Within two days of the January 12, 2020 eruption of the Taal volcano, which is well within 50 km of our mission station at a Philippine ministry near Cabuyao, Laguna, there were ‘cries’ on the internet about its meaning. Some reports made the leap to link it to other eruptions, even though eruptions are common around the globe on our geologically active planet. Others predicted that doom was coming quickly. In short, while the volcano’s activity is affecting tens of thousands of people who are displaced and really need help, the eruption is a small volcanic event compared to many others. Taal activity is smaller by orders of magnitude compared to the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991 in the same country. It dropped global temperatures by a half of a degree C for a 2-3 years.
It is a scientific fact and is historically recorded, however, that large volcanic events can affect the climate for years. While Taal is not in that category, there is historical data of bad winters that followed some of the largest recorded events in the past. A simple search on the internet will reference a few of these. In a biblical view, these individual events are miniscule compared to the volcanic activity associated with the Genesis Flood, where lines and clusters of volcanoes erupted in the same period during and following the Genesis Flood event.
Creations scientists and specialists have considered existing evidence of volcanic regions on the ocean floor and land masses in a Biblical view. This means, using the Genesis Flood as a starting point, that most of the historical evidence of volcanism around the globe would have started with the Flood event. It was the flood of all floods with chaos on the waters in the midst of volcanism. The volcanism would have lasted quite a while before subsiding. Instead of the effects of one large volcanic event during a few weeks, now we are talking about over a thousand events occurring worldwide for several hundred years. The results would have included warmed oceans and an atmosphere full of volcanic matter. One result would have been the Ice Age — a single Ice Age — because of reduced sunlight to new land masses (except coastal regions). Warmed oceans would have driven weather events globally for a long time until the heat dissipated.
The Genesis Flood is not a myth. Details about the reason for the event and some of its key characteristics are covered in the early chapters of Genesis. This is where some readers have issues, because consideration of the event is outright rejected in the dominant evolutionary or naturalistic world view. Additionally, if one takes the view that man is inherently good on his own (apart from God), which is a notion rejected by the Bible, could it be that mankind gets so corrupt that God would intervene? This is what is described in Genesis chapter 6. The Bible is quite clear that mankind’s corruption from sin demanded His action. After the Flood, He also states that the event will not be repeated, although His second coming will be like it in some ways (2 Peter 3:3-7 and Matthew 24:36-44).
Effects of the Taal volcano in regional terms is serious. We have friends helping displaced people. The level of disruption is real and we continue to pray that God will gently release geologic/volcanic pressures, rather than have an explosive eruption . We also pray that believers will come to the aid of neighbors and friends that are affected. We have sent relief, too, because we are not unaffected by the event. Nevertheless, it helps to keep a larger perspective, a biblical perspective, of our planet. God continues to call us to repent of our ways and turn to Him. For this reason, the Genesis Flood and its effects, including volcanism, should be remembered. A current volcano event is a good reminder of what happened.
