A recent news item was circulating this week on Facebook via the National Geographic web page which told the story of a man in the early 20th century who became a geologist because of his interest in some remarkable formations in eastern Washington State. After spending a great deal of time and research to determine what forces could have possibly formed the geologic landscape, he came up with a stunning conclusion. They could have only been formed from a sudden and massive amount of water, not as a result of millennia of normal erosion from wind and water. Story here:   And, for full disclosure, credit to National Geographic for the photo above.

This announcement did not go over very well with the established scientific community, as they were unwilling or unable to abandon their lifelong beliefs that they KNEW to be true. The same thing can be said about Bible believers. Most people who trust the Bible to be true have lifelong beliefs that have been taught to them from people they know, respect and trust with their expertise. But, can the Bible itself be a source of “proof” of this event without having to cite the story of Noah only? Yes it can, if you understand what scripture truly says.

Did you know that the flood of Noah is mentioned in the New Testament too? Well, it is, in the book of 2 Peter. Specifically, in chapter 3. I’ll bet everyone who has ever read this chapter misses the most significant point that Peter was making.  Here is that passage in the KJV version:

2 Peter 3:5–For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

This chapter identifies the condition of the world prior to the return of Yahshua Anointed.  But, it also includes a description of the earth prior to the creation of man in Genesis.  I’ll re-write 2 Peter 3:5, using my own words to allow the meaning to explode off the page.

“For this they are willfully ignorant of; the heavens of old contained water that stood outside the earth and water was contained within the earth and this was done by the Creator, the Word.”

This verse is not saying “by the word of Yahweh…”, as is rendered in virtually every translation ever written. Peter tells us that the waters that were standing outside the earth [above it] and the waters that were upon the earth [oceans, lakes, aquifers, etc.] were all the result of the Word. Most Bible students can quickly identify Who Peter is speaking about when he says the Word created the heavens of old.

John 1:1– “In Beginning (there is no “the” in the original text) was the Word.” John is not talking about the “beginning of time”. He’s specifically talking to the religious leaders of his day and he’s speaking about the first book of the Bible, which we call Genesis. But, in John’s day, all holy texts were identified by the first word in the first sentence. This word became the “name” of the book. The first Hebrew word of today’s book of Genesis was “Barashith”, which means “Beginning”. So, as John was speaking to the religious leaders, he was showing them that Yahshua Anointed was the same Man who was there at Barashith/Beginning and John was setting the stage to establish the bonifides of Yahshua Anointed and His ministry on earth.

More of John 1:1– “…Yahshua was with Yahweh and Yahshua was Elohim. V.2–The SAME (Yahshua) was in Beginning (first book of the Bible) with YAHWEH.” Now that John has fully established the relationship of Yahshua with His Father, Yahweh, John continued his book. But the Word John is identifying is the same Word Peter refers to in 2 Pet. 2:5, none other than our Messiah. The “Word” is not text. It is a person.

Back to 2 Peter 3:6– “Whereby, the world THAT WAS THEN [the world that consisted of waters above the earth and waters upon the earth] was DELUGED with water and those on the earth perished.” Most people will recognize that this is a reference to Noah’s flood, but they miss the significance of Peter’s explanation by skipping over the very next verse.

V. 7– “But the heavens and earth WHICH ARE NOW [today’s heaven and earth are different than the heaven and earth identified in v. 5] are being kept in their current condition by the same Word [Who had originally placed these two categories of water in different spheres] until the time of the blah, blah, blah. For this discussion, the rest is irrelevant.

If Peter were simply citing Noah’s flood–something that every Jewish adolescent would have already known about–he would not have said that this is something that we’re “willfully ignorant” of. How can “common knowledge” be “willful ignorance”? Peter is talking about our ignorance of the position of these two bodies of water and where they existed pre-flood and where they exist post-flood.

In Genesis, the waters that caused the flood arrived from two specific locations. In Gen. 7:11, we find this: “…all the fountains of the great deep [were] broken up [waters that were upon and within the earth] AND the windows of heaven were opened”. After these rains ended, we’re told in Gen. 8:2– “The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain was restrained.”

Everybody, and I mean everybody, for almost 4,400 years has believed that the “windows of heaven” means huge storms, filled with schloads of rain, unlike any rainstorm that’s ever happened before or since. And everybody would be only 1/2 right, missing the biggest meaning of what Moses wrote. Can the “windows of heaven” be identified as something other than our normal atmosphere?

Yes.

Gen. 1:6, the 2nd day of creation, we read: “And Elohim is saying let us make an atmosphere [firmament] in the MIDST of the waters, and let it [the atmosphere] DIVIDE the waters from the waters.” Note–Elohim does not say he placed the waters WITHIN the atmosphere or firmament. He says the waters were placed ABOVE it. This is key–waters that were held in clouds or fog or dew or mere humidity would make up the composition of waters that were PART of the atmosphere, not “above” it.

Therefore, Moses and Peter are revealing to us [we, who are deliberately ignorant of this fact] that the waters that were ABOVE the atmosphere were beyond it, FAR beyond it, residing in the place called “heaven” (Gen. 1:8).

Any water that resides in the area called heaven, which is ABOVE the firmament/atmosphere, can only be…in…outer…space. And, any water that was placed there, by the Word from Beginning of creation, could only be in one form–frozen. As unbelievable as this may sound, Yahweh Himself has given us proof, using creation itself, that this phenomena is not only possible, it already EXISTS in our own solar system in the planet Saturn. We are shown a visible hint of where matter–or water– ABOVE the firmament can be suspended until that fateful day when the windows of heaven released them from their original location, never to return again.

These frozen waters were a part of the night sky for 1,656 years since the creation of Adam. Once the windows of heaven were opened and these waters descended to the earth, at first it would have fallen as solid objects. Eventually, as these ice formations entered the earth’s atmosphere, they would have melted into liquid form, thus forming the flood of Noah.

And, of course, now that this icy/watery substance has been expelled from its heavenly domain, there would be NO MORE ICE PARTICLES REMAINING from the place they once were. Therefore, the windows of heaven were “stopped” (Ex. 8:2) because all the water that had been above the firmament and resided in outer space was now on earth.

Never again would Yahweh destroy the earth with a flood. Gen. 9:11– “…neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.” [Because the source of the water that was used in this destruction was no longer in the “heavens of old”, as Peter is telling us.]

Keep in mind, this icy ring, once it was released to fall upon the earth, would have had a cataclysmic impact on the entire globe, not just the ancient lands described in the Bible. This is more validation of the flood of Noah affecting the whole world.