davidbowerkingwood

A Second Major Assault and God’s Judgement on His Creation

Over the centuries, following the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the population grew at astounding rates; the atmosphere was still ideal and the population had very long lifespans and excellent health. Despite the perfect environment people still died; we know death is the penalty of sin but since the Garden of Eden had been placed out of reach, of what sin were those uncounted thousands that died found guilty?

Only one commandment had been given to mankind and that was to not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; that tree was no longer accessible so what was the charge against mankind? The Bible answers that question in Romans 5:12-14 where it is written:

¹² When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. ¹³ Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. ¹⁴ Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did.”

What this means is that Adam’s sin was imputed to everyone including you and me; since Adam all of mankind, born of human father’s, have been born spiritually dead and infected by a sin nature. It is this problem the Lord Jesus Christ, whose father was God, the Holy Spirit, came to correct; only Adam and Christ were directly “fathered” by God.

Genesis 5 is sometimes referred to as the “Chapter of Death” because of the life cycles described there, born, lived, died going on for hundreds of years. The Bible indicates the time gap between Adam’s creation and the flood to be approximately 1,656 years; I’ve written on this in several essays starting with “The World Before the Flood.”

In Genesis 6 we are given a brief summary of Satan’s efforts to corrupt human DNA and the deadly results that follow. The success of this attack is illustrated by the severity of the judgement; the entire population of the earth minus selected animals and eight humans are all killed; this is covered in the series just referenced.

The Earth as we Know it Today Emerges

The earth today has been dramatically altered by the flood; “The World Before the Flood” series addresses this in some detail; the earth is much the worse for the losses suffered during the flood. The flood was accompanied by severe geological upheavals that dramatically altered the face of the earth; in addition the water vapor canopy that had surrounded the earth became part of the deluge that flooded the earth. The removal of the water vapor canopy was the catalyst for the weather we have today and the increased exposure to radiation we experience today.

Imagine 1,656 years, that’s a very long time with very little happening from a divine perspective; then suddenly something starts to happen, something that has never happened before, water starts falling from the sky and gets heavier and heavier and doesn’t stop; a huge boat that was built on dry land by some “crazy man” suddenly makes a lot of sense but it is too late to do anything about the deluge.

The change was sudden and violent and produced extremely rapid changes in climate producing such phenomena as the “Beresovka Mammoth,” a mammoth elephant discovered on the banks of the Beresovka River in Siberia that was frozen so quickly that ferns and flowers in the stomach that have never been know to grow in Siberia were still identifiable by specific type.

The flood was a single meteorological and geological event that totally changed the earth. After the flood mankind began to settle into a new pattern of life dictated by the major climate changes caused by the flood; nothing has changed since then on the scope involved in the flood; the post diluvian world in which we live today is essentially what was produced by the action of the flood event.

The Survivors

Eight people and an assortment of animals were preserved from drowning by the building of the ark; it was to be their job to repopulate the earth in a much more hostile environment. Earth, without the water vapor canopy, had become a planet of extremes; from frigid cold to sweltering heat swept by storms and blistering sun. The human lifespan began to fall as adversity took its toll on mankind; what had been a lifespan of hundred’s of years began to drop to what we have today.

The Bible leaves out much detail on what happened as the Bible’s purpose is to record man’s fall and God’s remedy to the fall; the Bible is a book of redemption, not a record of man’s history. I suspect that many who have studied the Bible wish more details had been included about the antediluvian world; I suspect it was a fascinating time with a total world population that exceeds what we have today according to some statistical speculation.

The focus of the Bible is on the path that will lead to mankind’s redemption; God had promised a redeemer and the Bible’s mission is to record the essential points along that journey of redemption. The parts of that story that have been revealed tell of mankind’s failure and God’s grace and faithfulness in the face of human frailty.

Next we will consider the preparation phase that is covered in the Old Testament.