I’m retired now but for many years I worked in an office with a man I’ll call John for the sake of discussion. I know you’re not supposed to talk about politics, religion or sex at work but John and I were good friends and we could talk about anything and often did. John knew I was a believing Christian and he wasn’t offended when I attempted to save him with my witness for Christ. In return, I wasn’t offended when John attempted to convince me I was wrong about God and that religion was the opiate of the masses. We each gave as good as we got with no quarter given or expected.
Genesis 7:11-12 – In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
You see, John is an engineer. Engineers are some of the smartest people you’ll ever run across. By and large, engineers only believe in what they can see and touch and measure in some way. Engineers depend on their intelligence, education and common sense to figure things out. Engineers are not big on faith and what they can’t see. John’s problem was a lack of faith. John was so intelligent he leaned heavily on his own understanding and nothing else. John was “wise” in his own eyes and only trusted his own conclusions. I’d be willing to bet you that the percentage of engineers and attorneys in heaven will be less than that of other professions because most engineers and attorneys consider themselves to be much smarter than everyone else. They don’t take advice. I don’t mean to offend anyone but this is what my life experiences have taught me.
Genesis 7:19-20 – And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
Although John was raised in a loving Christian home he just couldn’t accept the biblical account of “Noah’s Ark” and the “Great Flood”, even as a child. As an adult and an engineer John was even more convinced the Bible was wrong about Noah’s ark and therefore God’s word wasn’t true. In John’s mind, if the Bible contained errors like this then maybe God didn’t exist at all. John wasn’t convinced God existed because he was torn between what his mother taught him and what his common sense told him. As a result John was an agnostic. But deep down John wanted to be convinced there is a God. John wanted to believe what his mother taught him as a child. John’s first argument about Noah’s ark was there was no way all the animals of the earth could fit on the ark. After many discussions, I was finally able to convinced John it was possible that the ark was big enough to hold all the types of animals on earth. I talked about this proof extensively in earlier blogs so I won’t repeat myself here.
Genesis 8:1-2 – Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.
The second issue John had was the “Great Flood.” John said the amount of water needed to cover all of the mountains of the earth is more than the earth has in all the groundwater reserves worldwide. He argued that Mount Everest is 29,035 feet high so it would require the oceans to be over five and half miles higher than they are today for all land to be underwater. Forty days and nights of continual rain wouldn’t have much of an impact on that much water because rain is recycled evaporation from the oceans. I told John we must have faith in what God tells us because God knows everything but he only tells us what he wants us to know. I had no other explanation for John; that is until today.
Isaiah 43:15-16 – I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your king. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters.
I was reading an article on AOL earlier this week about scientists discovering a layer of sponge-like rock within the earth about 400 miles down. I forget the name they gave this layer of rock deep within the earth but they said it contains a massive amount of water. It contains so much water that one percent of it would cover the earth beyond the height of the “Great Flood” upon the earth in the time of Noah. The Bible mentions water coming up from the “fountains of the deep” which we all thought was just ground water because we didn’t know water existed further down in the earth. Even today we’re still discovering hidden truths mentioned in the Bible. What an awesome God we have!
Isaiah 49:22 – It is He (God) who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
In earlier blogs I’ve talked about truths mentioned in the Bible that weren’t scientifically proven until thousands of years later. It’s one way we can know God is who he says he is. Let’s briefly review some of them. The Bible says the earth is round whereas everyone thought the world was flat until a few hundred years ago. The Bible says the earth hangs in space on nothing but in ancient times people thought the earth rested on the back of a giant turtle. The Bible says that things seen are made of things unseen which we now understand as the atomic structure of all things. The Bible says there are mountains and canyons in the oceans when in ancient times everyone thought the bottom of the oceans were smooth like the bottom of a bowl. The Bible says there are rivers in the oceans and we now know about the ocean currents. The Bible says there are fresh water volcanoes in the ocean. We now know that’s true but why are they there? The answer is simple. God made them in preparation for the “Great Flood” which he planned before the foundation of the world. God knows the end from the beginning. How else was water 400 miles down ever going to be able to reach the earth’s surface if not for volcanoes on the ocean floor? Fountains of the deep is merely a biblical term for volcanoes.
Job 26:7 – He (God) stretches out the north over empty space, He hangs the earth on nothing.
John was younger than me and he’s still working. I’ve lost track of John over the years but my hope is that one day he will stumble across my blog and know I’m talking about him. It’s possible because the Lord never stops pursuing nonbelievers and guiding them to the truth of God. God is called the “Hound of Heaven” for good reason. I know this to be true. You have my testimony. I was a backslider and God hounded me for forty years until I returned to fellowship with the God who made me. God will never give up on you! I hope John will one day come to the realization that the Bible is the truth of God and there are no errors in it; that God cannot lie. My hope is for John to be at peace with God by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior while there is still time.
Proverbs 8:27-28 – When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the deep.
I want John to have the peace of God that I have. I want John to know God loves him and has gifted him eternal life in heaven in his presence through faith in Jesus Christ. I have a dream about you John so don’t let me down. I’d love to see you in heaven one day. When I go to heaven to meet Jesus I’ll be looking around to see if John made it too. While this blog is primarily for John’s benefit, it’s also for everyone else out there who has doubts about God. We all have some doubts we want the answers too. We’ll get all the answers we need when we get to heaven but right now we’re required to have faith and trust in Almighty God and in his word. Seek the Lord while he may be found. God loves us all equally and Scripture says that God and all the angels in heaven rejoice whenever a lost soul is saved for the kingdom of God. When that happens God is glorified. Praise God for his love, mercy and grace!
Nehemiah 9:6 – You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.