Matthew Chapter 24

We continue with our discussion on Verse 44 “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

Verse 38: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the presence 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,” tells us that the people went right on doing the normal activities of life—eating, drinking, marrying—and there is nothing wrong with these activities. The emphasis is not on the debauchery aspect, which Peter brings out. Jesus is simply saying that the people were unaware of the impending Flood. It was a reality; it was really coming!—but the people were oblivious. Noah preached about the coming Flood, but the people contradicted and mocked him. They found the fact amusing that Noah was building an Ark (a boat) on dry land when it had never even rained before (Gen. 2:5, 6).

If the people in Noah’s day had had a fore view of what the atmosphere would look like after the Flood and could have compared it to the heavens that existed prior to the Flood (the hothouse effect), they would have seen the contrast. After the Flood there was clarity of vision instead of the previous translucent, hazy atmosphere. But the people were willingly “ignorant” or unaware (2 Pet. 3:5). After the ring of water broke, the atmosphere was clear. Before that, the hazy atmosphere was “normal” to the people, for it was what they had grown up under and was all they knew.

Even the angels probably did not know the Flood would occur, for there was no precedent. True, they had witnessed rings of minerals and materials cascading down on the earth in earlier eras. In the *Vailian theory, the heavy minerals collapsed first, then the less heavy minerals, and finally the lighter ones. As these rings kept collapsing, water was left, but the angels did not think of the water ring collapsing. A satellite (in this case the watery blanket) going at the right speed can theoretically stay in orbit forever if there is no friction. However, the obliquity of the sphere earth (the flattening at the poles) causes an imbalance, an imperfect orbit, so that rings could collapse according to God’s timetable.

Verse 38 contrasts the days of Noah (plural—a period of time) and the day (singular—a point of time) that he entered the Ark.

Gen. 7:1–4 says that Noah went into the Ark for seven days. The thought is that Noah fully entered the Ark on the seventh day. For the first six days, he went in and out, leading animals into the Ark, stocking food, etc. But on the seventh day he entered into the Ark and God closed the door (Gen. 7:13–16). (Evidently there was no handle on the door, so God shut them in.) And so, at the end of the age, God will shut the last members into the Church; that is, Jesus will do this as God’s representative, for Jesus “opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”(Rev. 3:7).

An important fact generally overlooked in the narrative is that no mention is made as to the age of the animals loaded in the Ark.

 The logistical problems regarding the Ark are greatly alleviated if we realize that baby animals were loaded—baby elephants, water buffaloes, rhinoceroses, lions, etc. They would be much more docile and thus much easier to load and handle than would fully adult animals. Also, much less food would be required as well as space. Even after a year in the Ark, the animals were not fully grown.

Another point, the Flood was not universal as some may have imagined. It covered the entire civilized earth, not the whole planet.

Reasons for the Flood not being universal are as follows:

1. The water was 15 cubits over the highest mountain. If the entire earth had been covered, the water would have been more than five miles deep in many places, for the Himalayas are more than 27,000 feet high. Where would all that water drain to?

2. The earth sank in the localized area at the same time that the rains came. Thus the Caspian, Black, Mediterranean, etc., seas all drained into the sunken portion to, with the rain, cover the entire civilized world. 15 cubits of water above the highest mountain would allow the Ark to float freely and not scrape land even though loaded with cargo.

It is also possible that the area then civilized by man was already located in a depression and that the added waters to the surrounding seas overflowed the mountain ranges surrounding the civilized world flooding the depression.

3. Had the entire planet been covered with water plus 15 cubits, the oxygen level would have been so thin that man could not breathe.

4. Some fish cannot live in saltwater; other fish cannot live in fresh water. Therefore, if the Flood had been universal, all fresh-water fish would have died with the mixing of the waters. The large oceans would have caused all water to be predominantly saline. Since fish were not taken into the Ark, they would have died. In fact, some did die, but only in the localized area where the Flood was.

5. In many places in Scripture, the word “all,” as in “all the earth,” means “part” (for example, “all the kingdoms” in Matt 4:8).

See Young’s Analytical Concordance, page 11, “Hints and Helps to Bible Interpretation,” Item # 29, regarding “all” meaning “part.”

6. The usual thought with regard to the Ice Age is that ice 10,000 feet high gouged out the Grand Canyon and went across the United States to Long Island to the ice shelf. However, this could not have happened in Noah’s Flood or the temperature would have been too cold—all would have frozen to death. Also, all that ice could not melt in one year—and where would the water go? (The deluge cascaded down on the poles and ran into the designated area.) Therefore such ice gouging events as that which gouged out the canyon must have taking place during previous floods (or ice ages)—long before man was created.

The mastodons lived under very warm, carboniferous conditions (carbon dioxide hothouse conditions). They can still be dug out of the ice and snow in Siberia, which is the location of a huge graveyard. Water that came in and inundated large animals quickly froze, turning to ice. Subsequently God created animals that are familiar to us today.

* Vailian Theory: See “The Record of Creation” beginning about the middle of Part 7

Continued with next post.