THE ARK AND THE ARCTIC.
There’s nothing new under the sun: there are always people, their skin color may vary, perhaps today they are a tad taller, not necessarily better dressed, lately more women among them, with the newcomers having a lot of toys: iron horses; loud banging sticks, but, basically, no difference between ancient and recent, except, these later creatures are fatter!
Where does this lead?
I am trying to compare people thousands of years ago, in Noah’s time, a mere 400 generations away, to you and me. Are we smarter? Are we cleverer? I doubt it. Could we have pulled off building an ARK without chainsaws, without logging trucks, skidders and other power tools? In many ways, we are completely identical: then as now, evil rules us both.
ARK: the guesswork.
Picture yourself alive in Noah’s time. Imagine, all the talk and rumors! Some doomster is constructing a huge boat! Says that the world will end! That torrential rains will drown as all. Why? Because we are evil. Evil? Come off it. We have some really smart people among us. They even came out of heaven, and, believe me, they are clever. They call themselves the Nephilim, (see Genesis 6) the ‘fallen’ ones, tall and talented: real leaders. Just the right guys to have around. As our new leaders they brought a lot of new ideas to us, became family, married our women, and introduced us to many innovative tactics. Progress, that’s what we wanted. None of this ‘listening to nature’ stuff.
That mysterious visit.
It all started when a man I forgot his name, something like Jason, came calling one day, wanting to buy our cedar bush. We haggled a bit and settled for a steep price: No bargain, and he paid in gold. They wanted these specific trees: lightweight, and watertight.
The father, Noah, and his three sons, had a proper plan, had all the dimensions set-out, and once the basic structure was in place, with scaffolding all around, they used the bitumen, of which there was plenty around, to make the structure watertight. Watertight? The nearest river, the Tigris, was a three-day trip away!
You know the rest of the story. The animals came in two by two. Then…
Today?
Ecclesiastes 1: 9 says it all:
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
The Nephilim, the ‘fallen’ ones, are still with us. And they are? The big Oil Companies, just a few scores of multinationals cause the bulk of Green House Gases. Of course, we let them. We are their eager helpers, just as in Noah’s days.
The Ark, and the Arc-tic
I believe there is an intimate connection between Noah’s Ark and our very own Arctic. In Noah’s days people were just as mentally stagnant as we are today. Our constant news stream leaves us immune to the most shocking events. In Noah’s days, this was also the case.
Enter Arctic News.
This time not God, but we will cause the entire earth to be cleansed of evil. Arctic News leads the way. I am inclined to write: leads THE WAY.
Here is a direct quote from its May 13 bulletin.
Self-amplifying feedbacks and developments as discussed above, as well as crossing of these two tipping points, could all contribute to cause a temperature rise of over 10°C, in the process causing the clouds tipping point to get crossed that can push up the temperature rise by a further 8°C.
Altogether, the temperature rise may exceed 18°C from pre-industrial by as early as 2026, as illustrated by the image on the right, from the extinction page.
Ample warning.
In 1896, Svante Arrhenius proposed a model predicting that increased concentration of carbon dioxide and water vapour in the atmosphere would result in a warming of the planet. In his model, the warming effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapour in preventing heat flow from the Earth’ s surface (now known as the “Greenhouse Effect”) are counteracted by a cooling effect where the same gasses are responsible for the radiation of heat to space from the atmosphere.
We are great at ignoring warnings. The reports from UN annual conferences on Climate Change are becoming increasingly alarmist, but sport scores and Trump’s performances are seen as more important.
In Noah’s time, God directly intervened. Since then, God has drawn back. Deuteronomy 32: 20 reveals his wisdom:
I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.
The similarities are there: the Ark and the Arctic. God caused the flood. We will cause the final fire. Soon. Pray for grace.