After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. 1 Peter 3: 19-22
The above passage in technically complicated and theologically important it also is another one of those passages that demand a reading of the Bible as a singular document and not just a grouping of literature tossed together. In the four verses quoted, we must deal with hell, angels, the pre-flood generation, baptism and the body resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ascension into heaven. Last blog I wrote on verse 19, today I will only set a foundation for verse 20. There is simply too much in these verses to gloss over. I will point the reader to references as necessary in order to maintain the brevity of the blog.
The flood is one of the great lines in the concrete that separates believers between believers and believers and non believers. Believing in a literal worldwide flood a literal Adam and Eve categorizes you as one of those “crazy creationist” and there is no way to get around that charge if you are an evangelical bible believer. As an evangelist and soul winner you have to be able to give intelligent answers to these questions. Ken Ham of answersingenesis.org is the best resource I know of in this area. His web site has a blog written by him called ‘Will pastors miss the millions of years point?’ It quotes extensively from a survey among pastors addressing the topic of this blog.
The question of the nature of the flood is of vital importance. Peter’s pen referenced only eight people being saved after the flood. If nine are saved the Bible is unreliable. It tells us the reason for the flood, disobedience, and immediately following the flood we have a radical change in the life span of men that is reported. If the account of the pre flood generation is mythological then the entire Bible is unreliable. Our faith is in vain and we are the most foolish of people.
If Jesus did not die to restore what Adam’s sin lost then the crucifixion is without redeeming merit; if the Bible is mythological about the flood then why not the resurrection? The Christian faith is routed in historic precedents that begin in Genesis. If there is death before Adam, then death is not the consequence of the sin. If death is the consequence of something other than sin then the scripture that says “without the shedding of blood there is not remission of sins” does not apply. If it does not apply then Jesus did not need to die for our sins. If Jesus did not need to die for our sins then everything he did and said has no foundation and he is only a man and not God. Then Christianity is a false religion. Therefore we better be able to justify why we believe what we believe.
The intellectual process for believing is God is easy. Creation itself is sufficient evidence to believe in God. The design and intricacies of nature demand a belief in a creator. Naming that creator Jesus and stating he is the designer is a much bigger leap. In order to that I have to believe in Bible. The intellectual process that makes me believe in the Bible starts with Jesus and then backs into evangelical truth and applies to things like the universal flood, a young earth and a literal Adam.
What are the things that are in the Bible that make me believe in Jesus? There are two I can start with, the first is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies related to Jesus. Simply search the topic and you will see a list of these scriptures. The second is the witness of the apostles. These are all men that went to great lengths to speak about their personal eye witness accounts of his resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that 500 people saw Jesus alive. Luke 1, 1 John 1 opening lines speak with clarity about a desire to witness to a truth that was historic. The writers only give us the option of accepting or rejecting their words as actual truth. Their claims leave no room for mythological or metaphorical interpretation. Neither does the rest of the Bible. To be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment