I ran across YouTube video the other day showing a visit to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky.
The person on the video describes the Ark Encounter as a “recreation of a fictional Bible story”. So, you know his perspective right from the jump.
He is next shown interviewing a couple asking them to confirm what he is reading on the sign in front of him stating that Noah was 600-years old when he built it.
His question is simple: “How was Noah able to live that long when we’re barely able to live to 100 nowadays?” An honest answer is given by a woman standing by, but his feigned fascination continues as he says, “It really is a truly unbelievable story, that should not be believed.”
And that’s the point of the video. Don’t believe the biblical story about Noah and his ark, because it’s unbelievable.
The interesting thing about the video is that it’s set up as if it’s coming from a very reasonable person who just wants the best for others. And, honestly, that could very well be the truth. I don’t know this guy. His motivation could be that pure.
So, being that that may be the case, my intention with this short article is not to poke holes in his motivation for the video; instead, I’d like to push back against the idea he sets forth about believing unbelievable things.
Christians are in a peculiar spot here. In one sense, the guy in the video is not that far off from what we actually think. It does seem unbelievable that 1) Noah lived hundreds of years, and 2) he built an ark that held his family, countless animals, and survived a worldwide flood. The amazing this is—and, here, this might be news to the gentleman in the YouTube video—this isn’t the most unbelievable thing we believe.
You see, Christians all over the world believe a person born in the first-century went around teaching and preaching about the Kingdom of God. This person ate with the outcasts, argued with religious experts and zealots, got his hands dirty helping the poor, and healed many, many people—driving out demons, giving sight to the blind, and once bringing a friend back from the dead.
On one occasion he went to a wedding and, after they had run out of wine, he even turned something like 150-gallons of water into wine. Then some time later, as he was traveling around, a large group of people (probably somewhere around 10,000 to 12,000) were following him. Because they had been with him so long, he couldn’t just send them home, because they were hungry—they wouldn’t make it. So, he fed all of them with food that wouldn’t have been enough to feed 10 people. And, more than that, he did it again—but, this time feeding closer to 8,000 or 10,000 folks.
Christians also believe this person was so locked in to the storyline of the Hebrew Scriptures (where that pesky Noah’s ark story is found) that he was claiming to be the fulfillment of everything it was pointing to. He even climbed up a small mountain to explain to those who were following him how he was offering a fresh and life-giving interpretation of the Old Covenant. Not stopping there, he actually claimed to be ushering in the New Covenant—that same New Covenant written about in Jeremiah 31.
This person invited people to follow him and he called them his disciples. Specifically, he picked 12 and did this intentionally to show those around him that something new was happening that took its cues from the Israelite tribes of old. These 12 disciples were then tasked with following their teacher so that they could do what he did. In fact, he told them that they would do even greater things than he did.
Not only that, but Christians for over 2,000-years have believed that this first-century, itinerant, miracle working, preacher was crucified by the Roman government under trumped up charges brought about by the religious leaders of his day. They believe that he was nailed to a cross and died as a lot of his followers abandoned him.
Lastly, and most unbelievably of all, Christians believe that this person who had died and was placed in a tomb for several days, was not found one early morning because he had risen from the dead. They don’t believe his body was stolen; they believe that he was once dead and then he was alive again, never to die—forever. We actually go so far as to believe that this dying and rising from the dead is the foundation for everything else we believe. If this didn’t happen, if Jesus didn’t actually rise from the dead, if he isn’t really alive right now, then our faith is in vain and we are, of all people, most to be pitied.
Christians have spent their lives believing unbelievable things.
And, to be honest, a 600-year-old Noah building an ark, doesn’t even come close to being one of the more unbelievable things we believe.