Hugh Ross

But it also puts the flood early enough in human history that the flood can wipe out the entire world of humanity and all their animals without being global.

And that's the number one reason why people reject the biblical account.

They think it's speaking about a global flood.

Rather, it's speaking about a worldwide flood.

The world of humanity was wiped out.

But if you have the event early enough, the world of humanity is a local region.

I mean, there weren't humans in North and South America until 16,500 years ago.

And likewise, Australia wasn't settled until 40,000 to 50,000 years ago.

The big major melt events were 47,000 to 85,000 years ago.

So I make the argument that I waited to bring the book out.

until we really had solid data confirming the events of Genesis 10 and 11.

And if you can nail down the dates for that, you've got a good idea of the date for Noah's flood.

Well, Genesis 10 and 11 speak about the great scatterings of humanity.

I mean, Genesis 11, we see that humanity is repeating the mistake of what happened before the flood.

They were staying in one region, disobeying God's command to multiply and fill the earth, and even built a city in a huge tower so they would not be scattered over the face of the earth.

And God knew that was a prescription for runaway evil.

His plan all along was there would be multiple nations that would have to compete with one another for citizens, which would act as a check against a government oppressing its citizens.

You know, if one nation oppresses too much,

they get up and leave and go to another nation.

And so God forcibly scattered humanity over the face of the earth.