Problem: This passage states that Shem will be blessed by God. Christian apologists often argue that God would bring the Messiah through the Semitic peoples (e.g. Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Arabians, etc.). Is this the case?
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Problem: Genesis records,
[Noah] drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers.”
Some interpreters claim that this refers to Ham raping his father. In fact, as early as the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish interpreters held that Ham either raped his father or castrated him (Sanhedrin, 70a). Modern scholars like Hermann Gunkel, Gerhard von Rad, Robert Gagnon, and Martti Nissinen have also held to this view. Is this the case?
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Problem: Critics point out that rainbows have been around since precipitation occurred in the early Earth. However, this passage seems to imply that God created rainbows after the Flood. Which is true?
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Problem: This passage states that “God remembered Noah…” However, the Bible also teaches that God is omniscient (Ps. 147:5; Heb. 4:13). Why would an omniscient Being need to remember something?
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Problem: Have all people sinned or not? The Bible seems to suggest that some people never sinned. So, what is the answer?
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Problem: How many kinds did Noah bring into the ark, two or seven?
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Problem: Does the Lord change or not? God does not change His nature. But he does change in how he deals with people. They are different categories of change and present no contradiction.
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Problem: In Genesis 6:6, we read, “The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” Boyd writes, “If the future is eternally settled in God’s mind and/or by God’s will, it is challenging to see how God could genuinely regret some of his decisions in light of how events played themselves out (Gen. 6:6–7; 1 Sam. 15:11, 35). How can you regret something that turns out exactly as you eternally knew it would?”[1]
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Problem: The description of the nephilim has plagued students of the Bible for centuries. Who or what were the nephilim?
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Problem: Who were the “sons of God” in Genesis 6? Genesis 6 is a cryptic passage of Scripture which precedes the historical account of the worldwide Flood. The event of Genesis 6:2-5 was one of the primary factors contributing to the wickedness before the Flood. Moses wrote that the “sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose,” (Gen 6:2). The offspring from this union became a race called the Nephilim.
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Problem: The Bible teaches that humans only live for 120 years. However, recent people have stepped forward, claiming to be over 120 years old. In fact, the text claims that Noah himself lived another 350 years after the Flood, as did many of his descendants (see Gen. 11). What should we make of this claim?
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Problem: Did anyone ascend into heaven before Jesus or not? Several biblical passages mention people who were caught up into heaven. Yet, Jesus argues in John three that no one had ascended into heaven. So which is it? Did anyone ascend into heaven before Jesus?
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Problem: Genesis states that Adam lived for 930 years. Is this really feasible?
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Problem: Did people really live hundreds of years according to Genesis? Yes, they did. But, why?
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Problem: Where did Cain get his wife? Cain got his wife by marrying one of his sisters. Shortly after the time of creation, human genetics was pure. Inbreeding would not have any problems. So, Cain married one of his sisters. This may sound foreign to the modern ear, but it wasn’t back then.
In Genesis 4:16-17 it says,
“Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 17 And Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.”
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