His story has attracted sneers from scoffers, launched a thousand archaeological expeditions in the Middle East and enriched the coffers of movie-making moguls in Hollywood. Noah occupies a unique place in Scripture. He and his family survived the first global judgment by God on a catastrophic scale. He is here with us today to throw more light on that epic drama.
Shepherd Heart: We are glad to have you with us Sir.
Noah: The pleasure is mine.
Shepherd Heart: Yours is a story the world cannot ignore. Some may doubt its authenticity and dismiss it as a myth, others may use it as their ticket to fame through movie portrayals. This ambivalence is a pointer to the fact that the possibility that it could be true is unnerving to the world. If your story is true, it destroys the argument of the Atheists that God does not exist. Would it be right for us to say that shooting down your story is part of satan’s ploy to destroy the testimony of the church?
Noah: Jesus Christ said in Mathew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured a violent assault, and violent men seize it by force (as a precious prize – a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion)”. Whatever grounds satan has captured has been conceded by the church. When satan is able to mobilize church leaders to discredit the Bible, how can you convince the Atheists that it is the immutable word of God and that somebody called Noah actually walked this earth and survived the flood?
Shepherd Heart: We totally agree with you Sir. There are things happening in Christendom that boggle the mind. In my teenage years, I thought that the countries mentioned in the Bible were in heaven. That was the measure of my ignorance about the things of God. The flip side of this was that I was 100% sure that God authored the Bible. Never in my wildest imagination would I have believed that a time would come that even “men of God” would call God a liar by rejecting Scriptures that do not align with their narratives. Sir, where do you think the church derailed?
Noah: There is always a tendency for people to focus more on the symptoms of a disease and ignore the real problem. Pentecost is the birthday of the church. Do you remember what Jesus said about the net that was cast into the sea, which gathered fish of every kind? That is in Mathew 13:47. The same picture was captured in the parable of the wheat and tares in verses 24 t0 30 of the same chapter. If you have a Bible, let us read verses 24 to 30 together, “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced crop, then the tares also appeared.
So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this. The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn”. Do you now understand why I said that whatever victory is enjoyed by satan is conceded to him by the church?
Shepherd Heart: Something struck me in the verses we read. It is the phrase, “while men slept”. Has the church slept its way into apostasy?
Noah: God conceived the church as an army to destroy the kingdom of darkness and save souls. It was not intended to be a place for jamboree. It was not meant to be a vehicle for self-actualisation and other humanistic ideals. I would like us to read Ephesians 3:10: “(The purpose is) that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere”. This is why Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 6:3 that the church will judge angels. It should be clear that he was referring to fallen angels.
I would say that the church has been negligent to the point of suicide. Who sleeps in an active warfront? More than that, who willingly welcomes a robber into his apartment? That is what the church has done right from the first century. It is necessary that the gospel should be preached to the entire world. That was Jesus’ command as recorded in Mathew 28:19 and John 15:16. It is also expected that the net of the gospel cast into the world would catch all sorts of fish. The church should have prepared for that. Instead, it allowed itself to be lulled into a false sense of security in its doctrines and traditions of men. Most importantly, the church rejected the help of the Holy Spirit in favour of products of Bible Schools and Seminaries.
Shepherd Heart: Whenever I encounter a challenge, I put my mind to work to think of the many ways the problem could be solved. I do not believe that Christians have the capacity to address the scale and intensity of the apostasy in the church right now. Do you have any heavenly perspective on how the church can fulfil its mandate to disciple the nations despite its prevailing handicaps?
Noah: Repentance is the key to reforming the church. Jesus said to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5, “But I have this (one charge to make) against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first (you have deserted Me, your first love. Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent (change the inner man to meet God’s will) and do the works you did previously (when first you knew the Lord), or else I will visit you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you change your mind and repent”.
There is nothing anyone can do for a backslidden church except it repents. Even the Lord did not try to reform the backslidden church in Ephesus. He threatened to remove its candle (light), which is the Holy Spirit except the church repented of its sin. It is not surprising that satan has fought tooth and nail to remove the word “repentance” from the lips of most modern preachers. Some of them peddle outright blasphemies against the person of God by insisting that all roads lead to heaven. When you identify with Christ and yet propagate the falsehood that God is too loving to judge the world, you have crossed the line into blasphemy.
Shepherd Heart: What form would the repentance take before it is acceptable to God?
Noah: Paul was right when he said that godly sorrow leads to repentance. Is the church even aware that it has deviated from the right path? Why did Peter speaking by the Holy Spirit warn that judgment would begin in the church as recorded in 1 Peter 4:17?” Nothing takes God by surprise. Jesus Christ knew that in the process of evangelising the world, wolves in sheep clothing will infiltrate the church. He knew that an enemy would creep in and sow tares among His wheat, taking advantage of the lack of discernment by the church. Heaven prepared for all eventualities because God created time and is in control of it.
You know that He desires that all men should be saved as recorded in 1 Timothy 2:4. But He is also just. And His judgment is just. The fact that some people who were invited to the banquet of the king ignored his invitation did not stop him from hosting other guests. Remember that Jesus was not trying to entertain the Jews with His parables. He was communicating the mind of God to them in stories they can relate with. Let us read the story in Luke 14:16-24: “But Jesus said to him, ‘A man was once giving a great supper and invited many; And at the hour for the supper he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for all is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses and to beg off. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I have to go out and see it; I beg you, have me excused. And another said.
I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine and put my approval on them; I beg, have me excused. And another said. ‘I have married a wife, and because of this, I am unable to come’. So the servant came and reported these (answers) to his master. Then the master of the house said in wrath to his servant, ‘Go quickly into the great streets and the small streets of the city and bring in here the poor and the disabled and the blind and the lame. And the servant (returning) said, ‘Sir, what you have commanded me to do has been done, and yet there is room’. Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and urge and constrain (them) to yield and come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall taste my supper”.
Shepherd Heart: Thanks for your profound insight Sir. How can the church regain lost grounds?
Noah: Christians must stop trying to reveal God or make Him real through unnecessary arguments with unbelievers. Why should they join issues with the people who are contesting the validity of the stories recorded in the Bible, including mine? Only God can make Himself known. Christians should focus on preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the only avenue through which the Holy Spirit can convict men of their sin and bring them into a relationship with God. Remember that Jesus said in John 6:44 that no one can come to Him except the person is drawn by the Father through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit.
The church is engaging in too much doctrinal arguments instead of yielding to the Holy Spirit to make God real in the lives of men. The church can never play the role of the Holy Spirit. The church must be empowered by the Holy Spirit for it to be an effective witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When I say the ‘church’, I am referring to the people of God; not their Cathedrals or other physical spaces. Each member of the body of Christ is important and has something beautiful to add to the growth of the church.
Church leaders also have their specific roles to play, but this does not detract from the importance God attaches to each of His children. Zechariah 10:1 says, Ask ye of the LORD rain in the latter season, and the LORD will make snows, and will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field”. Did you catch that? Every one grass in the field. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is for the benefit of every child of God. Ephesians 1:13 declares that the Holy Spirit is the seal of the redemption Christ secured for humanity. That is why Paul asserts in Romans 8:9 that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. Paul equally explains in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God’s Spirit. Such people really do not understand them, they are nonsense to them, because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis”.
Shepherd Heart: Personally, I align with your viewpoint Sir. But there is a school of thought in the church that cautions against relying on the operations of the Holy Spirit. Proponents argue that allowing the kind of manifestations of the Spirit’s power witnessed in the early church could open Christians to infestations by demons. What are your thoughts on this Sir?
Noah: Virtually all currencies of the world have been counterfeited by criminals. Has this prompted the respective authorities to withdraw them from circulation? Satan thrives on counterfeiting of the operations of the Holy Spirit. No one can stop him from being the devil until God closes his chapter at the end of time. In 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Paul charged believers not to quench the Spirit. Do you know why he did that? Because even at that time some Christians were already misusing their spiritual gifts and others were wary about such manifestations.
God is bigger than you can ever grasp with your finite mind. He knows more about the capacity of the devil for mischief than the devil himself. Quenching the Holy Spirit has been the greatest mistake the church has made over time. God is able to restrain the enemy from scuttling His eternal purposes through the church. Just trust in His providence and allow the Holy Spirit to have a free reign in the church. In order for the church to succeed in this respect, there should be accountability down the line of the hierarchy in the church. Stop idolising pastors and other ministers. Let every Christian focus on the word of God and satan would have a hard time penetrating the church to propagate doctrines of devils.
Shepherd Heart: We are grateful for your word of wisdom. We pray that our Christian readers would take these things to heart and stop playing church. We thank you for your time Sir.
Noah: I have enjoyed the chat with you. Be encouraged to know that the great crowd of witnesses in heaven is rooting for you.
Shepherd Heart: We are glad to hear that Sir.