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What is the Purpose of the Ark, Fossils, and the Flood?
by Russ McGlenn
Why did God send the Flood? The people of that time were ignoring God and seeking their own pleasures. The purpose of the Flood was to destroy all civilization and start over again.
Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3) . . . the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. (1 Peter 3:20)
God gave the people of Noah's time 120 years to prepare for God's judgment and repent of their sin and rebellion toward God. During this time of grace only Noah and his family obeyed, repented, and were saved.
"The Dragon's Graveyard, in central Wyoming, is one of the biggest dinosaur bone beds in the world. Paleontologist estimate thousands of bodies buried together in each square mile. This bone bed runs for hundreds of miles from central Wyoming into Southern Montana. The dinosaurs are often stacked one on top of the other. The bones on the surface are everywhere you walk. This is evidence for a catastrophic event that buried them here in a mass grave. The best event to account for this was Noah's Flood." (Dinosaur Fossils in The Badlands, paper by Russ McGlenn, 1997, intro)
Purpose of Fossils Why did God allow the fossils to remain in the rocks after the Flood? He could have burned all the creatures, or used magma to destroy all evidences of pre-Flood life. He choose to allow these fossils to remain in the ground for two reasons: 1) to show His judgment; 2) to show His mercy.
One reason they were left was to show Gods mercy and Judgement. God's justice and righteousness demand that He punish and destroy evil. (Deut.4:23-31) The peoples of the Earth had become so evil that they were on the verge of destroying human life on Earth. (Gen.6:1-8) The fossils show his judgment, in that He could not let the pre-Flood world go unpunished, and so He used the Flood to destroy and bury all living things.
Before God judges a people, He always gives fair warning. This is seen many times in the Bible (Jonah, Sodom and Gomorrah) No one will be able to come before the judgement throne of God and say they never knew about God's demand that humans repent of their wicked ways.(Ps.89:14, Math. 25:31-46)
The fossils also show His mercy, in that God provided a way of escape for whoever would believe and for each animal kind, so that we still have life on earth today. Before God sent the Flood, He gave mankind 120 years to repent (Gen.6:1-3) As Noah built the Ark it was a daily reminder of the comming judgement.
Noah's Garage Logic
Why was it logical for Noah to build an Ark? Noah knew Seth, the son of Adam and Eve and would have heard the story of Creation and Adam's walk with God. Seth, Noah's distant ancestor, would repeat the story of man's fall and God's forgiveness to remind Noah of God's care for His creation and humans.
Imagine that every day, Noah goes out behind his garage to work on the Ark.
The mailman comes by and asks: "Hey, Noah, what are you building?"
Noah: "An Ark."
Mailman: "Right. Uh . . . what's an Ark?"
Noah: "It's a huge boat to carry people and animals."
Mailman: "You're a long way from the nearest lake! And why so BIG? You'll never be able to move it."
Noah: "Because of mankind's sin, God's going to send rain that will flood and destroy all life on the earth, except those who enter the Ark."
Mailman: "Rain? What's that?"*
Noah: "Water from the sky. It will cover all the earth."
Mailman: "Noah, I think you've been in the sun too long. Nothing like that has ever happened in the history of man. Just ask Methuselah, he's over 900 years old."
Noah: "God told me if the people do not repent of their wicked ways, He will destroy them."
Mailman: "Did He give you this in writing? How do you know it was God? No one has heard from Him for hundreds of years. I think that's just another myth, like Adam and Eve."
Noah: "Your spirit will know when God speaks. Besides that, ask Methuselah yourself - his name means, "when judgment comes."
Mailman: "He's an old man who's always critical of our way of life. He's been around for over nine hundred years, and I've never seen any of this judgment stuff. I say eat, drink, and be merry, you only live once. This stuff of life after death is hogwash. I used to believe it when I was a kid, but that was four hundred and fifty years ago. I've outgrown that mythical stuff."
*(It did not rain before the Flood but the Earth was watered by a mist. Gen. 2:6)
Purpose of the Ark Everyday that Noah went out to work on the Ark was a testimony to God's coming judgment and His way of escape if people believed. The fossils are in the ground to be a record, written in stone, of God's judgment and mercy. They are there to remind us of the pre-Flood world. In the next judgment, the Bible says in Revelation, the world will be judged and totally destroyed by fire.
In the case of the Flood, God said that he would take out representatives of the animals and the humans and "recycle" the world. But in the coming judgment, God says he will not recycle anything, but will completely vaporize the world.
"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10).
John says in Revelation 21:1, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and first earth passed away . . . ." What is our way of escape if there is not going be an Ark?
Fossils are a witness to God's Judgement and Mercy Judgement in that He could not let the world continue in wickedness and so sent a Flood in judgement. The fossils were formed as a result of the Flood.. Mercy in that he always provides a way of escape from His judgement which in Noah's time was the Ark.. "6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." (Hebrews 11:6-7 KJV) There is another judgement coming by fire, what will cause it? If mankind does not repent of it's wicked ways, God will send His judgement. With every judgement, God gives fair warning and a way of escape. The warning is in the New Testament of the Bible and the way of escape is through accepting Jesus Christ as savior.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
For more on the Ark, click HERE. [For a printer-friendly version click HERE.]
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