Genesis 4-11
Thru the Scriptures—Chap 4-11

Contents

Quick facts……………………………………………………..2

Daily Study…………………………………………………….3

Pictures of Jesus in Genesis 4-11.……………………………...5

Chapter 4 thoughts and helps…………………………………..6

Where Did Cain Find His Wife? Bruce Malone……….9

Cain’s wife—who was she? (AiG article) ……………11

Chapter 5 thoughts and helps………………………………...21

The Gospel in Genesis by Chuck Missler …………...22

Chapter 6-8 thoughts and helps………………………………28

Points To Ponder About The Flood Kent Hovind…...33

Mt. St. Helens Creation Evidence Bruce Malone…….36

Chapters 9-11 Thoughts and Helps…………………………..38

Babel by John Whitcomb…………………………….39

Pictures of Jesus in Genesis 4-11

Abel was a type of Jesus. He was a shepherd who offered a lamb which was acceptable to God. He was hated without a cause, and killed by his brother. He died violently, and his blood cries out from the ground. Who does that sound like, but Jesus? The only difference is Abel’s blood cried out vengeance. Jesus’ blood cries out mercy.
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Noah’s ark is also a type of Jesus.
First, the ark was made of wood – a symbol for humanity. Wood is an object that was once living, but is now dead – just like mankind. Jesus was without sin, but He came to Earth in the form of a man.
Note the ark was 3 decks, yet 1 ship. God is 3 persons, yet 1 God.
Remember, both Noah and Jesus were carpenters. Both built a judgment-proof means of salvation, and invited all who would enter to come.
In Genesis 50:6 we’re told the bones of Joseph were placed in an ark. There the ark was a coffin, just as it is here. Think about it, on the ark Noah and his family died to their past life, their former relationships, their old environment. The old life was gone, and they were given a whole new life. Likewise, for those of us who are in Christ – we also, die to the old life. When we come to Christ a new man emerges - we enter a new environment—with a whole new way to live.
Everyone on the ark was safe and secure. It was water-proofed inside and out. God even shut the door! And when you’re in Christ you’re as saved as you can get!
There was only one ark, and there’s only one means of salvation - through Jesus. Notice, the ark had only one door. Jesus said, “I am the door”. He is the only way to God. And note, where the door is located – in the side of the ark. It was out of that door that life came to repopulate the earth – and it was from Jesus’ side that the blood was spilt which enables you and me to experience new life. (similar picture—it was out of Adam’s side that Eve was created…)
The ark was also not just a shelter from the storm, but Noah stored supplies on the ark. It was a source of sustenance. Likewise Jesus is not only our Savior, but He satisfies our deepest needs. He provides us abundant life.
Noah entered the ark because he believed in God’s promise to protect him through the storm, and likewise we enter
Christ by faith in God’s promise.
And finally, it’s fascinating that the ark landed on Mount Ararat on Nisan 17th. That’s the exact day of the year Jesus rose from the dead. The resting of the ark and the resurrection of Jesus both marked new beginnings for mankind.Chapter 4 thoughts and helps

What was the reason that God rejected Cain’s sacrifice? Well, to be honest—that is a little bit of a debate. Some see the reason his sacrifice was rejected was because it was not a blood sacrifice, others say that it nowhere declares that this had to be a blood sacrifice—but instead—it was a heart issue.

For those who point to the sacrifice being the wrong type of sacrifice—there is a lot to say. Hebrews tells us that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Although we don’t have that recorded yet for us in Genesis—it is not to say that such an understanding was not already given.
In a sense, Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with fig leaves—and that was unacceptable. God killed the first animal...probably a sheep—and covered their nakedness. Perhaps in that He began to communicate the need for a blood sacrifice. Perhaps it was taught...even though it is not directly recorded.
It is true, that there is a picture of Christ in this sacrifice, and from an allegorical standpoint—there is a need for it to be a blood sacrifice.
Further, a non-blood sacrifice would be a picture of someone who is trying to come to God on their own terms. Some think that their good deeds, religious activities and even meditations should counterbalance their sin. But that is not so, you cannot come to God on your own terms. God’s answer to sin is a sacrifice!

Others point out, that God does not specifically say that the sacrifice was wrong...but that Cain was wrong. It says in v.4 that “God did not respect Cain and his offering.” God’s solution was that Cain would “do well” and then he and his sacrifice would be accepted.
Furthermore, although blood sacrifices were required for sin offerings, there were sacrifices that were given to God that were not blood sacrifices that are detailed later for us in Leviticus—Meal offerings, First fruit offerings and more.
It seems that this may be more than a wrong sacrifice—but the danger of coming to God in a surface or hypocritical fashion. This is a truth underlined from one end of the Bible to the other. Over and over God shows that external conformity without their hearts engaged—was never what He wanted.
Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, (Is 29:13)
Isaiah 1 and many other passages show the same thing. Jesus often spoke against this type of hypocrisy. One that would seek to do what was right on the outside—but the heart far from Him.

So which is it? Was Cain’s sacrifice rejected because it was not a blood sacrifice or was it rejected because he was wrong, that it was a heart issue? Many have and will argue over these things. When it comes down to it, and perhaps I am being far to simplistic—either way—it is a heart issue. If Cain was supposed to bring a blood sacrifice and refused to do so—it was a mark of arrogance, pride and rebellion— a heart issue. If it was all because he was in the wrong place, that God won’t accept a sacrifice in a hypocritical manner –then it was a heart issue. So, I know I am being simple—but I am a simple kind of guy—either way—it was a heart issue.
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God noted that the rebellion in Cain’s heart, was like sin crouching at your door. It is a powerful picture of sin in our lives, and shows us that this was the real issue with Cain-sin seeking him out. So the lesson for you an me is that sacrifices have to be brought God’s way. We cannot bring our own sacrifices that God does not call for, and we cannot just go through the motions and be acceptable to God—He wants our hearts.
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“The LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" And the answer for Cain, and us, is “Yes!” In the parable of Good Samaritan Jesus agrees! No man is an island. God wants us to sense the responsibility to care for the people around us.

Evolutionary propaganda causes us to assume the ancients were primitive people – and gradually advanced in their knowledge and know-how, but not so. All over the world there are ancient stories of very advanced civilizations that were lost in flood. The story of Atlantis is a good example.

I believe the pre-food world featured a highly advanced and sophisticated society, that might even rival the modern world. The pyramids of Egypt and England’s Stonehenge are possible examples of the technology of the pre-flood world. We know Adam had a brilliant intellect. Even after his sin I’m sure he’d still do well on the SAT. It’s probable his immediate descendants were also extremely smart.
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Where did Cain get his wife? It is perhaps funny, but this is one of the most asked questions to those who believe the Genesis account literally. Later in this pamphlet I have put an article of someone who will address this in further detail—but the simple answer—is it was his sister. Reasoning it from a simple and Biblical view—there are no other options. It tells us Adam and Even had many other sons and daughters. Where Did Cain Find His Wife? Bruce Malone

The following is the paraphrased essence of on of the critical junctures in American history. The scene is the 1923 Scopes Monkey Trial, and defense attorney Clarence Darrow had goaded prosecuting attorney Williams Jennings Bryan to take the stand in defense of the Bible.

This article is one of many found within Mr. Malone's excellent book, Search for the Truth. Mr. Bryan. the defense has one final question,' Where did Cain find a wife?' The answer "I don't know." “Could you repeat your answer Mr. Bryan? The entire nation is listening via radio broadcast and this is a pretty basic and simple question. Let me rephrase it. If, as the Bible claims, Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, and no other people existed, who did their son Cain find to marry?" His answer "I don't know."

Darrow made Bryan appear foolish, because he did not know scripture well enough to defend the most basic of questions.

This trial marked a turning point in American education, because for the first time the Bible was openly ridiculed. Bryan's inability to answer simple and logical questions was one factor allowing the American educational establishment to accept evolution hook, line, and sinker, while rejecting the historical creation account of the Bible.

Even today most Christians do not know the answer to questions as basic as " Where did Cain find a wife?" The problem with not having reasonable answers to basic questions as basic questions is that it brings all if Christianity into question. Why should people believe in a God whom they cannot see, if believers in that God cannot answer life’s simplest questions about the past and our origin's?

The reason the answer to this question is not immediately apparent is that we have all been trained to think like evolutionists. Evolution was founded on a principle of modern geology called uniformitarianism. This is the belief that small changes over vast periods of time caused the massive geologic (and later Darwin added biological) changes we see around us. In essence, we are trained to believe that everything has essentially operated as we see it today. However, this is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that mankind was created perfect, without flaws. It was only after man's disobedience that imperfection entered God's creation. Thus mankind, as originally created, would not have had the myriad of genetic mistakes now present in our mistakes now present in our DNA. In opposition of what evolution teaches, mutations or mistakes on our DNA, do not lead to better and improved humans. These mistakes cause hundreds of debilitating illnesses and birth defects. The reason all of us are not born with enormous numbers of medical problems is because our genes are a combination of the characteristics of our parents. Only when both parents have the same mistake in their genes do their children manifest the resulting genetic problem.

Furthermore, these genetic mistakes accumulate and increase with time. In other words, the information in our DNA gets more garbled-it never increases in clarity. Since mistakes are accumulated in our DNA, it is logical to assume that as we go back in time there would be less mistakes. The reason brothers and sisters cannot marry today is because they are likely to have similar DNA errors leading to children with birth defects. However, there were no moral laws against children intermarrying until after the time of Moses. This was approximately 4,000 years ago and at least 2,000 years after the creation of mankind. Before that time sibling marriage was probably quite common. The Bible states that Adam and Eve had MANY sons and daughters. Jewish tradition suggested that they had 33 sons and 23 daughters! Cain merely married his sister.

The reason we don't realize this obvious answer is because we have been trained to believe things have always been the way they are today. The past, and the present, becomes far more understandable as we view it from a Biblical perspective. This viewpoint acknowledges that the past, has at times, been very different than the present.Cain’s wife—who was she?
by Don Batten (editor), Ken Ham, Jonathan Sarfati, and Carl Wieland
First published in The Revised and Expanded Answers Book Chapter 8

It is not lawful to marry your sister, so who did Cain marry? Were there other people on the earth? Who lived in the land of Nod? Does this have any relevance to the gospel?

We don’t even know her name, yet she was discussed at the Scopes trial, mentioned in the play and movie Inherit the Wind1 and the book and movie Contact2, and has been talked about in countries all over the world. Is she the most-talked-about wife in history?

Skeptics have used Cain’s wife time and again to try to discredit the book of Genesis as a true historical record. Sadly, most Christians have not been able to give an adequate answer to this question. As a result, the world thinks Christians cannot defend the authority of Scripture and, thus, the Christian faith.

For instance, at the historic Scopes trial in Tennessee in 1925, William Jennings Bryan, the prosecutor who stood for the Christian faith, failed to answer the question about Cain’s wife posed by the outspokenly anti-Christian ACLU 3 lawyer Clarence Darrow.4
The world’s press was focused on this trial, and what they heard has affected Christianity to this day—Christians are seen as unable to defend the Biblical record. And skeptics then make the logically fallacious jump of concluding that the Biblical record is indefensible!

The atheist Carl Sagan used this same question in his book Contact5 (which was on The New York Times best-seller list), and the movie Contact, which was based on Sagan’s book, also used it.
In the book, the fictional character Ellie relates that she could not get answers about Cain’s wife, and other questions, from a minister’s wife, who was the leader of a church discussion group.6
Sagan cleverly used common questions—such as ‘Who was Cain’s wife?’—questions that are often directed at Christians in an attempt to prove the Bible cannot be defended.

Sadly, most Christians probably could not answer these questions! And yet, there are answers. But, since most churches are lacking in the teaching of apologetics,7 particularly in regard to the Book of Genesis, most believers in the church are not ‘ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope in you’ (1 Peter 3:15).

Why is it important?
Many skeptics have claimed that, for Cain to find a wife, there must have been other ‘races’ of people on the Earth who were not descendants of Adam and Eve.

To many people, this question is a stumbling block to accepting the creation account in Genesis and its record of only one man and woman at the beginning of history—a record on which many Old and New Testament doctrines depend.

Defenders of the gospel must be able to show that all human beings are descendants of one man and one woman (Adam and Eve)—as only those people who are descendants of Adam and Eve can be saved. Thus, believers need to be able to account for Cain’s wife and show clearly that she was a descendant of Adam and Eve. (The relevant Bible passage is Genesis 4:1–5:5.)

Before we answer this question, we will first show how important it is to the meaning of the gospel.

The first man
‘Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned (Romans 5:12).’
We read in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that Adam was ‘the first man.’ God did not start by making a whole group of men.

The Bible makes it clear that only the descendants of Adam can be saved. Romans 5 teaches that we sin because Adam sinned. The death penalty, which Adam received as judgment for his sin of rebellion, also passed on to all his descendants.

Since Adam was the head of the human race when he ‘fell,’ we who were in the loins of Adam ‘fell’ also. Thus, we are all separated from God. The final consequence of sin would be separation from God in our sinful state forever. However, the good news is that there is a way for us to return to God!

Because a man brought sin and death into the world, all the descendants of Adam need a sinless Man to pay the penalty for sin and the resulting judgment of death. However, the Bible teaches that ‘all have sinned’ (Romans 3:23). What is the solution?
The last Adam
God provided the solution—a way to deliver man from his wretched state. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15 that God provided another Adam! The Son of God took on a human nature in addition to His full divinity, becoming a perfect God-man—Jesus Christ. In His humanity He was a descendant of Adam (through Noah, Abraham and David)—He thus became our relation! He is called ‘the last Adam’ (1 Corinthians 15:45), because he took the place of the first Adam. He became the new head and, because he was sinless, He was able to pay the penalty for sin:
‘For since by a man came death, by a man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:21–22).’8

Christ suffered death (the penalty for sin) on the cross, shedding his blood (‘without shedding of blood is no forgiveness’ Hebrews 9:22) so that those who repent of their sin of rebellion and put their trust in His work on the cross can be reconciled to God.

Since the Bible describes all human beings as sinners, except the God-Man Jesus, and we are all related (‘And He has made all nations of men of one blood to dwell on all the face of the Earth’ Acts 17:26), the gospel makes sense only on the basis that all humans alive and all who have ever lived are descendants of the first man Adam.9 If this were not so, then the gospel could not be explained or defended.

The Book of Hebrews amplifies how Jesus took upon himself the nature of a man to save mankind (Hebrews 2:11–18). Seven centuries before this happened, the Prophet Isaiah spoke of Him as literally the ‘Kinsman-Redeemer,’ i.e. one who is related by blood to those he redeems (Isaiah 59:20, uses the same Hebrew word goel as used to describe Boaz in relation to Ruth).

Thus, only descendants of the first man Adam can be saved.

All related
Thus, there was only one man at the beginning—made from the dust of the Earth (Genesis 2:7).

This also means that Cain’s wife was a descendant of Adam. She could not have come from another ‘race’ of people and must be one of Adam’s descendants.

The first woman
In Genesis 3:20 we read, ‘And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.’10 In other words, all people are descendants of Adam and Eve—she was the first woman.

Eve was made from Adam’s rib (or side, Hebrew tsela, Genesis 2:21–24)—this was a unique event. Jesus (Matthew 19:4–6) and Paul (Ephesians 5:31) use this historical and one-time event as the doctrinal foundation for the marriage of one man to one woman.
Also, in Genesis 2:20, we are told that when Adam looked at the animals, he could not find a mate—there was no one of his kind.
All this makes it obvious that there was only one woman, Adam’s wife, at the beginning. There were never any other women around who were not Eve’s descendants.

If Christians cannot defend that all humans (including Cain’s wife) can trace their ancestry ultimately to Adam and Eve, then how can they understand and explain the gospel? How can they justify sending missionaries to every tribe and nation? Therefore, one needs to be able to answer the question about Cain’s wife, to illustrate that Christians can defend the gospel and all that it teaches.

Cain’s brothers and sisters
Cain was the first child of Adam and Eve recorded in Scripture (Genesis 4:1). His brothers, Abel (Genesis 4:2) and Seth (Genesis 4:25), were part of the first generation of children ever born on this Earth.

Even though only these three males are mentioned by name, Adam and Eve had other children. In Genesis 5:4 a statement sums up the life of Adam and Eve—‘And the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were eight hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters.’ This does not say when they were born. Many could have been born in the 130 years (Genesis 5:3) before Seth was born.

During their lives, Adam and Eve had a number of male and female children. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that, ‘The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition, was thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters.’11

The Bible does not tell us how many children were born to Adam and Eve. However, considering their long life spans (Adam lived for 930 years—Genesis 5:5), it would seem reasonable to suggest there were many! Remember, they were commanded to ‘Be fruitful, and multiply’ (Genesis 1:28).

The wife
If we now work totally from Scripture, without any personal prejudices or other extra-Biblical ideas, then back at the beginning, when there was only the first generation, brothers would have had to have married sisters or there would be no more generations!

We are not told when Cain married or any of the details of other marriages and children, but we can say for certain that some brothers had to marry their sisters at the beginning of human history.

Objections
God’s laws
Many people immediately reject the conclusion that Adam and Eve’s sons and daughters married each other by appealing to the law against brother-sister intermarriage. Some say that you cannot marry your relation. Actually, if you don’t marry your relation, you don’t marry a human! A wife is related to her husband even before they marry because all people are descendants of Adam and Eve—all are of ‘one blood.’ The law forbidding marriage between close relatives was not given until the time of Moses (Leviticus 18–20). Provided marriage was one man to one woman for life (based on Genesis 1 and 2), there was no disobedience to God’s law originally when close relatives (even brothers and sisters) married each other.

Remember that Abraham married his half-sister (Genesis 20:12). God blessed this union to produce the Hebrew people through Isaac and Jacob. It was not until some 400 years later that God gave Moses laws that forbade such marriages.

Biological deformities
Today, brothers and sisters (and half-brothers and half-sisters, etc.) are not permitted by law to marry because their children have an unacceptably high risk of being deformed. The more closely the parents are related, the more likely it is that any offspring will be deformed.
There is a very sound genetic reason for such laws that is easy to understand. Every person has two sets of genes that specify how a person is put together and functions. Each person inherits one gene of each pair from each parent. Unfortunately, genes today contain many mistakes (because of sin and the Curse), and these mistakes show up in a variety of ways. For instance, some people let their hair grow over their ears to hide the fact that one ear is lower than the other—or perhaps someone’s nose is not quite in the middle of his or her face, or someone’s jaw is a little out of shape—and so on. Let’s face it, the main reason we call each other normal is because of our common agreement to do so!

The more distantly related parents are, the more likely it is that they will have different mistakes in their genes. Children, inheriting one set of genes from each parent, are likely to end up with pairs of genes containing a maximum of one bad gene in each pair. The good gene tends to override the bad so that a deformity (a serious one, anyway) does not occur. Instead of having totally deformed ears, for instance, a person may only have crooked ones! (Overall, though, the human race is slowly degenerating as mistakes accumulate, generation after generation.)

However, the more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they will have similar mistakes in their genes, since these have been inherited from the same parents. Therefore, a brother and a sister are more likely to have similar mistakes in their genes. A child of a union between such siblings could inherit the same bad gene on the same gene pair from both, resulting in two bad copies of the gene and serious defects.

However, Adam and Eve did not have accumulated genetic mistakes. When the first two people were created, they were physically perfect. Everything God made was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31), so their genes were perfect—no mistakes! But, when sin entered the world (because of Adam—Genesis 3:6ff, Romans 5:12), God cursed the world so that the perfect creation then began to degenerate, that is, suffer death and decay (Romans 8:22). Over thousands of years, this degeneration has produced all sorts of genetic mistakes in living things.

Cain was in the first generation of children ever born. He (as well as his brothers and sisters) would have received virtually no imperfect genes from Adam or Eve, since the effects of sin and the Curse would have been minimal to start with (it takes time for these copying errors to accumulate). In that situation, brother and sister could have married with God’s approval, without any potential to produce deformed offspring.

By the time of Moses (a few thousand years later), degenerative mistakes would have built up in the human race to such an extent that it was necessary for God to forbid brother-sister (and close relative) marriage (Leviticus 18–20).12 (Also, there were plenty of people on the Earth by now, and there was no reason for close relations to marry.)

Cain and the land of Nod
Some claim that the passage in Genesis 4:16–17 means that Cain went to the land of Nod and found a wife. Thus, they can conclude there must have been another race of people on the Earth, who were not descendants of Adam, who produced Cain’s wife.

‘And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bore Enoch: and he built a city, and he called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.’

From what has been stated previously, it is clear that all humans, Cain’s wife included, are descendants of Adam. However, this passage does not say that Cain went to the land of Nod and found a wife. John Calvin, commenting on these verses, states:
‘From the context we may gather that Cain, before he slew his brother, had married a wife; otherwise Moses would now have related something respecting his marriage.’13

Cain was married before he went to the land of Nod. He didn’t find a wife there, but ‘knew’ (had sexual relations with) his wife.14

Others have argued that because Cain built a ‘city’ in the land of Nod, there must have been a lot of people there. However, the Hebrew word translated as ‘city’ need not mean what we might imagine from the connotations of ‘city’ today. The word meant a ‘walled town’ or a protected encampment.15 Even a hundred people would be plenty for such a ‘city.’ Nevertheless, there could have been many descendants of Adam on the Earth by the time of Abel’s death (see below).
Who was Cain fearful of? (Genesis 4:14)
Some claim that there had to be lots of people on Earth other than Adam and Eve’s descendants, otherwise Cain would not have been fearful of people wanting to slay him for killing Abel.

First of all, in the days before civil government was instituted to punish murderers (Genesis 9:6), someone would want to harm Cain for killing Abel only if they were closely related to Abel! Strangers could hardly have cared. So the people Cain was afraid of could not have been another race of people.

Second, Cain and Abel were born quite some time before Abel’s death. Genesis 4:3 states:
‘And in the course of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord.’
Note the phrase ‘in the course of time.’ We know that Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old (Genesis 5:3), and Eve saw him as a ‘replacement’ for Abel (Genesis 4:25). Therefore, the period from Cain’s birth to Abel’s death may have been 100 years or more—allowing plenty of time for other children of Adam and Eve to marry and have children and grandchildren. By the time Abel was killed, there could well have been a considerable number of descendants of Adam and Eve, involving several generations.

Where did the technology come from?
Some claim that for Cain to go to the land of Nod and build a city he would have required a lot of technology that must have already been in that land, presumably developed by other ‘races.’

However, Adam and Eve’s descendants were very intelligent people. Jubal made musical instruments such as the harp and organ (Genesis 4:21), and Tubal-Cain worked with brass and iron (Genesis 4:22).

Because of intense evolutionary indoctrination, many people today think that our generation is the most intelligent that has ever lived on this planet. But just because we have jet airplanes and computers, it does not mean that we are the most intelligent. Modern technology results from the accumulation of knowledge. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.
Our brains have suffered from 6,000 years (since Adam) of the Curse. We are greatly degenerated compared with people many generations ago. We may be nowhere near as intelligent or inventive as Adam and Eve’s children. Scripture gives us a glimpse of what appears to be great inventiveness from the beginning.16

Conclusion
Many Christians cannot answer the question about Cain’s wife because they focus on today’s world (and the problems associated with close relations marrying), and do not understand the clear historical record God has given to us.

They try to interpret Genesis from our present situation, rather than understand the true Biblical history of the world and the changes that have occurred because of sin. Because they are not building their worldview on Scripture, but taking a secular way of thinking to the Bible, they are blinded to the simple answers.

Genesis is the record of the God who was there as history happened. It is the word of One who knows everything, and who is a reliable witness from the past. Thus, when we use Genesis as a basis for understanding history, we can make sense of questions that would otherwise be a mystery.

References
A ‘Hollywood’ version of the famous Scopes Trial. The play claimed not to be based on the real Scopes, but it was clearly intended to be seen as a representation of the Scopes Trial. K. Ham, ‘The Wrong Way Round!’ Creation 18(3):38–41, 1996.D. Menton, ‘Inherit the Wind: An Historical Analysis,’ Creation 19(1):35–38, 1997. Menton documents the gross distortion and anti-Christian bigotry of the play. Return to text.
Contact. Released 11 July 1997, a Robert Zemeckis Film, Warner Bros., based upon Contact by Carl Sagan, Pocket Books, New York, 1985. Return to text.
American Civil Liberties Union—an organization at the forefront of attempts to remove all vestiges of Christianity from public life in the United States. Return to text.
The World’s Most Famous Court Trial, The Tennessee Evolution Case (a word-for-word report), Bryan College, p. 302, 1990 (reprinted original edition). Return to text.
Sagan, C., Contact, Pocket Books, New York, 1985. Return to text.
Ibid, pp. 19-20. Return to text.
Apologetics—from the Greek word apologia, meaning to give a defense. Christian apologetics provides a defense of our faith in Jesus Christ and our hope in him for our salvation (1 Peter 3:15). This requires a thorough knowledge of Scripture, including the doctrines of creation, original sin, curse, flood, virginal conception, life, and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the Cross, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, the Second Coming, and the New Heaven and New Earth. It involves explaining these doctrines logically, so as to justify one’s faith and hope in Jesus Christ. Finally, one needs to be able to defend these doctrines, and the Bible in general, from attacks by unbelievers. See Q&A: Apologetics. Return to text.
In this passage, the Greek word for ‘man’ is in the singular (‘a man’). Return to text.
Eve, in a sense, was a ‘descendant’ of Adam in that she was made from his flesh and thus had a biological connection to him (Genesis 2:21–23). Return to text.
The Hebrew literally means ‘she was to be the mother of all living.’ Return to text.
Josephus, Flavius, (translated by William Whiston, A.M.) The Complete Works of Josephus, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI, p. 27, 1981. Return to text.
Some have claimed this means God changed His mind by changing the laws. But God did not change His mind—because of the changes that sin brought, and because God never changes, He introduced new laws for our sake. Also, there is in the Bible a progressive revealing of the Messianic program which was in the mind of God from eternity. See R. Grigg, ‘Unfolding the Plan,’ Creation 20(3):22–24, 1998. Return to text.
John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, Baker House, Grand Rapids, MI, Vol. 1, p. 215, 1979. Return to text.
Even if Calvin’s suggestion concerning this matter is not correct, there was still plenty of time for numerous descendants of Adam and Eve to move out and settle areas such as the land of Nod. Return to text.
Strong’s Concordance: ‘city, town, a place guarded by waking or a watch in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post).’ Return to text.
See D. Chittick, The Puzzle of Ancient Man, Creation Compass, Newberg, OR, USA, 1997. Return to text.

Chapter 5 thoughts and helps

Notice that the people in this genealogy lived very long lives. This could be due to the lingering beneficial effects of both humanity’s and nature’s unfallen state. If the earth’s vapor canopy (1:7) remained intact until the Flood (7:11–24), it may have slowed the aging process by filtering the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
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Enoch’s son Methuselah lived to be 969—the oldest human on record. But Enoch himself was one of two recorded humans who never died physically. The other was Elijah (2 Kings 2:11). The Bible indicates that believers alive when Christ returns will also escape death (1 Cor. 15:51–52; 1 Thess. 4:16–17). In a way, Enoch becomes a type or picture of the Rapture
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Enoch was a man of great faith (Heb. 11:5). He, like his great-grandson Noah “enjoyed a close relationship with God” (5:24; 6:9). Enoch was the first recorded preacher (see Jude 1:14–15).

The Gospel in Genesis by Chuck Missler

We frequently use the familiar term, gospel, or good news. Where is the first place it appears in the Bible? The answer may surprise you.

An Integrated Message
The great discovery is that the Bible is a message system: it's not simply 66 books penned by 40 authors over thousands of years, the Bible is an integrated whole which bears evidence of supernatural engineering in every detail.

The Jewish rabbis have a quaint way of expressing this very idea: they say that they will not understand the Scriptures until the Messiah comes. But when He comes, He will not only interpret each of the passages for us, He will interpret the very words; He will even interpret the very letters themselves; in fact, He will even interpret the spaces between the letters!

When I first heard this, I simply dismissed this as a colorful exaggeration. Until I reread Matthew 5:17 and 18:
"Think not that I have come to destroy the Torah and the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

(A jot and tittle are the Hebrew equivalent of our dotting an i and the crossing of a t.)

An Example
A remarkable example of this can be glimpsed in Genesis Chapter 5, where we have the genealogy of Adam through Noah. This is one of those chapters which we often tend to skim over quickly as we pass through Genesis it's simply a genealogy from Adam to Noah.

But God always rewards the diligent student. Let's examine this chapter more closely.

In our Bible, we read the Hebrew names. What do these names mean in English?

A Study of Original Roots
The meaning of proper names can be a difficult pursuit since a direct translation is often not readily available. Even a conventional Hebrew lexicon can prove disappointing. A study of the original roots, however, can yield some fascinating insights.

(A caveat: many study aids, such as a conventional lexicon, can prove rather superficial when dealing with proper nouns. Furthermore, views concerning the meanings of original roots are not free of controversy)

Let's take an example.
The Flood Judgment

Methuselah comes from muth, a root that means "death";1 and from shalach, which means to bring, or to send forth. The name Methuselah means, "his death shall bring".2

Methuselah's father was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the flood would be brought or sent forth.

(Can you imagine raising a kid like that? Every time the boy caught a cold, the entire neighborhood must have panicked!)

And, indeed, the year that Methuselah died, the flood came.3

It is interesting that Methuselah's life, in effect, was a symbol of God's mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the flood.

Therefore, it is fitting that his lifetime is the oldest in the Bible, speaking of the extensiveness of God's mercy.

The Other Names
If there is such significance in Methuselah's name, let's examine the other names to see what may lie behind them.

Adam
Adam's name means man. As the first man, that seems straight forward enough.

Seth
Adam's son was named Seth, which means appointed. Eve said, "For God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew."4
Enosh
Seth's son was called Enosh, which means mortal, frail, or miserable. It is from the root anash, to be incurable, used of a wound, grief, woe, sickness, or wickedness.

It was in the days of Enosh that men began to defile the name of the Living God.5

Kenan
Enosh's son was named Kenan, which can mean sorrow, dirge, or elegy. (The precise denotation is somewhat elusive; some study aids unfortunately presume that Kenan is synonymous with Cainan.)

Balaam, looking down from the heights of Moab, uses a pun upon the name of the Kenites when he prophesies their destruction.6

We have no real idea as to why these names were chosen for their children. Often they may have referred to circumstances at birth, and so on.

Mahalalel
Kenan's son was Mahalalel, from Mahalal which means blessed or praise; and El, the name for God. Thus, Mahalalel means the Blessed God. Often Hebrew names include El, the name of God, as Dan-i-el, "God is my Judge", etc.

Jared
Mahalalel's son was named Jared, from the verb yaradh, meaning shall come down.7

Enoch
Jared's son was named Enoch, which means teaching, or commencement. He was the first of four generations of preachers. In fact, the earliest recorded prophecy was by Enoch, which amazingly enough deals with the Second Coming of Christ (although it is quoted in the Book of Jude in the New Testament):
Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying,
"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against." Jude 14, 15
Methuselah
Enoch was the father of Methuselah, who we have already mentioned. Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah.8 Apparently, Enoch received the prophecy of the Great Flood, and was told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld. The year that Methuselah died, the flood came.

Enoch, of course, never died: he was translated 9 (or, if you'll excuse the expression, raptured ). That's how Methuselah can be the oldest man in the Bible, yet he died before his father!

Lamech
Methuselah's son was named Lamech, a root still evident today in our own English word, lament or lamentation. Lamech suggests despairing. (This name is also linked to the Lamech in Cain's line who inadvertently killed his son Tubal-Cain in a hunting incident.10)

Noah
Lamech, of course, is the father of Noah, which is derived from nacham, to bring relief or comfort, as Lamech himself explains in Genesis 5:29.

The Composite List
Now let's put it all together:
Hebrew English
Adam Man
Seth Appointed
Enosh Mortal
Kenan Sorrow;
Mahalalel The Blessed God
Jared Shall come down
Enoch Teaching
Methuselah His death shall bring
Lamech The Despairing
Noah Rest, or comfort.

That's rather remarkable:

Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.
Here's the Gospel hidden within a genealogy in Genesis!
(You will never convince me that a group of Jewish rabbis conspired to hide the Christian Gospel right here in a genealogy within their venerated Torah!)

Evidence of Design
The implications of this discovery are more wide spread than is evident at first glance.

It demonstrates that in the earliest chapters of the Book of Genesis, God had already laid out His plan of redemption for the predicament of mankind. It is a love story, written in blood on a wooden cross which was erected in Judea almost 2,000 years ago.

The Bible is an integrated message system, the product of supernatural engineering. Every number, every place name, every detail every jot and tittle is there for our learning, our discovery, and our amazement. Truly, our God is an awesome God.

It is astonishing to discover how many Biblical controversies seem to evaporate if one simply recognized the unity the integrity of these 66 books, penned by 40 authors over thousands of years.

It is remarkable how many subtle discoveries lie behind the little details of the text. Some of these become immediately obvious with a little study; some are more technical and require special helps.

Look behind every detail: there's a discovery to be made! God always rewards the diligent student. Check it out.

**NOTES**
1. Muth, death, occurs 125 times in the Old Testament.
2. See Pink, Jones, and Stedman in the bibliography.
3. Methuselah was 187 when he had Lamech, and lived 782 years more. Lamech had Noah when he was 182 (Genesis 5:25-28). The Flood came in Noah's 600th year (Genesis 7:6, 11). 600 + 182 = 782nd year of Lamech, the year Methuselah died.
4. Genesis 4:25.
5. Genesis 4:26 is often mistranslated. Targum of Onkelos: ...desisted from praying in the name ; Targum of Jonathan: surnamed their idols in the name... ; Kimchi, Rashi, and other ancient Jewish commentators agree. Jerome indicated that this was the opinion of many Jews of his day. Maimonides, Commentary on the Mishna (a constituent part of the Talmud), a.d. 1168, ascribes the origin of idolatry to the days of Enosh.
6. Numbers 24:21, 23.
7. Some authorities suggest that this might be an allusion to the Sons of God who came down to corrupt the daughters of men, resulting in the Nephilim (Fallen Ones) of Genesis 6. These were discussed in our article last month (January 1996), and are also reviewed in our audio book, The Flood of Noah.
8. Genesis 5:21, 24.
9. Genesis 5:24.
10. Genesis 4:19-25; rabbinical sources, re: Kaplan, et al.

Bibliography:
Eastman, Mark, and Missler, Chuck, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa CA, 1995.
Jones, Alfred, Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids MI, 1990.
Kaplan, Rabbi Aryeh, The Living Torah, Maznaim Publishing Corporation, Jerusalem, 1981.
Pink, Arthur W., Gleanings in Genesis, Moody Bible Institute, Chicago IL, 1922.
Missler, Chuck, Beyond Coincidence (audio book with notes), Koinonia House, Coeur d Alene ID, 83816, 1994.
Rosenbaum, M., and Silbermann, A., Pentateuch with Onkelos's Translation (into Aramaic) and Rashi s Commentary, Silbermann Family Publishers, Jerusalem, 1973.
Stedman, Ray C., The Beginnings, Word Books, Waco TX, 1978.
 Chapter 6-8 thoughts and helps

Who are the sons of God mentioned in this chapter?
The “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:2 have been identified in three different ways:
(1) as Seth’s apostate descendants who intermarried with the depraved descendants of Cain
(2) as fallen angels who took on physical bodies to cohabit with women of the human race
(3) as despotic chieftains of Cainite descent who married a plurality of wives in order to expand their dominion.

Although each of the three views has its problems, the understanding that these were angels seems to be the correct understanding. The expression “sons of God” is used exclusively in the Old Testament of angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). According to this view, the Giants mentioned in v.4 were the monstrous offspring of these unnatural unions. The Hebrew word that is translated Giants in v.4 is Nephilim (“to fall”) (For more on the Nephilim, cf. Num. 13:33.) Although they were big, they were not stronger than God, who blotted them out (Gen. 6:7; 7:23) in the flood, along with the rest of the world.

There is a great deal revealed in the Bible about angels. They can appear in human form, they spoke as men, took men by the hand, even ate men's food, are capable of direct physical combat, some are the principal forces behind the world powers. They don't marry (in Heaven), but apparently are (or were) capable of much mischief.

The strange events of Genesis Chapter 6 are also referred to in the New Testament. Peter refers to events preceding the flood of Noah:
"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment..." 2 Peter 2:4

(Peter uses the term tartarus, here translated as hell. This was a Greek term for "the dark abode of woe, the pit of darkness in the unseen world." Homer's Iliad portrays tartarus "as far below hades as the earth is below Heaven...")

Also, in Jude, it mentions them:
"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 6,7.

Scripture warns against meddling with the spirit world. The punishment which overtook the angels that sinned was to emphasize the serious nature of apostasy: beings of a higher order than ours have been hurled down into a dark place of confinement where they have remained for thousands of years.

For more information—you may want to read the book “Alien Encounters” by Chuck Missler—or watch the videos that were filmed here in Roswell during the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident. We have the conference tapes in our library

Here are some websites to check out
http://www.khouse.org/articles/1996/43/
http://www.khouse.org/6640/BP052/

The Flood
There is tremendous evidence for a universal flood. Some of the tallest mountain peaks in the world - the Himalayans are an example - are made of sedimentary rock. When were the Himalayans underwater? We’ve also found marine fossils on the peaks of some of the world's tallest mountains.

Understand a global deluge is the most validated event in antiquity. All cultures - from Mexico to Babylon to China - have accounts of a great flood, a boat, and a family who survived. Though not identical to the biblical record, these stories are corrupted versions of the same historical event. God judged the earth with a flood.

Some scholars believe a comet penetrated the vapor canopy causing it to explode and collapse. We’re told “windows of heaven were opened”, or literally the sluice gates were unleashed – not simple rain, but gushing water poured onto the earth.

In addition, “the fountains of the deep were broken up”. Volcanic explosions released subterranean springs and oceans. It’s also possible the comet caused a tilt in the earth’s axis, the continents to shift, and the mountains to rise.

The whole geology of the earth was altered. As we’re told in 2 Peter 3:6, “the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.” When Noah and his family exited the ark they walked out into a whole new environment.
_____________

What about Dinosaurs? Unlike our evolutionary teaching, what we call Dinosaurs would have lived at the same time as Adam and th rest. The would have survived the flood as well, since Noah was to bring on the Ark two of each animal.

We’ve found cave drawings of dinosaurs - put there by human artists. The Bible describes two animals that are dinosaurs in Job 40-41. So obviously they were familiar with them in Job’s day.

In fact, there are animals we could call dinosaurs still alive today in remote parts of the world. In 1977, a plesiosaur, was snagged
900 feet underwater near Christchurch, New Zealand.
How could Dinosaurs fit on the ark? Well, no one said they had to be full grown. Noah could’ve carried two of all the infant dinosaurs, or even two of the dinosaur eggs, aboard the Ark.

Where have most of the Dinosaurs gone? After the dinosaurs walked out into the post-flood ecosystem they were unable to survive, and quickly became extinct. In fact, in our deteriorating and devolving world—animals are continually going extinct. We are not evolving and getting more and more animals...but devolving and having less and less.
_____________

Whose Ark is it?
When it’s time to board the Ark, God doesn’t tell Noah to go into the ark, but to come into the ark – the implication is that God is onboard waiting for Noah. Hey, we call it Noah’s ark, but God was the captain! Actually, the ark was not a boat, it was a barge. It had
no onboard navigation. Noah couldn’t steer it. It was up to God to guide it to a proper resting place. Next time you feel you’ve lost the power to navigate your life, remember Who’s onboard. When you feel like a victim – like you’re being tossed on the waves. Trust the
Captain to steer your ship, and set you down on dry ground

_____________

The Ark was 450 feet long, by 75 feet wide, by 45 feet high. Prior to 1858 it was the largest seagoing vessel ever constructed. Its 3 decks gave it 100,000 square feet of floor space. To illustrate its capacity, imagine sitting at a railroad crossing watching a train. You count 522 livestock cars, each carrying 240 sheep – the Ark could hold 125,280 sheep.

The Ark’s 6 to 1 ratio of length to width is by modern day shipbuilding standards the perfect proportion to survive rough waters. The Ark would be impossible to capsize. It was an incredible piece of engineering – designed by God!

A Water/Vapor canopy?
In Genesis 1:7 God divided the waters below and above the firmament. It’s believed by some scholars that the water above refers to more than simply the water vapor contained in our atmosphere. Before the flood a dense, highly compacted, vapor canopy existed in the upper levels of the atmosphere. This canopy shrouded and shielded the globe.

The oldest book in the Bible, Job, seems to speak of this canopy in 38:9. God says, “When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band…” The cause of aging is a mystery, but the chief culprit seems to be solar radiation. A vapor canopy would block out the harmful rays of the sun, and slow down the aging process. Humans would be able to live up to 900 years.

If this vapor canopy existed it would mean the antediluvian world was a virtual paradise. Global temperatures would be constant – probably around 72 degrees Storms would be nonexistent since hot air would never collide with cold air. Clouds wouldn’t form which would preclude rain - which is what we were told in 2:5.

The world before the flood would’ve been a subtropical paradise, with lush vegetation from pole to pole. The Earth was a colossal greenhouse. It’s interesting, that all around the world there’s great
evidence for this idea. On the northern tip of Canada’s Vancouver Island we’ve found thousands of fossilized palm trees. On the Spitsbergen Islands, north of Norway, well above the Arctic Circle, fossilized palm leaves, 10 to 12 feet in length, have been discovered. As well as, fossils of various kinds of subtropical marine life. Also in Siberia, Russian minors discovered frozen mammoths with tropical vegetation still in their mouths.

Devotion thought—Waiting on God
Noah was in the ark for 371 days (over a year), and about 60% of the time was spent just sitting on Mount Ararat, waiting for the waters to recede. Noah had to be patient. He had to learn to wait on God.
Philip Brooks, was pacing back and forth in his living room
when a friend came to visit. His friend asked Brooks why he was
so restless. Brooks responded, “Because I am in a hurry, and God is not.”
Is there an area in your life where you need to learn to rest
in God’s promise and allow Him to bring it to pass in His time
and in His way? Remember, “Noah” means “rest”, and we need to rest in the Lord as Noah rested in the ark.Points To Ponder About The Flood Dr. Kent Hovind

2 Pet. 3:3-8 tells us that people who scoff at the Bible are "willingly ignorant" of the Creation and the Flood. In order to understand science and the Bible, we must not be ignorant of those two great events in Earth’s history. See Creation Seminar tape 2 for more information.
Over 250 Flood legends from all parts of the world have been found. Most have similarities to the Genesis story.
Noah’s ark was built only to float, not to sail anywhere. Many ark scholars believe that the ark was a "barge" shape, not a pointed "boat" shape. This would greatly increase the cargo capacity. Scoffers have pointed out that the largest sailing ships were less than 300 feet because of the problem of twisting and flexing the boat. These ships had giant masts, and sails to catch the wind. Noah's ark need neither of those and therefore had far less torsional stress.
Even using the small 18-inch cubit (my height is 6-ft. 1-in. and I have a 21-in. cubit) the ark was large enough to hold all the required animals, people, and food with room to spare.
The length-to-width ratio of 6 to 1 is what shipbuilders today often use. This is the best ratio for stability in stormy weather. (God thinks of everything!)
The ark may have had a "moon-pool" in the center. The larger ships would have a hole in the center of the bottom of the boat with walls extending up into the ship. There are several reasons for this feature:
It allowed water to go up into the hole as the ship crested waves. This would be needed to relieve strain on longer ships.
The rising and lowering water acted as a piston to pump fresh air in and out of the ship. This would prevent the buildup of dangerous gasses from all the animals on board.
The hole was a great place to dump garbage into the ocean without going outside.

The ark may have had large drogue (anchor) stones suspended over the sides to keep it more stable in rough weather. Many of these stones have been found in the region where the ark landed.
Noah lived 950 years! Many Bible scholars believe the pre-Flood people were much larger than modern man. Skeletons over 11 feet tall have been found! If Noah were taller, his cubit (elbow to fingertip) would have been much larger also. This would make the ark larger by the same ratio. See Seminar tape #2 for more info on this.
God told Noah to bring two of each kind (seven of some), not of each species or variety. Noah had only two of the dog kind, which would include the wolves, coyotes, foxes, mutts, etc. The "kind" grouping is probably closer to our modern family division in taxonomy, and would greatly reduce the number of animals on the ark. Animals have diversified into many varieties in the last 4400 years since the Flood. This diversification is not anything similar to great claims that the evolutionists teach. (They teach, "Kelp can turn into Kent," given enough time!)
Noah did not have to get the animals. God brought them to him (Gen. 6:20, "shall come to thee").
Only land-dwelling, air-breathing animals had to be included on the ark (Gen. 7:15, "in which is the breath of life," 7:22). Noah did not need to bring all the thousands of insects varieties.
Many animals sleep, hibernate, or become very inactive during bad weather.
All animals (and people) were vegetarians before and during the Flood according to Gen. 1:20-30 with Gen. 9:3.
The pre-Flood people were probably much smarter and more advanced than people today. The longer life spans, Adam’s direct contact with God, and the fact that they could glean the wisdom of many generations that were still alive would greatly expand their knowledge base.
The Bible says that the highest mountains were covered by 15 cubits of water. This is half the height of the ark. The ark was safe from scraping bottom at all times.
The large mountains, as we have them today, did not exist until after the Flood when "the mountains arose and the valleys sank down" (Ps. 104:5-9, Gen. 8:3-8).
There is enough water in the oceans right now to cover the earth 8,000 feet deep if the surface of the earth were smooth.
Many claim to have seen the ark in recent times in the area in which the Bible says it landed. There are two primary schools of thought about the actual site of the ark (see my Creation Seminar Part 3 video for more on this). Much energy and time has been expended to prove both views. Some believe the ark is on Mt. Ararat, covered by snow (CBS showed a one-hour special in 1993 about this site). The other group believes the ark is seventeen miles south of Mt. Ararat in a valley called "the valley of eight" (8 souls on the ark).
The Bible says the ark landed in the "mountains" of Ararat, not necessarily on the mountain itself.
The continents were not separated until 100-300 years after the Flood (Gen. 10:25). The people and animals had time to migrate anywhere on earth by then. See Seminar Part 6 for more information.
The top 3,000 feet of Mt. Everest (from 26,000-29,000 feet) is made up of sedimentary rock packed with seashells and other ocean-dwelling animals.
Sedimentary rock is found all over the world. Sedimentary rock is formed in water.
Petrified clams in the closed position (found all over the world) testify to their rapid burial while they were still alive, even on top of Mount Everest.
Bent rock layers, fossil graveyards, and poly-strata fossils are best explained by a Flood.
People choose to not believe in the Flood because it speaks of the judgment of God on sin (2 Pet. 3:3-8).
Mt. St. Helens Explosion Gives Creation Evidence
By Bruce Malone

In order to determine what has happened in the past geologists study current process and use these observations to determine how rock layers came to cover our planet. Before the 1800's, geology was dominated by an acknowledgement that a worldwide flood was the cause of these rock layers. This changed when the founders of modern geology, James Hutton and Charles Lyell, succeeded in replacing this interpretation with the belief in uniformitarianism.
This article is one of many found within Mr. Malone's excellent book, Search for the Truth.

Uniformitarianism is the belief that slow-and-gradual processes, like we see today, account for the geologic features of our planet. It also assumes that there has never been a massive and rapid accumulation of sediment caused by a world wide catastrophe. Charles Darwin was heavily influenced by this type of thought when he extended the concept of slow and gradual geological change to include slow and gradual biological change. In the last 30 years many geologists have come to accept as fact that the past has seen rapid geological changes far surpassing anything we see happening today. However, the geological community still clings to the belief that there have been millions of years between these catastrophes.

The foundational assumption of the creation model is that there has been a worldwide flood in the recent past. If this assumption is correct, there should be evidence for this event. A worldwide flood would have caused massive destruction of plant and animal life followed by a redeposition of this bio-matter and sediment. This bio-matter and sediment. This would result in enormous fossil beds at locations throughout the planet. This is what the fossil record reveals.

One criticism of the creation models is the lack of a natural model which duplicates the processes happening during this alleged flood. However, in 1980, the explosion of Mt. St. Helen's in Washington provided just such a model. When Mt. St. Helen's exploded an estimated 18 billion cubic feet of rock, ash, dirt, steam, and melted snow flowed down the side of the mountain at estimated speeds at 90 mph. This, and subsequent ash flows, laid down as much as 600 feet of sediment on the north face of the mountain slope. In essence, a massive flood event was modeled for the scientific community.

The sediments laid down during the violent mud and ash flows were not a homogenized mixture but rather a series of finely layered horizontal strata. They look quite similar to the horizontal layers of rock which can be observed in road cuts as you travel our interstate highways. These types of horizontal bands of rock strata are often assumed to indicate millions of years of earth history, but Mt. St. Helen's has provided geologists with a scale model of how this same type of horizontal strata could be laid down rapidly by flowing water. Subsequent to the Mt. St. Helen's explosion, a new river canyon was formed in one day (March 19, 1982) as backed up water broke through the newly deposited sediment. This canyon is 100 feet deep and looks amazingly like a 1/40th scale model of the Grand Canyon. Had no one been present to see this area form, we might assume that the small stream presently located at the bottom of the canyon had cut the canyon over millions of years. This is the story of most of us have been taught about the Colorado river and the Grand Canyon. Many geologists are now coming to acknowledge that just as the Toutle River canyon at Mt. St. Helen's formed rapidly , the Grand Canyon was also formed over a short period of time by a massive flow of water.

The majority of the geologic community believe that low energy processes and long time periods account for the geologic record. Creationists believe that high energy processes and short periods of time account for the geologic record. Only one viewpoint is correct. Only one viewpoint agrees with the Biblical record. Guess Which one?
 Chapters 9-11 Thoughts and Helps

If you took the population trends over the last 100 years and extrapolated them back 4500 years—you’d end up with a total world population of 8 people. And this is exactly what the Bible teaches. God started over repopulating the earth around 2500 BC with the 8 members of Noah’s family.

It is interesting that anthropologists agree that humans can be grouped into 3 major divisions: Caucasian, Negroid, and Oriental. And as we follow The Table of Nations in chapter 10 we discover that the 3 sons of Noah and their descendants loosely parallel those 3 divisions. Japheth migrated north into Europe, and fathered the
Caucasian nations. Shem’s descendants moved eastward. He originated the Oriental and Semetic peoples. And Ham’s family traveled southward. The African nations tracetheir lineage back to Ham.

In Genesis 9:1 God told Noah’s descendants to multiply, and fill the earth. Instead they came together under the leadership of a man named Nimrod. Nimrod founded the city of Babel, and built an
observatory where his astrologers could consult the stars. Nimrod led people away from the true worship of God, and into the occult and paganism. To scatter the people and protect the nations of the world from the Babylonian system of false religion God confused the languages. Afterwards, He started over again by working with one man and his family, Abram. The rest of the Bible is all about the promise He gave to Abraham Babel
by John Whitcomb

God’s judgment of the Tower of Babel was one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of the world. In one moment, a massive, highly complex building project, involving the entire human race, came to an end. Thousands of workers suddenly found themselves incapable of communicating with anyone outside their extended family group. Overwhelmed by fear and frustration, each family group moved away from the others. Mankind has never recovered.
But what really happened, and why? For centuries, Bible students have wondered about the following three statements:
‘Come, let us build for ourselves … a tower whose top will reach into heaven’ (Genesis 11:4 ). God’s amazing response to this:
‘Behold, they are all one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them’ (Genesis 11:6). And the earlier words:
‘In [Peleg’s] days the earth was divided’ (Genesis 10:25).

The Towers
Let us now consider these three statements in order. First, were these Mesopotamians who descended from Noah’s family actually attempting to build ‘a tower whose top [would] reach into heaven’ (Genesis 11:4)? The clear answer is ‘No!’ The NASB puts the words ‘will reach’ in italics, which means that they are not in the original Hebrew text, but were added in an effort to make sense out of the wording. (The KJV italicizes ‘may reach’.)

But what happens when the Hebrew wording is translated literally? We then have ‘a tower whose top [is] into heaven.’ (cf. NKJV). And this is exactly what ancient Mesopotamian ziggurat temple-towers were for! The top compartment represented heaven. The inner walls, in all probability, were decorated with blue glazed tile, with the sun, the moon, and the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) lined up along the plane of the zodiac. In the centre of the room would be their ‘god’ seated upon a throne! Nebuchadnezzar later rebuilt such a tower in Babylon, which the Sumerians had called E-TEMEN-AN-KI (‘the building of the foundation-platform of heaven and earth’).1 The pyramids of Egypt and, much later, the great Mayan temples of Central America, reflected the design of the original Tower of Babel.
This was not an innocent, scientifically naive, primitive effort to reach the highest heavens! It was, instead, a brilliant but blasphemous effort to dismiss forever the God who had commanded Noah and his three sons after the Flood to ‘be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth’ (Genesis 9:1). Instead of honouring His name (i.e. His character and attributes), they said, ‘Let us build for ourselves a city … and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth’ (11:4).

The entire enterprise simply reeked with human pride and arrogance. Satan almost succeeded in completely dominating mankind again, as he had done at the fall of Adam and Eve, and as he had done before the Flood (with the exception of one family [Genesis 6:5; Heb. 11:7]).

The Response of God
The second statement is the astounding response of God to the Babel project: ‘Nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them’ (Genesis 11:6). The triune, sovereign God of the universe, anthropomorphically viewed as coming down from the third heaven, through the immeasurable distances of ‘outer space’, views this tower emerging from the tiny speck called Earth with a sadness that only He can know, and pronounces judgment: ‘Let us … confuse their language … So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth’ (vs. 7–8).

But how did their linguistic unity provide the possibility and potential for immense iniquity? Perhaps we can find the answer by looking at the vast English-speaking world today. Almost instantly, demonic perversions and poisons can penetrate and permeate the minds of millions through the Internet, as well as via avalanches of morally hideous films, videos, books and magazines.

Now, what would happen to this Satanic sewage if the more than 300 million people who speak English suddenly discovered that their linguistic unity was shattered? The blow to Satan and sinful men would be staggering. God’s intervention at Babel, dividing and separating people from each other, had a holy and loving purpose.

The Earth was divided
This brings us to the third significant statement: a descendant of Shem named Peleg was a living witness of this great judgment of God, for ‘in his days the earth was divided’ (Genesis 10:25). Some have speculated that this division was the breakup and separation of continents after the Flood. However, these gigantic earth movements occurred in association with the Flood itself, whereas Peleg lived long after the Flood.

The entire context of Genesis 10 makes it clear that the division which occurred in the days of Peleg was linguistic, not geological. Note this threefold emphasis: ‘the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to his language … (v. 5); according to their languages … (v. 20); according to their languages … (v. 31).’ Thus, the linguistic division of mankind described in Genesis 10 anticipates the more detailed explanation in Genesis 11, just as the brief statement of mankind’s creation in Genesis 1:26–28 anticipates the greater details of Genesis 2. Genesis 10 leaves the reader pondering these major questions: how and why did Noah’s monolinguistic family become ‘separated’ from each other (10:5, 31), speaking different languages (10:5, 20, 31)? Genesis 11 provides God’s amazing answers.

Peleg , which means ‘division’, was the name which this particular descendant of Noah and Shem acquired by virtue of his presence at the scene of God’s judgment of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 10:25).

Consider briefly the positive and the negative aspects of the Babel judgment with respect to God’s love for the world (John 3:16). Positively, as we have seen, Babel has been God’s enormous roadblock to Satan.

Negatively, however, linguistic pluralism has proven to be for the church, weakened by centuries of theological and spiritual corruption, a great hindrance to the spread of the Gospel and the written Word of God, apart from occasional special divine enablement. The widespread use of Greek in the Roman Empire when the church was born on the Day of Pentecost was God’s provision for the Gospel message to reach millions of people in a relatively short period of time (Col. 1:23). But our Lord never intended the Gospel to be confined to Greek! He commanded us: ‘Make disciples of all the nations …’ (Matthew 28:19).

Just ten days after His ascension, a great linguistic miracle occurred: ‘There were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And … they were each one hearing [the Apostles] speak in their own language’ (Acts 2:5–6). Not just Greek, but over a dozen other languages are listed (vs. 9–11)! Here was Babel in reverse in one sense: in the days of Peleg the Earth was divided; but in the days of the Apostles thousands of people from many lands were united for many months, ‘continuing with one mind … and continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching’ (Acts 2:42–46).

The church, however, has only partly succeeded in fulfilling the Great Commission. Several thousand languages, after two millennia, still have no part of the written Word of God. How tragic! How many of us will ‘suffer loss’ at the Judgment Seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:15) because of disobedience to our Lord’s commands?

Nevertheless, at the end of this age, there will be ‘a great multitude … from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues … and they will cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb”’ (Rev. 7:9–10). The curse of Babel, the division (peleg) of peoples, the separation of nations, and the confusion of tongues will end forever; and the wisdom and love of our great God, even in His judgments, will be understood in a new way by those who have put their trust in Him.