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As It Was In Noah's Day
by Dr. Timothy Hoflund And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-27 (NKJV) So how was it in the "Days of Noah"? Life was treated as a self-serving experience - - they ate, they drank, they married wives or better yet, they lived in the pleasure of marriage without actually being married! Let's venture back into Genesis and take a look at the condition of the human race "in the days of Noah" ... Global Conditions (Extracted from realtruth.org) A picture of this time begins to emerge when reading Genesis 6: "And 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" (vs. 5). Every imagination of the thoughts of men's hearts was evil continually. The original Hebrew word translated "too multiply" means "increase" and "to multiply by the myriad," according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. In other words, the Earth experienced a massive population explosion. Due to their extended life spans, the number of people could have grown to between five billion and 17 billion by Noah's time. Knowledge and technology also rapidly increased in the 1,656 years from Creation to the Flood. Mankind built cities (4:17), had cattle ranches (vs. 20), composed and played music (vs. 21), and discovered metallurgy, including how to make alloys such as brass (vs. 22). Ok, let's consider that in the days of Noah, man's life span was along the lines of several hundreds of years - - so much time for any one man, and all men, to develop wicked ways to a fine art! Not only did men live for centuries, they combined their knowledge and abilities among themselves so that knowledge and abilities were compounded - - to the point that knowledge and abilities increased exponentially! Now while men today do not live for centuries, the earth is now so populated with so many human cultures and societies that have joined their knowledge and combined their historical strengths and with the advent of digital technology we now have the same conditions as existed in the days of Noah - - men's hearts are evil and wickedness is being perfected and abilities to perform evil are nearly limitless, except for the boundaries placed by God! In other words, what had been missing by men living much shorter lives, has now been compensated by digital technology and the manufacture of wickedness is perhaps far beyond what it was in the days of Noah! WHAT ABOUT GIANTS IN THE EARTH? In the days of Noah, there were giants in the land - - persons who were huge and defiant and who, having great power, were mighty in the earth and full of wickedness! While at present there are some 20 humans that are classified as giants around the world, they do not match the description of the antediluvian giants, much less as a race, or culture, or society of persons in the world who are huge, having great power and full of wickedness! No giants, nothing to worry about - - surely Jesus was just being dramatic for effect in His teachings! Well, if we are to believe Jesus about anything, we must be able to believe Him on every thing! Jesus can neither be untruthful nor in error - - and He did say "as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man " So Jesus was either speaking metaphorically or He was over-reaching to make His prophetic point, either way, He was not correct for after all, THERE ARE NO GIANTS TODAY! OH REALLY? Do you know what a corporation is? A LEGAL PERSON!!! How many GIANT CORPORATIONS - - LEGAL PERSONS - - EXIST TODAY? Two Thousand GIANT corporations, in 62 countries, bringing in over $38 TRILLION in revenues and $161 TRILLION in assets!!! Yes, I would say that there are giants in the earth today!!! The 10 largest are in China and the USA! BUT HERE IS THE REAL CLINCHER - - The preaching which warned of God's coming wrath and offer of escaping that wrath began taking place over 100 years prior to the actual start of the flood ... AND MEN IGNORED AND RIDICULED THAT PREACHING! "As it was in the days of Noah " Consider this that somewhat over 150 years ago the preaching of the rapture of the church surfaced and began spreading throughout the church community!!! In the 1830's this was considered a "new" doctrine, even though it was as old as the New Testament itself! The warning began and has continued and what is man's reaction? IGNORE AND RIDICULE!!! Even in the church community there are many that declare that the "rapture" is not in the Bible, that it is a man made idea! In fact, they will argue, men introduced a word that is not even found in Scripture and since Scripture does not speak of the word "rapture" it must be a false doctrine!!! Ok, the word "rapture" is not in the King's English version of Scripture - - The word in Latin is "rapio" which the Greek word "harpazo" found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 in which we are told in no uncertain terms that we will be "caught up in the air" to be with our Lord. You might want to consider a few things, FIRST: That just because a new understanding of God's Word is revealed to a generation that prior generations did not have, does not mean that such new understanding is erroneous - - remember, the understanding of a FLOOD which was revealed to Noah had NEVER been revealed to any other generation of man since the creation of humanity!!! SECOND: There are a number of words that are not specifically used or found in the Bible but which Scripture has described and identified that the idea of the word we use is in unmistakable agreement with God's Message! Right now the "hot word issue" is "homosexuality" - - never used in the Bible but Scripture has defined, identified, described, explained and warned against such activity/conduct with such clarity that it is very clear that God condemns what modern man calls homosexuality as an abomination! Yet, many try to argue that since the word itself is not found in Scripture, that God does not speak to the issue nor condemns homosexuality as sin! The coming rapture of the church is the same sort of thing - - men, CHURCH MEN, are trying to deny the coming rapture by arguing that the word "rapture" is not found in Scripture! THE FLOOD - A NEW REVELATION JUST A CENTURY OR SO BEFORE THE EVENT! RAPTURE - A NEW REVELATION ABOUT 1 CENTURIES AGO! In the days of Noah, rain had never been heard of before, much less a flood! Yep, those old preachers of doom and destruction are all the same - - trying to peddle fear in order to control society to be what they think it should be!!! After all, since the days of our fathers these preachers have always warned of God's wrath but look at us today! We have never had it so good! REALLLLLY???!!!??? Yes, the similarities are profound in comparison to the days of Noah and today. More than that, they are prophetic! Jesus warned that when we see these signs BEGIN to happen - - LOOK UP! Look up for our redemption is near at hand! As it was in the days of Noah - - Violence covered the earth - - violence is overspreading today's earth The whole earth was corrupt before God - - corruption is the rule of the day in all walks of life: Governments; businesses; entertainment; family; and yes, in the church community! Wickedness of man is great - - Drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex slavery, child slavery in factories, poverty as a control of people, we now live in the "entitled generation" wherein people claim the self-serving sensual pleasures of life as their right and demand that they be satisfied! Every imagination of man's heart is evil continually - - morality is broken, mammon is the ruling factor and sensuality is supreme in today's world! Giants in the land - - we saw this above. Men rejecting God's Warnings through the preaching of men. ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE IN THE DAYS OF NOAH YET? IF NOT, HOW MUCH MORE MUST WE WITNESS BEFORE WE REALIZE THAT WE ARE? Even so, Lord Jesus Come Quickly! Many Blessings! Dr. Timothy Dr. Timothy Hoflund, D.Th [email protected] Sr. Ministry Leader - True Hope Ministries of America www.truehopeministries.net Chancellor - True Hope Bible Institute www.thbinst.com Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |