Tag Archives: noah

Bible

Where Peter blasts false teachers . . .

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I was going through 2 Peter this week and wanted to share this passage.  Note especially verses 4-6 and how unapologetic Peter is about what God has planned for false teachers.  Remember, the God of 1 John 4:8 (“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love”) is the same God described below.  Ironically but not surprisingly, it is the false teachers who will insist that the words below aren’t really from God.  Convenient, eh?

2 Peter 2 — False Prophets and Teachers

1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Christian worldview

About those “red letters”

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I’m wary of groups that just focus on the “red letters,” that is, the direct quotes of Jesus in the Bible.  I’ve yet to come across a “red letter” Christian who wasn’t up to something mischievous.  Here’s an example from a recent USA Today / Facebook thread where a pro-abortion person claiming the name of Christ was making all sorts of odd theological statements.

And I do NOT agree with the parts in the Bible that are utterly ridiculous. But, JESUS’ WORDS ARE A TOTALLY DIFFERENT STORY.

My response:

That would just be amusing if it wasn’t so typical of the “Christians” in this country. If you actually read the Bible and took it seriously, you’d see that creating a god in your own image is a serious affront to the real God. And that is exactly what you are doing when you pick and choose what you think was “really” the word of God.  That is basic Leopard Theology, where people claim that the Bible is only inspired in spots and that they are inspired to spot the spots, or Advanced Leopard Theology, where God is also changing spots and adding/removing spots, and, oddly enough, He is only telling theological liberals and progressives.

Jesus specifically referred to Adam and Eve, Noah and Jonah as real people and Sodom & Gomorrah as a real place that was destroyed. So even by your own words you agree with him on those controversial topics. And He said that marriage was for one man and one woman, so I’m sure you oppose “same-sex marriage.” And He said that not only is murder wrong, but unrighteous anger, so of course He opposes abortion. And He said people will die in their sins if they don’t believe in him, so I’m sure you spread that truth. And He agreed with every last letter of the Old Testament. And so on.

Are you sure you’ve read what Jesus said? Because your statements are contradictory.

As I noted in a recent comment on another post, the words of Matthew are no more authoritative than the words of Paul, James, Isaiah, etc.  They all turned out just the way God and the original writers wanted them to.

Christian worldview

Job in Ezekiel

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Just an interesting tidbit from my readings in Ezekiel this week.  Note how Job is listed with Noah and Daniel and referred to multiple times as a real person.  I’ve heard of people questioning whether Job was a real person or a fictional character, but this passage makes it obvious that he was the former.

12 And the word of the LORD came to me: 13 “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14 even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD. 15 “If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, 16 even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate. 17 “Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, 18 though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered. 19 “Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, 20 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter.

The context, not surprisingly, is Israel being judged for worshiping false gods.

Also note the reference in James 5:11:

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

Bible

Yes, Adam and Eve were real people.

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I realize that non-Christians don’t hold to the truth that Adam and Eve were real people.  It is part of their job description as non-believers.  But I’m mystified that many of those claiming the name of Christ would deny this.  (OK, I’m not that mystified, because those not believing that are either false teachers or “saved and confused.”).

The list below has all the verses mentioning Adam by name.  None even hint that he is allegorical.  And there are also passages like Mark 10:7-9 that refer to Adam and Eve, just not by name.  (“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”)

Key theological concepts like original sin make no sense if Adam and Eve weren’t real. (And to save keystrokes for the skeptics, yes, I know you think it doesn’t make sense either way.  I’m addressing this to professing believers.)

Also, as Kevin DeYoung points out in his commentary on 1 Chronicles, think about what it meant to the first readers (and readers for thousands of years after that):

Are we really to think that any Jew reading 1 Chronicles (or any Christian up until very recently for that matter) would have read the genealogies as anything other than true historical truth? The Chronicler’s whole aim is to recount history. And everything in the Israelite worldview underlines the importance of God’s dealing in real time and space. Nothing suggests that 1 Chronicles is mixing in some fantastic über-man with blood and guts real men.

That kind of genealogy wouldn’t begin to make sense, not to the Jews and not to us. It’d be like starting your family tree with the Jolly Green Giant and Paul Bunyan. It’d be like writing a biography that begins with Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke and then goes on to his son Hugh Hodge and his son Charles and his son Archibald Alexander. Not very convincing.

And not very encouraging for a bunch of exiles trying to figure out who they really are.

Here’s a PleaseConvinceMe.com Podcast about Adam and Eve.

Genesis 2:20 ESV
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
Genesis 3:17 ESV
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;Genesis 3:21 ESV
And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.Genesis 4:1 ESV
[Cain and Abel] Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.”
Genesis 4:25 ESV
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”Genesis 5:1 ESV
[Adam’s Descendants to Noah] This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.Genesis 5:3 ESV
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.Genesis 5:4 ESV
The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.Genesis 5:5 ESV
Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.Joshua 3:16 ESV
the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.

1 Chronicles 1:1 ESV
[From Adam to Abraham] Adam, Seth, Enosh;

Hosea 6:7 ESV
But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.

Luke 3:38 ESV
the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Romans 5:12 ESV
[Death in Adam, Life in Christ] Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned–

Romans 5:14 ESV
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:45 ESV
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”;the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

1 Timothy 2:13 ESV
For Adam was formed first, then Eve;

1 Timothy 2:14 ESV
and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Jude 1:14 ESV
It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,

Apologetics, Bible

Was there really a big flood?

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noah.jpgSome people – Christians included – mock the story of Noah and the great flood as being fictional.  One alleged Christian accused me of worshiping a demon because I quoted from the Noah story and took it at face value. 

Yet nearly every ancient culture includes an account of a major flood.  The details vary, as you would expect, but does that mean there wasn’t a major flood? 

If you ask about the New Orleans flood of 2005 in 100 years (or even now) you’ll get different accounts.  But there is no disputing that there was an actual flood. 

Also, there is a lot of archeological evidence for a major flood. 

Click here to read Why Does Nearly Every Culture Have a Tradition of a Global Flood?

Most importantly, consider that Jesus believed Noah existed and that the flood really happened:

Matthew 24:37-39 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Some people think they know the location of the remains of the ark.  This would be an interesting find, of course, but not required to believe and understand this passage.