 | Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com. |
Religion
2004-03-01 14:01:00
God said after the flood He would never do it again... will He?
: In the book of Genesis it says that God will not destroy all of mankind the way he did with Noah and the flood. So why is it in Revelations that all of mankind (aside from those who have been saved) will be destroyed during the tribulation?
ANSWER: The story of Noah and the flood, in chapters 6 thru 9 in the first book of the Bible, is a part of pre-history: it is religious philosophy given in the context of some historical memories. Actual history commences with the introduction of Abraham in Genesis, chapter 11:27. Archeologists and historians and Bible-scholars are not certain about the extent of the flood in the time of Noah. Did it cover the whole planet or just Asia Minor or another limited area? We don't know. The biblical teaching behind this narrative is that human beings abused the gift of free will, given them by God at the time of the creation of man and woman. This abuse is sin. "When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth was, and how evil their thoughts were all the time, he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth (Gen 6:5). The flood, with its destruction of most of mankind, was intended to demonstrate how much God hates sin. This, in turn, is intended to serve as a warning to human beings to not abuse the gift of free will. After the flood God told Noah: "I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood" (9:11). Both the warning and the promise endure through human history.Completing the Bible, the book of Revelation is not history, but rather is a type of literature called apocalyptic. That means it contains God revealing some things about the end of the world and of time. St. John, who received the Revelation, wrote his book to encourage the young Christian community during a period of terrible persecution from the Roman imperial authorities around the end of the first century A.D. The message is that everyone must die, those who are good as well as those who have done evil during their life in this world. And there will be a judgment after death, and a final judgment at the end of time. God's judgment on evildoers is much worse than the flood of Noah. Their end is not in floodwaters, but in a variety of torments, plagues, the lake of fire and sulfur, being tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev. 20:10). "This lake of fire is the second death. Whoever does not have his name written in the Book of Life will be thrown into the lake of fire" (20:15). This is also a warning and a promise, to which every human being ought to pay attention. All mankind must die. But not all will be destroyed. Those persons, who have lived good lives before God, will enter into the joy of eternal life and happiness. Those persons, who chose to do evil in this life, will suffer terribly forever and ever, as their material world will be destroyed, and come to an end. But no human person, not even aborted infants, can or will be destroyed in the sense of being annihilated or wiped-out completely.
