236 Geocide Caused by God? Part 1

Seldom talked about is the story of the Flood . It is like the elephant in the room when we consider the character of God and how the Old Testament describes God as not only destroying the people but the animals and the plant life on earth. We talk a close look at this story and prove several reasons this could be understood another way.

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SHOW NOTES

Geocide Caused by God?

By genocide is meant there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically

destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. (AI)

Genocide is attributed to God in at least three instances: the Flood, the Apocalyptic end of the planet by fire, and the destruction of the tribes in Canaan to provide land for the Israelites.

The total destruction of all people on the planet is better referred to as geocide

Of geocide, ecocide and related matters—a viewpoint by RH Charlier · 1995 ·

—

“A parallel to, or a form of genocide, could well be geocide, or crime against the Earth." ...

https://www.tandfonline.com › doi › pdf

We will use geocide with its broad definition for the Flood and the Apocalypse.

The traditional agent of violence for both these examples is God. This poses a problem with the teachings, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We will amplify this claim later. First we summarize the two geocides. We notice that the causation for both these catastrophes is supernatural. Human beings, while being victims, are not involved in causing either of them according to traditional reading of the scriptures.

The Flood

Genesis 6: 11-13 NLT Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled

with violence. 12 God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was

corrupt. 13 So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they

have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!

This is not attribution but a report of a dialogue between God and Noah. God is insistent that he is going to commit geocide, he is going to destroy every living creature. Matthew accepts the reality of a literal worldwide flood and emphasizes its unexpectedness.

Matthew 24:37-39 “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son

of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and

giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about

what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at

the coming of the Son of Man.”

Peter also confirms the literal worldwide flood and projects a similar geocide at the end of the world.

2 Peter 2:5 NLT And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the

seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God

protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood.2

Peter 3:5-7 NLT They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the

word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.

Genesis 6 implies that the people who lived before the flood were wicked, so wicked and violent that God decided to wipe them all out. This supernatural event is seen as punitive and preservative. Punitive because they were punished with death and preservative because the earth was given a new start.

The means that the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that is the character of God (Galatians 5:22-23) in humans was well-nigh extinguished. If the wicked were not destroyed they would have destroyed any righteous people.

So, wickedness would have triumphed over righteousness. A similar line of thinking is found in the destruction of the tower of Babel and the confusion of languages by God (Genesis 13). God seems to have been threatened by this development after the flood.

God, through Noah, provided the ark to save those who were willing to be saved, but only eight people went in, and the rest chose to take a chance on their fate and perished.

Analysis of the flood

1. The universal disruption of the geology and the ecology of the planet seems unnecessary if it was violent people that were the problem. God has many ways to eliminate people. One supervirus could have done it.

2. It was unnecessary to destroy the animals as they are not moral beings who can chose to be either violent or non-violent.

3. The flood did not solve the problem of violence or wickedness. No sooner had men

repopulated the earth than violence was universally manifested again.

4. God promised to never flood the earth again and placed a rainbow in the clouds as a guarantee of his promise. This seems cynical since he “knew” he would “destroy” wickedness with universal fire at the end of the world.

5. If the wicked were not destroyed by violence then wickedness or violence would have ruled the earth. This demonstrates that love is maintained by violence or wickedness which is a contradiction as these are polar opposites.

The Old Testament writers were apparently ignorant of the existence of the devil as a

supernatural evil being. This information is only clearly available after the teaching of Jesus. At this time there was some understanding of demons and entities such as Beelzebub but nothing like the clarity Jesus gave to the origin and workings of the devil.

The concept of the Shattan inthe Old Testament was not an identification of the devil. This would only come later (Revelation 12:9). The Shattan who afflicts Job with fire, tempest and enemies (Job 1 & 2) is one of God’s agents to bring out the truth of why Job worships God in Hebrew thinking. There is additional evidence for supernatural forces, apart from God, which operate on this planet.

This world has a supernatural prince who now rules over its affairs.

John 12:31 NLT The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this

world, will be cast out.

John 14:30 NLT “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this

world approaches. He has no power over me,

John 16:11 NLT Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been

judged.

Ephesians 2:2 NLT You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the

devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world, He is the spirit at work in the

hearts of those who refuse to obey God.

However, there are more agencies than one evil, supernatural prince of this world.

1 Corinthians 2:8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they

would not have crucified our glorious Lord.

Colossians 2:15 NLT In this way, he (Jesus) disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Revelation 16:13-14 NLT And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the

mouths of the dragon (the devil), the beast (devil inspired empires), and the false prophet

(devil masquerading as Christ).

14 They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out

to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great

judgment day of God the Almighty.

This means that a supernatural destruction of the world does not imply that God is the agent since there are other invisible agencies capable of causing such a catastrophe.

There is a alternative way of understanding what happened at the flood which makes for very different conclusions. Because of sinful human violence the water canopy above the earth, which regulated the temperature on the surface and watered the surface with a daily mist, was about to collapse. This is not far-fetched as we almost destroyed the protective ozone layer around the earth. God warned Noah about the impending catastrophe and saved all who were willing. The rainbow would then be a promise that a universal flood would not, perhaps could not occur again and a reminder of God’s goodness at the flood.God warned Noah about this impending catastrophe and he built the ark. The writer of Genesis, writing at least 1000 years later, is either repeating the oral tradition of why there was a flood or supplied this information.