CHAPTER FIVE
FROM ADAM TO ABRAHAM

       We know not how long it was that darkness and chaos held sway over the earth; but, however long or short it was, there came a moment when the Spirit of God began again to move upon the wreck, and day by day Light and Life and Order came into Being, until it became clear that the Almighty meant to make a new beginning, which He Himself would superintend instead of leaving it to Angels as before.

       And so evening by evening the Son of God descended from Heaven to earth and held sweet converse with Adam and Eve in the Garden He had prepared for them; for His delights were with the children of men (Proverbs 8:31). We see a lovely picture of this intercourse in Genesis 2:18-25. Man is a gregarious creature and needs company: but amongst all the animals which God brought before Adam, not one was found sufficient to meet his need: a week, a month, a year exhausted their possibilities of companionship, and left Adam more and more acutely aware of his isolation! It was to such a hungry soul that God brought Eve, and Adam found the satisfying answer to his complaint! Now, nought remained but to taste the possibilities of this new world with their Creator at hand to answer their queries and direct their steps.

       It must have looked to the Angels as if the stage was set for unlimited success, now that God Himself was in the midst of His Creation. Surely no harm could come to Adam

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and Eve in such circumstances, even if Satan was still alive and malignant! It may have seemed a mistake to have left him and his fellow angels in possession of the first heaven, and so able to visit the earth, lest the desire to regain his lost territory should enter his heart. Better surely to have incapacitated him and his hosts from doing any more damage, and to have given to Adam and Eve a fair chance of enjoying their lovely earth without interruption! Such doubts must have seemed justified, when Satan actually did enter Eden, and succeeded a second time in apparently wrecking the plan of God! Once again it looked as if evil had triumphed, and found the Almighty powerless to defend His own Creation, or bring His own designs to a successful conclusion.

       So the mystery deepened and deepened, as murder ceased to be a crime (Genesis 4:8) and became an exploit (Genesis 4:23, 24) and wicked angels took on human bodies and produced cruel giants, and so the whole earth was, in spite of the divine warning, again filled with violence (Genesis 6:1-13), in which peace and happiness were impossible; until once again God was forced to drown the works of His own hands, rather than allow such misery to continue! Out of all the inhabitants of the earth only a single family could be saved to re-people a ruined world! (Genesis 7).

       Yet as the years slipped by, and men again grew in number, it became apparent that not even the stupendous tragedy of Noah's Flood was enough to change their hearts and guarantee success. In the person of Ham sin stepped out of the Ark, as well as his father's virtue: the old story began to be repeated as Nimrod raised his cruel empire, and men banded themselves together to defy the Creator, and live their own ungodly lives as seemed best to themselves. So the end of the Noahic Age saw the scattering of humanity by

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God into small companies by the confusion of tongues, because it was too dangerous to leave them together. Already the nightmare of an earth united under a single despot was beginning to appear, a nightmare which is today the fascinating dream of the communist, and will become for a short moment the actual achievement of Anti-Christ. Yet the "confusion of Tongues" of Genesis 11:7-9 has postponed for many years this final tragedy, and made the last mass-rebellion of mankind against its Creator more difficult of realisation. Tyrants have found their way challenged by other tyrants, and nation has risen against nation, as portrayed by the wild beasts of Daniel, and thus have delayed the ambition of Satan to steal God's earth and sit upon His Throne, if only for a moment, amidst the acclamations of his people.

Note A. The Historicity of Noah's Flood

       For some years the wilful and determined denial of unbelieving scientists, and, following their lead, the foolish humour of a generation or two, made light of Noah's Ark, and declared that there was no trace of such a flood ever having happened. But now the tables are turned upon the scoffers, not by theologians but by the same unbelieving scientists, unwillingly brought face to face with unquestionable facts!

1. In different parts of Mesopotamia Professor Langdon of Oxford and Sir Leonard Woolley dug down to reach 8-11 feet of water-laid clay. To quote the latter's words "The flood which deposited it must have been of a magnitude unparalleled in local history. That it was so is further proved by the fact that the clay bank marks a definite break in the continuity of the local culture. A whole civilisation, which existed before it, is lacking above it, and seems to have been submerged by the waters. When we made these observations two months ago we were loath to believe that we had

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obtained confirmation of the deluge of Genesis, but there is no doubt of it now". It is strange that a scientist should be 'loath to believe' any fact! The sad truth is that the evolutionary theory is the unproved child of atheism, believed against the evidence because of a hatred for the truth, and a refusal to bow down before a living God.

2. All over the earth are caves on the tops of mountains over 1000 feet high which are filled with the bones of men and animals which entered them in a mad rush from engulfing waters, and were dashed together in inextricable confusion.

3. A whole Creation of palaeolithic men and animals all over the earth was wiped out, and succeeded by one which was completely different.

4. Huge boulders are found, which have been carried hundreds of miles from the place where they originated, as only vast masses of water could have accomplished.

5. There are also hills, e.g. in Norway, of fresh and sea water shells, mixed up together and yet unbroken. Only water could have raised them so gently for so many miles.

6. In Europe, the American continent, Africa, India, China and even Australia there are enormous tracts of gravel and mud, such as only a tremendous flood could have carried and deposited, the one above the other.

       The whole subject can be studied in Sir Henry Howarth's book "The Mammoth and the Glacial Nightmare" (he was himself an unbeliever in the Bible); or in "The New Biblical Guide" Vol. 1 by Rev. J. Urquhart.

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