If We Were to Take the Flood Account Literally..

by Yan Bibiyan 92 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Yan Bibiyan

  Then I can’t help but come to the conclusion that everyone who died (like 99.999% of humanity at the time) was doomed from the start.

  If God directed Noah to build a flotation device with very specific parameters, God must have known EXACTLY how many people, animal species, plant etc, would be in it.

  What if people actually LISTENED to Noah and thousands upon thousands turned up waiting to enter the Ark?

  God MUST HAVE known that only so many people will listen and obey instructions.

  No to mention that Noah’s message didn’t really reach that many people. At that time how many people could have heard it? A City, a County, a Country? What about everyone else not within Noah’s reach? Some ancient Eastern Asian civilization…

  Why didn’t God simply strike dead everyone else, but Noah and his immediate family and not have to do the whole flood charade? God had no problem sending different angels at different occasions to strike any different number of people dead, why not now? This is, I repeat, if the flood account is literal.

  And specifically for JWs (if you take the flood literally – which you do), who survived the flood? Noah’s immediate family. So if the Watchtower is a modern day Ark, be prepared to pick one of the GB’s members, preferably one who is married with children like Brother Lösch ’s for example, and have him and his IMMEDIATE family sail into the New System, while everyone else is left holding the (empty money) bag.

  And, NO, we can’t look at it symbolically to include everyone of Jehovah’s people.

  Remember, the account is literal...
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  bohm

  I cant believe i have missed it, thats so obvious!

  Freewill my ass, he knew what they would do.

  Dang, it must have been demotivational for noahs preaching, knowing the ark was to small!
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  believingxjw

  "What if people actually LISTENED to Noah and thousands upon thousands turned up waiting to enter the Ark?"

  The flood account does not have to be literal to be religiously useful but let's say for the purposes of this discussion it is literal. If many "thousands" had listened to Noah then God would have likely done what he did with the Ninevites, cancelled the devastation. Going by the principle shown when Abraham questioned God regarding the destruction of Sodom and Jonah's experience with the Ninevites it is apparent that no one in Noah's day "listened" to him and wanted to get in the Ark along with him and his family. Otherwise they would have been saved or the calamity canceled.

  The Bible is a whole and the whole must be used to understand all parts.
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  Yan Bibiyan

  Dang, it must have been demotivational for noahs preaching, knowing the ark was to small!

  I never thought of that Bohm. Good catch!
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  Yan Bibiyan

  The flood account does not have to be literal to be religiously useful

  And how far exactly are you going to get on this basis arguing/enforcing doctrine?
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  bohm

  If many "thousands" had listened to Noah then God would evidently have done what he did with the Ninevites, cancelled the devastation.

  Fixed it for ya
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  unshackled

  Good point Yan. I used to wonder the same thing, though couldn't say it out loud!

  I can't remember if this was in the literature or if I just heard someone say it....but it was said that the dimensions of the ark were in line with modern ships. They pointed to that as a sign that jehovah is way ahead of man, he knew the perfect ship dimensions, and now man copies that today.

  Here's the funny thing about that...the ark dimensions are similarly ideal to modern day ships BUT there's a catch. Modern day ships have PROPULSION. Without forward momentum the ark dimensions would be a flat out disaster in the open ocean. It would be thrashed about, rolled, and pretty much demolished. There's a reason rescue rafts are round, not rectangular. God wasn't too smart after all.
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  notverylikely

  If many "thousands" had listened to Noah then God would have likely done what he did with the Ninevites, cancelled the devastation.

  Or he knew that they wouldn't. Speculation at it's finest on both counts.

  Going by the principle shown when Abraham questioned God regarding the destruction of Sodom and Jonah's experience with the Ninevites it is apparent that no one in Noah's day "listened" to him and wanted to get in the Ark along with him and his family.

  No one was preaching in Sodom, they were simply looking for righteous men. In the case of the Ninevites, their city was to be overthrown, a far cry from the destruction of all life.

  Besides which, since Noah had to spend so much time working and separating out the animals, not to mention still having to work day to day to stay alive, how much could he have travelled to preach, really?

  Otherwise they would have been saved or the calamity canceled.

  Well, since God didn't make room for them, they certainly wouldn't have been saved. Cancellation is speculation.

  The Bible is a whole and the whole must be used to understand all parts.

  Agreed, when taken as parts it seems violent and crazy. When taken as a whole it seems violent, crazy with a dash of contradiction thrown in.
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  Open mind

  God keeps his hands over his "eyes" of foreknowledge most the time. But, if he REALLY needs to, he'll take a peek into the future now and then in order to accomplish his purpose.

  "Selective foreknowledge means that God could choose not to foreknow indiscriminately all the future acts of his creatures. This would mean that, rather than all history from creation onward being a mere rerun of what had already been foreseen and foreordained, God could with all sincerity set before the first human pair the prospect of everlasting life in an earth free from wickedness."

  Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 1, Page 853.

  So, with reference to the Flood, we really don't know for sure if Jehovah "peeked" or not. If he did, he accurately knew how big of a box to make. Well, at least for the humans, that is. He totally messed up when it came to the animals, but that's another thread.

  If he didn't "peek", he could have made other provisions just like with Nineveh.

  Can't believe I ever swallowed this stuff.

  om
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  james_woods

  If many "thousands" had listened to Noah then God would evidently have done what he did with the Ninevites, cancelled the devastation.

  Wait - wasn't one of the purposes of the flood to kill the offspring of fallen angels and humans and drive the fallen angels back up off the earth?

  Also (incidentially) to remove the "cloud cover" so that a normal sky and rainfall (not to mention the rainbow) could take place?

  And, of course, to destroy the "tree of life" that was still in the garden of eden? (Note that the witnesses who believe that one never bother to explain how ANY trees survived the "literal global flood".)