Fast Facts about Noah, the Ark & the Flood
- The people on the Earth during Noah’s time were greatly wicked, had continual evil thoughts, were corrupt & full of violence. This grieved God & filled His heart with pain (Gen 6.5-6, 11-12).
- Noah was a morally righteous & blameless man in an evil generation. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord & walked with Him (Gen 6.8-9).
- God instructed Noah to build an ark, which in Hebrew means “box” (Gen 6.14).
- The ark was made of cypress (gopher) wood & was coated with waterproofing pitch inside & out (Gen 6.14).
- The ark was 450 feet (300 cubits) long, 75 feet (50 cubits) wide & 45 feet (30 cubits) tall (Gen 6.15). The length is 1.5 football fields or nearly two 747 jumbo jets long.
- The ark’s proportions have proved to be strikingly suitable by today’s ocean-going freighter designs (Ref A).
- The ark had 3 levels with many rooms (Gen 6.14, 16). Depending on the hull design, this would allow for nearly 100,000 square feet of floor area, not including any possible intermediate levels.
- There was 1.54 million cubic feet of cargo volume on the ark which equates to about 522 railroad cars (Ref B).
- Noah did not have to find or corral the animals; God directed them to the ark (Gen 6.20, 7.15).
- The creatures on the ark included air-breathing, land-dwelling animals, creeping things & winged animals (Gen 6.20). Other critters (i.e. fish, frogs, etc.) could survive in the water (Ref A).
- Most creatures were in pairs, but some were in sevens (Gen 7.2-3).
- Not every animal species variant or breed had to be on the ark, but only the major creature “kinds” which is similar to genus or family categories (Gen 1.24, 7.2, Ref C).
- There only had to be approximately 8,000 creature kinds on the ark. With most being in male-female pairs, there were not many more than 16,000 animals on board (Ref A).
- It is thought that the animals averaged the size of a sheep. Today, just 11% of land animals are bigger than a sheep. And larger animals like elephants & dinosaurs could have been juveniles (Ref A, C).
- Less than 13% of the ark’s cargo volume was needed to house all the animals. This would leave plenty of room for a year’s worth of food, roaming space & even more passengers if they had heeded Noah’s warning.
- 8 people were aboard the ark. Noah had a wife & 3 sons – Shem, Ham & Japheth. And each of his sons had a wife (Gen 7.7, 1 Pt 3.20).
- Once Noah, his sons, their wives & all the animals were on board, it was God who shut the door (Gen 7.16).
- Once safely in the ark, it rained for 40 days & 40 nights as “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” (Gen 7.11-12).
- The waters covered the entire Earth to a depth of more than 20 feet above the highest mountain at the time (Gen 7.17-20). Due to subsequent tectonic movements, today's mountains are much higher.
- 75% of today’s world is covered in water. If you equalized all the terrain above & below sea level, there is enough water to cover the leveled surface by 2 miles. Consider that the Mariana Trench is 36,070 feet below sea level, while Mount Everest is only 29,035 feet above sea level (Ref E).
- Water flooded the earth for 150 days before it began to recede (Gen 7.24, 8.3).
- All people & creatures of the ground & air that were not on the ark were completely wiped out (Gen 7.22-23).
- As the water receded, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat which are thought to be in modern-day Turkey (Gen 8.4).
- 74 days after landing on the mountain, Noah observed the surrounding mountain tops surfacing in the water (Gen 8.5, Ref D).
- It wouldn’t be for another 146 days that Noah & his living cargo could disembark (Gen 8.6-17, Ref D).
- Noah used birds to test the conditions outside of the ark, but it was God who instructed Noah when to come out (Gen 8.6-12, 15-16).
- Altogether, 370 days had passed from the time God shut the door to the time Noah opened it (Gen 7-8, Ref 4).
- The flood was a result of God’s judgment on mankind’s wicked sinfulness (Gen 6.5-7).
- God loved His creation & especially people enough to spare a remnant to repopulate the Earth (Gen 7.1-3, 9.1).
- God gave the rainbow as a sign of His promise to never again destroy the Earth with a global flood (Gen 9.11-13).
- The Genesis flood is not a fairy tale, but was referenced as a real historical event by Jesus Christ, the Apostle Peter, the writer of Hebrews as well as Old Testament prophets Isaiah & Ezekiel (Mt 24.37-39, 2 Pt 2.5, Heb 11.7, Isa 54.9, Eze 14.14, 20).
- There are hundreds of stories of a worldwide flood found in cultures all over the world (Ref F).
Indeed, the reality of this worldwide cataclysm seems to be the most realistic explanation for the majority of the fossils buried in sedimentary rock layers all over the Earth, as well as a mechanism for the breakup of the super-continent (Rodinia) & the ice age. But, just as the people of Noah’s time failed to take God’s warning seriously, people since then have failed as well.
For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly. – 2 Pet 3.5-7
While God promised to never again destroy the Earth with a global flood, He has warned that it will one day be ultimately destroyed by fire (2 Pet 3.10-12). And even more alarming is that everyone who hasn’t accepted the Gospel will stand before God on the Day of Judgment. In complete justice, God will sentence the unsaved to a very real place called hell where there will be eternal condemnation & unimaginable torment as continual judgment of their sin against an everlasting & holy God. But just as God made a way for Noah & his family to be saved from watery judgment, in His great love & mercy He has also made a way to escape this fiery judgment.
Instead He (God) is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. – 2 Pet 3.9b
When God’s only son, Jesus Christ, came to Earth, He lived a morally perfect life that none of us could ever live. Then He allowed Himself to be betrayed & unjustly executed. Why? He did this to save us. In that moment, He offered Himself in your place & in my place to take God’s judgment against our sin. And if anyone believes by faith that Jesus died for them to satisfy God’s justice & that He lived the perfect life for them to qualify them for heaven, then God will most certainly grant them eternal life with Him & spare them from His coming wrath. This is the Gospel (good news) of salvation!
God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Cor 5.21
Just as there was plenty of room on the ark for extra people to be saved, there is plenty of room in the infinite sacrifice of Jesus Christ for those who want to be eternally saved – no matter what you’ve done. But this isn’t automatic; you must make the Gospel yours. The ark existed for all of Noah’s neighbors, but it didn’t do them any good because they weren’t in the boat. Likewise, you can’t just believe Jesus lived & died; you must believe He lived & died for you, personally accepting Jesus as your own savior. You must pray to God admitting you’ve sinned against Him & trust in His Son’s sacrifice to save you. Don’t miss the boat!
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the mane of God’s on and only Son. – Jesus in Jn 3.16-18
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Press Release: Full-Sized Ark in Kentucky - Ark Encounter
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