If [God] did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;…(2 Peter 2:5-6)
The biblical event at Sodom and Gomorrah is described by the Greek word katastrophe from which we get the English word “catastrophe.” However, the Greek word kataklusmos is used to describe the Genesis flood, and this word is never applied in the Bible to any other event. This event was used by God as a terrible judgment on the entire ungodly pre-Flood world.
This kataklusmos was so horrible that it covered the entire surface of the earth, and left great fossil deposits, and sedimentary layers covering thousands of square miles, all over its surface. Noah's Flood was a unique event with a unique descriptive name. It clearly was not an ordinary catastrophe limited to a small area of the earth.
