We often think of the Genesis Flood as an act of God. But, might the Genesis Flood be the result of a natural rainstorm, as some are teaching?
There was nothing “natural” about the Genesis Flood. It had never rained up to that time. There was only mist that watered the earth (Genesis 2:5–6). Moreover, more than rain was involved in the Genesis Flood. Genesis 7:11 says that the fountains of the great deep were broken up. This certainly does not happen during a natural rainstorm.
The context of the Flood of Noah is clearly one of divine judgment. In Genesis 6:13–14 we read: “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.”
The reason why Noah was to build the ark was because God was going to destroy a sinful and violent humanity. Since God was bringing judgment upon the earth He commanded Noah to prepare for judgment by making an ark.
Genesis 8:21 defines this judgment as God’s “curse”: “And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
The Genesis Flood was clearly a judgment from God for something man had done.
Scripture tells us that God caused the rain to fall on the earth for forty days and for forty nights (Genesis 7:4). Isn’t forty the number of judgment?
It sure is. Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Jonah’s message to Nineveh was, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4).
So, yes, forty is the number of judgment. It is clear that the Genesis Flood was an act of divine judgment.
It’s clear that this Flood we read about in the Book of Genesis was no ordinary rainstorm. But why would anyone want to teach that it was just a natural rainstorm?
It is part of the postmodern process that we are seeing today. At one time, people believed in absolute truth. Something is true for all people and for all times. Then society moved into modernism. Modernism believes that there is absolute truth, but that absolute truth is not to be found in the Bible.
But now we have moved beyond modernism to postmodernism. This is the view that there is no absolute truth. Truth is whatever you believe. And part of postmodernism is to completely remove God from the picture. Whatever has happened is just part of a series of random, natural processes, like a rainstorm.
Such thinking is completely out of line with Scripture. There is such a thing as truth, and it can be found in Scripture. Moreover, those who depart from the truth will be judged. Such thinking is not politically correct, but it is true nonetheless.