The Results of the Fall
God's salvation of Noah and his family by His grace because of their faithful blood sacrifices symbolized the fact that God will never allow the light of faith that He has put into every human to ever go completely out. Romans 12:3. In addition, the fact that God had Noah build an Ark to lift his family above the waters of the flood symbolized the fact that God will never allow the living souls and spirits of all humans saved by His grace to ever go to any of the regions of the dead following their physical deaths. Genesis 6:8-9.
The earth's oceans and seas symbolize God's creation of the Sea of forgetfulness which is one of the regions of the spiritual dead. The volcanoes and lava of the earth symbolize the region of death called Hell. The center of the earth, which is bottomless, symbolizes that region of spiritual death called Death which God probably unwittingly and accidentally created when He created the universe. Revelation 20:13; Isaiah 45:7. God consigns the souls and spirits of all humans not saved by grace to one of these regions of the dead following their physical deaths according to how they lived. Hebrews 9:27.
After God saved Noah and his family from the flood, God had Noah offer a new kind of sacrifice, the burnt offering. Genesis 8:20. Noah had to also offer the blood sacrifice before the burnt offering, but God had to have desired a burnt offering for a reason. All through the Old Testament, the burnt offering symbolizes the fact that in the end of the world, God will save the living souls and spirits of all humans confined within the regions of the dead by the use of His consuming fire which constitutes His wrath against sin and evil, not living humans. Deuteronomy 32:22; Deuteronomy 4:24; Numbers 31:23; Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 6:8-13. The fire on the altar that never goes out symbolized the lake of fire that forever separates the spiritual deaths of all humans not saved by grace from their good lives that God will recover for Him to recreate. Leviticus 9:6-7; Leviticus 5:10; Leviticus 16:24; I Corinthians 3:11-15; I John 3:8. Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil which equals evil and spiritual death, not living humans whom He created and loves. Luke 20:38.
The covenant that God made with Noah consisted of two parts. The first was that the burnt offering should follow the blood sacrifice to symbolize God's salvation of all living humans confined within the regions of the dead. Jesus accomplished this salvation when His Spirit descended into Hell. Jesus had to have done this because He had to have left behind in Hell all of the sins and evil of all humanity not saved by grace that He bore through His passion, but He rose immaculate from the dead. In other words, God used His consuming fire to separate forever His living humans from their spiritual deaths. The second part of the covenant was that humans in the future should establish governments with the power to keep a check on the evil actions of humans. Genesis 8:21; Genesis 9:6.
God's covenant with Noah also provided him and all humanity with two promises. God removed the curse that He had put on the ground from having any more evil effect on humans. Genesis 8:21. The pre-Adamic race inherited evil from Cain, and they had also absorbed evil from the cursed ground because Cain had taught them to grow food. This condition meant that the evil within the pre-Adamic race could not be their fault. They had become overwhelmed by evil. This condition meant that God had to "smite;" that is, kill the living bodies of these humans soaked in evil even though that evil was not their fault. God's decision caused Him great anguish because He had to kill something that He had created. Genesis 8:21; Genesis 6:6-7. God set His rainbow in the clouds to promise humanity that He would never again destroy all living systems with a flood. God does not anguish over killing humans who deliberately practice evil.
Nevertheless, God also provided for the salvation of the living spirits and inherited souls of the pre-Adamic race when He consigned their lives, still stained by sin, to the bottomless pit. When Jesus' Spirit descended into Hell, He came and preached the gospel to them that if they repented and believed in Him, He would wash away their sins with the water He shed on the cross. They all believed and He saved them. No doubt, God also resurrected them and created new, righteous bodies for them. Genesis 8:21; I Peter 3:18-19.
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