Another Noah's Ark question?

Question

There is currently another question about Noah's Flood open right now, so I thought I'd bring forth another one.

One part of that story that is a little hard for me to believe is that of all the people that were on the Earth at that time, Noah and his family were the ONLY good people left. I'm not saying that it definitely didn't happen, but still.

Also...the Bible says that the reason God sent the flood was that people were totally wicked. I think that if they were that wicked, they would have attacked (and probably killed) Noah and his family when they saw them building this big ark--which to them would have seemed ridiculous. You could say that God could have kept them from hurting Noah, and He very well could have, but if He could have done that, why didn't He keep the people from going bad in the first place?

Some of you may think that the above idea is silly, but if I were to start building an ark in the middle of some bad city slum, saying that a big flood was coming...

Get the picture?

Hmmm...either I didn't word things very well, or some of you are missing the point. I'm questioning how it could be possible that Noah and his family were the ONLY good people left in the world. Also, if the other people were so bad, why didn't they hurt Noah and his family while they were building the ark? If I were to start building a big boat in the middle of a bad city slum, while predicting a genocidal deluge, I'm sure I would eventually be the object of physical aggression.

Answer 1

Going back to Gen 6:2 & 4 were see that the sons of God (fallen angels) had s-e-x with human women who bore children which were a race of giants, mighty men of renown (think of any culture and their ancient myths). This was a complete abonimation of God's plan for humanity and was part of Satan's plan to prevert what God had created. And it wasn't just that the people were wicked, EVERY intent of the thoughts of his heart was ONLY evil CONTINUALLY...it was corrupt.. all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, he was a JUST man, PERFECT in his generations, Noah walked with God. Only Noah, of all the people in the world, kept his eyes on the Lord. Also keep in mind that the world wasn't populated a fraction of what it is now, I'm thinking (my interpretation) is that since he walked with God, he probably kept himself separated from these other people. When you consider how large the ark was, he most certainly didn't build it in the middle of some city. The Bible makes no reference as to where it was built. It doesn't say anything about the other people's reaction to him building this ark, so perhaps they didn't know about it or if they did they just thought he was off in the head and left him alone. It also doesn't say anywhere that Noah preached that a flood was coming, God did not tell him to tell anyone else. I think that info was for him and his family alone. It took about 100 years to build this thing, which would have taken tons of wood, so obviously it had to have been built near a forest, again not in a city. Personally I think Noah lived far away from the influence of "civilization" and was also under God's protection.
As far as the dating of the flood and these other civilizations rising (ie, pyramids of Egypt), first of all people didn't evolve over billions of years and there was no "birth control" As early as Genesis 4 people are building cities, working with metals, playing instruments, lived in tents and had a handle on agriculture. God created man "in His image," with an infinite capacity for creative intelligence. Look what the US has done with technology in just a mere 150 years. After the flood, Noah's sons got busy, having lots of children and building new cities. Shem decendents veered toward the Asian continent, Ham to Africa and Japheth to Europe. The differences in color, height, hair, face shape etc. etc. etc. speaks of the huge genetic pool that God equipped man paired up with environmental factors.

Answer 2

Noah was the only person that followed God without question. An example of this would be the Ark, why build an ark in the middle of the desert? Also, the people in the near-by villages, why waste time attacking a crazy man that hears voices from an invisible man in the sky that told him to build a big boat in the middle of the desert because of a flood. Get the pic?

Answer 3

Yes Christians do believe. Noah and his family were not the only people on the earth at that time. Whatever gave you that idea? There were plenty of people to help build an arc. It was because of the abject sin of others that God decided they had to go. God found Noah and his family to be righteous. While there is much symbolism in the Bible this was not such. Noah didn't go throughout the world and round up two of each, God did this for him. With God all things are possible, but then you don't believe in God. There are no parts of the Bible which are lies, where do you get such ideas? Yours appears to be a willful denial of God and scripture. This is not shocking, most atheists are such. I hope your interest carries you further into the Word of God and you find a good Bible study group.

Answer 4

There were other righteous people on the earth, for instance, Methuselah died the year of the flood. Others may have been killed as you have stated by the wicked world. It was Satan's plan to kill off all mankind to bring God's plan of a Redeemer born in the line of Seth to naught. However, God preserved Noah and His family. You should thank Him for this. Otherwise, you would not be here.

Answer 5

I think you're working under the false assumption that most Jews and Christians read the Noah's ark story as history. This simply isn't true. I'm a mainstream, mainline Christian (ELCA) who's studied the Bible in an academic setting and in the context of continuing theological education through my denomination -- biblical scholars no more think of Noah's ark as history than they would "The Cat in the Hat." It's a faith story -- what my pastor likes to call a "Hebrew campfire story." It's about God "coming down," so to speak, and saving humanity from itself.

If I may be so bold...I think you're asking the wrong questions about this story, i.e., "How can it be factual?" It can't...so you're going to have to think about it in a different way. If you can get your hands on a copy of Bill Moyers' "Genesis" PBS series, where he invited a group of theologians, laypeople, artists and writers representing all three Abrahamic religions as well as "interested others" -- it's a great ongoing roundtable conversation about this and other Genesis stories, which gets to the real truths embedded in them, which have nothing to do with natural history.

Answer 6

That which does not conform to God’s standard of moral excellence is wicked, bad, evil, or worthless.

No doubt as we evaluate a good person, there were good people living on the earth at that time, but in the Bible that is not consider a good person, a good person in the Bible is: "one who's worship is acceptable to God" if you are not worshiping God in the proper way, you are consider a wicked person.

That is why all of those people lost their lives, their worship was not acceptable to God, they knew who God was, they knew about the Garden of Eden, only Noah and his family were worshiping God and doing what He told them to do, build and Ark, preach to the people about the coming end, no one listened to Noah.

Answer 7

Just an opinion mostly, because I was not there.

I am not sure what your question is exactly but I have read that at least one of Noah's sons was not keen on the ark idea at all.

I am sure Noah was riduculed. We question many things in this world now that some people do, but don't necessarily kill them because of it. My guess, he was the laughing stock of his community..and they thought him to be nuts.

God gave mankind "free will" to decide what kinda life we want to lead. If people were evil or wicked, it was by their choice, not gods.

Answer 8

The Bible is silent on this, but when Noah warned everyone around him that there was to be an impending flood, they MUST have mocked him, elsewise, they would have been safe with him in the ark, and not probably pounding on the door to the ark to be let in after God closed the door......

Answer 9

Biblically the world wide flood happened a mere few thousand years ago....close to the time of the building of Great pyramid of Giza. All the people of all the civilizations lived...imagine that..also for a brain stumper...Noah's fable proves evolution....how did black people, chinese people come from Noah's family line...lol

Answer 10

You didn't word it wrong, they weren't listening.The people back then were wicked in different ways, no morals, orgies, ect... And the world was not as populated as it is now. Noah ended up being the object of ridicule. They didn't want to hurt him, they wanted to laugh at him.