Troublesome Topic: WHY DID THOSE TALENTED BUILDERS DISAPPEAR?

Did God punish them for being intelligent? No! He punished them for being self-absorbed, self-sufficient, power hungry, arrogant, godless, and brutal toward the weak. It appears that God eliminated these people in order to give the world a third chance.

Any destructive force or combination of forces, used to eliminate the arrogant and ruthless people, had to be capable of destroying: the tools used to make amazing things; all the people who knew how to build in that manner, and probably the cities where those people lived and worked.

THE EVOLUTIONIST ANSWER

Evolutionists attribute such losses around the world to what is called the Younger Dryas Period, which they say was a cold interruption during the melting stage after the last Ice Age. They say that intense meteor activity during the Younger Dryas Period killed so many humans that it is worthy of being called a “near extinction event.” This lethal period is thought to have lasted about 1,200 years and to left behind only a few feeble-minded people leaving mankind much further back in the evolutionary process. Therefore, they say we have had to evolve back to the level of capabilities that we now have.

According to what I see in the Bible, I believe that the “near extinction event” was the world-wide flood itself, (some think there was much meteoric activity during and after the flood)

ALIENS

Another theory says that aliens came and built that stuff. Very briefly, here are the reasons I do not believe in aliens at all.

THE REQUIREMENTS ARE TOO HIGH
- If astronomers are right, the distance required for aliens to travel to earth is too great, the time required too long, and the speed needed too fast, and the fuel needed too much.
- -Getting something as small as a tennis ball up to light speed would require almost infinite amounts of energy, and getting it slowed down would require the same amount of energy. Then a third and fourth time for the trip home. All our modern rockets require and immense amount of fuel to travel a short distance slowly.
- -In order to land on earth safely, they would have to know the make-up of our atmosphere and the magnetism and gravitational pull of our planet.
QUESTIONS ABOUT MOTIVATION
- Why would aliens take such great effort and expense to come here only to look around?
- Or- Why would they come here, build some things, and then leave?
ALIENS ARE NOT NECESSARY – OTHER ANSWERSSARE BETTER
- -People making crop circles and admitting it 40 years later
- -Natural causes – e.g. gases
- -Imagination
- -Military secrets
- -Demons

THE MOST BIBLICALLY VIALBE ANSWERS FOR HOW GOD ELIMINATED THE ARROGANT

The first is Flooding caused by Melting Snow and ice

As soon as the volcanic activity that blocked the sun’s rays and kept the summers cool diminished, the snow and ice began to melt, and less snow fell. Secular and Christian scientists agree that the melt-off would have caused dramatic flooding because it was unrelenting. Christian scholars think the melt-off from the flood-induced ice age lasted for about 100 years without any let-up, although in Egypt it would not have taken as long as in places that are further North.

There are ancient records that speak of “the wild Nile.” So it appears that the strong, steady flow during the rainy years was replaced by a flooding like none they had known before. This was a surprise to them because the rains subsided and then the flooding started. They were caught off guard by this and many in the delta region of Egypt lost their buildings, equipment and their lives. Today the Nile delta includes the cities of Cairo and Alexandria, a number of smaller cities, and many small towns. If the wild Nile caused the Nile Delta to flood severely, the delta may have been mostly submerged, destroying whatever towns were there at that time. This is one way in which some of the people and machinery involved in making the pyramids were lost – but probably not the only way.

Earthquakes are likely the cause of the destruction of many of the statues and obelisks in Egypt. Christian scholars and scientists think that earthquakes would have been more frequent right after the flood than they are today. They think it took about 800 years for the earth to calm down a bit after the flood – not calm down entirely, just a bit.

Volcanoes – We can be confident that there was greater volcanic activity in the first 1000 years after the flood, which would have covered or destroyed many things from that era.

God could have targeted groups or individuals for punishment. We see in history how God selectively chose to destroy specific groups of people, such as the Canaanites, or punish a group of people, such as the Israelites. We also know that He sometimes caused specific individuals to suffer an untimely and painful death due to their arrogance and godlessness. Antiochus Epiphanes Ho Theos Victor (meaning Antiochus, the revealer of the gods, god himself, the victorious god), as well as Herod the Great and Herod Agrippa were each eaten by worms from the inside out when they exhibited extraordinary arrogance. Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance temporarily cost him his kingdom and his sanity. Thus God has sometimes judged the entire world for extreme arrogance; at other times He has judged specific nations for extreme arrogance, and at other times He has judged specific people for extreme arrogance. How He did it does not matter as much as the fact that He did judge them.

We also know that He sometimes caused specific individuals to suffer an untimely and painful death due to their arrogance and godlessness. Antiochus Epiphanes Ho Theos Victor (meaning Antiochus, the revealer of the gods, god himself, the victorious god), as well as Herod the Great and Herod Agrippa were each eaten by worms from the inside out when they exhibited extraordinary arrogance. Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance temporarily cost him his kingdom and his sanity. Thus God has sometimes judged the entire world for extreme arrogance; at other times He has judged specific nations for extreme arrogance, and at other times He has judged specific people for extreme arrogance. How He did it does not matter as much as the fact that He did judge them.

These next two could not have stood alone:

Wars: Although wars would not destroy a city leaving no trace of it, we can assume that wars were a contributing factor in the disappearance of many capable people around the world. Sometimes invading armies were known to take the rich and educated as captives, leaving behind the poor and uneducated.

Disease While diseases would not destroy cities and machinery, there are many times in human history when disease has nearly wiped-out entire segments of the population. If God wanted to eliminate certain groups of people, disease could have been one of His tools. It is possible that a number of advanced societies have inadvertently brought about their own demise through disease or other means.

One more option: They could have destroyed themselves by thinking they were so advanced and trusting their own wisdom which led them to do self-destructive things. The only ones to survive were the little people, the outcasts, or the rebellious ones who refused to go along with the stupidity. One could argue that, after the elite died off, the poor people destroyed everything related to that advanced society out of fear that leaving those things in tact would bring judgment on them as well. Thus they did not include any part of them in their art or writings.

However, I favor options that have God taking action against them. He did a thorough job of eliminating their tools and their cities, much better than the little people could do. If the little people were afraid of being judged as well, they would have wanted to stay away and not even touch the things the elite had done. They would have abandoned them, rather than destroyed them.

GOD PROBABLY USED DIFFERENT MEANS IN DIFFERENT PLACES

The Bible says nothing about this, but the physical evidence is quite clear that a level of technological advancement once existed but then its use ceased. If those people became too arrogant and godless, it would fit the Biblical pattern to conclude that God used various means to judge them by eliminating them from the scene.

This does not mean that all the smart people died. There were some intelligent people among the lower classes, but they kept their mouths shut to not be killed by their brutal leaders. They were not targeted by God for judgment and lived to pass their intelligence on to their offspring. Actually, I believe that all people have greater intelligence than others realize.

The next lesson in this series is: WHY DID THOSE TALENTED BUILDERS DISAPPEAR?