Noah's Ark Seminar

A video presentation followed by a Q&A session

Mario Seiglie presents the latest evidence that Noah's Ark has been found on Greater Mount Ararat. Download the PPt to view in a separate tab or window.

Transcript

This transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors. It is provided to assist those who may not be able to listen to the message.

I want to see a little bit what this wood looks like.

It has a natural barrier against bacteria, insects, and rot, as well as resisting shrinkage and warping.

It loves to be in water. My wife and I have an interesting story about this.

One more? There.

Back in about 2004, for the Feast of Tabernacles, we were able to go to the area of Israel, in Petra, which is the area of Jordan.

Because they had one of these uprisings at the time, we couldn't make it into Israel from Jordan.

The tourist agency said, well, we can't have you go in because it's too dangerous, but guess what? We'll take you to Egypt instead.

We said, we'll take it. And where the pyramids of Giza are, my wife and I were very surprised because they had uncovered two of the Pharaoh's great ships, which were sunk in the sand.

They took it out and they put it in a museum. So if you ever go to the pyramids of Giza, don't forget to go to that museum.

And they found an Egyptian Khufu ship next to the pyramids in Giza.

It is some 4,500 years old, made of cedar, a conifer similar to cypress wood, and is still seaworthy.

So here are examples of the type of wood that just lasts.

And it's all joined together, not by nails, because they hadn't developed iron yet at that time, but it's called mortise and tenon, where you have on one end, you have the mortise, and then you have... well, the first piece is called the tenon, which is on the right, and the hole in the second piece is called the mortise.

The joint may be glued, pinned, or wedged to lock it in place. Many times they wet it, and then they ram it in, and then afterwards, because of the moisture, it expands and locks it in.

So it makes sense that something as big as an ark, built that way, could still exist, especially resistant to rot and many other things.

What else did they find inside the ark? Here's something you probably hadn't thought of very much.

But they found a lot of animal dung.

Dr. Joel Clink, when he went inside, he said, what we observed in the interior of the monumental wood structure area A was significant amounts of animal coprolites, or fossilized dung.

Animal dung is pronounced, which means a lot of, in locust 6, invisible, in locust 7.

In locust 3, there is a wood door where the odor is terrible, and suggests an adjacent installation with dung.

Having entered the locust during the end of the summer, when things are melting on Mount Ararat, the experience was eye-watering.

You didn't want to get much closer to all that. Of course, there were a lot of animals there for a long time, and if it's all frozen together, then that's going to smell.

Now, we're going to show you one of these eyewitnesses that is pretty recent, that went up.

This is Dutch archaeologist Jaren Rensen, as an eyewitness of entering the Ark. We're going to listen to the YouTube video.

We actually found what we came for, and that was, well, not every expedition on Mount Ararat can say that. So it was a good expedition.

It's very easy to stand on the sideline and just shout things and disclaim everything, but you have to see it with your own eyes and you have to examine it, and then you can say whether or not it's truth or if it's fake.

We need a larger expedition up there. There is, I think, a limit to how big this expedition can be, because it's a very difficult climb.

And you also need a lot of equipment.

Yes, I think the kind of experts that we need for this expedition to get some really good data, I would say biologists, geologists, archaeologists.

That's the brief explanation, but they are working on getting a team together.

Dr. Joel Clank mentions about the pitch or the tar covering the inside and the outside of the arc. He says, a pitch sealant coating of bitumen or resin of 3 mm on sealing of locus 7, area A, Noah's Ark, and the southern gorge of greater Mount Ararat. And notice the same joints, the tendon and mortise, on the drawing in the bottom. It's open, where it used to be joined together, and you can still see some of that coating that was placed on it.

Here's another new discovery. This one is just amazing.

When Dr. Clank told me this one, it was so impressive.

He reported in September 2022, just a year and a half ago, the context where the Noah's Ark Codex was found was in area A1, locus 14, a small enclave within the second deck of the vessel that was used to heat food and water.

The manuscript was found in a small, hidden niche, behind partially cut, vertically placed cypress beams, which formed the walls of the installation.

What they found was a manuscript. They call it Noah's Ark Codex. This is page 2 and 3 from area A1. They're actually seven pages.

It has paleo-Hebrew letters and numbers with context dating to late Epipelolithic period, 13,100 to 9,600 B.C. The parchment is made from calfskin.

It was frozen at that time, but retained.

Dr. Clink believes there were four different people that wrote it, because you could tell.

It could have been Noah and his sons.

It's something that they wrote while they were inside.

It has a domesticated camel, which was very valuable in those days. And then it has on the back the mountains of Ararat.

So that's basically the evidence that I have time to give you. Now I want to show you the implications. What does this mean for us?

This is the deductions when Noah's Ark is announced.

A ship some 450 feet long, at 14,400 feet, could not have been brought up there. How do you get a ship 14,400 feet?

It must have come down and rested there from floating above. See how are scientists going to explain that? You think you can lug up a huge barge like that? 14,000 feet? No? No? It shows that it was in the watery ocean that covered the earth, and then the water receded, and the ark was placed there. That's the only explanation. This means that the waters must have been above this level, and therefore must have covered the entire earth. So once it's discovered, the geology books, you might as well throw them out, because they don't take into consideration that there was this universal flood, as the Bible said. This is one of the reasons there's a lot of resistance. A lot of people have paid a lot for their degrees and for their textbooks.

And here's the most important part. Seven ways Noah's ark would be a witness.

Number one, it would be a witness to a mostly unbelieving world that doesn't regard the Bible or prophecy seriously. This is going to be a wake-up call. Number two, it would be a witness that God exists. Some people doubt God's existence. This is a physical proof, for only a supreme being could have given the warning ahead of time to build such a ship. So Noah wasn't going to build it on his own. But when the supreme being told him, this is what's going to happen, then Noah built it.

Number four, it would be a witness to the Bible being true, for it is the only source that accurately describes such a ship and the moral and spiritual reasons for it to have been built.

Number five, it would be a witness to the scientific world and show how far off man's ideas are about evolution, geology, and stratigraphy. Number six, it would be a witness to the immorality of the world, for it would show God once before had to intervene because mankind had disregarded his laws and corrupted the earth. Is the earth being corrupted today? Do we see similar society?

And then, number seven, it would be a witness to the church, for God would have given us the greatest marketing tool since the empty tomb of Jesus almost 2,000 years ago. Are we up to the task, or will God have to use some other church of God group? We have the means, we have the most manpower, but will we be ready to take this message in a powerful way to the world? God has prepared us for this time. Even if the rest of the world wants to ignore it, we're not going to do so. And then, do you realize we're living under the shadow of a new ark? What if we would have lived during that time when Noah was building the ark? How many people believed Noah? And even when all the animals came, two by twos, tamed, and went inside, how many people said, you know, there's something to this? I'd better change. I'd better do something about it. Nobody listened till it was too late. As it says in Matthew 24, 37 through 38, 39, as Jesus Christ prophesied about the end times, but as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of man be. The society is going to be very similar to the time of Noah when Jesus Christ comes back. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, all involved in their own lives, like things are going to go on forever, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away.

So also will be the coming of the Son of man be. Most people are going to pay attention. They've been hardened. Their hearts and minds have been hardened to the truth.

Therefore, you also be ready. Now don't get caught napping, for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. It's going to be surprising. Will we heed the warning? Are we fully doing our part? Last slide. God's church will be protected. God has promised, just like he did with Noah and his family, his church will be protected in those end times.

Revelation 12, 12 through 17 says, When the end time comes, therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, woe to the inhabitants of the earth. Just like in Noah's day, it was woe to the inhabitants of the earth, what was coming.

For the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time. So he's going to try to overthrow God one last time, and he's going to be thrown down to the earth. He's going to have just a short period of time to cause as much damage as he can here on earth. And he says, woe if we are living in that time. Now when the dragon, talking about Satan, saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman, talking about the church, who gave birth to the male child, talking about Jesus, the church that has existed through all time.

But the woman, talking about the church, was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place. Just like Noah entered his place, his family entered his place, the church will enter into a place of safety. Where she is nourished, so she doesn't have to worry about, God will provide the food for a time, times, and half a time, three and a half years before Christ comes back. And she is protected from the presence of the serpent, or Satan. And the dragon was enraged with a woman.

Well, who is the woman? How can you identify her as the church? And he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God, all ten. Not nine, not eight, all ten. That means the Sabbath day, the fourth day, the fourth commandment, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, teaching faithfully the Word of God.

So that's what's happening. That's what's going to happen. What will we do about it? It is up to us. We have a choice. So seminar is over. Let's come back at 3.20 for questions and answers. Mount Ararat, does it mean, I heard that it means, curse reversed. Is that true? I've never heard that. It actually comes from the word Urartu. Ararat is just a transliteration of the mountains in Urartu, which is a region, which is right there in the eastern part of Turkey. It used to be Armenia, but the Turks took over that area.

As you know, there are a lot of Armenians in this country because of the flight they had at that time in the 1910s when they had their expulsion from it. Any other questions?

Yes, over here. Yes, Jeff? The flood caused the mountains to rise up, and there might not even have been a Mount Ararat until after the flood. The flood caused Mount Ararat. I've heard that on the mountain, because there wasn't enough water to go over the earth before the flood. They didn't have these high mountains that they got now. Nobody really knows exactly what topography they had before the flood, but God did say He was going to cover the mountains even before that. The present earth did get flooded. It doesn't look like it was something that just completely changed the whole geology of the earth, but it was something that took a year for the water to come up, and then it came down.

As you know, in Genesis chapter 2, it talks about the Euphrates River and others. It seems like a lot of the topography didn't change too much. It just covered the earth, and then it settled in. We've got areas of land that are covered for a year or so and brought back. We are not sure. All we can say is that it took place approximately 4,400 years ago, according to the Bible. There was a civilization before the flood, and in the Sumerian city of Ur, there on what's southern Iraq today, they found these tablets of kings that talked about how they enjoyed reading about the kings before the flood.

That's not just one tablet, but that's pretty common. There was this civilization that was destroyed before the flood. Another question here. Is there anything that the United Church of God or any Church of God group is doing that you can tell us about further investigating or helping the investigation? Yes. I am one of the point-man that have been dealing with the NAMI group for now close to 13 years. Clara Wye, who is the secretary that actually was up there in one of the expeditions. I'm in touch with men like Dr. Joel Clink. We did get an offer to send somebody from the United Church of God in an expedition back in 2014.

Here, the church gathered money to be able to finance Scott Ashley, the editor of the magazine. He had all his mountain gear, and then the Turkish government canceled that expedition. But we're looking always for that continuation, so we keep the relationships up. But it's been hard. The NAMI group basically has been so discouraged by the attacks that they weren't ready for it. And so they've sort of toned back. So it's Dr. Joel Clink, the Turkish government, the archaeologists in Turkey. He says it's not going to be the NAMI group because they got burnt out.

It's just like the disciples after Christ's resurrection. They eventually all got killed except for John, the apostle. And when you're dealing with Bible prophecy and the fulfillment of things, Satan is not going to give you rest. So Joel Clink is a one-man army that is there, and others, the Dutch archaeologists and researchers, they have the funds and everything else. And we're also backing, and they know they can just notify us. So let's see what happens here with this coming summer. And late summer is when they usually have the expeditions going.

Because of COVID, it was shut down for three years. Yes, Ray? I have a comment related to Jeff's question. I think it was like 2014. I have an article from Smithsonian right here. And after a volcanic eruption, there was a mineral that was discovered, bright blue, called ringwood dite. And it was hydrated, holds water. And many tests were done by scientists, geologists, and they discovered that there is a reservoir 400 miles down below the Earth's surface in the mid-mantle, which extends 1,800 miles from 410 to 1,800 miles.

And they say that there's three times as much water in that mid-mantle as there is on the surface of the Earth. Now, one other comment in Genesis 7, verse 11. It says, In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, that on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. So the minerals were broken up.

Yes, a lot of people think it was just rain, but it wasn't. It was all of these reservoirs underneath that broke, and they came up and flooded the Earth, and then eventually they drained back down. But there's three times as much water in the mantle of the Earth than there is above the Earth. Any other questions?

Yes, Enrique, and then Howard. There are some people that believe that the flood was just partial flood. And I know it was completely, Mr. Sagley. Would you comment on that?

Let's go to Genesis and see what that flood actually did on the Earth.

It says here in chapter 7, it says verse 17, Now the flood was on the Earth. 40 days the water increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. It took 40 days for the ark to be lifted up because of the heaviness of it. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the Earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And by the way, this is the type of shape that is like a barge. It's not made for sailing, where you can just guide it around. It was to float and be able to withstand the pressures in the ocean.

It says, And the waters prevailed, verse 19, Exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. So there were mountains before. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. So he destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground, both man and cattle, creeping thing and the bird of the air.

They were destroyed from the earth, only Noah, and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. So this was a universal flood. It wasn't just a local flood because other people could have said, Oh, it's raining here, it's getting very flooded, let's go to another higher part of the earth. And so we believe it was a universal flood. What Joel Clink, as an archaeologist, when he talks about that period of time, the Epi-Paedolithic period, they, in all this carbon-14, something could have altered it before the flood, during the flood, but the wood that was cut before the flood, that's what has a carbon-14 dating of approximately 4,400 years. So that's a pretty reliable witness. According to the genealogies from Adam to Noah, it would have been about 1,600 years. So when the waters prevailed over the earth and destroyed things, it wasn't a local flood. It talked about all the mountains. And from what Joel Clink mentions, I wanted to say, this period, which they gauge Noah's time and everything else, there is a period of great rains and water that follows what they call the Younger Dryas period, and it fits in with the flood. And I've got article after article that talks about when they had cores of marine corals that they did in the Atlantic Ocean. They found that approximately several thousand years, over 4,000, could have been 5 or 6, again, the dating. But the cores show that the Atlantic Ocean all of a sudden turned sort of like in fresh water. There was so much fresh water came in, it diluted the salinity of the oceans for a period of time. And then, of course, later came a cold spell, and all of these glaciers and all of this, the water, fresh water was absorbed again. So that's all we can just say that it makes a lot of sense. Yes, Howard? I'm thinking of some political situations that could come with the government of Turkey finally having what these people on the video were calling a holy site, and having some pride or something come up that gives them attitude. Yes. Dr. Joel Clink, who knows the archaeologists and the political situation, he told me years ago that the Turkish cabinet, the ones that are chosen by President Erdogan, who is the Turkish leader, he says they're divided into two parts. One wants to announce it to the world, the other one doesn't want to announce it because they think there'll be all these evangelicals that will come, they'll flood the country, we're not going to be able to control it. So there's been this political fight for the time being. Now, something important is that Erdogan was doing, he's the president, they were economically doing better some years ago, but now they got some of the highest inflation in the world. It's over 70%. Their lira, which is the currency, has plummeted. He is desperate to get income. So that could also mean saying, guys, we don't care. We need money to come in. Dr. Joel Clink said it would provide about $38 billion to the Turkish economy if they opened it up. So all of these things now are converging. And I just have a feeling we have this scoop. We can tell you these things because later on, when it happens, at least you were informed ahead of time.

Yes, Scott? Mr. Sigley, why do you think God had, or I should say, no one built the Ark so large? What do you think the reason why it was so large? Well, there was a lot of animals there that he would have to bring. Now, remember, genetically speaking, you have in zoology what they call phyla, which are the different families of animals. And if you take two, a male and a female, they have the genetic variability to produce all the others. So that's why they were able to bring it into the Ark. And the average size of the animal was about the size of sheep or goats. Because, yes, you had elephants. But how many elephants do you have in comparison to the rest of the animals? With two elephants, you would have had enough. Apparently, the mammoth was not included because that perished in that frozen period. But you also have giraffes. But the rest of the animals are either the size of a goat or a sheep or smaller. So it took at least one whole deck to put all the animals in. Then the other deck, with the food stuff that would be needed and supplies, and it looks like Noah and his family were up in the upper section of the Ark. Any other questions?

Mr. Segley, in the case of clean animals, there were more than two per. Is that correct? Correct. Correct. So this is one of the truths in the Bible that God, from the beginning with Adam and Eve, taught them what animals to eat and what animals not to eat.

And so he says here in chapter 7 of Genesis, verse 2, it says, It says, Clean animals are the ones that are allowed to be eaten by human beings. A male and a female. Two of each animals that are unclean, because there are animals that are not fit for eating, a male and his female. Also seven, each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. And so, of course, for the unclean animals, you only needed one pair, right? The two of them, to preserve the genetic aspects of reproduction. But for the clean animals, you needed seven, because Noah and his family were going to be one year in the ark, and they needed to eat meat. So they ate the six pairs, and they left the clean pair later to reproduce upon the earth. Any other questions? Okay. Yes? I just have a comment. After we were here last Sabbath and found out you were going to have this, I took an interest in trying to research this a little bit about Noah. And I just want to mention that on YouTube there are many, many programs available that support everything that you said, and add additional information about the area that the ark is settling in and some of the artifacts that only accompany a ship were found outside the ark and are there to this day. And names in the villages, anciently, support that Noah was, they were knowing that Noah had landed in this area. And they also mentioned that the peaks that you see in the picture, the mountain peaks, are volcanic, and they think they were formed after the ship had landed. So they say they're fairly, I guess in theological times, fairly recent. There's a great deal available. I was shocked because I've never researched it that way until you mentioned this. And all of it supports what you're talking about. There have been various expeditions in the area that they've gone into the boat, they've discovered various things, metals and things like that, that only men can make. So it's all supportive of that. If I could recommend one website, it would be joelclank.com. And that gives you a wealth of information. He's actually been able to look at ancient maps of that area of Armenia. And those ancient maps, going back almost a thousand years, they all showed Noah's Ark and then this gorge underneath. So it's not over on another side, but it is the southern area of the gorge where people can come down and up. The rest are just mountains and precipices that you can't go down. And Joelclank shows you also that the trails to Mount Ararat, they all go up to the southern gorge area. This has been going on for hundreds of years. Even the Kardashians are involved because the grandfather of Kim Kar... Yeah, Kardashians, he was involved in making money off of these visits where they were bringing people in and they had to swear to secrecy. And that grandfather made the fortune that he was able to come here to the U.S. and buy all these fields in California and bring it out. And also, Joelclank mentions he had an encounter with Tom Brady's father. And the father got interested and he said, you have a great mission to carry out in this life. Don't give up on it. And here, Joelclank has been continuing to do it. God always has somebody to use in this way. I hope our church, God will open a door to make us into servants to carry out His will. Jeff, and then we'll just have one final comment and then we'll have the coffee social for those who want some coffee. I've heard that if you weighed all the insects on the earth, it would weigh more than all the animals on the earth. So I was curious, what happened to all the insects? How did they get through the flood?

Well, the insects are so tiny that you just need a pair of them. And of course, the whales, all the marine life was able to continue on. So you didn't have to have fish inside the ark. That would make sense. They would have all died, right? So everything has a sense to it. Don't ever take for granted how carefully God does it. And by the way, the dimensions of the ark are the same dimensions that they use for some of the ocean liners in the 1800s. One by six is the ratio, and these large ocean ships, they had the same ratio.

So, been great. Let's see, Lee has one last one. Yeah, about the insects or anything else. I think on all of this you have to remember, animals coming to an ark two by two is a miracle. God's hand was in the entire thing for the ark. This was not like the Lion King where all the lions are vegetarian, you know? We don't kill the theoreals. We're going to have grass teeth. No. The whole thing was a miracle. And so we wonder, well, how did this happen? How did that happen? There's a God in heaven who does miracles. And there's an anti-miracle bias within the major universities who are probably against what's being taught here. Where if you go on PBS, you'll see major theologians of universities saying, well, the virgins don't really give birth. This was illegitimate child. And the Red Sea was just red algae. And it was low tide. That's why they cross. They try and find some reason, excuse to wipe out all miracles. If you get some major teaching university archaeologists to confirm with this, that's a major fine. Because there's a miracle sitting on top of Mount Erevat. If they can prove that it's true, then that is something.

It would be just like God that has an ace in the hole. He's just waiting to give it. So this world doesn't think there's any proofs and any evidence. Scientists are not going to believe anything. Well, he says, okay, prove. Show me how you're going to explain this one. But it's just kind of the last type of witness he's going to give to an unbelieving world.

And so God does love us. He has a wonderful kingdom that he's going to bring. And this stubborn, hard-headed human beings, they're going to have to learn God's ways. So the ark is one of those examples of what happened before. With that, thanks for coming. And we have a coffee social, sandwiches, cookies, coffee for everybody here.

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Mr. Seiglie was born in Havana, Cuba, and came to the United States when he was a child. He found out about the Church when he was 17 from a Church member in high school. He went to Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, and in Pasadena, California, graduating with degrees in theology and Spanish. He serves as the pastor of the Garden Grove, CA UCG congregation and serves in the Spanish speaking areas of South America. He also writes for the Beyond Today magazine and currently serves on the UCG Council of Elders. He and his wife, Caty, have four grown daughters, and grandchildren.