Was it fair for God to flood the world in the days of Noah?

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.



You can take many works of fantasy or science fiction as a comparison to what is happening here. The Rebel Alliance needed to destroy the evil Empire. Aragorn and Gandalf needed to destroy Sauron and the evil orcs. Harry Potter needed to destroy Voldemort.
When you have a group of people who are so far gone down the path of evil, it seems that the only option that remains is to destroy them. When they are beyond help and rehabilitation what else can you do?
Batman has a no killing rule. He captures his enemies and locks them away in the hope that they can be helped and reformed. But they rarely do. What usually happens is they escape and kill a lot more innocent people. The thing is, Batman has his hope that he can help them. As long as that hope is there, it is morally wrong to destroy the sinner. As humans, we do not have the right to decide when that hope is lost. So Batman is doing the morally right thing, despite the consequences. Even Darth Vader (SPOILER ALERT) was redeemed in the end.

God's judgement on various people in the Bible comes into both of these camps. When we see an event like Noah's Flood where a large number of people are wiped out, our understanding should be that like Emperor Palpatine, Lord Voldemort, and Sauron, there was no hope to save them. But for most of time, God is patient and treats sinners more like Darth Vader, the Death Eaters, or Gollum, and reaches out to help them. And we should be thankful for that, because all of us are sinners. He wants reconciliation, but when that is clearly not possible, the only option left, for the sake of others, is to destroy them.

We're looking specifically at Noah's Flood at this time, so let's see how it played out in this example.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. -- Genesis 6:5  

This sets the scene for us. Mankind had become utterly wicked, and continually evil. The next part of the passage tells us that the existence of mankind grieved God. (Some translations say he regretted creating them, but that's not the best English word to use. It implies that God made a mistake, which is impossible. The original Hebrew word 'atsab' means 'grieved', 'pained', or 'displeased', and so it makes more sense that God purposely did something that made him unhappy because it was needed for the greater good). Seeing as the existence of man was a problem, and they had all become continually evil, he had to remove them from creation.
However verse 8 says "But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord."
So there was one man who, at the very least, there was hope for. In verse 9, Noah is described as "a righteous man, blameless in his generation" and as someone who "walked with God". To 'walk with God' means to be someone who is on the right path in life. It reminds us of when Adam and Eve walked with God in the paradise of Eden, the way things were supposed to be. Noah was living as he was meant to.

Over the next few verses God instructs Noah. He tells him that he plans to destroy all flesh because it is now corrupt and violent. He tells him that he will bring a flood to do it, and that Noah needs to build an ark to keep himself, his family, and a selection of animals safe.

So very straight forward. Noah is a good man who walks with God. The rest of mankind is violent, and corrupt, and continually evil. We're also told about Nephilim, which are apparently the offspring of fallen angels and human women (Genesis 6:4).
God wants to keep the good, and remove the bad. Seems fair enough really.

In 'Genesis 6:3' we read this: "And the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
A lot of people take this to mean that the long lifespans of humans seen in 'Genesis 5' will come to an end and be limited to a maximum of 120 years, which is something like what a tiny percentage of people today manage. But that can't be the case. The current verified oldest person on record was French woman Jeanne Calment (1875–1997), who reached the age of 122 years, 164 days. You could say that's close enough if you call God's 120 a rounded number, but then that doesn't work when you consider Isaac in 'Genesis 35:28' who long after the Flood lived to be 180 years old, while Abraham reached 175 (Genesis 25:7), and Job who lived to at least 200 (Job 42:16). Not to mention everyone in Genesis 11.
What 'Genesis 6:3' actually is referring to is the beginning of a countdown to the Flood. Verse '6:3' is God's announcement that the evil men of the world have 120 years to sort themselves out before destruction comes. He doesn't announce this to the world however, as 'Matthew 24:38-39' tells us that mankind was unaware of when the Flood would come:

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. -- Matthew 24:38-39

However, just as we know that 'the coming of the Son of Man' is on its way, they were told that a Flood was coming. It's only the date or time-frame that was a mystery. We're supposed to be ready for it whenever it comes.

In 'Genesis 5:32' we learned that Noah became a father for the first time when he was 500 years old and eventually begat his three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In 'Genesis 6:18' we learn that his sons had wives. In 'Genesis 6:7' we learn that Noah was 600 when the Flood came. In 'Genesis 11:10' we learn that Shem was 100 years old two years after the flood. This would mean he was born when Noah was 502. 'Genesis 10:21' tells us that Japheth was the eldest brother, and 'Genesis 9:24' tells us that Ham was the youngest. So we can put Japheth in Noah's 500th year, and Ham probably in 503rd or 504th. They were all married when God gave Noah his instructions, so if we say that they had to be at least 16 in that case, then God gave Noah at most about 81 years to build the ark. We don't know when the boys got married, so it is very possible he had less time than that, but it's likely that God gave him ample time to complete the task.

So after the initial 120 years was announced, God waited some time before telling Noah to get started on the ark. 'Genesis 6:22' itself covers a large space of time. The previous passage was a long list of instructions including building the ark, and gathering the animals and food, and getting them on board. The opening of 'Genesis 7' tells us that God spoke again one week before the Flood would come. So 'Gen 6:22' covers all of the time between the instruction and the completion of the ark, which as we have seen was an absolute maximum of 81 years.

So Noah, the righteous man who walked with God, was given instructions on how to survive the Flood, and given enough time to carry out the orders (max 81 years). So over the course of these decades, it would hardly have been a secret that this devout man and his family were constructing an enormous boat. Especially as he was building it on land, without a way to transport it to any body of water. They might have thought he was crazy, but they would at least be aware that it was happening.

'2 Peter 2:5' calls Noah a 'herald of righteousness'. This could refer to him as a sort of preacher or evangelist, but 'herald' is generally more used to mean someone who announces or proclaims the coming of something else. So if Noah was known as a herald, it's very likely that he told people why he was building the ark. It's easy to imagine that plenty of people asked him anyway. So in actually going through the process of building the ark, Noah was making it known that God had told him a Flood was coming. Besides that, the Bible says he was 'a righteous man' and 'blameless'. 'Ezekiel 14:13-19' ranks Noah with Job and Daniel as one of the most righteous men to have ever lived according to God himself. If he was truly someone who walked with God and practised his faith, it's almost certain that he shared what he knew of God with anyone who would listen. If he was known to be a man of God by the people around him, then it would have been in their best interest to listen to him. But just like with most warnings and prophecies in the Bible, there are a huge number of people that ignore them.

So we have a picture building here of a man spending a number of decades building an impossible structure and most likely warning the people around him to come back to God or be destroyed in the Flood. Within the context of the book of Genesis, this is only a few generations after Adam and Eve had been walking with God in Eden. It would hardly have been a mystery to these people whether God existed or not. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly why these people rejected God, but we can assume that they were too attached to their wicked ways and unwilling to change. Which would be why God wanted to wash them away in the first place, and why God knew that only eight people would enter the ark.

This was bare faced rejection, and a stubborn insistence on remaining evil. They would have heard God's message, whether it was from Noah, or his family, or preachers of previous generations. Noah's ark project would have been a maximum of 81 years in the making, but that would not have been the only time they would have heard God's word.
Just like Voldemort, or Palpatine, or Sauron, these people were beyond hope. In God's ideal world, there was no room for them.
It's not as though Noah's family were perfect. Not long after the flood we get a story about Ham shaming his father. But in this we see God's mercy. He saved people even though he knew they were not perfect. So there is a clear difference between the imperfect person who follows God, and the utterly evil person who rejects him completely.

So in short, the destruction of most of mankind was about building a greater good. The world had become a terrible place, and God renewed it to make it better for the few faithful followers.

So what greater goods came of allowing the world to fall into 'continuous evil' and being forced to destroy almost the entire population? Well a few are made clear to us:
1. The righteous man Noah was saved by God and will no doubt be destined for paradise.
2. The event serves as a foreshadowing to the end times, and is a lesson for all who have come since to learn from. We should follow God and avoid evil, so that we can be renewed and saved for a better life.
3. We all also learn that God does not and will not tolerate evil, but he is also patient and will allow people time and more chances than they deserve to be made right again.
4. We also have a foreshadowing of the gift of grace. Jesus' gift to us on the cross was freely given, and not something we could earn. Noah's gift of grace was the warning and instructions on how to survive the Flood. If God had not warned him and explained how to build an ark, Noah would have been lost too. In a similar way, we are warned of the end times, and given a way to survive them.
5. We also find that mankind left to its own devices becomes corrupt and evil. God destroyed the evil of Noah's generation and made things better, but ever since mankind has returned to its downward spiral. When people ask us, 'Why doesn't God just destroy all evil?', the answer is seen here in this story; He did that once, and we brought it back again. So you should be careful what you wish for, because if he does do it again, we might be the first to go.

The issue sceptics have with the Noah story is that it seems incredibly cruel and unjust to destroy (almost) an entire population. But that issue simply misses the point of what happened. It's almost as though they don't know the story!
To sum up:

• Mankind had gradually got worse and worse since sin entered the world with Adam, and the first murder was committed by Cain. It had reached a point where violence and corruption was how most people lived and they had no desire to change.
• Only one family were still faithful to God and goodness and righteousness. Noah was one of the most faithful followers of God to have ever lived. There is little doubt that he preached in vain to those around him.
• God 's will to restore the Earth to perfection meant that he would have to destroy the wicked so that he could preserve, renew, and improve the good.
• He gave Noah the huge task of building an ark and gathering animals, and was most likely given a few decades to do so. This probably did not go unnoticed.
• Having been warned about God, and the coming Flood, and given time to change their ways, mankind remained wicked. They had been given enough chances and warnings. They had proved that they were beyond salvation and deserved destruction.

The other point that concerns sceptics is how the events in this local area had planet-wide consequences. This is simple to understand again in the correct contexts. Noah's Flood happened ten generations after Adam, consisting of people with extraordinarily long lifespans.

Depending on your view of the history, there are different ways this can makes sense. For the Young Earth crowd, it would seem that only a few generations would have passed, and the human population, however large it was, probably was only fairly local to its roots, not having had much time to spread far. And so local events were relevant to the entire human population.

I myself am not a Young Earth Creationist, so I take a different view. I am very open to the idea that there were other humans besides Adam and Eve in the Genesis story, and am certain that there were other settlements during the time of Cain and Abel. How widespread these people and tribes were, I do not know, but I believe the evidence (both historical and Biblical) heavily suggests a local flood, and not a global one. When the Bible says the 'world' was flooded, I take it to mean the 'known world'. Noah wouldn't have known what was happening in Japan or Australia. So there would have been no need for him to collect penguins and polar bears either.

There are also a number of questions about the ages of the patriarchs in Genesis and the accuracy of the timelines (as seen in the table above), and whether they are historical records or metaphorical in some way. My local flood view makes these questions irrelevant to the Flood event.

So to summarise. God's justice and plan to build a perfect world demanded that he wash away the evil in his creation. When the time comes, he will do it again, but the difference will be that the cleansing will be permanent.