A comparison between the mentality and the behavior of the people and the state of the world before the Flood and that of the people in our days is particularly instructive. To be sure, human wickedness is not a new phenomenon. Look at the parallels between their time and ours.

 “The sins that called for vengeance upon the antediluvian world exist today. The fear of God is banished from the hearts of men, and His law is treated with indifference and contempt. The intense worldliness of that generation is equaled by that of the generation now living ... God did not condemn the antediluvians for eating and drinking ... Their sin consisted in taking these gifts without gratitude to the Giver, and debasing themselves by indulging appetite without restraint. It was lawful for them to marry. Marriage was in God´s order; it was one of the first institutions which He established. He gave special directions concerning this ordinance, clothing it with sanctity and beauty; but these directions were forgotten, and marriage was perverted and made to minister to passion. A similar condition of things exists now. That which is lawful in itself is carried to excess ... Fraud and bribery and theft stalk unrebuked in high places and in low. The issues of the press teem with records of murder ... The spirit of anarchy is permeating all nations, and the outbreaks that from time to time excite the horror of the world are but indications of the pent-up fires of passion and lawlessness that, having once escaped control, will fill the earth with woe and desolation. The picture which Inspiration has given of the antediluvian world represents too truly the condition to which modern society is fast hastening. Even now, in the present century, and in professedly Christian lands, there are crimes daily perpetrated as black and terrible as those for which the old-world sinners were destroyed.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 101, 102.

 1. What are the common characteristics of the pre-Flood society and ours? What do these common characteristics teach us about God’s grace that despite all this, He loves the world and is, still, seeking to save whom He can?
 2. Some people argue that Noah’s flood was only a local event. What is wrong with that idea? If this were true, why would every local flood (and every rainbow) make God a liar?