PAUL’S TEACHING IN ROMANS 2, ALSO PSALM 104:
PROVES IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD
TO KILL THE ENTIRE WORLD IN A FLOOD
PAUL’S TEACHING IN ROMANS 2,
AND ALSO PSALM 104:
PROVES IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO KILL THE ENTIRE WORLD IN A FLOOD!
(NOTICE: The article is 21 pages if printed out)
JAN LILLEBY
IMAGE: Painting by Edward Hicks, 1846
Yes – you read it right!
Impossible.
Why?
First we shall check out Paul’s teaching in Rom. 2 on Gentiles who actually became their ‘own Law’ – in regard to right and wrong.
Paul has already answered this in the clearest way possible, as we read Rom. 2:13-16, NASB,
«13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,
15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,
16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
I have emphasized verses 14 and 15….because here we learn that Gentiles who did NOT have the Law, did instinctively according to the Law. Thus they were a Law to themselves. And in the case of the flood, the Law (of Moses) did not exist. But the Gentiles did…since being Gentile really was to NOT being a Jew. Gentiles points to the nations (Greek, ethnos) – and these existed before Israel was established as a nation after the battle of Jericho. Before that, as they were in the Sinai wilderness for forty years, they were called for the Hebrews.
Would God ever judge these righteous Gentiles, using water or fire or what not? Not a chance! God would have saved them. Those who had clean consciences. Those with bad conscience were judged by their own actions.
Verse 15: The Law was written IN THEIR HEARTS. And their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing OR ELSE DEFENDING THEM. Notice: The principle is valid also in times before the Law was issued by Moses. The conscience with people will be deciding whether they are friends with Him! God saves His friends/believers at any which time in history.
In the situation of the flood of Noah, Gen. 6-7-8, we have a judgement sparing nobody, but Noah and his family, totaling eight people.
Especially I address those who wrongly hold to the idea of God killing the entire population on earth, except these eight people. Likewise, He also killed ALL ANIMAL LIFE ON EARTH, except those pairs, and those sevens which entered the ark.
Now, isn’t it very odd that God should have killed all the animals? Is there any word in the Bible that animals are kept responsible for sin and moral trespasses deserving death penalty?
None whatsoever!
Thinking that God could go on and kill all life on earth, except the few living humans and animals onboard the ark, is preposterous at the least. I will dare saying, that it is an insult in the face of the Lord. It is sacrilege to say that God killed all living beings, except the very few onboard the ark! Those people who do, they usually have no clear knowledge of God’s impeccable and divine character. And I think in such extreme cases as the flood, and the Sodom burning, and the Tower in Babylon, and the kinky and dumb idea of a tormenting, burning Hell for all unbelievers, - many simply forget to count in the facts of God’s divine character.
Jonah had a saying of this, when in the incident with being swallowed by a whale and then gulped out on a beach. Jonah 4:2-11 really sets things straight, on His character…or rather, God sat it straight,
2 He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
3 Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life."
4 The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?"
5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.
6 So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.
7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.
8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life."
9 Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death."
10 Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
11 "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"
God performed instant wonders for Jonah so he should learn about HOW MUCH GOD CARES for peoples welfare and their lives…yes, even ANIMALS was mentioned. And in this narrative we are talking NOT of Jews/Israel, but Gentiles – the nations – ethnos. They had not heard of God and His Grace and care for mankind (verse 11: not knowing the difference between right hand and left hand).
But still – when a certain group or town or land/nation gives in to grave sin and a lifestyle which is an abomination to God, He may send judgement and destruction. We see this throughout the Old Testament. But never did He send such doom on the entire global world. Why? Because there are found righteous Gentile peoples at all times….such ones that have the right mind seeking the Creator, God Almighty, even if they do not know Him. It must have been millions of these in the times of Noah. But God had gotten angry and regretful overseeing the grave sin in the land of Mesopotamia – a limited group/land/culture described in Gen. 1, chapters 6-8. They were destined for destruction because of the evil minded lifestyle among them. But it had not reached the entire world….and thus God by this judgement actually took them away to avoid the evil to spread world-wide.
Do you get the message?
GENTILES NOT KNOWING GOD, BUT STILL
ACCEPTED BECAUSE OF A CLEAN CONSCIENCE
If the earth was inhabited by, let’s just guess, 5 million at the time of the flood. If the whole earth was flooded, this means that 4,999,992 were killed. (Some web sites say 5 to 17 million estimated).
Now, we cannot possibly anticipate that none of these 4,999,992 people had a clean conscience. For if so, then Paul’s words in Rom. 2:13-16 would have been totally empty and obsolete. Useless chit-chat and nonsense.
BUT – the big but – among a limited number of individuals having come under grave sin and ungodliness at a certain local society or district, or land or a town and the likes, - then we have another scenario. I pointed to God judging Sodom and Gomorra by fire, and threatening to wipe out the big city of Nineveh, to which God sent Jonah to warn them.
God never said to Abraham: I shall burn down ALL THE EARTH because the sin in Sodom has piled up, and crying up to heaven!
Neither did He tell Jonah that unless he went to Nineveh to warn them, He would destroy ALL THE CITIES ON EARTH.
Jesus prophesied in Mat. 24 of a Great Tribulation – to come upon Israel in the end time. He simply repeated the saying of Jeremiah 30:7 – of the ‘Time of Jacob’s trouble’. It shall NOT COME UPON THE WHOLE EARTH/WORLD, but only Israel.
And I could go on and on….
Of course there were millions of righteous people in the eyes of God, who had a clean conscience, they were a Law to themselves to keep them in a friendship with God the Creator, even if they did not know God personally. Paul’s teaching is clear. Thus making the scenario created by ignorant Christians – of a flood which wiped out the entire world – entirely in error.
PSALM 104 SUPPORTS THE ABOVE FIRMLY
So, for you who may have read my other articles on Noah and the flood, here you have the spiritual side of it. The most important aspect really, is always the spiritual one.
### BY THE WAY: I have added my earlier article on Noah and the flood, below. I took it off my web site a while back, due to much unrest from my readers. The flood has always been a very controversial topic in Christendom. But by chance I found it right to bring this topic onto the stage again! Why now? I simply think it will help you discover the excellent and glorious CHARACTER of God, the Father of Christ! ###
This put together with all my technical/geological and otherwise logical proofs in the form of articles, makes it a finished discussion. It is proven without a doubt that THE WORLD WAS NOT EXTERMINATED.
It is totally against God’s divine character to even having had thoughts of exterminating the entire world. He can carry out certain punishments and purging actions such as those I mentioned above. But He does not first create humankind, for then just to wipe the same humankind from the face of the earth. God is not a psychotic mad-man. You, as a true Christian believer, have to try to get this in place inside your mind and thoughts, thus coloring your faith in Christ as you eventually bring testimonies of Him to people around you.
Same principle of character when we take a look upon hell and eternal torment in fire: God has no wish to persecute all unbelievers and casting them into hell and damnation with torment and fire! There is no hell. People, who will not believe on Christ, will be left dead and thus lost, in the sense that they will NOT BE GIVEN A RESURRECTION back to life. They remain as non-existent from then on. The Bible say, “The dead knows nothing”.
God had no wish to exterminate humankind – except the eight onboard the ark – for He only judged those limited groups at that time because of a wicked and sinful lifestyle, NOT all over the globe, but only down in that Middle-East regions….in Enoch’s Book called for ‘The Land of Eden’. Often mentioned as Mesopotamia by historians. You will read of this in more exact terms below.
The flood came only upon that land. (Both AMP Bible and NASB Bible are using ‘LAND’ in their descriptions of the flood, and they also use ‘earth’). Seven fountains in the ‘Great Deep’ (the sea floor in the Mediterranean Sea) opened up for gigantic water masses flushing up; at the same time as the floodgates of the heavens opened up and rain falling. When the seven fountains in the Med cracked open, this means geologically that the sea floor sunk DOWN in equality with the water pouring up…..affecting the whole region so that it formed a slack bowl shape in the earth. Thus making the flood only in that region and not worldwide. (I explain these facts in my first article on the flood – which can be read below).
That is why the ark stranded on Mt. Ararat, which is nearly 5,000 meters high. The landmasses had sunken down – including Ararat – so this was possible.
But Paul’s teaching on Gentiles and their Law of conscience in Rom. 2:13-16 is a keyword in this matter. God never go against His own Word.
WHAT WITH NOAH?
Of Noah it is written that he was a ‘Preacher of righteousness’ – but that is regarding judgement, and not saving grace!
And in Gen. 6:7, NASB, we find LAND and not earth,
“The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
Psalm 104:6-9, NASB reads,
“6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains.
7 At Your rebuke they fled, At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away.
8 The mountains rose; the valleys sank down To the place which You established for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not pass over, So that they will not return to cover the earth”.
The passages above clearly say that God, after having organized the big oceans and the diverse continents, He would never re-do this in any way, so that eventually the WATER again will cover the entire earth. Remember: Gen. 1:1-2, says that ‘The Spirit of God hovered (or was moving) above the water’ – before starting His creation and setting the solar system in order, - and thus starting the process, lasting for six divinely ordained ‘days’ (not regular calendar days) – and ending with the seventh day on which He rested. If God filled the entire earth with that massive volumes of water, it would actually mean that God cannot be trusted! But, as we understand, He CAN be trusted, for He sent only a local flood, centered mainly in Mesopotamia ..and then some.)
When we read Paul’s teachings in particular, we find solutions for many problems. And Psalm 104 falls neatly in with what Paul wrote to the Romans in 57 CE, from his stay in Ephesus.
Psalm 104 is at the same instance proving that the diverse continents (divided by the oceans) existed BEFORE the flood of Noah. Verse 8. God established these continents it says.
HERE COMES MY EARLIER PUBLISHED ARTICLE ON NOAH:
Was the Flood Global or Local?
There might be someone out there who thinks like me….I hope. I checked the web recently – and unlike when I first made my radio-series in Oslo area in 1997 – 2001 – having Noah and the Flood as one of many topics, I was alone in Norway and maybe all of Scandinavia to claim such a belief, that the flood was local rather than global; today the internet is full of sites claiming the flood was local. Their understanding of the Bible is correct.
Just to get a few nifty things sorted out right away, before opening the Bible:
The Ark had a height of 15 meter, and had three decks. It was 150 meter long. When subtracting the thickness of the beams of about 0,45 meters it leaves a height – floor to ceiling of maximum 3,5 meter – after also subtracting height of deck-reeling and the bottom deck beginning about where the hull was plain, after the bowed bottom.
How could it be possible to have animals like the very tall giraffe, or the huge mammoth elephant (which were not extinct, frozen down in Siberian ice when flood happened) – the giraffe having an average of 5,05 meters, the tallest up to 19 feet (5,80 meters), and the smallest 4,30 meters? ( 1 Internatl. foot = 30,48 cm). If you watch the various drawings made of the Ark, especially those meant for kids, you often find the giraffes out in the open deck with the elephants. But this is not what eventually took place. All the animals were under deck, for shelter from the wind and the rain. Imagine such animals having to lay down unable to stand upright – for a whole year!
If all animal species on earth were represented onboard the Ark, then it is impossible - proven by such a simple logistical fact that there would not be room for the giraffe, nor the mammoth!
The giraffe had and still has its habitat in Central Africa, and not in the Middle-East. Mammoth had Siberia mostly.
Noah had been given only 7 days to see to it that the animals (urged by God) went into the Ark in pairs, male and female. Impossible for the mammoth in Siberia, and also for the giraffe in Central Africa! Let alone the jaguar in Amazonas jungle, the huge Anaconda snake in same habitat as the jaguar, and even farther away…the kangaroo and koala in Australia…IT IS ENTIRELY IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE ANIMALS, TWO BY TWO, WALK OR CRAWL ALL THOSE THOUSANDS OF MILES/KILOMETERS! Regardless of whether any or all continents were closer to one another than in our time. The size of the Earth remains the same in all ages.
Regardless of God telling them or not telling them. Check the illustration here…
How can Christians be so mindless and gullible, that they accept just about anything coming from a pulpit without even bothering to check out the obvious faults and misinformation?
Noah had no big diesel powered trucks, no huge cargo Roll-On-Roll-Off sea vessels or big Jumbo Jet Carriers like we have now in modern times. Even if he had….it would not be possible to get ALL SPECIES from the entire world onboard the Ark in only 7 days. It would have taken at least 7 months…perhaps 7 years. We can only imagine. How about the penguins in Antarctica? The Polar bears in Artic North? The Pandas in China? The funny snarling gnarling little critter in Tasmanian Island called Tasmanian Devil? See image here…
Something is severely askew with the whole story – just consider Gen.7:2, 3 – showing us that God was not content with only one pair per species, but demanded 7 pairs, regarding those ritually clean animals:
“Of every clean beast you shall receive and take with you seven pairs…..”
3: Also of the birds of the air seven pairs, the male and the female, to keep seed (their kind) alive over all the earth or land.”
To top it off: This enormous numbers of species on earth, two of each, would not find space enough onboard the Ark. The ship was about 150 meters long and 25 meters wide. There is no way that this moderately sized vessel could ever carry onboard all the species of the world. It would not help, in other words, even if all these animals made it to the Ark in 7 days’ notice!
And to top off the previous top: Think of all the food supply that would have to be stored onboard. Tons and tons of diverse types of animal feed; plus what the eight survivors would need, Noah and family. They did not exit the Ark before it had gone about one year, Gen. 8:13-16.
HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THAT THE ANIMALS
HAD TO GET BACK AGAIN TO THEIR NATURAL
HABITATES FROM WHERE THEY BELONGED?
I could not help myself in reflecting of those thousands of kilometers many of the animal species would have to walk/crawl/fly, eventually swim! Thus recently it just struck me: What when the Ark stranded on top of Mt. Ararat…reversing the travel for these animals?
Then it struck me, that this impossible barrier – the vast distances BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM, was the nail-in-the-coffin-lid to those who think that the flood was world-wide!
The 11500 kilometers from Amazonas area in Brazil, for the Jaguars, the Anaconda snakes, and other typical animals with this particular habitat, would have meant that the distance are twice that; it means a travel of 23 000 kilometers for these animals! Any serious person will easily know that the whole project was impossible.
Same goes for all of these species which had not the Middle-East area as their habitat. The penguins would have to swim and walk 28 000 kilometers total. This means that the poor animal would die exhausted of its efforts to get back to its homestead, the Antarctica. Same can be said of all the others, except the species in the neighborhood of where Noah built the Ark.
By the way, have you ever read any scripture at all, telling of penguins having taken a new habitat in the Middle-East? I have not.
Have you ever seen a Polar bear living in the wild inside any of the Middle-East nations? I haven’t.
Have you found any Jaguars anywhere in forestall areas of Turkey or the Middle-East? I haven’t.
What of the Rhinos in Central Africa? The Giraffes? The Elephants?
The Hyenas?
Tigers of India and Siberia? …….
I could go on for quite a while like this. It shows that the idea of a world-wide flood is a fantasy made up by mankind. It happened just like I have described here in this article. It was local, it flooded ‘All of the land of Eden’.
THE LOGISTICS OF FEEDING THE ANIMALS
Here are some interesting figures to give you an idea of what amount of food-supply that was needed:
How about feeding lions, leopards, tigers, diverse cats and others? How much extra animal-meats would be required for all the meat-eating animals? What about the elephants? One elephant can eat 44 lbs of grain, 66 lbs of hay, 20 to 70 lbs of turnips, carrots, cabbage or fruit per day. If an elephant eat 170 lbs of food each day, this would be 62,050 lbs during the year in the Ark!! And doubling that for the other elephant will amount to 124,100 lbs in total! (41,000 kilos). Even some animals like panda (Asia), koala (Australia), three toed sloth (South America) require a specialized diet. Did Noah and his family gather some for them? What about the woodpeckers that peck the wood or termites that eat the wood…they would experience the Ark as their heaven…wood everywhere. Dig in!! This could mean trouble for the Ark.
The logistical analysis I have presented here in short, points to only one possible scenario for the Ark: It was not a world-wide flood, but only limited to the Middle-East – in particular the land between the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Persia. This area was considered in olden times as ‘The Land of Eden’. Not the Garden of Eden as such, but the land in which Eden once was established.
The Book of Jubilee (it has a correct history line, even if it is not accepted as a book from God) chapter 4:23, 24 says of this:
“Enoch was taken away from humankind and we (God’s angels) took him into the Garden of Eden (Paradise up in the heavens) - ….he is writing of the evil in humankind, AND BECAUSE OF THAT, GOD LET THE WATER OF THE FLOOD COME OVER THE ENTIRE LAND OF EDEN.”
(Translated by me, via the Norwegian version of Book of Jubilee).
If the flood had been global, it would have been entirely impossible that the water would go back to normal levels in that one year mentioned in Gen 8. Here is the mathematics for it:
The Bible says that it receded at the rate of 15 cubits in 74 days, Gen 7:20; 8:4, 5.
Figuring a cubit at about 18 inches, the water level would have dropped 270 inches during this time or, to round it off, 4 inches a day. If the flood depth was 29,050 feet (348,600 inches) and the water level dropped 4 inches a day, it would take 87,150 days to get back down to normal sea level. That would be almost 239 YEARS! Conclusion: Totally impossible. The flood was local, not global.
The method God used to make a limited flood
How was it achieved? What trick had God kept up His sleeve, so that only the guilty sinners were judged and not the innocent peoples on the earth?
I shall come to this shortly.
But first let us have a closer look at the background of that perilous time…mankind had gotten itself so deep in sin and evil, that God wanted to exterminate them.
But we shall study this in light of the often erroneous use of the word “Earth”. Then our spiritual eyes will clear from blurring, and you will understand.
In short, the word ‘earth’ as used in Gen 7, as well as many other books of the Bible, should just as well have been translated to ‘land’ or ‘nation’ – ‘country’ or ‘place’.
It is a great difference in the meaning saying ‘All of the earth’ than saying ‘All of the land’ – don’t you think?
A good example also would be Jer 34:1 – saying,
“..all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the peoples, fought against Jerusalem”. There the phrase “of the earth” is limited to “his dominion”, i.e., the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar.
And of the Sodom judgment, the daughters of Lot declared,
“There’s not a man in the earth (erets) to come in unto us” Gen 19:31. We know that not every man in the world was killed…only those in the area of the destruction.
Another odd, and often missed fact, with the many collateral damages such a world-wide flood would have implicated, all seem to have forgotten that it would ‘collide’ with the extreme temperatures found in heights like Mt. Everest, over 8000 meters altitude. It is only 50-60 minus degrees Celsius there! If the Ark at any chance had passed by that spot, it would cause them all to freeze to death; and not only at that spot (Everest, Himalaya) – but anywhere. The water did not cover all the mountains in the entire world, but only those tops found in the area of the flood, that is the Middle-East; Ararat being one of those, slightly above 5000 meters.
What of the fresh-water fish life as the salty sea-waters mixed in with all the lakes on earth, and all the rivers? You see? Things get quite a bit more complicated!
The word for ‘earth’ in Hebrew is erets (# 776 in Strong’s) as used in the flood account – and it does not require a world-wide meaning. This word is translated “country” 140 times, and “land” 1,476 times in the Bible. Many of them are often of limited areas.
As for the method that God used to achieve a limited flood, however huge enough, we shall have a closer look at this. I used this scenario already back in 1997 having my radio-lectures in Oslo. And I was stricken with the utter simplicity of the method as such, but still only God could make this happen nevertheless. You can see it in my graphic drawing below.
Bible says it came forth water from both the heavens and from fountains beneath the Mediterranean sea floor, Gen 7:11 –
“In the year 600 of Noah’s life, in the seventeenth day of the second month, that same day all the fountains of the great deep (Mediterranian) were broken up and burst forth, and the windows and floodgates of the heavens were opened.”
The Book of Jubilee says the very same, but more specific, Jub 5:24, 25,
“And the Lord opened for the seven water-streams of the heavens, and for the spring-waters of the great deep, a total of seven springs. And the streams of water began to pour down from heaven in 40 days and nights. AND THE FOUNTAINS OF THE DEEP PRESSURED THE WATER UP, until the whole world (erets) was full of water.” (Transl. via the Norwegian version)
One important detail is not mentioned, namely that the landmasses sunk down in same proportion as the seven springs below pressured the water up!
Ask any expert on oil drilling at sea, and he can tell you that this is so. Land will sink if substantial volume of water (or oil) comes to surface. The once filled ‘pockets’ of water down in the ground in Noah’s time were cracked open by God and His angels. God knew exactly were those seven ‘fountains’ were.
The combination of water filling up on surface and land sinking down, made the Middle-East into a slack bowl, so to speak. Check my illustration below.
The giants – Hebrew Nephilim – caused the evil mentioned
Why such a brutal judgment? Was there not a single person capable of repenting and thus come under God’s saving grace? It seems to me that mankind in that area of the world had come to a ‘Point-Of-No-Return’ – just like in Sodom and Gomorra later on in history. God found it useless to tell them to repent. He knew that they would not.
But it is my firm belief that the existence of the giants, the so-called Nephilim, was behind the evil that had gotten a stronghold on mankind.
In one of the Apocryphal books the giants, which were hybrid human-angels, children of fallen angels having human/normal women as mothers, and thus a forbidden as well as a very evil-minded race of creatures – they were about 4 million in number. They were killers and evil-doers and abnormally huge and strong.
They became thus the main target for the flood. But unfortunately normal people took after their evil, and they were drowned together with the giants.
Gen 6:4 is a well-known ‘mysterious’ verse, but it only speak of those unusual events taking place when fallen angels went in to regular women, and begot children. The Nephilim. Nephilim means ‘A fallen one’. Called giants, and half angel, half man.
“There were giants on the earth (erets) in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God (the angels) lived with the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of reknown.”
Notice that it says ‘and also afterward’ – which mean, some of these Nephilim survived the flood! Then it is obvious that they survived because they managed to get away from the area of the flood.
Bible tells nothing of how they managed to survive. We only know that when Joshua took the land on God’s command, he fought and killed all the known giant-families.
He was told to spare no one, for most of the population there were giants, children of fallen angels, and very evil. Check out Book of Joshua. He actually saved the world from those dangerous and murderous giants and those who followed them. Here is a little glimpse of the report the early scouts gave before the people as they came back from Canaan, Num 13:32, 33,
“…the land through which we went to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. AND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WE SAW IN IT ARE MEN OF GREAT STATURE (VERY TALL). 33: THERE WE SAW THE NEPHILIM (GIANTS), THE SONS OF ANAK, WHO COME FROM THE GIANTS, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
Jos 11 and 12 mentions lots of names, among which king Og definitely was a giant, - he slept in a huge iron bed it says in another passage. Goliath who later came against Israel was a giant. To be classified as giant it was not enough just to have a large body. There are people on earth today (think of the actor in ‘Moonraker’, called Jaws, a big fellow lifting James Bond – actor Roger Moore, up with one hand) who are extremely tall and strong. Image: Kiel “Jaws” with Roger Moore.
They are not giants like the ones in the Bible. One has to be Nephilim, that is…half angel, half man. Jaws’ name was Richard Dawson Kiel, and he was 2,17 meters tall. Pretty big I would say. But Goliath was 2,74 meters (9 feet) according to most Bible translations, however the Aleppo-codex 900 AD hold Goliath at 2,90 meters! He carried a spear that weighed 120 kilos. Talk about strength, since he obviously must have been capable of throwing that spear some yards/meters. King Og was about 2,80 – 3,00 meters. See Deut 3:11. His bed of iron was 13, 5 feet (9 cubits), which is 4,11 meters. I assume he slept with a safe margin upon such a massive bed. The width of it was 6 feet, which is 1,83 meter. That was almost twice the size of most double-beds of our time, which measures about 2,10 meters long and 1,60 meter wide.
Estimates of the size of the flood
Probably it was flooded within a stretch of about 2000 kilometers. From Tel Aviv to the Persian Gulf it is 1200 kilometers, and to Mt. Ararat it is 800 kilometers.
Because of the landmasses sinking down, the tall Mt. Ararat (5156 meters) came under 7 meters of water. The ‘Bowl Shape’ of the flood probably had an ecliptically form seen from the sky. See this image with red ring as the flood.
Archeological excavations (at various places and with distance between them) in Iraq/Iran found a layer of mud which was more than three meters thick. The tools and household kitchenware at the level under the mud was of older origin than things found above the layer of mud, but not very much. Something disastrous had happened, causing a whole civilization to drown in water and mud…a great flood had happened, and the center of it was most certainly there in Iraq/Iran.
How could Noah’s grandchildren, the children of his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth travel and settle down in various countries…if all countries was laid waste and destroyed by the flood? Such places would not exist, by the definition ‘Countries’ or ‘Nations’ – if the flood had been global. But see what Gen 10:5 says,
“By these were the isles (coastlands) of Gentiles DIVIDED in their lands, every one after their tongues, after their families, in their nations…These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations in their nations: and by these were the nations DIVIDED in the earth after the flood”.
I find it natural to end my article on the Great Flood here. It is no doubt: The flood was local; however it covered a substantial area of the Middle-East and some nations near to the Middle-East.
A final word:
Atheists world-wide are using the flood, as well as the war when Joshua took the land – accusing God (whom they don’t believe in!) of being a bloodthirsty killer.
And of course, this again, is falling on us Christians to make us look dumb if not entirely ridiculous. How can we believe in such a God Who keep massacring people whenever He chooses to?
My point is that these unbelieving and angry atheists should rather thank God for having killed the vicious evil monstrous dangerous Nephilim/Giants, and thus having saved the whole world from them. Not only once, but twice!
The world would have gone under if God allowed these monsters to go ahead and dominate the globe. Tell the god rejecters and atheists, if you happen to have some friends or acquaintances with such unbelief, that God SAVED the world by the judgments He made. He removed threatening evil from the face of the earth.
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