Neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. – God to Noah (Genesis 9:11)
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. (Revelation 16:20)
Christians and Jews have a mental block when it comes to the discussion of any future world-wide deluge. They cling to the promise God made to Noah cited above. But according to analysis of the Earth’s sedimentary layers, massive floods of a continental scale have happened before, perhaps many times before (see Davis Young’s Christianity & The Age of the Earth, Zondervan, 1982). Whatever the case may be, a future flood is ruled out “because God promised.”
Yet, floods happen every year and we all accept the reality of tsunamis. Would an inundation which covered half the globe mean that God has broken His promise? For the people that drown, maybe they would feel so. But if a portion of the Earth remains untouched – whether a technical excuse or not – we cannot say that “the Earth has been destroyed.”
In the text found in the Book of Revelation – and elsewhere – we have language that can only be explained by a deluge. The sample text above tells us that “every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.” What kind of scenario would produce such results?
Well, obviously, a flood: only an oceanic surge could inundate the islands of the sea. However, it would take a much bigger tsunami to cover the mountains. In the world known to John of the Apocalypse, the mountains were typically six to ten thousand feet above sea level. An oceanic surge from the Indian Ocean, which is the deepest in the world at about 15,000 feet (3 miles!), would do the trick. But, if the Apostle thought that the mountains he had never seen such as the Rockies or the Himalayas were also to be covered, then we would need an event which would empty the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
According to Patten and Windsor, Noah’s Ark was on the old coast of Mesopotamia. It’s construction – if the remains on Mt. Ararat are indeed that of the Ark – demonstrates sophisticated knowledge of shipbuilding and seafaring, knowledge which could only be had if there were oceans or smaller seas in the pre-Flood world (remember that the dry land was called forth from “the deep” in Genesis 1). They believe that the trajectory was north by northwest. An oceanic surge from the Indian Ocean would be the likely explanation.
Yvonne Whitman (see McCanney’s link above) believes that the Ark was constructed in the Tibetan Plateau north of the Himalayas. The high country would have been necessary because the impact of an oceanic surge (500 mph to 1000 mph) would have shattered the Ark or certainly would have killed all living things inside. The high ground of the Tibetan Plateau would have allowed the Ark to rise before being swept away by the current. This is possible.
The surge for the Indian Ocean, Patten and Windsor believe was caused by the gravitational effect of a planetary fly-by (Mars or Venus). It would have been relatively a local event. Other explanations could be either a crustal uplift of the oceanic basins or a cessation of the Earth’s rotation.
Is it really possible that the Earth can or ever has reversed its rotation? We can say that in the Bible, at least, there is the incident in the time of Joshua when the Earth’s rotation would have stopped (Joshua 10:13). And then in the reign of King Hezekiah, the sun dial went backwards 10 degrees (2 Kings 20:10). In either instance, we do not have a true reversal.
Douglas Vogt believes that the Earth’s rotation stops and then reverses at every solar nova: 12,068 years (see our featured link above). He believes the oceanic canyons off the coasts of most continents are an indication – if not definitive proof – that the oceanic basins periodically empty and then refill from massive runoffs from the continental land surfaces. These gigantic gorges contain debris from forests that indicate a sudden deposition. A gradual run-off from glaciers, for example, cannot explain this phenomenon. While we do not necessarily know how the Earth could reverse rotation, the evidence is convincing that it has done so, at least once in the ancient past.
If Vogt’s theory is correct, at the last nova, the Earth’s rotation would have been clockwise, which means that a cessation of spin would have resulted in a surge from the Pacific Ocean traveling west, inundating Asia, Australia, and much of Europe. The Indian Ocean would have inundated Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean would have inundated the Americas. Remember, almost three quarters of the Earth’s surface is covered by the oceans and they are far deeper than land above sea level.
I believe that the Earth’s equatorial bulge (27-29 miles) would require that the atmosphere and the oceans recede toward the respective poles. Thus, the part of the Indian Ocean above the equator would travel north. This combined with the westward motion caused by a cessation of the Earth’s rotation, would explain why the Ark ended up north by northwest by 2000 miles. The initial impact from this kind of oceanic surge would be gradual and far less forceful than a west-east tsunami which would have been up to 1000 mph, the approximate speed of the Earth’s rotation.
Following the “Vogt Model” the next nova will cause the Earth to stop and then begin a new clock-wise rotation, the opposite of the current counter-clockwise rotation. After this nova, the Sun will rise in the West and set in the East. When the Earth stops spinning at the next nova, it will be the Americas’ turn to experience the devastation of a surge from the Pacific Ocean. The West Coast would be gone before the light from the nova ever makes its 8-minute journey. The same would be true of the Atlantic coasts of Europe.
Because the Pacific Ocean is so vast, there is nothing on the American Continent that would remain. The shearing effect would scour the land. No buildings or vegetation would be left, not even any ruins.
Chan Thomas believed that Pike’s Peak might be high enough to clear the surge, but only on the leeward side, as the wind-speed will also match the speed of the water currents (initially 1000 mph) and will drive the waves up the mountain-side on its western slopes.
Any parts of the Earth exposed to the flash and blast waves of the nova will obtain some protection by the oceanic surges. But that will be small comfort to the creatures that will have drowned in the flood. For those who believe that an underground bunker that is water tight would survive the surge, keep in mind that the psi (pounds-per-square-inch) of one or two miles of water pressure would likely crush it. And then the sediment layer left behind would bury it under so much soil and debris that you would be trapped, unless you have some kind of burrowing equipment.
The same is true of a mountainside cave. Vogt has been in discussion with engineers to design a blast door or hatch that would withstand the pressure. So far, no luck.
The Book of Revelation does not discuss the flooding aspect associated with this kind of catastrophe. It speaks in allegory and is primarily concerned with spiritual matters. But certainly, the language can be interpreted to infer a destruction of this scale, by fire and water.
Again, we think that a boat of some kind would be necessary to survive this kind of cataclysm, but it would have to be something more like a submarine.
JWS, November 20, 2021
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The above description of the Earth’s rotation is from the vantage point of looking down from the North Pole.