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[Newbie]

If you watched the Nye/Ham debate, then you'll know that Noah's Flood was brought up a lot... No, I don't want to debate whether a worldwide flood occurred or not. I'm convinced that the evidence shows that it did not. Nevertheless, this Flood concept is intriguing.

In the spirit of friendly discussion, I have a couple of questions to ask. For the sake of discussion, let's presume that a global flood really did occur, and that it was caused by the Judeo-Christian god.

Question 1: What was the point of the Flood?

According to Genesis chapter 6, God flooded the world because it had grown wicked and evil. Thus mankind had to be destroyed, and rebuilt from Noah's seed. However, a few chapters later in Genesis 19, we see God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah because they were wicked and evil. In fact over the next many books of the Bible, we see that people simply returned to evil and wicked ways. In essence, the Flood solved nothing at all. Wouldn't an all knowing God, have realized ahead of time that the Flood wasn't even going to serve its purpose? To me it looks like the Flood was a mere exercise in futile wrath.

Question 2: When exactly did God start loving the world?

According to John chapter 3, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..." Of course that was after he killed everyone, including innocent children, in a global catastrophe. If God loved mankind, then why didn't he just send Jesus to save the human race during Noah's day? After all, Jesus' sacrifice is supposed to be this perfect plan for salvation. Why did mankind deserve to be destroyed at one point, but saved at a later point? To me it seems contradictory, and poorly planned.

Question 3: Why pick Noah?

According to Genesis, Noah was a good and righteous man. This is reiterated in the New Testament. However, after the flood we see that, not only is Noah a drunk, but he is also the kind of man who would create systemic slavery based on linage, and punish the innocent for things they didn't do. When Hamm failed to cover Noah's nakedness (because Noah was drunk, by the way), Noah punished Hamm's child Canaan by making him and all of his seed cursed to slavery. Apparently this curse was blessed by, and carried out by God. Canaan didn't even do anything wrong! To me it sounds like Noah was just as evil and wicked as the adulterers and idol worshipers that had to be destroyed.

Anyway, If I'm missing something, or if you have a good answer for these then have at it!

[jimwalton]

> What was the point of the flood?

It was to stop that progress of evil. The world was coming to a rapid self-destruct, so God stopped that sequence (like calling time out in a football or basketball game to stop the other team's momentum). And it accomplished exactly that. You'll notice in Mt. 24.37, when Jesus is talking about the end times, he says God will judge the world again when things get as bad as they were in the days of Noah. The strategy worked, and God's doing that gave humanity a chance, for many thousands (or more) of years.

> When exactly did God start loving the world?

Oh, from the beginning. The Bible is a record of God's contract with humanity. Gn. 1-11 are the records of immediate problems and tragedy, but the message of the contract is clear: God loves us all. He wants to have a relationship with each one of us, and whoever chooses to have a relationship with him can have it (Gn. 4.26; 5.24; 6.9; 9.8-19). Whoever rebels against the terms of the contract will reap the consequences. It's like our societal laws: If you're a law-abiding citizen, all can be well. If you choose the break the law, the police will be at your door, and there are consequences to pay. Because there's a sense of justice doesn't mean God doesn't love you. When your mom grounded you, did that mean she didn't love you?

> Why pick Noah?

When Gn. 6.9 identifies him as righteous, we can't assume he was perfect or sinless. It does tell us that he was undeserving of the punishment that came to the others, and we notice right away God's sense of fairness: he only punished those who deserved it.

Later he became drunk. That's right: none of us is immune to sin.

Lastly, there is no reason to understand Noah's pronouncements as prophecies from God. They are Noah's, not God's, statements. Noah didn't create systemic slavery based on lineage; he didn't punish innocents. You say "Canaan didn't even do anything wrong!" How do you know? We're told nothing about his past or what kind of person he was. We find out rather soon that the children of Canaan were wicked and evil people. Now, that doesn't guarantee Canaan's guilt, but we all know how often "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

That's the short answer. There is much more to go into, which I'd be glad to do.