Today we wrap up “Ark week,” our celebration of the eight-year anniversary of the Ark Encounter. Now, we believe that the flood was a real historical event. And that’s because that’s how the Bible describes it!

In Genesis we’re told the flood covered every high mountain under the whole heaven. So, yes, it was a global event! And Jesus also affirmed the historicity of the flood.

He said his second coming will be like the days of Noah. People will be eating and marrying and then suddenly it will come—just as it did in Noah’s day. And Peter also makes a similar point in one of his epistles.

How could Noah fit millions of species onto Noah’s ark? Well, my answer might surprise you—he didn’t!

Noah only needed to bring two of every kind of the land-dwelling, air-breathing animals, seven pairs of some, onto the ark. He didn’t need to take two of every modern species. This means Noah only needed about seven thousand animals!

And keep in mind how large the ark was! At over five hundred feet long, this ship was massive. Many people think of the ark as an overcrowded tiny little boat. But it was a huge ship with more than enough room for a few thousand animals and eight people, and food and supplies for the voyage.

This week we’re celebrating “Ark week” in honor of the eighth anniversary of the Ark Encounter. So today we’re answering the question, “how did Noah gather so many animals from around the world?”

Well, he didn’t! The Bible tells us the animals came to him. God sent them! But how did they come from places like Australia? Well, the world before the flood wasn’t the same as it is now. It was likely one continent, making it much easier for animals to travel to the ark.

And consider the amazing migrations of so many animals—they can travel huge distances so it’s not that difficult to apply that same ability to animals heading to the ark.

Many people scoff at the idea that one man could build a massive wooden ship like the one described in Genesis. But does the Bible say only one man built the Ark? Well, no, it doesn’t.

There’s nothing in the Bible that says Noah couldn’t’ve hired people to help him with the construction and so he could preach righteousness to them.

And we also have to remember that Noah wasn’t primitive. Within just a few generations from Adam, people were making complex musical instruments, forging metal, and building cities. They were sophisticated people with technology! Surely Noah used some of that technology in building the massive ship.

Yesterday was the eight-year anniversary of the opening of the Ark Encounter. So we’re celebrating with Ark week where I’ll answer five common objections to the account of Noah’s ark and the flood.

The Bible describes Noah’s ark as a massive wooden ship—over five hundred feet long, eighty-five feet wide, and fifty-one feet high, similar dimensions to some cargo ships. As you’ll see if you visit the Ark Encounter, the ark was huge! But could a wooden boat that size really float?

Yes, it could. A scientific study found that the ark’s dimensions were just right for the ark to have maximum stability and comfort, and hull strength.

In 2 Peter we read, “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” Now some Christians claim we can’t know how long the days in Genesis were because, well, a day is a thousand years!

But creation isn’t the context of Second Peter—the context is Jesus’ second coming and how God doesn’t view time like us. He’s outside time so a long time to us isn’t long to God.

And the verse says a day is as a thousand years—not that it is a thousand years. And, well, the rest of the verse says a thousand years is as a day. So clearly Peter is not defining the word day in Genesis for us.

I’ve always taught the plain truth from Scripture that God created in just six twenty-four-hour days. Now some people claim that I’m limiting God by teaching this, but that claiming God created over billions of years doesn’t limit him.

But insisting on six literal days of creation isn’t limiting God, it’s limiting us to believing what God tells us in his Word. Think about it—how does believing what God says in his Word over what man says limit God? It limits us to starting with his Word—and that’s a good limitation for us as fallible humans.

Yes, God created in six days—and we need to believe what he plainly tells us.

All this week we’re asking, “Did God really create in six days?” Many Christians ask this question not because the Bible isn’t clear—we’ve seen that it’s very clear! They wonder because they’ve been influenced by man’s ideas about the past!

But consider the order of events in Genesis. Genesis says earth came first and then the sun and the stars. Evolution has the sun and stars long before earth. Genesis says earth was covered with water; evolution says it was a hot molten blob. Genesis says plants came first; evolution says the first life evolved in the water.

It just doesn’t work—God didn’t create over millions of years!

Yesterday we looked at the question of “how long did God take to create?” We learned that day in Genesis one means, well, day—a twenty-four-hour day! And the book of Exodus confirms that.

In Exodus 20, when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he said, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.” Exodus confirms—God created in just six days! And that’s why we have a seven-day week. Our week isn’t millions of years long because God created over millions of years. It’s seven days because God created in six days and rested for one.

Yes, God created in six days.

Some Christians claim that we can’t know how long it took for God to create. Yes, the Bible says God created in six days but we can’t know how long those days were. But is that true?

No—not at all! You see, we can know what a word means by the context. And whenever the Hebrew word “yom” is used it always means a twenty-four-hour day when used with a number or the words evening, morning, or night. And Genesis one has all of those!

It’s obvious that day means day. The idea that the days were long periods of time doesn’t come from the Bible—it comes from man’s ideas about the past!

Let’s start with God’s word not man’s ideas!