Was God Cruel to Wipe Out the World with a Flood?

Well, here’s the big problem: Why is wiping out millions of people wrong? The answer I usually get to that question is “because of course it is!” And yes, nearly everyone would agree that you or I wiping out millions of people would be wrong, but that doesn’t explain why it’s wrong. Just saying something is wrong doesn’t make it wrong; what if I have a different opinion? Who gets to be right? You need an absolute authority to appeal to, but an atheist doesn’t have one.

Apart from the absolutes of the Bible, given to us by the Creator God, there is no foundation to say that murder is wrong.

Someone who rejects the truth of the Bible doesn’t have a consistent foundation on which to stand to say that killing anyone is wrong. After all, blue whales wipe out untold billions of helpless krill every single day, and no one bats an eyelash! Why? We intuitively know that a whale swallowing a krill is not the same thing as a human being killing another human being. But if we’re just animals, as the evolutionary worldview teaches, there is no real difference between us and krill and blue whales; we’re all just animals and accidents of evolution.

Apart from the absolutes of the Bible, given to us by the Creator God, there is no foundation to say that murder is wrong. In order to argue that God is unjust to kill people with the Flood, the skeptic must first assume the morality of the Bible . . . and then they’ve defeated their entire argument!

Now, of course, God was not cruel to judge people for their wickedness at the time of the Flood. AiG’s Dr. Tim Chaffey answers that objection further, among other objections, in this video:

Ultimately, atheists aren’t upset that God judged people at the time of the Flood for their sin (they claim they don’t believe God exists or that those pre-Flood people even existed!)—they’re upset that someday God will judge them for their sin. They don’t want to be accountable to God; they want to do whatever they want without consequences. But regardless of what they believe, they will someday stand before God, and He will judge them for their sin. If they have not repented, they will pay for their own sin in hell. But if they turn from their sin and trust in Christ’s sacrificial death on their behalf, they will be saved for all of eternity.

How arrogant of fallible, sinful humans to tell the eternal God what is just and unjust!

Have you trusted in Christ?

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.