Noah: Man of Resolve

by Tim Chaffey

  “Sir!” The guard who entered first dropped to a knee, and his companion followed suit. “Please forgive the interruption. I bring a critical message from Commander Tsek!”

  Behind the Fiction

  Just like in the first book in the Remnant Trilogy, Noah: Man of Destiny, the initial part of this non-fiction section, Questions and Answers, is designed to address certain questions that readers may think of during the story. Many of these issues will be apologetic in nature. That is, in this portion of the book, we will respond to numerous challenges raised by skeptics and critics. The goal is that these novels will also help you defend the truth of Scripture.

  You may have noticed as you read the novel that several things didn’t line up with what you may have expected. This was done on purpose to help break certain stereotypes about Noah and the pre-Flood world that many Christians assume are from the Bible, but aren’t actually found there. We want you to see clearly what comes directly from the Bible and what comes from traditions people have developed over the years.

  The second feature in this non-fiction portion is what we call Borrowed from the Bible. Since the Bible only includes scant details about Noah’s life and times, we must use artistic license to flesh out his story. We certainly do not wish to be seen as adding to Scripture and want the reader to understand that these are works of fiction, with the exception of the few details that come straight from the Bible. In some places we curbed the amount of artistic license taken by drawing from other biblical accounts instead. In Borrowed from the Bible, we highlight certain events and customs in our story that will be somewhat familiar to those who know their Bibles.

  The third special feature is entirely unique to this series. We had the incredible opportunity to work behind the scenes at the Ark Encounter for the past few years. Tim was involved in the planning of nearly every exhibit and was responsible for writing or overseeing all of the content while K. Marie took part in designing various aspects of several spaces on the Ark. We wanted to use our experience to bring this series to life in a creative manner. As such, many of the objects and animals described in the book are on display in the Ark Encounter, so visitors to the theme park can see part of what Noah witnesses in our story. The Encounter This section lets the reader know what these items are and where they can be found.

  We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about what may have been, while learning to better discern between fact and fiction.

  Answering Questions

  Raised By the Novel

  SPOILER ALERT! Many of the answers to questions in this section reveal key points in the storyline of the novel. If you have not read the story first, some of these details will spoil important events in the book.

  How long were Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?

  In chapter 7, Garun told Noah that the first man and woman were in the garden for only a few days before being banished. This was new information for Noah, and likely for many of our readers as well. Many Christians assume that Adam and Eve spent quite a while in the Garden of Eden with the Lord before they sinned and were subsequently banished, but does the Bible support this notion?

  In keeping with our approach from the first book to steer clear of popular ideas not specifically found in the Bible, we decided to introduce this topic to encourage readers to closely consider the biblical text. The truth is Genesis does not tell us precisely how long Adam and Eve lived before they rebelled, but it does give us some parameters to make an educated guess.

  The Bible provides an upper limit to the amount of time that passed before man’s first sin. Adam and Eve had their son Seth when Adam was 130 years old (Genesis 5:3), which took place after Cain murdered his brother. This figure cannot be the upper limit since we must first allow enough time for Cain to grow old enough to offer sacrifices and kill Abel. Let’s assume a minimum of twenty years for those details, which would bring our upper limit down to about 110 years.

  With the maximum time limit set, let us take a look at the lowest amount of time they could have been in the garden. Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day of the creation week (Genesis 1:26–27), and at the end of that day, we are told that everything was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). God rested on the next day, a day that He blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2:1–3). We can be quite confident He did not curse the ground on that day. So the earliest Adam could have sinned would have been on the eighth day.

  There is a strong reason to believe they were in the garden for a very short amount of time. Our first parents were perfect when they were created. That is, they had no defects or flaws that would prevent them from having children. On the sixth day, God told them to be fruitful and multiply. Since they were married from the start and capable of producing children in obedience to God’s command, how long might it have taken before Eve conceived a child? It seems likely that this would have taken place within the first few months.

  We know that she did not conceive a child until after they were expelled from the garden. This is the order in which the biblical narrative is explained — expulsion from the garden in Genesis 3:23–24, and Eve conceives a son (Cain) in the next verse, Genesis 4:1. But we can also be pretty confident about this because if she had conceived Cain prior to eating the forbidden fruit, then Cain would probably not have been born with a sin nature, which he obviously had.

  So with all of these details considered, it seems like Adam and Eve would have been in the garden for a very short time, perhaps less than a month, before they rebelled. The view passed down to Garun in our story is based on this line of reasoning.

  Some Christians object to the brief timeline before sin because they say that Adam and Eve had to have time to walk with God in the garden. While this idea of our first parents walking with God is commonly taught, the fact is that the Bible never explicitly teaches it. Nowhere does the Bible claim that Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden, and yet many Christians have taught this idea as if it came right from Scripture.

  In all likelihood, this notion is based in some way on Genesis 3:8, which states, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day . . .” (NKJV). It seems like many people have just remembered some of the wording in this verse and assumed that it says Adam and Eve walked with God. But that’s not at all what is going on here. This verse appears immediately after our first parents rebelled against the Creator. They are not taking a leisurely stroll with God; they are hiding from Him as He comes to announce His judgment.

  Much more could be discussed on this subject, but those details are far beyond the purpose of the original question. However, if you would like to learn more about the arguments for and against this idea, please read Tim’s article, “Did Adam and Eve Walk with God in the Garden?” and the many comments that follow it, at http://midwestapologetics.org/blog/?p=1349.

  Did anyone live longer than Methuselah?

  In our story, Garun told Noah in chapter 7 that one of his ancestors, Ma’anel, a son of Adam, lived for 985 years. It is not uncommon to hear Christians claim that Methuselah lived longer than anyone in history, but that is not necessarily the case.

  The Bible tells us in Genesis 5:27 that Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and it does not mention anyone living any longer than that, so it is possible that he had the longest lifespan of any human. However, the Bible only gives us the age at death for a tiny fraction of the people who lived prior to the Flood. From Adam through Noah, there are only ten people whose lifespans are recorded, and yet there may have been many millions of people who lived prior to the Flood. So it is certainly possible, if not rather likely, that someone outlived Methuselah.

  Of course, Ma’anel is just a fictional character. The Bible mentions that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters (Genesis 5:4), but it only names Cain, Abel, and Seth. For more details about whether people really lived so long, please see the back pages of the first book in this series, Noah: Man of Destiny.

  As part of this conversation in the b
ook, there was a reference to King Lamech seeking to live a thousand years. The king also voiced his idea to the council of Iri Geshem in chapter 6. This goal fits well with his boastful character, but there was another reason to bring this idea into the story. God warned Adam that he would surely die on the day he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). Just what did God mean by saying Adam would die that day when we know Adam lived for 930 years? Biblical commentators have proposed several ideas about how Adam may have died in some sense that day. Certainly, his relationship with God was instantly marred by sin. Many Christians refer to this as spiritual death. There may have been physical implications as well in the sense that Adam’s body would now endure sicknesses and other ailments, so to some degree, he began to die on that day.

  Not as popular as these first two views, some have proposed that God meant Adam would not live a thousand years, since elsewhere the Bible explains that to God a day is like a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8). We definitely would reject any attempt to insert a thousand years whenever the word day is used because the context frequently rules out such a possibility, as it does for the days of creation in Genesis 1 and the days that Joshua and the Israelites marched around Jericho (Joshua 6). Nevertheless, it is interesting to consider how it might fit in some of the places where the term is used in the context of judgment, as it is in Genesis 2:17. While this view may be unlikely, we thought it would be interesting to see the wicked King Lamech hold such an idea and strive to defy his Creator in a unique manner. The reader can probably guess whether the king will be successful in this endeavor.

  Why would Noah’s culture use a judicial concept not mentioned until after the Flood?

  In chapter 11, one of the men in the crowd, Ethlin, accuses Garun and Bedin of murdering two people in Iri Geshem. Consequently, he believes that they deserve to die for their crime. The idea that the punishment should fit the crime is popular throughout the world, but it is not mentioned in the Bible until shortly after the Flood. In Genesis 9:6, the Lord told Noah, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.” So why did we put this concept into the pre-Flood world?

  The answer to this question is probably rather obvious. The concept seems to make pretty good sense in many cases. If someone steals an item from you, then according to this perspective, the thief would need to make restitution in some way. They could return the item, reimburse you for the cost, or replace it at their expense. In the case of murder, then the murderer has essentially forfeited his life.

  Did Noah endorse the notion that an idea is true because of how he felt about it?

  Postmodernists hold to an idea that views truth as subjective — truth is whatever one wants it to be. We each have our own truth, they say, and there is no overarching truth that is true for every person (besides that statement, of course). This view can often be seen in the way many Americans talk about religious beliefs. It is not too uncommon to hear someone say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you’re sincere.”

  This type of argument is also used by some Christians who reject the biblical concept of the lake of fire as a place of eternal torment for the wicked. Since they do not understand how God could sentence someone to this fate or they just do not like the idea, they seek to reinterpret the many passages that teach it. For the record, I am not thrilled about the idea of people I know who will suffer eternally for their sins, but instead of reinterpreting Scripture, I trust that God really means what He inspired to be written in the Bible about those matters. This truth motivates me to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with an unbelieving world. Sincerity or feelings cannot be used as an accurate test for truth.

  In chapter 16, while sailing to Havil, Noah and Tubal-Cain discuss the afterlife. You might remember from the first book when we explained why we did not give Noah knowledge of all the details found in Genesis 1–5. As far as we know, Noah and others of his time had not been given clear revelation from God about what happens after death. He certainly could have known that our bodies return to the ground, as God told Adam in Genesis 3:19. This is observable at every burial, so one might assume more of a naturalistic view of death — that there is no afterlife and our bodies decay in the ground. But is that all Noah could have known, apart from direct revelation from God?

  Ecclesiastes 3:11 states that God has put eternity in the hearts of men. This is generally understood to mean that man has been given some sense of his own existence beyond his physical life. If this is accurate, then Noah and others in his day may have believed in an afterlife. Also, if Noah knew that God had taken Enoch from the earth to heaven, then he might come to believe that one would enjoy a physical existence with the Creator after this life is through.

  This was the rationale behind the discussion between Noah and Tubal-Cain. Near the end of it, Tubal-Cain said that it made sense to him, and he liked it because it would mean their dear friends were with the Creator at that moment. Noah added that he now liked the view even more. Notice, he did not say that he believed it to be true more than he had before, just that he had a stronger appreciation for his view. So in our book, Noah did not subscribe to the idea that something must be true because of how he felt about it.

  Were there diseases in the pre-Flood world?

  In chapter 14, Naamah spends time in Havil’s grand library, the House of Knowledge. While she’s there, she reads about Bothar, an important city far away to the north that has been decimated by a strange disease. Readers may remember this city from the first book as the place where the kidnappers were planning to take Elam and the other Zakari children.

  Biblical creationists believe that diseases would have been non-existent in the beginning. But over time, due to the effects of sin, which would include genetic mutations, diseases would increase to what we observe today. That being said, some people have asked me if I believe there would have been diseases in the pre-Flood world. Well, we wrote this detail into the book to raise this very issue.

  We know from the fossils found in sediments laid down during the global Flood that certain diseases existed at that time. Evidence of cancerous tumors has been found in dinosaur remains buried in the Flood. So if animals suffered from diseases, then humans probably did as well. When we consider how diseases are frequently transmitted in our day, it is easy to see how the same things may have occurred in the exceedingly violent and decadent world prior to the Flood.

  Did women suffer miscarriages in the pre-Flood world?

  In chapter 16, Noah and Emzara suffered further heartbreak as she lost their first child not long after learning she was pregnant. We know that people of that time would have had fewer genetic mistakes than we do today since they were closer to Adam and Eve, so would women have had to undergo the sorrow of losing a child in the womb?

  The Bible does not give any specific examples of women miscarrying prior to the Flood, although by the time God gave the Law to Moses, people were familiar with this concept. The Lord told the Israelites that if they obeyed Him, He would bless them and that no one would be barren or suffer miscarriage in their land (Exodus 23:26). Centuries earlier, after suffering unimaginable personal tragedy, Job expressed that it would have been better for him if he had been stillborn (Job 3:16).

  After Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord made a statement that might be relevant to this discussion. He explained that the pains a woman suffered during childbearing would be greatly increased. While miscarriage is not specifically mentioned, there was at least the indication that bringing forth children would be quite difficult.

  Many of the people living prior to the Flood were extremely wicked, so many of them surely engaged in harmful practices that might contribute to poor prenatal care, such as violent behavior and an unhealthy diet. Given these factors, it seems quite reasonable to assume that women suffered miscarriages prior to the Flood, although at this point it probably would have been rarer.

  Finally, we would like to c
larify that the novel does not blame anyone in particular for Emzara’s miscarriage. Some people might get the impression that since she was under extreme duress in the weeks leading up to the event that she brought it on herself. While it might be natural to think that way, we did not seek to attribute blame to her. Sometimes terrible things happen in this world without a direct connection to one’s own behavior. The fact that she was a sinner living in a sin-cursed world where good things and bad things happen to the righteous and the wicked was reason enough for this to occur.

  Would the pre-Flood world endure earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disasters?

  In chapters 23 and 24, the city of Havil was devastated by a violent earthquake triggered by a volcanic eruption. Is such a scenario consistent with the popular creationist model of a single pre-Flood continent? In other words, if there were no continental plates sliding against each other, could an earthquake have occurred?

  The major fault lines, or fault zones, in our world today exist along the boundaries of continental plates. However, there are plenty of fault lines that occur far from continental boundaries. So even if the pre-Flood supercontinent did not have fault zones along continental boundaries, it could have had fault lines in the midst of the land mass.

  On the third day of the creation week, the Lord caused dry land to appear. Creationists generally believe God raised the ground up from the water. This enormous amount of geologic activity could have included faults. Residual movement of these faults from the third day could have triggered earthquakes following that time.

  Volcanic eruptions occur when molten rock, called magma, forces its way to the surface of the planet. A violent eruption, like the one described in the book, occurs when the pressure in a magma chamber becomes so great that it forces its way through the volcano’s conduit and escapes through the vent. While the vent allows for a certain amount of pressure to be released, there are times when the pressure becomes too great for a slow and steady release through the vent. Movement of magma beneath the surface can also cause tremors prior to the eruption. This is why the people in and around Havil were able to see smoke from the volcano and feel tremors in the days leading up to the blast.