“Was
it Noah’s Flood or
Lucifer’s?”
It
is the gappists’ belief
that the following passage refers to ‘Lucifer’s flood’ and not to
Noah’s.
“For
this they willingly are
ignorant of, that by the word of God the
heavens were of old,
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Whereby the
world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:” (2Pet
3:5-6)
They
believe that it was
‘Lucifer’s flood’ that resulted in the earth being covered with water
in Gen
1:2.
As
always, let’s study to
show ourselves approved unto no-one else but God himself.
Put
it this way, the only mention of any flood in either
of
the two Peters (1Pet 3:20 and 2 Pet 2:5) is that of Noah’s.
So would it be natural to assume that the flood mentioned
in 2Pet 3:5-6, would also be that of Noah.
From
all accounts,
‘everyone’ on earth was and is aware of Noah’s flood. If anyone was
going to be
willingly ignorant of a flood, it would have to be this one. Sure,
there are
people who don’t know about Noah’s flood, and these people would simply
classed
as “ignorant” but not “willingly ignorant”.
Put
it this way, if you know
about something, but choose not to
believe it, you are what is termed “willingly ignorant”. If something
is well
known by people in general, then they can also choose to be “willingly
ignorant”.
Now
when Peter was writing,
everyone in the world, and a higher percentage than today perhaps,
would have
known about the flood that occurred 2,400 years previous in 2340BC.
Should
Peter have been
referring to another flood, you would think that he would have told us
and mentioned
it in his two epistles – but he doesn’t. The only flood mentioned is
that of
Noah. So the reader naturally, and rightfully assumes, that it is the
flood of
Noah that Peter talks about.
Scoffers
Certainly
today, this is the
case that there are scoffers who are willingly ignorant of Noah’s
flood. Why?
They simply choose to.
The
evidence is there in the
Bible with its detailed description in the Old Testament. They all have
seen
the classic movies of decades ago. We all have been reminded of the
modern
movies of Russell Crowe and Steve Farrell playing Noah.
We
all know of the movie
called “2012”, where the Tibetan monk is gonging his bell as the waters
rush
over the highest of the snow capped mountains on earth.
People
are occasionally
reminded in the newspapers of some archeological dig unearthing some
bits and
pieces of the ark and so on.
As
the movie actor Paladin
would say “Believe it or Not!”. They simply choose not to.
Now
as there is nothing in
the scriptures about Lucifer’s flood, we could be excused for being
ignorant of
it, but certainly not willingly ignorant.
However,
the same doesn’t
apply to Noah’s flood. However, one could not be willingly ignorant of
a flood
that God had never revealed to them in his word.
In
Peter’s epistles, there
is only one flood mentioned – Noah’s. Never Lucifer’s.
In
all of scriptures, there
is only one flood mentioned – Noah’s. Never Lucifer’s.
The
case is clear, there is only one flood you could only
be
accused of being ignorant of, willing or otherwise – Noah’s.
Lucifer’s
flood never
happened.
2
Pet 3:5-6 states ‘the heavens’ and were of old. Can we say ‘the earth’
was of
old?
Yes
– by association we can.
“For
this they willingly are
ignorant of, that by the word of God the
heavens were of old, and the earth standing out
of the
water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished:” (2Pet
3:5-6)
Can
we say ‘the world’ was of old?
Yes,
the English is very clear – the world that then was
Do
we know when this ‘old
world’ was?
Yes.
Turn to 2 Peter 2:5 and
we see the term ‘old world’
mentioned –
And
spared not the old world, but saved Noah
the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (2 Pet 2:5)
Noah
was spared, so
therefore it was Noah’s flood that
hit the old world.
So
2 Peter 3:5-6 refers to
Noah’s flood?
Correct.
What
about ‘the world that then was …perished’?
Gappists
assume that because
Noah and his family were spared, the world didn’t perish, and as such,
this
must be referring to an earlier disaster in which everything and
everyone was
destroyed.
There
are a couple of points
here:
First,
despite what gappists
think, the world did perish. We see that
And
every
living substance was destroyed which
was upon the face of the ground, both
man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven;
and they
were destroyed from the earth: and Noah
only remained alive, and
they that were with him in the
ark.
(Gen
7:23)
You
see, about 120 years earlier, God has separated
Noah and his family from the world and so when the passage says every
living substance was destroyed,
this is not
referring to Noah and his family. Certainly when Noah was on the ark,
he wasn’t
part of the world.
The
world vs the earth
People
get confused between the terms of world
and earth. The former
is the system that operates on the earth
today where the god of this world,
satan blinds the minds of them that won’t believe (2 Cor 4:4).
It
is the people, the society and the government and so on that makes up
the world
and the world’s system (Gal 4:3). Further understanding is gleaned from
scripture, as inhabitants of the world
are dwellers upon the earth
(Is
18:3) and the kingdoms of the world are upon
the face of the earth (Is
23:17).
So
God’s flood at the time
of Noah brought destruction of the world and the inhabitants of the
world – and
Noah was not part of that!
Similarly
today, Christians
live in this world but are not of this world.
If
ye were of the world, the world would love his
own: but because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you.
(John 15:19)
and
again
I
have given them thy word; and the world hath
hated them, because they are not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14).
So
as a Christian, you are not in the world, but in
Christ. Similarly, as the ark was a type of Christ,
Noah was not
in the world either, as he was in a type of Christ.
But
aren’t there three earths?
If
you mean the following,
there is a problem:
Earth
1:
prior to Gen 1:2
Earth
2:
this current earth
Earth
3:
the one that God has yet to create as described in the following two
verses:
For,
behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the
former shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind. (Is 65:17)
and
Nevertheless
we, according to his promise, look for
new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2Pet
3:13)
However,
if we look at Rev 21:1, it states that the earth we are now on is the
first
earth and not the second.
And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the
first heaven and the first earth were
passed away; and there
was no more sea. (Rev 21:1)
Now,
surely if there are three earths, God would say the
second earth?
Conclusion
…
The
evidence is crystal clear, that there has only
ever been
one
flood in the Bible, and that is not Lucifer’s.
************************************
By Harley Hitchcock
Australian
Bible Ministries, PO
Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com