Q: Everything discussed in the Bible happened in Middle Eastern countries. What was happening in the rest of the world? God created the earth, so the other continents had to exist, whether they were all connected or not, there were other large masses of land. Was the population so minimal that these other lands were not inhabited?
A: We must remember that, from a biblical perspective, everybody on the earth today is a descendant of Noah. The Global Flood, of Genesis 7, occurred about 4,500 years ago. And we know that the entire population of the planet, except for the eight members of Noah's family on the Ark, died during the deluge. Therefore, the six billion people who inhabit the planet today have populated it since that time. It is my understanding that you could fit the entire population of the world into an area the size of England with each person having more than 20 square meters to themselves. We sometimes tend to think that the earth is overcrowded when, in fact, most of us simply congregate together in the same cities. This tends to skew our perspective of how populated the planet really is and what it must have looked like thousands of years ago. The Bible tells us that "the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4)." This area of the world is located in modern day Turkey and for some biblical scholars is called the Cradle of Civilization. Therefore, in those 4,500 years, the population of the planet has gone from eight to six billion. That seems a bit unbelievable, but according to Dr. Don Batten, of Creation Ministries International, it "is relatively easy to calculate the growth rate needed to get today’s population from Noah’s three sons and their wives, after the Flood. With the Flood at about 4,500 years ago, it needs less than 0.5% per year growth." That is not a lot of growth required in order to reach today's population.
Not long after the Flood we read that "the whole world had one language and a common speech (Genesis 11:1)." I think it is safe to say that if you have a group of people who speak the same language that they will live in close proximity to each other. As we read further in the same chapter, we learn that these people attempted to build the Tower of Babel in order to have it reach up to the heavens. But, God did not like what the people were doing and said, "let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other (Genesis 11: 7)." Now, the Tower of Babel is located in modern day Iraq. Iraq borders Turkey to the South. Therefore, there was not much distance covered by the descendants of Noah from the time the Ark came to rest until God confused their language. After their language was confused the Bible says that God "scattered them over the face of the whole earth (Genesis 11:9)." If we look at the world today, most people are united by having a common language. If you don't speak the same language it makes it nearly impossible to communicate with each other. The natural byproduct is to avoid contact with those you can't communicate with and to congregate with those that do. If you look at the world today one of the many things that separates everybody is language. Variations of English are spoken in many of the Western countries like the United States. You can find Asian dialects spoken in Far Eastern countries like China and Japan. Arab dialects permeate the Middle East and it goes on and on depending on where you go on the planet. It has been said that the population of the earth was around 300 million people at the time of Christ. There are 300 million people in the United States today. So, I think we can begin to see that regardless of what the geographical make up of the planet was during biblical times it is safe to say that the population of the planet was not as spread out as it is today. And even if it was they all had one thing in common.
"From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live (Acts 17:26)." Remember, in Genesis, that God confused the language of the people and caused them to scatter over the face of the world. This point is underscored in the book of Acts where the Apostle Paul reaffirms that all mankind is the descendant of one man, Adam. And that God knows exactly where everybody who has ever lived, and ever will live, should be. There is no doubt, however, that the farther you get from a shared beginning, combined with the scattering of people who spoke different languages and who had different experiences, the further away from from their origins they become. However, one thing that nearly every culture has in common is a story of a great flood. According to Dr. Duane Gish, author of the book Dinosaurs by Design, there are more than 270 such stories, most of which share a common theme and similar characters. I believe it is because they can all trace that their roots back to the Middle East and, specifically, the mountains of Ararat where Noah and his family heeded the call of God when He said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (Genesis 9:1)."
Therefore, while the Bible may confine much of what it talks about to the areas commonly known as the Middle East, it is not meant to ignore any other people groups inhabiting unmentioned geographical areas of the planet. However, based upon what we know about where civilization started and the growth of the world population from that point, I believe it is safe to say that whatever was happening in the rest of the world was minimal, at best. Regardless, we must not forget about the purpose of the Bible as a whole. It is God's plan of salvation for all mankind. It focuses on the Middle East because that is where God stepped into His creation and became a man, Jesus Christ. It is critical to understand the origins of mankind so that we can recognize why we all need a Savior. "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22)." From Adam to Noah and from Noah to all six billion people alive today, there is one common thread linking us all. That thread is that we all come into this world spiritually dead to God in sin because of Adam's disobedience. Therefore, we all need to come alive to God through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God's only provision of life everlasting for man's condition of spiritual death. The reason God made all men from one man is "so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:27)." Whether you are in the Middle East, the Far East, the West, or somewhere in between, God knows where you are and desires a relationship with you in the person of Jesus Christ.
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