Section 2 Chapter 3 – What? Noah dies at 950 years of age!
When I was in school as a very young man, one of my classes was a religion class. Way back then I remember asking the teacher about Noah’s age, it seemed preposterous to think of someone living all those years. Well, the teacher came to my rescue by assuring me that those were not years but months. Being a novice myself at that time in biblical matters, it seemed somewhat reasonable, after-all she was the teacher, she alt to know. Many years would pass before I would get more interested in the scriptures, and more serious concerning the interpretation.
I remember the time when I came back to a study in Genesis, and there was Noah’s age starring me in the face once again. However, this time I had begun to plot the ages of all the Patriarch’s. In the back of my mind the thought of months as a longevity standard was still stirring in my head. And then, wait just a minute? If these were months, the same standard would need to be applied to all the commentary recorded, that just made sense. Let’s see, Adam was 130 years when he had Seth (actually his 3rd son), if I applied my old teachers reasoning, Adam begat Seth when he was not even 11 years old (10.83 years), and this was his 3rd son, he would have been younger still for the first two. Well, that was eye-opening, and the revelation needed to eventually discover that the world before the great flood was so special it could facilitate such longevity. Adam lived for 930 years, Noah 950 years, Methuselah 969 years, in fact the average age recorded in the scriptures for those living before the great flood was 912 years (not months).
Once the longevity standard was more clearly understood, and we can’t even imagine such a lifespan, it opened a whole door of intrigue concerning the planet we live on and just what was different then to accommodate such age. It’s easy now to look back and realize that most all of society today including academia, views things through what I call, post-flood glasses. We have been taught that what we realize through our senses (sight-sound-touch-taste-smell), that occurs all around us is, “NORMAL”. All the anomalies in the sciences, natural disasters, our physical condition, longevity limitations, all diseases etc. is just normal life. However, when compared to those that lived before the flood event, it seems like we are just about 10% of what they were.
If one really digs into the subject, they will discover a couple of fascinating stats. We live on average about 10% compared to those before the flood – our body mass is 10% of what theirs was, if we weigh 200 lbs, they were 2,000 lbs (or more), scientist insist that we only use 10% of our brain’s capacity, before the flood, living in a pristine environment, all brain cells were firing. They had us in height too, the average pre-flood height was nearly 15’. You may think I’m just guessing at these stats or just making them up, but not so.
In our research we have discovered large human remains from the area known as being close to where Noah’s ship landed. Take the information the scriptures provide, add to this the physical evidence that has been preserved, and the story begins to develop. We’ll discuss more concerning the size of these giants in the next chapters.
Many have added to the very real circumstance that God created a hyperbaric world. Any scuba diver would know the importance of a hyperbaric chamber, especially if they had to surface unexpectantly to quickly. Two components are needed to assist someone with the bends (severe stomach pain), oxygen and pressure. The study of air bubbles found in old tree sap (amber) reveals a higher oxygen level that existed in the past (45% – 50%) compared to our current level of 19.6%. This makes perfect sense if the world before the flood was 75-80 percent vegetation instead of water; planets and trees produce oxygen.
In Genesis 1:6,7 God creates a firmament (atmosphere) between two layers of water. The international children’s bible says it this way; “Then God said, let there be something to divide the water in two. So, God made the air to divide the water in two. Some of the water was above the air and some of the water was below it. God called the air sky”.
This provides a pretty good image that not only was there water at the ground level, but water above the atmosphere, which at that altitude would be frozen. So, it appears that an ice canopy squeezed the atmosphere a bit to produce greater pressure. Greater oxygen and air pressure are just two of the unique features that existed before the flood that were dramatically decreased in its aftermath. An ice canopy would also filter out most all ultra-violet light; you know the light that blows tiny holes through us all day long, that are repaired as we sleep.
The 40 days and nights of rain that scripture speaks of during the flood event, was the deterioration of the canopy. This protective canopy that was such a blessing and so prolific for life on our planet, would now, with its absence, start the clock for the planet’s speedy deterioration. With Post-flood glasses on you can’t even see what kind of world we used to have! All many seem to notice are the multitude of defects that were left in a world turned upside down (literally). It is so interesting to see how the modern-day spin on current ecological aspects, attempts to explain the damage from the global catastrophe. The main purpose is to eliminate not only a creator for our world, but a supreme being that has the right to judge our world also. All the physical evidence we have discovered over the last 4 centuries, in nearly every scientific discipline, can be explained by the global deluge.
In every modern culture there are unlimited efforts to sustain and lengthen human life. Someone is always looking for that fountain of youth. Victoria Burrows writes: Along with academic research departments around the world, private sector medical technology companies are getting in on the action, seeking ways to increase longevity and health span. There is a high probability that the first person to live to a thousand has already been born. So, says one of the world’s top ageing scientists, British biomedical gerontologist Dr Aubrey de Grey. “In the near future, we might check ourselves in to a clinic every decade for a service, similar to what we do with cars, to keep our body running at peak condition for centuries”.
The idea here is to achieve eternal existence without God. Some suggest, we’ll just upload your mind to the cloud, make you a new body or even hi-jack a fresh new one, download your mind back into it and voial, it’s a brand new you (minus God’s intervention). Modern science is arrogant enough to believe such nonsense. They don’t even realize this reasoning was part of the very thinking that brought the global flood described in the bible upon humanity in the first place.
Before Christ comes again someone might reach the age of 130. I know there is an expectation of much more in the future, but if you want a guarantee of life eternal, there is only one place to find it, its from the same One that enabled Noah to make it to 950!