Noah and the Flood

Noah and the Flood

The Man Noah

Moses 8:13, 18-19, 27

“Noah, who is Gabriel ... stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood; he was called of God to this office, and was the father of all living in his day, and to him was given the dominion. These men held keys first on earth, and then in heaven.”

Joseph SmithPresident

(Teachings, p. 157–58)

Timeline of Noah’s LifeAge Event

0 Born about 1,056 years after Adam10 Ordained to the Priesthood (D&C

107:52)

450 Begat Japeth (Moses 8:12)

492 Begat Shem (Moses 8:12)

500 Begat Ham (Moses 8:12)

??? • 120 year ministry (Moses 8:17)

• The flood occurs950 Dies (Gen. 9:29)

The Sins of Noah’s Day

• Moses 7:32-34 • Moses 8:14-15• Moses 8:18• Moses 8:20• Moses 8:22• Moses 8:28-30

What Were Their Sins?

“Through the scriptures we have a fairly clear picture of the fate of the people of Noah's day who, like many people today, ignored the testimonies of written scripture and of living prophets.... They were drowned in their sins. Their marriages were for time. They reveled in worldliness.

Spencer W. KimballPresident

(The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.248-

249)

“They were possibly like many in the world today who place no curb upon their eating, drinking and licentiousness. Their ignoring the laws of God and the warning of the prophets continued until the very day when Noah and his family entered the ark. Then it was too late. Too late! What finality in that phrase!”

Spencer W. KimballPresident

(The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.248-

249)

Divine Justification for Annihilation

What’s the Tipping Point?

5. Destruction

Occurs

1. People Ripen in Iniquity

2. God Sends Prophets to Warn

3. Prophets are Rejected/No Repentance

4. Spirit Ceases Striving with Man

The Pattern of Destruction

“[God] destroyed the antediluvian world … because they were not filling the measure of their creation. They had corrupted themselves to such an extent that it would have been an injustice to the spirits in the eternal worlds if they had to come through such a corrupt lineage to be subject to all the trouble incident thereunto. And therefore God destroyed them.”

John TaylorPresident(Journal of

Discourses 21:113-116)

“[I]s it right that a just God should sweep off so many people? Is that in accordance with mercy? Yes, it was just to those spirits that had not received their bodies, and it was just and merciful too to those people guilty of the iniquity. Why?

John TaylorPresident(Journal of

Discourses, 19:158–59)

“Because by taking away their earthly existence he prevented them from entailing their sins upon their posterity and degenerating them, and also prevented them from committing further acts of wickedness.”

John TaylorPresident(Journal of

Discourses, 19:158–59)

“Being a loving Father, though deeply devoted to our … agency, there are times in human history when He simply could not continue to send spirits to this earth who would have had virtually no chance.” Neal A. Maxwell

Quorum of the Twelve

(Sermons Not Spoken (Salt Lake

City: Bookcraft, 1985), p.91)

God intervened “when corruption had reached an agency-destroying point that spirits could not, in justice, be sent here.”Neal A. Maxwell

Quorum of the Twelve

( We Will Prove Them Herewith,

p.58)

Noah’s Day ReturnsJoseph Smith—Matthew

1:41-43

“In striving to prepare a people who are ready to meet the Lord for His impending second coming, we are faced with wickedness which has never been as well organized, extensive, and subtle. Our day is becoming comparable to the days of Noah, when the Lord had to cleanse the earth by flood—only in our day it will be cleansed by fire.”

Ezra Taft Benson President (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson ,

108)

Lorenzo Snow reported a day when someone came and asked Joseph Smith, “Who are you?” To which he replied, “Noah came before the flood. I have come before the fire.”

Joseph SmithPresident

(Madsen, Joseph Smith the Prophet, p.105)

“Iniquity seems to abound…. Evil seems about to engulf us like a great wave, and we feel that truly we are living in conditions similar to those in the days of Noah before the Flood.” Spencer W.

KimballPresident

(Ensign, June 1976, 3)

“We live in a world of temptation—temptation that seems more real and oppressively rampant than any since the days of Noah.”

Howard W. HunterQuorum of the

Twelve(Ensign, Nov 1976,

17)

“We live in a day of evil and wickedness…. Crime, immorality, abortions, and homosexual abominations are fast becoming the norm of life among the wicked and ungodly. The world will soon be as corrupt as it was in the days of Noah.”

Bruce R. McConkie

Quorum of the Twelve

(Ensign, Nov. 1980, 50)

Latter-day Warnings

“Plagues and pestilence will stalk through the earth because of the iniquities of men, because of some of these corruptions.... namely, the perversion of the laws of nature between the sexes, and the damnable murders that exist among men.”

John TaylorPresident(Journal of

Discourses 21:113-116)

“In America two great civilizations, the Jaredite and the Nephite, were completely annihilated because of their rejection of the laws of righteousness which God revealed unto them.In both cases, the Lord, through His prophets, pointed out their iniquities, warned them, and predicted their destruction if they did not repent. This they did not do. Consequently they were totally destroyed.

Marion G. RomneyFirst Presidency

(“The Tragic Cycle,” Ensign, November

1977, 14)

“We today are approaching the close of a similar cycle. We have been warned that we are ripening in iniquity and that we will be destroyed if we do not repent.”

Marion G. RomneyFirst Presidency

(“The Tragic Cycle,” Ensign, November

1977, 14)

“When the sacredness of the marriage covenant is lost, and the vows are broken, destruction is inevitable…. No nation can survive the abuse of this principle. Rome, Greece, Babylon, Egypt, and many other nations owe their downfall to the breaking of the sacred covenant of marriage.”

Joseph Fielding Smith

Quorum of the Twelve(Doctrines of

Salvation, 2:84-85)

“Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”

What’s Our Ark?

“Parents today wonder if there is a safe place to raise children. There is a safe place. It is in a gospel-centered home. We focus on the family in the Church, and we counsel parents everywhere to raise their children in righteousness.”

Boyd K. PackerQuorum of the

Twelve(“The Key to Spiritual Protection,” Ensign,

Nov. 2013)

“We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

TextAll the water in all the world,No matter how hard it tried,Could not sink the smallest ship,Unless it got inside.

And all the evil in all the world,The darkest kind of sin,Cannot hurt a single soulUnless we let it in.

2 Nephi 14:5-6

D&C 115:6

End