Noah's Hope, by Clifford Goldstein from Signs of the Times Aug. 2014.

CLIFFORD GOLDSTEIN asks, "What does an ancient story about a world-wide flood tell us about or world today"?


      Hollywood has never been shy about creating end-of-the-world flicks. from Beware! The Blob to 2121, Contagion, and the World war Z, moviegoers who like imaginative accounts of end-time events have plenty to choose from.
      Some time back however, Hollywood came up with a different kind of apocalyptic thriller: NOAH, staring Russell Crowe. Based very loosely on the Biblical story of the flood in Genesis, this movie tells about the the impending doom of the ancient world and one man's attempt to save his family from it.
       Whatever the merits or demerits of the film (and it has plenty of both), it does raise  valid questions about the fate of humanity today. What challenges do we face in the 21st Century as the world's population increases, as natural resources get scarcer, as the specter of war continues, and as the questions of pollution and climate change remain?
    {(j.B.) please know this one huge but single fact: Science and scientist, for the most part, seek to explain, the universe, but leaving God the Creator totally out of the equation, yet science holds that it seeks only truth? How can one then, leave out any factor, by rejecting Creation and The Creator out of hand? Is that not unlike a mathematician ignoring Zero, as if it were not present?]

      Are we doomed, as were the the people in the time of Noah's Flood, or do we have hope? And IF we do have hope, what is it?  The biblical account of Noah' s Flood may be far removed from the consciousness of most people today, but how does that change facts, and what does it hold, today, for us, in the way of lessons? Though it's often viewed only in terms of the destruction and punishment, the deeper message is the hope of redemption in a world getting ever closer and closer, to destroying itself.
     With an endless progression, or should I say procession, of wars, terrorism based upon "love of a god', our obsession about climate, when we know it's always in flux, and changing, and natural disasters, {Which by the way we are only to happy to blame God for them, rather than the real perpetrator, Satan. As earth's population becomes more and more evil, God withdraws His Spirit, giving Satan more leeway!, but who teaches the Bible these days? The Sun-day worshipers, that obey the laws of men?]
      With all these events ongoing, one doesn't have to be a doomsday fanatic to be concerned about the world's future! In fact, Jesus very specifically used the Noahatic Flood to compare that time to what it will be like in earth's future! When He's about to return at this world's end. He said....

      Matthew 24:37-39  "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For                                      as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and                          giving in marriage, until the day that Noe 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."
    [As stated before, "Who bothers to read the Bible today?"  But please note:
        Ecclesiastes 1:9  The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which                                    shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
[Is this where we got this saying? "History repeats itself?" or "What comes around, goes around"? THINK!]

[If you want to learn what live was like, that got God so disgusted, and angry with mankind read Genesis 6:, then read Gen.11:1-9 the story of Tower of Babel, and learn that men learned nothing from the flood!]

     Jesus' point is that, as we near the time of the end, the ,masses of people, will be going about their business as if nothing were wrong, nothing amiss. Apparently, that was the people's attitude and behavior before Noah's Flood, in spite of the fact that they had plenty of warnings about what was to come, in fact Noah preached about the flood for 120 years!
  [In point of fact, we of the Seventh day Adventist Church, have been preaching and teaching the "Time of the End" message ever since 1864! Showing that God, in His mercy, has withheld His wrath, these days, much longer than in Noah's time, but how long are Y O U wiling to test His patience?]

      All of God's children, CONT *.. {we are all His, for He gave each one of us HIS BREATH OF LIFE, for only the Father and the Son, have life, within themselves, thus SUSTAIN ALL LIFE!]...
      
        Colossians 1:17  "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. "
                                      Consist  in the Greek the word is Sunistao ( soon-is-thah'-o)  means to make, to                                           stand. To consist. Would this be a good time to introduce the Second Law of thermodynamics? Paraphrased... Anything set into an orderly motion, will over time degrade into disorder.'
That's from human science's "Natural Laws", so why has the universe, not degraded into disorder, and why we see no massive scale collisions? IS possible that there is a a force, a sustaining force a consisting force?

CONT*... we all, need to be careful that we do NOT ignore His warnings. All around  we see signs of impending disasters that Jesus Himself gave warnings too:...
   
          Matthew 24:5-10 " For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.                           And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things                         must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom                             against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another."

[ If you can't understand this, who has ever seen or heard of a crime, or an assault done in LOVE?  Who has not heard of the Islamic crazies, and their slogan, "Believe as we do, or die"? How many so-called 'Christians' must they murder, across this earth, before people understand what Jesus spoke about, way back then? But Heh! Who bothers to read, let alone study the Holy Bible these days? THINK!]

     As humankind entered the twentieth century, the majority of people were full of optimism and hope for a bright future. Many were convinced that the world was entering a golden age in which science and technology would bring utopia--- a grand world of peace and prosperity for all. However World War 1 quickly dashed all those false hopes, did it not?
      When the great-grandchildren of those who welcomed in the 20th century, ushered in the 21st they did NOT have any grand illusions about a coming 'golden age',. On the contrary, September 11, 2001, became this generation's symbol of the future. Things seem to have been going downhill since then, right?

[ Please humor me, God promised NEVER to use water to destroy life again, right? He does not have another Noah, to tell us about the coming disaster, as ALL Bible Students know, this time God's going to use fire to clean earth Revelation's Lake of fire, read 19 - 22.chapters So what else can He do? How about kicking the secularists in their 'collective wallets', and look at all of earth's economies, since about 2003?....
     Amos 8:11  "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a                                    famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:"
     Isaiah 33:15-16  "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of                               oppression, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing                       of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;  He shall dwell on high: his place of defense                              shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure."
{As you can see, those who accept Him through Christ, are protected, and even if they lose their lives, yet will they live again, forever.  Read His promise in John 14:1-3].

     However, even in the days of Noah, the people all had hope.... The ARK. It was built precisely to save them from what was coming on the world! Sadly they did not recognize is as such.
      Today, amid our trails and worries, we, too, can have hope, because we have something better than a boat. We have Jesus and the promise of eternal life IN Him!
     Jesus, left all behind in Haven, to come down to this earth, as a helpless babe, born of woman, just as
Y O U  and I, living a perfect life, without a sin, only to become sin for all, for all time, thus died with OUR sins, but resurrected that beautiful Sunday morn, to show us that the Father raised Him, so also He can raise us. So whether we die a calm, and peaceful death, at old age, in the presence of loved ones, or in car crash, or at the hands of fanatics, or in an earthquake, or however we meet our end, if we are in Jesus, then He is in us, and all those shall "Sleep in christ', resting in the grave until at the 7th Trump (et call)  He calls us to wake up and be with Him and the Father, for ever. Then we shall have life without hurt, pains or worry}.....

      John 10:25-28  "Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my                                  Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep,                   as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give                 unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
{Note: Many do not understand, that God's promises, that are for the good, are CONDITIONAL, upon our faith/trust in Christ, will, with our total surrender, to His will in loving obedience. Why would any want to surrender? That goes against our grain, right, but remember Love conquers all and....

   1 John 4:8  "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."
{Note: God loves us all, each and everyone one of us, so much so, that He'll even give them what they want,  "to have nothing to do with Him.... but they know not, that God is life, thus without Him, and HIS Breath of Life  we perish. read Genesis 2:7 with understanding.]

     So, Hollywood's Noah, the movie which owes very little to the Bible's narrative, but still doesn't change one fact it presents: 'we all live in a very scary world. Within which we find no hope in any boat, but in Jesus and what He promises us, IF we are but willing!

      ARE Y O U ready to be willing?

FLOOD ACCOUNTS:
    The story of a great flood is not unique to the Bible. Several ancient cultures had similar stories.

The Epic of Gilgamesh. Dating back to 2,000 B.C., in one of the airiest surviving works of literature. The He, Gilgamesh, meets Utnapishtim, who tells his how the the god Ea warned him that a flood will be sent by the gods to punish and destroy the world. Ea instructs Utnapishtim to build a huge vessel that saves Utnapishtim, his family friends and some animals. Utnapishtim and his wife are later granted immortality.
[Note: the Bible's info has the flood beginning in 2348, a year after the death of Methuselah.]

Matsya Purana: is one of the oldest Hindu scriptures, dating back to 250-500 A.D. [Christ died in A.D.32.]  The deity Matsya forewarns the human Manu about an impending catastrophic flood and orders him to collect all living animals and the grains of the world in a boat. Manu survives by boarding the ark, which Matsya pulls to safety.

Maasai myth: The Maasaia are a native group in today's Kenya and Tanzania. According to this flood rendering, once upon a time the rivers began to flood. A god told two people to get a ship and take lots of seeds and animals with them. The flood eventually covered the mountains. When it stopped, one of the men set a dove free, but it returned. Later he let go a hawk, and it did not return. Then the people left the boat and took the animals and the seeds with them.

{note:but these three stories, handed down through time, are but three of many such stories all around the earth's peoples. Most such, as the "Educated Elite"  like to call them myths, without a bases for fact. Yet most are founded upon truth, even if it's only a small portion of the whole story.

NEXT: How to Overcome addictions. by Marvin Moore-editor of the  Signs of the Times, Aug. 2014 issue.

Thanking Y O U for your time,   Comments?......Questions?  John at servant@frontier.com

Want More learning? Visit your Seventh day Adventist church any Saturday/Sabbath at 9:15 AM. You just may find that Jesus can fill that emptiness within you.

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                www.servantsite@wordpress.com

OUR AMAZING WORLD. from Truth Matters "Sings of the Times Magazine /'13.

        AUSTRALIA'S GREAT BARRIER REEF. . . .

       IS  home to an amazing array of marvelous creatures. One of these life-forms is the giant clam, and it has an interesting, mutually beneficial relationship with the tiny , one celled algae called Symbiodinium. The clam-- which is really a giant sized at four feet long and up to five hundred pounds--sits on the ocean floor with its two shells spread apart and its fleshy mantle exposes to the sunlight. The algal cells live within the cells of the clam's mantle, where they produce food by photosynthesis. A single clam may have millions or even billions of algal cells in its tissues. The algae obtain nutrients from the clam, and the clam get part of its nutrients from the food produced by the algae. This is a king of cooperative relationship in which each partner benefits the other. Together, the giant clam and its algae can  live together for up to one hundred years.

      Cooperative relationship[s] are common among living organisms. [ ( J.B.)SYMBIOSIS is the term, Evolution Theory can not account for any such relationships with total scientific honesty, but then that's NOT their goal is it?  Their goal, is to try. . .try to explain creation without a Creator right? Is that not just as Satan wants? He's NOT going to heaven, and he wants no others there either!]
      Some like the giant clam and the tiny algae are very specific. In the big picture, all living organisms interact in ways that mutually beneficial. Plants capture energy from sunlight and use it to convert water a nd carbon dioxide into food.Oxygen is released by plants as a by-product. This process is fan ongoing one that benefits all life.
[Please note: all who glamour; REDUCE CARBON FOOT PRINT, take note that without this carbon there's be no plants of any kind. Thus no food for any life-forms, including. . . .us. . . .
humans! Carbon monoxide is a poison gas that can kill all life, that takes it in.]
     A crow sized bird known as the Shearwater is another creature that may be spotted along the Great Barrier Reef, at certain times of the year. Shearwaters, spend their entire lives at sea, except for when they are breeding. When breading, they nest in burrows that they dig for themselves.
    Shearwaters are marvelous navigators. They wander freely over the oceans without losing their way. They leave their nesting burrows before dawn and return to them after dark, which means that must be able to find the exact location, not just the island, but their burrow on the island... in the dark. Scientists are not sure exactly how they can do that!
     During the day, shearwaters fly over the ocean feeding on small fish and squid near the surface of the ocean. The amazing ability of these birds to navigate was tested by an experiment in great Britain using Manx shearwaters from Great Briton to Boston, in the United States, and a second group to Venice, Italy. Both groups groups of birds returned to their nesting burrows in great Briton within two weeks. Shearwaters do not normally fly over land at all, so it is even more impressive that they could find their way home.
     Of course, living creatures must have exactly the right combination of environmental conditions to survive. These factors include a suitable source of energy (such as sunlight, or on the ocean's floor, temperature and chemical energies) , raw materials for constructing cells and tissues (nutrients), a suitable medium in which the chemistry of life can occur (water) and a suitable temperature for the necessary chemical reaction. As far as we know, no other place in the universe has the right combinations of these features to support living organisms (although some possibilities have recently been discovered-- which should be very interesting!)
    As we all know, sunlight provides the energy for living organisms. A few bacteria get their energy from chemical reactions deep in the sea, but these are the exceptions. Sunlight is such a common , ordinary feature of our daily lives, that it's easy to forget how special it really is.
    Light is a form of energy known as Electromagnetic radiation. The strength of this kind of energy varies greatly. Some types, such as Gamma Rays, are so powerful that they easily destroy life. Other types, such as radio waves, are so weak that they could not provide the energy needed for life. {In  fact if one is standing near an radio transmitter's antenna, while it's broadcasting, they'd suffer serious radiation burns, as very bad sun-burn.)  Visible Light, the light we can see  {Sorry , we can't see the "LIGHT" ITSELF, BUT ONLY THAT WHICH IS REFLECTED FROM OBJECTS}This energy is strong enough to trigger some chemical reactions but not so strong as to tear apart molecules that make up the living bodies, of organisms, The fact that our sun produces that kind of light is one of the most important reason why life can survive and thrive here. Most stars, and our Sun is s small star, in our universe don't provide the right amount of energy to support life, as we know it. That makes our world and our Sun very special.

    OUR SUN, not only produces light to provide the energy for living things need, it also produces the right amount of heat for life on earth. [Remember space temps are 485 degrees below Zero, when not in sunlight] The temperature of the earth is determined by the heat output from the sun, the distance from the sun to earth and the ability of earth to hold on to the heat. If earth were father from the sun, it would be too cold. If closer to the sun it would be too hot..Carbon Dioxide and water vapor in our atmosphere help hold in the heat from the sun and maintain a suitable temperature range.
     If our atmosphere had too much of these gases our world would be too hot. If it did not have any of these gases our earth would be too cold. Our favorable temperatures are also maintained by the speed at which earth rotates on its axis, and by the way the continents and oceans are distributed across the surface of the earth , are a great contributor to temperature normalization.

    The survival of life on our planet depends on the right interaction between the earth, its atmosphere, the output of the sun and the distance between the earth and the sun. If one of these factors were to change dramatically, life on our world could easily become extinct.

   Life also requires a source of raw materials and a way for them to react chemically.[(j.b.) Which is, one of the the reasons for God's  Lake of Fire in Revelation 19 and 20, to remove all traces of previous human activity and burn up all of the human pollution buried within earth. As this earth runs out of raw materials] 
      Isaiah 51:6 " Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens                           shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they                           that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my                          righteousness shall not be abolished."
      
..      [All who accept Christ fully, in full faith and trust, are "washed" in His blood, and covered by His righteousness.....]
         1 Corinthians 6:9-11   "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be                                                    not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,                                 nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

     Life, as we know it, also requires water, to react with the raw chemicals. So far, we have them in the right combinations, but water is not equally distributed, yet it is one of earth's most abundant resource. If on other worlds, there is not a stable and standing water supply as lakes and oceans, then there's no point or much reason for us to look for life, again as we know it.[ (.J.B.) Yes in the world of science theory, or should we say fiction? If you have seen some ideas floated out there on the so-called "Learning channels", most of us would have to ask, "What were these people smoking "? Human imaginations running wild!]

     Bodies of water, ponds, lakes seas and oceans are all temperature moderators, which is why coastal regions have milder summer and winter temperatures than inland. But it also has another very important feature, when its frozen it floats, so water freezes from the top down, allowing marine life to live. Now if it froze from the bottom up, there would be no life in any waters that is subject to freezing.

     So far, our earth, is the only know planet with life, and life abundantly, because it is well designed and thought out, with all in the right conditions for life. The careful combinations of light, water, and all the elements suggests, to any thinking being, that there must have been a Creator. A Creator who intended that this world would be an interesting place and beautiful place for humans and all other live forms.

          Isaiah 45:18  "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth                               and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I                           am the LORD; and there is none else."

   Please know this single fact:" Any one's acceptance, or rejection, does not alter one iota of God's truth!"
Yet it is my Hope and Prayer, that all do accept His truth, His Light!

Thanking Y O U for your time.  Questions?........Comments?  John at: www.servant@frontier.com

Other sites: www.blbn.org www.benabraham.com  www.amazingdiscoveries.org