As Were the Days of Noah (by the Ed)

The recent release of the scripturally inaccurate film ‘Noah’ has generated an interest in the life and times of this godly biblical character. The Lord Jesus Christ also brought attention to Noah and this time period when He likened the days prior to His second coming to the days which preceded the flood; people dwelling on the pre-flood earth demonstrated wilful rejection and indifference to the Word of God, despite this Word having been faithfully delivered unto them for 120 years through Noah’s preaching of righteousness and the accompanying visible sign of God’s impending judgement and means of escape - the ark! The days prior to the world wide deluge contained such high levels of wickedness and violence that the Lord said “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.......The earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. ” Genesis 6:5 & 11-12.

The spread of sin prior to the flood was a direct consequence of the rejection of God’s Word; as the end of this age draws to a conclusion, the masses are once again wilfully rejecting God’s Word and the warnings contained therein; therefore corruption, violence and deep apostasy, that to date has been withheld by God’s Law, will once again cover the face of the earth during the tribulation period prior to the Lord’s return. (See 2 Thessalonians 2)

According to the scriptures, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah also demonstrated a similar indifference to the Word of God resulting in gross immorality prior to their judgement: “Likewise was it also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat and drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded...” Luke 17:28.

Whilst it is true that in terms of sin there is no new thing under the sun, during the coming days of tribulation, the world’s masses will once again display such an apathy and contempt for the Word of God that the violence and corruption evidenced in Noah’s days and the gross immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah will combine to produce an intensity of sin and debauchery that has never before been witnessed upon earth!

It is not too difficult to see how this will be enabled to occur as successive world governments who once honoured God’s Word are rapidly rejecting the biblical laws and principals upon which their nations were founded and replacing them with man centered laws and philosophies (e.g. The Human Rights Act, Equality legislation etc). These humanistic laws, which deliberately disregard God’s Law, lack the power needed to hold back the forces of sin and depravity and by their implementation, the governments of this world are unwittingly setting the stage for the great tribulation and the appearance of the lawless one (i.e. the man of sin/Antichrist).

Great Britain and other nations were made great because of their respect and adherence to God’s laws but their setting aside of God’s righteous standards and a disregard for God’s Word has opened up the global flood gates for some of the most heinous crimes to be committed during the final days of this age. Many of these crimes are already being perpetrated against some of the most vulnerable people in society (e.g. the unborn child via abortion and older/disabled/terminally ill people via euthanasia).

The following quote from an article by Herbert J Galley in the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony quarterly magazine ‘Watching and Waiting’ provides a timely reminder of what took place in Germany during the 20th Century as a direct consequence of the undermining, denying and setting aside of the Word of God:

“.....During the Great War a Free Church Minister said to me 'Galley, such a strange young fellow came into my vestry last night. He actually believed in the Bible from cover to cover.' 'Oh,' I said, 'Fancy that. You had a young man like that in these days of enlightenment?' 'Yes,' he said. 'Well,' I said, 'I think I would like to comment upon that. Luther was led by the Spirit of God to give the German people the Word of God, and the Word of God made them great, but when the destructive critics destroyed the confidence of the German people in the Word of God, then, inasmuch as human nature is so constituted that it must bow to some authority, it ceased to bow to the authority of the Word of God, and ceasing to bow to the Word, the German people bowed to the philosophy of Nietzache, who took from the Darwinian theory the idea of 'The survival of the fittest' and taught the German people that they had the right as the fittest nation on earth, to survive. Treitschke took the philosophy of Nietzache and made of it practical politics, and it was taught in most of the German universities, and then the military party applied this principle to the army. Now you have hell with the lid off, and it all came about because a nation ceased to believe in the Bible from cover to cover. If the whole of the German nation and the whole of other nations had been of the same belief as that strange young man that came into your vestry last night, who believed the Old Book from cover to cover, you would never have had the welter of blood today.'.....Trace it all back to denial of the Supreme Sovereignty of God in every sphere - in the State, in the Church and in the individual's experience.....” (Galley 1938)

Throughout global societies there is increasing evidence of a rejection and intolerance to Biblical teaching by Christians who dare to preach that the Lord Jesus Christ alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life; and woe to anyone who dares to raise their voice against sin, apostasy or false religion!

What should the child of God do during these times of increasing intolerance and lawlessness? No better example can be found than that of Noah’s patient endurance; despite the sin abounding all around him and obvious rejection of God’s Word, he persevered in preaching God’s righteous standards for 120 years; concluding all under sin yet setting forth God’s gracious provision of salvation in the form of the ark (a type of salvation found in The Lord Jesus Christ) for those who would flee to Him from the wrath to come.

The Lord has provided Believers living in the latter days of this age with something Noah did not possess - the complete Canon of Scripture - and by the precious promises contained therein the Lord’s people can find an abundance of encouragement and comfort to help them endure the days of tribulation and persecution that most certainly lie ahead in the not too distant future, after which; “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. WHEREFORE COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.