greg@zehntel.UUCP (07/15/83)
#N:zehntel:19200011:000:988 zehntel!greg Jul 14 17:58:00 1983 A couple of questions have been raised about God's methods in delivering Noah from the flood: 1. Why did God have Noah go to all the trouble of building an ark and go to the trouble Himself of gathering all the animals; ie, why didn't God just do it all? 2. Why did God do it this way at all? Why didn't He just vaporize the guilty? First, God only asked Noah to do that which he could do. Noah was obviously incapable of running all over the world collecting animals (as has been pointed out by Mark Twain), but he was capable of building an ark. This was a test of faith and an act of reverence. (See Heb. 11:7.) Second, Old Testament events were often types of New Testament concepts. The deliverance of Noah from the flood is an example of this; it's a type of salvation. (See I Pet. 3:20,21.) Through faith Noah was delivered from judgment. If Noah had not had to *rely* on his faith, it wouldn't have been a true type. Greg Boyd ...decvax!sytek!zehntel!greg
debray@sbcs.UUCP (07/18/83)
zehntel!greg says, in an article on the Flood, that "[God's making Noah build an ark] was a test of faith and an act of reverence. (See Heb. 11:7.)" I don't see the point in all these "tests of faith" in the O.T. : surely an omniscient god would *know* whether a given person had faith? All that testing seems rather redundant to me! -------------- Saumya "Debugging would be easier with omniscience" Debray SUNY at Stony Brook