Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Genesis 1:9 ¶ Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 1:9 ¶ Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place [of standing, pooling together], and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. |
Bible Question: Was there one land mass before the flood? The wording of this verse seems to suggest it, because the the waters were gathered to one place. If this is the case, the Flood radically altered the earth's surface. |
Bible Answer: The Bible does not speak directly about continental drift and plate tectonics, but if the continents were once together, as Genesis 1:9-10 suggests, and are now apart, how does that fit into a biblical view of geology with a time line of only thousands of years? Good question! Lionstrong, I like you, also believe in a "young earth" philosophy- that the earth is only thousands of years old instead of millions or billions.. "Before the 1960s, most geologists were adamant that the continents were stationary. A handful promoted the notion that the continents had moved (continental drift), but they were accused by the majority of indulging in pseudo-scientific fantasy. Today, that opinion has reversed- plate tectonics, incorporating continental drift, is the ruling theory. Interestingly, it was a creationist, Antonio Snider, who in 1859 first proposed horizontal movement of continents catastrophically during the Genesis flood. The statements in Genesis 1:9-10 about the gathering together of the seas in one place, which implies there was one landmass, influenced his thinking. Geologists put forward several lines of evidence that the continents were joined together and have moved apart, including: 1) The fit of the continents (taking into account the continental shelves). 2) Correlation of fossil types across ocean basins. 3) A zebra-striped pattern of magnetic reversals parallel to mid-ocean floor rifts, in the volcanic rock formed along the rifts, implying seafloor spreading along the rifts. 4) Seismic observations interpreted as slabs of former ocean floor now located inside the earth. The current theory that incorporates seafloor spreading and continental drift is known as "plate tectonics." Taken from "The Revised and Expanded Answers Book" (page 159) by Ken Ham, Jonathan Sarfati and Carl Wieland, copyright 1990 by Creation Science Foundation, Ltd. Website: www.AnswersinGenesis.org --Nolan |