Genesis 8:21-22

[Kells]

In church this morning, we discussed the topic of the end of the world and when Christ would return and I began reading my Bible and found a promise God made to Noah saying "..and never again will I destroy living creatures as I have done..."

Do I just need to continue reading, or why would God make such a huge promise only for man to show the evil in his heart and make God change his mind about destroying all he has created? I know Jesus Christ is to return, but is the Earth and all upon it supposed to be destroyed as well. I have heard talk about Revelations, but haven't gotten that far yet.. Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless

 

[crossnote]

"As I have done" is the key. He will someday destroy the world but not as he did with water...it will be by fire.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
(2Pe 3:10-12)

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
(2Pe 3:5-7)

 

[loveme1]

Genesis 9

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
6Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

7And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

8And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 11And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

by water flesh will not be cut off.

My friend keep reading front to back Old and New lots and lots to learn.

May you be Blessed with wisdom in the name of Yahshua the Messiah may Heavenly Father guide you to all Truth. So let it be.

 

[kenisyes]

The traditional teaching is that the next time it will be by fire.

 

[Cobb]

In church this morning, we discussed the topic of the end of the world and when Christ would return and I began reading my Bible and found a promise God made to Noah saying "..and never again will I destroy living creatures as I have done..."

Do I just need to continue reading, or why would God make such a huge promise only for man to show the evil in his heart and make God change his mind about destroying all he has created? I know Jesus Christ is to return, but is the Earth and all upon it supposed to be destroyed as well. I have heard talk about Revelations, but haven't gotten that far yet.. Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless

Hello Kells. There is a lot of confusion regarding the scripture which arises by way of the carnal understanding of men. When you read the old testament you are being presented with earthly pictures but when you get to the new testament these things are meant to be understood spiritually, and not carnally. One of these misunderstandings is the idea of destruction by everlasting fire. A good many people read the words and through the carnal misunderstandings think that when Christ returns there will literally be sheets of fire raging, all manner of carnal destruction and even the universe itself exploding in a ball of flame. But this is not so.

The everlasting fire spoken of is the word of God, and the everlasting gospel; and it is by this fire that all of the creation is purged and the old passes away. For instance, if you happen upon an unbeliever and teach him the word of God, and he believes and gains faith then guess what? You just breathed fire on this unbeliever, and burned him up: the unbeliever has been destroyed by the everlasting fire and a new man has come into being; the old things have passed away.

In this same way, at the second coming, all confusion and unbelief and ignorance will pass away by the revelation of the everlasting truth: this is the fire of which the apostles speak. For instance, when the apostle Peter speaks of the "elements" being destroyed by "fire" (2Pe 3:10) it may help to know that this word is also used by the apostle Paul (Gal 4:3-9/Col 2:8-20 the word is translated "rudiments" here) and is taught to signify the "philosophy and vain deceit" and "the tradition of men"

So in the end, all things will be "destroyed by fire" but this is not meant carnally but as such:

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

And so you will see this in the Revelation:

Re 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

And so in the end what we are talking about here is the passing away of the "old man" and the putting on of the "new man"

Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

In the end, the entire creation will be transformed by the everlasting truth. This misunderstanding of the biblical concept of "fire" has also lead to the false idea that there is a place where "sinners" go to "burn in fire" for eternity in some horrific endless nightmare- but this of course is simply more misunderstanding caused by the carnal understanding of men. Indeed, this false tradition is one of the "elements" that will be burned up/destroyed by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

[Cobb]

Ps 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Heb 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

The everlasting fire is God. The Truth of God, as a fire, consumes all that is false. The Life of God consumes death, as a fire. The Love of God consumes hatred, as a fire. The Light of God devours darkness, as a fire. Thus spake the King Messiah:

Lu 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

That is, Messiah came to send the WORD OF TRUTH into the earth; and the kindling of the truth; which in its perfection devours all that is not true; all that is false is given over to the power of the flame.

1Cor 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Thus gehenna is analogically an EVENT occurring at "the day" which day is none else but the day of the LORD

Mal 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

at the time of the parousia, the mystery is finished:

Re 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

At the parousia of the Lord, all that is not of God will perish. All that is not of God will be consumed by the flame. That is to say, all ignorance will perish; all hatred will perish; all unbelief will perish; all that is undesirable must perish in the fire; this is the destruction of confusion, and the perfection of the creation.

Ga 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the STOICEIA of the world:
Ga 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly STOICEIA, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the STOICEIA of the world, and not after Christ.
Col 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the STOICEIA of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the STOICEIA shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the STOICEIA shall melt with fervent heat?

Thus these ELEMENTS/STOICEIA are the vain philosophies and traditions of men. The churches of Christ have become far too polluted by the traditions of men; the preachers do not seek the Lord but only blindly follow the doctrines handed down to them- which appear to be true but are in fact, misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the Truth of God. These vain traditions and interpretations, philosophies and doctrines are that which are burned away when the Truth of God is revealed. This flame, this TRUTH, destroys and devours all that is false, all that is death, all that is ignorance; and all things are made new; for this is the beginning of the NEW CREATION, as the apostle has written:

2Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Re 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

So at the parousia (that is to say, the second coming/advent), the truth is revealed to all flesh, and this truth consumes all lies- this is the destruction of the unbelievers, who will then have become believers, as the truth will be revealed, as a fire; and thus there will be found no unbeliever again forever, and they are consumed from off the face of the earth in a moment. All things become new.

Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Rev 11:5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

Jer 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

In the coming judgment of the churches of Christ, those who receive the mark of the beast, and which forsake Christ in their confusion, and turn to the side after Baal; these will be given to the flame; and for these which foresake Christ, the truth revealed through Christ at the parousia will be as fire, and they will weep and gnash their teeth, knowing they have forsaken the Christ, and lost their crown:

Ez 16:32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!

Ho 10:8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

Mt 13:41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Mt 25:30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Lu 13:28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.