Transcript & Slides: The Genesis Flood and Current Controversies
The Genesis Flood and Current Controversies
By David Feddes
When you read the Genesis story of the flood, you're not just reading a story. You are reading something that provokes a lot of questions and a lot of challenges, and which people are going to fight against just about every step of the way, for a variety of reasons. When you read Genesis 6 through 9, you find that there are a lot of claims that are very controversial today.
One is that floodwaters covered the whole earth. How could the entire earth be covered with water? A second controversial claim is that all of today's land animals were descended from those that were originally on the ark. How could the ark hold the ancestors of all the animals that are on land today? A third controversial claim is that God punished the world in his wrath. Isn't God too nice for that? Punishing the whole world? A fourth controversial claim: even the very best people are evil from their youth. People were evil before the flood, and even after the flood, when only Noah and his family were left, the Bible says that people are evil from their youth. Who wants to hear that? A fifth thing that occurs in this part of Genesis is an atoning sacrifice that God is pleased by and accepts. Who wants to believe that sacrifices are necessary? A sixth controversial claim is that God preserves the earth and its seasons. Aren’t we the ones who have to save the planet? A seventh controversial claim: growing population is a blessing from God and not a terrible curse. An eighth controversial claim: people may eat and use animals. Don't animals have rights too? The ninth and final claim that we'll consider is that murder deserves the death penalty. A lot of people disagree with that.
- Floodwaters covered the whole earth.
- Ark held ancestors of all today’s animals.
- God punished the world in his wrath.
- Even the best people are evil from youth.
- Atoning sacrifice is necessary.
- God preserves earth and its seasons.
- Growing population is a blessing.
- People may use and eat animals.
- Murder deserves the death penalty.
That's a pretty controversial list. And you get all of that in just a few chapters of Genesis, Genesis 6 through 9. Let's go through that list, and we'll see how God's Word is very different from the way people tend to think when left to ourselves.
1. Floodwaters covered the whole earth.
The Bible says, "All the fountains of the great deep burst forth [water from under the ground], and the windows of the heavens were opened [water fell from the sky]... And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth, that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered" (Genesis 7:11, 19).
Some scholars object, "There's no way that all the mountains on the whole earth were covered with water!" They suggest that the great flood had to be local, not a worldwide flood. Maybe it covered the area that certain people happened to be living in at the time, but it didn’t cover the whole world. But in that case, why would you spend so many years building a monstrous ark if all you had to do was move away to escape a local flood? Here's another question: Would a local flood cover mountains?
Could there be a worldwide flood? Well, flood stories involving a big boat were told among natives of ancient Babylon in the Gilgamesh Epic. Such stories were told among native peoples in Alaska and Mexico and Brazil and Cuba and India and Greenland and Africa and Hawaii and Greece—all before Christians or Jewish people had an opportunity to spread the story there. The story seems to be pretty much worldwide in one form or another.
Fossils show that all parts of earth, even high on Mount Everest, were once underwater.
Here is something else to consider: if the earth were perfectly smooth, the entire earth would be covered with water 8,000 feet deep. We always assume that all the mountains are as high now as they used to be. They weren't. We don't know what the topography and the geography was like back then. We do know there's an awful lot of water in the world, and that if mountains were of different heights, there's plenty of water to go around.
Another thing we know, and this is the most important of all. Even if we can't explain something or struggle to explain it, we know this: water obeys the Lord. If the Lord said to water, "Cover the earth," it would cover the earth.
At the Red Sea, "the Lord drove the sea back, and the waters were divided, and the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left" (Exodus 14:21-22). God can make water flow uphill. God can put water in walls. God can do whatever he wants with water. So, if the Bible says God covered the whole earth with water, he covered the whole earth with water.
Here's another example of water obeying the Lord. When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap... and all Israel was passing over on dry ground (Joshua 3:16-17). God could make heaps of water cover mountains if he so chose.
On the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told a storm to be quiet. His disciples asked, "Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?" (Luke 8:25). Water obeys Jesus Christ, and water obeys the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At any rate, the flood was worldwide. But here's some good news: God promises that it would never happen again. God says, "I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh" (Genesis 9:15). This obviously was not a local flood. There have been many, many local floods since that original great flood, but God says, "I'm never sending another flood like the one that covered the whole earth."
Psalm 104 praises God and says, "You covered the earth with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke the waters fled… the mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth" (Psalm 104:6-9). God spoke a word that changed the geography of the earth. God ordered water to flow uphill and cover the mountains. The God ordered water to flow downhill and stay in its place. God's Word has now promised and arranged that never again will the whole earth be covered with such a flood.
2. Ark held ancestors of all today's land animals.
This claim is controversial because we sometimes think of the ark very differently. We see artistic portraits of the ark in children's books. It looks like a wee little tub with some very large, cute animals leaning over the sides. How in the world is a little tub like that going to hold all the ancestors of today’s animal life?
But we should picture the ark as a huge, huge vessel that was built according to God's instructions. The ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high, with a volume of over 1.5 million cubic feet. In meters, that's about 137 by 23 by 14, about 43,000 cubic meters. That would be the volume of 569 railroad cars, each capable of holding 240 sheep. The ark was not a cute little boat; it could hold over 135,000 animals the size of a sheep.
The ark held the ancestors of all life. Now keep in mind, animals on the ark didn't have to all be full-grown. You wouldn't have to take full-grown elephants on board, would you? Would you have to take full-grown giraffes on board? Of course not.
Also, fewer kinds of animals may have been on the ark, and later those kinds may have developed into more species. For instance, we have all kinds of different cats today, and yet, they could all come from one original cat pair. We have all kinds of different dogs and wolves and the like—they could all come from just one ancestral pair. So you wouldn't have to fit nearly as many species and subspecies on the ark as we see around us today.
At any rate, after the flood God commanded, “Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 8:17). God gave Noah a command to bring these kinds of animals onto the ark and then off again. These would be the animals from which God would repopulate the earth.
3. God punished the world in his wrath.
This claim is one that even many Christians don't take to heart very much. Little children are sometimes taught a song that begins, “The Lord said to Noah to build him an arky, arky." It's a cute little funny song—about the most terrible judgment in the history of the universe. It is teaching children a lie to think of the ark story as some cute little happy-clappy song. It's sending the opposite message of the reality.
If even church people don't take seriously God's judgment on the world, certainly unbelievers don’t like the notion at all. “The world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (2 Peter 3:6), says the apostle Peter. And he says something similar is going to happen again at the end of the ages: “The heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:7). And Peter didn't just make this up. He got it from his Master, Jesus. “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man,” says Jesus. “They were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37-39).
The flood was real. The judgment of the flood was real. And the judgment of Jesus’ second coming is real. And to take the final worldwide judgment seriously, we must take the earlier worldwide judgment seriously. It may be controversial. People may not like to hear it. But God doesn't make his decisions based on public opinion polls.
4. Even the best people are evil from youth.
The fourth controversial claim is that even the best people are sinful. “God said, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth’” (Genesis 8:21). Keep in mind, God says this after the flood when only righteous Noah and his family are left. And God says that even these people are evil from their youth. Noah became drunk (Genesis 9:21).
Again, that's controversial. Muslim people, for instance, say that Noah and other great heroes never sinned—they were always perfect. The claim that a man like Noah would get drunk and do shameful things and curse his grandchild and so on—that's just not on their radar. But the fact is, even the best people are sinful.
David says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). This is taught from the very beginning of the Bible and all the way through the Bible. So, as you start reading in the book of Genesis, you might as well get used to the claim that even the best people are sinful. “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).
5. Atoning sacrifice is necessary.
Because there's no one righteous, an atoning sacrifice is necessary. “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, 'I will never again… strike down every living creature'” (Genesis 8:20-21). God's promise was based on an atoning sacrifice.
Later on, as you read further in the Bible, you read about “a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:9). And the New Testament says, “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). If you're allergic to atoning sacrifices, if you're allergic to the idea of God being pleased by a sacrifice, then Jesus’ salvation will make no sense to you. But already in these early chapters of Genesis, God is revealing to us the need for an atoning sacrifice.
6. God preserves the earth and its seasons.
A sixth thing that's challenged—but yet true—is that God preserves earth and seasons. “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). God is going to make sure that the earth continues and that its seasons continue. “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 9:15).
Now, even with those promises, people panic about climate change and the extinction of all life. Global warming is a great fear among some people today. Here are three questions to ask: First, is the globe really warming? Are our measurements accurate? Do we know that it's warming? Second, how much effect do humans have? Is any possible warming the result of human activity? Or is much warming just something that’s occurring that humans have not caused? A third very important question: Would warming be bad, or good? Would it result in a more productive earth? Those are not easy questions to answer, despite what is sometimes called a scientific consensus on the matter.
Those of us with a bit of memory remember that global warming is not the first panic about saving the earth. We remember "the global cooling crisis." Consider these statements from the 1970s: “The world's climatologists are agreed” that we must “prepare for the next ice age.” (Science Digest, February 1973). “A major cooling of the planet is widely considered inevitable.” (New York Times, May 1975). All the experts agreed that the planet was cooling, and this was considered deadly and catastrophic. “A new ice age must now stand along-side nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery.” (International Wildlife, July 1975) "The Ice Age cometh," warned Science News in a cover story. We were told to expect “a full-blown 10,000-year ice age” (Science News, March 1975). Scientists warned of “extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation” (Science Dec. 1976). Newsweek ran a story in 1975 titled “The Cooling World” and proclaimed, "There are ominous signs that the world's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth." Accompanying the story was an impressive graph that showed global temperatures for the previous 30 years. How could anybody doubt that the ice was coming and we'd all be shivering shivering and starving?
We must save the planet from cooling! We must save the planet from warming! We must save the planet from climate change! The scientific consensus changes every few years on what we’ve got to save the planet from.I don’t know whether global warming is a reality or what steps would be wise, but I do know this: where there’s a panic about climate change and trying to control climate on a massive global scale, government will get more control.
Scientists will get more grant money. If a scientist just says, "You know, climate changes. Sometimes average temperature goes up a little, sometimes it goes down a little"—nobody gives a scientist grant money to say that. If you're a scientist seeking grant money, it pays to warn of a huge crisis.
Reporters get a lot more attention and sales and clicks if the headline says “The Ice Age Cometh,” or “The Globe Is on Fire,” than if they just say, weather and climate are hard to predict, and there's probably no worldwide climate catastrophe looming.
Secular environmentalists really get a bonus—they get a noble ideal and a “mission of salvation” without religion. Everybody wants to save the world. It's just a question of what they want to save it from. I still remember a cartoon which showed a bearded man holding a sign which said, “The end is near.” Someone else in the cartoon says, “I can’t stand you religious wackos.” The guy holding the sign says, “I’m not a religious wacko; I’m an environmentalist.” In the next panel of the cartoon, the second guy has joined him and is holding a sign with the same message: “The end is near.” Many in our world think that people who speak of God's coming judgment must be crazy, but they think that every new scientifically induced panic must be absolute truth.
Well, before saving the planet, try this: love your neighbor. And next time you look at a rainbow, thank God that he saves the planet. He's going to preserve the planet until the day when he decides history has come to its end.
Now, that doesn't mean that if there's strong evidence that pollution is doing damage, we shouldn't cut back on pollution. We want clean air. We want clean water. We can pay attention to those things. But let's not panic every time the powers that be say we should panic.
7. Growing population is a blessing.
This controversial claim appears already in Genesis 1, when God blessed Adam and Eve with the words, "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). Those words are repeated after the flood story. “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth… You be fruitful and multiply; teem on the earth and multiply in it’” (Genesis 9:1,7). It was God’s blessing that enabled that to occur. The Bible often speaks of God blessing people with many offspring.
But there are fierce challenges to the claim that growing population is a blessing. Molly Yard, who served as President of the National Organization for Women, said, “The abortion question is not just about women's rights, but about life on the planet –environmental catastrophe awaits the world if the population continues to grow at its present rate.” So, “Kill a baby, save the planet” seems to be her motto.
Next time you see a rainbow, thank God for blessing his earth with billions of people and with countless animals. And thank him for people who don’t think they’re doing some noble thing by killing their own children, but instead welcome children as blessings from God.
8. People may use and eat animals.
God told Noah, “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything” (Genesis 9:2-3). You don't need to feel guilty the next time you eat a steak.
The animal rights movement claims that animals are equal to people and that nobody should eat any animal products. You shouldn’t even have pets because that’s akin to slavery. This often involves a very anti-human approach. "We have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth… The smallest form of life, even an ant or a clam, is equal to a human being… When it comes to feelings, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. [I'm glad I'm not her boy!] They all feel pain. There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. 6 million Jews died in concentration camps, but 6 billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughter houses.” (Ingrid Newkirk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals PETA) Broiler chickens and Jews—same level of value and importance.
Animal rights advocates say that people have no right to use animals. Drinking milk or wearing wool or owning pets is like slavery. Medical research using animals is always evil. Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, “we’d be against it,” says Ingrid Newkirk. “We’re humans are not superior; there is no clear distinction between us and animals,” claims Michael Fox of the Humane Society. “The life of an ant and the life of my child should be granted equal consideration.” I would hate to be his kid!
The foremost scholar of animal liberation is Peter Singer, an Australian, who was appointed to be an ethics professor at Princeton, the university where Jonathan Edwards, the great leader of the Great Awakening, was once president. How the mighty have fallen! Princeton now has this guy as its ethics professor. Peter Singer says, "Christianity is our foe. If animal rights is to succeed, we must destroy the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. It can no longer be maintained by anyone but a religious fanatic that man is the darling of the whole universe, or that other animals were created to provide us with food, or that we have divine authority over them, and divine permission to kill them." In other words, Singer is directly contradicting what God says in Genesis 9. He understands that Christianity is the foe of making the ant equal to the boy.
People may indeed use and eat animals. "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you” (Genesis 9:3).
That doesn't mean that you can just mistreat animals—they are God’s creatures. “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal” (Proverbs 12:10). Never inflict needless pain on animals. Avoid destroying endangered species wherever possible. Take good care of pets and livestock.
But let’s face facts: Jesus ate lamb at Passover, and he ate fish (Luke 24:43). Jesus valued animals as the Creator of animals, but he also exclaimed, “How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!” (Matthew 12:12). Jesus said, “You are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:7). There is no doubt that the Son of God values animals, and that he values people far, far more than animals—people who are created in his image.
9. Murder deserves death penalty.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6). Those are the words of God to Noah. Similarly, God told Moses, “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 21:12). God was talking about premeditated murder, not about accidental death. The law had different provisions for that, and cities of refuge, where you wouldn’t be executed or punished if a death were accidental.
What is the purpose of having a death penalty for convicted murderers? One is that it honors the victim’s value. God made man in his own image. To shed the blood of an image-bearer of God is a dreadfully serious thing, so the murderer pays a price that honors the victim’s value. The death penalty obviously makes sure that a killer will never murder again. It warns other potential killers of the punishment. And it treats the killer as a responsible person. It holds a person accountable for his or her actions. For these reasons, the death penalty in some cases is applicable.
Every society with the death penalty should be asking: Is it being applied fairly? Are people of one ethnic group or racial group being executed far out of proportion to what justice would involve? Where people of one ethnic group with money get off the hook, do people of another ethnic group get executed because they don’t have the money or they’re of a lower status in society? There may be some circumstances where the death penalty is being administered so unjustly that we need to back off from it and use other punishments, such as life imprisonment. So, I'm not saying the death penalty must be applied to every convicted murderer in every circumstance, because in a fallen world, sometimes even something that can be rightly used in certain circumstances is unjustly used when a society has become too distorted. But the overall principle remains: murder does deserve the death penalty.
Controversial claims? Revealed realities!
- Floodwaters covered the whole earth.
- Ark held ancestors of all today’s animals.
- God punished the world in his wrath.
- Even the best people are evil from youth.
- Atoning sacrifice is necessary.
- God preserves earth and its seasons.
- Growing population is a blessing.
- People may use and eat animals.
- Murder deserves the death penalty.
But these are not just controversial claims; they are revealed realities. According to God's Word, floodwaters did cover the whole earth (Genesis 7:19); the ark did hold ancestors of all today’s animals (Genesis 6:19-20); God did punish the world in his wrath (Genesis 6:5-7); even the best people are evil from their youth (Genesis 8:21); atoning sacrifice is necessary (Genesis 8:20-21); God does preserve his earth and its seasons (Genesis 8:22); we aren’t the ones who ultimately are going to save the planet—Gpd preserves his planet (Genesis 9:15); growing population is a blessing, not a curse (Genesis 9:1,7); people may use and eat animals (Genesis 9:3); and murder does deserve the death penalty (Genesis 9:6).
When we hear God's Word, we should turn down the noise from the society that we live in, and the voices of those who have a very different opinion, and simply hear for ourselves what the Word says. And that starts in the very first chapters of the very first book of the Bible.
The Genesis Flood and Current Controversies
By David Feddes
Slide Contents
Controversial claims
- Floodwaters covered the whole earth.
- Ark held ancestors of all today’s animals.
- God punished the world in his wrath.
- Even the best people are evil from youth.
- Atoning sacrifice is necessary.
- God preserves earth and its seasons.
- Growing population is a blessing.
- People may use and eat animals.
- Murder deserves the death penalty.
1. Floodwaters covered the whole earth.
All the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened… And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. (Genesis 7:11,19).
Some Bible scholars say that the great flood was local and not worldwide.
- Why build an ark? Just move elsewhere.
- Would a local flood cover mountains?
Worldwide flood
- Flood/ark stories are found among natives of ancient Babylon, Alaska, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, India, Greenland, Africa, Hawaii, Greece, and more
- Fossils show that all parts of earth—even high on Mt. Everest—were once underwater.
- If earth were smooth, it would all be covered with water 8,000 feet deep.
Water obeys the Lord
- Red Sea: The Lord drove the sea back… and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. (Ex 14:21-22)
- Jordan: The waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap … and all Israel was passing over on dry ground (Josh 3:16-17).
- Sea of Galilee: “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:25)
Worldwide—never again
I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Gen 9:15)
You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled… The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. (Psalm 104:6-9)
2. Ark held ancestors of all today's animals.
- The ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high. Volume over 1.5 million cubic feet. In meters, that's about 137 x 23 x 14, or about 43,000 cubic meters. This would be the volume of 569 railroad cars, each capable of holding 240 sheep.
- The ark was not a cute little boat. It could hold over 135,000 animals the size of sheep.
- Animals on ark were likely not full grown.
- Fewer kinds may have been on the ark and later became more species (cats, bears, finches)
Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” (8:17)
3. God punished the world in his wrath.
The world that then existed was deluged with water and perished… the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:6-7).
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man… they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matt 24:37-39)
4. Even the best people are evil from youth.
I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. (Genesis 8:21)
- Noah became drunk. (Genesis 9:21)
- David: I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5)
- The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. (Jeremiah 17:9)
- None is righteous, no, not one. (Rom 3:10)
5. Atoning sacrifice is necessary.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again… strike down every living creature.” (Gen 8:20-21)
… a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord (Leviticus 1:9,13,17)
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph 5:2)
6. God preserves earth and its seasons.
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (8:22)
“I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (9:15)
- Even so, people panic about climate change and the extinction of all life.
Global warming
- Is the globe really warming?
- How much effect do humans have?
- Would warming be bad or good?
Global cooling crisis?
“The world's climatologists are agreed” that we must “prepare for the next ice age.” (Science Digest, February 1973)
“A major cooling of the planet is widely considered inevitable.” (NY Times, May 1975)
“A new ice age must now stand along-side nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery.” (International Wildlife, July 1975)
We must save the planet! (from cooling or warming or…)
- Government gets more control.
- Scientists get more grant money.
- Reporters get more attention and sales.
- Secular environmentalists get a noble ideal and mission of salvation without religion.
Before saving the planet, love a neighbor.
Next time you look at a rainbow, thank God that He saves the planet.
7. Growing population is a blessing.
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth… And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it.” (Genesis 9:1,7)
Catastrophe?
“The abortion question is not just about women's rights, but about life on the planet –environmental catastrophe awaits the world if the population continues to grow at its present rate.” (Molly Yard, President of NOW—National Organization for Women)
- Next time you see a rainbow, thank God for blessing his earth with billions of people and countless animals.
8. People may use and eat animals.
The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. (Genesis 9:2-3)
Animals equal to people?
"We have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth… The smallest form of life, even an ant or a clam, is equal to a human being… When it comes to feelings, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They all feel pain. There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. 6 million Jews died in concentration camps, but 6 billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughter houses.” (Ingrid Newkirk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals PETA)
No right to use animals?
- Supporters of “animal rights”: drinking milk, wearing wool, owning pets is like slavery.
- Medical research using animals is evil. “Even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it.” (Ingrid Newkirk)
- “We're not superior. There are no clear distinctions between us and animals,” claims Michael Fox of the Humane Society. “The life of an ant and the life of my child should be granted equal consideration.”
Animal liberation
"Christianity is our foe. If animal rights is to succeed, we must destroy the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. It can no longer be maintained by anyone but a religious fanatic that man is the darling of the whole universe, or that other animals were created to provide us with food, or that we have divine authority over them, and divine permission to kill them." (Peter Singer, Princeton ethics professor, author of Animal Liberation)
People may use and eat animals.
"Everything that lives and moves will be food for you" (Genesis 9:3).
- "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal" (Proverbs 12:10). Never inflict needless pain. Avoid destroying endangered species. Take good care of pets and livestock.
- Jesus ate lamb at Passover and ate fish. (Luke 24:43) He valued animals but also exclaimed, "How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!" (Matt 12:12) Jesus said, “You are worth more than many sparrows." (Luke 12:7)
9. Murder deserves death penalty.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. (Genesis 9:6)
Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 21:12)
Death penalty for convicted murderers:
- Honors the victim’s value
- Makes sure a killer will never murder again
- Warns other potential killers of punishment
- Treats the killer as a responsible person
Controversial claims? Revealed realities!
- Floodwaters covered the whole earth.
- Ark held ancestors of all today’s animals.
- God punished the world in his wrath.
- Even the best people are evil from youth.
- Atoning sacrifice is necessary.
- God preserves earth and its seasons.
- Growing population is a blessing.
- People may use and eat animals.
- Murder deserves the death penalty.
Last modified: Monday, June 23, 2025, 1:10 PM