Fox News ran a story that a Turkish-Chinese expeditionary group claims to have located and visited the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat (see link below). The group claims that they were eye-witnesses of wooden remains that “contained several compartments, some with wooden beams, that they believe were used to house animals.” They may, indeed, have visited some of the remains of Noah’s Ark. As a biblical literalist, I believe the account in Genesis 8:4-5 that Noah’s ark came to rest “upon the mountains of Ararat.” Technically, that phrase is broad enough to allow for the Ark to be located on any mountaintop in the Ararat mountain range, but the traditional Mt. Ararat has been the site of many credible findings in the past.
Credible past reports of Noah’s Ark being found high on Mt. Ararat include a sighting by a flight of Russian aircraft during the time of the Czars (before Russia became Communist and atheist), and sightings by various local and international climbing teams. The link mentions a supposed finding of the Ark by the late-Ron Wyatt, but (with all due respect to Ron Wyatt fans) I do not find the site publicized by Ron Wyatt to be credible. The video I saw about his “discovery” claimed the Ark had fossilized into solid rock even though there has not been nearly enough time for such a thing to have happened. As an aside, I agree with Ron Wyatt’s assertions about the Red Sea crossing site where God miraculously caused the Israelites to leave Egypt and pass over into modern Saudi Arabia, and I also agree with Ron Wyatt’s identification of the real Mt. Sinai in the northwest corner of Saudi Arabia (Galatians 4:25 explicitly says the real Mt. Sinai is to be found in Arabia, not the Sinai peninsula of Egypt). A discussion of the physical evidence that the Israelites encamped about a specific mountain in NW Saudi Arabia, Jabal al Lawz, is found in my book, The Origins and Empire of Ancient Israel.
The Turkish-Chinese team which made the latest finding of Noah’s Ark is “99.9” certain that it is from Noah’s Ark as the location is correct according to biblical accounts and radiocarbon dating “proves the relics are 4.800 years old” (the approximate time of the Ark coming to rest on the Ararat range).
If this is a section of Noah’s Ark which was found, it constitutes a “smoking gun'” that the Bible is literally accurate, and that all modern nations have descended from Noah’s family. Genesis 10 lists the nations which descended from Noah’s three sons, and some of these are listed in latter-days prophecies (especially Ezekiel 38). All the tribes of Israel (and all the other modern nations descended from Abraham) descended from Shem, one of Noah’s sons. Don’t hold your breath that the world will follow-up this discovery with a major expedition. The world is deeply devoted to the scientifically-impossible theory of evolution, and the world very much does not want to either look for or find Noah’s Ark. The world today does not want to determine the truth about mankind’s origins; it simply wants to cling to its Godless dogmas. The Apostle Paul prophesied that this would be the case. In Romans 1:17-32, Paul’s commentary aptly describes the attitudes of modern academia and society as a whole. In verse 18, Paul wrote that people would “hold back the truth in unrighteousness.” In other words, they know the truth that God is real, but refuse to share it with the masses. In verse 22-23, Paul prophesied people would become “fools” as they worshipped the animal world instead of the Creator who made everything in the Creation. That describes the theory of evolution rather well. In verse 28, Paul prophesied that because mankind “did not like to retain God in their knowledge,” God would give them over to a “reprobate mind.” Paul specifically mentions homosexuality as one of the “vile affections” which are “against nature” which would characterize those who reject God’s reality. Hmmm. Paul prophesies a very open “gay rights” movement would come into existence. Has that biblical prophecy ever come true! One need not be a Christian to see the blatantly obvious fact that homosexuality is “against nature.” When one considers how painstakingly the male and female bodies are designed to interact together in a procreative role, it is evident that homosexuality is “against nature” even if one is an evolutionist. Under the “survival of the fittest” theory of natural selection, homosexuality is an adaptation which evolution would “select” for extinction because such behavior cannot possibly perpetuate any species and its therefore an evolutionary “dead-end.” Christianity offers forgiveness to homosexuals (I Corinthians 6:11). Evolution offers them only death.
Based on Paul’s writings in Romans 1, don’t expect the world to proclaim the finding of Noah’s Ark. Doing so would crash their evolutionary dogmas and cut through their deep denials. Many biblical prophecies foretell that God will eventually crash through their denials in the latter days as this age draws to an end. Personally, I think God arranged for large sections of the Ark to be preserved in a very remote and inaccessible region of the earth (it may be in sections just like the famous Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean). In the Millennium/Messianic Age, I think the Ark will be the center of an international park proclaiming the truth of biblical accounts. We know Noah will be resurrected as he is specifically mentioned in the “faith” chapter of Hebrews 13. Noah will likely be there personally at times to give tours of the Ark and describe what he and his family went through as they transitioned mankind from the pre-Flood world to the radically-different post-Flood world. I’m really looking forward to that time!
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/27/noahs-ark-found-turkey-ararat/
