Question #4 - Is it true that it never rained until Noah and the ark?

Is it true that it never rained until Noah and the ark?

Let's start with what we know to be true from the Bible. Genesis 2:5 tells us that there was no rain prior to the creation of man. Instead, "springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground." (Gen. 2:6) The next place the Bible mentions rain falling on the earth is Genesis 7:12, "the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights." The Bible says nothing about it raining (or not raining) after the creation of man until the rain fell during the world-wide flood. Based solely on the truth of the biblical text the answer must be "we don't know if it rained prior to the flood."

Good "logical" arguments can be made to explain why it did or did not rain prior to the flood, but none of these theories can claim to be any more "biblical" than another. (read more about these theories) What we DO know from the Bible is that there were major changes among creation after the flood. Genesis 9:2 says, "every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you." It appears that prior to the flood there was no fear of man among animals. We could walk right up to the wild animals and pet them! Another major change is that prior to the flood all humans were vegetarians, but after the flood God told Noah and his sons in Genesis 9:3, "You may eat any moving thing that lives. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." (Maybe that is why God caused the living creatures to be terrified of humans!) Finally, after the flood the average human lifespan dropped dramatically. Prior to the flood people were living close to 1,000 years with Methuselah clocking in at 969 years/old. The genealogy of Shem in Genesis 11 reveals that just a little over 200 years after the flood, the lifespan had dropped to under 200 years. In fact, if you do the math, Shem [Noah's Son], would have been alive to see his great, great, great, great, great, grandson die. (Shem would have still been alive when Abram [later, Abraham] was born!)

Could the pre-flood environment been so different that vegetation, animals, and even humans thrived without rain? Certainly! Do we know for certain that it did not rain prior to the flood? No.

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Where did these questions come from? In early April 2010 I was invited to join our Engage youth (junior & senior high student ministry at Geist Community Church) for a Q&A session. The students had been given the opportunity to anonymously submit questions that they wanted me to attempt to answer. The quality (and quantity) of the questions that were submitted really impacted me in a big way. The questions they asked are questions that people have wrestled with for centuries, if not longer. In fact, the questions were so good that I decided to spend time interacting with them on my blog. While I may not have time (or the knowledge) to fully answer each question, my hope is to at least point us in the right direction in Scripture so that we can continue to dialogue and seek the truth.