When Did The “Seasons”
Start?
Bodie Hodge
Biblical Authority
Ministries, April 3, 2024
There was a time when people thought that the seasons didn’t
begin until the Flood of Noah. At that point, it was suggested that the
violence eruptions (e.g., springs of the great deep per Genesis 7:11) and changes
on the earth (e.g. mountain building per Genesis 8:4-5, etc.) during the Flood shifted
the earth to have a roughly 23-degree tilt.
It is this tilt that is largely responsible for the seasons
as we go around the sun. The portion of earth that is tilted toward the sun is Summer
and the portion that is tilted away from the sun is in Winter. As the earth
goes around the sun, we have solstices (peak amount of daylight in Summer and
peak amount of darkness in Winter) and equinoxes twice a year (Spring and Fall/Autumn)
where we have the same amount of darkness and light on a given day. Of course, in the Southern Hemisphere, their Winter
and Summer is reversed regarding daylight and darkness.
However, when we start with God’s Word, we find that seasons
existed prior to the Flood.
Then God said, “Let there be
lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and
let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. Genesis
1:14 NKJV (emphasis added)
Because of Genesis 1:14, we have good reasons to believe that
an axial tilt was in place from creation. With the exception of Mercury, the
other planets in our solar system have an axial tilt. So, there is no reason to
assume that God couldn’t have created earth with an axial tilt right from the start.
Is it possible that the seasons became more extreme after the
Flood? It is possible; but then some of these factors could be the results of
new weather patterns, new continental schemes, higher mountains and range
patterns that resulted from the Flood, not necessarily an axial tilt.
Psalm 104:19[1]
(which starts off pre-Flood, transitions to the Flood and then moves to Post-Flood
events) relates seasons with the moon cycles (months). And rightly so, we use the
moon to divide up the seasons into three parts. There are essentially 3 moon cycles
per season, so there is a relationship between moon cycles and the four seasons
(it is a bit more intricate than this). Nevertheless, this in no way affects
that seasons were around prior to Flood.
