The reset button is a handy tool. Although it has become specified in the electronic age, the concept of ‘the reset’ has been around for a long time in an analog kind of way.
Torch the fields, implode the building, throw out the whole sack- wipe the slate clean. Sometimes the prudent course is to burn it down and start over.
That is what the Flood was.
The specifics, scientific possibilities, and modern ‘evidences’ of the Flood and the Ark are quite an industry. There are thousands of books, lectures, studies, and apologetics involved with this legendary event. After previously condemning speculation in such matters- I must confess I have read more than one article on the subject so just for funsies- here is the condensed Bondo narrative of the Flood.
People pre-flood lived freakishly long life spans. I believe this was partial genetic legacy from the original pre-fall Creation, and from the effects of the environment on living things. The atmosphere was different. There is allusions to the possibility that there was no real rainfall. The topography and climate were different. I think the Flood began when a large ice comet streaked through the atmosphere and slammed into the Earth with such force that it jolted the entire tectonics.
Genesis 7:11- In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Just recently it was revealed that there is a vast underground ocean, one so deep that the water in it is super-heated and pressurized. (This is in addition to previously known underground oceans, lakes, and aquifers- which are vast.) Through the ejection of massive geysers and jets, the comet and it’s tail, and the disruption to the water-heavy atmosphere, the entire world was covered in water.
I read several theories on population- and they were wide-ranging- about what the Earth’s population likely was. I found one that was particularly well-written and took into account all known factors- and I believe it is very likely that the population of the Earth at the time of the Flood was a minimum 700 million. It was probably closer to 2 billion. Simply speculation.
After the waters drained back into low spots, chasms, and the great deep- along with some sort of cosmic ‘wind’- (Genesis 8:1- … and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;)- after well over a year, Noah, his family, and the remnant carried through on the Ark- were back on dry land.
It was a different world. It had been reset.
The altered atmosphere no longer protected from damaging UV rays and other radiations. Free radical oxidizers. Scientific stuff. Lifespans shortened- dramatically.
I know that all this Bible and Flood stuff are un-scientific. Too bad. I think science is pretentious bs. They freely admit that they have no idea what 95% of the Universe is.
All substances shrink- contract- when they become colder. They expand when they become warmer. Except for water. Scientists have no idea why this is. When they can expain something as basic as this…
I am not a science-denying imbecile. There are many truths and accurate observations and theories- but at the end of the day it is simply a belief system with limited application. Our science is valid right here and right now with a very limited data set to work with. When I was young, they didn’t believe there were any planets outside of our Solar System. Putting your faith in science is foolish.
Back to our story. The world was different. Some of these differences were:
-the ground is no longer cursed (8:21); -there is now an innate fear of man in animals (9:2) (because this is noted, it must not have existed before); – people are now allowed to eat meat (9:3); – there will never be another global flood (9:14-15); the rainbow is the sign of this promise (9:16);
God told Noah and his sons: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. (9:1)
Run it back again.
Genesis 5:28-29- And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
next Sunday: shake it up
Bondo- the real deal 