The Nuts & Bolts of the Bible Message

Fifth Basic Concept

The two trees in the Garden of Eden Story represent are ability to choose right or wrong, but the story of Noah's Arc tells us what happens when we turn and strive to grow spiritually with GOD as our Teacher. Some additional allegorical concepts are revealed in the document, "The Noah's Ark Concept".

In the fourth basic concept we learned that eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil results in our learning the way to use good relationships for self-serving purposes. As we follow this practice we are developing "life-styles" that represent the way we obtain our purposes for particular situations in the physical reality. As life situations occur that affect us in someway, we always work to get them to meet our desires through the way that results from our following our learned life-styles. Since we have learned the way to form good relationships which we use to form self-serving relationships, we all have good as well as corrupted or evil life-styles in us. In the Old Testament, these life-styles are animals. Each life-style is also in a higher order of development and ready to form lifesyles that are Man-like, as GOD created Man to be. The clean animals are good life-styles that are "clean" from their foundation to the level obtained. A good life-style is ready to form relationships with the individual's other good life-styles to create and maintain higher order good life-styles--Man-like, which can overcome more and greater problems in the correct way that the individual may encounter. Life-styles represented by "unclean" animals are foundationally good but have only been used incorrectly in the past. They have the ability to be redeemed when correct ways to apply them to life situations are found. In their present state, they have only been used for self-serving purposes and are unclean.

Obviously, self-serving life-styles must eventually be destroyed; but everything has a foundation of good at some level of growth. The foundation of all life is the essence of the spiritual reality GOD created, and it is good. This essence is called water--or more correctly spiritual (living) water (Genesis 1:2, John 4:10-11), which is reflected in the physical reality by what we call water.

The Flood represents the rebirth concept. All things that are evil must return to the state where only good exists and begin the spritual growth process again. Noah represents that part within all of us who exists when we recognize the error of our ways and desire to be taught by GOD. This change of purpose within the individual must occur through a freewill choice to save his soul. Then all things he has that can be saved or redeemed is brought into that place of quiet and peace, which is built through prayer (Ark). Everything else must return to the state of spiritual water. The clean animals (life-styles) can be used to form good higher order relationships and entered the ark by sevens, male and his female, while the unclean animals (life-styles) only by two, male and his female. This represents the idea that clean animals have been utilized to form good higher order relationships (life-styles). The unclean animals are redeemable but any higher order relationship (life-style) of which they are a part must be destroyed and not enter the ark. The unclean animals enter the ark without a good defined purpose yet, which will redeem them.

At the end of the story GOD put a rainbow in the sky to represent HIS Promise to not destroy Man by flood (water) again. Consider that after we turn from seeking self-serving purposes our purpose is to learn from GOD; and, therefore, we only have to test each new life-style we create to see if it truly serves GOD's Purpose. If so, we maintain that life-style (live it). If not, we do not maintain that life-style (practice it) anymore, and it dies. This is the test of fire. Essentially, any incorrect life-style is eventually destroyed by "fire" after the soul turns from pursuing self-serving ends.

As each child of GOD learns, many mistakes will be made; and incorrect life-styles will be lived for a time or until they are proven incorrect by time. This fact is illustrated dramatically by several Bible stories--including the Tower of Babel.