So when sceptics want an example of times that God was cruel and
unfair and went way overboard with dishing out punishments, what better
example is there than the time he drowned every living thing on the
planet with the exception of one family and a selection of animals?
Doubly offensive to them is that Christians often use this one as a favourite children's story.
So
the basic set up that everyone knows is that Noah and his family were
the only people following God, and the rest of the world had got nasty
and were doing their own thing. So God wanted to start over and just
keep the good stuff.
This is actually a great foreshadowing to the
end times, and is even referred to by New Testament writers as a
comparison. Just like how in the Flood, water washed away the wickedness
and made things good and new again, in the end times the same thing
will be accomplished with holy fire (2 Peter 3:6-7). '1 Peter 3:29-30' tells
us that baptism is a symbol which corresponds to Noah's Flood, which
again is making the point that it is all about becoming reconciled with
God, and being made new.
But the point sceptics try to make is that this mass drowning was an extremely harsh judgement.
Let's look at the connection Noah's Flood has to the end times. In the final
judgement, those who do not choose God will be destroyed. So, Noah's
Flood, being a precursor to that, shows us these people as examples of
that. They turned away from God and were destroyed so that the good and
faithful could live in a better world without them.
As detailed in
my article on God's plan, God's goal is to create a perfect world. There is no room in a perfect world for sinners.
