A theologian sparked debate amongst Christians when he told CBN that he believes the flood during the days of Noah was regional and not global. Gavin Ortlund heads the “Truth Unites” ministry, which seeks to offer apologetics resources to churches while being a “winsome and credible voice to the culture for the existence of God and the resurrection of Christ.” Aside from running the ministry, Ortlund is a pastor and author. He also has a PhD from Fuller Theological Seminary in historical theology and a Master of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary.

The story of Noah’s building the ark to save his family and pairs of animals from a flood is perhaps one of the most well-known Old Testament stories to Christians and non-Christians alike. The story can be found in Genesis 6 to 9:17 and details how the wickedness of humanity had grown so great that God decided to destroy the world, sparing only Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their sons’ wives along with the animals that would come to the ark. Speaking to CBN, Ortlund shared that he created a video detailing the possibility of the flood being regional because not many Christians are aware of the alternate views. “This is a real issue for a lot of people,” he said, sharing his desire to speak to more scientifically-minded Christians and those just seeking. Host Billy Hallowell noted his own belief that whether the flood was local or global is not a salvation issue. “This is just a matter of interpreting Scripture,” stressed Ortlund, stressing that the position isn’t supposed to be one that questions the reliability of Scripture. He noted that the human population would have been more regional since they hadn’t been dispersed yet, as told in the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. When asked about the reactions he received on the video, Ortlund shared that they were about what he expected, but his responses on X were more negative than on YouTube.

One of those critics was Ken Ham, Founder of Answers in Genesis, which offers apologetics resources and oversees the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter, a life-size recreation of the ark based on the measurements found in the Bible. The museum imagines how Noah and his family might have fit the animals on the ark and survived during the flood and the time it took for the waters to recede. He responded to Ortlund’s views by sharing his blog response on X. He called Ortlund’s views “nothing new.” “This compromising belief has been around for a long time, particularly since the rise of naturalism in the early 1800s. It’s a view that the world is billions of years old and the fossil layers are the result of millions of years of processes,” wrote Ham. He stated that Ortlund’s views on the flood were a form of “eisegesis,” using his own outside views to interpret Scripture rather than starting with Scripture to interpret itself (exegesis). He stated that Ortlund’s outside belief in a world that took billions of years to create required him to believe the flood was regional. Answers in Genesis promote a literal 7-day creation as described in Genesis 1, rather than the “old earth” interpretation that Ortlund has cited in other videos. He stated that Ortlund suffered from “intellectual schizophrenia.” “He has one way of interpreting Genesis (eisegesis—starting with man’s belief of millions of years) but then a different way (exegesis—starting from Scripture) for the rest of Scripture (e.g., the virgin birth, resurrection, etc.). Remember, man’s science has never shown a human woman having a virgin birth or that a man can rise from the dead! But Ortlund wouldn’t then say we have to reinterpret the virgin birth or the bodily resurrection of Christ,” wrote Ham. While agreeing that salvation rests on belief in Christ alone, Ham also cautioned that Ortlund “is undermining the authority of the Word of God.” To read an opposing view from Ortlund’s for a regional or global flood, you can read Answers in Genesis’s view here.