If you could get God to expand and explain a section of the Bible, to make it more understandable to you, what would it be? Which scripture gives you the most trouble as a Christian that an "explanatory side-note verse" or "heavenly foot-note" would clear it up for you? There is one verse that comes to mind for me (although there are many, many more that a little tutoring wouldn't hurt).....
I Peter 3.18-20 ...through whom also he preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built... huh!??!
I want to raise my hand and say,"Umm...God...excuse me...could you say a little more there please."
What verses would you choose?
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Chris,
ReplyDeleteI give Creation seminars on Noah's Ark and have studied Noah extensively. The best explanation I have read which fits best with what we know of God from the rest of the Bible is the following which I just happen to be studying and giving at my church this Sunday: Here is my 1st power point slide which I will explain below.
•By grace God spoke to Noah, By grace Noah believed, By grace Noah preached: 1 Peter 3:19-20 by whom (Holy Spirit) also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 2 Peter 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
"by his works, as well as by his words, he reproved, and condemned them; by building the ark, as he declared his own faith, so he condemned their unbelief " E-Sword, Gill-End of slide
2 Peter says Noah was a preacher of righteousness. •Every day for the 120 years that Noah went out to work on the Ark was a testimony to God’s coming judgment and His way of escape if people believed whether Noah said anything or not. But Noah did say lots of things. Check out this 2d power point slide.
•Was Noah Saved By Works or Faith?
• Noah saved by faith in the promised seed of the woman (virgin birth). Genesis 3:15 “ it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. “
•In Genesis 8 Noah's sacrifices animals to the Lord and is told that the life is in the blood in Genesis 9:4. This showed that Noah was not relying on his own righteousness. Noah knew the angel of the Lord from His probable visible appearance to command Noah to build the ark and his great grandfather Enoch’s words in Jude 14-15, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” Noah obviously knew this Lord too.
•Was Noah save by grace? Knowing the heart of every man, Noah’s favor in God’s eyes was by grace. Genesis 6:8-9 But Noah found grace (favor) in the eyes of the LORD. 9 …Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. (Only one of millions of people on the earth at this time and just like Enoch who was taken.)
•Noah had been already declared righteous before he built the ark. End of 2nd slide.
So Christ was in Noah, by the Holy Spirit, preaching to those who were disobedient in every thought before the flood in Genesis 6:5. Christ is in you dear brother,Chris, preaching in these blogs and at Sunday night fellowship to the saints assembled at your house. When Peter was writing in 1 Peter 3, those, who did not receive Noah's message that Christ preached through him, were now spirits in prison.
Keep up the good work.
Mike
WOW. Thanks Mike for the lesson. Your church is lucky to have you explain this...I need to come up with another verse for people to explain...
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