“Was Noah’s Ark true?”

Steve Brown:
Was Noah’s Ark true? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. Our host and teacher is Steve Brown. He’s nobody’s guru, but he does have honest answers to hard questions about the Bible. God’s grace changes everything, how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, and worship. Now, here’s Steve and Pete Alwinson from ForgeTruth with street-smart Bible teaching for real life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey, Happy Friday.

Steve Brown:
Happy Friday to you.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, you preaching anywhere Sunday?

Steve Brown:
I don’t think so. We record, are you? You don’t know either.

Pete Alwinson:
No, I’m not. I know I’m not.

Steve Brown:
No, you don’t. You don’t even know when this is going to be aired.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, that’s true.

Steve Brown:
We record these by sitting in the studio, and we’re not sure the dates when they’re aired. And so, it was unfair for Pete to ask me if I was going to be preaching somewhere? I don’t know. But my wife says I always preach. I never stop.

Pete Alwinson:
Amen. Amen.

Steve Brown:
That is Pete Alwinson. Go to ForgeTruth.com a great website, and you’re going to love the podcast that you can listen to there. That’s ForgeTruth.com as you know, Pete comes in on Fridays, and we spend time answering your questions. And we love your questions, and this is a fun time for both of us. You can record your question by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE anytime and just follow instructions, and sometimes we put you on the air. Or you can send your question to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
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in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
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or you can e-mail your question to [email protected] and if you can help us financially, those are places where you could do it. We’ve never turned down a contribution, ever, and we use it for the glory of God.

Pete Alwinson:
Amen.

Steve Brown:
What’s that old story about, should, the elders were debating if somebody gave money they won in the lottery, would they accept it? One of the elders said, it’s tainted. And the other said, taint enough. So, we’ll take it. We’ll accept your contribution and we will use it for the glory of God. And if you can’t, we understand. Do say a prayer for this ministry. Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and then we’ll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
You got it. Father, what a privilege it is to come into the presence of the holy God of the universe. We know that you hear our prayers made in Jesus’ Name. We come in His merit. We come because of what our Lord has accomplished for us, not what we, we bring no righteousness of our own to you. But we thank you for your grace, your mercy. We thank you that you love us and when we sin, you forgive us as we repent. Lord, thank you that you teach us through the trials that we face. And so, in all things, we give you thanks. And we want to pray without ceasing, we want to enjoy you every day. And even right now, at the end of the week, we thank you for your goodness. Lord, this week-end, would you give us the holy rest that we need? Help us to continue to worship you, with your people. Lord, thank you that we get to be a part of your Bride, the Body of Christ. And so, we pray you’d be with our leaders, our pastors, teachers, priests, worship directors, those who are going to sacrifice, take care of our kids while we’re in church. Lord, we pray that you would bless your church and cause your name, Lord Jesus, to extend everywhere on the planet. And now, Lord, thank you that we can ask questions. Thank you that you’re power is such that you continue to teach us through your word. We commit our time of Q&A to you. Drive us deeper and touch our minds as well as our hearts and our lives in Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Hey Pete, this first question is an e-mail question and we addressed it in about 10 seconds at the end of a previous broadcast. And I said we would revisit, so let me give you the question and then you can answer it. Is the account of Noah’s Ark really true? Was it even feasible to get all the animals on a boat?

Pete Alwinson:
So, yes, to the first, is the account of Noah’s Ark really true? We believe it’s true. We don’t believe it’s a mythological statement.

Steve Brown:
And throughout the world, there are stories of a universal flood. In every culture, if you trace it back, there are stories that are similar to the truth that’s told in the Bible.

Pete Alwinson:
Among ancient cultures, they have them. It’s amazing. And so, and then when you just simply read the Bible, it reads not as a mythological story, a fictional story, it reads as true history. And then back in Peter, we see that theology is actually built upon a real historical event.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
And so, there’s New Testament teaching built on an event. And so, the whole Bible sees it as a real event. And Jesus clearly, Luke 24:44, accepted the whole Old Testament. So, we accept it as well.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. Now, You asked if I had gone to the Ark experience.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Have you ever been up there?

Steve Brown:
No, have you?

Pete Alwinson:
No, but some people have said it’s just amazing.

Steve Brown:
They say it’s one big boat.

Pete Alwinson:
It was huge. It had to have been. And so, you know, did every species get on there? I think every species that God wanted on there to continue, it did in some way, shape or form continue.

Steve Brown:
So, yeah, we believe it, and it’s true. All right. That gives it a little bit more answer than we were able to give at the end of that previous broadcast. How does the Holy Spirit convict and work in our lives?

Pete Alwinson:
Yes, I like that question, I really do, because so much of the supernatural, it’s like, I was talking to my wife the other day and I said, Honey, I don’t know how the supernatural works. I just know that it does. You know? And it was kind of like, I don’t know how God hears all of our prayers at the same time, but he does. And he answers prayer, and he builds faith, and the Holy Spirit convicts, and he does it in various ways. Sometimes he does it through you in my life, or the Word of God, or a sermon, or if I need to be encouraged, sometimes he’ll bring somebody along. You know, it’s, it’s amazing.

Steve Brown:
And his, according to Hebrews, he’s a Father.

Pete Alwinson:
He is.

Steve Brown:
And his Spirit, when it convicts, it’s not, you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny. And if you feel that about some sin that somebody’s beat you over, that’s not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a part of the Trinity. And your Father is your God, and he’s gentle, and he’s kind, and he’s clear. And, you know, that happens in my life a lot, and I’ve learned to identify it. There are manipulative people in the world, and you have to be careful of them.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
So, if somebody’s beating you up about something that they can’t give Scripture for, that they can’t talk about historic Orthodox Christianity being clear on that subject, then that may not be the Holy Spirit.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s so important because we do have so many negative manipulators around who use guilt to control us. And there’s always been conmen, conwomen, controllers, and that’s not from your Father.

Steve Brown:
No, it really isn’t.

Pete Alwinson:
Someone said

That a mentor is someone whose shoulder you can lean on, whose brain you can pick, and who will sometimes give you a kick in the rear.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, right.

Pete Alwinson:
And sometimes the Holy Spirit does allow people to give us a kick.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, sure he does.

Pete Alwinson:
And when we need it. But generally he’s a loving Father.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’s love. That’s manifestation. It is love.

Pete Alwinson:
I know. I need to whack upside the head sometimes. I can be pretty hard headed.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. Where did all the religions, beliefs in the world come from? Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Judaism? And why can’t we just get along?

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, boy. The history of man is the history since the Fall. I believe more in devolution than evolution, you know, I mean we have devolved away from the original order of God’s creation of us.

Steve Brown:
And there’s some archeological evidence that that’s true. Go ahead.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, no, it’s just that, so that the original ideas of, and truths of God, were lost early and, but we have a Bible that helps us understand the truth about God. And then the New Testament helps us understand the Old. And people have gone off of that truth and come up with their own.

Steve Brown:
You know, it’s really interesting that universally, people want to worship. It may be, you think, that we were created that way. And that we might worship the wrong God. Everybody worships something.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Who was the singer that?

Pete Alwinson:
Bob Dylan

Steve Brown:
Bob Dylan said that.

Pete Alwinson:
You’ve got to worship somebody.

Steve Brown:
You’ve got to worship something, cause we’re built to worship.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, that’s right.

Steve Brown:
Where did that come from? It came from a God who is to be worshipped. And so, a lot of different religions, when they’re wrong are a manifestation of the creation where God created us for himself and our hearts are restless, as Augustine said.

They find their rest in him.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Why can’t we all get along? Because generally speaking, people are looking for truth and when they think they’ve found it, we can become quite argumentative and combative. And that’s why we are to speak the, as Christians, the New Testament says.

Speak the truth in love.

Steve Brown:
Civility should be a mark of being Christian. Sometimes it’s anger.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And that’s a shame when that happens.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Why does, the question is, why does God say, what does God say about war? How’s that different from murder? And are you a pacifist?

Pete Alwinson:
No. I’m not a pacifist. Do you believe in a just war? That there are some wars that are unavoidable and therefore.

Steve Brown:
I think there are aspects of all war that are awful. I mean, just plain awful. But I think there are some wars that are necessary and thus in Christian theology, just. Because they have to be fought. And the classic example you pick is the Third Reich under the Nazis. Something needed to be done, and it was done, and a lot of people died because of it. And that was a just war. Now, how do you reconcile that, very quickly, with Thou shalt not Kill?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Well, again, there have to be extenuating circumstances to do that. And in a just sense through a state organ.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. And killing

Pete Alwinson:
Romans 13

Steve Brown:
Yeah. There’s a difference between murder and killing.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Life, all life taking is not murder.

Steve Brown:
All right. We’ve got to go. But before we go, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.