“The Bleeding World of Noah’s Flood”

THE “FOUNTAINS OF THE GREAT DEEP” WERE NOT WATER FOUNTAINS AT ALL BUT LAVA FOUNTAINS AND VOLCANOES –  – FLOOD CAUSED BY METEORITE IMPACT AND  DESTRUCTION OF CONTINENTAL SUPPORTS BY MAGMA INTRUSION ABOVE LITHOSPHERE  AND/OR  ELEVATION OF THE OCEAN FLOOR THEREBY FLOODING THE SINGLE CONTINENT —

by Gorman Gray

God created a perfect world. After the six day creation of living things (the biosphere) God described His world as “very good” (Genesis 1: 31). From that we MUST infer that there were no wild fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, no asteroid impacts, no disease, no accidents, no death until after the fall of man. Perfect weather and fairly even temperatures prevailed from pole to pole, with only nightly mists watering the earth. On every land mass on earth and spilling over into the fresh water ocean were thick forests and vast masses of algae and plankton. There were no desolate areas and no rain or snow. The world was like a terrarium. Natural sunscreens prevailed in the atmosphere. The entire Edenic world was perfect and beautiful. Sharks and spiders and tigers were all friendly. For creatures possessing nephesh (soulish) life there were no deaths and population control for all creatures was automatic until sin ruined everything. There were no volcanoes and only orderly geology on our world. There were no asteroids threatening meteorite impacts on the earth or on any planet or moon in the solar system.

There were no jagged mountains created by tectonic plate movements, in fact there were no tectonic plates at all but the lithosphere was a perfectly formed, unbroken shell surrounding the earth and sealing the hot, molten upper mantle safely beneath that protective shell. Volcanoes and lava fountains were unthinkable at that time. Probably some of these benign conditions continued until the Flood.

 World geology must begin with a perfect world  which colors every conclusion. We must consider the implications of that perfect creation. Evolutionary theory is utterly crushed. It leaves no room for living things being billions of years in development and brings a host of collateral thoughts.

Out of this perfect world then disaster. The history of man descends into ugly moral decline until finally, “Every imagination of the thoughts of men’s hearts was only evil continually.” The whole world was “corrupt before God” and the world was “filled with violence” until God decided to destroy mankind. But Noah found grace in the sight of God. As we acknowledge moral decay as the ultimate cause of the Flood, we must consider today. Is world society ripening for judgment also in our time? As we seek the mechanics for a global flood, we must not miss the “why” of the Flood judgment. After God’s “longsuffering waited in the days of Noah,” His wrath was finally unleashed against a world in rebellion. Meditate on the expression used throughout the Bible, “God’s wrath.” I do not remember ever experiencing real wrath even from wicked men around me. But wrath of man is one thing.

Now contemplate the wrath of God. It is real, it is appropriate, and can be world shattering. Hear Isaiah 24: “For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a tent; and the transgression of it shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again.” Isaiah 24 may apply specially to the final end time but it is perfectly appropriate to describe events at the flood of Noah. Yes, a God of overwhelming love, after long, long, long, longsuffering “gives them up” to uncleanness and final, eternal judgment.

Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month and the 17th day of the month, on the same day were ALL the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened.”  Amos 7:4-6 explains clearly that “fire proceeded from the ‘great deep’ and consumed the farm land.” It was a potential judgment on disobedient Israel but as Amos interceded, God did not deliver that judgment, but it clearly explains the “great deep” as the source of a column of fire, proceeding from the “great deep” and overrunning the land.  Clearly we can understand Genesis 7:11 as lava fountains from the great deep, certainly not fountains of water.

I have checked with every major Bible believing commentator and all of them without exception think the fountains were water fountains, but I will show that it can not be so. Every one of the creationist authors which I researched had concluded (as I also had for many years) that the fountains of the great deep were water fountains. But no, not by any means – – – they were lava or magma fountains, large igneous provinces like the Columbia basin basalt flows, and hundreds of volcanoes. We see evidence everywhere on our planet. Rather, the “fountains” were lava fountains, external to the earth as well as internal to the earth, extrusions of magma and volcanoes world wide. And that changes everything – – – every approach to understanding the Flood is altered and makes better sense geologically, biblically and evidentially.

Because, to my knowledge, I am alone promoting this view, I regard it as incumbent on me to write as much explanation as I can, even with the limitations of minimal exposure to geology, because my conclusions were derived from the Bible but with abundant assurance from factual geology also.

There are 1500 volcanoes on land areas of the earth. There are thousands of seamounts in the ocean and dozens of utterly massive lava deposits called large igneous provinces (LIP’s) extruded in every corner of the earth and now hardened into basalt rock. Well, where did they come from?

For sure, many Bible interpreters differ widely in their conclusions. Just as in Jesus’ day, satanic forces have attempted to veil the simple Scriptures in confusion. We must admit that all of us have misread some Scriptures and misinterpreted others. Any of us, my self included, are vulnerable to error for sure. So we must love one another without a competitive spirit. Let that sink in for a moment.

1. GUARANTEE AGAINST ERROR

How to guard against error? Humility is the first safety against misinterpretation. Yes, humility. A humble daily prayer, for preservation from error is superior to many academic PhD letters awarded from prestigious institutions. PhD’s in Hebrew and geology can be valuable, but with out daily prayer for illumination in Bible study, our eyes can be blinded. That includes the most intellectually astute men and women on earth. Listen to Jesus: “At that time Jesus rejoiced in Spirit, saying; I thank you Father that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent but revealed them to babes. Even so Father, for so it seemed good in your sight” (Luke 11:37).  Jesus leveled charges against the intellectual establishment of His day after three years of bitter rejection, “You blind guides.”  “Fools and blind!” “Serpents, generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?” Strong language? Yes, indeed (Matthew 23). Then Jesus weeps bitterly over Jerusalem. So the Psalmist prays, “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). So, which would you rather be, wise and prudent and blind, or a babe with spiritual truth and wondrous things revealed?

. I have read analyses by astute scholars, who have completely missed the elephant in the living room as they try to explain the Flood’s cause being fountains of water when the elephant of lava fountains are evident almost everywhere. So my approach to the global flood is from the Bible first, thus providing direction. True geology will always support the Bible if we get the scripture and the geology interpreted correctly. But both must be clearly provable. All references to geology following will be grossly over simplified. My goal is Bible truth within the bounds, and compatible with, known geology.

2. POSSIBLE ASTEROID IMPACT

The Bible does not specify an asteroid impact as the source of “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up” but the testimony of impacts all over the solar system and our earth is convincing enough. A perfect world will not allow asteroids until about 7000 years ago and more likely 5000 years ago at Noah’s Flood. Because they certainly were not part of the “very good” six days of creation, defined by the genealogies as less than 7000 years ago, the asteroids must have emerged after Adam’s creation also.  Today there are still hundreds of large asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres is a large asteroid almost 300 miles in diameter, and although unlikely, it can be nudged by other asteroids into an orbit intersecting our earth. All the asteroids originated after the Garden of Eden perfection and without doubt were active during the Flood judgment. The creation of the asteroid belt, we may safely conclude, was part of God’s preparation for the greatest world judgment in history up to that time and up to our time as well.

The evolutionary world will tell you that meteoric impacts occurred in a heavy bombardment billions of years ago and a light bombardment many millions of years ago, but don’t you believe it. Yes, time before the “first day” for creation of the stellar universeand also the lifeless planet earth is allowable. That is undefined in Scripture, and could easily be billions of years, but the perfect biosphere home for man was specifically created less than 7000 years ago, and that included an asteroid free, impact free, beautiful sky with no threatening rocks in orbit. There were certainly no asteroids threatening the Garden of Eden until after Adam fell and probably only near the Flood years. Therefore, biblically, the asteroids must be less than 7000 years old. Well, why did God allow them to be established there?

Again, the Bible does not specify asteroid impacts for the cause of the great lava flows and all the volcanoes in our world, leading to the global flood. But the fact of the abundance of asteroids now, even occasionally striking the earth with devastating results, speaks eloquently that they have blasted the earth at times following Adam’s calamitous rebellion. Many small ones have struck the earth but at least one big one of “Goldilocks” size struck our planet and left it vibrating. Why do I conclude intense vibrations?

We have evidence that planet Mercury and our Moon have been hit by big ones and must have been vibrating violently enough to cause what they call “weird terrain” at antipodes to the impact. On the opposite end of the planet’s impact is what they call “weird terrain,” so they conclude they were caused by those major impacts. Hence they surmise intense vibrations through the entire planet Mercury and through the entire moon, transferred and focused on the other side of the planet from the impact. That so called “weird terrain” is visible today on those planets at antipodes to a big impact crater.

 Well, that must have happened to earth in a mighty big way also, although now obscured by oceans. The result was a bleeding, crippled, devastated planet Earth, reeling as a drunken man (Isaiah 24:17-24). The passage in Isaiah refers to a final coming judgment but it had a precursory fulfillment at the flood of Noah. Keep in mind, all this devastation was caused by a world full of violence and “Every imagination of the thoughts of men’s hearts was only evil continually.”

Hear it again: “Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who flees from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit. And he that comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare, for the windows from on high are open and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down; the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a tent; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again.” Yes, it rained drenching water from the “windows of heaven” but it also rained asteroid fragments and rocks as well.

Isaiah 24 may refer to the end time, but it pictures the result of Noah’s flood just as David prefigured Christ, and Mt. Sinaiprefigures the terrible Day of Judgment coming.

3. FLOOD CAUSED EITHER BY CONTINENTAL SINKING OR BY OCEAN FLOOR ELEVATION (OR BOTH) –WATER FOUNTAINS EXCLUDED

              II Peter 3:5-6 coupled with Genesis 1:9-10 leaves no doubt that the flood was caused either by the sinking of the continent, or else by the rising of the ocean floor or both. Hereafter I will assume the former (the sinking of the continent) but I make room for the rising of the ocean floor as possible. Genesis chapter one pictures a world wide ocean with no land anywhere until the third day. Then v9, “Let the waters under the air be gathered together in one place and let the dry land appear.” II Peter 3: 5-6 begins recounting the Genesis lifting of land from the ocean until the land was “standing out of the water and surrounded by water,” then declares plainly “whereby” or “by this means” the “world that then was, being overflowed by water, perished.” The Flood experienced the reversal of the day three extraction of land, by sinking it to where it was before day three or else by the elevation of the ocean floor to inundate the continent. That’s how it happened according to the II Peter 3. “By the same means” of lifting the continent on day three, so came the sinking to cause the flood. Please refuse all translations which can be construed to mean that God “made the earth out of water.” Translations are valid only if they conform to, and fit with, the general message of all relevant passages. Making the earth out of water does not fit at all. KJV is much better. Of the thirty or more English translations here is a list of eight which do fit the general message of all relevant texts: Complete Jewish Bible–Evangelical Heritage Version – Jubilee Bible – King James Version – New King James Version – New Living Translation – New Matthew Bible – The Passion Translation

For those who doubt this interpretation, imagine that there were no II Peter 3:5-6. You would be left with Genesis 1:9-10 and the Flood record. So what conclusion would a reasonable person determine? The most direct source of a global flood just might be God returning the land to its submerged origin.

Well, how do you go about sinking an enormous continent? A sunken continent seems counter intuitive–no one would ever guess it, nor did I, until I read it from the Bible. Then with illumination it becomes plain and makes the best sense. Also, why does the Bible say the waters “rose” when actually the continent sank (if that is what happened). The Bible also says the sun rises and sets but we all understand it perfectly. Noah would certainly report that the waters “rose” to his observation.

Could it be that an asteroid impact of exactly the right size accomplished this? What other mechanism can we propose? I can’t think of any which leaves world conditions as we observe. First of all, we don’t need any mechanism at all because God can do anything at any time. However, we humans with our insatiable hunger for explanations crave a physical mechanism. Maybe I should simply say it just happened “somehow” to eliminate speculations, leaving the biblical texts to speak without comment. But no, driven by curiosity, I will give a humble opinion without dogmatism.

4. CROSS SECTION OF EARTH’S CRUST

To help us understand requires a vocabulary lesson and schematic cross section of earth geology. Refer to handout “A.” Please understand these drawings are greatly simplified depictions of highly complex realities and grossly exaggerated. I trust what the geophysicists say until they disagree with the Bible (which is quite often, especially in dating events). All references to geology following will be grossly over simplified. (Obtain the handouts by email below.)

Handout “A” depicts the earth’s single original continent. Then below that continent are the supporting structures under it, which I call the balance area. Under that is the perfect lithosphere shell. Taken together this is the earth’s crust. Below that is the upper mantle, also called the asthenosphere.

The available literature gives contradicting definitions of lithosphere so my definition here limits lithosphere to the area of today’s plate tectonics, just above the asthenosphere and NOT including the continent (as many do). Lithosphere varies from about 15 to 30 miles in thickness. Above the lithosphere is what I call the “balance zone,” then above that is the granite continent. Originally, the lithosphere was a perfect shell surrounding the globe, safely protecting areas above it from the red hot asthenosphere.

Follow me as I point out features. At the bottom just below the earth’s crust is the asthenosphere, also called the upper mantle. Much simplified, it is a vast area of very hot, semi liquid or plastic-like magma, thousands of miles in depth.  Above that is the lithosphere. Originally, in Adam’s perfect world, it was a perfect sphere, an unbroken shell, surrounding the earth at least 15 miles thick. At the flood, that lithosphere was violently broken into the great tectonic plates we know about today. Above the lithosphere is what I call the balance area of basalt/eclogite rock on which the continental granite rests. Possibly, balance is achieved by a phase change from eclogite to basalt, which are two phases of the same material. If continental weight is increased, the basalt is compressed more into eclogite. If decreased, some of the eclogite releases into basalt. (At least that is what I think about it). Ice expands 8 percent when by a phase change it transforms from water to ice. Eclogite expands by 14 per cent when it transforms into basalt. The magma from the asthenosphere when cooled is capable of transforming into many different rock types per the Bowen reaction series. Norman Bowen, a Canadian geochemist discovered in early twentieth century that magma, after cooling, can be transformed into many different rock types controlled by many factors.

5. VISIBLE EVIDENCE OF LAVA FOUNTAINS

Driving through the Columbia Gorge basalt deposits local to us in the Pacific NW, the walls tower

900 feet high in places, and stretch from near Idaho to near the Pacific Ocean. The huge gap between both sides of the river (hard to visualize two to three miles wide) was once filled with magma that wide and 900 feet high). Those were all red hot lava flows when they extruded over Washington and Oregon State. Without question, they come from the “great deep” which is the asthenosphere below the earth’s crust. A better description for their source cannot be imagined than “from the great deep.” And they are all certainly came from “fountains.” Reporters on the recent lava flows (May 2018) gushing from Kilauea in Hawaii routinely called them by that name, “fountains of lava.” Geologically we would call the “great deep” the upper mantle or the asthenosphere  just below the earth’s lithosphere crust. That is the “great deep” where all the enormous lava flows and all volcanoes come from. Surely, no water fountains at all are down there.

See the world map handout “D.” Notice the Deccan traps in India, hundreds of feet in thickness with an area equal to the state of California, ten times larger than the Columbia River basalts local to us in Washington/Oregon. The Siberian traps in Russia are equal to five times the size of the Deccan traps or fifty times our local Columbia River flow, or equal to five states of California. In China is the huge Emeishan province. In the South Pacific is another huge one called the Ontong Java plateau not shown on this map. All of Iceland is made from lava flows. Wikipedia says there are 18 huge flood basalt flows or LIP’s (Large igneous provinces) but we can count more than that.

Now add to that hundreds of volcanoes worldwide. There are 1500 volcanoes on land areas of the world, all active during the flood. Twenty five of them are still erupting today. Be assured, like the asteroids, none of these blemishes in our world existed while Adam and Eve had their innocence about 7000 years ago and probably not until God decided to judge the world in Noah’s day. God created a “very good” world.

The flood basalt flows which created the large igneous provinces were, indeed, fountains, and they certainly originated from the great deep and they are just too obvious to be ignored. They must be accounted for in the geological record as well as the biblical record. They fulfill the “fountains” depiction of Genesis 7:11 in both the geological and biblical record, water fountains do not even come close to that.

We have a battered and literally bleeding planet, and the flood basalts and volcanoes world wide are undeniable proof of it. It has been bleeding lava, profusely at first, and continuing to this day on a micro level. Like an egg, cracked and bleeding, our earth has been bleeding lava for 4500 or perhaps 5000 years depending on which chronologist you use. So we have copious evidence for magma fountains all over the world. Now let’s gather all the evidence for water fountains around our globe. That evidence follows here. Watch carefully! Wait patiently, don’t hold your breath too long.

That’s it. On the blank lines here is all the evidence that the fountains of the great deep were water fountains, that is, exactly none. Yes, it rained forty days and nights but that was from the heated oceans caused by all the volcanic activity, giving us el ninyo multiplied many times and worldwide. Of course, drenching rain was inevitable from heated oceans.

6. POSSIBLE SEQUENCE OF FLOOD EVENTS

Let me describe the Flood events in sequence as I see them including the geological events to make the whole concept more understandable and credible. But my description is not necessary to the central theme and must not be insisted as without any error.  I will give my non-professional opinion but any errors will not endanger my thesis. The word of God is the only infallible source. We will support my opinion with factual geology later.

First, a perfect planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter is blown to smithereens, perhaps by a head-on interstellar comet or something else. God wanted men to know this judgment was from heaven. Biblical credibility for such a precision catastrophe is found in I Kings 22 and II Chronicles 18 when Ahab, in a double cross, attempted to murder king Jehoshaphat by the hand of Syrian soldiers. But he was slain himself by a “random” arrow. A Syrian soldier “drew a bow at a venture” but God controlled the mind and muscles of that soldier and even the winds that blew, so the “random” arrow precisely penetrated a chink in the armor of king Ahab, thus killing the murderer. So precisely God controls human events, as well as the source of the asteroids. Control of that Syrian arrow has profound theological implications.

Most of the debris from that planet blowup is de-orbited into the sun and Jupiter but a tiny, tiny fraction remains as the asteroid belt we know today. Impacts are splattered all over the solar system, which are visible today, most of them small, but one huge one of “Goldilocks” size must have been directed in the will of God to impact the earth in a precise location of God’s choosing. Thus our earth sustained an impact of such magnitude to cause it to bulge the ocean floor or collapse the continental supports or both. It broke the perfect lithosphere shell into fifteen huge tectonic plates plus some little ones. Then it bled magma all over the world, thus creating hundreds of volcanoes, seamounts, dozens of “hotspots” and large igneous provinces (LIP’s). This impact was utterly horrendous.

Genesis indicates only one single continent originally and geophysicists agree.  Imagine that this huge asteroid penetrated the lithosphere, perhaps in the center of the continent, and deep into the upper mantle (also called the asthenosphere). There the impact caused an explosion or other shattering power source, which violently swells the earth enough to elevate the ocean floor as well as to crack and break the lithosphere shell into the many great moving, grinding, tectonic plates we have today. As dynamite exploding in the center of a huge boulder can fracture the entire block into fragments, so the lithosphere was broken into about fifteen big divisions called tectonic plates. Perhaps only one or a few major cracks developed initially and therafter the cracks propagated and all the plates were generated, jostling against one another violently, multiplying the breaks throughout the lithosphere. It’s hard to imagine how it all happened. The earth was in convulsion.

The molten, shaken, and for a while, vibrating asthenosphere finds the many new cracks in the lithosphere and begins to extrude magma through those cracks. Thousands of enormous clumps of magma, form above the lithosphere, and immediately form a skin of hardened eclogite/basalt (and many other materials) thus trapping the molten clump in a solid rock magma chamber. Confined in an immense chamber, more of each clump cools internally to form more solid expanding products, the remaining magma, trapped in the magma chamber expands to more volume than the original magma itself, thus, with no other place to go, magma is forced through its vent. Magma also contains much water dissolved in itself, which is released from solution and forms high pressure, super heated steam along with many other gases. Because the magma is trapped in its chamber, the expansion forces magma out of its only vent, thus we have volcanic eruptions all over the planet, mostly in land areas and seamounts in ocean areas.

I will refer often to a “balance area” but frankly I know very little about its nature. But I assume that phase change of basalt to eclogite somehow helps to make that “balance” work. It is a long distance from the asthenosphere (upper mantle) to the top of the continent but only a short distance from upper mantle to the balance zone, so without doubt the balance zone was flooded with magma profusely under the entire continent.  Now see handout “C.” Note it is about 100 miles from top of continent to the asthenosphere but only 20 miles or so from asthenosphere to the balance area. Surely the great volume of magma intrusion took place in the lower “balance” areas invisible to us. With the balance area dissolved by heat, we can imagine large areas sinking the continent until it rested directly on the lithosphere. While the continent sank it left huge gaps between the granite continent and the lithosphere, which filled with magma, waiting to harden and thus jack up the continents and large islands five months later.

Depending on where the impact landed (and you may be sure it hit exactly where it accomplished God’s purpose) probably there was more magma available in some zones than elsewhere. Let me guess that below the continent was the maximum activity – – – just a guess although the distribution of seamounts tends to help that view. The basalt/eclogite balance zone suddenly was invaded by molten magma under the entire continent which dissolved the balance zone there, so resistance to continental sinking became zero. But the very hot magma also gouged huge areas above it in the base of the granite continent additionally, which were also filled with magma.

The asthenosphere is thought to be slow moving and sticky, but volcanoes and LIP,s when extruded are anything but slow moving or plastic appearing. So what provides the transformation? Could it be that under the perfect Edenic lithosphere everything was under its normal high pressure and temperature, a perfect lithosphere with an unbroken shell safely protecting above earth’s lithosphere from destructive heat? But when the plates were cracked and magma forced through the cracks, and magma, flowing above the lithosphere, after passing through a zone of molten rock with high water content and still disturbed from impact, magma began moving like we know it moves today. With the earth in turmoil and for a while vibrating, suddenly, the magma was free to move. Volcano eruptions are sometimes described as ready to release gas like soda pop releases a huge fiz when shaken on a hot day. Lower pressures above lithosphere, as everything was in turmoil from the impact, excited the fountains of the great deep into brisk activity. Remember, I define lithosphere as the area of tectonic plates and NOT including the continent above it.

7. PHASE CHANGE IN BASALT/ECLOGITE A CONTRIBUTOR TO SINKING AND RISING

The basalt and eclogite are formed from the magma as it cools. This creates a balance mechanism. These are two phases of the same material like water and ice are two phases of the same material. As noted earlier, water expands 8% when it transforms into ice, but eclogite expands 14% when transformed into basalt. Neither basalt nor eclogite are liquid, both are always solid. If the weight above it is increased, the denser eclogite increases to compensate. Decrease the weight and the basalt increases, which is why I call it a balance zone.

But the loss of so much magma in the upper mantle (asthenosphere) just below the lithosphere, also created a void in the asthenosphere which also contributed to the continent sinking during the five month sink period, as it immediately filled that void with the weight of the continent, crushing into the void.

Estimates vary from at least 100,000 to as many as many as 53 million seamounts which are volcano starters about 1 km high. They are beginning volcanoes but which never developed into a full blown vent because they intruded into the ocean water and were immediately cooled by that water, thus arresting their development. The significance of the seamounts and their ubiquitous locations is that it shows, after the breaking of the lithosphere into plates, the magma, extruding through the newly formed cracks, went essentially everywhere under the continent and above the lithosphere, because there are seamounts almost everywhere in the oceans. The seamounts mostly failed to develop into big volcanoes (with many exceptions) but under the continent which was already quite hot and only surrounded by ocean periferally, the magma succeeded in penetrating to the balance area holding up the continent. Thus the eclogite/basalt melted into its component magma destroying its ability to uphold the continent. Thus the continent sank at least 1020 feet (if the highest elevation of pre-flood earth was 1000 feet, or 2020 feet if the highest pre-flood elevation was 2000 feet) not a great distance in geological terms but it did the job.

8. POSSIBLE MECHANISMS FOR THE PLANETS RETURN TO SEMI-EQUILIBRIUM

At this point we transfer from continent sinking in five months to raising it again in about seven months per Genesis chapter eight. Much guesswork again, so if anyone has it better, let me know.

During continental sinking, the single continent was also split into multiple continental fragments with which we are familiar today, the Americas, Africa, Asia, etc. Each piece automatically formed a ring of solid rock as the magma hardened at its periphery from the cool surrounding oceans. This created a sort of corral around each continent or large island, so as further magma is forced inside this “corral,” it also formed a sort of huge magma chamber (or perhaps multiple chambers) under each fragment, the periphery always hardening into a solid rock corral. Then in a short time the intruded magma, under each continent trapped inside the “corral” also cools and hardens with its inevitable expansion, helping to lift the continents and large islands. Is it possible that a network of chambers under each large mass was created?

Also the huge void in the asthenosphere under the lithosphere was gradually refilled from adjacent areas of the slow moving, plastic-like asthenosphere, during the seven month raising period, thus further contributing to the re-elevation of the continents.

After the five month sinking period the magma which had invaded the balance zones hardened into basalt and eclogite and other materials, thus expanding their volume. That expansion helped to elevate the continent again, but because much greater masses of magma intruded the balance zone than its rock equivalent was there originally, and the voids in the asthenosphere were slowly replaced during the seven month restoration, the total uplift was greater than the descent, lifting the continents and large islands in some areas much higher than where it was before the impact. So we have the high plateau and mountain areas today. Mountains are indeed lifted by plate tectonic forces also, notably the India plate lifting and distorting the Himalayas, and the Andes in South America. But the continental uplift, by magma intrusion, made its contribution in creating high plateaus worldwide and perhaps even much more dramatically than tectonic plate forces. Plate tectonics probably lifted the highest jagged peaks above the high plateaus.

Is it possible that under the continents a “bearing” and “non-bearing” network of magma developed which hardened into basalt / eclogite thus lifting the continents by small amounts? Then magma could seep (under high pressures) at that depth to fill the many voids in the non – bearing network. Then is it possible that the magma in the non-bearing network hardens and expands and becomes the bearing network and thus lifting the continents some more? So the bearing and non-bearing networks trade back and forth, lifting the continent in increments. As soon as any area achieves enough force to lift any one zone, it also creates a void for more magma to infiltrate and start the lift process in that adjacent zone. Far fetched? Maybe so, but let the reader figure out better scenarios. Geologists have made many attempts to explain “uplifts” so any explanation of uplifts might be worthy of evaluation for post flood restoration.

After the final uplifts, the released magma was under such pressure, without forming volcanoes, that the magma found its way high above even the recently elevated continental surface. We call them LIP’s, that is, large igneous provinces on the surface of the earth, distributed fairly equally in deposits all over the world. (See page “B” of supplied handouts). These must have occurred late in the flood activities to be deposited above the newly elevated continental locations.

Again, I am assuming continental sinking and re-elevation rather than ocean floor swelling and restoration as the mechanism of the Genesis Flood but either one or even both might have been involved. Flat top seamounts called guyots created at sea level are now found 5000 feet below sea level, implying a sinking ocean floor and providing that possible explanation for the restoration of all the continents.

Here is a good question to ask at this point. What items in all this description could not be easily fulfilled in the 4500 (or 5000) years including and since the Flood? Asteroid impact? Thirty seconds for that plus a few centuries of major activity, then 4500 years of consequent activity, continuing even today. Volcanic fountains of lava? That took a few days or months and continues today on a micro-micro level. The continent sinking took five months. Rising took seven months. So which geological processes could not have occurred in 4500 years? There are none. All is reasonable within a 4500 year frame, most of it in one year. All of it could easily fit in that time frame. Indeed, it all happened in 4500 or 5000 years with no difficulty.

Do I know how it all worked? Certainly not. These are guesses from a man who does not even qualify as a beginner, much less a serious student, of geology, but I am one who has a vital interest in explaining the biblical flood. My guesses could be all wrong. That would change nothing of the fact of a global Flood. One may know essentially nothing of geology, but we can be guided by the word of God. That much is more secure than the pyramids of Egypt or Gibraltar or the earth on its axis.

No doubt, there are more explanatory ideas that I have not thought about. Everything offered here, in geology so far, are just thoughts and ideas. No surprise if some or many errors are involved. But any complaints simply invite better solutions from people like you, my reader, or geophysicists, but they must fit the biblical limits. That part is secure.

All this must be put into mathematical language, from measurable parameters. I hope to interest some Bible believing geophysicists to accomplish this and thus set the theory into convincing data form. But remember it originated, not from geological guessing, but from contextual understanding of Genesis 1:31, Genesis 7:11, Amos 7:4-6, Genesis 1:9-10, II Peter 3:5-6 and Isaiah 24. Also from the general Bible picture everywhere.  Not every translation of those texts are accurate, many are even misleading so beware with a prayerful search.

We have based our conclusions on plain statements from the Bible record including, centrally, a “very good” perfect original creation. To understand geology from a biblical view our first demand is faith in Bible truth. That comes, not from intellectual expertise, but from a person-to-person acquaintance with God, nurtured over time. Then multiplied experiences with discoveries over and over again, strengthens our trust, when the Bible proves to be true in test after test. Must we have years of spiritual experience? Not really. If you are new in the Lord, your trust can be based on a brief, but solid transforming encounter. Never had that? Then just earnestly ask God to show you the truth. Sincere persistent seekers NEVER fail to find the truth. But all this is a prerequisite for understanding geology from a biblical view. The literal Bible harmonized with known geology is my goal. We take the Bible first – – – matching the Bible with geology comes after that. I firmly believe that all the errors abounding in the many erroneous theories of men have their source in neglect of careful Bible consideration of simple-to-understand passages. Some references are badly translated also, so must be corrected by simple steps of logic, directed by the Spirit of God. Once understood they make the best geologic sense by far.

Today in geology we hear about things like folds, thrust faults, plate subduction, fractures, etc, which are factually true, but the sinking and re-elevation took place before all that. That catastrophic event, described in the Bible followed by restoration, created the geology we have today. We all seek sensible answers and it is gratifying to have answers that fit the Bible, physical facts and reason. A more detailed description of the post Flood geology, as I understand it, is in my book review of The Grand Canyon: Monument to an Ancient Earth Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI 49505. My review is a rebuttal of that book with an antidote to its mistaken theses, and gives a much more detailed picture of flood events, fossils, sedimentary layers, excavation of the Grand Canyon, etc (available from the address below).

Briefly, in a very short sketch of my book review, during continental sinking, massive oceanic erosion was completed world wide down to the Great Unconformity. Vast deposits of strata were first eroded, then new strata was laid down as the continent sank. Then when uplift began the world was greatly eroded again as vast oceans were departing from the uplifting land. Grand Canyon was easily eroded in a few weeks or months as the continents and large islands rose. An ocean was departing from the land. Try to picture such horrendous events. Mountain ranges were elevated at the same time and continents shifted by sliding to the positions we see today until we have the current topography.

Isotope dating is often cited as a “proof” for old ages of organic fossils. Planet earth can be old enough to account for isotope ratios in the precambrian rocks. The universe age accounts for starlight time, but biblically, any fossil of living organisms cannot be older than about 7000 years. Isotope dating is a clever tool and some day may be very valuable. It already is, especially for carbon 14 dating of deceased organisms up to two or three thousand years, but the other methods attempting millions of years are subject to numerous fallacies and guesswork. See creationist publications on this subject but caution – many of these good creationist people promote a non-biblical young planet Earth and young universe.

9. THE “WHY” OF THE FLOOD – – – THE BOTTOM LINE FOR US

Now comes the important part. The Flood was a terrible judgment from God on world wide sin. We theorize about how it happened, but we must not miss the point of why it happened. Jesus died for all the sins of the world, pre-Flood and to our day and into the future. Only God could accomplish the forgiveness of sins. I think the impact on earth, bleeding and battered, is a type or figure of the death of Christ on the Cross. “This is my body, broken for you.” In our search for a workable mechanism explaining the Flood, we can easily miss the point. Today we are witnessing the calamity on earth of a world rejecting God and His truth, thus compounding sins on the earth. Not yet does it equal the sins of Noah’s day or of Sodom but it is approaching that – we are heading that direction.

This question is obvious: Do any of us men imagine that our human-kind today will escape the judgment clearly announced by Jesus Himself?  The first word publically recorded by both John the Baptist  and also Jesus was, “Repent,” and “Repent.” The global Flood should forewarn all of us sinners, judgment is coming to our world. Scripture assures us, Jesus is coming again, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and who do not obey the good news, who shall be punished with eternal destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (II Thessalonians 1:8).

May I suggest a question for each of us to ponder right now? “Have each of us repented of ALL OUR SINS? “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” That is Hebrews 2:2. Then after 12 chapters of irresistible reasoning, the writer of Hebrews concludes, “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape Him who spoke on earth (from Mt. Sinaii) then much more we shall not  escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven. Whose voice then shook the earth, but now He says, Yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.” Read it again from Hebrews – the whole book – with its crescendo in chapter 12. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and He shall make known the counsels of our hearts (I Cor 4:5). Yes, He is a “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12ff). We shall NOT escape if we neglect so great salvation.

Oh, you don’t have any sins? Hmmmm. Those who acknowledge their guilt with a broken and contrite heart may confidently claim Jesus’ forgiveness, He is eager to forgive the broken and contrite heart but the proud will perish eternally.

 

revised 8/23/2018