In the Beginning was the End, Part 4

Resound Missions Base Podcast with Leah Ramirez

I. JUST AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH…

Matthew 24

36"But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

A. We’ve covered this in brief during our Matthew 24 overview. Jesus is detailing the tribulation and persecution and many of the deceptions that will be coming on the earth in the last days. He then points us to a very particular time in history: The days of Noah.

B. The days of Noah were remarkable. We know that whatever was happening in the earth in those days was significant enough to warrant a flood. God was literally cleansing the earth! This is no children’s story. This is a mass genocide of the highest order. Just because we’ve turned it into felt cut-outs for Sunday school, and made paper maché boats, doesn’t make this story suitable for nursery rhymes. This was violent!

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. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 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.

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. 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.

C. Why did the Lord send the flood? Because He’s good! Because He’s good!

D. When we started this series I talked a lot about DNA. This battle between heaven and hell has been, and will be, fought out through genetics.

Genesis 3

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

E. This is all about the SEED. The seed of God verses the seed of the snake, that nachash. The plan of God would come through the woman! Do you see this! At the very beginning, in what we would call the “Fall of Man,” is the first preaching of the Gospel, if you will.

In Christian theology, the Protevangelium is God's statement to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden about how the Seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head:

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15, KJV)

F. So, Noah was found “perfect” in his generation. This speaks to the purity of bloodline issue. Ever wonder why there seem to be endless genealogies in the Bible? This answers that question once and for all. The devil would seek to destroy the plan of salvation by corrupting the “Seed of the woman.” More on this in future weeks!

II. SO WILL BE THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN

A. Jesus refers to Himself by one title more than any other, and considering who He is as King of all kings, Lord of all lords, Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Captain of the Hosts, the I AM, the Son of God… and yet his preferred title as the “Son of Man” is humble to be sure. It appears 81 times throughout the Gospels. But is it something else? Is it a prophetic key? Is it a holy boundary? More on this in later weeks!

B. The “days of Noah” were about a corruption of DNA. The flood was God’s loving response toward saving man. There was something else… some “enhancement”… something that had been added to man that God would not redeem. Jesus was THE plan to save humanity. He was the plan from before the foundation of the world. Is it possible that there is some future enhancement, some future alteration that would altar us so utterly that we would no longer be considered fully human?

C. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He sent the flood as a mercy, the wiping out of entire populations that we see all through the Old Testament by the command of God was a mercy, and I believe the coming judgment recorded for us in the New Testament is also mercy. There is something unfolding in our day that has been impossible since the days of the flood. It’s the same story line we see in Genesis 6, but this time the world will not be washed clean with water, it will be purified with fire. (2 Peter 3:11)

III. WATER THEN FIRE

Matthew 3

11“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

A. We often think of John as the “baptizer.” And he was! But John came to baptize with water. Jesus comes with another baptism: the Holy Spirit and fire. We need to know this Man. We need to regard His baptism.

2 Peter 3

1This 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, 2that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4They 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.” 5For 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, 6and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7But 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.

8But 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. 9The 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. 10But 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.

IV. THE MARK OF THE BEAST

A. Many people talk about the New Testament God as being somehow different from our Old Testament texts. I disagree. Our God, even Jesus, is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8)! He has not changed. The cross didn’t change or nullify anything in Jesus, the cross changes us!

B. What was unredeemable in the OT, is also unredeemable in the New Testament. We know a couple of things about whatever this New Testament marker will be like from the texts in the Book of the Revelation.

Revelation 13

16Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

C. This mark, otherwise known as the “mark of the beast,” is completely and utterly linked to commerce. If we do not take the mark, we will not be able to buy or sell. That means no provision to feed your families. This is extreme. So if you take this mark, you will be able to buy and sell. BUT….

Revelation 14

9And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

12Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

D. If you take this mark, you may be able to buy and sell…but you won’t be able to be redeemed. There is a story that caught my eye last year when I was teaching Bible to Judah and Juniah. It’s another early story in Genesis that I think deals more with end-times than maybe we have understood.

Genesis 25

29Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.e) 31Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

E. Esau is utterly consumed with the moment. He had no regard for anything future. This disregard is the equal to a “despising” of his birthright! He despised it by not regarding it.

Hebrews 12

15See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

F. This story is an end-time story. We don’t want to despise our birthright for a bowl of soup! We don’t want to lose sight of the age to come… our inheritance in Christ! All our tears will amount to nothing if we disregard Jesus. Through Him we have been given the “right to become sons.”

John 1

11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

V. WHERE ARE WE IN THIS PROPHETIC COUNTDOWN?

A. We are told that the day of Jesus’s return to the earth will be like the “days of Noah.” Last week we talked in depth about what Genesis 6, along with 3 other historical, extra-biblical, parallel texts said about this same time period. We talked at length about the Nephalim, and the hybridization of human DNA, namely the female egg crossed with the seed of fallen angels.

B. We talked in depth about the corruption of “all flesh,” from human DNA corruption, to animal hybrids, and even GMOs in agriculture. “All flesh” was corrupt. In God’s mercy He sent the flood.

C. For the first time since the flood, we are crossing over the precipice once again. With the emergence of Transhumanism, Human+, Human 2.0, Supersoldiers, Chimera’s (human/animal hybrids), GMO’s, we are on the fast track to a place we’ve been before. Are we sure we want to cross this line?

Many ACHM models, such as transgenic rodents each containing one (or a few) human genes, and animals with human tissue grafts, have a long history of research use without major ethical or regulatory difficulties. However, technologies are advancing rapidly; more extensive sections of DNA can be manipulated, and methods using human stem cells to replace parts of tissue, or even whole organs, are becoming increasingly refined. By enabling progressively more extensive, and precise, substitution of human material in animals, these approaches may soon enable us to modify animals to an extent that might challenge social, ethical, or regulatory boundaries. Based on the evidence we received, the published literature, our public dialogue, and our own discussions, we identified areas which might merit special consideration, including:

· Extensive modification of the brain ofan animal, by implantation of human- derived cells, which might result in altered cognitive capacity approaching human ‘consciousness’ or ‘sentience’ or ‘human- like’ behavioural capabilities.

· Situations where functional human gametes (eggs, sperm) might develop from precursor cell-types in an animal; and where fertilisation between either human (or human-derived) gametes and animal gametes might then occur.

· Cellular or genetic modifications which could result in animals with aspects of human-like appearance (skin type, limb or facial structure) or characteristics, such as speech.

(Taken from the website of The Academy of of Medical Sciences, out of London, England,

the USA’s equivalent of the FDA)

VIDEO LINKS:

Transhumanism: Tom Horn on the Sid Roth Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_DZdIHkjdg

Crispr-CAS9:

https://www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/life-science/genome-editing/geneart-crispr.html