Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - RAIN

 RAIN

Many people do not accept the Bible stories as being true. They consider them to be fables, or perhaps contrived, in order to make a point or send a message; but factual, no. After all, how could the sea be divided (Exodus 14) or the sun stand still (Joshua 10:12)? How could a people be made to wander 40 years in a wilderness (Exodus and Numbers) or the whole earth be covered in water (Genesis 7)?

Perhaps part of the trouble in understanding these events stems from the way we look at the Bible itself. Before the flood described in Genesis, the earth was apparently a much different place than what we see today. The first mention of high hills or mountains occurs after the flood and people lived exceptionally long lives, indicating that something was different then. There is also no mention of rain before then as well: “…For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth…but [then] a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground” (Genesis 2:5-6). If, at that point, the whole earth was watered then there would have been no deserts or wastelands as we have today, and these also are not mentioned before the flood of Noah’s day.

If it is true that the earth was much less contoured than compared to now, and that vegetation covered the whole earth, perhaps having a rainfall that could do what Genesis states is not so far removed from reality after all. Besides, it also states that: “…all the fountains of the great deep were broken up…”(Genesis 7:11); perhaps indicating that the true mountains and continental changes occurred at this time as well.

All this is somewhat evidenced today as science reveals large quantities of oil and gas beneath desert and arctic area where organic material must, at one time, have flourished. In addition, fossils of fish and other marine creatures have been found on the sides of mountains and in other areas indicating that those parts of the earth were at one time under large tracts of water. Obviously, things were much different then than they are now.

So, is it possible that a flood, as reported in Genesis, could have really occurred and caused the destruction of essentially all humanity at the time of Noah? It said that it rained forty days and nights: “And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered” (Genesis 7:19). Well, just this past week, we have seen rainfall almost unlike anything we have seen before. It has been reported that in less than 12 hours, more than two feet of rain fell in parts of the US. Two feet of rain in that time could easily result in five or six feet of rainfall in 24 hours were it to continue, and multiply that by 40 and well, that’s a lot of water. And that’s not including what the “fountains of the great deep” (Genesis 7:11) could contribute.

  It tends to make the Biblical story more understandable and, as a corollary, make other stories of the Old Testament more believable as well. If one considers it, perhaps it will help show how the entire book should be seen as being the reliable entity that it really is.

At the very least, it should be something we carefully think about.