Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown. Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other materials.
1. See "What Triggered the Flood?" on pages 434–439.
2. This Hebrew word for “deep” is tehom, which according to the 1973 Strong’s Concordance, means “a surging mass of water, especially from the main sea or the subterranean water supply.” [See Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1973), Hebrew Word 8415.]
4. See "Rocket Science" on page 525.
5. See "Why Did the Flood Water Drain So Slowly?" on page 463.
6. See Figure 49 on page 113.
7. Psalm 104:1–4 is a celebration of the first and second creation days. [See C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Vol. 5 (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980), p. 128.]
8. Henry Morris, a prolific author and insightful student of the Bible, wrote:
The Bible specifically attributes the Flood to the bursting of the fountains of the great deep and the pouring down of torrential rains from heaven. These two phenomena are sufficient in themselves (in light of related Biblical information, as discussed above) to explain the Flood and all its effects without the necessity of resorting either to supernatural creative miracles or to providentially ordered extraterrestrial interferences of speculative nature.
The breaking up (literally ‘cleaving open’) of the fountains of the great deep is mentioned first and so evidently was the initial action which triggered the rest. These conduits somehow all developed uncontrollable fractures on the same day. For such a remarkable worldwide phenomenon, there must have been a worldwide cause. The most likely cause would seem to have been a rapid buildup and surge of intense pressure throughout the underground system, and this in turn would presumably require a rapid rise in temperature throughout the system. Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record (San Diego, California: Creation-Life Publishers, 1976), p. 196.
9. The same Hebrew word, baqa ((qab@f), is used for “burst open” and “broken up” in Genesis 7:11 and Proverbs 3:20, respectively. Baqa describes a violent and complete splitting, sometimes of the earth’s crust (Numbers 16:31, Micah 1:4, Zechariah 14:4). Isaiah 34:15 and 59:5 use baqa to describe the breaking of an egg shell by internal pressure as a baby bird exits. This aptly describes events of the hydroplate theory—the globe encircling rupture (or splitting) of earth’s crust by internal pressure. [See Figures 41 and 57 on pages 107 and 124.]
10. The “floodgate terminology” shows that water fell in a violent and concentrated manner. Imagine the overwhelming force you would feel if you stood under floodgates that suddenly opened—floodgates that had 40 days’ worth of water behind them! The word for violent rain, M#g@E (transliterated geshem), was used instead of the word for normal rain. Geshem rain is sometimes accompanied by high winds and huge hailstones that can destroy mortared walls (Ezekiel 13:11–13). Normal rain (matar rain) is formed by condensation, a relatively slow process, because heat must be transferred away from condensing droplets. Rain that formed by condensation would not release the sudden, dramatic power suggested by the “floodgate terminology.”
The Hebrew word for “floodgates” is arubbah (hb@fru)j). In Isaiah 24:18, the arubbah’s opening was associated with the shaking of the foundations of the earth (as in the hydroplate theory). In Malachi 3:10, II Kings 7:2, and 7:19, arubbah describes an almost miraculous opening of the sky. In Hosea 13:3, it means “chimney” and describes smoke pouring from a chimney, much like muddy water jetted into the sky in the hydroplate theory.
11. These events—the bursting open of the fountains of the great deep, opening of the floodgates of the sky, and falling rain—are in the cause-and-effect order of the hydroplate theory. This is also true in Genesis 8:2 and Proverbs 3:20.
12. This insight was brought to my attention by Don J. McIlrath on 23 January 2002.
13. The Hebrew word gabar is usually translated in this verse as “prevailed.” It carries the idea of a mighty opposition of forces, in which one force overwhelms (or prevails over) another. It is as if the flood waters were fighting to overcome forces that would have drained the water from the earth. After the compression event, on about the 150th day, that “prevailing” ceased. The flood waters then began to drain into deep basins, such as the newly opened Atlantic and the very deep Pacific and Indian Oceans.
14. God promised to never send another global flood (Genesis 9:15). Psalm 104:6b–9 tells why water would “not return to cover the earth.” The mountains rose, and the valleys sank down, so a boundary was set for the waters.
The hydroplate theory provides further understanding. During the compression event, continents were crushed and thickened; mountains buckled up much higher than preflood mountains. Water drained into the low spots as the land rose out of the water. Imagine the violent sounds—“the sound of Thy thunder”—during the compression event. After the hydroplates settled onto the floor of the subterranean chamber, water could no longer be forced up onto the continents. Earth’s surface water ended up in basins—“a boundary that they may not pass over; that they may not return to cover the earth.” It is now clear why there will never be another global flood.
After the flood, some water remained (1) between the irregularities in the chamber floor and the settling hydroplates, and (2) in cracks in the crushed hydroplates. This trapped water helps explain saltwater under the Tibetan Plateau and why deep drilling has intersected “hot flowing water” that is too deep to have seeped down from the earth’s surface. [See pages 114 and 128.] Exodus 20:4 may refer to this water.
15. The Book of Jasher, translated from Hebrew by Mordechai Noah in 1840 (Salt Lake City: J. H. Parry & Company, 1887).
u Wayne Simpson, The Authentic Annals of the Early Hebrews (Kearney, Nebraska: Lightcatcher Books, 2003).
Simpson’s book contains The Book of Jasher plus informative analyses of its accuracies and inaccuracies.
16. For details, see “The Clear Truth about The Book of Jasher at www.lulu.com/items/volume_67/8173000/8173208/1/print/jasher.pdf .
17. C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Vol. 7 (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1981), p. 432.