Getting Ready as in the Days of Noah

1 Aug

Getting Ready Noah

The Bible tells us–even more specifically Jesus tells us–that in the last days it will be as in the time of Noah:

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. (Luke 17:26-33, ESV)

God determined to destroy His creation and created because of the rampant sin on the earth.

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:5-8)

The sins of our day are not unlike the sins of Noah’s day; in fact, sin has been the same since the days of Adam and Eve after the fall. Murder, lying, adultery, covetousness, sexual immorality, and idolatry to name a few. The sins of our times are not unique to our times; they are, however, more rampant and championed–like the days of Noah.

Once God gave Noah the command to build the Ark, Noah knew that the time men had to repent and turn to God was limited. Scripture leads me to believe that Noah preached repentance and faith in God to save those who would listen. The people of his day decided they would mock Noah and his God and not heed the warning of impending doom.

God protected and preserved human life and animal life on the Ark in his abundant grace. God provided a way out–a wooden ark. Today, God continues to provide a way out of damnation and judgment: Jesus Christ. Just as the Ark provided the only way to survive God’s judgment of sin by water, Jesus provides the only way to salvation when we face God’s  judgment of fire. (See 1 Corinthians 3:13 for the believers, and 2 Peter 3:10 for the destruction of the earth by fire.)

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:3-5)

I believe we are living once again in the days of Noah. I believe that everything we are seeing on a national and international stage is preparing the way of the Lord as in the days of John the Baptist. That is why it is so very important for us to know the Scriptures so that we are wise unto salvation and prepared to heed the coming of the Lord Jesus. Noah’s Ark may seem archaic, or like a children’s story, but in reality it is a pivotal picture of what is to come.

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Apologetics, Creation, Faith, Life, Missions, Worldview Tagged With: , , , ,

What’s the Flood Got to Do With It?

29 Jul

What's the Flood Got to Do With It

You most likely remember the 1984 Tina Turner hit song, What’s Love Got to Do With It? Not sure what Ms. Turner decided about love, but, for the next few posts we are going to consider a brief overview of the Noetic Flood account (Genesis 6-9) and determine, What’s the Flood Got to Do With It? (You can thank me later for planting that song in your head for the rest of the day!)  I think we will find that the world-wide flood of Noah’s time has everything to do with the world we see today, and the condition of the world we will see in the end-times prior to Jesus return.

As we begin to unfold the events of Genesis 6-9, lets commence with a few facts concerning the Noetic flood:

1. From the time God closed the door of the Ark, to the day Noah’s family and the animals departed, was 371 days.

2. The flood had to be global in scope for the following to be necessary:

  • The need for the Ark: Why not simply mass exodus with family and animals during the 120 years from God’s command to build the Ark and Noah’s family entering it?
  • The size of the Ark: The gross tonnage was about 13,960 tons placing it within the category of large metal ocean-going vessels today.
  • All the high mountains were covered. (Genesis 7:19-20) The flood would have had to be global in scope for the waters to cover even one high mountain…let alone all the high mountains. Water seeks its’ own level therefore the water would have had to cover the entire earth to cover one high mountain.

(The Genesis Flood, Whitcomb and Morris, p. 10)

3.  It is imperative that we understand the flood condensation did not come from water found in the cloud coverage. “If all the water in the earth’s atmosphere were to condense, only an average of one inch of rain would fall.” (In the Beginning, Walt Brown, p. 362) However, if we flattened the mountain ranges and lifted the ocean basins then there would be enough water to cover the earth over two miles high.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:11-12)

  • “Fountains of the greet deep” refer to subterranean water chambers 10 miles underneath the earth’s surface.
  • The opening of the great deep left a permanent scar on the earth called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. (Click here for Google Images.)
  • The scar, Mid-Atlantic Ridge,  is composed of basalt rock which is found in the interior of the earth.
  • See full explanation of Dr. Walt Brown’s Hydro-Plate Theory at www.creationscience.com.

Perhaps you, like me, didn’t give the Flood Account a second thought in reference to the scientific and geologic ramifications of such a catastrophe. Perhaps, you focused instead on the animals going in two-by-two and the picturesque rainbow scene thereafter. However, once we look at Noah’s Flood in such a way, it will change our view of the earth and the scientific information of our secular society. Additionally, our understanding of multiple texts we encounter when reading the Bible will be further enlightened and read with added meaning.

signature

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Apologetics, Creation, Worldview Tagged With: , , , ,

Cracking Creation: Why it Matters and What It Means to Your Faith

5 Dec

Typically I would initiate a spiritual conversation with a question similar to this, “What do you believe happens to you when you die?”

However, I am questioning this tactic after reading the following from Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey:

In today’s post-Christian world, many people no longer even understand the meaning of crucial biblical terms. For example, the basic term sin makes no sense to people if they have no concept of a holy God who created us and who therefore has a right to require certain things of us. And if people don’t understand sin, they certainly don’t comprehend the need for salvation.

Consequently, in today’s world, beginning evangelism with the message of salvation is like starting a book at the middle–you don’t know the characters, and you can’t make sense of the plot. Instead, we must begin with Genesis, where the main character, God establishes himself as the Creator, and the “plot” of human history unfolds its first crucial episodes. And the scientific evidence supporting these episodes is powerful.

~p. 98, How Now Shall We Live? 

It was three years ago that I began to pay attention to the science of the Bible. After studying the Noetic Flood and considering the true implications of such  a world-wide catastrophic event, I realized I was scratching at the surface of the science within the Bible and creation.

Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey was the next step in opening my eyes to the necessity for Christians to understand and defend creation. This book identified and equipped me with a source which enables Christians to articulate the differences between creation and Darwinian evolution. For evolution is a tool, oddly enough, created from a staunch philosophy of naturalism: that all which exists comes from natural causes and laws in the known universe apart from any supernatural being.

The whole point of his (Darwin’s) theory was to identify a natural process that would mimic intelligent design, thus making design superfluous. ~ p. 94

It is nearly impossible to see the need for salvation apart from believing the evidence of intelligent design. Apart from knowing there is a God who created us, there is no need to build a relationship, or more accurately reconcile a relationship, between said God and man. 

Most people sense instinctively that there is much more at stake here than a scientific theory–that a link exists between the material order and the moral order…Our origin determines our destiny. It tells us who we are, why we are here, and how we should order our lives together in society.  Our view of origins shapes our understanding of ethics, law, education–and yes, even sexuality. ~p. 92

The Christian community of our day must equip itself to answer the tough questions and challenge the status quo which is: man is not above the animals but derived from them.

If you are willing to take the initial, or next sequenced step, toward the study of creation and developing a Christian world-view, then I highly recommend reading How Now Shall We Live? by Nancy Pearcey and the late Chuck Colson.

That is what I am reading this Wednesday. Thank you for joining me.

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Creation, What I Am Reading Wednesday Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Studying Rocks was Never So Cool

9 Nov

Remember back in high school to earth science class. Those boxes with multiple dividers and a plethora of rocks different colors and hues were about as interesting to me as, well…a pile of rocks. Learning the names of rocks was one of my least favorite parts of school.

Now fast forward 13 years, I am actually learning about rock formations in my “free time.” The fingerprints of God are all over the mountain ranges, caverns, and canyons of the world.

Did you know that the major mountain ranges of the earth were formed as a result of the flood? The world-wide judgement upon the wickedness of man brought forth the most breathtaking views we see world-wide. (Read about the Hydroplate Theory here.)

You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they (the waters) might not again cover the earth. ~Psalm 104:6-9 (emphasis mine)

Ron and I recently traveled to the Grand Canyon. While the Grand Canyon was not formed during the flood, it is proposed that the flood left “postflood lakes in every continental basin.”* Two of these lakes Dr. Walt Brown refers to as the Grand Lake and the Hopi Lake (view here). He proposes that that the Grand Lake breached its southwest boundary, causing Hopi Lake to also breach. “Escaping waters spilled off the western edge of the Colorado Plateau, first stripping off the soft Mesozoic sediments south and west of the lakes (the Great Denudation).” * The result? The Grand Canyon was carved in weeks.

Yes, you read that right…weeks. (Please read Dr. Brown’s theory for yourself. Click here. I have written the most brief summary imaginable.)

The Grand Canyon was carved in weeks and the Colorado River was born–“a consequence, not the cause, of the carving of the Grand Canyon.”*

Why am I telling you all of this? First, because you should go to the Grand Canyon for yourself with Going the Distance Adventure Ministries and simultaneously view and learn the after effects of the world-wide flood with the teachings of Dr. Aaron Walp. Secondly, I want you to consider the judgement of God. Why does it come and what does it communicate to a lost and dying world?

In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul…For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the LORD. O LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them. ~Isaiah 26:3-11

God brings judgement on the people of the earth so that they might learn righteousness. He loves us, and the renown of His Name, too much to leave us wallowing in the mire of our sins; both individually and as the Body of Christ, the church. We can either continue to look at the warning signs of our righteous, loving, and holy God as obstacles to overcome or as a call to humility and repentance. God does not work without cause (Ezekiel 14:23).

Today, the same God who formed mountains and carved canyons to bring judgement and display His holy wrath, desires that His people live according to His word.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. ~Matthew 24:37-39, 44

 

 

*Walt Brown, Ph.D. (2008). In the Beginning Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood (8th Edition ed.).

Share This Post With Your Friends!
Filed Under: Creation Tagged With: , , , ,