God's Way or the Waterway

Genesis 7 and 8

September 22, 2024

slide 1

Matthew 24: 37

One of the greatest attacks on Christianity and the Bible is when people say that the flood of Noah didn't exist.  This and the creation story. as far as physical stories are concerned, are basically two of the biggest pillars that the Bible stands on.  Of course, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is by far the biggest pillar that the Bible stands on.  Today we're going to talk about Noah and the ark.  As we can see with the scripture verse in Matthew, Jesus talked about Noah and the flood, and he also used that as a reference of what it would be like in the end days.

One of methods of attack is that if you can disprove Noah and the flood, you can disprove the fact that Jesus is returning a second time.  You also can discredit the words of Jesus, and in doing so basically discredit the entire Bible. But the fact that the flood took place is one of the easiest stories in scripture to prove.

This is one of the things that I like about our faith, we can prove certain items by the fact that they physically exist.  Scientists have tried to discredit the flood and creation, but the harder they try, the more evidence comes out that they're wrong, and these stories are not stories but reality.

I have some pictures here that I believe are of Noah's ark.  I cannot guarantee with 100% accuracy that this is in fact Noah's ark.  But it is of a ship, with the exact dimensions given in scripture, in the exact location given in scripture, with the exact interior layout given in scripture.  So there is a strong possibility that these are the remains of Noah's ark. I cannot guarantee it, but I believe the evidence in this case is strong!

Let's look at some pictures about Noah and the ark and see what we can see.

Slide 2,3,4,5,6,7

Movie 8

In addition to this, according to my online research, there are approximately 270 flood stories in various cultures around the world.  80% of these flood stories have all the basics in common: there is a family, there was a God judgment, there was a boat, and there are animals.

We will look at two cultures, the first one being the Chinese culture.

Slide 9 ,10

So, in this word picture, we have 3 words embedded in this.  The first word is 8, the second word is mouth, and the third word is vessel or boat.  This is a Chinese word that tells us about the boat that carried 8 mouths or people, this is the same number of people that Noah's ark carried. In ancient Chinese culture there is a flood story.  The centres around the emperor Yu, who is the founder of Chinas first dynasty.  What is notable about this person was his ability to drain the persistent floodwaters from the lowland areas and bring order to the land.  Not an exact match for Noah's flood, but this is the Chinese culture and their beliefs.

Slide 11,12

This picture I took last week from our very own Stanley Park in Vancouver.  It shows one of the totem poles that has a canoe at the top.  I remember seeing this as a child and thinking about how that sounds a lot like Noah's ark.  And then in the description we can see it's the story of the red cedar-bark man who survived the great flood and gave the people their first canoe.  Again, not an exact word for word description of the Noah's flood in Genesis, but the understanding of an ancient story from our native people around here.

But now let's look at the flood story from Genesis chapters 6 – 8.

Slide 13/14/15