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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nGenesis 6: 5 \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We observe evidence most every day of how the world population is changing. Those changes include attitudes concerning such things as politics, gender, personal betterment and of course, religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Atheism is growing in America. A poll indicated in 2021, twelve percent of Americans (around forty million people) believe there is no god. This number is opposed to the seven percent from ten years before in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We live in a world in which beliefs are constantly changing. There is also much cultural mixing and that would of course include religious variations in many areas. How will you respond when someone disagrees with your Biblical teachings?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To believe Genesis 6 and 7, the story of Noah\u2019s Ark and the building of it, tests the strongest of human minds. Superficial thinking tells many the story is pure fiction and not credible. It could also be easily characterized as an Old Testament parable (an illustration told to make a point\/lesson).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Genesis 5: 32 \u201cAfter Noah was 500 years old he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.\u201d To live to be 500 years old may be a fictitious account because any reasonable thinking human knows a body would be completely decomposed by that age. Even at seventy years old, we can see and feel our human bodies deteriorating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This verse would without question plant seeds of doubt in most anyone with a thinking, analytical mind. Since the calendar wasn\u2019t established when Genesis 6 was written the time period we call a year wasn\u2019t known. God would of course have known how long it takes the earth to orbit the sun so would He have conveyed that information to the scripture writers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also in that era, people probably thought the earth was flat and stationary in space (if they even knew the concept of space). Their world was not even as large as the area we call the Middle East. Any way you carve this up, Noah was not 500 years old as we know years to be in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what time span was a year 4000 years ago? Time had to be based on something they could actually be seen and one possible answer to that question was the moon. A lunar cycle is twenty-eight days. In such a case, Noah was 500 months old, not 500 years as we know years to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Noah was in fact 500 months old, that would make him forty-two years old when God told him to build the ark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another fallacy in the story is the modern day connotation of the ark. It was actually a big box and was not shaped with a pointed bow to make it seaworthy. The depictions of the ark we see today are inaccurate. All it had to do was float and a sea worthy bow engineered for speed and dynamics was not necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All in all, the entire story is mostly unbelievable to the discerning mind. So why do Christians place so great an emphasis on the ark and the story of Noah and his family? Truth or fiction, the story personifies God as being the one of infinite power to end the earth and all life on it. Being our Creator, He can also be our un-creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are, however, examples that verify this story did indeed actually happen. The dimensions given to Noah to build this big floating box are still in use by ship builders today. That dimensional ratio has been established to be the most efficient for sea-going vessels (Genesis 6: 15). Again, the omniscience of God is verified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scientists estimate there are approximately 8.7 million species of animals on the earth, Less than 1.5 million of those have been verified or identified. That 1.5 million is still an incredible number and two of each would certainly have crowded Noah\u2019s 450 foot long wooden box. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n All things considered, would it be possible for such a big wooden box to contain two of every species on the earth plus Noah\u2019s family and sustenance for such an extended period of time? There are a few factors for which we are forced to accept God\u2019s word and omnipotence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we are forced to consider the question: Is the story of Noah truth or told to us to make a point? I well remember exploring caves, sink holes, quarry pits and creek beds when I was a kid. Found were numerous sea shell fossils verifying the existence of the area (500 feet above sea level) once being below water for an extended period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Researchers have determined both sides of this story in Genesis but we have to realize, researchers usually have findings supporting their side of the debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scoffers at the idea of a world-wide cataclysmic flood insist there is not enough water to justify the belief and certainly not enough to cover the mountains. When in Nepal I read in a local publication that Mt. Everest \u201cgrows\u201d one meter every ten years being pushed upward by the continental plates of India and China. If that is true, the mountains would have been much smaller 4000 years ago. Do the reverse math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Genesis 7: 11 \u201c <\/sup><\/strong>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. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geologists tell us there may be as much as eleven times more water inside the earth as on the surface of the earth. In such a case, as Genesis 7: 11 indicates, if all that water (fountains of the deep) came to the surface at the same time, there would indeed be enough water for a global flood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meteorologists claim there is at least 3100 cubic miles of water in earth\u2019s atmosphere at any given time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the ark has never been found, what are we to believe? I cannot tell you what to believe and will not try. Keep in mind this is only to make you think. I\u2019m not promoting either as being absolute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I can tell you though, God has given us a belief system called faith with which to accept those Bible stories that we may, on first impression, think may be parables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Above all, what you believe about Noah and the flood has absolutely nothing to do with your eternal destination. The only belief that is important is what you believe about Jesus (John 3: 16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must always teach that eternal salvation is attained by a faith based belief (Ephesians 2: 8) in Christ Jesus crucified (Matthew 27: 35) for the remission of sin (1 John 1: 9) and resurrected (Matthew 28: 6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Van Yandell Genesis 6: 5 \u201cAnd God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":55749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2994],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60566,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60565\/revisions\/60566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}