Build a Boat
September 16th, 2020 by G.
“How bad can this flood get?” said the man. “Is it a 200-year flood? A thousand-year flood? We are in unprecedented territory. I don’t know of a reliable way to model it.”
“Very bad,” said Noah. “Repent and build a boat.”
G.
September 16, 2020
It does not matter if if was the Noah, or another Noah. Or if it was the Flood, or another flood.
JRL in AZ
September 17, 2020
Repentance is usually a good answer to most questions.
John Mansfield
September 17, 2020
The “repent and” is key. Building a boat would be a flimsy defense against the creator of the world deciding it would be better if you weren’t around anymore. There may be some who read 3rd Nephi and think “Oh, if only those people who were sunk and buried up in the earth, and the others who were drowned in the depths of the sea, and the ones who were burned by fire or fallen upon and crushed to death, and the others who were carried away in the whirlwind, if only they had prepared with food storage and 72-hour kits and stuff like that.”
Bookslinger
September 18, 2020
Next time a non-believer challenges you (in regards to the flood account) with “Why would God kill off innocent children?”, postulate this:
“You’ve got a point. So maybe there were no children. What if the people were so wicked, they had sacrificed all the children? What if whenever someone had a baby, it was taken and sacrificed? If that were the case, and no babies could be born without them being sacrificed/killed, couldn’t that make God mad enough to kill off all the wicked adults?
They were wiping themselves out anyway. (It helps, but is not necessary, to know the doctrine of pre-mortal spirits at this point in the discussion.) God was actually _saving_ children from being killed. (By having those spirits be born to post-flood parents who would not sacrfice them.)”
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What were the Canaanites’ crimes, post Exodus, that warranted their annihilation?
What were the crimes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah that warranted their conquest and removal?
The commonalities all include: idolatry, sexual immorality under the color of religion (groves, fertility rites), and…. child sacrifice.
….
Here’s a Sunday school type of question for the present day: “How are children being sacrificed today?” (Hint: there are more answers than abortion.)
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Granted, nothing in the flood account directly supports this theory. But, child sacrifice seems to be a factor in all the other annihilations and major conquests of the O.T. So this is mainly extrapolating backwards.
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At the end of the BoM, we’re told that the Nephites were worse than the Lamanites. And… whatever they did, it was worthy of annihilation, or else total absorption (Northern Kingdom of Israel-style).
Vader
September 18, 2020
“Granted, nothing in the flood account directly supports this theory. ”
I have a vague recollection that there are apocryphal sources that support it.