The Antediluvian and Postdiluvian World
The Antediluvian World
According to Scripture, the world before the Global Flood (Genesis 6-9) had just come out of the curse placed on the earth when Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the perfect Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). You can read that the ground was cursed in chapter 3 and that Adam was going to have a rough time tilling and planting in the ground. Not only that, but thorns and thistles were going to hinder his progress in growing food. What does this indicate? Maybe the world was better before the fall? Check out Genesis 1:31 and see if God was happy and satisfied with His original creation. He said it was "VERY GOOD!" Very good to God had to mean perfect. So, the world remained perfect before it was destroyed by the Global Flood approximately 1656 years later? The language used in Genesis 6-9 clearly demonstrates total devastation (cataclysmic) of the world. No, the world was not perfect after the Fall of Man in Genesis 3. I like to call it semi-perfect. There were a lot of preexisting conditions of the perfect Garden of Eden and the rest of the world that God, in His graciousness must have maintained so that the world could have remained in a near perfect state. How could mankind live as long as he did (average 912 years before the Flood leaving out Enoch) according to the genealogies in Genesis without near-perfect conditions?
Before the Flood, mankind must have been very intelligent as well as long-lived. They were able to have many offspring and that would have added to technological advancement. There was the distinct possibility that many scientific discoveries were made and that the world could have advanced technologically to a point that we can only imagine. They could have been advanced enough to have gone past us today, we cannot be absolutely sure of that, or they could have been advanced enough to have been close to us today. On thing for certain is that the world was full of violence (Genesis 6:11). That sounds like to me like they had some serious weapons available - some like today? It is and has been a part of the corrupt human nature to fight and make war - even from the beginning (Scripture and world history is replete with examples).
Maybe there were many other developments of significance than warfare in the antediluvian world. See the genealogy in Genesis 4 for a listing of the accomplishments of the lineage of Cain (remember, he killed Abel?). Sounds like an unrighteous lineage like I was discussing under the page of this website titled "Biblical Overview of Origins." That is true. The unrighteous discovered many of the methods of advancing civilization and must have been quite advanced technologically. There is some discussion about the righteous lineages doing the same.
The Postdiluvian World
In this section I previously mentioned that the Global Flood was cataclysmic and the earth was totally devastated. Mankind was wiped out along with animals and the world itself was destroyed (keep checking Genesis 6-9). Only Noah and seven others along with 2 of every kind of animal (not species - kind) were allowed on the ark to be saved from the destruction. See the page "We Need to Clear Up the Word Species."
Since the world was devastated by the Global Flood, it should stand to reason that Noah, his wife and three sons and their wives may not have been able to have fully used the technology they had experienced antediluvian. This could have included their descendants as well. The world took a step backward and only recently in the last 600 years or so have we advanced significantly.
Rene Noorbergen, in his excellent book "Secrets of the Lost Races", poses a series of questions on the inside flap in the front of his book. Here are the questions (quoted as a brief passage as a reviewer with permission):
* Did "they" really visit us in ancient times?
* Is our technology a mere shadow of what "they" once taught us?
* Are "they" perhaps still in communication with our civilization, or have "they" abandoned us---forever?
* Is it possible that the unidentified ancient artifacts attesting to a super-technological society belong to our own historical development?
* Can it be that we have regressed instead of evolved? Have we lost more that we have gained?
* Are we now again approaching the level of advancement and sophistication that led to a historical downfall of the human race?
Who are "they"? The "they"'s Mr. Noorbergen is referring to in his book "Secrets of the Lost Races", are those aliens that came from another world that many would have you believe really exist. This is all fantasy and hypothetical nonsense. Mr. Noorbergen explains this as a story contrived by the imaginations of those who try to substitute fantasy into history. Those that choose to study the Scriptures soon discover that this was impossible. Secular man has a real problem believing ancient man was advanced. Mr. Noorbergen's book explores many documents and discoveries that shed some light on the possibility that ancient man was a lot farther advanced than we have been led to believe.
He is not the only author that thinks this way. There appears to be a good amount of evidence supporting ancient man not only being more advanced, but possibility more intelligent and more robust than we are today. Check back again to the "Age Chart - Adam to Joseph" and view what the Bible says about the long life spans of the antediluvian people in the genealogies of Genesis. The average life spans recorded in the lineages is around 912 years and anyone that can live that long has to be healthy with many good productive years and could have had many children.
Reference Books:
Chittick, Donald E, The Puzzle of Ancient Man, Newberg, Oregon, Creation Compass: Second Edition, 1998.
Burney, Gerry, Science, Origins & Ancient Civilizations, Calif.: www.xulonpress.com, 2009
Noorbergen, Rene, Secrets of the Lost Races, Brushton, NY: Teach Services Inc., 2001.
Don Landis with Jackson Hole Bible College: The Genius of Ancient Man, Master Books, 2012
Don Landis with Jackson Hole Bible College: The Secrets of Ancient Man, Master Books, 2015
Websites for Additional Reerences:
Answers in Genesis
Creation Ministries International
Hebrew for Christians
Institute for Creation Research
The Antediluvian World
According to Scripture, the world before the Global Flood (Genesis 6-9) had just come out of the curse placed on the earth when Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the perfect Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). You can read that the ground was cursed in chapter 3 and that Adam was going to have a rough time tilling and planting in the ground. Not only that, but thorns and thistles were going to hinder his progress in growing food. What does this indicate? Maybe the world was better before the fall? Check out Genesis 1:31 and see if God was happy and satisfied with His original creation. He said it was "VERY GOOD!" Very good to God had to mean perfect. So, the world remained perfect before it was destroyed by the Global Flood approximately 1656 years later? The language used in Genesis 6-9 clearly demonstrates total devastation (cataclysmic) of the world. No, the world was not perfect after the Fall of Man in Genesis 3. I like to call it semi-perfect. There were a lot of preexisting conditions of the perfect Garden of Eden and the rest of the world that God, in His graciousness must have maintained so that the world could have remained in a near perfect state. How could mankind live as long as he did (average 912 years before the Flood leaving out Enoch) according to the genealogies in Genesis without near-perfect conditions?
Before the Flood, mankind must have been very intelligent as well as long-lived. They were able to have many offspring and that would have added to technological advancement. There was the distinct possibility that many scientific discoveries were made and that the world could have advanced technologically to a point that we can only imagine. They could have been advanced enough to have gone past us today, we cannot be absolutely sure of that, or they could have been advanced enough to have been close to us today. On thing for certain is that the world was full of violence (Genesis 6:11). That sounds like to me like they had some serious weapons available - some like today? It is and has been a part of the corrupt human nature to fight and make war - even from the beginning (Scripture and world history is replete with examples).
Maybe there were many other developments of significance than warfare in the antediluvian world. See the genealogy in Genesis 4 for a listing of the accomplishments of the lineage of Cain (remember, he killed Abel?). Sounds like an unrighteous lineage like I was discussing under the page of this website titled "Biblical Overview of Origins." That is true. The unrighteous discovered many of the methods of advancing civilization and must have been quite advanced technologically. There is some discussion about the righteous lineages doing the same.
The Postdiluvian World
In this section I previously mentioned that the Global Flood was cataclysmic and the earth was totally devastated. Mankind was wiped out along with animals and the world itself was destroyed (keep checking Genesis 6-9). Only Noah and seven others along with 2 of every kind of animal (not species - kind) were allowed on the ark to be saved from the destruction. See the page "We Need to Clear Up the Word Species."
Since the world was devastated by the Global Flood, it should stand to reason that Noah, his wife and three sons and their wives may not have been able to have fully used the technology they had experienced antediluvian. This could have included their descendants as well. The world took a step backward and only recently in the last 600 years or so have we advanced significantly.
Rene Noorbergen, in his excellent book "Secrets of the Lost Races", poses a series of questions on the inside flap in the front of his book. Here are the questions (quoted as a brief passage as a reviewer with permission):
* Did "they" really visit us in ancient times?
* Is our technology a mere shadow of what "they" once taught us?
* Are "they" perhaps still in communication with our civilization, or have "they" abandoned us---forever?
* Is it possible that the unidentified ancient artifacts attesting to a super-technological society belong to our own historical development?
* Can it be that we have regressed instead of evolved? Have we lost more that we have gained?
* Are we now again approaching the level of advancement and sophistication that led to a historical downfall of the human race?
Who are "they"? The "they"'s Mr. Noorbergen is referring to in his book "Secrets of the Lost Races", are those aliens that came from another world that many would have you believe really exist. This is all fantasy and hypothetical nonsense. Mr. Noorbergen explains this as a story contrived by the imaginations of those who try to substitute fantasy into history. Those that choose to study the Scriptures soon discover that this was impossible. Secular man has a real problem believing ancient man was advanced. Mr. Noorbergen's book explores many documents and discoveries that shed some light on the possibility that ancient man was a lot farther advanced than we have been led to believe.
He is not the only author that thinks this way. There appears to be a good amount of evidence supporting ancient man not only being more advanced, but possibility more intelligent and more robust than we are today. Check back again to the "Age Chart - Adam to Joseph" and view what the Bible says about the long life spans of the antediluvian people in the genealogies of Genesis. The average life spans recorded in the lineages is around 912 years and anyone that can live that long has to be healthy with many good productive years and could have had many children.
Reference Books:
Chittick, Donald E, The Puzzle of Ancient Man, Newberg, Oregon, Creation Compass: Second Edition, 1998.
Burney, Gerry, Science, Origins & Ancient Civilizations, Calif.: www.xulonpress.com, 2009
Noorbergen, Rene, Secrets of the Lost Races, Brushton, NY: Teach Services Inc., 2001.
Don Landis with Jackson Hole Bible College: The Genius of Ancient Man, Master Books, 2012
Don Landis with Jackson Hole Bible College: The Secrets of Ancient Man, Master Books, 2015
Websites for Additional Reerences:
Answers in Genesis
Creation Ministries International
Hebrew for Christians
Institute for Creation Research