A Flood of Flood Legends
2 Peter 3:5-6
“For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.”
Today it is considered scholarly to reject the Bible’s account of a worldwide flood. Some try to compromise by saying that the flood recorded in the Bible was only a local event. The problem with these scholarly claims is that there were too many witnesses who disagree with them.
We can test these scholars’ claims. If the Bible’s account of a worldwide flood is true, it was witnessed by every person on earth. The story of this event would have been passed down to their descendants and spread across the whole face of the earth.
Researchers have catalogued some 270 stories of an ancient destructive flood in various cultures around the world. A large majority of these stories have been shown to predate any Christian influence. As one would expect, details differ after such a long time. What’s remarkable, though, is that where the details of these stories agree with the Bible, they also tend to agree with each other. For example, the ancient Greek flood hero was told to build and stock an ark because the god Zeus wished to destroy humanity. The Aztec story of a universal flood says it took place 1,716 years after the creation of the world—almost the same as the Bible’s date! The Babylonian flood story shares seven major details with the Bible’s account. Similar stories are found around the world, including Australia, India, Scandinavia and China.
The universality of the flood stories and their similarity to the Bible cannot be explained unless they are based on an event that actually took place.
Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, I thank You that Your Word is sure and true and that it has been accurately preserved to our day. Help me to live Your Word in my life and tell others about the wonderful things You have done. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Author: Paul A. Bartz
REF.: Roth, Ariel A. 1990. Flood stories—can they be ignored? Origins, v. 17, n. 2. p. 51.
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