Is God Good for Destroying the World with the Flood?

Not for the Felt Board

There comes a time in the lives of many individuals where they stop seeing Noah’s ark as a cute story with animals, and start seeing it as the greatest destructive disaster of all time. Militant atheists will use this to seed doubt in God’s goodness, kindness, or love, while others are left confused and discouraged. Doubts arise as to whether God changes in nature between the Old and New Testaments even to the point of wondering if Christians simply imagined up a God who would be kinder and gentler than the one they read about in the Old Testament. There are two routes we could take to vindicate God’s goodness:

1) We could study the scripture regarding the great flood and meticulously explain why God is still good, or

2) We could look at the underlying beliefs and sympathies of the doubting heart that serve as the foundation for the doubts about God.

While option 1) will be important in the long run, option 2) will provide the deepest peace and the fullest understanding about the heart of the issue. God will not merely be defended, but trusted. Furthermore, this approach will be applicable across many other difficult passages and cause our study to be sanctifying and enlightening, to our eternal benefit.

Who is God?

If we are going to investigate whether or not the great flood is consistent with God’s character, we need to start by knowing what God’s character is. The most fundamentally and vastly understood attribute of God is the simple statement, “God is good.” Certainly there are unnumbered other glorious attributes of God, but this one can be most immediately helpful. To say that God is good is like saying that the ocean is wet. It’s true, but a gigantic understatement. The Bible’s declaration is that God is, “Holy, holy, holy.” Three times repeated, God wants us to know how emphatically holy God is.

Isaiah’s Peek

The first place we see “Holy, holy, holy” as a description of God is in Isaiah 6. In prophetic vision, Isaiah witnesses a heavenly angel call out to another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” You would expect for Isaiah to be thrilled at his opportunity to witness the holiness of God, and that perhaps he would be overjoyed to see how monumentally good God is. Instead, we see something absolutely terrifying. Isaiah does not explode with joy, nor even crack a smile, but rather cries out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

The Implications of Holiness

Isaiah was not a new prophet here, for he had already received two visions by this point. Yet it was not until Isaiah saw the holiness of the Lord that he cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah was scared for his life, and probably for his soul. He knew that he was a sinner and was terrified because he saw God’s holiness. In other words, Isaiah presumed that he was generally a pretty clean guy until he saw what true holiness really is.

Woe is You

Most people have never honestly felt Isaiah’s feeling that would lead him to cry, “Woe is me.” Most of us are content to say, “Woe is you,” to the Hitlers or the Fred Phelps of the world, but rarely do we find ourselves terrified of God’s judgment. We are not terrified because we do not feel like we are sinners. If we do feel like we are sinners, we tend to think that we still are not really that bad. The reason we do not feel bad about our sin is because we have such a feeble grasp on how holy God really is. We have no real standard of good because we tend to neglect reading God’s law, which compares us to his holiness. In one sense, when we sing about how holy God is, we should start trying to avoid lightning bolts. Yet, just as Isaiah’s sins are atoned for by God through a burning coal, so believers’ sins are atoned for by Jesus death on the cross.

Back to the Point

So what does all of this have to do with Noah and the great flood? In Genesis 6, the passage about the flood, God gives his reason for destroying the earth with the flood: The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. In other words, the population of the earth would have been worthy to say, “Woe is me,” but they didn’t, to their own harm. God has always held woeful wrath against the unholy, but his wrath does not delay forever. When viewed biblically, the great flood is not a tragic natural disaster, but God’s judgment finally being expressed after extreme patience. The previous chapter of Genesis, chapter 5, is a genealogy from Adam to Noah, where men lived to be outrageously old. In other words, God was outrageously patient with them. For generations, he waited the better part of a millennium to bring forth his righteous wrath. Yet, finally the day came when God was grieved and set his heart to destroy the world.

A Sacred Opportunity

Is God good? Absolutely. The flood is more evidence for that fact, not against it. The only real question left is, “Is man good?” The answer? Absolutely not. Isaiah was privileged to see God’s holiness and yet live through crying out his confession, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Now you have that opportunity. Will you cry, “Woe is me” in confession to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, or will you presume that your great flood will never arrive? God has promised that there will never be another great flood, but he has promised that his next flood will be fire. Be delivered from it. We must not see God as wicked in punishing the wicked, but instead call out on behalf of our own wickedness that we will be saved!

What Do I Need to Be Saved From?

A Stubborn Old Man’s Blunder

There was a stubborn old man who had frequent headaches that were extremely painful. He discovered that taking painkillers, for the most part, would numb the pain. He took the painkillers, and continued on with his life normally. Turns out, he had a brain tumor and it killed him. If he had gone to the doctor and learned about his real illness, the doctor would have applied a different remedy than simply painkillers. Instead, since he did not have an accurate diagnosis, he’s dead.

Tell Me Straight, Doc

When we answer the question, “What do I need to be saved from?” we put ourselves in the same place as the man with the tumor. If we look for salvation from the wrong problem, we will never be saved from our real problem! Let’s go to the physician, Jesus, to find out.

John 3:17-18
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

We know that Jesus is talking about salvation, because he declares it outright: the Son did not come to condemn, but rather to save. The very next verse, Jesus explains that whoever believes in the Son of God is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in the Son is condemned already. These verses are connected to each other. Therefore we can see what Jesus is saving the world from: condemnation. Not only that, but we can see how he is doing it: through faith in Jesus.

If then, the world is under condemnation, two questions come up:

1) Who is condemning us?

2) Why are we under condemnation?

Who am I Condemned With?

We could take guesses and try to figure out who is condemning us on our own, or instead we could listen to the doctor and get an accurate diagnosis. It turns out that John the Baptist, speaking about Jesus elaborates later on in the chapter:

John 3:35-36
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

The wrath of God remains on him. Remember verse 18? Jesus spoke that whoever did not believe in the Son was condemned already. It wasn’t something new, it was already there. Now we have verse 36. The wrath of God remains on him. Again, it wasn’t something new, but something old that remained; specifically, the wrath of God.

That answers the “who” question. It is God that condemns us.

Wait. I Thought God Loves Us…

He does. He loves us so much that he sent his Son to die on a cross so that whoever believes in him will not be condemned.

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

This is true love. Normal people can have affectionate feelings for others, but only God’s love can pay the ultimate price for people who deserve God’s wrath. God’s love does not motivate him to ignore wrath, but rather to satisfy it.

Why is the World Condemned?

If someone were to fire a gun at me, it would be painful and it would kill me, but it would not be condemnation. If I were guilty of a crime and put before a firing squad, it would be condemnation. What is the difference if the consequences are the same? The first case is merely an event, while the second case is a judgment.

To be condemned means that a judgment has been made. In order for the world to be condemned by God, it must have been judged by God. We’d be on a roll if John 3 addressed this question too. Good news, it does:

John 3:19-21
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Ok. What is the judgment now? Jesus, the light, is rejected by the world because the world loves evil works and therefore hates Jesus when he causes their sins to be exposed. We not only have an evil works problem, but we have a love problem. The rejection of Jesus is a symptom of loving evil. All of this is worthy of condemnation.

Get Me Saved!

We have the diagnosis: the world needs to be saved from the condemnation of God that was earned by our own wicked works and rejection of Jesus. What is the solution?

John 3
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

God sent fiery snakes as condemnation against the Israelites when they sinned. Upon repenting, God had them look to a bronze snake that he had Moses lift up and he removed his wrath from all who looked upon it. Likewise, Jesus was lifted up on a cross and died such that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Confess your sin and believe in the Son of God: Jesus, and your sins will be forgiven and the condemnation of God will not remain on you, but you will have everlasting life!

Will Infants and the Mentally Handicapped be Saved?

The issue: Infants die, and it would be comforting to know if infants are saved.

Complications:

• The doctrine of original sin declares that people are sinful from birth. (See Psalm 51).
• The idea of infants in Hell is depressing, and seems unfair or cruel.
• The Bible gives no passage directly regarding infant salvation.

Here are a few positions that I have heard, but do not believe:

• Just as God elects whom he will save (Romans 9), some of these include infants. (Common among some Calvinists)
• Infants lack the forgiveness of Jesus, and will automatically go to Hell.
• God maintains an “age of accountability,” before which all children are saved. (Common among Baptists)
• Infants who are baptized will probably be saved. (From what I gather, this is what some Lutherans believe).

While the Bible does not directly address the status of infants and salvation, I think there are a few Biblical inferences that can give grieving parents hope without denying the doctrine of original sin.

Romans 5
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.

While Adam’s sinful nature has been imputed to us, death spread because men sin, as is fitting with their nature. Keep in mind while David in Psalm 51 testifies, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,” he is explaining why he commits sin, not making the statement that having a birth that brought him forth in sin caused him death.

Now I would base most of my thoughts here from verse 13 of Romans 5, where Paul says that sin is not counted where there is no law. To be sure, I don’t believe that this law is the Torah, but rather the conscience that we received upon eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and therefore all men have the law written on their hearts (Romans 2:14). So, the question would become, “Is the law present in an infant?” I don’t think it is. I will go on to show why.

Romans 7
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

Now this is some interesting talk. Again, Paul mentions that apart from the law sin lies dead, but what really strikes me is verse 9 where Paul firmly asserts that he actually was alive at one point, until the law came and produced death. So how was Paul alive at one point if, like David, he was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity? I would suggest it is because the law comes to a human as they gain a conscience. Thus is seems fitting that the infants and some of the mentally handicapped, though born with original sin, have not died because they have no law.

It is for this reason that I believe that all infants will go to Heaven, as well as others who have not yet received the law written on their hearts.