The Bible contains many promises which encourage us to look ahead with hope and with confidence that good will prevail in all things. But the Bible contains much more than mere promises. It explains the sense of futility which persistently comes to mankind, and it shows how spiritual-mindedness overcomes it.
Through Christian Science we may understand the seeming contradictions presented by such narratives as that of Noah. Though evil seemed rampant in Noah's world, his consciousness of spiritual reality lifted him above evil to the consciousness of God's ever-present love.
The picture of futility is painted vividly in Genesis where we read that the Lord God was dissatisfied with the man he had created and decided to eliminate all but Noah and his family by means of a flood. Having been saved in the ark which the Lord had told him to build, Noah made a burnt offering to the Lord, "And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gen. 8:21). The narrative seems to imply that the race which descended from Adam was going to be sinful in spite of the flood purge, but Noah, representing a degree of spiritual awareness, was in that degree separated from Adam's race. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Gen. 9:1). Without spiritual interpretation these verses would appear to say that mankind's redemption from evil would have to come later in another way. But as understood in Christian Science, salvation is an awakening to present spiritual reality.
