My simple answer was regarding the covenant of God never to destroy the "earth" again by flood and the accompanying sign, rainbows (you can read more later in this post).
But, here is my response to that in more depth. I'm posting it so that if there are others who are "confused" by false teaching, they can learn the truth from God's Word here. By the way, this is what is going on in these "biblical institutions." It is quite disturbing.
Please read on:
Dear Brother,
Until now, what you asked at the end of the C-Ed presentation and what we talked about briefly after, concerns me. That a seminary professor would promote such unsound teaching as to say that the flood was “local” is incredible. Sadly, taking away from the clear and plain words of God in the Bible is what happens so often in seminaries. I know this first hand from my own personal experience and education. And that is why I caution you in the Lord to be careful, and weigh everything according to the Word of God.
I would gladly speak to your professor about this. Liberal or fundamental, it matters not to me – what matters is “what saith the Lord” (Isaiah 8:20), and whether we are “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Timothy 2:15). And I dare say, what you are hearing from this professor, i.e. this seminary, is dangerous.
See my blog (http://c-ed.blodspot.com) for the post: “Why does it matter what we believe” to understand more. But in short, if they will teach you that it was a “local” flood then they are tampering with the Word of God and are proud (1Corinthians 8:1), and “denying the power thereof” (2Timothy 3:5). I’m sorry to use such strong words, but I want to be clear.
It is this kind of teaching and mindset that brought me to pursue evangelism. My service to the Lord is warning the brethren of false teaching and fallacy which has crept into churches and seminaries. Allow me now to present a brief explanation why there was NO “local” flood, and why there was a WORLD flood. . .
First of all, the Lord says in 2Peter 3:6, “Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” The Greek word for “world” here is /kosmos/ which means “the world and its inhabitants.”
Now brother, I do NOT like to use much Greek or Hebrew. I’m a firm believer that the Lord is able to use 37 men from 1604-1611 to translate in full agreement every word of the old and new testaments into the correct English words He wanted (the King James Bible). Nevertheless, according to your professor, let me respond using the ancient languages. . .
Now, the word /kosmos/ alone here in 2Peter 3:6 is enough to silence those who say the Genesis flood was local. Remember that God inspired Paul and Peter to write Holy Scripture too (1Corinthians 14:37, 1Thessalonians 2:13, 2Peter 3:2), and we know that God cannot lie, nor contradict Himself.
Therefore, when the LORD says that He will destroy the earth in Genesis 6:17, He means the whole earth. Your professor can say that the Hebrew word for earth /’erets/ means only part of the land, but it can ALSO mean the whole earth.
Thus your professor is NOT telling you everything – not presenting you with ALL of the information. Thus it becomes biased information. Furthermore, when we compare Scripture with Scripture (i.e. 2Peter 3:6 with Genesis 6:17) we can see that it must mean the whole earth.
In addition, Genesis 6:17 reads, “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.” What does “under heaven … everything that is in the earth shall die” mean?
So now, according to your professor it means only the local area where Noah lived was flooded? How can we twist the Word of God like that? It clearly says everything under heaven shall die. Part of the earth is NOT under heaven, but ALL of the earth is under heaven. Therefore, the whole earth was flooded, i.e “destroyed.”See also Genesis 6:13, 7:10, 19, 21, 22, 23, 9:11 for more internal / Scriptural evidence.
What does “every” mean in these verses? Only some? So can we say that man shall live by “every” Word of God or just “some” of the Word of God? Where does it end? If you compromise in one place, you’ll compromise again and again until the Word of God has become of none effect. This is my ministry, to expose these things.
So, are we going to start adding and taking away from the clearly revealed Word of God? Why not alter “whosoever” when the Lord says “whosoever believeth in him should not perish…” or how about three days doesn’t really mean three days for the Lord to resurrect? “Virgin” doesn’t really mean “virgin.” What about “Jesus didn’t really die…” he was just “sleeping?” And we can go on and on about the clear and plain rendering of the Word of God.
The devil’s sin was pride, and he did the same thing of altering the clear and plain Word of God in the Garden when he said to Eve, “Yea, hath God said…” (i.e. “Did He really say that”). It is a dangerous thing when we put our confidence in the ability of men rather than the clear Word of God.
Did you know that the Bible is written so that even a 6th grader could understand it? That’s because, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation” (2Peter 1:20). The Bible was written in plain and simple language so that EVERY man could understand it if God would open their hearts to it.
I already gave you the explanation about the rainbow. If it were a local flood, then God’s Word is not faithful, because many local floods have happened since then. The rainbow can only refer to the whole earth being flooded (see Genesis 9:13-15).
Let me ask a couple of questions as well to make the point:
(1) Why did God have Noah build an ark anyway if it was a local flood? Couldn’t God have just told Noah to “move?”
(2) Why go through all the trouble to bring the animals onto the ark if it was local? Even if the local animals died, there would still be many, many more in the other parts of the world that were not flooded. It just doesn’t make sense.
Well Brother, I’ll stop here. You are free to share this with your professor, and/or I will be glad to visit and speak to him about this. I’m curious what else they are teaching you there. So many young Christian minds being influenced by a teacher who is not rightly dividing the Word.
Ok Brother, please contact me if you have further questions.
In the love of Christ,
Bro Jerry Smith
