“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.”
[Genesis 6:14-15]
We have all seen it. The classic Noah’s ark motif on the nursery wall. The storybook animations of Noah and the animals happily floating along in a tiny toy boat.
No one is saying that these children’s representations are intentionally designed to mislead, but in an unbelieving culture indoctrinated by the lies of evolution, these storybook depictions only reinforce the atheistic assertion that Noah’s ark and the flood are ridiculous absurdities and religious fairytales.
Children are taught to mock the Biblical account of creation and the flood at a very young age. “Pure religious fantasy,” they are told. “Smart people only believe science,” they are told. While public schools push millions of years of mindless evolution as “science,” the church has done little to disciple the next generation in the foundational Biblical truths found in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Even worse, many Christians have completely compromised and abandoned the Word of God and now agree that science is the voice of authority in our world.
Think about it. How many of our Sunday school classes, VBS themes, and children’s Bibles accurately depict the flood and Noah’s ark? By providing our children with innocuous and inaccurate drawings of the ark, we are failing to stimulate the impressionable imaginations of our children and open their minds to the wonder and power and glory of Almighty God!
The global flood and the salvation of mankind through Noah’s ark is one of the most fascinating and foundational true stories in human history. Jesus Christ Himself spoke of the Genesis account of creation and the flood of Noah’s day on multiple occasions as real, historical events. In other words, Jesus believed in a literal 6-day creation and global flood.
And that’s just my point. Many of our children are growing up in hostile environments and their faith is being challenged at every turn. One of the first objections our children inevitably will face in this secular culture will involve Biblical creation and the global flood. If the enemy can get us to doubt the historical truth of Genesis, then he can get us to doubt the rest of the gospel story. And that is precisely why so many of our teens and young adults are leaving the faith in mass.
“You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
[2 Peter 3:2-7]
“How do you know Noah was even a real person?”
“How did Noah fit millions of animal species on the ark?”
“How could only 8 people feed and care for those animals for a year?”
“What about the dinosaurs? Where do they fit in the story?”
These are legitimate questions that we as followers of Jesus Christ must be prepared to answer. And thankfully, there are good and logical answers, but if we don’t begin training our children to defend their faith today, we will lose them to the world of tomorrow.
I am so thankful for ministries like Answers in Genesis that have invested significant time, energy and resources into teaching the true Biblical account of creation and the flood and expanding the minds of believers and skeptics alike to consider the reasonableness of our faith.
The Ark Encounter in northern Kentucky and the Creation Museum are making a huge impact on the culture war against Biblical authority. Just the economic impacts alone are staggering. But the spiritual implications are even more amazing!
In a day and age when scoffers continue to mock the Bible of God and the God of the Bible, it is imperative that we equip the saints to always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks us for the reason of the hope that we have. And it is even more important that we teach our children the truth and train them up in righteousness before sending them out into a hostile world.
Days of Noah 