Jesus Christ said that no one knows the exact time of His second coming. Yet, He gave two prophetic patterns of the season of His coming. ‘As it was in the days of Noah …
Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot, even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.’ These patterns are written in the Bible so that we may learn from what happened and not fall into the same mistakes again. The prophetic message of Jesus Christ also implies that a generation will arise which will fulfil these two patterns. In other words, the same patterns will repeat themselves in the last days.
The prophecy throws us back to the pre-flood days of Noah and the post-flood days of Lot. We need to know the lives, the culture and the religious beliefs of those generations in order to learn from what happened so that we can compare them with our generation and future generations. The people of both generations started with apostasy and idolatry and went deep into corruption. One of the things that aggravated their condition was the presence of hybrid tribes called Nephilim. The Nephilim originally were the sons of the fallen angels, called the ‘sons of God’ and the daughters of men. They were found in both the pre-flood era and the post-flood era. However, the Bible only gives a scant picture of what happened.
This book begins to explore the patterns, which led to God’s judgment in the pre-flood days of Noah and in the post-
flood days of Lot. The ‘sons of God’ and the Nephilim taught humanity all sorts of evil practices. So, the earth was filled with evil, wickedness, violence, bloodshed, sexual immorality etc. However, Noah was perfect and kept himself from the corruption of the then world. Therefore, he and his family were saved from the flood. All the Nephilim were destroyed in the flood judgment but somehow they were back in the post-flood era in the days of Lot.
The post-flood Nephilim tribes were mostly found among the Canaanites, whose progenitor, Canaan, was cursed by Noah, his father. Lot was also righteous and kept himself from the corruption of Sodom where he lived. God destroyed Sodom and the cities surrounding it with brimstone and fire and saved Lot and his family. God used the children of Israel and other nations to gradually wipe out the post-flood Nephilim. These two patterns give an indication that when a person or a nation turns away from God and refuses to repent; it progressively goes down deeper and deeper into corruption. The end result of this progression is always God’s judgment and certain destruction.
This book also takes a cursory look at the world in which we live and compares it with the pre-flood days of Noah and the post-flood days of Lot. The type of culture and civilisation we have, should give us an idea of our where we are in connection with the righteousness of God and the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is not difficult to see that our world today has fallen away and continue to fall away fast from God. Idolatry or secularism has risen sharply. Sexual immorality, homosexuality, licentiousness and bloodshed have also risen to an alarming level. The cultural values of our world are beginning to take to the pattern in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. On top of that, today’s technological advances in communication, artificial intelligence and genetic
engineering are ushering the world into an unknown future. Our civilisation is now capable of genetically creating designer babies and hybrid human beings. It is capable of destroying itself.
The writer believes that the Bible is giving us a clear prophetic warning that humanity is heading to destruction just as in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. As the people in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot rejected God’s righteousness and walked in their own fleshy lifestyle, so will be the people of today. ‘As it was; even so will it be’.