Post by tennessean on Jul 7, 2021 18:18:48 GMT -6
This is a good read,
THE DAYS OF NOAH
and the "Sons of God"
Compiled, edited, and written by J. Timothy Unruh
Copyright © 1995
This treatise was written in order to address a particular controversy regarding a most strategic portion of the Biblical record, and the importance of a proper understanding of that passage and its relevance to our world today. The attempt is to clarify some of the key elements of the continued interpretive contention with the hope that a proper understanding will not only be elicited, but that such understanding will clarify the malignity of evil itself and to galvanize our understanding of its influence and culpability in the great underlying conflicts which beset our world. It is also hoped that the reader will not only be stimulated in his own study of Holy Writ, but that he will gain a greater appreciation of it and realize a greater degree of his own appropriation of these oracles of God. Then, the ultimate purpose and hope of this paper is that it might edify believers in their daily life, and, most of all, magnify the glorious anticipation of our Lord's imminent personal return in these last days.
One of the most fascinating topics to be found in our study of the Bible is that of its record regarding the early earth, that first great era in the history of our world, sometimes referred to as the antediluvian age. It is an age shrouded in mystery and wonder, an age pertaining not only to a lost world but an age separated from us in time by a great dividing epoch of catastrophic world changing events. It is an account of that world of human glory and depravity, and demonic intervention; a world which was totally destroyed in the great judgment of the Flood several thousand years ago, a flood which left our world vastly and permanently different. Even though the evidence of this great event is abundant in the traditions of many cultures around the world and confirmed in many of the disciplines, the only direct information that we have of this early period in the Earth's history is found in the first few chapters of the book of Genesis and a few other relatively brief references scattered throughout the rest of Scripture.
Because portions of this subject and related matters touch upon issues of demonology it has been objected that "we should focus our attention on Christ not on the Devil." Yet, among things, such an objection would tend to perpetuate the somewhat obscure understanding of this important passage of Scripture. Furthermore, if our victory as believers is to be complete, it is incumbent upon us to study all of the Scriptures, for as in any military engagement a knowledge of the enemy is necessary. That we will be engaged with this enemy is of a certainty pointed out most graphically by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18. Finally, our Lord Himself exhorts us to study the details of that early age, the likes of which will be repeated shortly before His second coming. Thus, if any ask whether this question is worth laboring, we can but reply that all of Scripture is given to us by the love and wisdom of God and it must be of essential value and importance to accurately understand it.
Two days before the crucifixion of Christ, His disciples asked Him, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3) His reply pointed to a number of "signs," all of which together would occur in that generation which would see the signs, and which would be the sign they had requested. These signs were climaxed with the prophetic warning, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be, For as in the days that were before the Flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the Ark, and knew not until the Flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matthew 24:37-39). Thus did Jesus not only verify the historicity of antediluvian culture and the great Flood, and remind us of the relationship between wickedness and judgment, but He also encouraged us to study closely the characteristics of the days before the Flood, because these would also characterize the days just before His return.
The first great age of human history was brought to its climax and culmination in the days of Noah. The sin-disease, which began so innocuously when Eve was tempted to doubt the word of God, which then began to show its true ugliness of character in the life of Cain, and which came to maturity in the godless civilization developed by his descendants, finally descended into such a terrible morass of wickedness and corruption that even the most fertile imagination is defied in its attempt to grasp the magnitude, and of which a full disclosure would, without doubt, utterly shock the Christian's sensibilities to behold. The record notes that even our very Creator Himself was dismayed and grieved to the core of His being that He had ever made man upon the Earth. Only a global bath of exceedingly turbid water unleashed from the windows of heaven and from the bowels of the earth could purge and cleanse the fevered and festered world. The word of God clearly and unequivocally declares that the characteristics of those awful and tragic days, strange as they may seem, are nevertheless to be repeated in the last days of this present age. As a correlation between Genesis 6:1-4 and Matthew 24:37-39, as well as other pertinent passages will show, it is clearly evident that in the times of both cases corruption and violence exist side by side with luxury, refinement and high culture. Such minglings apparently incongruous have not been infrequent in postdiluvian times. It is thus urgently important, from the standpoint of both understanding past history and seeking guidance for the future, that we understand the events which took place in the days of Noah.
and the "Sons of God"
Compiled, edited, and written by J. Timothy Unruh
Copyright © 1995
This treatise was written in order to address a particular controversy regarding a most strategic portion of the Biblical record, and the importance of a proper understanding of that passage and its relevance to our world today. The attempt is to clarify some of the key elements of the continued interpretive contention with the hope that a proper understanding will not only be elicited, but that such understanding will clarify the malignity of evil itself and to galvanize our understanding of its influence and culpability in the great underlying conflicts which beset our world. It is also hoped that the reader will not only be stimulated in his own study of Holy Writ, but that he will gain a greater appreciation of it and realize a greater degree of his own appropriation of these oracles of God. Then, the ultimate purpose and hope of this paper is that it might edify believers in their daily life, and, most of all, magnify the glorious anticipation of our Lord's imminent personal return in these last days.
One of the most fascinating topics to be found in our study of the Bible is that of its record regarding the early earth, that first great era in the history of our world, sometimes referred to as the antediluvian age. It is an age shrouded in mystery and wonder, an age pertaining not only to a lost world but an age separated from us in time by a great dividing epoch of catastrophic world changing events. It is an account of that world of human glory and depravity, and demonic intervention; a world which was totally destroyed in the great judgment of the Flood several thousand years ago, a flood which left our world vastly and permanently different. Even though the evidence of this great event is abundant in the traditions of many cultures around the world and confirmed in many of the disciplines, the only direct information that we have of this early period in the Earth's history is found in the first few chapters of the book of Genesis and a few other relatively brief references scattered throughout the rest of Scripture.
Because portions of this subject and related matters touch upon issues of demonology it has been objected that "we should focus our attention on Christ not on the Devil." Yet, among things, such an objection would tend to perpetuate the somewhat obscure understanding of this important passage of Scripture. Furthermore, if our victory as believers is to be complete, it is incumbent upon us to study all of the Scriptures, for as in any military engagement a knowledge of the enemy is necessary. That we will be engaged with this enemy is of a certainty pointed out most graphically by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18. Finally, our Lord Himself exhorts us to study the details of that early age, the likes of which will be repeated shortly before His second coming. Thus, if any ask whether this question is worth laboring, we can but reply that all of Scripture is given to us by the love and wisdom of God and it must be of essential value and importance to accurately understand it.
Two days before the crucifixion of Christ, His disciples asked Him, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3) His reply pointed to a number of "signs," all of which together would occur in that generation which would see the signs, and which would be the sign they had requested. These signs were climaxed with the prophetic warning, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be, For as in the days that were before the Flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the Ark, and knew not until the Flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matthew 24:37-39). Thus did Jesus not only verify the historicity of antediluvian culture and the great Flood, and remind us of the relationship between wickedness and judgment, but He also encouraged us to study closely the characteristics of the days before the Flood, because these would also characterize the days just before His return.
The first great age of human history was brought to its climax and culmination in the days of Noah. The sin-disease, which began so innocuously when Eve was tempted to doubt the word of God, which then began to show its true ugliness of character in the life of Cain, and which came to maturity in the godless civilization developed by his descendants, finally descended into such a terrible morass of wickedness and corruption that even the most fertile imagination is defied in its attempt to grasp the magnitude, and of which a full disclosure would, without doubt, utterly shock the Christian's sensibilities to behold. The record notes that even our very Creator Himself was dismayed and grieved to the core of His being that He had ever made man upon the Earth. Only a global bath of exceedingly turbid water unleashed from the windows of heaven and from the bowels of the earth could purge and cleanse the fevered and festered world. The word of God clearly and unequivocally declares that the characteristics of those awful and tragic days, strange as they may seem, are nevertheless to be repeated in the last days of this present age. As a correlation between Genesis 6:1-4 and Matthew 24:37-39, as well as other pertinent passages will show, it is clearly evident that in the times of both cases corruption and violence exist side by side with luxury, refinement and high culture. Such minglings apparently incongruous have not been infrequent in postdiluvian times. It is thus urgently important, from the standpoint of both understanding past history and seeking guidance for the future, that we understand the events which took place in the days of Noah.