As It Was In Noah's Day, So shall it be at the End!
By Eloise Gardenier
Does the runaway wickedness of the world today forecast the imminent return of Jesus Christ? Should the saints be making ready and earnestly waiting for the Lord's coming? In chapter 24 of Matthew the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked; "What shall be the sign of thy COMING and the END OF THE WORLD (or World’s authority)?" One of the signs Jesus prophesied was this: ''But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be?"
Therefore, to understand what it will be like just before Jesus’ return the disciples of Christ in that last generation just before His return will first have to discover what sort of condition the world was in during Noah's day and compare it to their world. A vital and pertinent question for people today becomes: is there any similarity between the World as Noah knew it and the kind of decadence and ungodliness into which the world has slipped today? And if there is, does it mean that the Lord's return is just around the corner? The only way to find the answers to those basic questions is to search the Scriptures concerning Noah's time, understand its condition and spirit, and compare those matters with the conditions and spirit of the modern complex, warring World in which we live today.
God's Disgust over the World's wickedness
The story of Noah begins with the condition of the world and God's feelings about a world that had degenerated into total ungodliness and evil imaginings; and was full of violence and bloodshed.
"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth."
God's feelings are repeated in 11-13;
"The earth also was corrupted before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."
God was so grieved by the condition of the world, that He was even sorry He had ever made man. His first emotion was to destroy everything because of its grossness and just start over. But, fortunately for us, in the middle of His grief and righteous anger, God remembered Noah and turned away from His initial inclination to obliterate man from off the face of the earth. "But Noah found grace (favor) in the eyes of the Lord ... Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations and Noah walked with God." But something still had to be done to rid the earth and purge it of the corruption that man had caused. It was wide-spread past the earth itself but even into the very blood and being of mankind. This passage of Scripture from Genesis also lends further insight into those dark days before the flood.
"For
as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered
into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all
away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt.
24.38 & 39) Men were not concerned about ungodliness at all.
They had become reprobate and devoid of all conscience toward their
Creator. Sound familiar'? They had “corrupted the earth” itself.
Sound familiar? It was not necessarily by modern man’s method
of corrupting by air pollution, deforestation, creation of biological
deformities, ozone depletion or nuclear meltdowns, but they had corrupted
it by violence and by allowing Satan to corrupt the seed of the woman
to such an extent that nearly all the bloodlines were corrupted by
what the Bible identifies as Nephalim (Nephalim being fallen angels
who had taken on flesh and co-habited with women, thus the ‘men
of renown of old’, as the bible puts it, i.e. Hercules and
the mythical half-man, half-god heroes of Greek religion).
Chapter six of Genesis begins; "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, that daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose" ... "The Nephalim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of man and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. "
Incredible as it sounds the only plausible explanation for these "sons" of God is that they were the fallen angels that Satan took with him when he rebelled against God. The Book of Jude sheds further light on this conspiracy; "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." The meaning of the Hebrew words used here for "son" and "renown" are: 1) Son; "a builder of the family name, also rebel, robber and servant born. 2) Renown; "from an unused root meaning to be lofty; the sky (as aloft; alluding to the visible arch in which the clouds move, as well as the higher either where the celestial bodies revolve); heaven." Therefore the meaning can be construed as ‘Robbers from heaven’. (See: The Conflict of the Ages Part One; The Battles of the Lord) The meaning of the words "son" and "renown" confirm the belief that the "sons of God" spoken of in Genesis 6 once were spiritual beings in heaven, who left their heavenly estate, and when they saw how fair the daughters of men were they married whomsoever they chose. Wanting to mingle with these "gods" men encouraged their daughters to go along with the conspiracy. Satan wanted to corrupt all of Mankind so the Savior could not be born pure and uncorrupted. Besides we can surmise that men in their corrupt and rebellious state of mind wanted to join with spiritual powers in defiance of God. Thus mixing spirit with flesh and corrupting the seed of Mankind, the world and its inhabitants had doomed themselves. The meaning of the two words then becomes even more appropriate: the "robbers from heaven" had nearly stolen all hope from Mankind by corrupting the earth inside and out.
Even as judgment rapidly approached (the judgment that had been announced by the preaching and pleading of Noah for over one hundred years) men continued doing their own thing, business went on as usual, people frivolously went on eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, building and planting, with no thought for God or their eternal salvation, or a day of judgment; though they had been warned of impending doom. Sound familiar?
Is Today's World Comparable to Noah's?
God could not abide this whole mingling of flesh and spirit for many reasons, and though He put a stop to the fallen angels taking on the estate of man and corrupting the seed through marriage, the spiritual powers of Satan have continued to corrupt Man's spirit with a spiritual kind of mingling whenever and wherever they have been able to do it. But God does not abide the conspiracy of demon and Man anymore today than He did in Noah's day. Evil spirits are still trying to corrupt all men with whom they can find fellowship or conspiracy to rebel. Having established what it was like in Noah's day let's compare it with scriptures from the Epistles which speak about the end times and see how it compares to the condition of the world today. We are tipped off by Jesus that by the time he returns it will be as it was in former days before the Flood – evil, violent and corrupt to the max.
The prophecies of the LAST or LATTER DAYS before His return reflect an all too familiar world. In the Epistles there are many colorful and explicit depictions of its condition. They are filled with blunt descriptions of men's hearts and the spirit of the world just prior to the second coming of Christ. The following is a list:
1Timothy 4:1-3;
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the LATTER TIMES some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies and hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." Sound familiar'? Scandals and heresies in religion, such as the Branch Davidian tragedy in Waco, Texas, Jim Jones, Jim Bakker, administrative scandals in the Southern Baptist denomination, priest scandals of the Roman Catholic Church, and a myriad of others to numerous to recount, have brought shame to the Church of God and turned these frightful warnings into fulfilled prophecy in a matter of one generation.
2 Timothy 3:1-7;
"This know also, that in the LAST DAYS perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Sound familiar'? Doesn't this sound like a review of the 11:00 o'clock news? Isn't this kind of behavior the fruits of humanism ... everyone has rights ... the right to his own belief... the right to behave anyway he wants ... if it feels good do it... the right to do or say anything he wants as long one feels good about himself. -- SELFISHNESS, the kind prophesied in 2 Timothy, has become the "gospel" of our modern, reprobate world.
2 Peter 3:2-5;
"That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: knowing this first, that there shall come in the LAST DAYS scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, for this they willingly are ignorant." Sound familiar? We have encountered many of those scoffers when mentioning the Lord's return. A whole generation of Americans was dubbed the ME GENERATION because they have deemed it good and beautiful to "walk after their own lusts". How much more evidence do we need to convince us that the world is in a similar state of evil and corruption to that of the days of Noah and that we may very well be on the brink of the coming of the "Son of man".
As these abominations are becoming more and more the norm, just as Jesus said they would, all sorts of scientific and sociological reasons are being postulated in Man's search to find a solution to the moral chaos created by men turning their backs on God. Those of us who know God's prophetic Word, and believe it, are sure that God knows what He is doing and is allowing His word to be fulfilled and the truth of Man's heart to come to the surface. I can imagine it was the same in the time of Noah too; by his own ingenious efforts man was determined to find ways to solve anything that seemed to be a detriment to his seeking fun and pleasure. And all the while, men laughed at the preaching of righteous Noah; and made fun of his obedience in building the ark; and mocked God and His impending judgment.
Surely, the Lord gave those "unbelievers" of Noah's dispensation some warning signs. After all, Noah had preached righteousness to them for over a hundred years; either they ignored and rejected all warning or explained it away. Sound familiar? Remember, only eight were saved from the flood. Is that a significant number? Think about it; only eight. Given the condition of the world today, should we not continually look up for the return of "the Son of man"? Jesus said when you see all these things coming to pass – Look Up!, for your redemption is draws near. Someday, probably soon, God will bring judgment, just as he did in Noah's day, not with water, but as He has promised with fire and many other natural and supernatural disasters. (Read the judgments in the latter part of the Book of Revelation.) Then, the Lord Jesus, with His armies will return.
"But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be"(Matthew 24:37). Make it a familiar verse in your prayers and conversation and when you see the rise in evil and the thickening darkness you will know to look up for your redemption draws near, you will find comfort in your heart and be reassured that salvation is coming soon, be patient and wait for it, for it is coming.