Lost Worlds Trilogy

Quick Summary of The Coming Wrath

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A world lost in time and history. The earth as it was before the world wide flood destroyed the face of the planet almost five thousand years ago. In The Coming Wrath, you will confront the problem of evil, and the core of evil that is rooted in your own heart.

You will experience the tsunami nightmare of the beautiful Madrazi, the hammering sounds of ark construction, the slaying of a dinosaur, one-on-one combat, men dying in battle, action on the high seas. Be with Madrazi as she meets the Creator in the depths of her soul.

The Coming Wrath, by John K. Reed
Book 1 of the Lost Worlds trilogy.

Get it in hardcopy print format, in electronic Kindle edition, or as a free audio book. Start listening at Chapter 1.

Free Audio Book Series!

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The Coming Wrath is a free audio book series from Podiobooks.com.

Click picture or long-press triangle to play Promo

(Click here for mirror link)

Where to Get the Lost Worlds Trilogy

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The Lost Worlds Trilogy, by John K. Reed, is available in three formats.

Hardcopy print edition is available from CRS books for all 3 books of the trilogy:

The Coming Wrath (1st edition, 2005) hardcopy
Mabbul (2007) hardcopy
Mystery of Lawlessness (2010) hardcopy

The electronic Kindle edition is available from Amazon.com for all 3 books also:

The Coming Wrath for Kindle (2nd edition, 2011, with new Chapter 1 "Lion's Cub")
Mabbul (2007) for Kindle
Mystery of Lawlessness for Kindle

Free audio book edition is available as well as a set of audio book podcasts from Podiobooks.com, produced and narrated by Marko Malyj:

The Coming Wrath (2012, 1st edition with new Chapter 1 from 2nd edition)

You can automatically download each chapter as a separate podcast and listen to it later in your home, your car, or even when you are jogging. Find out how at Listening to Audio Book Podcasts 101.

Listening to Audio Book Podcasts 101

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Podiobooks.com has hundreds of titles, each one is a separate set of audio book podcasts! You can automatically download each chapter as a separate podcast and listen to it later in your home, your car, or even when you are babysitting or jogging. If you are new to podcasts, here is what you should know. (For our example, we will use The Coming Wrath, by John K. Reed, the first book in the Lost Worlds Trilogy.)

› If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, and no PC or Mac

If you have an Apple iOS device and an inexpensive wireless connection, and you don't mind manually downloading each chapter of your book, you can download the chapters on your iPhone, iPod or iPod Touch by pressing the iTunes icon. (But don't do this using your cell phone data plan, since all the chapters may hit you for a gigabyte or more of data usage.)

Once inside the iTunes app, press the Search button, and search on your book name, like "The Coming Wrath". It should then be listed in Top Results. Press it, and you will see all the chapters listed. To manually download the chapter that you want to listen to next, click the down arrow next to it.

When done, you can now get in your car or go babysitting, away from your wireless connection. The podcasts are now on your iPhone, iPad, or iPad Touch! From your iOS menu, press the Music icon, then press Podcasts to listen to your book (you will see the title of it listed there). If you have to stop listening in the middle of a chapter, your device will remember exactly where you left off.

When you are completely done with a chapter, you can delete it from your device with a left swipe. The Delete button will appear.

› If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch with a Podcatcher app

Downcast

If you want your device to automatically download each new chapter as it becomes available, you will need a Podcatcher app for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Podcatcher apps are listed in Wikipedia. One of the best ones is Downcast ($1.99). After you install it, press More, then Settings, and specify how often you want to schedule a feed refresh, and the action to take when new episodes are discovered (options include Download Most Recent, and Download All New). Now press Add Podcasts, and Search on the name of the book (like "The Coming Wrath"), and press "Subscribe". Downcast will automatically download all new chapters for you as they become available, and will let you listen to them at regular speed, 1/2x, 1.5x, 2x, or 3x speed. If you have to stop listening in the middle of a chapter, Downcast will remember exactly where you left off.

› If you have a PC or Mac without iTunes

If you have a Windows PC or a Mac running OS X, open your browser and go to Podiobooks.com. Browse to the book that you want to listen to (The Coming Wrath will be located at http://Podiobooks.com/title/the-coming-wrath/) Scroll down and click on the "Listen to Episodes" tab.

You will now see a list of all chapters in the book. Just click on the one you want to listen to.

Choose "Open" to listen right away to the MP3 file using your music player. But make sure you have an inexpensive wireless connection that stays with you, or your listening might get interrupted before you get to the end of the chapter!

Choose "Save" to send the MP3 to a folder on your computer so that you can listen later. But since you are not using iTunes, when you have to stop listening in the middle of a chapter, your music player may not remember exactly where you left off.

› If you have a PC or Mac with iTunes installed

If you have a Windows PC or a Mac running OS X, and you have the iTunes application installed, you will be able to easily download the podcast for each chapter so that you can listen to them later. Also, if you get interrupted listening in the middle of a chapter, iTunes will remember the exact spot where you should start listening again.

Open your browser and go to Podiobooks.com. Browse to the book that you want to listen to. (The Coming Wrath will be located at http://Podiobooks.com/title/the-coming-wrath/.) Then, in the left side panel, click on "Listen in iTunes".

Your browser will go to the iTunes web page for your book. In the left side panel, click "View in iTunes".

This will open up the iTunes app that is installed on your PC or Mac, to the iTunes Store tab (don't worry, Podiobooks podcasts are free!). A list of all the chapters will appear. In the left side pane, click on "Subscribe free" (the screenshots shown here are from iTunes version 10.7).

The most recent episode of your book will appear in the Podcast section of your iTunes Library when it has finished downloading. It may take a while to download, since an individual chapter may be up to 40 megabytes in size. Future episodes will be downloaded automatically as they become available.

In the left side pane of iTunes, click on Podcasts in the Library section, then click your book's title (like "The Coming Wrath"). All chapters published so far will appear. Come back here when you want to listen to more chapters.

At this point you can manually download all the previous chapters of the book by pressing the Get All button, or you can do one chapter at a time by pressing the Get button next to it.

To change your settings for loading other chapters, click on the Settings button at the bottom of your iTunes window:

By default, iTunes will automatically check for new episodes every day, download the most recent one, and will keep all episodes. You can change this to download automatically every week, or manually. You can download all episodes, not just the most recent one. You can keep just your unplayed episodes, or the last several of them.

You can immediately play the one that was downloaded by pressing the iTunes Play button. If you have to stop listening in the middle of a chapter, iTunes will remember exactly where you left off. But if you have an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android, you can do even better with a little more effort....

› If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, and a PC or Mac with iTunes installed

If you're in this section, first do everything in the section right above titled "If you have a PC or Mac with iTunes installed."

Next, make sure the iTunes app is open on your PC or Mac, and plug your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch into a USB port on the computer. In the left side pane of iTunes, your device will appear in the Devices section. Highlight it.

The top panel will show a series of choices. Highlight "Podcasts", then check the box that's titled "Sync Podcasts":

Now you are ready to copy all the podcast episodes to your device. To do this, click on the Sync button in the lower right corner:

This may take a while, since each chapter of your book may up to 40 megs in size. The entire book may be more than a gigabyte in size:

When done, you can now get in your car or go babysitting, away from your PC or Mac and your wireless connection. The podcasts are now on your iPhone, iPad, or iPad Touch! From your iOS menu, press the Music icon, then press Podcasts to listen to your book (you will see the title of it listed, for example "The Coming Wrath"). If you have to stop listening in the middle of a chapter, your device will remember exactly where you left off.

› If you have an Android, along with a PC

If you have an Android, along with a Windows PC, from your PC go to Podiobooks.com, and browse to the book that you want to listen to (The Coming Wrath will be located at http://Podiobooks.com/title/the-coming-wrath/). Scroll down to the "Listen to Episodes" tab, click each chapter link and save it to an MP3 file on your PC. Then download from your PC to a folder on your Android, either wirelessly (if you know how), or by plugging the Android into a USB port on your PC. (See the section above titled "If you have a PC or Mac without iTunes").

But you should seriously consider installing iTunes on your PC. Then use the free DoubleTwist app to let your Android behave like an iPhone. Doubletwist is a two-part application that can allow your iTunes library to journey into Android land (and back) with ease. One part of the application, including a media player for your convenience, runs on your Android device. The other runs on your computer and automatically locates your iTunes library and populates its own list for syncing. Read How to sync iTunes with Android to find out how to set this up.

› If you have an Android, and no PC

If you have an Android, and no PC, you only need an inexpensive wireless connection to download and listen to the set of audio book podcasts for your book. (But again, don't do this using your cell phone data plan, since all the chapters may hit you up for a gigabyte or more of total of data usage.)

First, purchase and install one of the Podcatcher apps listed in Wikipedia. Two of the best ones are BeyondPod ($6.99, free 7 day trial) and DoggCatcher ($4.99).

You will need to know the RSS Feed address for the set of audio book podcasts. This address can be found by opening your browser, and going to Podiobooks.com. Browse to the book that you want to listen to (The Coming Wrath will be located at http://Podiobooks.com/title/the-coming-wrath/) In the left side panel, click on "RSS Feed (Free!)". You will discover that the URL address is something like http://podiobooks.com/rss/feeds/episodes/the-coming-wrath/.

On your Android, from your Podcatcher you can now subscribe to the podcast series for your book. To do this, specify the RSS Feed address that you discovered above. You will then be able to download the different chapters over your wireless connection.

When you are done, take your Android with you. You will enjoy listening to your Podiobooks series anywhere you go!

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About LWT

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The author of the Lost Worlds Trilogy is John K. Reed, of Reasonable Hope Ministry.

Reasonable Hope seeks to minister hope to a culture that has lost it.

There is one hope. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaimed from Genesis to Revelation. We offer that hope and offer reasonable answers to the challenges raised by our modern secular age. Read the books of Reasonable Hope Ministry and find out!

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Why were only eight people saved on the ark?

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The Bible tells us that before the flood, people lived for many hundreds of years. Therefore the population of the earth was probably in the hundreds of millions, or even billions.¹The Bible also tells us that God saved only eight of these people, Noah, his sons, and their wives.

It is astounding to consider that in the tenth generation from Adam the human race had become so wicked, evil, violent and corrupt that it was not fit to go on living. Weren't there other people worth saving? The answer is, that all of us, "have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) By His standard, God would have condemned each and every person. So it is even more astounding that He did not! God chose to save Noah and his family, even though like all of us, they fell short of God's absolute standard of righteousness.

As Russell Grigg explains in Noah's Flood—why?:

God's mercy regarding the Flood is just as evident as His judgment, and is seen in the fact that God provided a way of escape for those who were prepared to believe what He had said, heed the warning He gave, and avail themselves of the means of salvation which He provided by instructing Noah to build the Ark (Genesis 6:14-16).

Noah is described as ... 'a preacher of righteousness' (2 Peter 2:5). His messages, perhaps preached from the platform of the partially completed Ark, included warnings of the coming judgment and invitations to his listeners to avail themselves of the one means of escape, which he was constructing. In the event, Noah and his family alone had regard to the wrath of God, and only eight people boarded the Ark in faith and were saved—Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their three wives.²

Noah and his family survived physically. As portrayed in The Coming Wrath, there were probably others who came to believe in Noah's prophecy. They wanted to reach the Ark, but they were killed before they could get there. They were sinners just like Noah, but like him, they repented and turned to God. From the testimony of the entire Bible, those who were killed in this way were also saved, not physically in this life, but toward eternal, everlasting life.

How is this relevant to us today?

The warnings given to Noah's generation are terrifyingly relevant today. When God's mercy is rejected, then His judgment must and will fall. But, as in the days of Noah, so now God has both given warning of the judgment to come and provided a way of salvation. The Ark was the only refuge from divine judgment then and it had to be entered by faith. As such it speaks to us of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Saviour for sinful mankind today, whose death on the Cross must be appropriated by faith. 'For by grace are ye saved through faith' (Ephesians 2:8); 'Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved' (Acts 4:12). As the Apostle Paul declares, 'I declare unto you the Gospel...By which also ye are saved...how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that He rose again the third day' (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).²

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 39: Sechiall Strikes of The Coming Wrath)

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References

1. Lambert Dolphin, World Population Since Creation, retrieved October 13, 2012.

2. Russell M. Grigg, Noah's Flood—why?, Creation Ministries International, retrieved October 13, 2012.

Where Is Noah’s Ark Today?

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Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4).

Mt. Ararat is the highest
mountain of the Ararat range

The Ark landed in mountains. The ancient name for these mountains could refer to several areas in the Middle East, such as Mt. Ararat in Turkey or other mountain ranges in neighboring countries.

Mt. Ararat has attracted the most attention because it has permanent ice, and some people report to have seen the Ark. Many expeditions have searched for the Ark there. There is no conclusive evidence of the Ark’s location or survival; after all, it landed on the mountains about 4,500 years ago. Also it could easily have deteriorated, been destroyed, or been used as lumber by Noah and his descendants.

Some scientists and Bible scholars, though, believe the Ark could indeed be preserved—perhaps to be providentially revealed at a future time as a reminder of the past judgment and the judgment to come, although the same could be said for things like the Ark of the Covenant or other biblical icons. Jesus said, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

The Ark is unlikely to have survived without supernatural intervention, but this is neither promised nor expected from Scripture. However, it is a good idea to check if it still exists.

(Reposted from Ken Ham & Tim Lovett, Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, October 11, 2007, AnswersInGenesis.org)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 41: Jeriah's Choice of The Coming Wrath)

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Where Is the Evidence in the Earth for Noah’s Flood?

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For this they willingly forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water (2 Peter 3:5–6).

Evidence of Noah’s Flood can be seen all over the earth, from seabeds to mountaintops. Whether you travel by car, train, or plane, the physical features of the earth’s terrain clearly indicate a catastrophic past, from canyons and craters to coal beds and caverns. Some layers of strata extend across continents, revealing the effects of a huge catastrophe.

The Grand Staircase is an immense sequence of sedimentary rock layers that stretch south from Bryce Canyon National Park through Zion National Park and into the Grand Canyon.

The earth’s crust has massive amounts of layered sedimentary rock, sometimes miles (kilometers) deep! These layers of sand, soil, and material—mostly laid down by water—were once soft like mud, but they are now hard stone. Encased in these sedimentary layers are billions of dead things (fossils of plants and animals) buried very quickly. The evidence all over the earth is staring everyone in the face.

(Reposted from Ken Ham & Tim Lovett, Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, October 11, 2007, AnswersInGenesis.org)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 41: Jeriah's Choice of The Coming Wrath)
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Where Did All the Water Go?

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And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased (Genesis 8:3).

Simply put, the water from the Flood is in the oceans and seas we see today. Three-quarters of the earth’s surface is covered with water.

As even secular geologists observe, it does appear that the continents were at one time “together” and not separated by the vast oceans of today. The forces involved in the Flood were certainly sufficient to change all of this.

The supercontinent that existed before the Flood, according to the catastrophic plate tectonics model. The dark lines denote plate boundaries where continental crust is present or boundaries between continent and ocean where both exist on the same plate.

Scripture indicates that God formed the ocean basins, raising the land out of the water, so that the floodwaters returned to a safe place. (Some theologians believe Psalm 104 may refer to this event.) Some creation scientists believe that this breakup of the continent was part of the mechanism¹that ultimately caused the Flood.²

Some have speculated, because of Genesis 10:25, that the continental break occurred during the time of Peleg. However, this division is mentioned in the context of the Tower of Babel’s language division of the whole earth (Genesis 10–11). So the context points to a dividing of the languages and people groups, not the land breaking apart.

If there were a massive movement of continents during the time of Peleg, there would have been another worldwide flood. The Bible indicates that the mountains of Ararat existed for the Ark to land in them (Genesis 8:4); so the Indian-Australian Plate and Eurasian Plate had to have already collided, indicating that the continents had already shifted prior to Peleg.

(Reposted from Ken Ham & Tim Lovett, Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, October 11, 2007, AnswersInGenesis.org)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 41: Jeriah's Choice of The Coming Wrath)

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References

1. Andrew A. Snelling, Can Catastrophic Plate Tectonics Explain Flood Geology?, Answers in Genesis, November 8, 2007.

2. For more details on this subject see chapter 14 Can Catastrophic Plate Tectonics Explain Flood Geology? by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling, in Ken Ham, ed., The NEW Answers Book, Master Books, 2006.

Noah's Global Flood: Enough Water for 40 Days of Rain?

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Yes! Enough for 23 inches a day worldwide for 40 days, from water trapped in volcanic magmas from Earth's LIPs (Large Igneous Provinces).

Figure 1. Distribution of known large igneous provinces (in black, after Reviews of Geophysics, by Coffin and Eldholm, 1994)

A common criticism of the Biblical Flood account is that it would be impossible for rain to occur 40 days and nights over the surface of the entire earth without stopping.

If you believe in the Almighty Creator God who created the entire Universe miraculously in six days, it would be no great difficulty for him to supply that much water. He could have done it miraculously, of course. Or he could have done it by using what was already available on Earth and the Solar System.

In his article Volcanism, "Fountains of the Great Deep", and Forty Days of Rain, Hamilton Duncan shows that there is at least enough water trapped in molten rock (magmas) beneath the surface of the earth to supply 23 inches a day for 40 days everywhere on the planet! But how could all that water suddenly shoot into the atmosphere? A simultaneous bombardment of comets and meteors worldwide would be enough to cause the upper layer (mantle) of the Earth’s surface to lead to sudden decompression of the upper mantle, which would cause the trapped water to vaporize and erupt spectacularly into the earth’s atmosphere, shooting many miles up into the sky. Duncan concludes: “A world where 40,000 volcanoes simultaneously erupt would be extremely dreadful and may very well be the world referred to in Genesis 7 and 8.”

Of course, the miraculous hand of God is involved at some point! He is the one that warned Noah that the Flood was coming, and told him exactly how to build the Ark to take refuge. He is the one that sent the rains at their appointed time, and caused them to stop on the 40th day. May we recognize the awesome majesty, splendor and strength of our Creator (1st Chronicles 16:26-27).

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 41: Jeriah's Choice of The Coming Wrath)

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written by Marko Malyj

Reference

Hamilton Duncan, Volcanism, "Fountains of the Great Deep", and Forty Days of Rain, Creation Research Society Quarterly Journal, Volume 47, Number 1, Summer, 2010.

How Did Noah Care for All the Animals?

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Just as God brought the animals to Noah by some form of supernatural means, He surely also prepared them for this amazing event. Creation scientists suggest that God gave the animals the ability to hibernate, as we see in many species today. Most animals react to natural disasters in ways that were designed to help them survive. It’s very possible many animals did hibernate, perhaps even supernaturally intensified by God.

Whether it was supernatural or simply a normal response to the darkness and confinement of a rocking ship, the fact that God told Noah to build rooms (“qen”—literally in Hebrew “nests”) in Genesis 6:14 implies that the animals were subdued or nesting. God also told Noah to take food for them (Genesis 6:21), which tells us that they were not in a year-long coma either.

Were we able to walk through the Ark as it was being built, we would undoubtedly be amazed at the ingenious systems on board for water and food storage and distribution. As Woodmorappe explains in Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study, a small group of farmers today can raise thousands of cattle and other animals in a very small space. One can easily imagine all kinds of devices on the Ark that would have enabled a small number of people to feed and care for the animals, from watering to waste removal.

As Woodmorappe points out, no special devices were needed for eight people to care for 16,000 animals. But if they existed, how would these devices be powered? There are all sorts of possibilities. How about a plumbing system for gravity-fed drinking water, a ventilation system driven by wind or wave motion, or hoppers that dispense grain as the animals eat it? None of these require higher technology than what we know existed in ancient cultures. And yet these cultures were likely well-short of the skill and capability of Noah and the pre-Flood world.

(Reposted from Ken Ham & Tim Lovett, Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, October 11, 2007, AnswersInGenesis.org)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 20: Walking Away of The Coming Wrath)

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How Could the Ark Survive the Flood?

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KRISO's proposed hull
form of the Ark, 135m long,
22.5m wide and 13.5m high

The description of the Ark is very brief—Genesis 6:14–16. Those three verses contain critical information including overall dimensions, but Noah was almost certainly given more detail than this. Other divinely specified constructions in the Bible are meticulously detailed, like the descriptions of Moses’ Tabernacle or the temple in Ezekiel’s vision.

The Bible does not say the Ark was a rectangular box. In fact, Scripture gives no clue about the shape of Noah’s Ark other than the proportions—length, width, and depth. Ships have long been described like this without ever implying a block-shaped hull.

Moses used the obscure term tebah, a word that is only used again for the basket that carried baby Moses (Exodus 2:3). One was a huge wooden ship and the other a tiny wicker basket. Both float, both rescue life, and both are covered. But the similarity ends there. We can be quite sure that the baby basket did not have the same proportions as the Ark, and Egyptian baskets of the time were typically rounded. Perhaps tebah means “lifeboat.”

For many years biblical creationists have simply depicted the Ark as a rectangular box. This shape helped illustrate its size while avoiding the distractions of hull curvature. It also made it easy to compare volume. By using a short cubit and the maximum number of animal “kinds,” creationists, as we’ve seen, have demonstrated how easily the Ark could fit the payload.¹ At the time, space was the main issue; other factors were secondary.

However, the next phase of research investigated sea-keeping (behavior and comfort at sea), hull strength, and stability. This began with a Korean study performed at the world-class ship research center (KRISO) in 1992.² The team of nine KRISO researchers was led by Dr. Hong, who is now director-general of the research center.

KRISO's conclusion: the Ark’s wave height
limit was more than 30 metres if the
thickness of the wood was 30 cm.

The study combined analysis, model wave testing, and ship standards, yet the concept was simple: compare the biblical Ark with 12 other vessels of the same volume but modified in length, width, or depth. Three qualities were measured—stability, hull strength, and comfort.

The study confirmed that the Ark could handle waves as high as 98 feet (30 m), and that the proportions of the biblical Ark are near optimal—an interesting admission from Dr. Hong, who believes evolutionary ideas, openly claiming “life came from the sea.”³

For more results of KRISO's research, see The Seaworthiness of the Ark.

(Reposted from Ken Ham & Tim Lovett, Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, October 11, 2007, AnswersInGenesis.org)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 38: Final Parting of The Coming Wrath)

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References

1. J. Woodmorappe, Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility Study, Institute for Creation Research, Santee, California, 2003.

2. Hong, et al., Safety Investigation of Noah’s Ark in a seaway, TJ 8(1):26–36, April 1994. http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v8/i1/noah.asp.

3. Seok Won Hong, Warm greetings from the Director-General of MOERI (former KRISO), Director-General of MOERI/KORDI, http://www.moeri.re.kr/eng/about/about.htm.

The Seaworthiness of the Ark

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A Korean study performed at the world-class ship research center (KRISO) in 1992 investigated sea-keeping, hull strength, and stability characteristics of the Ark.¹While Noah’s Ark was an average performer in each quality, it was among the best designs overall. In other words, the proportions show a careful design balance that is easily lost when proportions are modified the wrong way. It is no surprise that modern ships have similar proportions—those proportions work.

Interesting to note is the fact that this study makes nonsense of the claim that Genesis was written only a few centuries before Christ and was based on flood legends such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Babylonian ark is a cube shape, something so far from reality that even the shortest hull in the Korean study was not even close. But we would expect mistakes from other flood accounts, like that of Gilgamesh, as the account of Noah would have been distorted as it was passed down through different cultures.

Wind catching obstruction on the bow. Wind-driven waves would cause a drifting vessel to turn dangerously side-on to the weather. However, such waves could be safely navigated by making the Ark steer itself with a wind-catching obstruction on the bow. To be effective, this obstruction must be large enough to overcome the turning effect of the waves. While many designs could work, the possibility shown here reflects the high stems which were a hallmark of ancient ships.

Yet one mystery remained. The Korean study did not hide the fact that some shorter hulls slightly outperformed the biblical Noah’s Ark. Further work by Tim Lovett, one author of this chapter, and two naval architects, Jim King and Dr. Allen Magnuson, focused attention on the issue of broaching— being turned sideways by the waves.

Skylight windows with coverings. Any opening on the deck of a ship needs a wall (combing) to prevent water from flowing in, especially when the ship rolls. In this illustration, the window “ends a cubit upward and above,” as described in Genesis 6:16. The central position of the skylight is chosen to reflect the idea of a “noon light.” This also means that the window does not need to be exactly one cubit. Perhaps the skylight had a transparent roof (even more a “noon light”), or the skylight roof could be opened (which might correspond to when “Noah removed the covering of the Ark”). While variations are possible, a window without combing is not the most logical solution.

How do we know what the waves were like? If there were no waves at all, stability, comfort, or strength would be unimportant, and the proportions would not matter. A shorter hull would then be a more efficient volume, taking less wood and less work. However, we can take clues from the proportions of the Ark itself. The Korean study had assumed waves came from every direction, giving shorter hulls an advantage. But real ocean waves usually have a dominant direction due to the wind, favoring a short, wide hull even more.

Mortise and tenon planking. Ancient shipbuilders usually began with a shell of planks (strakes) and then built internal framing (ribs) to fit inside. This is the complete reverse of the familiar European method where planking was added to the frame. In shell-first construction, the planks must be attached to each other somehow. Some used overlapping (clinker) planks that were dowelled or nailed, others used rope to sew the planks together. The ancient Greeks used a sophisticated system where the planks were interlocked with thousands of precise mortise and tenon joints. The resulting hull was strong enough to ram another ship, yet light enough to be hauled onto a beach by the crew. If this is what the Greeks could do centuries before Christ, what could Noah do centuries after Tubal-Cain invented forged metal tools?

Another type of wave may also have affected the Ark during the Flood—tsunamis. Earthquakes can create tsunamis that devastate coastlines. However, when a tsunami travels in deep water it is imperceptible to a ship. During the Flood, the water would have been very deep—there is enough water in today’s oceans to cover the earth to a depth of about 1.7 miles (2.7 km). The Bible states that the Ark rose “high above the earth” (Genesis 7:17). Launched from high ground by the rising floodwaters, the Ark would have avoided the initial devastation of coastlines and low-lying areas, and remained safe from tsunamis throughout the voyage.

Ramps help to get animals and heavy loads between decks. Running them across the hull avoids cutting through important deck beams, and this location is away from the middle of the hull where bending stresses are highest. (This placement also better utilizes the irregular space at bow and stern.)

After several months at sea, God sent a wind (Genesis 8:1), which could have produced very large waves since these waves can be produced by a strong, steady wind. Open-water testing confirms that any drifting vessel will naturally turn side-on to the waves (broach). With waves approaching the side of the vessel (beam sea), a long vessel like the Ark would be trapped in an uncomfortable situation; in heavy weather it could become dangerous. This could be overcome, however, by the vessel catching the wind (Genesis 8:1) at the bow and catching the water at the stern—aligning itself like a wind vane. These features appear to have inspired a number of ancient ship designs. Once the Ark points into the waves, the long, ship-like proportions create a more comfortable and controlled voyage. Traveling slowly with the wind, it had no need for speed, but the Bible does say the Ark moved about on the surface of the waters (Genesis 7:18).

Stern extension for directional control. To assist in turning the Ark to point with the wind, the stern should resist being pushed sideways. This is the same as a fixed rudder or skeg that provides directional control. There are many ways this could be done, but here we are reflecting the “mysterious” stern extensions seen on the earliest large ships of the Mediterranean.

Compared to a ship-like bow and stern, blunt ends are not as strong, have edges that are vulnerable to damage during launch and beaching, and give a rougher ride. Since the Bible gives proportions like that of a true ship, it makes sense that it should look and act ship-like. The below design is an attempt to flesh out the biblical outline using real-life experiments and archeological evidence of ancient ships.

While Scripture does not point out a wind-catching feature at the bow, the abbreviated account we are given in Genesis makes no mention of drinking water, the number of animals, or the way they got out of the Ark either.

Nothing in this newly depicted Ark contradicts Scripture; in fact, it shows how accurate Scripture is!

(Reposted from Ken Ham & Tim Lovett, Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, October 11, 2007, AnswersInGenesis.org)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 38: Final Parting of The Coming Wrath)

Discuss this post with us below, or here:

Reference

1. Hong, et al., Safety Investigation of Noah’s Ark in a seaway, TJ 8(1):26–36, April 1994. www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v8/i1/noah.asp.

How Is Christ like the Ark?

2012-09-29T19:11:00.001-04:00

For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost (Matthew 18:11).

As God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ is like Noah’s Ark. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Just as Noah and his family were saved by the Ark, rescued by God from the floodwaters, so anyone who believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior will be spared from the coming final judgment of mankind, rescued by God from the fire that will destroy the earth after the last days (2 Peter 3:7).

Noah and his family had to go through a doorway into the Ark to be saved, and the Lord shut the door behind them (Genesis 7:16). So we too have to go through a “doorway” to be saved so that we won’t be eternally separated from God. The Son of God, Jesus, stepped into history to pay the penalty for our sin of rebellion. Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9).

(Reposted from Ken Ham & Tim Lovett, Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, October 11, 2007, AnswersInGenesis.org)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 37: New Path of The Coming Wrath)

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Did Noah’s father really die 5 years before the Flood?

2012-09-29T14:26:00.000-04:00

In John K. Reed's book The Coming Wrath, Noah's father and grandfather both die shortly before the Flood. Lamech dies 5 years beforehand, and Methuselah less than a year. Is this just fiction, to make for a good story?

In the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, in chapter 5, we are given a detailed list of Adam and all his descendants, all the way up to Noah. We are told how long each lived, and how old they were when their sons were born. Genesis 11 continues with Noah and all of his descendants, up until Terah, the father of Abraham.

If you turn this into graphical form, you will get a graph like this:

Yes, Lamech and Methuselah were real men. According to the true testimony of the Bible, Lamech died 5 years before the Flood, and Methuselah one year beforehand. In his work of historical fiction, John K. Reed is faithful to this.

The Bible does not tell us how they died. Could it have happened the way it is portrayed in The Coming Wrath? You be the judge.

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 23: Death Dream of The Coming Wrath)

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For more info, see Bodie Hodge, Ancient Patriarchs in Genesis, Answers in Genesis, January 20, 2009.

Dragons and Dinosaurs

2012-09-29T11:58:00.000-04:00

The Chinese and over 200 other cultures have detailed stories about “dragons.” Why, if such creatures were only mythical beasts?

Hunting Dinosaurs after the Flood-
probably not Science Fiction!

It is generally agreed that “the current extinction crisis is caused primarily by human impacts upon wild populations,”¹ and it is the largest, most dangerous wild creatures that are the first to go when humans move into an area. Thus, dinosaurs who came on board Noah's Ark and survived the Flood likely went extinct gradually the same way that scientists today observe extinctions.

Those who claim that dinosaurs could not have fit on the Ark might recall that the average dinosaur size was on the order of that of a large dog. Even the massive dinosaurs started out from football-size eggs, and juveniles of these groups could have easily been selected to board the life-saving vessel.

What about the descendants of the dinosaurs that stepped off the Ark after their year-long stay? Again, eyewitness evidence confirms that dinosaurs lived for centuries after the Flood.

St. George had to deal with a dragon in England. Alexander the Great’s army encountered a dragon. Marco Polo recorded dragon dealings. Flavius Philostratus provided this sober account in the third century A.D.:

The whole of India is girt with dragons of enormous size; for not only the marshes are full of them, but the mountains as well, and there is not a single ridge without one. Now the marsh kind are sluggish in their habits and are thirty cubits long, and they have no crest standing up on their heads.²

Pliny the Elder also referenced large dragons in India in his Natural History. More recently, historian Bill Cooper described many ancient news accounts of dinosaur encounters from England and Europe, which to this day contain place names that reference the dragons that were once there, like “Knucker’s Hole,” “Dragon-hoard,” and “Wormelow Tump.”³

Similar accounts have been handed down orally within North, Central, and South American Indian groups. The fact that so many different peoples told the same details authenticates their testimony. The book Fossil Legends of the First Americans relays information about anatomy, habitat, and hero tales related to “a water monster that ‘grew so huge’ (p. 29), a Pawnee giant raptor called Hu-huk (p. 189), a Yuki story of giant lizards that ‘were so huge that they shook the earth’ (p. 208), Sioux legends of thunderbirds (p. 239), and many other legends.”⁴

How did mankind handle post-Flood dinosaur encounters? Most likely, the dinosaurs were eliminated by humans trying to protect themselves. This is a common theme in the many dragon legends.

(for the complete article, see Brian Thomas and Frank Sherwin, Eyewitnesses to Extinction, Testimonies to the Life and Death of Dinosaurs, Acts & Facts, June 2011)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 21: Uphill Battle of The Coming Wrath)

Discuss this post with us below, or here:

References (selected)

1. Woodroffe, R. 2000. Predators and people: using human densities to interpret declines of large carnivores. Animal Conservation. 3 (2): 165-173

2. Flavius Philostratus (c170-c247 A.D.). 1912. The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, volume I, book III. F. C. Conybeare, trans. New York: Macmillan Co., 243-247.

3. Cooper, B. A. 1995. After the Flood. Chichester, UK: New Wine Press, 130-145. Available online at ldolphin.org/cooper.

4. Thomas, B. 2010. Oblivious to the obvious: dragons lived with American Indians. Journal of Creation. 24 (1): 33. This is a book review of Mayor, A. 2005. Fossil Legends of the First Americans. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Slavery before the Flood?

2012-09-28T19:35:00.000-04:00

In The Coming Wrath, the first book of the Lost Worlds Trilogy, the warlord Delonias captures twelve Nephilim boys in battle to become slaves. He sends the most promising one, Sechiall, to Jared. Is it realistic that slavery as an institution was already established before the Flood of Noah's day?

Let us consider the most ancient written historical records that are available to us.

In ancient Babylon, in the land of Mesopotamia (currently Iraq), "The Code of Hammurabi, from Babylon in the 18th century BC, gives chilling details of the different Rewards and penalties for surgeons operating on free men or slaves."¹

Egyptian slaves

In ancient Egypt, from the very 1st dynasty before the year 2000 BC, "Hem (Hm), generally translated as 'slave' and originally meaning body, was seemingly a person with lessened rights dedicated to a certain task such as the service of a god or the royal administration."^2,3

In ancient India, "the institution of slavery originated in India when the Aryans captured a number of dasas in the battle. According to Mahabharata it is a law of war that the vanquished should become slave of the victor and should serve his captor until ransomed. In course of time certain other categories of slaves also came into existence. For-example children born to a slave automatically became the slaves of the same masters."⁴

In ancient China, "Slaves occupied a large portion of the population in ancient China since 2,100 BC, when Xia Dynasty started."⁵

Thus we see from the earliest records of the great civilizations, slavery was an evil presence in all of them. Is there somewhere a common thread here?

Yes! The Bible supplies us with many valuable clues, that historians ignore at the detriment of their own profession.

There are two events that the Bible records in detail which occurred before all of these ancient civilizations. They are the global Flood of Noah's day, and only four generation later, the Tower of Babel. The book of Genesis tells us about the worldwide flood which Noah, his family of eight, and all land creatures survived through God's provision of the Ark. Noah's, his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives lived on to tell the next generations many true stories about what the world was like before the Flood.

Tower of Babel?

Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, was a mighty ruler who built great cities in the land of Mesopotamia, among them Babylon (also known as Babel), Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in the area of Shinar, and Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen in the area of Assyria (Genesis 10:9-11). By this time, most of the newer generations no longer had faith in the Creator God in the way Noah and his family did. Instead, they followed Nimrod. They "wanted to make a name for themselves." As told in the Bible's book of Genesis chapter 11, at the city of Babel which Nimrod built:

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:3-8)

The Tower of Babel account explains many things. Shortly afterward we see four separate advanced civilizations springing up: in Babylon, Egypt, India, and China. All of them had slavery! Though God confused their languages, he did not take away their memory. It is likely that the Tower of Babel itself was built by slave labor (!), spurred on by the leadership of men such as Nimrod.

Did Nimrod and his followers come up with the idea of slavery themselves? Perhaps. But it is extremely likely that they heard all about slavery and the evils that resulted from it from their forefathers Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and from Noah himself who was still alive at the time. (From clues in Chinese history, after the Tower of Babel incident, Noah with one of the scattered groups to China, and lived out the remainder of his years there.⁶)

Genesis chapter 6 paints a brief picture of the world prior to the Flood. We are told "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." (Genesis 6:5). The fact that slavery was an integral part of the earliest historic civilizations in Babylon, Egypt, India, and China, points to the presence of slavery before the Flood. Slavery was very likely one huge area of the "wickedness of the human race" that brought the Flood judgment upon them.

Yet God extended his grace and mercy to Noah and his family, knowing that their descendants Nimrod and his adversaries would hear about the evil of slavery before the Flood, and like the idea! Knowing that the Tower of Babel would be built by slaves. Knowing that wickedness would once again be widespread upon the earth?! This is the topic of Mystery of Lawlessness, the third book of the Lost Worlds Trilogy.

God extends his grace and mercy to sinful people today, if they turn to him in repentance and accept the give of Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross for our behalf. This makes this all so extremely relevant to people of every day and age, including for us today.

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 7: Protégé of The Coming Wrath)

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written by Marko Malyj

References

1. History of Slavery, An Evil of Civilization, History World, retrieved 1/16/2013.

2. Slavery in Ancient Egypt, An introduction to the history and culture of Pharaonic Egypt, retrieved 1/16/2013.

3. Jimmy Dunn, Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Egypt , http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/slaves.htm, retrieved 1/16/2013.

4. Srouti Modha, Essay on system of slavery in Ancient India, retrieved 1/16/2013.

5. Slavery in Ancient China, Slaveryinjustice blog, retrieved 1/16/2013.

6. Roy L. Hales, Archaeology, The Bible and The Post-Flood Origins of Chinese History, retrieved 1/26/2013.

Were Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark?

2012-09-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

The history of God’s creation (told in Genesis 1 and 2) tells us that all the land-dwelling creatures were made on Day 6 of Creation Week—the same day God made Adam and Eve. Therefore, it is clear that dinosaurs (being land animals) were made with man.

Also, two of every kind (seven of some) of land animal boarded the Ark. Nothing indicates that any of the land animal kinds were already extinct before the Flood. Besides, the description of “behemoth” in chapter 40 of the book of Job (Job lived after the Flood) only fits with something like a sauropod dinosaur. The ancestor of “behemoth” must have been on board the Ark.¹

We also find many dinosaurs that were trapped and fossilized in Flood sediment. Widespread legends of encounters with dragons give another indication that at least some dinosaurs survived the Flood. The only way this could happen is if they were on the Ark.

Models of juvenile dinosaurs at Creation Museum

Juveniles of even the largest land animals do not present a size problem, and, being young, they have their full breeding life ahead of them. Yet most dinosaurs were not very large at all—some were the size of a chicken (although absolutely no relation to birds, as many evolutionists are now saying). Most scientists agree that the average size of a dinosaur is actually the size of a sheep.

For example, God most likely brought Noah two young adult sauropods (e.g., apatosaurs), rather than two full-grown sauropods. The same goes for elephants, giraffes, and other animals that grow to be very large. However, there was adequate room for most fully grown adult animals anyway.

As far as the number of different types of dinosaurs, it should be recognized that, although there are hundreds of names for different varieties (species) of dinosaurs that have been discovered, there are probably only about 50 actual different kinds.

(Reposted from Ken Ham & Tim Lovett, Was There Really a Noah’s Ark & Flood?, October 11, 2007, AnswersInGenesis.org)

(For historical fiction that touches on this topic, see Chapter 36: Migration of The Coming Wrath)

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Reference

1. For some remarkable evidence that dinosaurs have lived until relatively recent times, see chapter 12, “What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?” Also read The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved, New Leaf Press, Green Forest, Arkansas, 2000. Also visit www. answersingenesis.org/go/dinosaurs.