You may have heard the reports that a group, called Noah’s Ark Ministries International, are claiming that they have found Noah’s Ark. This combined Turkish/Chinese group have stated that they believe with 99.9% accuracy, that they have found the remnants of the ark encased in a glacier on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey. They claim to have carbon dated some of the wood at 4,800 years old.
If you are interested in finding out more about this story, you can check out the news article from the perspective of ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/finding-noahs-ark-filmmaker-found-pieces-biblical-treausure/story?id=10495740
I don’t know if what they found is really the ark that we read about in the Bible, or not, but when it comes right down to it, it really doesn’t matter. Our faith does not rest on what is found or not found by archaeologists, geologists, anthropologists, and other scientists. Our faith is not based on what we can and can’t prove.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” That doesn’t mean that as Christians we have to turn our brains off, but ultimately our faith is not based on what scientists prove, it is based on God as He reveals Himself to us in His Word.
There are some great scientists out there who are pursuing their fields of study from a Biblical perspective and I greatly appreciate their work. One of my favorite museums is The Creation Museum, which is located just outside of Cincinatti. A good portion of the museum is dedicated to the great flood and Noah’s ark and how the impact of a worldwide cataclysmic event, like the flood, would have changed the earth’s landscape and could account for the reason scientists claim that the earth is billions of years old. You can find out more about The Creation Museum at, http://creationmuseum.org/
I enjoy The Creation Museum, I have taken several classes in geology and physical geography, I even had a subscription to Biblical Archaeology for awhile, so I enjoy the intellectual pursuit of answers about how this earth came to be and how we can understand it better. But ultimately I begin with the Bible and everything else must be interpreted by what I read there. And what is found or not found by archaeologists over the years is not going to dictate what I believe. Hebrews 11 goes on to say in verse 3, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
As we walk through this world and examine the universe around us we need to start with faith.