Mount Hermon Was Flood-Formed | The Institute for Creation Research
Mount Hermon Was Flood-Formed

Mount Hermon is a topic that seems to pop up increasingly these days, especially among Christian prophecy and end-times teachers. Much of this interest has to do with intriguing discussions surrounding Genesis 6:1-4 and the topic of giants and nephilim. This is primarily due to a connection between these Scriptures and the apocryphal Book of Enoch, which contains a more detailed nephilim account and mentions Mount Hermon as a central part of the story.

According to the Book of Enoch, 200 fallen angels (watchers) descended from the heavenly realm to the top of Mount Hermon. They then began nefarious activity with human women, resulting in the offspring of giants often referred to as the nephilim (meaning “fallen ones” in Hebrew). Therefore, many Christians like to point to the present-day Mount Hermon as the historical site of this angelic intrusion.

Regardless of where one stands on the controversial issue of nephilim, there’s one geographical aspect of the whole debate that’s decidedly in error. In fact, this is a common type of historical error some Christians make in other geographical speculations concerning the Bible. Specifically, it’s the important issue of the Genesis Flood and its relation to the current global landscape. The popular but errant idea that the present-day Mount Hermon is the same geological feature that existed in the pre-Flood world serves as an important teaching point.

Present-day Mount Hermon is actually a mountain cluster at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. It’s 2,814 meters (9,232 feet) tall at its summit and straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon, with the highest point being in Syria. The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where a ski resort is located.

 
 

Mount Hermon is composed of global Flood sediments that were deposited close to the high point of the floodwaters (Jurassic and Cretaceous), corresponding to what stratigraphic geologists call the Zuni Megasequence.1,2 There’s also evidence of volcanic activity and magma flows that occurred after initial uplift of the mountain during the Flood year, dated by conventional geologists as Early Cretaceous.1 The final uplift of Mount Hermon ensued as the floodwaters were receding (Neogene), forming the mountains we see today.

In the creation model, the global Flood was a progressive and violent ebb-and-flow cataclysm that occurred over a year-long period. Thus, given the fact that today’s Mount Hermon is composed of Flood-formed rocks that were deposited and/or erupted just prior to Day 150, assumptions that it’s a remnant of the pre-Flood world are in error.

The world that existed before the Flood was totally destroyed, and the present-day (post-Flood) Mount Hermon, which is mostly composed of sedimentary Flood rock, cannot be the pre-Flood Mount Hermon alluded to in the Book of Enoch. If there actually were a pre-Flood Mount Hermon, we have no idea where it was located on the pre-Flood supercontinent Pangaea before Pangaea split apart during the Flood into the present global continent configuration.

Christian philosophers and theologians would do well to include the research done by creation scientists that not only fits closely with a literal interpretation of Genesis but also empirically supports such key events as the global Flood. The total global destruction of the pre-Flood world was such an important topic that the apostle Peter said, “By which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water” (2 Peter 3:6). The Greek verb used for perished in this verse (apollymi) means to be utterly destroyed and completely lost, and its historical past tense (aorist) indicates a completed action.

Thus, both geological and biblical evidence show Mount Hermon was Flood-formed.

References

  1. Wilson, M. et al. 2000. Early Cretaceous magmatism of Mount Hermon, Northern Israel. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 139: 54-67.
  2. Clarey, T. 2020. Carved in Stone: Geological Evidence of the Worldwide Flood. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research.

* Dr. Tomkins is Director of Research at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in genetics from Clemson University.

Cite this article: Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D. 2022. Mount Hermon Was Flood-Formed. Acts & Facts. 51 (11).

The Latest
CREATION.LIVE PODCAST
Beauty for Beauty's Sake! | Creation.Live Podcast: Episode 17
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Or is beauty an objective standard? Where do our ideas of beauty even come from?   Hosts...

NEWS
Fire Sensory Capabilities of the Venus Flytrap
Fascinating discoveries have been made regarding the amazing Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula).1 For example, all parts of this amazing plant...

CREATION PODCAST
What Really Swallowed Jonah? | The Creation Podcast: Episode...
The book of Jonah contains the historical account of the prophet Jonah. In verse 17 of chapter 1, the text states that the Lord prepared a great...

NEWS
More Flood Evidence
Paleontologists recently discovered the partial fossils of two new species of dinosaur just outside of Casablanca. As stated in a Science Direct article,...

NEWS
New York Times Editorial: Big Bang Unraveling?
Two physicists have suggested in a recent New York Times guest editorial that Big Bang cosmology ‘may be starting to unravel.’1...

NEWS
Your Functional ''Yolk Sac''
For decades, evolutionists pointed to dozens of ‘useless artifacts’ of the human body to make their questionable case for evolution. But...

NEWS
The Beauty of Creation: Created for God’s Own Glory
Have you ever wondered why a sunset on a beach is captivating, snowcapped mountains are breathtaking, and a valley filled with wildflowers is enchanting? Scripture,...

CREATION PODCAST
Devastating, Dangerous, and Deadly Bacteria? | The Creation Podcast:...
Bacteria are everywhere! While we can't see them with the naked eye, these little critters are everywhere, even in and on your body! Some of...

NEWS
Pre-Flood Reptile Fossil Discovered With Baleen
Baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti) are amazing filter-feeding mammals of the sea. They belong to a group called the Cetacea. Evolutionists suggest they...

NEWS
September 2023 ICR Wallpaper
"If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and...