Ross is Boss? – Noah’s Flood

Once upon a deep time there was a Wise Man from the land of Roz.  Little Hank wanted to know where babies come from and sought out the Wise Man of Roz.  The Wise Man said babies come from the cabbage patch and are delivered to eager families by storks.  Hank understood from the Bible the children were a blessing from God that came after a husband and wife “knew” each other (Ge 1:24, 4:1, 25; cf. 2 Sam. 11:3-5, 26, 27).  The Wise Man had read the Big Book of Science and suggested that Hank had misread the Scriptures.  Psalm 127:3-5 compares children with arrows.  Well, arrows have feathers at the end – could they be stork feathers?  The word for “lovingkindness” in Ps. 51:1 is hesed – the root of this word relates to a stork which is very kind and compassionate to its young.  Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of repentance regarding his immoral relationship with Bathsheba.  Maybe the stork really did bring the baby! …   

Hugh Ross of Reasons To Believe (RTB) thinks that the traditional view regarding the Global Flood is wrong since he uncritically accepts the supposed hundred of millions of years of the Geologic Column.  RTB has been rebuffed by certain Christian colleges because they “accept the scientific evidence for the age of the Earth …” [1]  Ross claims that traditional creationists are “demeaning science.”  Ross should reject mainstream dating methods and Old Earth Fallacies (OEF).  Cheng Yeng Hung, who has been published in Transactions, Geophysical Union, has proposed a dating model that takes into account the affect of the groundwater stream.  Based on Hung’s adjustment, the Uranium-Lead dating of the earth should be 220K years. [2]  

According to Flood Geology opponent Davis Young, paleontologist Timothy Heaton “interprets Ross’ mixture of empirical data and Scripture as an arbitrary blend of science and religion …” [3]  Young observes, “… the scientific approach to knowledge is invariably and unavoidably subservient to each scientist’s religious worldview” [4]  Ross is stuck in OEF and refuses to see the validating evidence for Young Earth Science (YES).

Ross has a new video on the Global Flood, In the Days of Noah, where he makes the case for a local flood.  He presents a map of the Roman Empire to show that “the world” does not mean the entire globe (note:  he misses Hadrian’s Wall and has Ireland under Roman control):

This actually defeats his purpose.  A flood that would cover the Alps and Mt. Ararat would undoubtedly be global (cf. Ge 7:19)!  Ross even admits that, “The Roman World [Empire] … would establish a maximum limit for the extent of the Flood of Noah.” [5] 

Ross makes a number of errors in this video:
Ice Cores represent annual layers
Eden was located in the Persian Gulf (cf. 2 Peter 3:6)
All mainstream geologists disparage a global flood [6]
Psalm 104 refers to Creation Week, Day 3, not the Flood [7]
George McCready Price started Flood Geology
Noah may have lived 55K years ago! [8]

Ross emphasizes the limited judgments of Sodom and Jericho, but fails to see the actual parallel between the global destruction of Judgment Day and Noah’s Flood (Lk 17:26, 27; 2 Peter 3:3-7). Ross claims that the Flood covered the Persian Gulf and surrounding regions:

The Ross Flood did not even cover Jerusalem!!  This flood is only 300 miles wide.  In London, on October 20th, 2002 Oleg Kharitonov walked/jogged 100 miles in just 11 hours, 28 minutes and 3 seconds.  Noah’s contemporaries could have escaped the Flood if it were so small.  Besides, humanity would have gone global by the time of Noah.

Ross completely misses the fact that global flood legends point to a Global Flood.  Terry Mortenson has written an excellent piece showing that Jesus' teaching supports the Young Earth (Mk 10:6; Mk 13:19, 20; Lk 11:50, 51). [9]  Other than the nice graphic presentation, there are few positive points in Ross’ new video on the Global Flood.                 

Notes:

1)  RTB support letter, July 2011.
2)  “Reevaluation of Earth Age Using Hung’s Dating Model” by Cheng Yeng Hung, Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 48, Summer 2011, pp. 59-62.
3)  “For the Rock Record” (book review) by Davis Young, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Vol. 62, No. 4, Dec. 2010, p. 296.
4)  Ibid., p. 297.
5)  In The Days of Noah (DVD) by Hugh Ross (Reasons to Believe, Glendora, CA, 2011).
6)  Introduction to Geology by William Stokes and Sheldon Judson (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1968), p. 296.
7)  The Genesis Flood by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris (Presbyterian and Reformed, Philadelphia, PA, 1961), p. 122.
8)  “Do the Genesis 5 and 11 Genealogies Contain Gaps?” by Travis Freeman in Coming to Grips with Genesis ed. by Terry Mortenson and Thane Ury (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2008), pp. 315-346.
9)  “Jesus’ View on the Age of the Earth” by Terry Mortenson in Coming to Grips with Genesis ed. by Terry Mortenson and Thane Ury (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2008), pp. 315-346.