Wednesday, October 14, 2026
EZEKIEL FOR TOMORROW CHAPT. 38, 39, 40 - 48
Ezekiel For Tomorrow!
Chapters 38 to 39
The prophecy concerning Russia and China - peoples of the East and even from Africa CHAPTER 38 FEW understand these chapters of Ezekiel. There are TWO basic reasons for not correctly understanding these chapters. First, most miss the fact that Ezekiel has a story flow. It is quite simple. Israel and Judah are to be punished in destruction, then RESTORED as one people, being brought back to the Holy Land at the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth. Then after being restored we have the invasion of the Holy Land by the kings of the East and their armies. Secondly, most people and certainly most "scholars" so- called, will not take the time to study where the modern nations have come from. And for sure most will NOT ADMIT that most of the Western world is the very people of the House of Israel. Are you will to prove all this I've just mentioned, especially that the nations of North-Western Europe, the British Commonwealth and the United States of America are INDEED THE VERY PEOPLE OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL? I hope you are! Because it is a fact of recorded history. The very BEST Website on the Internet to prove this truth is: BRITAM.ORG Ezekiel is told to set his face against GOG, the land of MAGOG, the chief prince of Rosh and Tubal. God is AGAINST them! Most will freely admit that this prophecy is concerning Russia and China and other nations of the EAST - Persia (Iran) Cush (not Ethiopia - who are India, Put (not Libya - West and Central Africa and other countries of the east of the Euphrates river). These nations will AFTER THE START OF THE MILLENNIUM, come against the restored people of Israel and Judah, now back in the Holy Land. God will turn them back and He personally will DESTROY THESE ARMIES! It will be people from the North and the East and even the South West into parts of upper Africa, that will come to invade Israel in the Holy Land. IF YOU READ CAREFULLY VERSES 7 TO 16 YOU CAN SEE WHEN ALL THIS IS TO TAKE PLACE. It is after many days, IN THE LATTER YEARS; the context will tell you what the latter years are; in this case it is the beginning years of the millennium, the latter years of Israel and Judah BEING UNITED and a land BROUGHT BACK FROM THE SWORD, A LAND THAT IS GATHERED OUT OF MANY PEOPLE, MANY PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT LANDS CALLED FROM THOSE LANDS AND GATHERED BACK TO THE HOLY LAND, THE VERY MOUNTAINS OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL. THOSE PEOPLE WILL DWELL SAFELY ALL OF THEM! (verse 8). Can it be said that the people now living in the Holy Land are DWELLING SAFELY? You must have a strange imagination if you can so claim. The people now in the Holy Land are NOT DWELLING SAFELY!! This prophecy CANNOT be for some invasion of the Holy Land by the kings of the East in the last years of this age, as most so-called "prophets" of prophecy would like you to believe. There is more clear proof this prophecy is not for a time that most would have you believe, BEFORE Jesus returns. Notice it all in verse 11. This invading army is going to a land with UNWALLED VILLAGES, people who are at REST; to a people that DWELL SAFELY; without ANY WALLS, HAVING NEITHER BARS NOR GATES. This is NOT modern Palestine; this is NOT the Holy Land today. Why the Jews themselves have BUILT A WALL AROUND THEMSELVES!! All the people of the Holy Land are NOT at REST, dwelling SAFELY. They are FIGHTING EACH OTHER! They have BARS AND GATES AND WALLS AND GUNS AND ROCKETS POINTING AT EACH OTHER!! This prophecy is for a day "when my people Israel dwell SAFELY and you will not know it." This is for a time when MASS TV AND INTERNET AND NEWS REPORTING AND VIDEO AND CAMERAS HAVE BEEN BLOWN TO BITS, GONE, DISAPPEARED, AND COMMUNICATION BETWEEN NATIONS IS NOT AS IT IS TODAY! After all the events of the book of Revelation has come on this earth, there will be so great a MASS DESTRUCTION on the earth, with only a mangled world left behind, it will indeed be like a wild science-fiction world of a blown-up earth with rag- tag people enduring a survival that will truly be horrendous in scope. As Jesus said in His Olivet prophecy of Matthew 24, unless those days were to be shortened NO FLESH WOULD BE SAVED ALIVE! Out of it all, Israel and Judah, will be RESTORED to the Holy Land. Jesus the Messiah will be WITH THEM. David and the 12 apostles will be raised from the dead, and ruling over the 12 tribes of Israel, under Christ. The peoples of Israel will now be in FULL AND COMPLETE SAFETY, ABSOLUTE PEACE AND PROSPERITY, NO WALLS, NO BARS, NO GATES, JUST PERFECT PEACE AND MIGHTY BLESSINGS OF A LAND AS THE GARDEN OF EDEN. The nations of the East will have been in a war with the Beast Power of Europe. Those are the days to be shortened or no flesh would survive from an all out war between the West and the East. The East is left desolate in many ways, they will be barely handing on as we say. It will be a time of DESPERATION! They will, with time, HEAR about how a people in the Holy Land are PROSPERING, LIVING AT PEACE, LIVING WITH NO ARMY, NO WEAPONS OF KILLING, NO WALLS OF ANY KIND FOR PROTECTION, AND THEY WILL BAND TOGETHER IN AN ARMY OF PEOPLE TO INVADE THIS PROSPEROUS AND PEACEFUL LAND. THE PEOPLE OF THE EAST WILL COME AS A CLOUD TO COVER THE LAND. IT WILL BE INDEED THE LATTER DAYS OF ENDING ONE AGE AND MOVING INTO THE NEXT AGE. Peoples from the North African continent will also hear about the gadren of Eden that the Holy Land has become. When people are in a desparate state for the basics of survival, such news of a bountiful land travels quickly, probably through the land of Egypt (see Zechariah 14). The movement from one age to the Kingdom age will not all happen in a short month or so, and will not happen without some troubles for some people (Zechariah 14). What will be left of the peoples of the East at the beginning of the millennium will be as nothing in comparison to what they shall hear is the prosperity of the people dwelling safely in the Holy Land. The eye of some people will be on the war-path to invade. Some looking at this will say it sounds like a people on the march to invade that have no modern weapons to fight with, so it cannot be a prophecy for our day. Not so! Such people forget the context of the world at the end time. Such destruction will have come, that yes, literally modern weapons of war will have been blown to bits, most of the cities of the West and East will have been blown to bits. People will be as nomads, seeking food, and just barely surviving all the wars and plagues and utter destruction that has come on the earth in the last 42 months of this age. It will be for them a survival of the fittest, a bare knuckle fight to live. When you understand the CONTEXT of the world and end time prophecy, then what you read here in Ezekiel 38 and 39 will indeed be a back to basics of fighting to invade another nation. There will be no nation on earth after the coming of Christ that will be left with "modern space war machines" to invade another nation. People who throw out Ezekiel 38 and 39 based upon the crude way it describes this invasion, just forget to understand the book of Revelation and the desolation of the earth and the nations upon it by the time the 1,000 years of the new age begins. When the people of the North and the East come against the Holy Land, God will be mighty jealous over His Israel people. There will indeed be a great shaking in the land. What is described in verse 20 can hardly be said to have happened. The shaking of the earth and the mountains being thrown down in the Holy Land has not been recorded as here mentioned. People fighting each other, being destroyed by pestilence and with blood, and with an overflowing rain, with great hailstones, fire, and brimstone, cannot be said to have taken place in the recorded history of the Holy Land (verses 18-23). CHAPTER 39 God will step in, only ONE SIXTH of this army of people from the North and the East will remain alive. This army of people will fall on the mountains of Israel; the fallen will be food for the birds of the heaven, and the beasts of the field to be devoured. It would seem that either God has not yet at this time CHANGED the nature of animals like the lion to eat straw like the ox, or for this battle their old nature is restored to them; or again as a co-worker of mine said, maybe the birds will continue to be as they are, for animals will die as they do today, and birds do clean away the body (verses 1-6). Israel will surely know the name of God in no uncertain way and the heathen also shall know that the Lord is the Holy One IN Israel (verse 7). Those that dwell in the cities of Israel at this time shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons that people will now be using (yes crude old basic weapons to kill) to destroy each other, FOR SEVEN YEARS! (verse 9). There is no space-age weapons left in the nations of the earth by the time the 1,000 years begins. We are back to the old crude weapons that peoples have used to kill each other for centuries. Is there ANY RECORDED HISTORY of Israel EVER taking SEVEN YEARS TO BURN WEAPONS of killing from the lands of their enemies that would destroy them? NO THERE IS NOT!! IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED!! IT IS YET TO TAKE PLACE!! IT WILL TAKE 7 MONTHS FOR ISRAEL TO BURY THE DEAD OF THE NATIONS THAT COME AGAINST THEM IN THAT DAY (verse 12). MEN CHOSEN JUST TO MOVE THROUGH THE LAND TO BURY THE DEAD WILL BE FOUND. BONES WILL BE MARKED AND THERE WILL BE A SPECIAL VALLEY CALLED HAMONGOG FOR ALL TO BE BURIED IN IT (verses 7-16). The message of a food feast is to go out to all the feathered fowl and to every beast of the field. They are to feast ON THE DEAD (verses 17-20). The GLORY of God will be set and felt among the HEATHEN, THEY WILL SEE HIS JUDGMENT (verse 21). If there is any doubt in Israel (human nature is still human even with Israel having God's Spirit) that the Lord is God, this massive destruction of those invading Israel will make that doubt disappear. Israel will know from that day forward that the Lord is their God (verse 22). The heathen will also know that the House of Israel went into captivity for their iniquities; so God for a time did hide His face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies to be punished. But now they will know that the God of heaven has healed them and is WITH them, as He did bring them from their captivity from the lands of the enemies, and is now SANCTIFIED in them in the sight of many nations. "Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have POURED OUT MY SPIRIT UPON THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, SAYS THE LORD GOD" (verses 28-29). The House of Israel has NEVER HAD GOD'S SPIRIT POURED OUT ON THEM AS A WHOLE PEOPLE! BUT AS WE HAVE SEEN IN ISAIAH AND JEREMIAH THIS OUT-POURING OF GOD'S SPIRIT ON ALL ISRAEL WILL ONE DAY TAKE PLACE. THIS PROPHECY IS YET FOR THE FUTURE! ..................................................... To be continued
Chapters 40 to 48
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NOAH'S FLOOD WAS IT UNIVERSAL??? #4, #5,
Noah's Flood - Universal? #4
Still more reasons it was not
Written and compiled by Keith Hunt THE ARK, ITS SIZE AND PURPOSE Woodrow in his book asks the questions if you can for certain know how large the ark was, did it take 120 years to build, and if the flood was REGIONAL were there some people in other parts of the world who were not effected by that flood? Genesis 6:15 gives the dimensions of the ark 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. Some say that was proportionally ideal - being six times as long as wide. The problem arises with knowing how many inches to the cubit it was back in Noah's day, or Moses day, as it was Moses who is held by most scholars as writing the first five books of the Bible. If we go with 18 inches to the cubit, then the dimensions would be as Woodrow states, 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Woodrow suggests that the door way would not have been over 13 feet high, because dividing the three levels would give 15 feet to each level. with this calculation Woodrow says there had to be large supporting beams to hold the weight of each level, hence the doors ways would be, or could be, about 13 feet in hight. This would of course mean large Elephants and Giraffes would not be able to go through the door ways as Woodrow suggests. But the problem with this reasoning is that the top floor may have been open at first and a ramp may have been built to allow these huge animals to ascend to the top of the ark and then a ramp could have been built to have them descend to a floor that did not have to have a doorway at all. After all the animals were in that top shaft door closed tight, so no other humans could have a way into the ark. Now if as Woodrow suggests the cubit in past ages differed and was smaller than 18 inches in length during Noah's time, then of course a smaller ark would have been built, which if it was only for a regional flood would have sufficed. Woodrow quotes from Harper's Bible Dictionary these words: "Metrology (the science of measurement of mass, length, and time) presents a confused picture in Palestine ... and the peripheral countries ... Not even well-grounded Babylonian metrology adhered to the same standard throughout its history. In the matter of weights and measures, the Hebrew people were influenced by Babylonian, Egyptian, Canaanite-Phoenician, and Greco-Roman systems ... With the coming of each new conqueror, and with every fresh trend in trade, weights and measures continued to vary." Woodrow gives proof from the Bible itself that a cubit may have varied in length at times and in different ages. Esther 5:14; 7:9 shows the gallows which Haman was to be hanged on was 50 cubits, and so if we go with 18 inches for a cubit the gallows was 75 feet high. Either it was built with a high foundation as to make sure everyone from a far distance could see Haman get hanged, or the cubit was much less than 18 inches during the time of Esther. Woodrow does SPECULATE with things in this section of his study, but he does admit it is only "speculation." He wonders that if the ark was 450 long how it could have been built as the tallest tree in the world is a California Coast Redwood at 366.2 feet. Once more I will say that looking at what is TODAY does not mean if was that way in Noah's time. Maybe there were trees taller than the tallest trees of today in existence during Noah's life time, or there were ways of building ships back then that are lost in building today. Science is still amazed at how the GREAT PYRAMID of Egypt was ever built. As Woodrow himself admits, this is all conjecture and speculation for we simply cannot be certain as to the length of a cubit in Noah or Moses' time. And with all that said, we come back to the conclusion that none of what we have talked about concerning the size of the ark can prove a world-wide flood or a regional flood. LENGTH OF TIME IN BUILDING THE ARK? Most people have either been taught or have presumed from a too casual reading of Genesis 6, that Noah was building the ark for 120 years. Of course this also makes it easy to believe that the ark was so large that it took 120 to build it. Genesis 6:3 says, "My spirit shall not always strive with man ... yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." This is talking about God allowing mankind to continue living, doing "their own thing" for another 120 years, and then JUDGMENT would come upon them, if they did not repent of their wickedness. The "ark" of Noah is not mentioned here. It is not till later verses AFTER God once more looked upon mankind and saw their violence that God turned to Noah (who remained faithful to the Lord) and told him He would destroy the evil doers, but save him and his wife and three sons and their wives. Then Noah was told to build the ark. Ralph Woodrow has correctly seen that 120 years before the flood Noah was 480 years old, for at the time of the flood Genesis tells us Noah was 600 year old - see chapter 7:11. The sons of Noah had not yet been born. They were born when Noah was 500 years old (Gen.5:32). It was AFTER his sons were born and married that Noah was told to build the ark. Look what Genesis 6:14-18 says, "Make you an ark ... I do bring a flood of waters ... and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you." It should now be clear from putting these verses together that Noah was NOT working on building the ark for 120 years. We really have no teaching from the Bible any more than this. We just do not know have long it took Noah to build the ark. NO RAIN BEFORE THE FLOOD? The Bible passage used which supposedly supports this idea is Genesis 2:4,5. "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground..." I have heard this "no rain before the flood" teaching, MANY times over the last 40 years. It is so used that it is taught by many as something the Bible is quite certain and dogmatic about. Many are certain that no rain fell before Noah's flood, which they say would have made Noah the greatest laughing joke on the earth, and especially as he was building this wooden ship for 120 years. The people believing and teaching this "no rain" before Noah doctrine, say that the earth was covered with a type of water vapor, I guess something like the heavy humidity that is in Florida, but even more so, because Florida does get rain. Maybe they think it was a really wet due every night. But whatever they think the climate of the earth was like before Noah's flood, they believe Genesis 2:4,5 is teaching that there was no rain until it started to rain at Noah's flood time. But a careful reading of this verse says no such thing. God created the plants before they were in the earth, that is, before they were seeded. They were created full grown and mature. And they were created full grown because there was RILL THEN no rain upon the earth. God did not create the seeds first and have them grow up through the action of rain and sun. He created them full grown plants before it had rained and before man was created. This was done on the THIRD day (Gen.1:9-13). Yet on the 6th day mankind was created. All this passage says is that up to the creating of mature plants and trees, it had not rained. The Bible does not say when it first rained, but to try and use this passage in Genesis 2 as teaching it did not rain until the time of Noah's flood, is to me, reading into a few verses things that are not meant to be read into them. And another teaching that has often been a part of all the story telling of Noah's ark is that Noah preached for 120 years to others to come on board and save themselves. Noah we are told in the New Testament was a preacher of righteousness, but there is not one word in either the Old or New Testament that he preached to others to save themselves by joining him on the ark. God told Noah that it was he and his wife and his sons and their wives that had been shown grace to be saved from death, but God told Noah that He would destroy all the other wicked people, that and "end" to them was coming (Gen.6:9-13). We are told that God saw that all others on the "erets" - earth - land - had corrupted their ways (verse 12). We are given no suggestion that with Noah's preaching (by word or life) ANY would REPENT. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest that Noah tried to persuade others to come on board the ark and save themselves. WERE ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE ON THE PLANET DESTROYED? The writers of the Bible sometimes wrote in a way that would make THEIR hub of the world seem like the WHOLE world. Certainly we can know from the Bible that God worked with people that were in a particular AREA of the MAIN HUB of a certain progressive population of the planet. The part of the planet we know and call as "The Middle East." The Gospel of Luke chapter two, verse one, is a fine example. What was happening in the Roman Empire in Palestine, concerning "enrollment" (Margin of the KJV Bible), is written as if ALL THE WORLD should be enrolled. So when Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:20, "few, that is, eight souls were saved" in the ark," it could be assumed he meant only 8 lives were saved from off the entire planet, but it may have meant that in the context of the "erets" or land, that Noah lived in, there were only 8 human lives saved from destruction from the flood of Noah's time. Peter was possibly NOT trying to teach that Noah's flood destroyed every single human life from the entire planet earth, with only 8 person escaping that destruction with their lives. If the flood was regional and not world-wide, though it covered a very vast area, it then would not have killed people thousands of miles away from the land where Noah lived. The Indians in Canada have a recorded history that goes back 10,000 years. Now either the famous chronology of Usher is completely way off the mark of true chronology, or Noah's flood was no where near in the century B.C. where it is usually placed (according to Usher's chronology, which would still mean Usher was incorrect). Or, it would mean the Indians of North America were not in the least effected by Noah's flood. Oh, they may have "stories" about it in their history, but nearly all people have stories of super magnitude from other parts of the world, in their history telling. Huge physical tragedies on the earth do have a way of getting around and becoming stories related in a nations history files, passed on from generation to generation. The Bible is not a history book on all parts of the planet earth, and the nations of peoples in various parts of this globe, but is mainly focussed on the area of the Middle East. Yet people have been taught by many well meaning and sincere Christian writers and leaders that the New Testament and Jesus Himself, were very dogmatic about "the truth" that ALL persons except 8, on the entire planet were destroyed. The writers of the book "The Genesis Flood" present the proof for this teaching in saying that Jesus taught this was true in the passage found in Luke 17:26-30. But as Woodrow in his book on this subject has correctly stated,"When we turn to this passage, however, it is far from conclusive that "all" means all people throughout the entire world." The verse reads: "In the days of Noe...they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them ALL. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them ALL"(Luke 17:26-30). Ah, did you notice it? Did you see that Jesus used the word "all" in both Noah's flood and in the day that Lot went out from Sodom. In Lot's situation, the "all" we know did not mean ALL on the ENTIRE planet, for the fire from the Lord that came only destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. "The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire ... he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities" (Genesis 19:24,25). Obviously this "all" did not include the town Lot fled to, or the other cities and people in the Middle East, or in China, or the Indian people in North America. This verse and these words by Jesus have a CONTEXT, and the "all" is used WITHIN a CONTEXT of the thought Jesus was relating to His listeners. A newspaper headline may read: "Flight 103 has Crashed - ALL are Dead!" The "all" here does not mean all people on the planet, and we do not take it to so mean. We all know the "all" is used within a certain CONTEXT. We must all (pun on all is intended) be careful how we read "all" as used in the Bible or other literature. The "all" for Lot's time had a context of not being all people on the planet, and Jesus used Noah's "all" in the same breath, without any qualifying words to clearly tell us that Noah's time meant all people on the whole planet, while Lot's destruction did not. All then destroyed by the Noah's flood could very well be the all on the "erets" - land - area where Noah and the hub of the world of people God was dealing with, was located, and not anything to do with the Indians of North America. I must agree with Ralph Woodrow's examination of verses that use "world" in connection with the flood; i.e. Hebrews 11:7 and 2 Peter 2:5. The Greek word is "kosmos" and Woodrow gives the meaning from Strong's Concordance (#2889); "arrangement, i.e., decoration, and by implication the world (in a wide or narrow sense)." I believe as does Woodrow that in the case of Noah's flood, it is best to understand this Greek word in a narrow sense - not the entire world. There is a "figure of speech" often used in the known as "synecdoche," - a whole is used for a part, and a part for a whole (Bullinger's book "Figures of Speech in the Bible" explains it all in detail) and so even words like "all" can be used in a limited sense. I have already given you "all the world was taxed" (Luke 2:1). Another would be Acts 2:5, "men out of every nation under heaven" assembled on the day of the feast of Pentecost. This surely did not include the Indians from North America, or the native people of Japan. NOAH A MISSIONARY TO AMERICA? We learn from 2 Peter 2:5 that Noah was a "preacher of righteousness" - if that means he was preaching the ways and judgment of God to come, then did noah travel to the American continent to preach the way of the Lord and His destructive judgment to come, if we suppose the flood was going to be world-wide? I really do not think many believe Noah travelled outside his land. And we do know, if we stay with Usher's chronology for the creation of mankind, that people were living in China, India, and North America before the time of Noah's flood, according to Usher's chronology. I have already said that the Indians in Canada have a history that goes back 10,000 years, a history way before Noah' flood, if you stick with how Usher tried to figure Bible chronology. And this is one reason to me, as to why God did it this way. He could have decided to destroy them a hundred different ways. Noah was to be a witness to them, a preacher of righteousness and a witness that destruction was coming to his civilization for its great sins. This was the hub of the world at Noah's time, and that hub of people had sinned mightily, but some other tribes in other parts of the world had probably not degenerated in sins as Noah's society. There is in Scripture no reference to Noah ever having travelled to distant lands to preach destruction to them for their great sins. A regional flood would be best fitted for this context of Noah preaching of righteousness and sin. As Woodrow says, some who believe in the local flood, say it was in one sense universal, in that all mankind did perish, because all mankind was still in that part of the earth. But today the facts are in, and unless you are closing your eyes and refusing to admit the facts that have been clearly found, mankind had wandered to distant lands, including North America. As stated before, the Canadian Indians have a recorded history that goes back 10,000 years. This was all brought out in the large series of documentaries called "A People's History" - about the history of Canada. Painstaking research was done for MANY YEARS before this series was produced and aired on Canadian TV. Was Noah's flood BEFORE 10,000 B.C.? I doubt there is a fundamental scholar that would be so daring as to claim it was. A local flood would solve all these chronology questions. Ralph Woodrow points out some of the passages written by the Jewish Pharisee historian of the first century - Josephus. They indicate he did not believe every person on the planet perished in Noah's flood. It is worth recording those passages here. Josephus writes concerning the words of Nicolaus of Demascus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia ... upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote" (Antiquities of the Jews - 1957 edition, 1, 3:6). Josephus goes on to say: "Now the sons of Noah were three ... these first of all descended from the mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitation there; and persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loth to come down from the higher places, to venture to follow their examples. Now the plain in which they first dwelt was called Shinar." (Ibid., 1, 4:1). Who might have been those others who were persuaded to come down from the high places? Woodrow takes us back to Genesis 4 and 5. EVIDENCE MOST HAVE NEVER NOTICED! In the fourth and fifth chapters of Genesis two family lines are mentioned descending from Adam, the line of which Noah was part, the other line being Adam, Enoch, etc. and Lamech and his three sons - Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain. Most universal flood teachers would say all these were destroyed in the flood, that is both lines, except Noah of course and his three sons, were killed in the flood. As Woodrow points out, that gives us a problem, for Moses who wrote Genesis speaks of descendants of Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain, as STILL LIVING when he wrote Genesis. Note it: Genesis 4:20-22. "Jabal ... was the father of such as DWELL in tents, and of such as HAVE cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as HANDLE the harp and organ. And... Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron (Genesis 4:20-22). Did you notice it? The writer says "DWELL" not "dwelled" and they "HAVE" not "had" cattle. They "HANDLE" the harp not "handled" If they had all been killed in the flood, this tense of the words used would be incorrect! Woodrow then gives two quotes, one form the INTERPRETERS BIBLE which say they were "nomads, musicians, and metal workers existing at the time of writing." and HASTING'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS, which states, "...this wording implies 'an unbroken history of civilization' and that the writer of this section did not, obviously, regard the flood as 'a universal Deluge.'" Were some of these descendants of this line of people, the Indians of Canada and North America that claim they have been in North America for at least 10,000 years? Or people closer to home as when Moses wrote all this, but knowing that some people in a different area of the known world at the time, had indeed not been effected by the flood of Noah's day. From the tense of the words he used it would indeed imply this was the case. Genesis 10 tells us how the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth divided and migrated. or as the Hebrew word used for "divided" can mean - "dispersed" (Strong's concordance #6504). Woodrow's thoughts are that the descendants of the three sons of Noah were dispersed among other nations that were not effected by the flood. It certainly is food for thought when we take everything else we have seen into consideration. There are those who believe that there are great problems with trying to claim all peoples of the earth descended from Noah's three sons. One of those problems Ralph Woodrow brings out in his study is the huge population of some parts of the earth and its cities, in a very relatively short span of time after Noah's flood. LARGE POPULATIONS? According to Genesis 10:8-12 we have only three generations to a mighty area of the world by Nimrod. A few generations later we have Abraham travelling among large populations and well developed nations of people. We can see from Genesis 15:19-21 that Canaan was populated by many tribes of people. Woodrow points out that 26 cities in Canaan are mentioned in Genesis at this time in history. He then talks about what Genesis 12:15 tells us about Egypt and Genesis 14:1-16 about certain kinds who had captured Lot. Woodrow calculated for us the time from Shem becoming a father in Genesis 11 to the time Terah, the father of Abraham, and it adds up to 222 years. No one is completely sure how old Terah was when Abraham was born, but even allowing 75 years or so, say a total of 300 years, from Noah's flood to the birth of Abraham, that time span can hardly allow for the great nations and cities that we find in existence at Abraham's time. Let's say Shem, Ham, and Japheth each had 76 children between them, that gives us 76 people on earth, plus Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives (6 of them) - a total of 82 people on earth for one generation. But pairs for reproduction would be 38 pairs, rounding it off. Say those 38 pairs all had 30 children (being very generous here for sure), that gives us 1,140 people plus the 76, and if Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives were still alive, we can add them in also. But let's just take the 1,140 - that gives is 570 pairs for reproduction. If they all had 30 children we would have 17,100 people plus the 1,140, plus the 76, plus the 6, if still all alive back to just after Noah's flood. We could go on like this for a few more generations until Abraham was born. Not that many people on earth by the time of Abraham, and I have been very generous I would say with how many children each couple had, and I did not include some children dying as children, or from death in other ways. The way Genesis reads at the time of Abraham the population of even just that part of the world reads like a MUCH LARGER population than could EVER have come from just 8 people left alive on Noah's ark. But the universal flood advocates are at this point very willing to agree that the chronology in the Bible and that used by Usher as about 400 B.C. for the creation of mankind, is FLAWED, or just is not what we should understand as it seems to read. WHEN WAS NOAH'S FLOOD? As Woodrow says the writers of "The Genesis Flood" book suggest there may be "gaps of an undetermined length in the patriarchal genealogy of Genesis." They would claim the flood of Noah's time was many centuries before what appears in the chronology of Genesis. Some hold to an Hebrew way of saying things, that saying "son of" or "so in so begat" could mean generations are missed out and only certain names are mentioned. A kind of "short hand" for what otherwise would be more pages of boring names and lists of chronology. To use such "gap" chronology here and not think of using it from Abraham to David or David to Christ, is to say the least inconsistent and the worst, trying to make your "theology ideas" fit the Bible as you choose and when you choose. As Woodrow has said in his book on this subject, "The regional flood viewpoint, on the other hand, can leave the years from the flood to Abraham exactly as they are - without gaps or guesses - allowing that only part of the world's population was destroyed. This provides a satisfactory explanation for the existence of developed civilizations only a few generations after the flood at the time of Abraham." Yet, some Christian scholars, in the last 100 years or more, with all these difficulties of a universal Noah's flood teaching, have come to say and write that Noah's flood was REGIONAL and not universal or world-wide. The land that came to be know as Mesopotamia, mainly now within the country called Iraq, is the largest lowland of the Middle East, about 45,000 square miles. Some scientists do admit that there is evidence there to believe at one time a huge inundation did take place on those plains of Iraq. Woodrow quotes from HARPER'S BIBLE DICTIONARY and the old well recognized work of M'CLINTOCK AND STRONG to add support that it is correct to understand this part of Iraq was covered with water at some time in the past, and probably that time was event of Noah's flood. There are a number of ways God could have flooded that Mesopotamia region, as Woodrow points out. With earth upheaval acting as a dam, or with the command of His voice and will as water "upright as an heap" (Exodus 15:8). As the Scriptures say, nothing is impossible with the Lord. OVERVIEW With this chapter and the previous ones, it is to me beyond reasonable doubt to conclude that there was only ONE VIOLENT UNIVERSAL flood of the entire earth, and that is the one that WAS OVER AND DONE WITH AS WE ARE BROUGHT ON THE SCENE IN GENESIS 1:2. This one universal flood destroyed the age of the world of the Dinosaurs and the huge vegetation that lived in that age. An interesting point to note here is that scientists say that some of the great Dinosaurs had such an appetite that they would have consumed today's elephant for a mid-morning snack. It was so violent that even all the sea creatures were destroyed. All upon the earth at that flood was destroyed, hence God had to create all that we read about in Genesis chapter one. It was the time when seams of coal, oil, natural gas, were created by the violence and pressure. It was the time when diamond seams were formed. It was the time when through much violence the strata we often see in rocks, such as evident in the great Canadian Rockies, was formed. So quick and violent was this flood (that was upon the earth as Genesis 1:2 tells us) that some mighty animals of that age have been found preserved in some parts of the world, still with the grass and vegetation in their mouth, that they were eating when the violent flood covered them. What many have tried to attribute to the flood of Noah's time, was in actual fact done by the violent flood that came upon the earth through the battle Satan the Devil and his angels had with the Eternal God and His righteous angels. The scares of this battle can still be seen on places like the earth's moon and the planet Mars. I have covered this battle and that ancient age in other studies on this Website. ................................................. TO BE CONTINUED Noah's Flood - Universal? #5In search of Noah's Ark
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