Genesis 7:13-16 comments: and the LORD shut him in

13 ¶  In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; 14  They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. 15  And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. 16  And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

It is important to read this passage in light of the context it is in so that we can see that by saying this the sevens mentioned earlier are not excluded, just not a detail that is repeated. Representatives of all major groupings of living, land creatures that breathed air, even though that breathing is done somewhat differently in land animals, fowls, and, say, a grasshopper, breathing is done nonetheless, are preserved. This implies that the genetic variation within a family like the dog or wolf can eventually lead from a small population to a great variety of canines. Even evolutionists assume a wolf-like ancestor of both dogs and wolves so it is more likely, if such a beast existed, he would have been on the ark. (27) If you consider the number of breeds of dogs that man has created by manipulation in the last two hundred years alone it is no stretch of the imagination to consider how rapid speciation can occur under God’s direction. And yet, as all creatures have boundaries set by the genetic code with great diversity within there are limits, boundaries which cannot be passed, kinds, so that a fish doesn’t become a lizard anymore than a chrysanthemum becomes a butterfly.

Probably the most important thing to consider in this passage is that the Lord shut him in. It is God who saves humankind, not man himself.

John 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

God closes the door on your salvation. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit provided, the means by which God dwells in everyone who trusts in Him.

2Corinthians 1:22  Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

Ephesians 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Ephesians 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

You are not saved by your good works or your kind nature or how much other people admire and like you. You must reject those dead works you’ve been trusting in to justify you before God and turn to Him alone.

Hebrews 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

There is no point insisting that Hebrews is in a different dispensation. If you can believe that Hebrews 10:24, 25 applies to you, it is certainly no stretch to give Hebrews 6 a proper application. For the dispensationalist any verse that doesn’t contradict Pauline doctrine is doctrinally applicable to you. We must read and pray, rightly dividing the word of truth as it says in 2Timothy 2:15.

(27)Raymond & Lorna Coppinger, Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 273.

Genesis 7:5-12 comments: where did all that water come from and where did it go?

    5 ¶  And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. 6  And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. 7  And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 8  Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 9  There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. 10  And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

    11 ¶  In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12  And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

The earth was covered with the water from both rain and from the eruption of great fountains of water under the earth’s crust. Skeptics used to ask where did this water from underneath come from and where did it go after the Flood. Those whose faith was solid did not worry about this question as they should not worry so much about any question regarding the Bible’s accuracy. If science is diligent it may catch up to the Bible in each point of question.

Scientists now believe that there is enough water under the ground to cover the continents in 600 feet of water if it were above the ground, according to a November 17, 2015 news article on The Christian Science Monitor website. (25) A March 12, 2014 article on the Scientific American website also confirmed that scientists believe there is as much water in the earth’s mantle in a particular zone as there is in the earth’s oceans. (26)

God brought to the ark the creatures that He wanted preserved and in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life the deluge began.

(25) Lucy Schouten, “Scientists Tally Earth’s Hidden Mega-stashes of Groundwater,” The Christian Science Monitor, November 17, 2015 (accessed July, 28, 2016).

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1117/Scientists-tally-Earth-s-hidden-mega-stashes-of-groundwater#

(26)Becky Oskin, “Rare Diamond Confirms that Earth’s Mantle Holds an Ocean’s Worth of Water,” Scientific American, March 12, 2014 (accessed July 28, 2016).

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare-diamond-confirms-that-earths-mantle-holds-an-oceans-worth-of-water/

Genesis 7:1-4 comments: clean and unclean animals

1 ¶  And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. 2  Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 3  Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. 4  For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

Here, God gives Noah more specific instructions. Creatures that were considered clean, which were worthy of sacrifice to God (see 8:20), were commanded to be permitted in by sevens, rather than the twos that the common animals came as. Clean beasts were understood as different from other animals. Perhaps, could the difference between clean and unclean have to do with a genetic code that was corrupted by what was happening before the Flood? It is no coincidence that with Christ’s resurrection all animals were made clean.

Acts 10:9 ¶  On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10  And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11  And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12  Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13  And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14  But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15  And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

In any case, it is clear that prior to the Law given to Moses there was an understanding of God’s standard of clean and unclean animals. Clean animals were brought into the ark by sevens and unclean by twos. The literal reality is far different than that in the popular imagination of all creatures being brought in twos. Still, these were probably not a huge variety of animals, based on the information given later in the Law. Birds are included in the groups of sevens brought in so what we would today consider in the taxonomic classification of “family” had its bird representatives.

Noah has a week before it starts to rain, something that this world may have not seen previous, based on the statement of how the earth was set before the Flood.

Genesis 2:6  But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

Notice that every living substance in verse 4 is conditioned by what God said previously and the whole context must be taken into account in order to get at what is really being said. Context and cross-referencing are essential to interpreting the Bible truthfully and faithfully if you do not have an agenda other than explaining what has been left for us, rather than some social or political purpose of manipulation and control.

We will soon see that more was involved than just rain.

Genesis 6:13-22 comments: Noah's instructions

13 ¶  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14  Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15  And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 16  A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. 17  And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. 18  But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 19  And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 20  Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 21  And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.

    22 ¶  Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

God announces to Noah what He intends to do and commands Noah to build a ship. The dimensions of this ship, called an ark, depend on what the exact length of a cubit was, a point of uncertainty among scholars. If the cubit was 1 ½ feet long then it was around 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. Perhaps, if the cubit was closer to 2 feet than it was 600 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 60 feet tall. There is no one on earth who can say for sure. Ancient peoples used varying lengths for cubits although it is said that the ancient Egyptians used the length from a man’s elbow to his fingertips.

This gives us a range for a ship large enough to certainly carry representatives of all creatures that were going to perish. It is important to remember, as I pointed out in my comments on chapter one, verse 11 that the kind of the Bible is a much larger classification than the “species” of modern taxonomy, of which there are literally a couple of dozen definitions. For representatives of a modern family or order, in a world where solar radiation had not taken its extreme effects and mutations were probably less frequent than they are now, it does not even take a stretch of the imagination to consider a primal cat family, dog family, or even alligator family having its representatives on the ark. It is foolish to read modern taxonomic classifications back into the Bible as the word, “family,” for instance, wasn’t used for biological classification until a French botanist used it in 1689.

So, there is more than enough room in the ark for representatives of large modern-day classifications of animals and provisions to care for them. God could use the much-changed environment after the Flood to lead to rapid speciation as all of the characteristics required for variation within a kind are included within the genetic code already implanted by God. However, this produced a variety of cats, dogs, alligators, and pea plants and there is no evidence that if you introduce mutations into a group of flies that after thousands of generations that you still won’t have just very messed up flies and not lizards. The only way modern scientists can make their macroevolution happen is to divide creatures up into ever smaller groupings and say triumphantly if a fly develops characteristics of its own due to environmental pressures within the restrictions of its genetic code that it becomes something other than a fly. The fact is, all of the tools required for variation within a kind is already given by God in its genetic code. After all, have we not created many dozens of breeds of dogs within Animal Husbandry over the past 2-300 years and yet they are all still dogs and no new creature has been created?

You are, of course, free to look for the remains of the ark but there is no need for there to be any. It was, like the great fish of Jonah 1:17, specially prepared for a specific purpose. Looking for relics is a poor preference rather than reading and believing God’s word.

There was one door into the ark, the physical salvation of mankind. Christ is the one door by which we can have eternal life and be saved for eternity. There are so many great sermons to be had from this one passage. The ark was the vehicle by which a small remnant of mankind was saved. Christ is the vehicle by which a remnant of humanity is saved for eternity.

Verse 17 tells us that all flesh, wherein is the breath of life will die. Breathing is a significant action in God’s determination of what is living. Think of some things that we call life that do not breathe air, the act of respiration being a foundation of God’s definition of life. Think of things that have no sense of self-identity, no souls, that are driven merely by chemical impulses. Perhaps some things that mankind defines as living are mere biological machines with no soul and no spirit.

But, clearly, some creatures other than man to have a soul and a spirit. Here is one statement about souls.

Job 12:10  In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

Here is Solomon in his humanity questioning whether there is any difference between a man’s fate and a beast’s.

Ecclesiastes 3:21  Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

It would be useful to contemplate what God calls living without reading our definitions back into it. But, sadly, mankind all too often creates a God in his own head that is merely a reflection of himself and his own self-worship and has no interest in contemplating how the God of the Bible looks at a thing.

Everything that breathed air that did not have a place on the ark, was to physically die in this deluge. The verse clearly states that everything in the earth that has the breath of life shall die. All air-breathing land-animals die and must be preserved by representatives in the ark.

God makes a covenant, and there are several covenants in the Bible, with Noah and his family, promising them survival. He orders Noah to save at least two of every sort of creature, synonymous with kind, a classification discussed earlier. He also commands provisions to be brought into the ark for them.

Noah, being the man that he was, followed God’s instructions to the letter.

Genesis 6:8-12 comments: all flesh corrupted

8 ¶  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9  These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 10  And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

    11 ¶  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

One person, among all of those untold thousands or even millions, found grace, favor, in the eyes of the God. That was Noah. He would believe and he would obey so God chose him for the task at hand. Noah, apparently from reading verse 9, did not have any of the taint of the fallen sons of God in his lineage, as he was perfect in his generations. This would not necessarily be true of his wife, whomever she was, so genetic corruption would come through his sons; Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

The earth is corrupt and filled with violence and this corruption affected all created life. We can only imagine what the offspring of the fallen sons of God and human women looked like and, based on myths and stories, we can perhaps assume that this corruption didn’t end with giant men, great heroes of myth. Mythologies also contain hybrid animals called “chimera” and human-animal hybrids that may have, and this is pure speculation, originated in this corruption. We are only now starting to come to the point where knowledge has increased allowing us to consider forming these creatures in our own scientific laboratories.

This also may be the reason why there is in a few verses, long before the Law given to Moses was put in force listing clean and unclean animals, a distinction between clean and unclean animals. The Bible doesn’t give much detail here, perhaps because we are not to focus on this, but it is interesting to speculate when one considers the talk in the scientific community about what man is able and will be able to accomplish. We are living in a world of men that parallels quite often the pre-Flood world of Noah.

A capacity for violence, even extreme violence, is one of the primary characteristics of mankind. In the last 4,000 years there have been very, very few without war. But in the last century, from the time that World War One, the Great War, began in 1914 and until Germany paid the last of its forced reparations in 2010 from that war mankind has slaughtered a 100 million of his own kind and made homeless refugees of tens of million more. We have the technological capacity to wipe out civilization as we know it. Would not God’s judgment then on this world as laid out in Revelation be perfectly justified considering how much we are like the pre-Flood world?

Genesis 6:6-7 comments: it repented the Lord

6 ¶  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

What does the idiomatic expression, it repented the Lord, mean?

Judges 2:18  And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.

Something is presented to God that, by His very nature, He will not ignore, even though He knew, by virtue of His omniscience, that it would happen. The wickedness of mankind grieved God at His heart and demanded a certain path which He had prepared in His foreknowledge. Because the expression, it repented the Lord, like most idiomatic expressions, has a meaning that goes beyond simply the definitions of the individual words strung together it requires us to use our reasoning ability, something we do not like to do when someone is willing to spoonfeed us their own careless reading.

By the context the creation of mankind repented the Lord because it grieved Him at His heart and His purpose is to erase the life He created, not just man, because it repented Him.

The word repent clearly in other contexts in the Bible means to turn from something or to change one’s mind about something. Here, as part of this expression it means more than that. By viewing this context we see that the Lord was grieved by mankind’s wickedness as the definition of how the Lord was repented by something. The Lord did not repent or change His mind or turn from something He planned. Something repented Him with the Lord being the object of the phrase and not the subject, as mankind’s wickedness caused Him to grieve. We all understand this. We have known something sickening was coming in our minds but still were sickened by it when it came to pass and we required ourselves to go to the next action. I know my child is going to fall down but he must learn. Still, it anguishes me when it happens. I know I must grow old and weak, if I am to live, but it is not an easy thing to experience. Man has disappointed God, but He knew He would. It doesn’t make the experience any more comfortable. From before the foundation of the world God knew He would come to live in a body and be tortured and murdered on the cross at Calvary but that foreknowledge didn’t make it any more pleasant.

Ephesians 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Luke 22:44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

We must understand that God is not a disinterested bystander to our affairs. He dearly loves His creation and loved all mankind, even the most wicked, at the cross of Calvary. What we do affects Him profoundly. If it were not so He would not have let us so much as touch Him.

Man’s wickedness disgusted God and, in His disgust and grief, man and the animal life, which God had created and which mankind’s sin had corrupted, must be eliminated. The next word, though, one of the most important words in the Bible, has great implications for God coming to earth in the form of a man to deliver us from eternal loss and suffering. That word that follows is But……

Genesis 6:4-5 comments: evil continually

4 ¶  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The resultant offspring of these sons of God and human women were giants, famous as heroes in myth and legend. The mythologies of the world have brought us stories of these great men of renown with various names and in various forms. The phrase and also after that shows that this was an ongoing problem even after the Flood. I will not go into the many websites about and books written on findings of giant remains in graves and tombs as it is difficult to distinguish fact from fancy and outright fraud. Sticking with the Bible account, though, we have many references that would render some of the modern stories about archaeological finds understandable and believable. Here are a few examples of the many references to giants with the measurement given so that we see these were not just National Basketball Association (NBA) style large men.

Deuteronomy 3:11  For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man. [that is between

13 ½ to 18 feet long depending on the actual length of a cubit]

1Samuel 17:4  And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. [Goliath was between around 9 feet plus and 12 feet tall]

Other references to show that there were places where such giants were common are;

Numbers 13:33  And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Deuteronomy 2:10  The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; 11  Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims.

Deuteronomy 3:13  And the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.

Joshua 15:8  And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the same is Jerusalem: and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of the giants northward:

God saw that the pre-Flood people were extremely wicked and we can see in this passage by way of similar phrasing with word substitution that evil here is synonymous with wickedness. The definition of a word is based on the context, particularly the word evil.

In the following verse evil means intent on doing harm, malicious;

Genesis 37:33  And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.

Here it is disaster and calamity, the opposite of peace as darkness is the opposite of light;

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Here it is the trouble we face from day to day;

Matthew 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Here is the damage to a Christian’s faith that comes from greed;

1Timothy 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

It is then impossible to rationally think of evil as always meaning the same thing. Just was we say, “I love pizza,” we say, “I love my mother.” Certainly, the context makes love mean two different things in these phrases. Use your brain.

In this context the pre-Flood world was wicked and man’s thoughts matched his deeds, as being evil. Mankind is hopelessly degenerate and only a simpleton believes we are basically good and would do right if only given the chance.

Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The Founding Fathers of the United States were students of The (so-called) Enlightenment and believed that people were basically good and that the best way to keep evil from happening as each man pursued his own self-interest was to pit opposing forces against each other as a sort of check. One belief of the early republic was “vox populi vox dei” or the “voice of the people is the voice of God.” This was something that politicians, such as Abraham Lincoln, believed, that God’s will was done by the electorate as they voted for someone or something.

This rubbish thinking has been the source of a great many “evils” in our history from slavery and the oppression of minorities to the wholesale theft of Native American land all the way to the modern welfare/warfare state so beloved by both Democrats and Republicans.

People are not basically good. They are basically evil, at their core, and desperately need the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, Christ even speaks of His own disciples;

Luke 11:13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Genesis 6:3 comments: man's lifespan reduced

3 ¶  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

God declares His intentions to limit the lifespan of man from hundreds of years to a hundred and twenty. This does not mean that every man will live that long but merely gives a general and average upper range nor does it mean that this is immediate but we see it happening after the Flood. Men still live a long time after the Flood but the lifespan continues to decline. There are noteworthy examples of men living longer than that.

The Holy Spirit, when referring to God, uses the word spirit, lowercase s, for intentions and attributes that do not signify the person of God.

For instance, Isaiah 11:2  And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

Contrast that to God’s Spirit, which is His presence, as all three parts of God can be represented by that Spirit.

Genesis 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Luke 4:1  And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

It is interesting to note that while God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all referred to by the pronoun “he” that the Spirit, the vehicle by which God operates in the world and in the believer, can be called “it.”

Romans 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:…26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Anyway, this spirit, spoken of as not always being in contention against man, who lives a long time and whose bloodline is polluted by the fallen sons of God and the rebellious attitude of Cain, will reduce the average upper range of man’s lifespan. This is something that is ongoing. Today we typically regard average lifespan as including infant mortality, which can lower it significantly, but it is important to consider that, in spite of all of our modern medical advancements, as biologist R.C. Lewontin explained, “In the last 50 years, only about four months have been added to the expected lifespan of a person who is already 60 years old,” if you take out infants who die under one year. (24)

(24) R.C. Lewontin, Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA (New York: Harper Collins, 1991), 42.

Genesis 6:1-2 comments: sons of God

1 ¶  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

The question that demands to be asked here is, who are the sons of God? Here we have evidence that they pre-existed the creation of the physical universe. Here is God speaking directly to Job.

Job 38: 4 ¶  Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding….7  When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Some of these supernatural created beings were not content to remain as they were but were enticed by lust and endured condemnation as a result. There are many legends about gods mating with human women from uncontrolled lust. The following verse refers to them as angels, denoting their supernatural state. Angels and sons of God in this context are synonymous.

Jude 1:6  And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Remember, an angel is a presence, an appearance of something that is somewhere else, representing that person or thing but with power and ability that would prevent us from distinguishing the difference.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Matthew 18:10  Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Acts 12:15  And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.

Revelation 1:20  The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

A third of the sons of God choose to follow Satan as per Revelation 12. Perhaps those who receive Christ as their Saviour will replace those sons of God.

John 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Presumably these supernatural beings that placed themselves in a human body would bring knowledge and wisdom to mankind that would have been unavailable to mankind without their interference as many myths and legends state. It seems that common sense would tell us that this would have made the pre-Flood world a place of remarkable achievement and there are many archaeological sites that suggest a superior civilization existed in the distant past although the evidence is limited and the interpretation of it is controversial. I will not go into extra-Biblical legends and myths here about the Egyptians having drawings and replicas of airplanes and helicopters in their tombs or the ancient Indus River Valley cities showing evidence of nuclear destruction, all implying that if they were advanced they had similar technology to us as if we were the proverbial ‘all that and a bag of chips.’ That would just lead to endless and questionable rabbit trails that might be interesting for discussion but would get in the way of the flow of these comments. Anyway, supernatural beings, even if constrained by flesh, wouldn’t need our technology. One would think they would use abilities we cannot even imagine but are hinted of in the Bible as the power given by God to humans like Elijah to outrun a chariot, Samson’s incredible strength, etc. etc..

Suffice it to say that supernatural beings assumed the place of human beings for reasons all to common regarding the temptations man has faced on this earth at all times with regard to women.

Genesis 5:25-32 comments: Noah, the comforter

25 ¶  And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: 26  And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: 27  And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

    28 ¶  And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: 29  And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed. 30  And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: 31  And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. 32  And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Noah is here defined as a comforter. The Holy Ghost, the part of God that is Spirit, is called The Comforter.

John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Noah represents the person by which God chose to deliver those of mankind who would listen from the great wrath to come, the Flood that covered the world. God came in the form of a man to deliver those of mankind who would listen from the great wrath to come at the end of human centered history and in eternity.

1Thessalonians 1:10  And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Noah is a type of the Holy Ghost and a type of Christ. Types in the Bible are useful to understand doctrines in the Bible. Although all types break down at some point and cannot be too dogmatically applied they can be a great help. For instance, later, Joseph will be a type of Christ in many ways but he will not die for the sins of mankind and no one’s salvation is dependent upon him. But you can see Christ all through the narrative of the Bible if you open your eyes and look.

One thing of note here is the incredibly long lifespans of people in the pre-Flood world.

Noah’s three sons are mentioned in this passage. All of the people of the earth today, billions of people, come from these three.

Genesis 9:19  These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

This would be one of those population bottlenecks that geneticists talk about. Of course, secularists would not agree with the Bible but the explanatory power of the Bible narrative cannot easily be dismissed by anyone with a brain. A universe that comes about suddenly, life in rapid succession originating in the oceans and then from land, the beginnings of death, the foundation of the world’s religions, genetics, and history all explained in a way that is compelling, brief, and direct and stands in direct opposition to the modern accepted narrative of so-called scientific but entirely theoretical suppositions. The Bible is what is called a primary source, in this part with Moses being God’s secretary, His amanuensis. It represents a certain way of looking at things, from God’s point of view and man’s point of view, in direct opposition to the atheistic determinism of modernity which is based solely on man’s fantasies and not in any way on the word, the eyewitness testimony, given by God to Moses.

With most of history’s evidence buried in the dirt that no spade or shovel will ever uncover and with most of the writing on stone, parchment, paper, and clay long destroyed modern man, since The Enlightenment, tries to piece together a narrative that excludes God. The alternative is to seek God’s own narrative, preserved through time for us here. There is no middle ground. You either believe in God’s word or you believe in the fantasies of the atheist mind who, in his desperation and soul agony, tries desperately to escape from God by pretending He is not there.

Which narrative you accept will depend upon whether you have the Spirit of God indwelling you and are not resisting Him.

Genesis 5:21-24 comments: the Translation of Enoch

21 ¶  And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22  And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23  And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24  And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Here is a foundational verse, number 24, for belief in the Translation of the church, popularly called The Rapture since the 1800’s. The Bible uses Interpretation for our modern thought of translating one word in one language into a word in another language, much like we use the word “interpreter” for someone at the UN with headphones on translating what the Russian ambassador said into English. This definition it uses as well as the interpreting of dreams.

John 1:42  And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

John 9:7  And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

Acts 9:36  Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.

Translation is to move something from one place to another, as Enoch was removed by God from the earth alive, missing the judgment on the earth to come.

Hebrews 11:5  By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Much of the belief in the translation of the church is founded based on verses in Paul’s letters and in Revelation. The doctrine begins here with Enoch, however.

Genesis 5:6-20 comments: longevity

6 ¶  And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: 7  And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: 8  And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. 9  And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: 10  And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: 11  And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. 12  And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel: 13  And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: 14  And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. 15  And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: 16  And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: 17  And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. 18  And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: 19  And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 20  And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

We learned in the last chapter that it was during Enos’ time that men called out to God and wanted to know Him as the cross-reference through Romans shows us the use of the phrase call upon the name of the Lord. Two contrasting religious impulses are generated. One based on a heartfelt desire to worship God understanding that it is only by the shedding of blood that sin can be dealt with as Hebrews 9:22 says without shedding of blood is no remission and the other following a manner that God rejected and that did not reflect the consequences of sin or God’s approval.

With regard to the long lives of the people in the Pre-Flood world a combination of environment and low frequency of genetic damage must have permitted this. Experiments on worms today has shown that by manipulating genes lifespan can be increased fourfold which, for humans, would mean an extension to 300 years roughly. It is not difficult to imagine, with an environment providing protection from too much radiation, a natural diet, and genome that had not deteriorated to the extent it has today, that living in the range of a thousand years is not unimaginable and having the characteristics of youth to a much longer age is quite understandable. (23)

(23) The Tech Museum of Innovation, “Why Do We Age and Is There Anything We Can Do About It?” http://genetics.thetech.org/original_news/news10. (accessed 7.10.2016).

Genesis 5:1-5 comments: Adam's death and ours

1 ¶  This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2  Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. 3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: 4  And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: 5  And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

A recognizable device is apparent here that is used earlier in Genesis, chapters 1 and 2 when describing creation in a more general sense and then being more specific that has made some foolish skeptics claim that there are two creation stories. God goes from higher to lower, general to specific, even back and forth between the two. Adam is referenced here as the name for both the man and the woman and then as the name of the first man in specific.

With this record of Adam’s lineage we have a similar reference to Jesus Christ later in the New Testament with regard to His legal descent;

Matthew 1:1  The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

This book or record begins with God making mankind, male and female, to look like Him. God’s body, His physical presence, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word, capital W, by which all things were created and are held together. I’ve already pointed out the verses that reveal that in previous passages.

God called their name Adam, man and woman. Man gave Eve as his wife’s name. This will be important in remembering the distinctions Christ erased in the church.

Galatians 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

This is how it was meant to be but sin caused the great rift in our association with each other and the resulting cultural divides between men and women came about. God does not create human culture or civilization. He only attempts to modify it to draw men and women closer to Him. Holding your culture, your society, or your civilization as Godly or saying that its traditional order; whether that tradition be Nineteenth Century Victorian or post-World War II American, is what God ordained is absurd, a blasphemy, and all such falsehood destroys the faith of the young and new Christians. Cultural forms of living, for instance, Father going off to work, Mother staying home to dust and clean, and the basic family unit living alone, separated, and apart from other family members, servants, friends, or employees is a relatively new way of living and should not be mistaken for the time-honored, traditional and God-approved culture of the family.

In other words, it is not Godly just because we do it and say its right because we are doing it and slapping the label on it. That was Cain’s sin. Is it yours? Such thinking is no less humanism than the fantasies of The Enlightenment thinkers. Try to come to the Bible and leave your personal and cultural baggage behind while God speaks to you through its pages.

Verse 4 shows that Adam sired probably many sons and daughters during his long life as the pre-Flood people lived hundreds of years compared to our typical 70-80. We need to consider the fact that the genetic damage passed on to each generation would have been minimal in that time and the damage that the individual takes on with each cell division would have been just as minimal. Aging would have been a much slower process and a person stayed “younger” and more vigorous than they would have in any later generation for a longer period of time.  

Adam died, as required by the judgment, a process which began the moment he disobeyed God. We can presume that Eve died much earlier than he did due to the wear and tear caused by multiple conceptions over many years or for other reasons, who is to say. But, the process of dying began the moment they disobeyed God in the one thing they could do that was denied them. Our first human parents, our first ancestors, died, whether or not it was in what we now call Africa, or somewhere in Western Asia, and the pattern had been set for all of us until the time the church is translated out of this dying world, waiting to be reborn.

We shall all physically die and, in fact, are dying now unless we are walking on the earth when Christ calls out the church. It is only through faith in Christ as God in the flesh, believing what He said about Himself, and trusting in His righteousness and not our own, nor any church dogma, creed, confession, or man-made set of rules that we can be justified before God and live in eternity with Him.

Romans 5: 6 ¶  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. 12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 15  But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17  For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18  Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19  For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21  That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Genesis 4:25-26 comments: there are only two religions

25 ¶  And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 26  And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

Again, not reading the Bible like a textbook or the user’s manual to a computer we are unable to count how many times Eve conceived children. The Holy Spirit mentions only certain people throughout history and leaves out a great many whom we find important. The common sense likelihood is that she had dozens and dozens of offspring before Seth and her children had dozens of dozens by this time. By reading this literally though, if there were many other offspring what would Seth’s replacement of Abel mean? By the text here my opinion is that Seth replaced Abel as a man seeking God which pleased his mother greatly. Seth’s son, Enos, carried this tradition on as the use of the colon means that the clause after it explains in some important way what was stated before the colon. It is possible, as well, that the other children, if there were any as I have stated, were followers of Cain’s religion.

Romans 10:13  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Godliness in the wicked, pre-Flood world, was carried on by the descendants of Seth and salvation would come through their testimony. Here is a first example of men who worshipped and wanted to know God in a very real way standing against the world whose religion was about their own self-righteous justification and the feeling of spirituality they received from their meaningless rituals and prayers that are nothing more than chants. Their religion glorifies man, not God and is focused on them, not God. As Jesus pointed out;

Matthew 6:7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

In this way, the first part of Genesis tells the story of two religious traditions and we would do well to study that as one of the ways we look at it. Here we can see the yearning for Christ from the beginning, as Job said;

Job 19:25  For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27  Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Genesis 4:19-24 comments: Lamech, the first fundamentalist

    19 ¶  And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20  And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. 21  And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. 22  And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.

    23 ¶  And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. 24  If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Here are listed some originators of professions, crafts, and cultures such as the nomad who herds animals, the musician, and the iron and brass worker. This is not to say that these were the only professions, crafts, and cultures but the way they are listed they may only be meant for examples. They are representatives of the endeavors of man down through the ages, their beginnings.

Here also, according to a disputed and controversial extra-Biblical tradition, is the wife of Noah, Naamah. If that were true, and we have no proof or even suggestion in the Bible that it is, then mankind also descends from Cain, as well as Adam’s son, Seth.

The knowledge and skills gained by these men would be passed on to the three sons of Noah who began populating the entire earth after the Flood.

Here also continues the abuse of God’s word and of His commands and of His ordinances, going beyond what He said as Eve did or using His words as an excuse for sin as Christians often do. Just as Job’s three friends misrepresent God, insisting that if something bad happens to you then you must have done evil to deserve it so Christians will say, just because God allowed something, even an opinion of a Bible writer or a cultural reference specific to the time in which it was written, that God meant it for a rule that is to be enforced mercilessly on the congregation. Christians often choose to either twist God’s words, His intentions, or even to go beyond what He has said with alcohol, dress, relationships between men and women, and many other issues that reflect their own bigotry, fear, and paranoia rather than a desire to please God. Here, God specifically protected Cain from revenge for his murder of Abel but Lamech will murder another man and insist that he is worthy of even more protection than Cain. “After all,” Lamech would say if he were a fundamentalist preacher today, “God said it, its Bible, so it must mean what I want it to mean and who cares about the context?”

This begins the justification for the extreme violence of the pre-Flood civilization that must have been characterized by a callous disregard for life, a savagery that would have maintained powerful warlords at the top of the heap, with people seeking their protection. This is not unlike our European and African heritage and in countries like Somalia and the Sudan today.

Genesis 4:16-18 comments: the first civilization

16 ¶  And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17  And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. 18  And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

As the pre-Flood geography would be impossible to know now where the land of Nod is would be impossible to determine although one would suspect, if one believed that Eden would have been located where God’s beloved Promised Land is, that Nod would have been in that nursery of great ancient civilizations, Mesopotamia. Although whatever Cain had built would have been destroyed in the Flood it could have been in the same general vicinity as the great cities that came after.

Cain’s wife, who would have been his sister as genetically humanity had just begun its slow deterioration that lent deleterious mutations to every generation and made sexual union between brother and sister very dangerous today for their offspring, gave him a son named Enoch, whose name was given to this first city.

Here is the birthplace of ancient religion as the ancient city was a religious entity, a type of church, started all at once with invited families who would share in the same worship and the same gods, although the individual family would have its own singular worship and gods which represented their lars familiaris or familiar spirits (see Leviticus 20:27), the guiding divinities of ancestors dead. (20) It is likely that Cain’s false religion was carried on through his city.

In addition, each home in the ancient world was to have a sacred flame which was the religious center of the home and must not be permitted to go out. (21) This eternal flame, like the lamp in the tabernacle in Exodus 27:20, must never go out. This was a counterfeit city in the ancient world, a city of man’s creation, man’s poor attempt to replace what God intended. Cain’s false religion, which will infect the rest of human history even after the Flood, would have begun to be expressed by his brethren in this city, Enoch, and the eventual religion of the city-states of Canaan, Greece, and the worship of Rome and India would have begun here.

The king of an ancient city was also the high priest, who offered up sacrifices, and was the highest religious authority. This is evident in a number of ancient writers such as Aristotle, Euripides, and Demosthenes. (22) My point is that the roots of ancient worship were probably planted by Cain in this first city as a pattern for future civilization.

(20) Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (1864, repr. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006), 134.

(21) Ibid., 25.

(22) Ibid., 173.