A friend
made an interesting statement.
"God gave humanity free will, and then destroyed
humanity during the days of Noah for exercising his free will."
What is interesting
here is the importance of looking at the various texts about Noah and learning
exactly what happened.
Text. Genesis 6:5-7 "And the LORD saw that the
wickedness of humanity was great in the earth, and every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD repented that He
had made humanity on the earth, and He was angry to His heart. And the LORD said, I
will destroy humanity whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both people, and
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. For I repent that I
have made him."
When approaching an apologetic defense, go to the text, and then ask questions about
the people involved. This might help us understand the event. -.
The LORD saw the
wickedness of humanity… Question1. What might we learn about God that he was
watching what people were doing?
Question 2. What might we learn about humanity
that the thoughts of humanity’s heart was only evil continually?
Question 3.
What might we learn about God that he has emotional expression of regret and
anger?
Exploring the answers to these questions will help us understand God’s
thinking in destroying humanity. Let's not be content with just one answer to each question; the questions are phrased in such a way that there might be more than one answer.
Continuing
our discussion on Noah, Is there anything else we might know about humanity?
(Genesis 6:12-13) And God looked upon the earth. And, behold, it was corrupted!
For all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, The
end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence
through them. And, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Was there an
escape from the violence on the earth?
What might we learn about humanity when
it says, All people are corrupted, and all the earth is filled with violence?
Had violence become so systemic there was no way to live a healthy safe life on
the earth? And What did God do to try to bring about change to humanity? (I’ll
answer this one, God sent Noah to preach to people 2 Peter 2: 5)
Third part
of the Noah Story Did God change the way he intervened in human affairs after
Noah?
Well, God called Abraham apart to provide a way for the Messiah to come.
He gave Abraham’s descendants a multitude of laws to follow to help them walk
on a more righteous path, (Righteous in God’s eyes) Here is a question about that.
What might we learn about
God that he decided to choose a people, give them the rules he wanted them to
follow, and through that avoid systemic evil running through all of humanity?
The final
part of the Noah Story, Did God continue to deal with systemic evil when it
threatened local areas?
Well, Sodom is a great example. The evil was so great the men of Sodom
felt they had a right to sexually abuse all visitors to their city. Here is a
follow up question. (Ezekiel 16:49-50) “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister
Sodom; pride. Fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her
daughters. Nor did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were
haughty and did abominable things before Me, so I turned away as I saw fit.”
Did sloth, waste, pride, and hard heartedness bring about sexual perversion, or
did sexual perversion cause sloth, waste, pride and co.?
What have
we learned about God's attitude toward evil? I think we have learned
1. God can’t be blamed for stopping sinful
behavior which has overwhelmed society's social systems.
2. Sinful behavior can overwhelm society and destroy social systems and ultimatley destroy society
.
3. God is justified in destroying sinful behavior so it does not overwhelm his
creation again.
4. The Bible is replete with examples of God sending prophets,
preachers, and others to warn against sin.
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