Chapter 7: Earth's Pre-Flood Water Canopy

I can remember one particular lunch period = sitting in my=20 office at Baylor College of Dentistry studying Genesis 1. Those = dental=20 students had asked me to explain to them what God meant in = verses 6-8a.=20 How often we read the Bible but don't really think about what it = says.=20 As I studied these verses, I realized that I didn't know quite = what they=20 were saying. Here is what the Bible says:

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the = midst of=20 the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.=20
And God = made the=20 firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament = from=20 the waters which = were=20 above the firmament: and it was so.=20
And God = called the=20 firmament Heaven." (Gen.1:6-8a)=20

It says God divided the waters and put some = water above=20 the firmament (heaven 1:8a) and left some water under the = firmament.=20 What is this firmament? Genesis 1:20 reads: =

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth = abundantly the=20 moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the = earth in=20 the open firmament of heaven."=20

The expanse or firmament of Genesis 1:7 may be = the open=20 heavens of Genesis 1:20 where the birds fly around. Now, there = are=20 several views and different interpretations in these Genesis = verses, but=20 the one that seems to make the most sense to me is this: God = separated=20 the waters that covered the earth in the beginning and left some = on=20 earth and put some up above where the birds fly. If this water = was in=20 the form of water vapor, it would have made the heaven and earth = system=20 #1 similar to a giant terrarium. There would have been no rain! = And what=20 does the Bible say? Genesis 2:6: "But there went up a mist = from the=20 earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." That is = the exact=20 effect expected if the earth was surrounded by a water vapor = canopy: a=20 morning mist would form. Genesis 2:5b is more specific: "...for the Lord God had = not caused=20 it to rain upon the earth." No rain, therefore no rainbow! = Heaven=20 and earth system #1 was obviously different from our present = system,=20 system #2.

The rainbow was the perfect object for God to = use as the=20 sign of His covenantal promise of no more global floods. Noah = had never=20 seen a rainbow in the clouds before the flood, because it = had=20 never rained. After the flood, when the canopy had collapsed = during the=20 forty days and nights of rain, Noah was in heaven and earth = system #2,=20 and was therefore experiencing our weather: rain and rainbows. = He also=20 would experience the difference between pre-flood system #1's = heavy=20 atmospheric pressure and system #2's post-flood lighter = atmospheric=20 pressure -- the latter causing rapid fermentation of alcohol and = quite=20 possibly the reason for Noah's drunkenness.

This pre-flood canopy probably consisted of = water vapor.=20 There are other theories, but we must keep in mind that the = birds were=20 flying in the expanse under this water, and one must be able to = see=20 through the water. The sun, moon and stars were visible to Adam = and to=20 Noah, in view of the fact that Genesis 1:14 states that they = would serve=20 as signs.

Water vapor is clear, unlike clouds or steam. A = little=20 experiment to prove this point can be accomplished in your = kitchen by=20 filling a tea-kettle with water and putting it on the stove to = boil.=20 When steam begins coming out of the spout, look closely at the = very tip=20 of the spout. You will see about one-half to one inch of clear = 212=B0F. water vapor before it = becomes=20 cloudy steam. This may have been the form of the water that God = put=20 above the firmament in which the birds flew around.

With a water-vapor canopy, heaven and earth = system #1=20 would be considerably different than our present system (#2). A=20 greenhouse effect would be expected due to the heat generated by = the=20 sun-warmed canopy. Is there any evidence that greenhouse warmth = once=20 surrounded our globe? Palm tree fossils have been found in = Alaska and=20 broad leaf ferns in the Arctic. How could a palm tree fossil be = in=20 Alaska? Some scientists have postulated they travelled there on = the=20 tectonic plate (earth crust) movement over millions of years. = But these=20 trees are not millions of years old! A creationist would say, = "No=20 problem, palm trees grew in Alaska in the tropical world before = the=20 Flood." These trees were buried during the Flood of Noah's day = resulting=20 in their fossilization.

Scientists have found tropical forests and coal = deposits=20 in Antarctica. Ninety-foot plum trees which were quick frozen = and over=20 ninety feet in height with green leaves have been found in the = New=20 Siberian islands where, today, only one-inch high willows grow = [see=20 Charles Hapgood, The Mystery of the = Frozen=20 Mammoths; from Bassett Digby, The Mammoth and Mammoth = Hunting=20 Grounds in Northeast Siberia (N.Y.: Appleton, 1926), pp.=20 150-151].

In these frigid zones many trees, some = fossilized and some=20 quick-frozen, have been found with rings, signifying rapid, warm = temperature growth. The Evolutionist asks, "How did they get = here?" The=20 Creationist says, "They grew there before the Flood when the = earth was=20 pole to pole greenhouse warm."

The water vapor canopy may have more than = doubled=20 atmospheric pressure on earth. In this environment of heavier=20 atmospheric pressure, healing would be more efficient. Many = hospitals=20 have pressurized rooms called Hyperbaric Rooms. Into these rooms = oxygen=20 is pumped under pressure and healing is miraculously speeded up. = Very=20 sick people and the severely burned are treated in this high = pressure=20 environment.^[1] In=20 the pre-flood, high efficiency atmosphere, reptiles could have = grown to=20 immense sizes, giant flying creatures could have flown more = easily, and=20 gigantism would have been much more likely.^[2]

Evolution has a problem called The Great = Dinosaur Mystery.=20 Where did the great dinosaurs come from; how did they grow so = big; and,=20 if it is "survival of the fittest", why did these powerful = creatures=20 become extinct?

A creationist would answer, "no problem". God = created the=20 giant reptiles and may have referred to one or two of them which = existed=20 in Job's day (see Job 40:15 - 41:34). Reptiles do not have a = built-in=20 growth inhibiting factor like other animals and man. The = dinosaurs would=20 have continued growing as long as they lived. The older they = got, the=20 bigger they grew. Reptiles function best, as cold-blooded = animals, in=20 warm temperature climates. God created large reptiles which kept = growing=20 in an efficient high pressure atmosphere with plenty of warmth = and=20 unlimited supplies of lush vegetation to eat and nothing to eat = them.=20 The Bible says,

"And to every beast of the earth, and to every = fowl of the=20 air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein = there is=20 life, I have given every green herb for meat...." (Genesis=20 1:30) =

This indicates that all animals ate plants, not = flesh,=20 before the Flood. Plants themselves are a testimony to God's = creative=20 genius. They start as a seed and take dirt, water, air and = sunshine and=20 are converted into roses, rubber and rhubarb! And these = incredible=20 factories not only do not pollute the environment, but they = silently=20 clean the air and replenish it with life-supporting oxygen. Oh, = the=20 wonders of the God of all creation! It was only after the flood = that God=20 gave permission to eat flesh "Every moving thing that = liveth=20 shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you = all=20 things" (Genesis 9:3). Nothing ate the dinosaurs before the = Flood,=20 and they had bounteous vegetation as food. They, therefore, = could grow=20 to great size during a long lifetime of hundreds of years. Even=20 Tyrannosaurus rex ate plants, not other dinosaurs, before the = flood. The=20 textbook pictures of this great dinosaur eating another reptile = are not=20 based on scientific method and are not supported with factual=20 information. The three to five inch long teeth of the = Tyrannosaurus rex=20 have roots which are too short to support a meat-tearing, = bone-crunching=20 diet. Tyrannosaurus most probably was a vegetarian (at least = before the=20 flood of Noah, Genesis 1:29, 30) and used his long sharp teeth = to strip=20 leaves from plants. After the flood, these reptiles could never = grow so=20 huge. The lighter atmosphere (the weighty canopy came down as = rain water=20 at the flood), cooler average temperature and predators would = prevent=20 long life and excessive size.

By the way, did you know that there never was a = dinosaur=20 called "Brontosaurus"? Brontosaurus fooled the scientific = community for=20 many, many years. It turned out to be the head of one creature = and the=20 body of another. The evolutionary community was too embarrassed = to admit=20 this mistake for more than fifty years. Brontosaurus does not = appear in=20 most new textbooks.

In recent years some evolutionists have = postulated that=20 dinosaurs were warm-blooded, not cold-blooded creatures. = Warm-blooded=20 dinosaurs have been proposed because scientists are beginning to = realize=20 that 300,000 pound cold-blooded creatures do not and could not = exist in=20 our environment. There is not enough air pressure to enable = their blood=20 to circulate properly. Somehow an important fact has escaped the = notice=20 of these evolutionists (or they are "willingly ignorant," II = Peter 3:5).=20 The fact is these huge reptiles would have had no problem = thriving in=20 the warm, high pressure atmosphere of system #1. The big ones = went into=20 extinction after the Great Flood. It is not politically correct = for an=20 evolutionist to believe that the universal Flood of Noah's day = actually=20 happened. Belief in the Flood is grounds for dismissal from your = job or=20 cancellation of your grants. So the evolutionist is left to = speculate=20 regarding "The Great Dinosaur Mystery", whereas the creationist = has a=20 valid, scientifically testable position -- the environmental = differences=20 between system #1 and system #2.

Evolutionists may have theorized that = warm-blooded=20 dinosaurs would solve their dilemma, but recent research = indicates that=20 the giant reptiles were cold-blooded as are all reptiles to this = day.=20 The Dallas Morning News of March 21, 1994 (p.9-D) = reported that=20 three University of Pennsylvania paleontologists have published = their=20 view (in Nature magazine) that ..."dinosaurs...were = probably=20 cold-blooded..." This is a blow to the evolutionist's dream of = solving=20 the mystery of these huge creatures! Of course if you wait a few = days=20 some other evolutionary scientists will refute his colleagues' = position.=20 Evolutionists keep batting this "warm-blooded" or "cold-blooded" = idea=20 back and forth. The Dallas Morning News of July 11, 1994 = (page=20 7-D) published a review by science reporter Matt=20 Crenson of a July 1994 Nature magazine article. The = review is=20 partially quoted here:

"Tyrannosaurus = rex had a=20 stable body temperature, a new study shows, suggesting that the = largest=20 terrestrial carnivore was warm-blooded.=20

Reese E. Barrick = and William=20 J. Showers of North Carolina State University in Raleigh studied = Tyrannosaurus bones uncovered in the rocks of the Hell Creek = Formation=20 in eastern Montana...

The remarkable = consistency=20 of the oxygen isotopes in the dinosaur's bones demonstrate that = its body=20 temperature never varied by more than about 7 degrees = Fahrenheit, the=20 North Carolina researchers wrote last week in Nature. If=20 Montana's seasons were anywhere near as variable 70 million = years ago,=20 when Tyrannosaurus lived, as they are today, a creature with = such a=20 stable body temperature would have had to be=20 warm-blooded." =

A creationist might say that a stable body = temperature in=20 a giant cold-blooded reptile is consistent with the creationist = view=20 that the earth's temperature was uniformly warm in the tropical=20 pre-Flood heaven and earth system number one. Creationists would = expect=20 to find "...remarkable consistency of the oxygen isotopes in the = dinosaur's bones...". Apparently these evolutionistic = researchers would=20 rather pretend that cold-blooded reptiles were actually = warm-blooded=20 than to consider the pre-Flood pole-to-pole greenhouse warm = condition of=20 earth (6,000 years ago, not 70 million years ago) as presented = by the=20 creationist model.

The giant flying reptiles such as the pterosaurs = (pterodactyls and pteranodons) would be unable to fly in our = present=20 atmosphere. They needed a heavier atmosphere to get enough air = to lift=20 them with their 40 to 50-foot wingspans. Heaven and earth system = #1=20 would have provided the heavier atmospheric pressure necessary = for the=20 flight of these huge creatures. Evolutionists say we don't know = how=20 these giant reptiles could have flown in our atmosphere. To a=20 creationist, this is not a problem. Heaven and earth system #1, = before=20 the water canopy came down at the flood of Noah's day, would = have=20 provided the air density needed for these huge creatures to fly. = In=20 order to protect their jobs the evolutionists dare not even = suggest the=20 global flood of Noah's day as part of the solution to their = problems,=20 and yet the Flood supplies the explanation for what we "see". We = even=20 read in our older history books about ancient cultures which = taught a=20 global flood.

Gigantism was common in the heavy pre-flood = atmosphere.=20 Fossil dragonflies with a 32-inch wingspan have been discovered = and=20 would be a frightful bug to hit your windshield! The hornless = rhinoceros=20 grew to about "...seventeen feet high and nearly thirty feet=20 long!" ^[3]=20 Giant sabre-toothed tigers, mastodons and woolly mammoths roamed = the=20 earth side-by-side with the great dinosaurs.

Man lived during the age of the dinosaurs. In = cretaceous=20 rock strata of the Paluxy River bottom near Glen Rose, Texas, = human and=20 dinosaur footprints have been found crisscrossing each other. = Much has=20 been said about these footprints because, if authentic, they = prove in=20 solid rock that man and dinosaur lived at the same time. If = accepted as=20 genuine, they are a fatal blow in rock to evolution. They are = proof that=20 evolution is a false speculation of man! Most textbooks claim = that the=20 dinosaurs became extinct about 60 or 70 million years before man = stepped=20 onto the scene and into his footprints. Dinosaur and human = footprints=20 crisscrossing each other in the same rock strata destroys the=20 evolutionary belief that over a period of millions of years man = evolved=20 from his ancient reptilian ancestors!

Two Texas scientists have sectioned (cut into = slices of=20 rock) one of these human footprints. Carl Baugh=20 and Don Patton discovered that the rock under the footprints = shows=20 pressure structures (called laminations). These pressure = structures are=20 exactly what a scientist would expect to find surrounding a = human=20 footprint! The human prints (and there are many) are not = "carved" into=20 the river-bed and neither arethe dinosaur prints.^[4]

In the summer of 1993 Drs. Patton and Baugh = noticed eleven=20 and one-half inch long human footprints (people have feet that = big=20 today) stepping along - left, right, left, right - inside giant=20 three-toed dinosaur prints. Someone was walking in the soft mud = of fresh=20 dinosaur tracks! One of the tracks shows in rock the human = footprint=20 beside the dinosaur track. Apparently the person got = "side-tracked" and=20 missed one dinosaur print, but got back "on track" for his next = step.=20 These footprints are conclusive, hard, observable evidence that = man and=20 dinosaurs walked the earth simultaneously. For a while The=20 Humanist magazine had discredited these Paluxy River = footprints to=20 the extent that creationists withdrew their articles and films = (a good=20 film documenting the footprints is entitled Footprints in = Stone).=20 The summer of 1993 work by Drs. Baugh and Patton should put the = shoe=20 back on the other foot! Contact Dr. Don Patton for the = incredible=20 account of how several of the footprints (but not all) were = destroyed by=20 an overly threatened evolutionist attempting to "...suppress the = truth...".

Proverbs 14:12 tells us that "There is a way which = seemeth right=20 unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."=20 Evolutionists travel to Glen Rose, Texas and examine the = human and=20 dinosaur footprints side by side or overlapped with each other = in=20 cretaceous rock, and they concoct foolish speculations rather = than bow=20 their knees and heads before their Creator who told us all that=20 dinosaurs and humans existed together on the sixth day of the = creation=20 week. The Bible teaches that man and dinosaur shared the same = earth at=20 the same time (Genesis 1). This presents no difficulty since = those giant=20 creatures ate only plants before the Flood! In the early days of = His=20 creation, God prevented animals from eating each other or man, = since He=20 purposed to fill the earth with His creatures.

Another evidence to support the fact that people = and=20 dinosaurs lived at the same time in history is the cave = paintings of=20 dinosaurs. How could a "pre-historic" man or woman paint a = picture of a=20 dinosaur if he or she had never seen one? The Institute for = Creation=20 Research (ICR) circulates an excellent video documenting the = cave=20 drawings of dinosaurs.

Another result of the water (vapor?) being above = the=20 firmament in which the birds fly would be the shielding effect = from=20 cosmic radiation. Scientists have studied how much solar = radiation is=20 filtered by water. Their conclusions are reported by Dr. Joseph Dillow in his book, The Waters = Above:=20 Earth's Pre-Flood Water Vapor Canopy. In heaven and earth = system #1,=20 people could live to be very old. One of the primary aging = factors is=20 solar radiation. By filtering out the harmful radiation (as a = water=20 canopy would do) humans might be able to live close to l,000=20 years.

The Bible reports that Adam died at 930 years of = age and=20 Methuselah lived almost l,000 years. After the flood, the ages = of people=20 dropped off drastically to an average of 70 to 80 years. A lot = of people=20 think that you cannot believe the Bible when it says people = lived to be=20 800 or 900 years old -- that it must be a different kind of year = or the=20 writer did not know quite what he was talking about. Those old = ages are=20 360-day years just like the Bible says (compare Genesis 7:11 and = 8:3,4).^[5] You=20 can believe the Bible as it is written. Some present-day = researchers who=20 study longevity of life believe that humans could live that long = again=20 if we were sheltered from the harmful effects of the sun and the = now=20 polluted air.

Solar shielding by the water canopy above the = atmosphere=20 where the birds fly would also affect dating techniques. = Negligible=20 amounts of carbon 14 would have formed before the flood.^[6] That=20 means that carbon 14 dating techniques would be totally = worthless after=20 5,000 years or so. More about dating techniques = later.

^[1] For more = information=20 about "Hyperbaric Therapy" see: J. C. = Davis,=20 "Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy," Journal of Intensive Care=20 Medicine, 4 (1989), 55-57. Also: Textbook of Hyperbaric = Medicine,=20 ed. K. K. Jain (Toronto: Hogrefe and Huber Pubs., 1990), p. 492. = Also:=20 Hyperbaric Oxygen = Therapy: A=20 Committee Report (UHMS PUB 30 CRHOB), ed. J. T. Mader = (Bethesda:=20 Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Inc., 1989), p.=20 90.

^[2]=20 Most of my comments about = the effects=20 of the vapor canopy came from Dr. Joseph = Dillow's=20 excellent discussion of the effects of the vapor canopy in The Water's Above: Earth's = Pre-Flood=20 Water Vapor Canopy (Moody Press, 1982).

^[3] Petersen, Unlocking the Mysteries of = Creation, pp. 28,29.

^[4] For more = information=20 about Glen Rose and the human footprints, contact: Dr. Don R. Patton at the Metroplex = Institute of=20 Origin Science, Inc. (MIOS), P.O. Box 550953, Dallas, TX = 75355-0953 and=20 Dr. Carl E. Baugh at the Creation Evidences Museum and = Archaeological=20 Excavations, P.O. Box 309, Glen Rose, Texas 76043 (817)=20 897-3200.

^[5] In Genesis = 7:11, the=20 flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month and in = the=20 seventh month on the seventeenth day (five months later) as = recorded in=20 Genesis 8:4, the ark rested on Ararat. According to Genesis 8:3, = these=20 five months included 150 days -- 150 days divided by five months = =3D 30=20 days in a month; 30 days x 12 months =3D 360 days in an Old = Testament=20 year.

^[6]=20 The=20 Institute for Creation Research is most helpful and has several=20 different publications dealing with dating techniques. Every = family=20 should subscribe to the I.C.R. monthly newsletter, Acts and Facts, = Institute for=20 Creation Research, P.O. Box 2667, El Cajon, CA 92021 (619)=20 448-0900.

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