SCRIPTURE ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD, VINDICATED, by John Norton Loughborough

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 29, 1861

SCRIPTURE ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD, VINDICATED,

By John Norton Loughborough

In this time, when infidelity is fast increasing, and the adversaries of the Bible are fortifying themselves for strong attacks upon believers, it is of the highest importance that God’s people avail themselves of all the testimony within their reach to meet this prevailing unbelief. We consider that the following testimony, from the first volume of Horne’s Introduction to the study of the Bible, successfully meets the objections which are raised in regard to the flood. We would recommend to every reader, to preserve this article, for reference in case of an attack on this point,

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

No part of the Mosaic history has been more ridiculed by the opposers of revelation, than the narrative of the DELUGE; though no fact that ever occurred in the world is so well attested both by natural and civil history.

1. Proofs of that event from Natural History.

It has been asserted that the relation of the deluge, contained in the seventh chapter of the book of Genesis, is contrary to philosophy, and that the deluge could not be universal, because no stock of water could be found sufficient to overflow the earth to the degree represented by Moses. The Hebrew historian, however, expressly asserts that it was universal, and his relation is confirmed by the fossilized remains of animals belonging to a former world, which are found in every quarter of the globe.

Thus, the highest eminences of the earth, as the Andes, the Alps, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, Libanus, Atlas, and Ararat, in short, all the mountains of every region under heaven, where search has been made, conspire in one uniform and universal proof that the sea was spread over their highest summits; for they are found to contain shells, skeletons of fish, and marine animals of every kind. The bones of extinct animals have been found in America, at an elevation of 7,800 feet, and in the Cordilleras, at 7,200 feet above the level of the sea. In central Asia, the evidence is still more decisive; the fossilized remains of the horse, deer, and bear species, having been brought to England from the Himalaya mountains, from an elevation of more than 16,000 feet.

Further skeletons of the elephant and rhinoceros, natives of Africa and southern Asia, have been dug up on the steppes or table-lands of Tartary and Siberia; and remains of elephants have been found in various parts of England. Crocodiles, chiefly of the Asiatic species, have been discovered in various parts of Europe. The gigantic mammoth (an animal which has hitherto been supposed exclusively to belong to the antediluvian world) has been found in the most northern parts of Russia, and also in North America, and in Ireland. The fossil bones and teeth of the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tiger, hyæna (animals found in Africa and the east), and of the bear and numerous other animals, have been found in England; to which we may add trees of vast dimensions with their roots and tops, and some also with leaves and fruit, discovered at the bottom of mines and marle-pits, not only in regions where no trees of such kind were ever known to grow, but also where it is demonstrably impossible that they should grow; which effect could only be produced by the fountains of the great deep being broken up. Further, the drifting of the ark northwards, from Noah's settlement to mount Ararat, leads us to infer that the main current of the waters of the deluge came from the south; and that this was the case is most evident from the present appearance of the great continents of the terraqueous globe; whose deep southern indentations and bold projecting capes on the north, together with the chaotic subversions of the ghauts of Hindoostan, as well as of the mountains of Abyssinia and Caffraria, and of those in the neighborhood of the straits of Magellan—all conspire to prove that such tremendous disruptions were originally caused by the waters of the great deep; which rushed northward with considerable fury at first, though they afterward grew less violent toward the end of their progress. There are also traces of prodigious disruptions of the earth in high northern regions, as if on purpose to absorb the redundant waters from the south: and in some parts, as in Norway, whole countries have been uplifted on one side, and half buried on the other in vast gulphs which opened to receive them. To these facts we may add, that all the researches of the most eminent geologists tend to prove the recent population of the world, and that its present surface is not of very ancient formation.

PHYSICAL OBJECTION TO THE MOSAIC HISTORY OF THE DELUGE REFUTED.

Decisive as these facts are, it has been attempted to set aside the Mosaic narrative, by some alleged marks of antiquity, which certain continental philosophers have affirmed to exist in the strata of the lava of Mt. Ætna. Thus Count Borch has attempted to prove that volcanic mountain to be eight thousand years old, by the different strata of lava which have been discovered. And in the vaults and pits which have been sunk to a great depth about Ætna, the Canon Recupero affirmed that seven strata of lava have been found, each with a surface of soil upon them, which [he assumes] would require two thousand years to accumulate upon each stratum; and reasoning from analogy, he calculates that the lowest of these strata must have flowed from the mountain fourteen thousand years ago!

ANSWER.—Nothing can be more fallacious than this argument, if indeed it deserves to be dignified with the name of an argument. For, who knows what causes have operated to produce volcanic eruptions at very unequal periods? Who has kept a register of the eruptions of any burning mountain for one thousand years, to say nothing of three or four thousand? Who can say that the strata of earth were formed in equal periods? The time for the formation of the uppermost and last is probably not known, much less the respective periods of the lower strata. One might have been formed in a year, another in a century. The philosophers above mentioned are wholly ignorant of the cause of any one of these earthly strata. They build one hypothesis upon another, and to believe their whole argument requires stronger faith than to believe a miracle. Faith in a miracle rests upon testimony; but faith in their scheme must be founded on an extreme desire to prove a falsehood. But the analogy, on which it has been attempted to build the hypothesis just mentioned, is contradicted by another analogy, which is grounded on more certain facts.

Ætna and Vesuvius resemble each other in the causes that produce their eruptions, in the nature of their lavas, and in the time necessary to mellow them into soil fit for vegetation. This being admitted, which no philosopher will deny, the Canon Recupero's analogy will prove just nothing at all. We can produce an instance of seven different lavas, with interjacent strata of vegetable earth, which have flowed from mount Vesuvius within the space, not of fourteen thousand, but of somewhat less than fourteen hundred years; for then, according to our analogy, a stratum of lava may be covered with vegetable soil in about two hundred and fifty years, instead of requiring two thousand for that purpose. The eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, is rendered still more celebrated by the death of the elder Pliny, recorded in his nephew's letter to Tacitus. This event happened A. D. 79; but we are informed by unquestionable authority, that the matter which covers Herculaneum is not the produce of one eruption only, for there are evident marks that the matter of six eruptions has taken its course over that which lies immediately over the town, and which was the cause of its destruction; and these strata are either of lava or of burnt matter, with veins of good soil between. Whence it is evident, with what ease a little attention and increase of knowledge may remove a great difficulty.

2. But the fact of the universality of the deluge does not rest on the evidence arising from the organic remains of the former world which have been discovered, nor is its history confined to the Scriptures. Civil history likewise affords many evidences which support the Mosaic account of the deluge. Thus,

[i.] The paucity of mankind, and the vast tracts of uninhabited land, which are mentioned in the accounts of the first ages, show that mankind are sprung lately from a small stock, and even suit the time assigned by Moses before the flood. To which we may add, that the great number of small kingdoms and petty States, in the first ages, concur to the same purpose.

"Most eminent nations," it has been well observed, "like great families, have at all times been fond of extolling up their pedigree, and carrying it as high as possible; and where no marks remain of the successive alterations in their state, are apt to imagine that it has been always the same. Hence the many foolish pretences among the ancients, to their being aborigines of the countries they had inhabited time out of mind; hence they were led to make their several gods the founders of their government. They knew but very little of the world; and the tradition which they had of that little was so far mixed and corrupted with romance, that it serves only to confound them. Upon the removal of this cloud by the more diligent and accurate inquiry of the moderns, we see ancient history beginning to clear up, the world puts on a very different face, and all parts of it appear conformable to each other, and to the late better known course of things; as is proved, very clearly, in various instances, by a learned and ingenious writer. We find the marvelous in all the annals of those times, and more especially in the great point of their antiquity, exceedingly reduced, and our own plain accounts still more and more confirmed; whence we may be convinced, that both the peopling and cultivation of the earth arose at first from a few low beginnings; that it very gradually spread itself from some one center; and that it has at all times proceeded by pretty near the same slow regular steps as it does at present."

REPORT FROM BRO. BYINGTON.

DEAR BRO. WHITE: By request we returned to Salem, Ind., Oct. 11, and held meetings two Sabbaths and first-days, and most of the evenings while there. We were happy to learn that those who arose when we were first there in testimony that they would repent, believe and obey the truth, were not discouraged, though the enemy had tried hard to overcome them. Our meetings were truly refreshing, and we felt we could cheerfully labor while we could see the Lord's hand set to the work. Eleven were baptized, and several others would have been had circumstances admitted.

The brother who came some ten miles to meet for the first time with Seventh-day Advent believers, remarked at the last evening meeting that our opposers would have it that we had no conversions among us, but only made proselytes from the churches. He wished to know how many there were present who had not before professed conversion. The number was thirteen. We believe this brother and his companion went home fully resolved to obey all the truth. We felt that our hearts were one with theirs, and trust they will yet do much good in going out into the highways and hedges to compel others to come in that our Father's house may be filled.

One family returned to the church that had been led away by the no-law system. All put their names to the covenant recommended by our last conference, and have a leader appointed until a more perfect organization can be had. May this church so let their light shine that others seeing their good works may glorify our Father which is in heaven.

JOHN BYINGTON.

Ceresco, Mich.