Day 5: The Flood, Faith, and the Rescue Mission

Today we read Genesis 7 through 9 and Psalms 1. In this story, God washes the Earth clean of humanity's evil that we’ve been hearing the escalation of since Genesis 3, but God commissions Noah and His family to preserve what God ordered and intended for creation. While God repeats the divine blessing and commission to Noah and His family that God gave to Adam and Eve, they fail too. Yet, God continues His relationship with His people. His rescue mission is still moving forward. An important note on interpretation, practitioners and scholars interpret the flood story differently because they use different methods to understand what scripture is saying. The best contrast example I can think of is between Ken Ham’s interpretation of the flood and Dr. Tremper Longman III and Dr. John Walton interpretation of the flood. Ken Ham offers a Christian science perspective and he is the founder and CEO of the Creation Museum, Ark Experience and developed the Ask Genesis Organization. His point of view is quite different from Old Testament theologians Dr. Tremper Longman III and Dr. John Walton who offer a biblical scholarship perspective which can be found in their book The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate. While some of the main things remain the main things between these different point of view, it's interesting to reflect on the differences and the reasons why. 

 

Resource:

Dr. Tremper Longman III and Dr. John Walton who wrote the book The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate. They both have educational lectures on this topic in Seminary Now, https://seminarynow.com/ .

 

Ken Ham, Ask Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/ 

 

Dr. Tim Mackie, the Bible Project, Genesis

 

Credits:

Podcast music by Stockaudios from Pixabay. Speaker, Dr. Rachel Bodell. Podcast Sound Engineer, Alan Darling. Podcast Artwork, Will Gerard.