“Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” 2 Peter 3:6*
I am often asked, “Where is the evidence for the global Flood?” And I usually answer, “Just look down. Most of the earth is covered with thousands of feet of sediments, filled with billions and billions of fossils buried en masse.”
Yet evolutionists claim, “The greatest geologic fiction that the Creationists adhere to is Noah’s Flood.”1 Theistic evolutionists make similar statements, claiming the acceptance of a literal global Flood 4,500 years ago is “a huge barrier for people, an obstacle to trusting the Bible as a wholly truthful message.”2 They add, “Adults on every continent, especially those with formal training in the sciences, recognize that no geological evidence exists—at least none confirmed as credible by the scientific research community—for a globally extensive flood during the past several thousand years.”3
Scientists at ICR can readily identify compelling evidence in the rocks on every continent that supports the progressive global Flood described in Genesis 7–8.4,5 Every continent shows the same order of sedimentary rocks, the same order of fossils, the same progressive flooding pattern, and the same peak in sea level at approximately the same time. These global patterns indicate a worldwide catastrophe.
Still, critics claim when the Bible speaks of flooding the whole earth, both in Genesis and in the New Testament, it means the “known world” or “their world” rather than the entire globe.6 In effect, they make it a regional flood of just the Middle East or the Mediterranean region.
Why, then, does God mention taking birds on the Ark? They could have flown away and escaped a local flood. Genesis 6:20 says “birds after their kind,” more specifically “seven each of birds of the air” (Genesis 7:3), were brought to the Ark. And the Bible mentions birds repeatedly in Genesis 7:8, 14, 21, and 23. In addition to the dove and the raven used by Noah, the Bible describes birds exiting the Ark in Genesis 8:17 and 19. And instead of spending many decades building an ark, Noah and his family could have traveled elsewhere and been safe from a regional or local flood. But there was no place on Earth to escape this judgment other than the Ark.
Furthermore, God describes the Flood in Genesis 6–9 with the Hebrew word mabbul. Henry Morris pointed out that this is the only time mabbul is used in the Old Testament other than Psalm 29:10’s reference to the Flood.7 In the New Testament, the unusual Greek word kataklusmos (where we get “cataclysm”) is used in Matthew 24:39, Luke 17:27, and 2 Peter 2:5 and 3:6 to refer to the global Flood instead of the typical word for a flood.7
Skeptics claim a loving God would never destroy the entire earth in a judgment. But God is holy, just, and hates sin. Genesis 6:5 tells us that “every intent of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” And Genesis 6:11 says even the earth “was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” However, Noah was righteous and “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8–9). The Lord chose to save a remnant of humanity and a remnant of every kind of air-breathing, land animal on the Ark. He had a plan, and that plan ultimately involved the redemption of all mankind through the shed blood of Jesus about 2,500 years later. Like the Bible revealing God’s plan, the rocks across every continent tell us the global Flood really happened.
References
- Butler, B. Creationism = Willful Ignorance. Posted on durangobill.com, accessed December 17, 2025.
- Ross, H. 2025. Noah’s Flood Revisited: New Depths of Insight from Science and Scripture. Covina, CA: RTB Press, 15.
- Ross, 15–16.
- Clarey, T. 2020. Carved in Stone: Geological Evidence of the Worldwide Flood. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research.
- Clarey, T. L. and D. J. Werner. 2023. A Progressive Global Flood Model Confirmed by Rock Data Across Five Continents. Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism. 9 (1): 412–445.
- Collins, L. G. 2009. Yes, Noah’s Flood May Have Happened, But Not Over the Whole Earth. Reports of the National Center for Science Education. 29 (5): 38–41.
- Morris, H. M. 2009. The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Dr. Clarey is the director of research at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in geology from Western Michigan University.
*KJV
