Claim CH102.5:

Noah's flood must have been global, not a local flood like some propose. God promised that he would send no more floods (Gen. 9:8-17), but there have been many local floods through history. To believe in a local flood is to say that God broke his promise.

Source:

Ham, Ken, Jonathan Sarfati, and Carl Wieland, 2000. Was the Flood global? from: The Revised and Expanded Answers Book. Green Forest AR: Master Books, ch. 10. http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/AnswersBook/global10.asp

Response:

  1. According to the Bible, God promises not to send another flood that would destroy all life. Since no such flood has occurred, the promise is kept.

  2. Someone who proposes that Genesis refers to a local flood has already decided not to interpret the Bible literally, so a non-literal interpretation of the promise is not an issue. Non-literal interpretations of the Bible are compatible both with the Bible and with reality; literal interpretations are scarcely compatible with the Bible and not compatible with reality.

Further Reading:

Pleins, J. David. 2003. When the Great Abyss Opened. New York: Oxford.
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created 2005-8-19