“Biblical” Flood in Australia?

A news report on the msnbc.com news website had the headline, “First victim dies in Australia's 'biblical' flood.”

The article then goes on to report on the devastating floods that have occurred recently (and are still occurring) in my homeland. Half of my home state of Queensland is affected. Lives have been lost. Property destroyed and damaged. Massive loss of crops. There is no doubt the floods (local floods) have resulted in terrible tragedy.

At one stage in the article we read, “‘In many ways, it is a disaster of biblical proportions,’ Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser told reporters in the flooded city of Bundaberg on Saturday.”

But is it really a “biblical flood,” and is the flood disaster of “biblical proportions”?

The answer is no—not even close. As devastating as these floods have been, they can’t even be compared to the biblical Flood of Genesis 6–9. The real biblical Flood was a global catastrophe. Even if the whole of Australia was flooded, it is still not even close to the Flood of Noah’s day. We need to understand that Noah’s Flood was worldwide—all (and this is repeated a number of times in the Bible) the land under the whole of heaven was covered.

And if you want to see what such a global Flood would do, then look at the layers of the Grand Canyon and observe at the bottom where the devastating Flood sheared off the basement rock. These layers give just a little glimpse of the catastrophism that occurred over the entire globe at the time of Noah’s day.

Even many Christians don’t really understand how catastrophic Noah’s Flood actually was.

Now our hearts certainly go out to the many people in Australia affected by this local catastrophe. But even here we can be reminded of another great truth from Scripture. God established the rainbow covenant after the Flood (Genesis 9) to be a reminder that He will never again Flood the earth as He did in Noah’s day (which was a judgment because of man’s rebellion/sin). We have seen lots of local floods since Noah’s day. We are seeing lots of local floods right now in Australia. But there will never be another global Flood—next time the global judgment will be by fire, according to 2 Peter 3 (now that is the global warming that is coming that we can all be sure about).

And that rainbow promise is one more piece of biblical evidence that the Flood was global. Because if it was merely a local flood in the Mesopotamian Valley (modern-day Iraq), as many Christians who are compromised with millions of years believe, then God lied to Noah. Only a global Flood fits the rainbow promise.

Here is the passage from Genesis:

“And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said, “This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”

And God said unto Noah, “This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.” (Genesis 9:11–17)

Ken