The Genesis Flood

The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications is a 1961 book written by Dr. Henry M. Morris and Dr. John C. Whitcomb. It was one of the most influential books of the modern biblical creation science movement and provided strong evidence for a young earth and the global flood of Noah.

Description:

 * By Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb
 * 518 page paperback
 * ISBN 978-1596383951 (50th anniversary edition)

The Genesis Flood is truly, a creationist classic. This is the book which many recognize as having started the modern revival of creationism and catastrophism. Although it has gone through over 49 printings, it is still the most definitive treatment of the Biblical and scientific evidences of the global flood in the days of Noah.

Background
In September 1953, Dr. Henry Morris, an engineer, university professor, and creation scientist, went to Grace Theological Seminary to present a scientific paper he had written to the American Scientific Affiliation, which was meeting on the campus. The paper was entitled "Biblical Evidence for a Recent Creation and Universal Deluge" and presented just that. John Whitcomb, who had been teaching at Grace for two years already, was very impressed and impacted by the paper and decided to give up his belief in the gap theory view in favor of young earth creation.

After this, Whitcomb contacted Morris, who made clear of his intentions to write a book concerning biblical creation. In the weeks after this, Whitcomb was led to write his doctor of theology dissertation on biblical creation, and in May 1957 he finished the dissertation. At 452 pages long, it was entitled The Genesis Flood: An Investigation of Its Geographical Extent, Geologic Effects, and Chronological Setting. In the fall of 1957, Morris accepted Whitcomb's invitation to co-author a book on biblical creation.

A large reason for their collaboration was to counteract Bernard Ramm's 1954 book The Christian View of Science and Scripture which in-turn was written to counteract earlier creation scientists, such as George McCready Price, and promote faulty and compromised old earth views.

Publishing
The book that Morris and Whitcomb wrote, The Genesis Flood, was published in February 1961 by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company in New Jersey. It was more than 500 pages long.

Impact
In 1959, the centennial celebration of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species was held at the University of Chicago, and there Julian Huxley and other evolutionists and atheists stated that creationism was dead. They were completely wrong.

The Genesis Flood was very influential among Christians, bringing them back to a belief in biblical creation rather than the long ages and evolutionary pseudoscience contradicted by the Bible. The modern creation science movement is largely a result of the book. Even many evolutionists and evolutionist organizations, including Stephen Jay Gould and the National Center for Science Education acknowledged Morris as the most important modern creationist.

The Genesis Flood was included in the book 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century by William J. and Randy Petersen, and Christianity Today included it in the "top 50 books that have shaped evangelicals." In addition, Ken Ham, who would later become the co-founder and president of Answers in Genesis, which built the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, was greatly impacted by The Genesis Flood.

By the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Genesis Flood, there had been 49 different printings of the book and 300,000 copies sold.