Noah’s flood was a global flood. That means the water totally covered the entire globe.
There’s really no way to get around it, unless you’re willing to do hermeneutical (interpretative) gymnastics with the Bible. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament affirm the global nature of the flood:
“And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die” (Genesis 6:17).
“Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died” (Genesis 7:17–22).
“But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:37–39).
“Who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water” (1 Peter 3:20).
And yet despite the absolute clarity of Scripture, so many scholars, Christian leaders, and others still insist the flood could have been local. That’s not because of the text—it’s because they have already adopted the idea of millions of years of slow and gradual processes. Man’s interpretation of geology is now the authority, not the Word of God.
Dr. Hugh Ross is one of these compromising leaders who has adopted man’s ideas and added them into the Bible, including in a new book that he recently talked about with Eric Metaxas.
It’s so discouraging to see men like Dr. Ross and Eric Metaxas influencing so many people to abandon the authority of God’s Word and instead adopt man’s word as they reinterpret the clear teaching of Scripture. It’s an attack on biblical authority.
Because of men like them, so many Christian colleges and other institutions have likewise abandoned biblical authority, adopting man’s word as their real authority. I am very thankful for the minority—and, sadly, it is the minority—of Christian colleges who stand on God’s Word in every area from the very first verse.
