Episode 106 – A Flood of Truth Part 2 – Grace in Action

Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script/Notes:

All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.

Psalm 119 verse 160, New International Version

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.

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verses 36 through 39, New International Version

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VK: Hello. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K here in the studio today with RD Fierro, author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. Today we’re continuing our series on Noah and the ark, taking a fresh look at one of the best known of all the Bible stories. RD, what made you decide you wanted to revisit a story which is so well known that even people who don’t identify as being Christians can at least give you the broad outlines of the story?

RD: Well, one reason I wanted to take a new look at the story of Noah and the ark is because it is so well known. But despite the fact that it is well known many people don’t actually focus on the details that the Bible gives us and those details are very important. The details are important because they not only give us context but also because they help demonstrate that the Bible treats Noah’s story as literal history. Many people today have fallen for the notion that the story of a worldwide flood is just legend or myth, but that’s certainly not what a careful reading of the Bible tells us. And the details that are related in the Bible helps us see why we can have confidence that when we read the story of Noah and the ark we’re reading literal history not some kind of extended allegory or moral myth.

VK: Well, before we get to the serious stuff today we’re going to hear the second episode from Crystal Sea Books humor series on the story of Noah and the Ark. We call these humor series Life Lessons with a Laugh. We use these series to encourage people to focus on the Bible and especially to think about details within the Bible that often escape our notice. We think today’s Life Lesson may point out a couple of details in Noah’s story that people sometimes gloss over but are really important. So, let’s get started with episode 2 of the Life Lessons we can learn from the story of Noah and the ark.

---- NOAH 2 – The Importance of Families

VK: So, you’re still coming up with new names for Jerry. But they do seem to fit the points under discussion. I kind of liked Jerricane. But I’m sure the weather that accompanied the arrival of the flood isn’t the only detail you were referring to when you said there were details about the story you wanted the listeners to reexamine.

RD: Thankfully, Jerry is a really good sport about my challenges with names. But you’re right the weather is not the only detail I want to focus on today. But before we move on to today’s discussion let’s remember a few of the key points that we made in our first episode of this series on Noah. First, the story of Noah and the ark is important to the overall history of redemption that had begun in the Garden of Eden. If God had not saved Noah and Noah’s family the human race would have ceased to exist. This, obviously, would have meant that God’s promise to Eve that one of her descendants would crush the head of Satan would have gone unfulfilled.

VK: And obviously God is never going to let one of His unconditional promises go unfulfilled. God’s promise to Eve that one of her descendants would produce Satan’s final defeat was essentially the first pronouncement of the gospel – the good news that God was going to redeem a people for Himself. So, it’s fair to say that that promise by God was the start of the covenant of grace. Some of the covenants God creates with man are conditional but some are unconditional. The covenant of grace is unconditional meaning that the covenant is not dependent on man for its fulfillment. This meant that God was going to ensure that the covenant of grace was brought to fruition regardless of man’s behavior. God preserving Noah and Noah’s family was part of God’s continuing action to fulfill the covenant of grace. By contrast the covenant of works which preceded the covenant of grace was conditional. The covenant of works said that if Adam and Eve obeyed God’s commandment not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they would not experience death and they would continue to enjoy the blessings of Eden. Obviously, Adam and Eve didn’t keep their end of the bargain. This caused them to be exiled from Eden and for death to enter the created order.

RD: Yes. So, one important lesson we get from the story of Noah that we touched on last time is that Noah’s story is an important part of God’s overall plan of redemption. Through His preservation of Noah and Noah’s family God was continuing to shepherd the covenant of grace to fruition. Another lesson we touched on last time was that Noah lived during a period of extreme wickedness, wickedness so great that the Bible says God was sorry He had ever put man on the earth. Despite the widespread wickedness, though, God saw that Noah was a righteous man. God graciously preserved life on the earth through Noah and his family. So, a second critical point is that the reason we know Noah’s name today is because Noah obeyed God. What made Noah special was not some remarkable ability that Noah possessed. What made Noah special was that out of all the people alive on the earth in his day, Noah was the one man who was willing to listen to God and obey God’s instructions.

VK: Wow. That’s something we rarely think about. There are some people in the Bible who are described as having truly remarkable individual abilities – gifts from God for sure – but still the person is still described as being extraordinary for some reason. Samson had his strength. Solomon had wisdom. David had military ability, poetic and musical skills, and was physically attractive. Esther was a woman of remarkable poise and courage. But we don’t have any indication that Noah possessed any special abilities. The Bible just says that Noah did everything as God had commanded him. So, that’s an ability that we can all emulate. We can all be obedient to God.

RD: Exactly. We can all choose to obey God or to not obey God. Because of his obedience God used Noah to preserve human and animal life on the earth. Who can know what God could do through any of us today if we choose to display the same kind of obedience Noah did? But let’s be clear. The only reason Noah’s obedience would truly be significant is if the story of Noah is true. Like all the stories in the Bible, Noah’s story would lose any significance to God’s grand plan of redemption if it were not true – and I mean true literally – as an event that actually occurred in history. Just as real as someone going to the store yesterday to buy milk. If you run out of milk and someone doesn’t actually go to the store, there’s no milk in the fridge. Same thing is true about the story of Noah and the ark. If Noah hadn’t actually built the ark as God instructed his family wouldn’t have survived the flood and none of us would be here today. So, a third point we mentioned last time was that the Bible clearly teaches that Noah’s story is a true story about an event that is historical not allegorical or mythical.

VK: Well, in a culture where we’re confronted by relativism on every corner, a discussion about the truth of a Bible story as amazing as that of Noah and the ark is pretty challenging.

RD: Yes. But as Christians we really don’t have any choice. As we heard in our second opening scripture, Jesus treated the story of Noah and a worldwide flood as history. As Christians Jesus has completely settled the question for us as to whether Noah was a historical figure and whether there ever was a worldwide flood.

VK: You’re thinking that in the verse we heard from Matthew Jesus compared the situation that will exist on earth just before His return to the situation that was on earth just before the flood. In doing so Jesus removed any doubt about whether the Genesis 6 flood was a historical event as opposed to just being an allegorical tale designed to teach some lessons on ethics and morality. Jesus referred to Noah as a real person who lived in a real culture living real lives – having parties and banquets and going to weddings. And Jesus also refers to the lack of awareness on the part of the people of the danger they were in. So, if we believe that Jesus will really return at some point in the future – that Jesus’ return will be a literal historical event – we are compelled to believe that the historical parallel He cited was also historically literal.

RD: Even more than that, if Jesus were mistaken about the historical accuracy of the flood and Noah, then that would mean that Jesus was capable of error – and this would directly contradict the Christian claim that Jesus was God, because as God He must be perfect. That’s one of the reasons Crystal Sea produced a Life Lessons series on Noah and one of the reasons we wanted to do this series of episodes on Anchored by Truth. Because besides being well known and entertaining, the story of Noah has implications for many of the larger issues we want to discuss. We want listeners to go back and examine the story for themselves. Hopefully, they will discover some insights they may have missed before such as the fact that if the story of Noah isn’t true then Jesus would be disqualified from being our savior. That would be a pretty serious problem.

VK: Yes. It would be. So, what other additional points did you want to bring out today?

RD: Well, there are at least two other thoughts that I wanted to get to.

VK: Which are …

RD: Well, one of the thoughts is encouraging and the other is more sober.

VK: Then let’s begin with a little encouragement. What is the encouraging thought you wanted to bring out?

RD: The encouraging observation is that Jesus can save us and our families even when the broader culture is failing. Remember the Bible is very clear that Noah lived in a very wicked time. Now, I’m not going to say that our time resembles that of Noah’s but even if it did, the example of God’s preservation of Noah and his family is a graphic illustration of the fact that God knows how to preserve His people.

VK: That is an encouraging thought. I think with all that has happened in the world and in our country in the last several months it’s easy for Christians to become discouraged – to believe that we are living in unprecedented times. But even if we are there is absolutely no power in the created universe that can pry us out of God’s hand. If God could protect Noah from a catastrophe that destroyed all the people on earth besides Noah’s family, and every land animal and bird except those that were with him in the ark – if God could save Noah from that devastation, God can certainly take care of His people today.

RD: The sobering observation is that even though Noah and his family were saved from death their preservation still required them to exercise real courage, faith, effort, and perseverance. The Lord told Noah how to build the ark but it still took Noah likely 50 – 75 years of hard work to do it. The Lord gave Noah the means to save his family but he, his wife, his sons, and his daughters-in-law still lost all their friends and other families even while their own lives were being preserved.

VK: That is a really important point. It must have been terrifying to Noah’s family when literally the worst storm in earth’s history was raging all around them. The ark was probably being pounded by debris crashing into it and the waves would have been monstrous. Not to mention gale like conditions lasting for 40 days. Even though they were safe inside the ark that didn’t mean they didn’t experience some truly terrifying moments as the flood unfolded outside. And of course the whole time they had to continue to care for a bunch of animals that needed care every day regardless of what the family was enduring.

RD: Exactly. We just need to remember that the Lord’s providential care doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility to follow His instructions – some of which are to “be strong and very courageous” and to “walk by faith and not be sight.” The Lord can take us through the storm but we still have to exercise our faith and to remain obedient while He’s doing it.

VK: Those are good notes. So, where are we going from here?

RD: Well, in our next few shows we want to begin an exploration of the evidence that gives us confidence that the story of Noah and the ark is real history – that a worldwide flood actually took place. To do that we’re going to hear some more Life Lessons with a Laugh that help us think about the ark’s size, strength, and stability and we’re going to accompany those with an examination of three lines of additional evidence supporting the historicity of the Biblical flood account. These lines are the geological, paleontological, and anthropological and historical evidence that affirms that we can see in our present world evidence of a previous worldwide hydrological event.

VK: Can you give us a brief sample of the kinds of things that we’re going to discuss?

RD: Well, for instance, there are huge fossil beds that stretch over hundreds of miles that contain vast quantities of calcified remains of a wide mixture of animals and often the remains aren’t of complete skeletons, just jumbled mixtures of the parts of various animals. It’s hard to see how these beds would have been created if there hadn’t been some kind of a deluge that buried all of the animals very quickly. Also, we have some remarkable fossils of fish skeletons. When fish die but aren’t buried quickly they typically decompose and even their skeletons fall apart. Fish have to be buried very quickly to be fossilized. The fact that the fish were fossilized at all is remarkable but some of the fossils are truly amazing. In one case there is a fossil of an ichthyosaur actually in the process of giving birth. Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles so obviously the animal was in the water when it was buried and obviously the burial and preservation was extremely rapid for the birth moment to be captured. For a sea creature to be caught so off guard there must have been a huge volume of material moving very quickly that could entomb it almost instantly. These, of course, are just quick samples of some of what we’ll be talking about.

VK: Sounds intriguing and interesting – and it sounds to me like a good time for a prayer. Today's prayer comes from the book Purposeful Prayers: Seeking to Pray Like Jesus. It’s a prayer of adoration for the Father who is the creator and sustainer of the universe and the One that who is faithful to preserve us from the floods that we experience in our own lives..

---- PRAYER OF ADORATION FOR THE FATHER.

We hope you’ll be with us next time and we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.

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(Bible Quotes from the New International Version)

Psalm 119 verse 160, New International Version

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24 verse 36 through 39, New International Version

https://creation.com/rainbows-and-the-flood

https://creation.com/topics/global-flood

https://activechristianity.org/6-unbelievably-good-reasons-to-read-your-bible

https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/safety-investigation-of-noahs-ark-in-a-seaway/

https://christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a007.html

Safety investigation of Noah's Ark in a seaway - creation.com

https://answersingenesis.org/the-flood/geologic-evidences-for-the-genesis-flood/

https://discovermagazine.com/2012/jul-aug/06-biblical-type-floods-real-absolutely-enormous

https://considerthegospel.org/2014/03/28/the-noah-controversy-could-that-flood-have-happened/

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/there-evidence-flood-was-global