Re: Chocking Noah after he has been choked on H2SO4

Matthew Bell (mbkbell@aapi.co.uk)
Thu, 30 Jul 1998 10:40:00 +0100

> >M.BELL
> >This was a question that as a novice to the subject I too was going to
ask.
> >There is nothing that I can see in the Biblical account which mentions
or
> >hints at volcanic activity during the flood. I suspect that proposing
that
> >there was none presents more problems for the yec position than if there
> >was. Am I right?
>
G.MORTON
> There is absolutely nothing in the Bible to indicate that volcanoes
erupted
> or that the entire geologic column was deposited in one single global
> flood. That is the INTERPRETATION of the young-earth creationists based
> upon the ENGLISH word 'earth' and its connotation for 20th century
> Americans. What they fail to realize is that the HEBREW word 'eretz' is
> most often translated as 'land' or 'country'. The ancient Hebrews didn't
> have the understanding that there was a 'planet earth'. So YECs are
> putting 20th century thoughts into the minds of ancient Hebrews.

<snip>

M.BELL
I read through the Flood account, replacing 'earth', with 'land' and could
agree that doing so would allow for a local rather than a global flood.
However, how does one account for Genesis 7:19:

'And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth/land; and *all* the
high hills, that were under the *whole* heaven, were covered'.

This verse was brought to my attention from another list where the
following 'difficulty' was also posited.

'. If ALL the high mountains under the WHOLE heaven were covered, then we
can reasonably conclude that at least several HIGH mountains were covered,
can't we? So how can this be harmonized with the fact that water will seek
its own level? In other words, how could water cover just some "high
mountains" without first leveling off, as it sought its own level, so that
NO high mountains could have been covered until the water had fallen to a
level that was higher than the "HIGH" mountain? To imagine the local-flood
scenario that Matt hinted at, one would have to visualize a "mound" of
water standing suspended over the mountains of Ararat in defiance of the
scientific law that says water will seek its own level.'

Isn't this a legitimate argument against a local flood?

Look forward to your reply.
M.Bell