Category: Genesis Flood

A Polynesian Ancient Tradition About Nimrod of Genesis

The following ancient tradition by the Polynesians was reported by English Missionary John Williams (1796-1839) who arrived in Tahiti in autumn of 1817 and was eaten by cannibals in November 1839 in the New Hebrides.

“…the heavens were originally so close to the earth that men could not walk, but were compelled to crawl” under them. “This was found a very serious evil; but at length an individual conceived the sublime idea of elevating the heavens to a more convenient height. For this purpose he put forth his utmost energy, and the first effort raised them to the top of a tender plant called teve, about four feet high. There he deposited them until he was refreshed, when by a second effort he lifted them to the height of a tree called Kauariki, which is as large as the sycamore. By the third attempt he carried them to the summits of the mountains; and after a long interval of repose, and by a most prodigious effort, he elevated them to their present situation.” For this, as a mighty benefactor of mankind, “this individual was deified; and up to the moment that Christianity was embraced, the deluded inhabitants worshipped him as the ‘Elevator of the heavens.” 1

“Now, what could more graphically describe the position of mankind soon after the flood, and the proceedings of Nimrod as Phoroneus, “The Emancipator,” than this Polynesian fable?

“While the awful catastrophe by which God has showed His avenging justice on the sinners of the old world was yet fresh in the minds of men, and so long as Noah, and the upright among his descendants, sought with all earnestness to impress upon all under their control the lessons which that solemn event was so well fitted to teach, “heaven,” that is, God, must have seemed very near to earth. To maintain the union between heaven and earth, and to keep it as close as possible, must have been the grand aim of all who loved God and the best interests of the human race.

“But this implied the restraining and discountenancing of all vice and all those “pleasures of sin,” after which the natural mind, unrenewed and unsanctified, continually pants. This must have been secretly felt by every unholy mind as a state of insufferable bondage. “The carnal mind is enmity against God, ” is “not subject to His law,” neither indeed is “able to be” so. It says to the Almighty, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.” So long as the influence of the great father” (Noah) “of the new world was in the ascendant, while his maxims were regarded, and a holy atmosphere surrounded the world, no wonder that those who were alienated from God and godliness, felt heaven and its influence and authority to be intolerably near, and that in such circumstances they “could not walk,” but only “crawl,”– that is, that they had no freedom to “walk after the sight of their own eyes and the imaginations of their own hearts.”

“From this bondage Nimrod emancipated them. By the apostasy he introduced, by the free life he developed among those who rallied around him, and by separating them from the holy influences that had previously less or more controlled them, he helped them to put God and the strict spirituality of His laws at a distance, and thus he became the “Elevator of the heavens,” making men feel and act as if heaven were afar off the earth, and as if either the God of heaven “could not see through the dark cloud,” or did not regard with displeasure the breakers of His laws. Then all such would feel that they could breathe freely, and that now they could walk at liberty. For this, such men could not but regard Nimrod as a high benefactor.

“According to the system which Nimrod was the grand instrument in introducing, men were led to believe that a real spiritual change of heart was unnecessary, and that so far as change was needful, they could be regenerated by mere external means.

“Looking at the subject in the light of the Bacchanalian orgies, which, as the reader has seen, commemorated the history of Nimrod, it is evident that he led mankind to seek their chief good in sensual enjoyment, and showed them how they might enjoy the pleasures of sin, without any fear of the wrath of a holy God. In his various expeditions he was always accompanied by troops of women; and by music and song, and games and revelries, and everything that could please the natural heart, he commended himself to the good graces of mankind. “2

And so it continues in 2025 because when God confused the languages at Babel after the worldwide flood, the newly created language groups that dispersed around the world took with them the rebellious teaching of Babel and the worship of Nimrod into their new countries; therefore, today the nations are still in bondage to idols and false gods.

Thank you King Jesus for the Gospel that sets men free and brings them into your heavenly kingdom which one day will come to earth when You will reign from Jerusalem bringing justice.

Come Lord Jesus!

Carl. 1.Source: English Missionary John Williams (1796-1839) who arrived in Tahiti in autumn of 1817 and was eaten by cannibals in November 1839 in the New Hebrides. He wrote Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands which you can find on the internet for free.

2. Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons (Or, The Papal Worship Proved To Be The Worship of Nimrod), Printed in United States 2013. Hislop (1807-1865) was a Scottish minister.

A Flood of Flood Legends

Please enjoy this video from Creation Moments. May God bless you and yours. Carl

Oldest Known Religious Shrine Discovered

The fact that man is by nature a religious creature was underscored with the discovery of the oldest known religious sanctuary in the world. The shrine was discovered in northern Spain. Evolutionists say that the shrine was built by early Stone Age man. In terms of biblical history, the sanctuary was probably built by some of the first post-flood settlers in Spain.

Scientists declared the ancient structure a religious sanctuary based on three criteria. First, it is a large structure that required the effort and cooperation of many people to build. Second, it has features that are unnecessary for daily living. Third, the structure is associated with a supernatural being. Scientists noted that the stone floor of the sanctuary shows a great deal of wear, indicating that it saw a lot of use. The worship center included an altar made of a limestone slab weighing nearly a ton.

The shrine also had a stone sculpture of a head. The right half of the head is human and the left half of the head is a carnivore of some sort. Worshippers at the site had separate storage places for sewing needles and hunting tools. Spear points, animal bones, and shells were found in a trench in the sanctuary.

Man is undeniably a religious creature. We have been made by our Creator in such a way that we are dissatisfied until we have a relationship with Him. You, too, can have a relationship with Him through the forgiveness of your sins which was earned for you by His Son, Jesus Christ.

Acts 17:27
“That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us…”

Prayer: Dear Lord, only in You can I be satisfied. I thank You that I can indeed be satisfied without fear because You have carried my sins to the cross and brought me new life through Your resurrection from the dead. Amen.

Notes: C. Simon. 1981. “Stone-age Sanctuary, Oldest Known Shrine, Discovered in Spain.” Science News, Dec. 5, p. 357. Photo: Envato

© 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Nephilim in the Bible: Who are they and what is their significance.

(Following is from the Biblical Archaeology Society. I have read one of the articles mentioned at the end and found it very enlightening. The views expressed by the Society are not necessarily the views of this blog.)

Who are the Nephilim? In Hebrew “Nephilim” literally means “fallen ones” and Genesis 6:1–4 tells us they were the offspring of members of the heavenly host and human women that went on to become legendary warriors. Their exploits, however, are not mentioned and the author of Genesis seems to imply that they are responsible for the great wickedness that spread across the earth, forcing God to send the Great Flood.

The mysterious Nephilim are only mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible one other time, in Numbers 13:33, when the Israelite scouts make fearful claims that Nephilim and their gigantic offspring, the Anakim, inhabit the land of Canaan.

In the book of Deuteronomy, the gigantic ancestors of these same Anakim are called Rephaim and we learn that Og, King of Bashan, was the last of their remnant. (Deut. 3:11) The book also claims that the Moabites and Ammonites drove out races of giants from their lands before they took possession of them (Deut. 2:10-11, 20-21).

It is not clear when the Nephilim of Genesis 6 began to be equated with the gigantic Rephaim mentioned in Deuteronomy, however, by the Intertestimental Period, the Nephilim had taken on their gigantic and monstrous qualities, fully acquiring their negative reputation.

In the literature written during that time, such as the Book of Enoch, Jubilees, and others found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nephilim are the giant offspring of human women and a group of fallen angels known as the Watchers. The Book of Enoch, an apocryphal collection of texts that reimagines the account of Genesis 5–6, states that the Watchers shared secret knowledge with their Nephilim children that led to the corruption of the world. The giants ravaged the earth, filling it with destruction and evil, depleting the world’s food supply, and terrifying humankind. And these actions triggered the flood as punishment for all their terrible deeds.

When Enoch confronts the Watchers about their impending doom, the Watchers implore Enoch to intercede on their behalf. Enoch agrees—but to no avail. The Watchers’ petition is not granted, and they and their Nephilim sons are not able to escape their punishment—the flood.

And if you’ve ever seen the movie production of Noah starring Russell Crowe, you’ll have a contemporary visual of how these giants might appear—at least according to Hollywood scriptwriters. The fallen angels in the movie Noah are loosely based on the Watchers mentioned in the Book of Enoch.

The Hollywood blockbuster Noah has generated its fair share of controversy, with some saying the movie took too many liberties with the Biblical text. Certainly, the movie is not a straightforward retelling of the flood story in Genesis 6, but the flood story has been reimagined in both Christian and Jewish texts, such as the apocryphal Book of Enoch, for millennia.

Learn everything about Noah and the Flood

The flood story is one of the best-known Biblical narratives. The Book of Genesis describes God’s call to Noah to build an ark for his family and to preserve two of every animal. In time, the earth would be flooded and the world would begin anew. Questions surrounding the historicity of the Biblical narrative, however, have plagued historians and archaeologists for centuries. What do textual and archaeological sources actually tell us about Noah and the flood story? In the BAS Library Special Collection Noah and the Genesis Flood, BAS editors have hand-selected articles from Biblical Archaeology Review and Bible Review that examine the Genesis flood, its interpretations, and what the similar Babylonian flood stories can teach us.

Indeed, this Special Collection is filled with parable and high drama, making it a must-read for any student of the Bible, not just those particularly interested in the Book of Genesis, Noah, and the flood.

Whatever intrigues you about the varying stories of the Flood, you’ll find it in this in-depth collection, Noah and the Genesis Flood.

It might surprise you to learn how much there is to know about Noah and his ark, yet this collection includes all of these revealing studies:

As a member of the Biblical Archaeology Society Library, you are able to enjoy this remarkable collection of scholarly articles now. Remember, this collection, Noah and the Genesis Flood, is just a tiny sample of what you have access to in the BAS Library with your All-Access pass.

Satellite Imagery & The Garden of Eden

…. there are currently no archaeological data for the garden of Eden. However, scholars have attempted to deduce its location from the evidence in the biblical account, which names four rivers associated with the river flowing through Eden (Genesis 2: 10-14).

Two of those rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, are presumed to be the same as those known to us today, as is the location of the country (Assyria) identified with the Tigris. The identity of the other two is less certain. One, the Pishon, is said to wind through the land of Havilah, where there is gold, aromatic resin, and onyx. The other is the Gihon, said to flow through the land of Cush.

Many different locations for these rivers and of Eden have been proposed. Astronomer Hughes Ross has made a suggestion informed by satellite imagery:

“The details here point in the direction of the Hejaz, a mountainous region in the west central part of Saudi Arabia. This 6,000-foot range contains the only known source of workable gold in the region. The land of Cush has long been identified with Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Given that the Bab el Mandeb strait and much of the Red Sea were dry near the end of the last ice age (between 20,000 and 7,000 BC), Cush would have included the mountains in Arabia’s southwest corner…. Satellite imagery reveals the dry beds of two major rivers that once flowed from west-central and southwestern Arabia into the Persian Gulf region. (Ross, NG, 97-8)”

Ross notes that the one location where these two rivers could come together with the Tigris and Euphrates is in the Persian Gulf region.  (Ross, NG, 99) Archaeological finds on the northern coast of the Arabian Peninsula and on islands in the Persian Gulf, notably the island of al-Bahrain, are associated with the ancient kingdom of Dilmun*. (Britannica, s. v. “Dilmun”) Interestingly, ANE** literature refers to the land of Dilmun as an ancient paradise reminiscent of Eden.  (Arnold and Bayer, RANE, 15-19)

Josh McDowell & Sean McDowell, Evidence That Demands A Verdict (Thomas Nelson, 2017) pp. 438-439

This side of heaven, we will never know exactly where the Garden of Eden was located. But the Lord and you can turn your heart into a paradise as you walk with Him through this world. And when you exit this life, He is going to take you to Paradise to be with Him forever.

Carl

** Dilmun: Sumerian name of an ancient independent kingdom that flourished c. 2000 BCE, centred on Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf. Dilmun is mentioned as a commercial centre in Sumerian economic texts of the late 4th millennium BCE, when it was a transshipment point for goods between Sumer and the Indus Valley. Copper and a variety of other goods, including stone beads, precious stones, pearls, dates, and vegetables, were shipped to Sumer and Babylonia in return for agricultural products. (Britannica)

**Ancient Near East literature

The Tropical Arctic

Psalm 119:89

“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.”

Both archaeology and the Bible suggest that the world was once quite different from the world we know today. Each agrees that the earth’s climate was once much more uniform than it is today.

At one time the tropics may have extended into what are today polar regions. However, the Bible and evolutionary geology don’t agree on how long ago that was. Bible-believing geologists, on the other hand, are reporting evidence to support the Bible’s story of history.

In the last few years scientists have been surprised to discover dinosaur fossils in Alaska. Dinosaurs need warm temperatures—warmer than Alaska was thought to have been. In 1986, on Canada’s Axel Heiberg Island, only 600 miles from the North Pole, scientists found a huge, dense forest. Some of the trees were well over 125 feet tall. They have been snapped off at the stump and are neither fossilized nor petrified, but remain as fresh wood. Even some of the leaves are still intact. The area was filled with spruce, hickory, dawn redwood and cypress trees and was evidently a swamp, since tropical turtle and alligator remains have also been found. Tree rings show that the area was warmer in the recent past, while the size of the rings tell us that there were short, hot summers during which rapid growth occurred, followed by long, dark winters as there are today.

The most interesting conclusion reached by the scientific team is that the entire region must have been subjected to a huge flood! This discovery tells us that all of geology must be restructured to present a history that agrees with the Bible’s story of the earth’s past.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, I thank You that Your Word is true and trustworthy. Let my faith be more than a faith of words or simply comfort in bad times. Instruct me through the Bible so that my faith is a way of life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

_____

REF: Search for a Tropical Arctic (Television documentary). 1990. Federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (Canada). Photo: Arctic fox in sunglasses by RJM Snapdragon from Pixabay.com  photo elements.

© 2023 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Relax

Genesis 6:3
“And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”

Before the Flood people were living hundreds of years. As man grew more evil, God declared that man’s lifespan would be reduced to 120 years. Modern biology has learned that we do indeed have built-in timers in each of our cells that limit the number of times they can divide. When enough cells can no longer divide, we die. We can even do things to speed up the timers.

The timers are called telomeres. However, every time a cell divides, a small part of each telomere is lost. When these telomeres are worn down to nothing, the cell no longer divides and soon dies. Researchers studied 58 healthy women between the ages of 20 and 50. All the women had children, but 39 of them had a child that was seriously chronically ill. Stress levels were measured through questionnaires while blood samples provided information about their cell health. Among other things, scientists checked for levels of an enzyme that maintains the health of telomeres. The mothers who saw their stress levels as high proved to have much shorter telomeres than those who reported little stress. They reported that cells from stressed women had telomeres that were as short as unstressed women ten years older.

Scripture tells us to cast all our cares on the Lord. Among the many blessings of doing so are healthy telomeres.

Prayer: Father, I cast all my cares on You. You have loved me through Your Son, Jesus Christ. I trust Your love. Amen.

Author: Paul A. Bartz

Ref: Science News, 12/4: 2004, p. 355, C. Brownlee, “Stressed to Death.” Photo: Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white). Courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Program. (PD)

Source: Creation Moments

Forest of Antarctica

In 2017, geologists studying the Transantarctic Mountain Range discovered several layers of tree stumps, with parts of the roots attached, in a matrix of leaf and twig debris. Their discovery is a textbook lesson in both how to do careful observational science and also how wrong conclusions can be drawn by using incorrect presuppositions. The scientists collected careful measurements of the dimensions of the stumps and also the tree-ring data to estimate the original age and height of these remains. They were also able to classify these trees as belonging to the genus Glossopteris, a type of extinct gymnosperm “tree-fern”, whose remains are found in many parts of southern continents.

This observational work was exemplary and should be imitated. However, they then proceeded to assume that there must have been five forests, growing one after the other, starting about 260 million years ago, in a leaf-mold type soil.

Biblical creationists look at the observations differently. The stumps have only partial roots, which are broken. This would indicate that the trees did not grow where they have been found – they grew elsewhere and were carried to this spot, and deposited. Therefore, there were not five growth periods – just one brief period of deposition of several layers, which probably took place towards the end of the Flood. The matrix around the stumps therefore comprises of Flood debris.

One again, the Bible makes clearer sense of the observed data and is consistent with the biblical history of the Flood.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord God, our Creator, for giving us the Bible. Help us always to start from biblical presuppositions whenever we attempt to make sense of this world in which You have placed us. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Snelling, AA. (2019), Stumped by Forests in Antarctica, < https://answersingenesis.org/the-flood/stumped-forests-antarctica/ >, accessed 3/24/2020. Image: NASA map of Antarctica, Public Domain.

Source: Creation Moments

Extra-Biblical Flood Legends

“Creation stands or falls on the Genesis Flood,” stated a creation geologist years ago. The fact of the Flood covering all the earth is undeniable. As described in Genesis 7,


19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.


In addition, 73% of the earth’s crust is covered by sedimentary rock laid down by the Flood’s waters about 4,500 years ago. Within these rocks are trillions of fossilized animals (mostly marine invertebrates) and plants—remnants of a world “filled with violence.”


Between Scripture and the geological-paleontological record, the effects of the Flood are clearly seen. There is, however, a third indication of this worldwide, devastating event—the universal flood legends recorded by all the major people groups of Earth. If “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:6), it would undoubtedly leave an indelible memory of the generations following the Flood.


As people groups spread and migrated after the Tower of Babel, they would carry with them the Flood story. Through the centuries, stories of the Flood were passed on to each generation via early patriarchs such as Joseph, Jacob, and Abraham, records that Moses had access to. As the years went by in some parts of the world, there would be editing and embellishments of the Flood event, but the basic story of judgment via a worldwide deluge, the preservation of a remnant in a structure, and the events directly afterwards would be preserved. The account of the Flood in Genesis comes from Noah himself and is written and edited by Moses and is not dependent on Near Eastern texts. Knowing this, a wise historian would search out similarities between Moses’ Flood story and the flood stories told in other cultures.


Nick Liguori is a civil engineer and an avocational researcher. He has applied his knowledge of biblical history to painstakingly put together a compendium of Flood traditions from North and South America. His book Echoes of Ararat Liguori shows the reader that the critical opening chapters of Genesis are true and historically accurate. Such Flood traditions have been found to be even more prevalent than was originally thought, offering Liguori’s book as a fresh new resource for those interested in Flood geology and early biblical history.


A brief sampling of stories recorded by Nick Liguori are:

The water grew higher and higher until all the earth was covered . . . A single family remained alive. —the Chimila tribe of northern Colombia


Then the waters went up, up and up, flooding all the mountains and highest hills and killing all that had life on the earth. Only one house had been raised over the waters, which had covered all the species of animals. —Mayan ancestors of the Jakalteks of northwestern Guatemala


They have a tradition of the floud [flood], that all the world was once drowned, except a few that were saved, to wit, about seven or eight in a great canoro [canoe]. —Rev John Clayton (d. 1725) recording the narrative from the Powhatan tribe of Virginia


Very long ago there was a great flood by which all men and animals were destroyed, with the exception of a single raven. —the Kootenay people of southeastern British Columbia

https://www.icr.org/article/extra-biblical-flood-legends/

Source: Berean Call