Tag: Noah

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

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.

Adam and Eve or DNA “Bottleneck”?

Some media outlets announced evidence of the creation account, or at least the great Flood, after a study published in Human Evolution found that mitochondrial diversity in almost all species points to a common starting point about as early as 100,000 years ago.

In an effort to prove that mitochondrial DNA, found in organelles in each cell and which is distinct from the DNA in the nucleus of cells, is a reliable tool for identifying distinct lines with species or organisms, researchers Mark Stoeckle and David Thaler discovered that the 7.6 billion humans living on earth likely emerged from “a small population in which a sequence from one mother became the ancestor for all modern human mitochondrial sequences”.

Based on similar low genetic variation that they found among five million specimens of 100,000 animal species, they deduced that more than 90 percent of animal genetic lines emerged at the same time; and, they related the genetic bottlenecks in both humans and animals to “near extinction events.”

Although they used specific language to suggest that a worldwide catastrophe caused a reboot of sorts for all humans from a single ancestor, in response to the firestorm about their findings, Stoeckle and Thaler have since told at least one media outlet, “Our study follows mainstream views of human evolution. We do not propose there was a single ‘Adam’ or ‘Eve’. We do not propose any catastrophic events.”

Others have interpreted their research to claim that the human species has to “revamp” itself in the evolutionary process., and that through some unknown mechanism it occurs “in unison” with all animals.

Although the scientist reject the notion of an Adam and Eve creation, and presumably a Noah and Naamah reboot of creation, their work does provide some support for a number of points about creation that are made in Scripture.

For instance, their conclusions point to a sudden appearance of modern man and animals, which is consistent with both the creation and flood accounts.

Likewise, they did not find any “in-between” species.

This would appear to frustrate Darwin’s theory of evolution which is founded in part on the premise of “intermediate gradations, whereas species were formerly connected”. On the other hand, this finding is enterly consistent with the language of creation which uses language such as “after its kind” to describe the process for populating the earth.

(Cultural News – Baptist Message December 13, 2018)

The Bible says:

Genesis 1:26-28 NASBS

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

In the New Testament we discover the following about Jesus:

Colossians 1:15-16 NASBS

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him. …

What a mighty God we serve. And He wants to have a relationship with us! Amazing.

May He bless you today as you follow Him.

Carl