But there are mistakes-distortions that were fatal for many people, for example, the story of the flood. In the overwhelming majority of textbooks they are content to say that it rained for 40 days and 40 nights and filled the earth with water, covering all the high mountains.

In the Holy Scriptures itself. The Bible says quite differently: "... On this day all the fountains of the great deep were opened, and the windows of heaven were opened; and rain poured down on the earth forty days and forty nights"... "And the waters increased upon the earth a hundred and fifty days" (Gen. 7:11-12; 24).

And in the next chapter it says: "... and the waters began to decrease at the end of a hundred and fifty days..." "On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains appeared" (Gen. 8:3; 5).

Divine Revelation says with utmost clarity that the flood intensified for almost half a year, and not at all for 40 days. Then the water began to subside, and only in the 10th month did the tops of the mountains appear. This means that the flood lasted at least one year. This is especially important and essential to know in our rationalistic time, for scientific geological data fully confirm this.

Let us point out one more very important circumstance. All textbooks, with very few exceptions, mistake the days of creation for our ordinary days. Each textbook begins like this: "God created the world in six days...", i.e. in other words, in a week. And, after all, in our time, such words that do not exist in the Bible are the strangest for schoolchildren. These words are always used by the atheists, but it is precisely these words that are a complete distortion, at the very beginning, of Divine Revelation. These words cause doubts in an unapproved person, and then everything else of the Holy Scriptures is not allowed. Scripture begins to be rejected by him, recognized as unnecessary and the fruit of human imagination. This is exactly what the writer of these lines had to go through, when he necessarily listened to anti-religious lectures at school.

The question of the days of creation, in the conditions of our time, cannot be ignored. Moreover, we find an explanation of this question as early as the 4th century in the Holy Scriptures. Basil the Great, in his book "The Six Days", in St. John of Damascus, as well as in St. John Chrysostom, in St. Clement of Alexandria, at St. Athanasius the Great, in Bl. Augustine and others.

Our day (day) depends on the sun, and in the first three days of creation, there was no sun itself, which means that our days were not ours. What the days of creation were is unknown, for "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day" (2 Peter 3:8). But one thing we can assume is that these days were not instants, this is evidenced by the consistency, the gradualness of creation. And the Holy Fathers call the "seventh day" the entire period from the creation of the world to the present day and continuing until the end of the world.

But, having experienced a spiritual crisis, we find ourselves abroad. Here, the talented writer Mintslov with his book "Dreams of the Earth" again evokes painful days of perplexity and doubt.

The fact is that Mintslov, describing the dispute between the students of the St. Petersburg Dukh. Academy, through the mouth of the student Krestovozdvizhensky, says:

"You can't turn a blind eye to the achievements of science in the study of the Bible: it is three-quarters a falsification of the priests!"

- And for example?

"For example, at least the story of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt - the Bible tells that they themselves left there, that the army of the Egyptians died together with Pharaoh Mernefta in the Red Sea, and recently the tomb of this very pharaoh was found in Egypt, and from the inscriptions in it it is clear that he did not even think of dying anywhere, but died at home..."

We do not intend to argue with Mr. Mintslov that Pharaoh Mernefta exists, namely, the Pharaoh under whom the Jews came out of Egypt. For this is a matter for historians, especially since the Bible does not mention the name of Pharaoh. But we want to say that on this question Mr. Mintslov turned out to be completely ignorant, but at the same time, without hesitation, he boldly throws the "poison" of doubt into the authenticity of the Word of God.

In the Holy Scriptures there is no definitely accurate historical indication of the death of the pharaoh himself.