Hello Vernon,
You wrote: the ark was never intended to house more than 8 people (Gen.6:18);
all the
remaining accomodation was for the animals (Gen.6:19,20)! Have you no better
explanation to suggest?
That is only your understanding. The text of Genesis, including the verses
you cite, do not actually say what you imply that they say. In Gen. 6:18 God
tells Noah that He will establish a covenant with him and that he and his
family are to enter the ark. God does not say that no one else is allowed to
also enter the ark. Gen. 6:19,20 does not say that all the remaining space on
the ark was to be filled by animals. These verses only say that animals were
to be taken on the ark.
Peter called Noah "a preacher of righteousness." (2 Pet. 2:5) What did he
mean by that? There is only one thing he could have meant. For there has
always been only one basic message of "righteousness" which God's servants
have preached. That message is "Repent and be saved." Jonah preached it.
God's many prophets sent to Israel and Judah preached it. John the baptist
preached it. Jesus preached it. And Peter himself preached it. Peter strongly
urged everyone he preached to to "Repent." He told them to do so in order to
"Save yourself from this corrupt generation." (Acts 2:38-40) According to
you, Peter was telling us that Noah was an entirely different kind of
"preacher of righteousness," one quite different from himself and from every
other "preacher of righteousness" whom God had ever commissioned, one who did
not urge people to repent and one who offered those he preached to no way to
save themselves from their corrupt generation. If that is what you are saying
I can only say that I believe you are badly mistaken. To preach righteousness
is to urge people to begin living their lives in a righteous manner, with the
expectation of receiving blessings by God as a result. To be "a preacher of
righteousness" has always meant just that and it has never meant anything
else.
You wrote: What you appear to miss in Gen.6:17 is that the One who speaks his
intention knew Earth to be a sphere and the "heavens" to extend beyond what
Noah sees above his head.
Apparently, God was speaking to Noah from Noah's perspective, not from His
own perspective.
You wrote: Whether or not Noah understood what the Lord really had in mind is
beside the point. Clearly, we today are in a more privileged position than he.
The only way we can know for sure "what the Lord had in mind" is to see what
the Lord did. The evidence shows that the Lord did not bring a global flood.
So the Lord could not have had a global flood in mind.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike
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