GRACE THROUGH THE AGES
By: Bradley Anderson
THE COVENANT OF NOAH
INTRODUCTION
In Unit 1 we noted that the covenants of Abraham, Moses and David, together with the New Covenant in Christ, are all special covenants between God and the people that He has chosen for covenant. These covenants are redemptive in that they make provision for the forgiveness of sin, through a chosen line of people.
But the covenant with Noah is unique among all the covenants in that it alone does not advance or promise redemption, nor is it given to a chosen people, but to all of mankind. Noah is a common covenant. When we speak of God’s common grace it involves among other things the covenant with Noah.
The basic unit of society as defined in the creation ordinances of Eden is the family. The covenant of Noah advances and expands on the original creation ordinances by legitimizing human government for the cooperation and organization of multiple families working together in the fulfillment of the creation ordinance of fruitfulness and dominion.
The covenant with Noah is not redemptive, but it serves redemption by preserving and nurturing humanity for redemption.
Without the covenant of Noah there would be no geneology of Shem leading to Terah, father of Abraham.
Without the preserving aspects of the covenant of Noah there might not be a human race for Jesus to come to and enter into to save from sin.
Without the flood which preceded the covenant with Noah, humankind would have:
abdicated their responsibility to teach the promise of a redeemer to successive generations. The promise of redemption, given first to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15 (see unit 3 page 15), would have been forgotten and lost, so that faith in the promise would become unknown. We will see that God gave the promise of redemption to Adam and Eve with the expectation that they would pass on the promise of redemption to their progeny.
Prior to the covenant with Noah, the human condition had ably demonstrated that it could not be trusted to contain violence and wickedness. Proportionate justice of violence was not a part of the original creation ordinances given in Eden, and mankind grew increasingly violent with each year in the absence of a lawful deterrent to violence.
Violence grew unabated and the promise of redemption was eclipsed as the families that had faithfully carried and passed-on the promise of redemption forward in history were overwhelmed by violent and murderous forces.
The flood was not purely punitive. It was also restorative. The flood punished wickedness, but it also preserved a remnant of people who were being faithful in communicating the promise to future generations.
David VanDrunen, professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at Westminster Seminary has observed that the covenant with Noah:
restrains God’s judgement in His promise to never again flood the earth;
it preserves families, seedtime and harvest, that mankind may obey the original creation ordinances of multiplying and filling the earth.
it ordains a justice system with proportionate penalty, designed to protect humanity from violence and extinction;
it reestablishes the creation ordinance of the equality of man, on the principle of man being made in the image of God;
and it is an everlasting and general, or common covenant for all mankind.
I am going to argue forcefully that because the covenant with Noah is in perpetuity, believers and unbelievers alike are all still answerable to the human obligations in this covenant.
While believers may say that they are citizens of heaven and not of this world, the covenant with Noah stipulates that they still have a responsibility and a stake in this world.
The covenant with Noah is provisional , until such time as Jesus returns to consummate His kingdom. But the provisional nature of the covenant does not in any way detract from its legitimacy or jurisdiction over the lives of believers.
Christians are obligated to the great covenant making Yaweh to embrace their part of the human effort to organize and flourish.
The nexus of believers and unbelievers in society is actually in the keeping of the Noahic covenant. The common experience of all people on earth, believers and unbelievers alike, is much more like a voyage on a sailboat then it is like a vacation on a cruise ship. On a sailboat, every passenger has a responsibility on the deck. On a cruise ship the passengers have no duty but to stay out of the way.
The believer today can and should serve in the administrations of unbelievers as God’s instrument of life preservation. When Joseph went to work in Pharaoh’s court, for instance, he was not compromised by entering the employment of an unbelieving emperor. For Joseph was active in saving many millions of lives from famine.
When, for instance, 50 people are being shot every weekend on the streets of Chicago, Christians together with non-Chrisitans, are obligated under Noah to work together in doing something about stopping it!
In the covenant with Noah we are reminded that the life of every person is valued because it is made in the image of God and it is God’s desire to extend redemption to every life for eternity. The baptist missionary, William Carey, worked with the authorities in India to ban (1829) the customary burning of widows on their deceased husband’s funeral pyre, even as he was working to share the gospel. Carey saw both operations, life preservation and the preaching of redemption, as having equal importance.
The covenant with Noah cannot be honored in earnest by believers if they are unwilling to cooperate with and collaborate with unbelievers in social and civil ordinances. This is why Paul can demand a spirit of civil obedience in New Testament believers when he says:
Romans 13:1–3 [1] Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. [2] Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
The authorities are instituted by God in the covenant with Noah. The covenant with Noah gives legitimacy to human government, and believers must therefore honor what God has legitimized. (see addendum, page 23-26)
The covenant of preservation in Noah which requires that proportionate judgement be brought on those who are violent, may be seen as providing the linkage between one of several points of continuity between the covenant with Abraham and the covenant with Moses.
In Abraham God’s people are promised a land of their own.
In Moses the people are commanded to take the land that was promised to Abraham from a people who were already living in the land.
The conquest of the land brought judgement on the people who had originally settled in Canaan. But the judgement did not arise de novo in redemption history. The judgement was in accordance with the covenant of Noah that delegates capital punishment to man. Israel was simply acting as the sword of God’s judgement upon the wickedness of the people who had settled in that region.
In Noah we will see that the judgement of the violent will be assigned by God to all humankind. In this sense, the children of Jacob, Isaac and Abraham are only fulfilling the covenant responsibility to bring judgement upon murderous and violent people. One may say that the wicked people in Canaan had fair warning that their violence and oppression of others would not go unjudged.
BACKGROUND OF NOAH
In Unit 3 we noted that there are three levels of enmity stated in Genesis 3:15 and these explain for us everything about the wickedness of mankind which led up to the flood. The three levels of enmity are:
between the serpent and Eve.
between the offspring (plural) of the serpent and Eve’s offspring (plural).
between Eve’s offspring (singular) and the serpent.
These are seen in the words:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, [level 1]
and between your offspring and her offspring; [level 2]
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel. [level 3]
We noted that the offspring of the serpent are people in confederacy with the serpent against the Lordship of God. We noted that God is sovereign over His creation and He will not let the serpent thwart or undo His purposes; He will graciously intervene by putting enmity in the heart of Eve toward the serpent. But not every child of Eve will align with her in enmity against the serpent. Some of her own children will align instead with the serpent’s confederacy.
Significantly, one of Eve’s own children will later destroy the serpent in mortal conflict. This is a veiled reference to Christ that will be advanced through history with greater and increasing clarity leading up to the incarnation of Christ.
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
This is the great promise of God to Eve and those of her children who oppose the serpent. This simple promise is the substance of what we might call the gospel in the antediluvian and primeval world. As a gospel, the promise of a champion avenger does not provide as much information as what we have in the New Covenant gospel of Jesus Christ, but it was enough for people to experience real and abiding salvific faith in those days. It must be considered that Adam and Eve were both alive for much of this period as living witnesses of this promise.
The troublesome idea that people could be the offspring of the serpent, is not without support from other scriptures:
1 John 3:8–13 [8] Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. [9] No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. [10] By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. [11] For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. [12] We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.
The structure of the book of Genesis is built around genealogies which reflect, among other things, the concept of the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. We will explore this in greater detail beginning on page 15. Here I must insert that the genealogies do not reflect inferiority of people groups, but they do reflect that the families, which functioned as the basic unit of government in the primeval period, were not unified in their loyalty to Yahweh. Some families took their responsibility to Yahweh seriously and many did not.
In Genesis chapter 4 we encounter our first manifestation of the “seed of the serpent” and the “seed of the woman” in conflict.
Genesis 4
[1] Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” [2] And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. [3] In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, [4] and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, [5] but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
[6] The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? [7] If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” [8] Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
[9] Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?”
Now we must make a careful note of the differences in the exchange between God and Adam from after Adam had disobeyed in the garden, with the exchange between God and Cain from immediately after Cain had murdered Abel. The contrasts in these two exchanges are very instructive of the attitude which characterizes the seed of the serpent.
Where Adam had attempted to hide from God out of a sense of shame and fear and blame his fall on Eve (Gen 3:8), Cain flat out lied to God and denied what he knew about Abel’s whereabouts.
[10] And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
Abel’s blood cries from the ground, indicating that Cain might have attempted to hide Cain’s body. Or perhaps indicating the curse that he will experience from the ground for his sin.
[11] And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. [12] When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
The various ways in which God states His curse of sin, in these opening chapters of the bible, are instructive of the serpent and his seed.
First it is noteworthy that Adam was not directly cursed after the fall, but the serpent was directly cursed.
The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
In verse 11 of chapter 4 we read that Cain himself was cursed by the ground and it is here that we see a significant contrast between Adam and Cain.
[11] And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. [12] When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
Cain is like his biological father, Adam, in that he is not directly cursed by God, but by the ground. However Cain is also like his spiritual father, the serpent, in that he received the curse directly upon himself in the words you are cursed. You can see the contrasts and similarities in the table below. (See table 1)
Table 1.
You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” [13] Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Of note: Adam did not protest God’s punishment for his sin in the garden, but Cain complains. Also Cain shows no remorse for murdering his brother; his sole concern seems to be over his punishment. His punishment is greater than he can bear.
[14] Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Of note and great import: Cain is more afraid of retribution from man than judgement from God. This is instructive of the importance of deterring evil. Deterrence of evil is a necessity, because the seed of the serpent is not afraid of divine judgement. The seed of the serpent is only afraid of human judgement. We will see how this plays out in history and why God had to institute courts of human justice against violence. Because the serpent is not afraid of God’s judgement.
[15] Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
God protects Cain from retribution. One can scarcely imagine the scenario of the first man and woman bringing their first born son to justice. But as we will see in chapter 9, the protection of those who take the life of others will be lifted in the covenant with Noah. In Noah God will require proportionate judgement of murder and God will delegate the execution of His judgement to man. This is the foundation of human government.
The Line of Cain.
[16] Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
In the OT, east is the direction that moves away from God. Examples of the east west orientation include:
The layout of the temple. The temple was on an east west orientation, so that as you approached it and entered you were moving in a westerly direction, ever closer to the Holy of Holies.
The wise men came from the east; that is they moved in a westerly direction as they came to honor Christ.
When Cain went east to settle in the land of Nod, we may understand that he was moving away from God. The presence of God was still palpable in the region of Eden at this time. Adam and Eve were driven from Eden, but apparently they did not venture too far from it’s gate. It is even possible that the offerings of Abel and Cain were brought to God at the boundary of Eden. (Gen 4:3)
[17] Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
The exodus readers were originally keepers of flocks and this would have identified the Jews more with Abel than with Cain. It is probably not insignificant that Cain became a city dweller. Cain sought protection behind city walls. Cain is now separated from his earthly father Adam, and thus he names his city after his own son, suggesting a slight against his biological father.
[18] To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. [19] And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. [20] Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. [21] His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. [22] Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
[23] Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
[24] If Cain's revenge is sevenfold,
then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold.”
Some notable features of Cain’s city.
Lamech is the middle son born in the line of Cain, Lamech, is a murderous polygamist. Conversely, in chapter 5 we will see that the middle son born in the line of seed of the woman in Seth’s line was Enoch, who “walked with God.”
Culture is seen here as the work that man does by God’s common grace. Here we see that great works of culture, in the disciplines of music and metallurgy, are developed by a line which is not favorably portrayed otherwise. Violence and culture can seemingly coexist. Therefore a culture is not to be judged on its artistic and industrial merits alone, but also on its social justice metric.
The civil justice of Cain’s line is here shown to be capricious and tyrannical. Lamech has killed a young man for striking him. This pattern of violence will grow with each passing year until the mass of humanity is always violent all the time. Here we see its origins are in the line of Cain, from the city that Cain built. Lamech has corrupted God’s gracious protection of his murderous father as cover for his own murderous behavior.
The line of Seth.
[25] And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
Seth means “substitute”.
The noun (zera) that Eve uses to identify Seth, is the same noun for seed used in Genesis 3:15 where the seed of the woman is anticipated to “crush the head of the serpent.” Does this indicate faith on Eve’s part? I think it does. I think we see the first woman here as a woman of faith; she believes that Seth might be the one who was promised to avenge the liar and enemy of her soul and the one who corrupted her first born son Cain.
[26] To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call [qara - Hebrew, epikaleo - LXX] upon the name of the LORD.
The beginning of the line of Seth depicts families that know Yahweh’s name proper “the one who causes it to be'' and are proclaiming His name.
To call [qara] upon the name of the LORD may be understood as invoking the name of Yahweh. By stating His proper name they are demonstrating a knowledge of His attributes and purpose. This also implies that these are families of prayer and worship, who state the LORD’s name at the beginning of their prayers and in their hymns of praise.
Qara is also closely related to the idea that is expressed in the Greek word kerryso from which we get the word preach in later restoration prophecies and New Testament scripture. The idea is to proclaim the name of the LORD in public.
Moses is certainly telling us that Seth’s line contained people who prayed to Yahweh. Moses might even be telling us that these were people who preached about Yahweh among themselves and possibly to those who were not aligned in loyalty to Yahweh.
The posture of the proclaimers of God in scripture are always displayed as out in the open and not altogether welcome. John the Baptist was a proclaimer; the prophets were proclaimers. To call upon the name of the LORD carries the notion of street preaching. I do not want to stretch the point here too much, but I believe that the line of Seth would have experienced persecution from the line of Cain in the various places where they intersected in society. Cain’s face fell when his offering was deemed inferior to Abel’s. If his own children are following their father’s example, they would have been agitated by the proclamation of Yaweh’s name from the line of Seth.
Genesis 5
[1] This is the book of the generations of (toledot) Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. [2] Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. [3] When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
The image of God, first given to Adam, is transferred through Adam to his posterity, establishing the continuity of all people to the Imago Dei (made in the image of God) through Adam. Adam is as real as a historical figure as we are.
As we learned in unit 3 page 9, image bearing means representing God as His representatives in the care of His creation. Rule of the earth carries great responsibility as well as obedience to Yahweh’s will.
[4] The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. [5] Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Moses is using the toledot of Adam, the father of Seth to:
propel the story forward, summarizing hundreds of years of history in rapid fashion.
Provide a hinge between the narrative account of Adam and the narrative account of Noah.
In chapter 5 Moses is making two main points:
The refrain and he died is instructive of the consequence of sin. Paul will later comment on this in Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.
The second point is familial transmission of the gospel. We see this in the genealogical form.
[21] When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. [22] Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. [23] Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. [24] Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
In the middle of Seth’s line we read of Enoch who walked with God. Enoch was the sixth son of Seth’s line.
[28] When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son [29] and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” [30] Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. [31] Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died. [32] After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
At the end of Seth’s line we read that Lamech had a knowledge of God’s name proper, of God’s purpose in cursing the ground, and a faith in God’s promise of redemption, or as he puts it, relief from our work and the painful toil of our hands.
Could Lamech have known about the curse and the promise, if these truths had not been transmitted intergenerationally, from his father and his father before him?
In chapters 4 and 5 Moses is framing the transmission of righteous and unrighteous behavior with the use of the toledots. So it would seem that:
The family is the primary institution of carrying the gospel through this time of redemption history.
The two seed concept - the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent - is a fair interpretation of the text.
THE SONS OF GOD
There are three ways of interpreting expression “sons of God” in Genesis chapter 6:
The sons of God are angels that have mated with mortal women.
The sons of God are from the righteous line of Seth and they are intermarrying with the unrighteous line of Cain.
The sons of God is a phrase borrowed from 2nd millennium BC culture pointing to tyrant kings who are taking wives from every family line.
I am going to argue for option 3.
Genesis 6
[1] When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, [2] the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
In any of the three interpretations, our emphasis ought to be on what is at risk: the remnant people of the seed of the woman; the people of God who have carried the gospel promise thus far in history are threatened. Intermarrige with the sons of God, by force, is corrupting and endangering the seed of the woman, the Godly line which has thus far carried the message of redemption for the forgiveness of sins. We have labored up to this point to consider the details that Moses has given in tracing the seed of the woman through the contrasting genealogies of Cain and Seth:
Moses is clearly communicating that the promise of redemption and the conflict between the LORD and the serpent was played out in familial histories.
It may be noted that the familial aspect of redemption is a theme that runs through the entire Pentateuch. It will be repeated in the subsequent narratives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Each patriarch will be very deliberate not to take wives from among their neighbors of Canaan. Whereas Esau, who despises and then loses his birthright, will take a wife from among the locals.
We will also see Ezra, in the post exilic period, expressing great anxiety when he learns that the Jews that returned to Judah had intermarried with the Canaanites who worship false gods.
Intermarriage is not a theat to pedigree or to blood line, but a threat to the familial transmission of redemption and to worshipping the one true God. Mankind cannot be saved from sin if the godly seed which carries the gospel of redemption is not preserved!
In the favor of view 1, the phrase “sons of God” is used in Job to describe a gathering that certainly included Satan. This verse gives weight to view 1.
Job 1:6 [6] Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.
But in Psalm 82 “sons of God” is used in the convention of the ancient near east designation of kings, i.e. the Summerian King List (1800 BC). This gives weight to view 3. It would be very odd to interpret Psalm 82 as a convention of Angels. Psalm 82 reflects that men of power are held accountable to God for how they treat their subjects and these men of power are addressed as gods and even as sons.
Psalm 82
Rescue the Weak and Needy
A Psalm of Asaph.
[1] God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
[2] “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
[3] Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
[4] Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
[5] They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
[6] I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
[7] nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.”
[8] Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations!
Another key text for view 1 is in the Song of Moses.
Deuteronomy 32:7–9
[7] Remember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
[8] When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
[9] But the LORD’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage. (ESV)
There is a textual variant between the 7th century AD Masoretic Hebrew Text and the much older texts of the 3rd century BC Greek Septuagint and the 1st century AD Hebrew Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts of Deuteronomy 32:8.
The Masoretic text renders the expression sons of God as the sons of Israel. The Masoretic text is saying that the table of 70 nations (Genesis 10) is numbered to correlate with the 70 sons of Jacob who entered Egypt (Exodus 1:5). But the older manuscript evidence points to the sons of God as judges in each of the 70 nations who are appointed by God with prosecutorial powers.
Deuteronomy 32:8 is indicating that as the LORD set the boundaries of the nations, He did not leave the peoples of the earth bereft of lawful order. Whereas Israel is set apart and reserved as God’s own people for His own rule, the remaining 70 nations of the world were not left unprotected by God or by divinely appointed rule. The chain of authority between God and Israel was more direct and personal and God even dwelt among His people, but this does not mean that the other 70 nations of the world had no chain of authority with divine origins. The sons of God are best understood as rulers with divine authority to judge and prosecute lawlessness.
Now to make matters even more confusing, Satan derives his name from the role that is meant for the sons of God. But Satan uses the prosecutorial office as a corruption of its original purpose. Satan uses the prosecutorial office to accuse all men of being in an unredeemable and irreconcilable state before God. Satan accuses you of your sin to leave you in a state of hopelessness and imprisonment.
The Hebrew term ha-saw-tone (Satan) is not a proper name but a title of one who accuses in an adversarial manner. Satan is not a name, rather it is a title that has been corrupted and twisted to an evil end.
By the time we come to the New Testament it is understood that the same rebellion which happened in Eden had also affected all the nations of the world, so that all the leaders of people in the world were in a state of rebellion against God, forming one treasonous kingdom of this world. Luke 4:5–6 states that all the nations were under Satan’s power:
[5] And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, [6] and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.”
Satan seems to have made himself the ruler of all the kingdoms of the world. This would mean that the powers that God had given the sons of God to rule the 70 nations were by and by wrested and corrupted by the same deceit which the serpent used in Eden to usurp the rule of the garden from the first image bearer Adam.
All men are made in the image of God and image bearing means ruling the earth. That God would have extended the original purpose of ruling the earth to the leaders of the 70 nations is not too fanciful for us to interpret into the term sons of God. Nor is it too fanciful to conjecture that the rulers of the nations allowed Satan to usurp their rule.
Paul states at Athens that God’s intentions for the nations was with a view that they would seek Him and find Him. Surely this means that the 70 nations did not begin without some means of divine guardianship.
Acts 17:24–27
[24] The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. [26] And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, [27] that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
If you favor view 1, the wickedness of man does not ultimately stem from the consequences of the fall of man in Adam, but also from the fall in the angelic realm. But in verse 3 we read that it is with man that God is grieved and not with Angels.
[3] Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
If you favor view 1, the Nephilim (verse 4) are the offspring of angels and mortal women.
[4] The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
In view 1 the Angels have the power to inseminate women. This view requires the development of a very complex ontology in your cosmology, wherein created beings have the power to self initiate alterations in the purpose behind the nature they were first created with. This would violate the laws of being. Creatures cannot alter their form unless they have pure being. But if they are in possession of pure being then they are no longer creatures!
The angelic insemination of mortal women is very problematic from this perspective, as it involves creatures in the act of something that is even greater than a violation of loyalty to the Creator God; it involves creatures in the act of transcending God’s created order. In my view this seriously calls into question the uniqueness of God as the only pure being, subsistent in triunity.
The etymology of the Hebrew word that is used where our English bibles give us the word Nephilim is uncertain. In Numbers 13:33 the same word is used to denote the giant sons of Anak, before whom they were in our own sight as grasshoppers.
Numbers 13:33 is not saying that the sons of Anak were the offspring of angels and mortal women. It makes much greater sense to say that the term Nephilim is meant to convey that there were environmental pressures of violence on this society that favored big and strong men over men of lesser and weaker stature. Simply put: violent society produces larger men then peaceful society. And this is Moses’s whole point leading up to the flood: the wickedness of man is now under the complete control of violent forces.
It is especially noteworthy that God never judges humanity, or people groups, without explaining why He is judging them. In verse 5 we read that every thought of man’s heart was only evil continually.
[5] The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
In summary I take the view here that:
The sons of God are not fallen angels but polygamous tyrannt kings who are taking the daughters of the righteous families into their harems. And thus the familial transmission of the gospel for the future generations is at risk.
The terms sons of God is a borrowed term from the world order that God instituted after the flood. It is simply denoting powerful leaders; it is not a statement of relative righteousness or unrighteousness, nor is it an allusion to angels.
Moses has been tracing the story of the seed of the woman in juxtaposition to the story of the seed of the serpent, contrasting two very different loyalties. There is a linear genealogy of families that are calling upon the name of the LORD in anticipation of redemption, and there is a linear genealogy of those who have arrived at a place in history that is polygamous and violent. Of note, the linear genealogy of the seed of the serpent is not given it’s own toledot formula (see Toledoth, below).
God is prevailing upon Noah to preserve the seed of the woman in the ark, while He brings judgement on the seed of the serpent.
Up to this point Moses has clearly used the toledots to demonstrate that truth is transmitted familially. To suddenly introduce angels as the threat of the righteous line’s transmission of gospel would be very odd after Moses has given the contrasting character of Cain and Seth so pointedly in prologue to the flood.
God promises to preserve the order of the world so that the work of gracious redemption, begun in Adam, will continue.
There is always a remnant. One task of the remnant is to carry the gospel to the world and for the blessings of the generations that follow them.
As I have used the expressions lines or family to denote the righteous, I have distinguished entire people groups and unfortunately this has the sound of racism. But here I must emphasize that the enthic groups of mankind do not develop until after the flood in the Genesis chapter 10 table of nations. In the pre-flood world, from Adam to Noah, everyone spoke the same language and everyone came from the same two parents. The terms goy and ethnos which designate people groups in Hebrew language do not appear in scripture till after the flood.
The contrasts between the line of Cain and the line of Seth are not owing to ethnic differences but to the prominent part that moms, dads and extended families played in spreading the gospel and cultivating a love of Yaweh. This is as true today as it was in the pre-flood world.
I cannot overemphasize that in every age of redemption there is essentially one race of man divided only by their loyalty to God. The apostle Paul makes it clear in 2 Corinthian 15 and Romans 5 that all men are represented by the first adam Adam and the redeemed are represented by the second adam, Christ. In the section below this idea is developed further.
TOLEDOT FORM AND FUNCTION
Toledot is the Hebrew word that is translated into English by the expression these are the generations of.
Toledot is from the Hebrew word yalad which means to beget.
The Septuagint (3rd century BC Greek) transliterated the word toledot to genesis.
The English translation kept the title as The Book of Genesis.
There are ten toledots in the book of Genesis. (see Table 2, page 15)
There are two kinds of toledots in Genesis: narrative and pure genealogy.
In the narrative form you have:
toledot,
followed by the ancestor of an important person,
followed by the narrative story of the important person.
A good example of this form is in Genesis 11:27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram,
In the pure genealogy form you have:
toledot,
followed by the name of an important person,
followed by one of two forms of genealogy:
Linear genealogies
These establish continuity over long periods of time, while moving the story forward.
They contrast the gody seed and the ungodly seed.
They serve a narrowing function by moving the story forward to Abraham and the Patriarchal period. (see table 2)
Segmented genealogies
These are more like a family tree that trace multiple descendants of one person.
They provide backstory for how various people groups interact and relate to one another in kinship and opposition.
They provide the stories of the groups of people spread throughout the world.
These also lay the groundwork for the conquest of Israel under Joshua. This is especially key in our understanding of social justice in modern day Israel. Those who advocate the displacement of the Palestinians do not have the support of the toledot formula in Genesis. The conquest of Israel was a one time event in history, supported by toledot backstories of specific people groups that first settled in the land of Canaan. (See Unit 6 pages 3-5)
Table 2, Toledots
THE STORY OF NOAH
[6] And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. [7] So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” [8] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Technically verse [8] marks the end of a chapter division in Moses’s writing. Verse 9 begins the toledoth of Noah. But it also frames the story of Noah in grace. For Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
[9] These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. [10] And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The statement: “Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD,” at the end of the previous toledot division could be understood as causal of the opening words of the next toledot which says that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.” In other words, the righteousness of Noah is caused by God’s favor.
But in unit 1 page 6 we noted that the covenant with Noah fits with the Royal Grant Treaty model of ancient near east covenants and that in this model of covenant, the loyalty of the servant is important. If we understand the covenant with Noah as following a pattern like the Royal Grant Covenant, then we must take the statements of his righteousness at face value and we may understand that God did not randomly select this man for deliverance. Noah’s deliverance from the flood was owing at least in part to his loyalty to God. (see Loyalty table below)
Table of Divine Covenant Types.
[11] Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. [12] And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
That God has stayed His judgement over the earth to the point where only one righteous man and his family is left is surely a sign of His grace.
It makes one mindful of the exchange between God and Abraham when God informed Abraham of His intentions to judge Sodom (Genesis 18:22-33). When Abraham intercedes on behalf of Sodom we learn that there were not ten righteous people in the entire city!
Here we must note that scripture is scrupulous to always tell you the reasons for God’s judgement of people groups.
[13] And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. [14] Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.
In medieval church architecture, the center of the church is called “the nave” from the latin navis from which we get the word “navy”. The idea was that the center of the church is like the ark. People should feel safe from the violence in the world when they are in the church.
[17] For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. [18] But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. [19] And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.
It is noteworthy that Noah found favor with God, but his entire family was spared from the flood. This too is consistent with the Royal Grant Covenant which benefits the entire household of the loyal servant.
They shall be male and female. [20] Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. [21] Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” [22] Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
Noah obeyed God’s command in every detail of the preparations.
Genesis 8:13–22
[13] In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. [14] In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. [15] Then God said to Noah, [16] “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. [17] Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” [18] So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. [19] Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
[20] Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. [21] And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. [22] While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
God vows to never again curse the earth or the animal creatures of the earth as a consequence of man’s sin. God vows to preserve life and the conditions which sustain life. The preservation of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, together guarantee that the cycles of nature will be preserved by God.
Genesis 9:[1] And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
In Noah there is also a republication of the creation ordinance of fruitfulness.
[2] The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. [3] Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. [4] But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
The covenant with Noah is a republication of the original blessings in the creation ordinances given to Adam. (see Unit 3 page 11-12)
Like Adam, Noah will have supremacy over the animals, but he will here be allowed to eat the animals as food. This is an added feature not in the original Creation Ordinances of Eden.
The covenant will include the prohibition to drink blood from the animals. The blood is symbolic of life and all life is under God’s authority. To honor God’s authority you are not to drink the life of animals. Blood will play a very important role later in the ceremonial law of Israel. Some Pagan cultures will drink blood in various rituals and God is here giving a law against such practices.
[5] And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
[6] “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
The “new” aspects of Noah’s covenant are dealing with capital punishment, eating meat and not drinking blood. Everything else is a republication of what was given to Adam initially in his innocent estate as a creation ordinance.
The creation responsibility and stipulation for bearing the image of God is here repeated.
In this one simple poetic passage we have the institution of social justice and government.
The institution of Law is based on our being made in God’s image.
If man is instructed to execute capital punishment for murder, then it is incumbant upon man to judge each loss of life situation justly lest man also be guilty of shedding innocent blood. Therefore, this may be seen as the institution of civil law for protection of innocent life and for the punishment of law breakers. As we have already noted, the term sons of God seem to be a very direct allusion to this institution.
In the New Testament, both Paul and Peter enjoin the Church to obey the institutions which derive their authority from God. This would seem to establish continuity between the Church and the Noahic covenant.
1 Peter 2:13–17 [13] Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, [14] or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. [15] For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. [16] Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. [17] Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Romans 13:1–4 [1] Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. [2] Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. [3] For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, [4] for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
When James speaks at the Jerusalem Council, where they are trying to decide what the Gentile believers are free to do and free not to do, James goes back to the covenant of Noah. IT is as though James is saying you Gentiles do not have to keep the dietary laws in Moses, but you still have to keep the dietary laws in Noah!
Acts 15:19–20 [19] Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, [20] but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.
[8] Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, [9] “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, [10] and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. [11] I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
In verse 8 we see that:
The covenant is with all of Noah’s progeny.
This is a general covenant in that it is for all people. Unlike the covenant with Abraham that will be exclusively for the seed of Abraham. Noah is like Adam, in the sense that he is representative of a universal covenant for all men.
The preservation that is promised in Noah will work to advance redemption in history, for the mass of mankind will never again be judged by cataclysmic forces of nature.
This covenant can be called a Covenant of Preservation because it is preserving laws in nature and human society for the continuation of redemption, by protecting all people from violence.
Here God tells Noah in a covenant commitment that He will not destroy the earth.
The signs of the covenants are for our faith and our assurance.
The signs are material tangible evidence of spiritual realities and promises.
But, interestingly, in the sign of the covenant with Noah it is God who says: “when I see the bow in the clouds, I will remember.” Significantly this is a great encouragement to our faith, when we know that our LORD is so serious about His promise, that He has His own signs of the promise. The covenant with Noah is a general covenant, with every living creature. For all future generations.
[12] And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: [13] I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. [14] When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, [15] I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. [16] When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” [17] God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
GOD IS PATIENT
The final lesson in the Noahic covenant is on God’s patience.
God waited in the days of Noah for man to repent. God is waiting even today, delaying His judgement so that men may come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:1–13 [1] This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, [2] that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, [3] knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. [4] They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” [5] For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, [6] and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. [7] But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
[8] But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [9] The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. [10] But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
[11] Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, [12] waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! [13] But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
ADDENDUM
American evangelicals have developed an us versus them mentality towards government that is very unbiblical, in light of a proper understanding of the covenant with Noah.
The us versus them mentality that is growing in American evangelicalism is very alarming.
The us versus them mentality that is growing in American evangelicalism stems from various misunderstandings that grew during the 20th century emphasis on a futurist eschatology:
Most American evangelicals commonly assume that the phrase Old Covenant is making reference to the entire collection of books which begins in Genesis and ends in Malachi.
But when the new covenant refers to the old covenant, or the first covenant it is not referring wholesale to every covenant in the Palestinian Canon (Genesis - Malachi) rather it is referring to the law covenant with Moses.
2 Corinthians 3:14–15 [14] But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. [15] Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.
Hebrews 8:5–7 [5] They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” [6] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. [7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
If there is argument to be made for rolling all the other covenants in the Palestinian canon into Moses, the book of Galatians counters with:
Galatians 3:17–18 [17] This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. [18] For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Galatians 3:23–29 [23] Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. [24] So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. [25] But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, [26] for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. [27] For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
The promise covenants of Noah, Abraham and David are not annulled by Moses or by the new covenant. The promise covenants are still active today.
Almost all of the bible schools in America were founded in the late 19th and early 20th century and during this period the futurist perspective of eschatology, predominant in English and American evangelicalism at this time, was formally and dogmatically adopted by the bible schools as being the only legitimate and reliable eschatology. To this very day, many bible schools will not hire a teacher or professor who is not futurist in his or her orientation and this has certainly stifled evangelical scholarship.
The futurist perspective of NT eschatology understands the judgement and tribulation passages of the NT as pointing to events which are largely future. This expectation has had a profound effect upon popular evangelical attitudes towards politics and world events.
Many futurists believe that the apocalyptic state of the world which is described in the judgement and tribulation passages of the NT became imminent with the statehood of modern Israel in 1948. Indeed many noted futurists predicted that the rapture of the church would occur on the 40th anniversary of Israel’s statehood (1988).
I searched and I can find no trace of concern from when the modern day state of Israel (1998) passed a law prohibiting citizenship to Jews who identify as Christian. This event came and passed seemingly without registering any alarm whatsoever among the American evangelical institutions which see the “return of Israel to their ancient land and the establishment of the state of Israel as the first step in a sequence of events which will culminate in Christ’s millennial kingdom on earth.”
In our development of the New Covenant in unit 8 we will undertake to explain the difficulties in harmonizing Moses and the restoration prophecies of Isaiah with the misunderstandings that grew out of 19th and 20th century eschatology.
The idea that a modern day state of Israel is the first phase of a gradual restoration movement is inconsistent with the requirements that were outlined by Moses for restoration.
It is only through detaching Moses from the Prophets that the view taught by Walvoord at the flagship Dallas Theological Seminary can be supported.
In unit 8 we will see that the different terminological choices that Moses and the Prophets made in their respective writings concerning restoration do not require us to read the two sources as speaking of two kinds of restoration.
In unit 8 we will see that the concept of gospel is an Old Covenant concept rooted in Isaiah’s use of Moses.
The New Covenant is even now fulfilling restoration prophecy. The New Covenant will use the same Greek word for gospel [euangelizo] that Isaiah used for the glad tidings of restoration.
In the New Covenant the verb structure of euangelizo will be given a noun structure [euangelion]. This will allow the NT authors to assign verbs to the word gospel. These verbs [kerygma, didache, martyria] confirm that indeed the New Covenant is bringing about the restoration of the kingdom of God, as these verbs are indicative of kingdom and covenantal activities rooted in the promise covenants. We cannot separate the kingdom of God promise in David or the covenant promise in Abraham from the New Covenant, because the language of the New Covenant is so steeped in the promise covenants.
Futurists dismiss all of the actual historical tribulations surrounding the judgement of Judea and Jersualsem in the first century as prophetically insignificant on their escatological fulfillment timeline.
Futurists may acknowledge the fact that christains have always suffered for their faith, but the teaching of the rapture in American evangelical circles has conditioned us to understand that our prospects of suffering will be a clear sign of the imminent return of Christ and that ultimately we will be spared of suffering.
At a popular level, evangelical authors like Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have made themselves into millionaires by teaching American evangelicals to think that the antichrist is very probably already in the world and we will know that the end is near when things start to get politically difficult for American christians.
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins teach that christians will be raptured prior to the tribulation.
At one end of the spectrum the mindset of this teaching can easily form into attitudes of isolation and disengagement from the civil sphere.
At the other end of the spectrum the rapture expectation has great potential to lead evangelicals into rebellious attitudes toward governing authorities. The pandemic of 2020 is bringing to light these attitudes that have been beneath the surface.
The great dispensationalist teacher J. Vernon McGee is attributed with saying that those who are engaged with the world are just polishing the brass on a sinking ship. This statement illustrates an anti-biblical understanding of the responsibility that all believers have under Noah to be engaged civically and culturally.
The futurist perspective of eschatology has conditioned American evangelicals to anticipate the antichrist as a political figure who will persecute the American church, hence all politicians of a liberal persuasion are seen as instruments and agents of a movement toward the antichrist. Futurists might even see political liberalism and globalism as confirmation of the antichrist's arrival.
I personally do not dismiss the futurist perspective outright as being wrong, but only because I do not believe that anyone can be dogmatic about the various views of eschatology and I try to keep an open mind in true humility. However, I am very much not convinced that the tribulation warnings given by Jesus and the apostle John were specifically for and only for warning the modern church:
The futurist argument for a later date of authorship to the book of Revelation (95 AD) is hardly ironclad. It is based largely on what is essentially a cryptic statement by Irenaus in 180 AD which is not even known in its extant Greek, but by a much later Latin translation.
The early date of Revelation allows the book to speak directly to the events of 70 AD and the entire book makes infinitely greater sense when it is read from that perspective and compared with the actual historical events of that period.
Josephus recorded that the Roman general Cestius surrounded Jerusalem in November of 66 AD and then, for reasons unknown, Cestius broke camp and retreated. The christians in Jerusalem, remembering the warnings of the Olivet Discourse to flee the city when you see it surrounded, escaped for Pella, avoiding the judgement of Jerusalem that soon followed upon the return of a Roman siege.
To dismiss all the warnings and even all of the history that correlated to such statements as all these things will happen in this generation and these are the things that must soon take place as having greater prophet significance to the modern christian reader than to the first christian century reader is quite incredible, yet this view predominates among noted American evangelical preachers, authors and scholars.
American evangelicals, by and large, continue to believe that everything which happened to Jersualm and Judaism in the horrific events which culminated in 70 AD was not important enough to warrant its own independent corpus of prophetic and apocalyptic inscripturation. Such a position is incongruent with all the teaching that we have of how God operated throughout the previous ages of the OT. God never even wiped out pagan cities without prophetic warning and we are asked to believe that 1st century Jerusalem, the city which Jesus Himself described as more wicked than Sodom and Gomorrah; the city which cried away with Him, crucify Him, we serve no king but Caesar, was wiped out without a significant body of inscripturated warnings?
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