The World That Perished

by John C. Whitcomb

This forceful sequel to the author's earlier book, The Genesis Flood, restates, updates, and defends in a more popular form the basic Biblical and scientific evidence for the Genesis Flood as a global catastrophe, for which abundant evidence is still to be seen.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Christian, History, Christianity

155 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

JOHN C. WHITCOMB came to know Christ through a campus ministry at Princeton University led by Dr. Donald Fullerton in February, 1943. God mercifully spared his life during the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, December, 1944, where he served in a fire-direction center and as a German interpreter. Graduating from Princeton in 1948, with honors in history, and from Grace Theological Seminary in 1951, he served as Professor of Theology and Old Testament for thirty-eight years. In 2009, at the Pre-Trib Research Center in Dallas, Texas, he received the John F. Walvoord Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Prophetic Studies "in recognition of a lifetime of faithfulness to God by engaging in the study, proclamation, and defense of His prophetic Word." He now serves as an ordained elder in the Conservative Grace Brethren Churches International and as President Emeritus of Whitcomb Ministries. See www.whitcombministries.org for a listing of his books, CD and DVD albums. His wife Norma has had effective ministries with women, writing books and blogs. They have six children, seventeen grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren. Their home for the past twelve years has been in Indianapolis, IN.

Reviews

[Yibbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more of an answer to various objections to the author’s first book, and a worldwide flood in general, than it is a teaching book. The author begins his arguments abruptly, but not unkindly. He shares a lot of information and builds the case for starting from the Bible instead of scientific theories when looking at the history of our planet.
Perhaps, that sounds strange, but once you read this book you will see that everyone looks at evidence from one of two starting points. Either God’s Word is true or Science is true. This book seeks to encourage Christians to wholeheartedly trust God’s Word from the very first to the very last word. So, you will learn a lot, but it might be better to start with his first book. Then there are parts that teach a lot but are slightly dated as they answer specific papers and articles from the 1960s and 70s.
There is the one really annoying thing about this book or this particular edition anyway. You will be reading along, reach the end of the page, but are in the middle of a sentence. So, you turn the page and instead of finding the rest of the sentence, you find a two-page insert about some illustrative natural disaster or phenomenon. To finish the sentence, you have to flip past those pages. They did change fonts for those sections, but it is such a subtle change that it really doesn’t give you any clue that a change is happening. It happens over and over. Very annoying.
I would still recommend this book. It is an excellent reminder of the importance of a uniform method of Biblical interpretation, as well as an answer to some very common objections to young-earth creation and Noah’s Flood.

[Some Christian Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a follow up book to, “The Genesis Flood,” John Whitcomb gives more evidence that the Biblical account of the world being created in six literal days, thousands (not millions or billions) of years ago, as well as a literal world-wide flood, is correct.

He challenges Christian’s to believe the plain teaching of the Bible, and not to buy into evolution and uniformitarianism in order to avoid being thought gullible, or to fit in with what modern day “science” says is true.

Keep in mind that most scientists are anti-theistic, and don’t even believe that the supernatural is possible. When they bring those presuppositions to their work, it invariably changes how they interpret whatever results they get.

The bottom line for me is that I pray the Lord will raise up many new Christian scientists who will continue to expound upon the work that that Whitcomb and others began, and to continue to prove that the Bible gives us an accurate account of science and history.

I can’t recommend this book enough.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that I studied through as I’ve been preaching a series from Genesis. The author gives substantial scientific evidence to state his case for a true Noah world-wide flood. He was also thorough in pointing to the Scriptures which I greatly appreciated.

At times I found myself wanting a more easily understood explanation of some of the science. It stretched my mind & you have to be grateful for that.

This book is somewhat dated but don’t let that put you off. It is worth the read.

[Nathan Schrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great overview of the Flood from an apologetic point of view. For the length, I thought it was very well done, and I would recommend it to believers and skeptics alike. Whitcomb strikes a good balance between using the geological record to prove the Bible and letting the Bible stand on its own. In the end our faith is strengthened by the evidence found around us, but either way, we know how the flood happened because the Bible tells us about it.
Particularly interesting was the section discussing and debunking the idea of a local flood.

[Bethany Willcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly outdated now so certain parts no longer apply as science has uncovered much more since this book was written, but otherwise an excellent Creation-proving, Evolution-unraveling book.

[Edward]

This is R. J. Rushdoony, Easy Chair number 198, July the seventh, 1989.
This evening Otto Scott and I are going to discuss some of our readings, some books that we think are of interest. And we are doing this because you said you wanted more of this type of Easy Chair. I think I will start off by dealing with a book just published, World That Perished by John C. Whitcomb which was brought out a little earlier, but reprinted not too long ago by Baker Book House.
It is about the world that perished with the flood, the biblical flood and one of the points that Whitcomb makes is that we have a remarkable fact in the formation of fossil beds. We have untold numbers of fossils laid down on a particular level, but no fossilization before or since. And formations have been discovered containing hundreds of billions, not millions, but billions of fossils. And the museums now have over 100 million fossils of 250,000 different species.

Well, here are all kinds of fossils, crustaceans, fish, land animals, plants perfectly preserved and yet nothing since or before. Obviously these fossil beds were created by a particular kind of catastrophe. The fish were swimming and were caught in the process. Mammoths were feeding and were suddenly frozen in their tracks and so on. And he gives a very, very vivid account of what has happened.
For example, an estimated five million mammoths have remains buried all along the coast line of northern Siberia and Alaska. And these deposits have been worked for nearly two centuries. How could this have happened? How were they frozen instantaneously so that they have buttercups in their mouth one minute and the next moment were in deep freeze? The permafrost in such areas is up to 1000 feet.

People are unwilling to recognize that a catastrophe is responsible for the fossil beds. Then, again, one of the things that Dr. Whitcomb calls attention to is the creation of Surtsey Island which a few years back in 1963 was created by a volcano a few miles south of Iceland. The jabbed boulders were such that it was assumed that vast ages would be required to smooth them in terms of established geological thinking. But, as he says, quoting the National Geographic magazine of 1973, January, “Within a matter of months surging surf ground jagged lava into rounded boulders with a speed that astonished geologists attending Surtsey’s birth.”

Well, this is a delightful book full of such data, highly readable. And, of course, I am very partial to anything that Dr. Whitcomb writes. Let me say also that he calls attention to the advanced knowledge that went into the building of Noah’s ark in its relationship of width to length. He has a good page or more on that. All in all a very fine book.

[L.S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This classic flood geology book was a disappointment. Some of the information is good, so I still recommend the book, but other views are just too much speculation and too much "the Bible says what I understand it does". The reference to Dillow's water vapor canopy or the re-modelling of the land by the supernatural action of God seems to me unacceptable. Few contradictions in the book were also seen.

[Janet Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book on Amazon, after reading, "The Genesis Flood" by Whitcomb & Henry M. Morris, PhD. Unlike the reviewers below, I found much of interest in this book. I am a mature & well read Believer in the Word of God & I believe the Bible is to be taken literally, unless otherwise stated (in the Bible).


Will write more later.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Martic · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half most interesting, second half more technical.