Heidelcast 174: As It Was In The Days Of Noah (18): Applying The Analogy To Preaching, Sacraments, Baptism, And Salvation

by Heidelcast on March 8, 2021

The argument of the series is that this is Peter’s over-arching picture or paradigm for the way New Covenant believers are to think about their place in the world and about the return of Christ. There will be no literal 1,000 year golden age on the earth. There will be no secret rapture. Think about the flood and the analogy that our Lord made. The flood was not a secret. It didn’t come in stages. Noah and his family didn’t disappear for seven years during which people had a second chance to believe the gospel. There was no golden age before the flood. Things did not get better before the flood. They got worse. In today’s episode we come to a challenging passage but one that is much clearer when we remember the analogy with Noah. Let’s make sure that we all know what an analogy is. It is a comparison (not a contrast) between two things. When our Lord says “as it was” he was making a comparison, an analogy between Noah’s days and ours, in the New Covenant. He’s been making allusions to our Lord’s words throughout 1st Peter. Indeed, we can see 1 and 2 Peter as a commentary on portions of the gospels. In our passage for this episode, 1 Peter 3:18–22, Peter makes an analogy between life in the New Covenant, waiting for the return of Christ, and life during Noah’s days. For something to be an analogy, it does not have to be identical—but the two things have to be sufficiently similar for the analogy to exist. There are differences. Noah and his family lived before the fulfillment of the promise of the coming Messiah. We live after. Noah lived before Pentecost; we live after Pentecost but, according to Peter, there are strong parallels between our time and Noah’s.

 

 

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