CMI teaches that the Bible is real history. One important aspect is the global Flood of Noah’s day. Genesis teaches it; Jesus and the Apostles confirmed it. It also explains most of the rocks and fossils and obliterates millions of years. And without millions of years, evolution is impossible—not that it would be possible even if millions of years were granted.

Not surprisingly, a global Flood on Earth has been a major target of atheists and their compromising ‘churchian’ allies. (But they don’t mind huge floods on Mars, where there’s not a drop of water.) We should therefore be prepared to defend a global Flood along with the rest of the faith (1 Peter 3:15), as well as refute arguments against it (2 Corinthians 10:4–5).

What does Genesis say?

Genesis spends four whole chapters on the Flood and its aftermath. This coverage suggests that it’s important. God piles up the universal language to make it as clear as possible that it’s worldwide, not local. The Hebrew word for ‘all’ or ‘every’ (kol/כֹּל) appears 72 times in the four chapters of Genesis 6–9.

Also, Genesis 7:19 contains a double-all construction: all (kol) the high mountains under the whole (kol) heaven were covered. Just by itself, the double kol removes any possibility that the Flood could be local.

Moreover, Genesis grounds the Flood in real history. Genesis 7:11 times its beginning to a particular day in Noah’s life. Compare Luke, well-known for his meticulous historical-geographic accuracy, he also times John the Baptist’s preparation for Jesus’ ministry to a particular year (Luke 3:1). If we accept Luke as history for narrowing down a year, a fortiori (how much more) must Genesis be history for timing the Flood to a day.

Furthermore, Genesis times events during the Flood, and the end of the Flood, to a day—about a year later. No local flood lasts a year!

What did Jesus and the Apostles say?

Jesus explicitly said:

That is, Jesus affirmed the Flood, the Ark, and Noah all as real. Since He also said “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), He clearly affirmed the whole Genesis Flood account.

He also used it as a warning of a coming judgment. If Jesus didn’t really believe the Flood was real, then He would be ‘crying wolf.’

His chief apostle, Peter likewise affirmed the Flood. In 1 Peter 3:20–21, he talks about God’s patience in the likely decades when Noah built the Ark. However, he says that only eight people were saved on it—just as Genesis says: Noah and his wife, and their three sons and their wives. Then Peter connected the real history of the Ark to the Christian ordinance of water baptism.

In his next letter (2 Peter 3:3–7), Peter prophesies about future “scoffers” following their own sinful desires and denying Christ’s return. They “deliberately overlook” two foundational truths. The first was that God created the world out of water. The second was the global Flood:

The Greek word for “deluged”is a specialised term used only for the Genesis Flood. That is: katakluzō/κατακλύζω, literally “downwashing”—where we derive the word “cataclysm”. Like Jesus, Peter uses the reality of the Flood to warn about the equally real judgment to come.

Note above that Peter says that the scoffers “deliberately overlook” the Flood. They are morally culpable for their wilful ignorance of the Flood because it left such overwhelming evidence that they have no excuse. The following will summarise this evidence.

Scientific evidence

The Flood ascended, reached a peak, then receded, finally ending a year later. When the Flood rose, many rock layers were built. When it receded, it eroded some of these layers.

Ascending stage evidence

There are three main lines of evidence:

1. Fast fossils

The enormous fossil record. What would it take to form fossils, some of huge creatures, and others with finely preserved details? We know how it could NOT have happened: a creature just dying and eventually being buried. Have you ever seen fossilized roadkill? You know that dead creatures rot away or are scavenged by other creatures.

The only answer is a quick and deep burial that protects it from scavengers and holds the carcass in place. The mud also draws away yucky stuff from rotting, which would otherwise turn the fossil into mush. The minerals in the mud eventually replace the original material, turning it into stone.

We have fossils of creatures in the middle of lunch, fighting, and giving birth. There are also soft creatures. Darwin said fossil soft creatures were impossible—and they would be, if they were formed as slowly as he believed.

2. Huge wide layers

Could local floods have formed the fossils? Not likely. But what really shows a global flood is the enormous extent of the layers. Often, they span continents and even have matching layers in other continents. A wide rock layer requires a wide cause.

In Germany, there are distinctively coloured layers called the Keuper, Muschelkalk, and Bunter (or Buntsandstein). They span Europe from England to Bulgaria, and extend even into North America, covering Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

3. Little time between layers

Could these vast layers full of fossils have been formed by many floods? No, because there are surface features that could not have lasted if there were lots of time between the layers.

For example, the surface of the Grand Canyon is quite jagged because of erosion. But the layers resemble a gigantic pancake stack, with flat contacts between them. The implication is that each layer was quickly covered by the next, before there was time for much erosion. Yet, evolutionists date those layers to millions of years apart. How could the surfaces remain exposed for that time without looking as eroded as the Grand Canyon’s top surface?

For another example, how long would one of your footprints last? Only a few days before it’s worn away. But in many places, footprint layers have been discovered after moving a covering rock layer. The covering layer is often ‘dated’ to be millions of years younger than the footprint layer. But as soon as the cover was removed, the footprints started to wear away. In Lark Quarry, Queensland, Australia, over 3,000 dino footprints are now housed in a protective building. So how could they have remained exposed for millions of years? No, the next layer must have cemented them in place almost as soon as they were formed.

Recessive stage evidence

Here, there are two main lines of evidence. Fast-flowing water can be very damaging. Sometimes tiny bubbles form and then burst supersonically, reaching temperatures of 15,000ºC (27,000ºF), or 2.5 times hotter than the sun’s surface! The bursting causes damage called cavitation. It can even damage reinforced concrete, so ordinary rock has no chance.

First, the water would flow off in giant sheets. This would act like a giant plane going over the mountains. Thus, all around the world, we see planation surfaces left behind—the tops of high hills and mountains planed off, from the time when the Flood covered the whole Earth. Since God promised never to send another global Flood (Genesis 9:9–16), planation surfaces aren’t forming today.

Second, after much water had drained off and land emerged above water, the flow would concentrate into huge rivers or channels. In turn, this would carve deep valleys, explaining some unusual features on Earth.

E.g., although rivers should flow around mountains, many flow in gorges that cut right through a mountain range. Such gorges are called water gaps. Some are miles deep. Some gaps, such as the famous Cumberland Gap, no longer have water flowing through them and are called wind gaps.

Yet another common feature is underfit rivers. They are too small for the valley they are in, but they are explained if a much larger flow carved the valleys, and the river just follows the path of the valley. i.e., the river didn’t cause the valley; the valley caused the river.

Global Flood washes away evidence for long ages and evolution

In many physical processes, we can trade intensity for time. An intense process like a global Flood erases the millions-of-years dogma.