Generations after Adam
By Liaf
When Adam sinned instead of taking from the tree of life, we saw in Genesis 3:15 the promise of the coming Christ. We also could discern that the Bible carried a dualistic theme throughout. Old/new, Earthly/heavenly, Evil/good, and so forth. Lucifer’s kingdom and God’s kingdom were positioned to battle from then until the last pages of the Bible. The rest of the Bible has types or foreshadows of things to come which culminates in Christ or some notable event.
Already we saw this take effect by the fourth chapter of Genesis. We have there the story of Cain and Abel. God had no regard for Cain’s offering, but He did have regard for Abel’s. Why? According to Hebrews 11, Abel offered his in faith, whereas Cain did not. We see here the workings of man (Cain) wanting to do it "his way" instead of God’s way. I heard all kinds of stories as to why one offering was accepted and the other was not. Perhaps Cain’s was not accepted because it had no blood poured out which was a requirement to foreshadow Christ. Another possibility was that he offered the leftovers albeit good ones, I’m sure. Abel offered the firstlings to God. Whatever the case, the bottom line was that Cain did it his way even if sincerely. Abel did it God’s way. Cain represented the natural, unregenerate man like any of us "good Christians" who may actually be destined to destruction in and of ourselves. But Abel represented Christ who was slain by Cain. When Eve later bore Seth, this foreshadowed a resurrected Christ and by comparison this line of Seth’s was considered the righteous line thereafter from which Noah came from (who is another type of new race like we have in Christ). The idea was that there was sin represented, somebody died (the old race of Adam) and somebody new replaced the old person (a new race resurrected in Christ).
In those days, man lived to immense ages, and this is not a mistranslation, either! The Earth’s atmosphere was probably different then consisting of a canopy of water that eventually broke to create the flood. This canopy may have filtered out some of the sun’s dangerous rays that degrade life. Nevertheless, as generations continued (and there were also generations of Cain), man grew farther and farther from contact with God that Adam once enjoyed and knowledge of God no doubt started to degrade or contort. What many do not realize is that this righteous line from Seth all the way up to Noah were powerful, intelligent people who were preachers of righteousness (II Peter 2:5) warning of the judgement to come.
As a matter of fact, the events that led to the flood were what I call the Genesis 6 incident. This crossbreeding between the "sons of God" (angels) and human women created abominable hybrids. For years I’ve been told by conservative Christian people that taking such interest in topics like UFO’s, the Bermuda Triangle, ghosts, etc. was "occult" and should be avoided. I wonder if they really believe the Bible they preach. Look at Genesis 6. If that does not sound like "space visitors", I don’t know what does. The Bible is really weird at times if one takes it at face value; I cannot help but to believe in such things if I truly believe the Bible. These "visitors" were no doubt the angels "reserved in everlasting chains" that Jude 6 was referring to . God gave mankind 120 years to repent after that before the typical baptismal flood came. It was also during this general timeframe in history (give or take some generations) that God inspired men to proclaim the names of the stars that God gave and to build stone structures including the Great Pyramid that contained prophecy and was very possibly pre-flood (hence pre-Egyptian). These things were witnesses and a testimony of God’s revelation, even as "time capsule" structures. Let’s face it. Contrary to what you have been taught, man was really superior back then. We’ve been degrading in spite of advanced technology. If Christendom would open up more to such possibilities that engage the mind, Christianity would not be perceived as the "dead-head" religion where we must "check our brains in at the door with our hats and coats". Without going off on a tangent, these subjects appeal to those with a scientific and mathematical mindset (without such folks we would not have our computers and other marvelous technology today!)
From here on, the story is familiar. It is the story of Noah and the ark consisting of a WORLDWIDE flood. Again, a type of death of sin and a new race of Noah as is with Christ. Only Noah and his family were saved and notice in Genesis 7:16 GOD shut them into the ark. Only GOD can save us and seal us. It was NOT the "works" of Noah other than the faith to obey God. When the flood was over, God told Noah to replenish the Earth. Note that same word as in Genesis 1:28 and further supports the recreation doctrine. Then God made some covenants in 8:21-22, and 9:9-17. Effectively, they were with ALL flesh promising the seasons to continue as long as there was an Earth (so we need not fear a nuclear holocaust or environmental disaster beyond what Revelation teaches), and that a judgement of a flood would never happen again. The proof was a rainbow set in the clouds. We all know that we can make our own "rainbow" from a garden hose mist. Therefore, since there is nothing to create here, a person with scientific understanding can see that the nature of the atmosphere must have changed. Beforehand, the conditions were not correct to allow such refraction of sunlight in the atmosphere, i.e., the water canopy broke. But this covenant does not exclude a later judgement of fire to the Earth. This did not happen yet (II Peter 3:12). Likewise, we have new life in Christ and the world will not undergo future judgement (the age of grace) until the Revelation timeframe. We are baptized into Christ’s death once and the old man in us died. We are alive again in the new, resurrected Christ when we accept his finished work by faith.
Another strange thing happened after the flood. God allowed man to now be a meat eater and animals now had the dread of man in them. There are apocryphal stories that before the fall animals could actually talk (which is why Eve was not surprised at the serpent talking). When the fall occurred, animals lost this ability because of the broken fellowship man had with God. But there was still this rapport that animals had with man, and as another apocryphal story stated, Noah’s animals actually came to the ark so that we do not need to have a 600 year old man playing cowboy. After the flood, these animals fled for their lives. (You would too if you might end up on somebody’s supper table!) Notice also that the idea of the blood covenant is introduced again. The blood had to be drained (showing that a life was given) before eating the animal i.e.; the blood was not to be eaten with the animal.
Although the righteous line led to Noah from whom we all came, thereafter different lines from Noah’s sons resulted. Again God would choose a person, Abram, from whom the Israelites would come from. These people to come from this lineage were to become recipients of great promises and would become God’s oracle people and light bearers to the fallen world. They were to be the Earthly type of God’s kingdom.