Q. Was Noah’s Flood a local Near East event and not the Bible’s worldwide catastrophe? Is what we believe legend or fact?
A. The ‘Local Flood’ view rejects the Bible as the Word of God but at least 138 cultures around the world have legends of a giant flood in which only a few people were saved in a large boat. But many argue that there have been many large, local floods all over the world.
When you hear God’s Word, if you don’t respond by believing what the Holy Spirit tells you in your heart, quickening your faith, you miss the point trying to ‘prove’ God or His Word by human intelligence.
However, the Miatso people of China support the Bible’s account. The ancient Miatso are not Chinese or Semitic. When the first Christian Missionaries visited them, they were surprised to learn that they remembered the Creation, and also Noah’s Flood, accurately.
According to Miatso legends, the name of the first man translates as “sand.” In Hebrew, Adam’s name translates as “earth” or “clay.” Adam’s son is Seth in the Bible, and Se-teh to the Miatso. The builder of the big boat that saved the few is Nuah to them. In their legends, he had three sons, Lo Han, Lo Shen and Jahphu. Noah’s three sons were Ham, Shem and Japheth. The Miatso say they are descended from Jahphu.
How do the Miatso remember the Biblical Flood, the Creation, and the names of the people involved? Because it was not merely a near-Eastern event! But let the Holy Spirit impress God’s Truth in your heart!