According to Genesis 5:5, Adam died when he was 930. And if you look at a timeline, http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/life-span-of-patriarchs-from-adam-to-noah.html you can see that Adam was still alive by the time Noah's father, Lamech, was born. According to the Bible, it was during the time of Noah that people became so evil that God had to destroy the earth and start over--save for Noah, his wife, three of his sons and their wives.
Now...I know there are millions of doubters and haters out there that complain b/c they have never seen "proof" of God. They weren't there to see Christ, so...logically...they don't believe He existed. They weren't there at creation, so...logically...they decide to believe in evolution. That is the thinking of current times. Now, imagine being part of a society that turned on God while there were people still alive who had met the first man He created!
Think of it. Adam is out there populating the world and you'd think he'd be telling people about how it all started. You'd think. I mean...he had to have, right? The Bible doesn't really say. We hear about Enoch and Noah walking with God, but...after the creation episode, we hear nothing about Adam's relationship with God. Not that he didn't have one...but we aren't told. In Genesis 4:26 it says, interestingly, that it was in the days of Enosh (Seth's son) that people began to call on the name of the Lord. But...it was only a matter of time before mankind got so bad, so fast...so soon after Adam's demise.
When I say "so soon," I'm really talking about a period of several hundred years. Like..from the time of Shakespeare to now. That's a long time. I suppose men could easily deviate when given that amount of time. However, is Shakespeare still alive? No. That would change things, you'd think! There were people alive that intersected these "good" and "bad" eras of man's history, who would have known first-hand who Adam was. But, evidently, that didn't matter, b/c no one--except Noah--seemed to care that the Creator existed.
(Side note: Lamech, Noah's father, died in the flood--apparently, he was not righteous and didn't believe his own son's warnings.)
I mean...these weren't just "bad" people. People had exploited their freewill to such a degree that God actually had to resort to, not just killing the people, but the animals too...Why this extent? Perhaps this means that the people were committing bestiality on such a regular basis that animals were also tainted. I mean, it is true that later on God would make laws to put to death any animal that a person had sexually abused--an innocent part of God's creation would have to die to show the effect of sin (and, practically, to cut down on disease). Is this what made God angry enough to destroy the earth? Was the Flood in part to protect any further animals from man's sinfulness? Who knows...and...Probably. At any rate, I'm sure this was the LEAST of the problems. People were intensely fallen, yet the Bible does not explain details. What we are told: the Nephilim, that man was wicked in every way, and extreme violence. That's it. The fact that we aren't told any gory details is an eerie use of understatement.
Think of your own heart and how you stay pretty well out of trouble on a day-to-day basis. Of course, you don't want to suffer huge consequences--so your avoidance of evil is not really to your credit. You have a propensity to think insanely wicked thoughts, but fortunately, most of the time you don't act on them. What if you could get away with them though...
Imagine an infant world. When people are living to be almost a millennium old, death isn't such an impending doom--except for murders. Think of the ways modern man uses his idle time to do wicked acts...Now think about how addicting wickedness is--once is never enough...Now imagine 900 years of life--a virtual eternity to think of new and debased ways of topping prior sins! The gene pool is extremely new and not yet filled with the many disorders or diseases of today, so there is very little worry about STDs--especially since people HAVE to reproduce with family members. God hasn't yet laid down any major covenants or Torahs to worry about. The tropical green-house environment aids in the breeding of strong, resilient humans--capable of what we might consider super-human acts of sin. The earth is a lush, unadulterated paradise--a veritable consequence-free playground of debauchery.
People knew the difference between right and wrong, but God's wrath was just not something they cared about or even considered.
Now...we are told specifically that things got this bad in Noah's day, not Adam's day necessarily...but still! Adam was the first man created. The man God Himself had breathed life into, had JUST been walking the earth and people were already THIS evil! This just shows that people will do just what they want to do and believe what they want to believe no matter what proof is out there.
Now...I know there are millions of doubters and haters out there that complain b/c they have never seen "proof" of God. They weren't there to see Christ, so...logically...they don't believe He existed. They weren't there at creation, so...logically...they decide to believe in evolution. That is the thinking of current times. Now, imagine being part of a society that turned on God while there were people still alive who had met the first man He created!
Think of it. Adam is out there populating the world and you'd think he'd be telling people about how it all started. You'd think. I mean...he had to have, right? The Bible doesn't really say. We hear about Enoch and Noah walking with God, but...after the creation episode, we hear nothing about Adam's relationship with God. Not that he didn't have one...but we aren't told. In Genesis 4:26 it says, interestingly, that it was in the days of Enosh (Seth's son) that people began to call on the name of the Lord. But...it was only a matter of time before mankind got so bad, so fast...so soon after Adam's demise.
When I say "so soon," I'm really talking about a period of several hundred years. Like..from the time of Shakespeare to now. That's a long time. I suppose men could easily deviate when given that amount of time. However, is Shakespeare still alive? No. That would change things, you'd think! There were people alive that intersected these "good" and "bad" eras of man's history, who would have known first-hand who Adam was. But, evidently, that didn't matter, b/c no one--except Noah--seemed to care that the Creator existed.
(Side note: Lamech, Noah's father, died in the flood--apparently, he was not righteous and didn't believe his own son's warnings.)
I mean...these weren't just "bad" people. People had exploited their freewill to such a degree that God actually had to resort to, not just killing the people, but the animals too...Why this extent? Perhaps this means that the people were committing bestiality on such a regular basis that animals were also tainted. I mean, it is true that later on God would make laws to put to death any animal that a person had sexually abused--an innocent part of God's creation would have to die to show the effect of sin (and, practically, to cut down on disease). Is this what made God angry enough to destroy the earth? Was the Flood in part to protect any further animals from man's sinfulness? Who knows...and...Probably. At any rate, I'm sure this was the LEAST of the problems. People were intensely fallen, yet the Bible does not explain details. What we are told: the Nephilim, that man was wicked in every way, and extreme violence. That's it. The fact that we aren't told any gory details is an eerie use of understatement.
Think of your own heart and how you stay pretty well out of trouble on a day-to-day basis. Of course, you don't want to suffer huge consequences--so your avoidance of evil is not really to your credit. You have a propensity to think insanely wicked thoughts, but fortunately, most of the time you don't act on them. What if you could get away with them though...
Imagine an infant world. When people are living to be almost a millennium old, death isn't such an impending doom--except for murders. Think of the ways modern man uses his idle time to do wicked acts...Now think about how addicting wickedness is--once is never enough...Now imagine 900 years of life--a virtual eternity to think of new and debased ways of topping prior sins! The gene pool is extremely new and not yet filled with the many disorders or diseases of today, so there is very little worry about STDs--especially since people HAVE to reproduce with family members. God hasn't yet laid down any major covenants or Torahs to worry about. The tropical green-house environment aids in the breeding of strong, resilient humans--capable of what we might consider super-human acts of sin. The earth is a lush, unadulterated paradise--a veritable consequence-free playground of debauchery.
People knew the difference between right and wrong, but God's wrath was just not something they cared about or even considered.
Now...we are told specifically that things got this bad in Noah's day, not Adam's day necessarily...but still! Adam was the first man created. The man God Himself had breathed life into, had JUST been walking the earth and people were already THIS evil! This just shows that people will do just what they want to do and believe what they want to believe no matter what proof is out there.
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2 comments:
Yes! People will do what they want to do - Free Will. I've been thinking a lot about Free Will and no matter how earnest we are God cannot force us to do anything - include worshipping and serving Him. At times it seems like it would be so much easier if we didn't have Free Will, but alas this is not why God created Adam. God created Adam with Free Will so that Adam could choose to love God or not to love God much as we have that same choice today. It is so difficult to sit and watch people make the wrong choice. What a scary world it must've been in Adam's and Noah's day. What is even more frightening is that if you and I had been on the earth during that time we would've perished because of disobedience. Sometimes things like this are too much for my little brain to comprehend.
i know. it's so scary to think about dying without trusting God. i don't want to think about it...and yet...it's a reality for many people. that's why we need to let everyone know!!!
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