Ark Encounter

As many of you know, the organization Answers in Genesis is building a full size replica of Noah’s ark.  The ark is almost completed and is scheduled to be open to visitors on July 7.  You can learn the details at arkencounter.com.

Most people don’t believe a worldwide flood occurred.  In his second letter Peter foretold this denial.

They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

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.
2 Peter 3:4-6

The flood lasted just a little over one year.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:11

In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out.
Genesis 8:13-14

Yet during that year the rapid burial of living creatures produced most of the fossils we find today and the geography of the earth was changed.  The flood ended when the continents we know now rose up out of the water.

You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
Psalm 104:6-9

Knowing whether the flood occurred is essential to accurately measuring the age of the earth.  If there was no flood then it would have taken millions of years to form the vast number of fossils that we find and to shape the earth into its present condition.  On the other hand, if there was a flood it is possible that the earth is only a few thousand years old, as the Bible says.

Knowing there was a flood not only shows that the earth is younger than most people believe but it also shows that God is concerned about the way we live and will judge us.  The rainbow is a sign that God will never send a flood that will destroy all life on earth.  The next judgment will be by fire.

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 Peter 3:7

The purpose of the ark replica is to provide proof that the story of the flood is true.  Here is some more information about the ark and the flood on the Answers in Genesis website.

Noah’s ark

The flood

We should pray that this exhibit will succeed in waking people up to the reality of the flood and to the fact that God judges sin.