Noah - Preacher of Righteousness?

by undercover 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  undercover

  Maybe I just don't remember my dub days correctly, but I swear that I remember that JWs taught that Noah preached to the people of his time of the coming destruction. He preached and then he built the ark and he and his family were saved.

  I just read the account of Noah in Geneis. It doesn't mention him preaching, just building, collecting animals and floating in a box.

  Matthew 24:39 quotes Jesus as saying that the day and hour that nobody knows will be the same as Noah's day, when the people of that day were eating and drinking and were not aware of what was going to happen.

  Hebrews 11:7 speaks of Noah being righteous and by his following God's orders to build the ark, condemend man to destruction.

  Where do you get preacher of righteousness from these scriptures? Is there something that I forgot that speaks of him preaching? And if he did, he didn't do a very good job, because Jesus said the people were unaware of what was about to befall them.

  Does anyone else remember Noah being used as an example to us today to keep preaching? Or was I dreaming?
• 

  Gopher

  They quoted 2 Peter 2:5.

  ...and he did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people;

  Of course, it doesn't specifically say HOW Noah preached righteousness there. I think though, that he went door-to-door on weekend mornings and called at people's homes and then went and took a coffee break.
• 

  BluesBrother

  * w92 9/15 p. 23 Jehovah?s Use of "Foolishness" to Save Those Believing ***

  15

  In these last days, ridiculers of the good news of God?s incoming new world and the approaching end of this world are reminded by the apostle Peter that the world of Noah?s day "suffered destruction when it was deluged with water." (2 Peter 3:3-7) Facing that cataclysmal end, what did Noah do? Many people think of him only as an ark builder. But Peter says that when God brought the Deluge upon the ancient world, He "kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others." (2 Peter 2:5) In their worldly wisdom, those ungodly antediluvians undoubtedly scoffed at what Noah preached and called him foolish, unrealistic, and impractical. Today, true Christians are facing a similar situation, since Jesus compared our generation to that of Noah?s day. Despite scoffers, however, the preaching of the Kingdom good news is more than just talk. Like the preaching done by Noah, it means salvation for the preacher and for those who listen to him!?Matthew 24:37-39; 1 Timothy 4:

  16.
• 

  undercover

  Thanks guys, for those references.

  So based on that one scripture in 2 Peter, the JWs are able to justify and stylize their work based on Noah and his preaching in the end of that time.

  Yet, here is what Jesus said:

  "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." (Matt 24:37-39 NIV)

  As I said earlier, Noah must not have done a very good job in that no one knew the flood was coming. Maybe Noah spent too much time taking breaks instead of knocking on huts. Wouldn't this make him bloodguilty? Isn't that what JWs are told if they don't preach zealously, using every available means to reach people? Or maybe Jesus was right. No one knows the end time, including anyone who thinks they do. So knocking on doors and telling people the end is near when we don't know is contrary to what Jesus said.

  Or, maybe, just maybe, the Bible is not an inspired book from God after all. It's just a collection of myths and stories, handed down, forgotten and remembered, rewritten, changed and outright made up.
• 

  XQsThaiPoes

  Noah preached nothing in regards to salvation it is misinformation. Read the account God said only him and his family would be spared. Even if other people wanted to go with him God would not have let them.
• 

  blondie

  Bill Cosby had it right:

  Noah (3 skits)
  by Bill Cosby
  
  There's fella by the name of Noah
  Built an ark
  Everybody knows he built an ark.
  You see
  What Noah do? Well he built an ark
  But very few people know about
  The conversation that went on between the Lord and Noah
  You see Noah was in his rec. room
  Sewing away, he was making a few things for the home there.
  He was a good carpenter
  
  Whoompa, whoompa, whoompa, whoompa
  Noah!
  Somebody call?
  Whoompa, whoompa, whoompa
  Noah!
  Who is that?
  It's the Lord, Noah
  Right!
  
  Where are ja?
  What you want? I've been good.
  I want you to build an Ark
  Right!
  Whats an Ark?
  Get some wood build it
  300 cubits by 80 cubits by 40 cubits
  Right!
  Whats a cubit?
  Lets see a cubit...I used to know what a cubit was
  Well don't worry about that Noah
  When you get that done
  Go out into the world and
  Collect all of the animals in the world by twos
  Male and female, and put them into the ark
  Right!
  Who is this really?
  
  What's going on?
  How come you want me to do all these weird things?
  I'm going to destory the world
  Right!
  Am I on Candid Camera?
  
  How you gonna do it?
  I'm gonna make it rain for a thousand days and drown 'em right out
  Right!
  Listen to this, you'll save water
  Let it rain for 40 days and 40 nights
  And wait for the sewers back up
  Right!
  
  I just wondering,
  What would be the effect of an Ark on the average neighbour?
  Now, here's a guy going to work, 7 o'clock in the morning
  Noahs next door neighbour and he sees the Ark.
  Hey!
  You up there!
  What you want?
  What is this?
  It's an Ark
  Aha
  You wanna get it outta my driveway?
  I gotta get to work
  Listen, what this thing for anyway?
  I can't tell you
  Hahahahaha!
  Well, I mean can't you give me a little hint?
  You wanna a hint?
  Yes, please
  How long can you tread water?
  Hahahah!
  
  'Course Noah had a heck of a job really
  He had to go out and collect
  All the animals in the world, by two's
  Two mosquitoes, male or female
  And, uh, he had to keep telling the rabbits
  Only two, only two, only two.
  So we find Noah pulling up the last two animals
  Two hippos and he's really in a hurry to get em up
  Because hes afraid that the Lords gonna call him
  And ask him to do something else
  And his nevers are shot
  This is one heck of a job for a man 600 years old
  
  So we find him pulling up the two last hippos
  And of course the Lord does call him there
  Com'on fat hippos hurry up
  Com'on will you please?
  Noah!
  What? What you want?
  Gotta take one of those hippos out
  And bring in another one
  What for?
  'Cause you got two males down there
  And you need to bring in a female
  I'm not bringin' nothin' in
  You change one of em'
  Com'on you know I don't work like that.
  
  Well I'm sick and tired of this I've had enough of this stuff
  I've been working all day
  Working on it for days and days
  I'm sick and tired of this
  Noah!
  Yeah?
  How long can you tread water?
  
  Yeah, well I got news for you
  I'm sick and tired of this whole mess
  The whole neigbourhood's out there laughing at me
  They're all having a grand time
  At good old old Noah there
  I went out there at my best friend Larry
  I've been talking to the Lord, Larry
  Larry said
  Oh, really
  Yeah yeah
  Lord, Larry, Larry, Lord
  You walked off laughing
  And I hear 'em all laughing at me
  You know I'm the only guy in this neighbourhood with an Ark?
  People around here laughing
  Picket signs walking up and down
  I'm sick and tired of this stuff here
  People walking around here
  How you doing Tarzan?
  How's everything up there?.
  Sick and tired of this mess here
  You supposed to know all and see all
  You let me go out there
  And bring in a pregnant elephant
  You give me no manual for delivery or nuthin'
  Never told me the thing was pregnant
  There's good old Naoh waitin' underneath the elephant there
  Brrrrroooooooooom
  Right on top
  Sick and tired of this mess here
  Had enough all this stuff
  For you runnin' around
  You supposed to know all and see all
  Like I said before
  You let me go out there and do all this stuff here
  You never even looked in the bottom of that Ark
  Have you looked down there?
  No?
  Who's gonna clean up that mess down there?
  That's me
  I tell you I've had enough of this stuff
  I tell you what I'm gonna do
  I'm letting all these animals out
  And I'm gonna burn down this Ark
  And I'm going to Florida somewhere
  'Cause you haven't done nothin'
  I'm sick and tired of all this mess
  You foolin' around
  And you haven't done nothing!
  
  And you got it rainin'
  It's not a shower is it?
  Ok Lord me and you right
  'Cause I knew it all the time
• 

  Narkissos

  On the Jewish midrash from which the author of 2 Peter borrows this "non-biblical" motif in the mid-2nd century, http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/67328/1.ashx