1874, was probably the first person to suggest the idea of a water vapor canopy encircling the earth at some point in time. Henry Morris and John Witcomb then promoted this idea in 1961 with the book The Genesis Flood. Although many scientists ridicule the idea of a water vapor canopy above the earth, the idea has some merit when compared to known scientific facts and to the Scriptures.
Prior to 1930 and the discovery of ozone by the British physicist Sidney Chapman, nobody knew about the Ozone Layer in the Earth's stratosphere. At that level oxygen molecules, O2, are hit by ultraviolet light from the sun. The reaction that occurs is the splitting of oxygen atoms to form ozone, O3. When hydrogen and oxygen molecules, both highly flammable substances, combine we get water, or H2O, which can put out a fire. At present, there is an ozone canopy above the earth that filters harmful sunlight.
Ozone is easily produced here on earth with any high-voltage electrical arc from spark plugs, arc welders, etc. Ozone smells something like burning electrical wires but is a very irritating, corrosive, colorless gas. Due to the shifting winds, the Ozone Layer in the atmosphere is the thickest at the poles and thinnest at the equator. It also is thicker during the Spring and thinner during the Fall as those seasons come upon the earth.
Some scientists have theorize that if all the ozone were compressed to the pressure of the air at sea level, the ozone thickness would only be a few millimeters, or very thin. Most of the ozone in our atmosphere is in the stratosphere that begins about 6 miles above earth and ends about 30 miles after that. About 10% of the ozone is located in the troposphere, which is between earth and the stratosphere.
Given what we know about the Ozone Layer, the Canopy Theory then becomes very plausible. The earth before the Flood in Noah's time was very different than the earth after the Flood. For example, according to the Bible, people lived longer. Plant and animal fossils from that time period indicate that both plants and animals were bigger than their modern-day counterparts. If the canopy was a higher form of the current ozone layer or maybe a thin, transparent layer of ice, then the harmful rays of the sun could have been reduced even more back then allowing a more moderate climate-a greenhouse of sorts on a worldwide basis.
There are some creation scientists who support the fact of a worldwide flood and who theorized that there was an ice canopy above the earth. That canopy broke and created instant snow storms that froze huge herds of mammoths and other animals at the North Pole. They have no other explanation of why those mammoths were found frozen with undigested food still in their stomachs. Also, camels and a variety of trees and plants have been found frozen near the North Pole. If the canopy was similar to the Ozone Layer, then it was thicker at the poles where the unfiltered temperature would be colder.
Opponents of a worldwide flood usually try to assert the idea that it would have been impossible to cover the entire earth with water in only 40 days. But, they have no trouble believing Pompeii was covered with volcanic debris in the span of 2 days. Just for comparison, let's look at what history tells us about Pompeii.
Pompeii was a prosperous Roman harbor town that was similar to Corinith in the first century AD. About noon on August 24, 79AD the mountain volcano outside the city awakened and by the end of the second day, Pompeii (an area of 160 acres) was buried under 20 feet of ash and stone. A nearby town of Ercolano was buried in hot mud. Yes, hot mud. Ironically, August 23 was also the pagan feast to the god of subterranean fire, Vulcan. Prior to the volcano's fury, the people had several physical warnings that something was about to happen-animals were acting strangely and the wells went dry 10 days prior to the eruption.
That was a local disaster, but the earth shows many signs of a worldwide disaster. For example, there are about 550 active volcanoes and about 550 dormant volcanoes. Both active and dormant volcanoes have the potential to erupt at any time, and almost every day there are about ten volcanoes on earth erupting. The huge fault lines that encircle the earth like the stitching on a baseball are further proof of a worldwide catastrophe.
It's very possible that at the time of Noah the crust of the earth split and a huge amount of hot water gushed upward, maybe upward for miles and miles above the earth. Huge hot water springs all around the globe would cause huge clouds of steam. The prevailing winds would circulate that humid hot air to the ice canopy causing it to melt. Maybe melting a few holes at a time in thinner areas. . .like “windows in the sky”? Then, the entire earth is covered with water and all people and all air-breathing animals are dead within 40 days. The only safe haven was the ark . . .a place prepared at the direction of God.
For more on this subject, see the Internet links below.
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/
http://www.thecolefamily.com/italy/pompeii/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor_canopy
http://www.nasamike.com/main/book/4hiii.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_layer
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/Ozone/ozonelayer.html
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