What did the Flood Prove?

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

I've been reading the story of the flood and have also looked into its parallels in other mythology.

Discussing this from a Christian Point of view I wonder what was the point of the flood.

In the story of the Flood, God has gotten so angry with Man that it is decided that the only way to solve the problem is to flood the earth and destroy all life.

But what did this accomplish?

In this particular case we see an opportunity for God to start over again (and a willingness to possibly do so or not at all), by wiping out all life. New forms could be created who follow the rules that Adam and Eve had failed to. By also doing so, it would appear that with the death of man would also be the death of Sin.

But God still saves Noah because he was righteous and through Noah the rest of the human race is able to continue.

But this doesn't solve the Sin problem. Nor does it give a chance for others to repent (Also did Noah tell others? I remember reasing that he had, but i'm looking at the NIV version and he apparently doesn't in chapters 6 and 7 which tells the flood story :/).

The deaths of all these individuals did nothing more but appease God for a short time, but it did nothing to actual remedy the actual problem of Sin.

What do you all think the point of the narrative was? It doesn't seem to fit with the Christian Idea that after death we are judged for our actions as the death given to them was a judgement for their actions, though I can be wrong in my reading of it.

I am trying not to go into interpretation and just read the chapter as it is presented.

But if any want to get into that as well I am open to the debate.

 

[SonofSonofGod]

The Flood stopped the Tyranny of the Anunnaki so that God could lead people back to righteousness.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

The Flood stopped the Tyranny of the Anunnaki so that God could lead people back to righteousness.

Who are the Anunnaki??

 

[Willamena]

The Flood is effectively a second creation story. God returns the world to a pre-creation state so that humanity can start over. The point is the convenant by which "new humanity" will abide.

 

[Willamena]

But this doesn't solve the Sin problem.

The story is Judaic. It's not about "solving" sin.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

The story is Judaic. It's not about "solving" sin.

I understand that, which is why I'm looking at it through a Christians lense. In Judaism it works well, in Christianity not so much.

 

[RedJamaX]

Who are the Anunnaki??

Anunnaki are the gods of Mesopotamia. I'm not a biblical scholar, but I've never heard of them being mentioned in the bible... (certainly not by name)

Perhaps somebody is just trying to tie in some sort of archeological knowledge to suggest some kind of truth to the fable...

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

Anunnaki are the gods of Mesopotamia. I'm not a biblical scholar, but I've never heard of them being mentioned in the bible... (certainly not by name)

Perhaps somebody is just trying to tie in some sort of archeological knowledge to suggest some kind of truth to the fable...

I actually are familiar with them in that case, I thought that he was using the name for something else.

 

[SonofSonofGod]

Anunnaki are the gods of Mesopotamia. I'm not a biblical scholar, but I've never heard of them being mentioned in the bible... (certainly not by name)

Perhaps somebody is just trying to tie in some sort of archeological knowledge to suggest some kind of truth to the fable...

Indeed. From Zecharia Sitchin Wiki page.

Similar to earlier authors such as Immanuel Velikovsky and Erich von Däniken, Sitchin advocated hypotheses in which extraterrestrial events supposedly played a significant role in ancient human history.
According to Sitchin's interpretation of Mesopotamian iconography and symbology, outlined in his 1976 book The 12th Planet and its sequels, there is an undiscovered planet beyond Neptune that follows a long, elliptical orbit, reaching the inner solar system roughly every 3,600 years. This planet is called Nibiru (although Jupiter was the planet associated with the god Marduk in Babylonian cosmology).[5] According to Sitchin, Nibiru (whose name was replaced with MARDUK in original legends by the Babylonian ruler of the same name in an attempt to co-opt the creation for himself, leading to some confusion among readers) collided catastrophically with Tiamat (a goddess in the Babylonian creation myth the Enûma Eliš), which he considers to be another planet once located between Mars and Jupiter. This collision supposedly formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the comets. Sitchin states that when struck by one of planet Nibiru's moons, Tiamat split in two, and then on a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken fragments and one half of Tiamat became the asteroid belt. The second half, struck again by one of Nibiru's moons, was pushed into a new orbit and became today's planet Earth.
According to Sitchin, Nibiru (called "the twelfth planet" because, Sitchin claimed, the Sumerians' gods-given conception of the Solar System counted all eight planets, plus Pluto, the Sun and the Moon) was the home of a technologically advanced human-like extraterrestrial race called the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth, who Sitchin states are called the Nephilim in Genesis. He wrote that they evolved after Nibiru entered the solar system and first arrived on Earth probably 450,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined in Africa. Sitchin states that these "gods" were the rank-and-file workers of the colonial expedition to Earth from planet Nibiru.
Sitchin wrote that Enki suggested that to relieve the Anunnaki, who had mutinied over their dissatisfaction with their working conditions, that primitive workers (Homo sapiens) be created by genetic engineering as slaves to replace them in the gold mines by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of Homo erectus.[6][7] According to Sitchin, ancient inscriptions report that the human civilization in Sumer, Mesopotamia, was set up under the guidance of these "gods", and human kingship was inaugurated to provide intermediaries between mankind and the Anunnaki (creating the "divine right of kings" doctrine). Sitchin believes that fallout from nuclear weapons, used during a war between factions of the extraterrestrials, is the "evil wind" described in the Lament for Ur that destroyed Ur around 2000 BC. Sitchin states the exact year is 2024 BC.[8] Sitchin says that his research coincides with many biblical texts, and that biblical texts come originally from Sumerian writings.

 

[ChristineES]

I believe the story, since it has similarities to stories of different cultures, was a word-of-mouth type legend or allegory. I believe it might be a story about the separation of humans and God, not a literal story. But I am no Bible scholar, so what I say is just a guess.

 

[Ouroboros]

But what did this accomplish?

Also, God supposedly knew that it wouldn't work, but did it anyway... senseless and useless violence.

Unless we can see that the God of the old was not omniscient or even good. The God in that story is much more like humans with emotions, regret, limited knowledge, and so on. God as a powerful creator but still very human in nature. This show that the story was made a long time before the ideas of God as good, omniscience, omnipresent, etc was invented.

Basically, then we can see that God is probably jealous and wants revenge on humanity. Sin in that story is to worship other gods than the Godfather. He will place a horse head in your bed unless you kiss his ring.

 

[SonofSonofGod]

Also, God supposedly knew that it wouldn't work, but did it anyway... senseless and useless violence.

Unless we can see that the God of the old was not omniscient or even good. The God in that story is much more like humans with emotions, regret, limited knowledge, and so on. God as a powerful creator but still very human in nature. This show that the story was made a long time before the ideas of God as good, omniscience, omnipresent, etc was invented.

Basically, then we can see that God is probably jealous and wants revenge on humanity. Sin in that story is to worship other gods than the Godfather. He will place a horse head in your bed unless you kiss his ring.

Perhaps Jehovah knew what would happen all along but Elohim did not know.

 

[outhouse]

The Flood is effectively a second creation story. God returns the world to a pre-creation state so that humanity can start over..

Imagine that! coming from a cultures whos lives and were destroyed by more advanced cultures, and started over again


I personally think back in their days, all flood mythology was entertainment while placing morals and theology within its structure.

 

[Ouroboros]

Perhaps Jehovah knew what would happen all along but Elohim did not know.

Yup. Sounds like a multiple personality disorder God though. OH... wait... 3 in 1... now I got it.

 

[johnhanks]

In the story of the Flood, God has gotten so angry with Man that it is decided that the only way to solve the problem is to flood the earth and destroy all life.

But what did this accomplish?

The definitive version.

 

[Skwim]

I've been reading the story of the flood and have also looked into its parallels in other mythology.

Discussing this from a Christian Point of view I wonder what was the point of the flood.

There isn't any. It was an exercise in futility.

But what did this accomplish?

Bupkis. Once again god failed at the human-making thing.

 

[yoda89]

Because the Christian god messed up and had try again.

 

[idav]

The flood shows that the bible god is a schizophrenic that doesn't know whether he wants to save or kill all the animals. If he wanted to save them then why flood the place in the first place, unless some other warlord was flooding the place and Yahweh was just covering their tracks.

 

[InChrist]

I've been reading the story of the flood and have also looked into its parallels in other mythology.

Discussing this from a Christian Point of view I wonder what was the point of the flood.

In the story of the Flood, God has gotten so angry with Man that it is decided that the only way to solve the problem is to flood the earth and destroy all life.

But what did this accomplish?

I believe the accomplishment of the flood was to eliminate the violence and corruption which had filled the earth (Gen. 6:11-12) preventing human self-destruction at that point which has allowed more time for millions to turn to God.

In this particular case we see an opportunity for God to start over again (and a willingness to possibly do so or not at all), by wiping out all life. New forms could be created who follow the rules that Adam and Eve had failed to. By also doing so, it would appear that with the death of man would also be the death of Sin.

But God still saves Noah because he was righteous and through Noah the rest of the human race is able to continue.

But this doesn't solve the Sin problem. Nor does it give a chance for others to repent (Also did Noah tell others? I remember reasing that he had, but i'm looking at the NIV version and he apparently doesn't in chapters 6 and 7 which tells the flood story :/).

I don't believe the flood was meant to solve the sin problem. But I think there was an extended period of time for people to repent as 2 Peter 2:5 states that Noah was ...a preacher of righteousness.

The deaths of all these individuals did nothing more but appease God for a short time, but it did nothing to actual remedy the actual problem of Sin.

What do you all think the point of the narrative was? It doesn't seem to fit with the Christian Idea that after death we are judged for our actions as the death given to them was a judgement for their actions, though I can be wrong in my reading of it.

I am trying not to go into interpretation and just read the chapter as it is presented.

But if any want to get into that as well I am open to the debate.

As I sated above I don't believe the flood was meant to solve the sin problem or eliminate sin. Nor were the deaths of everyone in anyway an appeasement to God from my view. I think from reading other scriptures it is shown that when humanity becomes united in following the evil intents of their sinful thoughts to the point where corruption is the norm and humans are on the bring of destroying themselves and the earth...God steps in and either confuses human plans (Gen. 11) or destroys the wicked delivering a few humans to start anew (Noah and his family/Lot and his family) delaying the destruction and end of all humanity for the sake of giving many more future people life on earth and the opportunity to turn to God for eternal life.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

I believe the accomplishment of the flood was to eliminate the violence and corruption which had filled the earth (Gen. 6:11-12) preventing human self-destruction at that point which has allowed more time for millions to turn to God.

I don't believe the flood was meant to solve the sin problem. But I think there was an extended period of time for people to repent as 2 Peter 2:5 states that Noah was ...a preacher of righteousness.


As I sated above I don't believe the flood was meant to solve the sin problem or eliminate sin. Nor were the deaths of everyone in anyway an appeasement to God from my view. I think from reading other scriptures it is shown that when humanity becomes united in following the evil intents of their sinful thoughts to the point where corruption is the norm and humans are on the bring of destroying themselves and the earth...God steps in and either confuses human plans (Gen. 11) or destroys the wicked delivering a few humans to start anew (Noah and his family/Lot and his family) delaying the destruction and end of all humanity for the sake of giving many more future people life on earth and the opportunity to turn to God for eternal life.

I can't agree with Genesis 11, as there was no indication that man was trying to destroy themselves. Rather their entire purpose was to stick together, that was the purpose of the tower. It does not speak of pride, rather it is pointed out that if they stick together there is nothing that they cannot accomplish...which was the main reason they were dispersed.

However even if the wicked are destroyed it still does not remedy the actual issue which is wickedness itself. I find that the flood was a perfect opportunity to remedy such a problem.