Genesis

Lesson 6 Chapter 6 continued

Something was said, last week, in Genesis 6:13 that is going to cause us to go off on a search tonight. We approached this last week, as we saw what it was that caused God to destroy the earth with a flood. And, surprisingly he said that it was all “living creatures”, basar, that was the cause. Men AND animals. He did NOT blame Satan.

The Hebrews says a couple of important things about evil that we don’t generally find in Christian doctrine. And, it is that men have both a good an evil inclination within us. And, that we have choices to choose. The more difficult issue to deal with though, is that I told you that God created both good and evil. Not necessarily in the sense that might immediately come to yours minds, however.

Central to all this is understanding what is MEANT by the concept of God creating evil along with good. I’ve often said that we simply don’t have words that can describe things of the spirit world. We don’t have words that can fully communicate the mind of God. And, the origin of evil…….how did it get here…..WHAT is it……how does it operate…..is one of those situations.

In order to discuss this dicey, yet crucial, subject, we need fold in several principles that, on the surface, don’t appear to have much to do with it. Yet, without briefly exploring these principles, we can’t get there from here.

And, I want to begin by talking about how our Universe works, because we are subject to it’s laws, boundaries, and limitations. God did NOT create the Universe, put us within it, and then expect us to somehow operate, and have understanding, as though we weren’t simply a piece of that Universe…..at least for a time.

Let me tell you of a scientific finding that is so recent that you many not have yet even been exposed to; it is that world’s body of physicists have now come to a general agreement that they have tried to avoid for decades. It is that the Universe was created by Intelligent Design…..it wasn’t caused by a random series of chemical reactions. It was not chaos that accidentally achieved order. Now, that’s not news for us, as Believers, nor to the billions on this planet who adhere to some religion or another whereby a superior being and creator is acknowledged.  But, when the scientific community…..so diametrically opposed to even considering that there is some overriding intelligent cosmic force or being, vastly superior to man, who orders the way the universe unfolds….when they come to this conclusion, the first thing one must ask is: why? What changed? Because in no way are they acknowledging God……at least they don’t think they are.

The recent discovery that caused this great shift in their thinking…..a discovery that exceeds even Einstein’s world-changing work to develop his famous theory of relativity… is the discovery of undeniable evidence that there exists at least 10 dimensions, and probably 11. This discovery is part of a whole new realm of Physics called String Theory.

Now, our Universe consists of only 4 of those 10 or 11 dimensions; and those dimensions are height, width, length, and time. No matter how far out into space our orbiting space-telescopes have looked, and probed, and measured, those same 4 dimensions are all they can see. So, if that is the case, then what about those other so-called 6 or 7 dimensions? Well, they don’t exist, per se, in our Universe; rather they exist in some other “universe”….what these physicists call parallel universes. Not parallel in the sense that these other universes are like holding a mirror up to something and getting a reverse, but parallel, image. But, that these parallel Universes exist simultaneously with ours; they could actually be within our Universe, or they could be completely outside our Universe, or some of each.

This may sound a bit far out for us, but really, it shouldn’t. If you’ll read the ancient Hebrew sages, you’ll see that they described multiple dimensions.  And, believe it or not, these sages who lived well before Christ said that the Scriptures reveal 10 dimensions, plus 1 more, the 11th, which is God. And, now, physicists tell us that both from a mathematical standpoint, and because of the otherwise unexplainable way in which energy and matter behave, that there must be 10 or 11 dimensions.

To kind of help picture this, all we have to do is think of Heaven, as described in the Bible, to understand that it certainly doesn’t obey the laws of Physics of our Universe. For instance, we’re told that Heaven exists outside of time, that it is eternal……that’s what eternity really means…..time-less…..without time. Eternity is not an expression of a really LONG time; rather it’s about existence in a realm in which the dimension of time does not even exist. The Scriptures never purport that Heaven is part of our Universe. After all, how did God live in our Universe BEFORE He even created our Universe? Answer, He didn’t. He lived somewhere else. And, that somewhere else is one or more of those other dimensions.  In other words, Heaven does not exist in our 4 dimensional Universe. Right? I don’t think most of us believed that it did; my purpose for saying this is just to build a context for our discussion.

Now, stay with me. Believe me, this is a key ingredient that will explain an awful lot about our main subject, evil.

So, the problem for us is, how do we detect things, or examine things, or understand things that are outside of our 4 dimensions? And, of more immediate concern, how can we visualize things that are outside of our 4 dimensions? The reality is, we can’t very well.  Our bodies can ONLY detect things that our sensory organs are designed to detect: eyes detect light of certain wave lengths, ears detect sound waves of certain frequencies, our sense of touch detects heat, cold, hard and soft surfaces and so on. All of our sensory organs sense the physical things that make up our 4 dimensional universe. So, all we can do is mathematically prove, or observe strange behavior of physical objects to know that some other force is at play. Like, how sub-atomic particles behave, or how the expansion of our Universe behaves; or, like the Red Sea piling up to let the Israelites pass to safety, for instance.

Now, some may be saying, well I understand that of those 4 dimensions, 3 indeed make up the physical: length, width, and depth. But, is time actually physical? How do I reach out and touch time? Do we have sensory organs that can detect time?

Actually, time is an integral part of the physical-ness of our Universe. We measure time, on earth, by the movement of the heavenly bodies. God set this dynamic up when He readied planet Earth for life. We measure a year of time by observing the position of the stars and the regular cycle of seasons on Earth. We measure a month by observing the phases of the moon. We measure a day…..and until the last couple of hundred years…..even hours and minutes by the movement of the sun across the sky.

But, what is it we are actually measuring when we say we are measuring time? The answer lies in the method used to calculate time in the most accurate clocks known to man: atomic clocks. And, they use the near perfect steady decay of radioactive materials as their standard. The key word here is decay. Just as meters or inches measures the 3 dimensions of height, width, and depth, time measures the decay of the stuff that makes up our Universe; you, me, rocks, metals, concrete, space dust, the noble gases of space, all matter, even energy. Time is how we describe the process of everything that makes up our Universe getting old and deteriorating. Everything in our universe is deteriorating. Did you know that? That is not a philosophy or a religious belief; it’s just a scientific fact that is THE underlying principle for all of our physics. And, the Bible tells us that as well.

Yet, beyond that physical nature, there is some “thing” mysterious that exists within our Universe that is somehow not part of those 4 dimensions; something that cannot be explained by those 4 dimensions, nor can it be detected by any way man has devised or ever will. And, that mysterious thing is what we call spirit. How do I know spirit exists? Because the Bible says it does, and because my life experience, with God, has proven it to me. This Spirit exists in us; it actually sustains our very lives, because when it leaves us, our existence ceases. How did it get in us? God put it there. WHERE is it within us? Well, the Bible says it’s in our hearts: but, in fact, it is not specific place; saying “hearts” is just a euphemism.  And, if we trust Him, by faith, He’ll even put His own Spirit (His Holy Spirit) in us……yet another kind of spiritual substance that is somehow different than the kind of Spirit (I call it the Life Spirit) which is the basic life force in all living beings. Both of these kinds of Spirit…..the kind that sustains all organic animal life, and the Holy kind that permits communion between man and God, are in no way connected to our 4 dimensional Universe, nor subject to its laws. Yet, there they are. A good way to think of Spirit is as a 5th dimension that is present in our Universe, but is not PART of our Universe.

Part of the reason we have so much trouble with the concept of Spirit, is because it is not detectable or knowable by our rational senses. God made man and animals out of the 4 dimensional stuff of our Universe: in our case, it was dirt. But, in addition, He brought something from OUTSIDE the confines of our Universe, through the Universe, and put it into His living creatures: that thing is called life, or, better, the spirit of life. Even more, into MEN…..but, not animals…..he put another aspect of Himself……and that is this ability to know Him and to commune with him. That which the Bible calls the human spirit.

When God made our Universe, our Universe’s natural state (at least it was on planet Earth) was darkness (we’re told that in Genesis 1). NAS Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

The Universe was dark, and then from somewhere outside of our Universe God brought light to this darkness. Now, this light of Gen.1:3 was not “light” as in the sense of a light bulb or a lamp (although He eventually brought that as well by means of light emitting objects in the sky); but light in the sense of spiritual enlightenment…..in Hebrew “owr”, which means truth, goodness…..a spirit of truth and goodness. This is critical for our understanding. Because the Hebrew word used for that darkness of the original state of the Universe was choshek…..which means obscurity, falsehood, blindness….a spirit of wickedness; a lack of spiritual enlightenment. It does NOT mean darkness like in nighttime.

So, what God created FIRST was a spirit of truth…..of good.

OK. Let’s add another piece of the puzzle, now. Because of the strict way our Universe operates….the laws of Physics……everything in it must and DOES have an opposite. In electro-magnetics, if there is a positive charge, there MUST be a negative charge, because they are in relation to one another. In our Universe, if there is a far, there necessarily is a near. If there is up, there must be a down.  If there is short, there necessarily is tall. If there is a front, there is a back. If a coin has a head, it must have a tails (by that I mean it has two sides), because it is impossible in our Universe for anything to exist that does not have an opposite side. If there is a future, there MUST be a past….that’s the way time operates. And, to operate in the CURRENT way our Universe operates, if there is life, there must be death. No matter what phenomenon you can think of, there is an opposing phenomenon in the make-up of the Universe in which we live. Why is that? It just is, because that’s how God designed it. He did it that way as the mechanism He will use to accomplish all He has purposed.

Because of the principle of opposites, a God-ordained law for our Universe, exists,  in order for good to exist in some form in our Universe, then it’s opposite, evil, also must exist. Let me state that again: because our Universe requires an opposite, then along with good there is evil. You cannot have one without the other. They are connected. It’s simply the way our 4 dimensional Universe operates. HOWEVER…….outside of our Universe, that is not necessarily true. Things operating in those other 6 or 7 dimensions we began the evening by talking about are NOT necessarily subject to the rules of opposites; and apparently in Heaven, no opposite is required, although we do have to account for Satan and those fallen angels in some way.

Now, for a really big, and ugly, question: who or what causes evil to happen? Or, even better, who or what is the source of evil?

Let’s look at a verse that I suggested to many of you that you look up: Isaiah 45:7. NAS Isaiah 45:7 The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

That sounds OK to us; it really doesn’t bother us much that the Lord who created light and darkness, also causes well-being and creates calamity. I mean, as much as we might wish Scripture didn’t say that God creates calamity (of which we might be affected) we accept that pretty easily. Oh, if were just that easy.

The New American Standard Bible verse we just read is from a translation method that is called “dynamic translation”. Look now at that same verse in a more literal, direct, word for word, translation:  JPS Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the LORD, that doeth all these things.  Now THIS one DOES hurt our sensibilities. It says bluntly that the Lord creates Evil. Is that possible? Look even at the KJV: KJV Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

There are 4 key Hebrew words in this verse: owr, choshek, shalom and rah. So, by mixing in the Hebrew with the English, the verse reads: “I form the “owr” and create “choshek”; I made shalom and create rah.”   We’ve studied the words owr and choshek, and know that they are words denoting to two categories of spiritual nature: good and evil. Shalom is a very interesting Hebrew word that we could take up the whole session talking about; but, for today just know that it’s very nature is describing a sense of well-being, peace, good, godliness and grace that comes from God……it is a divine, and therefore spiritual, source that produces shalom. The Hebrew word rah, has a similar, but opposite sense. Rah means evil or bad. Remember the principle of opposites we’ve talked about. The principle that in our Universe, everything has an opposite….no exceptions. So, as this verse and many others will tell us, if God forms light, then darkness also is created; if the Lord makes shalom, then evil is also created. And, God is behind it all, and controls it all, and uses it all.

See, it is ONLY with our more modern translations that we even find the word “evil” oddly replaced with words like disaster and calamity and woe.  The Hebrew word “rah” means evil. Now, calamity and disaster and woe can result from evil……but rah directly refers to the spiritual sense of evil…..and that is because rah is the opposite of shalom. Don’t think this is some isolated verse; this phrase directly showing the Lord causing evil to exist and to happen is scattered throughout the OT. 

JPS Amos 3:6 Shall the horn be blown in a city, and the people not tremble? Shall evil befall a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

JPS Lamentations 3:38 Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good?

 So, why does evil exist in our Universe? Because God created good; and therefore evil came as its natural opposite. This is not accidental……God ordered it all that way. Now…..and here comes a key concept……..God did not create evil in the sense of God  manufacturing evil. God didn’t turn to His right, and create a pile of good; and then turn to His left and create a pile of evil.  Rather, evil was a result of His creating good, and putting that spirit of good into our Universe (a Universe where everything MUST have an opposite). One easier way to think about this is when we can envision that evil is everything that God does not command or instruct. It is the opposite of what is called good by God. Allow me to draw an admittedly imperfect (but I think reasonable) analogy for you.  It’s like when we go into a room, and turn on a light; we flip a switch, electricity flows to a filament in a light bulb, it glows, and presto, we ADD light to the room. But, when we turn the switch the other to direction to OFF, and the room goes dark, did we ADD darkness to the room? Did the current in the light bulb reverse, and now it sucked the light out of the room? Or, was the darkness manufactured as the light was manufactured? No, because darkness is simply the opposite of light. If light is not produced and present, then the result is darkness. Darkness is not something that is made, per se, it is but the absence of light. In the same way, evil is but the absence of good.

So: let’s quickly sum this up before we head to a conclusion:

1. We live in a Universe that consists of 4 dimensions: length, width, and height. And, time.
2. But, we now know with certainty that there are MORE dimensions than 4; but, apparently, they are NOT part of the fabric of our Universe. Therefore, there are other universes that employ those other dimensions.
3. Spirit, a dimension that is not OF our Universe…a 5th dimension….. is nonetheless in man. We can’t see it, nor detect it, because it is something other than those 4 dimensions. The Bible tells us that Spirit was brought from somewhere and put into us by God.
4. The Principle of Opposites is a key foundational law of how our Universe operates; that principle says that everything MUST have an opposite; no exceptions.
5. Due to the principle of opposites, evil exists BECAUSE good exists.
6. Evil was not created in the sense of it being manufactured; rather evil is the result of God defining and creating good. All that is not defined BY GOD as good, is evil.

 
 Now, when God created man, He gave man a will; from man’s first breath, man had a will. There was never a time when man didn’t have a will. If man did NOT have a will, we simply would have been flesh and blood robots; pre-programmed to a certain behavior, a literal slave to our creator.

But, what is the purpose for a will? What does a will DO? It makes choices. Our wills are that part of man which gives us the knowledge that there ARE choices to be made, and that we CAN make those choices. And, how was the concept of choice created in the first place? By God creating a Universe in which everything had an opposite: that is the very nature of a choice, isn’t it?

 Now, let’s not trivialize the purpose of the will that God gave us by saying it is about “preferences”. Preference is but an act of our intellect. A will is an act directed by our spirits. In other words, a will is not that part of man that prefers strawberries over bananas, or chocolate over vanilla, or blue cars over red cars. Our will is that part of us that makes MORAL choices. Choices of the conscience, not of the ego. More than anything else, a will gives us the choice to love God, or not to love God. And, this is expressed by our CHOOSING the ways of God, or NOT choosing the ways of God.

So, the mere fact that God gave man a will…..meaning God gave man the ability to make moral choices……a will, by default, gave man the so-called yetser harah….the evil inclination. If man had an inclination to do good (yester hatov), to obey and love God…….then  because we live in this God-prepared universe of opposites, man also HAD to have an inclination to do evil, to NOT obey and love God. WHY? If there were NO MORAL CHOICES……if somehow there was nothing but good…..then having a will would be totally meaningless. It would be a lot like a Cuban election; you can vote for Castro, or you can vote for Castro. You can’t even choose NOT to vote. What meaning is there to the concept of “election” if there are no choices? It is the same for the human will. Without moral choice, the will is made null and void.

This principle is evident in the facts surrounding the Fall of Man….that fateful moment when Adam and Havah ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. An interesting scenario unfolds: God creates Adam and later Eve, complete with a will (remember, God made mankind in HIS image, and God has a will). From all the information given to us, God puts nothing OFF limits to the first couple; all is for them…… translation: there IS no way to go against God. Nothing they can do is immoral. They can’t break rules, because there are no rules to break. They can’t make a bad choice, because there are no choices (again, we’re NOT talking about preferences). Ah, but there was created ONE thing about which they could make a moral choice; one rule they could break; and that created thing was the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the rule was they were not to eat from it.  In other words, without the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the restriction against eating its fruit, there were no moral choices for them to make. Without the existence of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and without God telling them they could NOT eat of it, there would have been no reason for Adam and Eve to even have a will.

Now, did Adam and Eve have ANY concept of good and evil before the Fall? It would appear not. Did they have any concept of morality? It would appear not. Things just were as they were; they made no differentiation because they didn’t know there were any differences. However, when God set the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil before them, and told them NO!….. NOW they had an opportunity to exercise their wills. Now, they COULD make a moral judgment. Even more, by choosing to disobey, they indeed DID gain a knowledge of good and evil that they had never before encountered. I think it’s fair to say they had never even considered the possibility of disobeying God; nor did they have any idea that by doing so, evil was the result. Why? Because they had no knowledge of the DIFFERENCE between Good and Evil…..the concept was none existent to them.  But, by means of Satan’s deception and temptation, and at the decision of their own wills, they chose to go against God’s ONE MORAL RULE…..not to eat of that tree……and the first transgression against God occurred. We call a transgression against God, sin. Sin now entered the world. And, what is sin but an ACT of evil.

Do you see this? Without choice there can be no sin. This has a direct correlation to a much later time in Scripture, when Moses is given the Torah, the Law, on Mt. Sinai. Listen to what Paul says, and as you do, think about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
NAS Romans 4:15 for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

Remember, that in the NT, the word Law usually means the Torah. Where there is no Torah, there cannot be violations against God. Now, please catch this: The Torah was to Israel, what the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was to Adam and Eve. The primary difference is that Adam and Eve only had one regulation in their Torah: don’t eat that fruit!  The Torah, The Law,  given to Israel on Mt. Sinai had many more regulations…..but with exactly the same effect. By means of those rules, Israel gained a knowledge of good and evil.

Listen now to Paul as he further explains this phenomenon about choice in the next chapter of Romans: NAS Romans 5:13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

In other words, did sin and evil exist before the Torah was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai? Of course it did. But, until God set down His regulations for Israel, there were no regulations to break. In a manner of speaking, for a time, Israel lived as Adam and Eve; they had wills, so now they needed choices set before them that they might use their wills. Once God set down His rules, His Law, His Torah, this now gave them well-defined moral choices as defined by God. And, they could choose whether to love Him, and demonstrate it by obedience to His Torah….or they could choose NOT to love Him, and demonstrate that by disobeying His Torah. 

 All of which causes Paul to conclude this:  NAS Galatians 3:19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.

This verse is often stated to mean “Why the Law, then? It was added to create transgressions……”  And, that is so. If man has a will, he must have moral choices. The Law provides for those choices. And, if we have choices, there WILL be trangressions.

Let’s go full circle, now, back to Genesis 6 and Noah, and apply what we’ve learned. God didn’t blame Satan for ruining the earth with evil; He blamed men and all living creatures. Now, were these men that He blamed 100% evil? No. Anymore than Noah and His sons were 100% good. This is OUR condition. It is an utter misreading of the Bible texts to say that men are 100% evil. We do have good in us…good in the sense of the yester hatov…..the good inclination. But, without Yeshua in us to direct the use of that good, then even our motives will be impure and wrong, and whatever good we possess can easily be turned into evil. How does that happen? By using our good intentions in a manner that is NOT God’s will. And, that which is not God’s will is by definition evil.

Let’s talk about Satan for a couple of minutes, and what his role is in all this. I’ve heard too many well-meaning pastors and Christian leaders say something to the effect of, ‘ why would we glorify Satan by talking about him’. Well, that’s like a general saying, ‘ I don’t want to glorify my enemy by knowing his tactics and strategy’. Noble, but foolish.

First, there really isn’t as much said in the Bible about Satan as some might believe. A lot of what we think we know is Christian and Jewish legend and tradition and denominational doctrines. In a nutshell, here’s a summary of what we do know about Satan directly from Scripture:

1. He began as a heavenly being. Now, the common term is that Satan is a fallen angel. My only quibble with that is that not all heavenly beings are angels. Angel is a very specific Hebrew word: malach. And, the Bible speaks of several kinds of heavenly beings other than angels, like Seraphim and Cherubim. Now, we don’t know much about any of these creatures; but they were in some kind of hierarchy of power, and authority, and access to God, and it appears that just below God, were the Cherubim, who were NOT malach, angels. Listen to Ezekiel 28:12, which is well understood by Hebrew and Christian scholars alike as one of the more direct referrals to Satan in all the Bible:  NAS Ezekiel 28:12 "Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord God, "You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 "You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. 14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.

Satan was not angel, but of the Cherubim. He was the anointed Cherub, a very high and trusted position. He was so high he was allowed the closest access to God Himself. He was beautiful, he was powerful, he was of the highest rank and order.

2) He fought against God and was cast to earth along with some angels, over whom he was in charge and apparently they took his side against God.  NAS Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Here we see Satan and the angels that took sides with him in open rebellion against God, kicked out of Heaven; down to planet earth. That fabulous Cherub and his angel followers were not STRONG enough to overcome Michael and the angels under him….so they lost the war…..and lost the right to be in Heaven. So, not only is Satan not as strong as God, he’s not even as strong as another Cherub named Michael. So, let’s not OVER estimate Satan’s power.

3) As we see in the Revelation 9, Satan was a deceiver. Yet, he was, and is, under God’s control. God has a purpose for Satan….to deceive and tempt people to do evil. Which means God has a purpose for evil. What is that purpose? To give people a moral choice. Without evil, we have NO moral choice.

4) Satan is an unholy spirit. Now, consider this from all I’ve told you: in our Universe, everything MUST have an opposite. If there is a Holy Spirit, then there must be an Unholy Spirit. Satan is the Unholy Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit is the embodiment of the purest good, and only good, and is in fact God……. Satan is the embodiment of purest evil, and only evil, and is in fact the anti-God. Just as God is real, Satan is real.

5) Let us also remember that though we have come to use Satan as a name for that prince of all evil, in fact Satan is really a title. Satan is the Hebrew for “adversary”. 

And, we need to get out of the habit of blaming Satan for every evil thought we have or thing that we do. Satan does NOT control our thoughts. We have wills, and we have a thorough understanding of what is good. It’s by means of our will, and through disregarding that understanding of good, that we often choose evil.

As an aside, I think that at least one purpose of Satan being locked away during the entire time of the coming 1000 year reign of Christ, is to teach US by means of Bible prophecy, and to demonstrate to those who will be living during that 1000 year period, that as long as will live in this 4 Dimensional universe, we will have an inclination within us to choose evil as well as good…..and it is NOT Satan who causes that evil inclination. Think about it: Christ comes a 2nd time as a warrior king, He defeats all who fight against God, and Satan is then locked away into the Abyss where he cannot deceive or tempt, or interact with man in any way. Every last human on planet earth is now a Believer. Christ sits on the throne. The world as at peace. Nothing but good is happening.

But, at the end of that 1000 year reign, after many many generations of men, that evil inclination begins to stir inside man again;  Satan is released from where he’s been imprisoned and given permission to offer men the choice to follow him; and rebellion breaks out. Man STILL has the remnants of that evil inclination within him; Satan offers them a moral choice, and they take it. Here is PROOF that while Satan is certainly the spirit of Evil, it is not all his doing that man has evil in him, and that man makes evil choices. Satan is a deceiver and a tempter, but man is not a robot that must oblige him. Man chooses.

We’ll get into more nuances of this as we move along. Now, I know this messes with some Christian denominational doctrines concerning evil. But, I also readily admit I don’t hold all the truth. This is just how I see it.    That’s probably enough to choke on for now, so let’s finish up Noah and Genesis 6!

Noah and these 3 sons choose to follow the ways of God; to love God and obey God. Oh, they failed from time to time, and after the flood we’ll get examples of some of their failures. But, because they trusted God, God credited that trust to them as righteousness, and so He saw them as good, whereas the rest of the world God saw as “not having goodness”. And, the absence of goodness is evil.

Let’s move off the topic of evil by listening to what the Paul would say about Noah, thousands of years later, in Hebrews 11:7:  “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house (family); by the which he condemned the world, and become heir of the righteousness which is by faith”. You see, once again we have a “type”. The Ark is a type….it’s a type of safe haven for the faithful. And, we see this sort of scenario played out again and again in Bible history……. and now, again, in our times.

And, notice, that once again the formula for salvation is stated…..the Gospel message is delivered right here…..that the gaining of God’s type of righteousness…is accomplished by faith and trust in Yahweh.

Permit me to meddle for a minute. Have we been forewarned about a time of terrible Tribulation just over the horizon? One that will occur within a few years following the return of Israel as a nation and the liberation of Jerusalem from the gentiles? A time worse than any time in the history of the world, or will ever be again? Have you built an Ark for you and your family? Have you become an heir to righteousness, leading your family to become heirs to righteousness, which is attainable ONLY by faith……faith in Yeshua who is the son of God, and is God? Because Christ is quite literally an Ark. He is our Ark, prepared for us for our time; an Ark who will safely house all of us who place our faith in Him, that we might escape the flood of unimaginable horrors that are about to happen to this dying world. You see; the Torah is so contemporary, it’s staggering as to why we’ve never seen it before.