Kingdom Come

Better Call Saul…a character study focused on the increasingly unscrupulous [humans]…the circumstances [a human] creates and/or unwittingly finds himself in…

now that we’re closer to the end…there’s an even stronger sense of foreboding hanging over the show. That’s apparent in the circumstances [a human] creates and/or unwittingly finds himself in…convey there’s something rotten taking over…

One of the pleasures of Better Call Saul is the extent to which watching it is like looking backward with 20/20 hindsight…

The same can be said of Genesis 1-6. We should recognize it as a prequel to the biblical account of the rest of human history. One of the pleasures,-  or more appropriately, given the Bible is not entertainment but a warning of the real doomsday scenario. one of the advantages of looking at Genesis 1-6 is having 20/20 vision of how it all ends. 

• “as the days of Noah were [prior to the extinction event by Flood],
• so shall also the coming of the Son of man be…[prior to an extinction event by Fire]”  (Matthew 24:37)

Obviously the characteristics of the pre-flood world are key to understanding our world’s future. Since the history of Noah’s day are frankly reported, this puts the Bible’s prophetic value light years ahead of later obtuse prophets like Nostradamus.

According to the biblical account, Noah lived for 600 years during the height of the antediluvian civilization. It is well worth taking one’s time to become acquainted with the details.

“And God looked upon the earth, and, behold…all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them.” (Genesis 6:12-13, 7)

• • they were eating and drinking
  • in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.” (Matthew 24:3, 21-22)

“in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing…the earth was filled with violence…for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth……” (I Peter 3:20, Genesis 6:12)

The meaning and process of becoming corrupted is losing one’s pure, unalloyed nature as designed by the Creator. But in the critical context of judgment we need to know precisely what is meant by “all flesh had corrupted his way.”

If you turn to Bible commentaries to find the answer, you will be assaulted with a barrage of opinions based on the limited historical and scientific knowledge at the time of the commentator.

But if we analyze the biblical narrative as simply as a book report like we learned in elementary school , we will realize that the first six chapters establish:

• The setting:  the heavens, earth and sea.
• The characters: all the hosts / various classifications of inhabitants of the heavens and the earth – immortal hyperdimensional beings and mortal humans and animals.
• The problem or plot: corruption.
• The climax or resolution to the problem: destruction of the corrupt and a fresh start.

“And God created

• every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind
• every winged fowl after his kind:..

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply

• the beast of the earth after his kind,
• and cattle after their kind,
• and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind:

God created man in his own image, God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…And God saw everything that he had made and, behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:21-31)

But by the time of the flood, everything wasn’t good any longer. Just as everything else God did during creation was opposed by his adversaries, so was reproduction, which turned all flesh from good to  “corrupt, ruined.”

“Good, clean,” results in God being pleased and taking a rest, contrasted with “not good, unclean, corrupted” resulting in God changing his attitude, i.e. being very unhappy, and taking corrective action.

“Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God….[in contrast to all the types of] flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth….and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth…And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen right-eous before me in this generation.” (Genesis 6-7:1)

• Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female:
• and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.” (Genesis 7:1-2)

This categorization is assumed by some to refer to the animals allowed, or not, for sacrifice, since only clean animals were sacrificed at the end of the flood. However, the text does not state that the reason Noah brought more was to experience acceptable losses when sacrificing. 

“And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour.” (Genesis 8:20-21)

At this point in the data-driven analysis, only a correlation, not a causation between Noah bringing more clean than unclean animals on the ark and using them for sacrifices has been documented.

There is much confusion in the understanding and correct usage of causation and correlation…

Causation is an action or occurrence that can cause another. The result of an action is always predictable, providing a clear relation between them which can be established with certainty…

Correlation is an action or occurrence that can be linked to another. The action does not always result to another action or occurrence but you can see that there is a relationship between them.

At the same time that Noah sacrificed only clean animals to the LORD, all animals –  including unclean – were allowed for consumption.

“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.” (Genesis 9:1-3)

Since this is contrary to Mosaic law, we can’t backdate Mosaic law to Noah’s time.

“This is the law…

• make a difference between the unclean and the clean…
• between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten… (Leviticus 11:46-47)

A reliable interpretation of the distinction between clean and unclean, one that remains consistent with the rest of the document, is that the unclean beasts were not God’s original good creation. They were corrupted in some way, along with humanity.

And yet, while God destroyed all except eight humans because of their corruption, he intentionally allowed a mating pair of the corrupt animals onto the ark. Why?

Again, a reliable answer is found in scripture in parallel circumstances – developing partnership with God!

“When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven [corrupt] nations greater and mightier than thou…THOU shalt smite them…YE deal with them…for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible…it is he that giveth thee power.” (Deuteronomy 7-8)

One deduction for allowing the consumption of unclean beasts that can be validated by science is that the Flood triggered an ice age.

Agriculture wasn’t a sustainable source of food. The first post-Flood generations were the hunter-gathers, and the unclean animals themselves were more capable of surviving through hunting and scavenging. The clean beasts required more vegetation to multiply adequately to support a population of humans.

The initial post-Flood freezing conditions also allowed a system of food preservation that failed as the climate warmed. This explains the necessity of implementing health rules.

“if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord…It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. Therefore every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.” (Leviticus 19:1-8)

In the English Bible the word abominable / abomination is translated as “loathesome” or “detestable”. But that just describes God’s reaction, it doesn’t explain why. 

It should be obvious on the face of it that in the Middle East’s hot climate, eating recently slaughtered and meat on the third day without benefit of refrigeration to prevent decompensation would mean eating spoiled food.

The same Hebrew word for clean is also translated pure when used to describe gold that has not been alloyed with another metal, by which we can induce that not pure indicates the presence of other substance, such as toxins and microbes.

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the comm-union [together-united] of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the comm-union of the body of Christ?…For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread…

We should be able to understand how our participation in food and drink in public demonstrates our identity as belonging to that  group.

A Jewish individual is singled out by declining bacon and shrimp hors d’oeuvres. A Christian is assumed not to be a Christian if they drink alcohol at an office party. Well, that individual did want to blend in with everyone else there, so how will he/she be a  witness of God’s saving grace to their alcoholic co-worker after that?

Virtually all religions forbid non-members to participate in their ritual meals or ceremonies because they are not worthy of being blessed by the sacred presence.

“For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” (I Corinthians 11:29)

Proving that the newly converted Gentile believers in Yeshua were worthy is why it was so important for Peter to eat with them.

“when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision [a subset of Jewish believers in Yeshua as Messiah who insisted that conversion to Judaism was required for salvation] contended with him, Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning… When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” (Act 12:1-18)

“when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.” (Galatians 2:11-12)

Peter’s subsequent failure to eat with Gentile believers was a public statement that he had changed his mind, and decided that the Gentiles were not full converts, but at the most only initiates, who had to take further steps, such a circumcision, before they could become full-fledged members of this particular mystery cult promising to share the secrets to attaining resurrection to eternal life. This is because beyond the physical connection of the body’s neural enmeshment with the soul, the spirit is also affected by what is eaten.

^“Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank:” (Daniel 1:8)