… There is history. Only 8 people out of he entire human race in Noah’s time were saved.
The story of Noah is probably an allegory, just a tale that is intended to use fictional characters and events to convey a spiritual message expressed in figurative terms. Noah may have had only seven family members with him, but this number is to be taken only figuratively. Noah is a type of new Adam who prefigures Christ. His family represents the righteous remnant who are judged not to be of this world. And the number of this remnant is indefinite.
Again, if Paul believed that only a few or a tiny number of human beings shall be saved, and this were true, he wouldn’t have written: ’ For it was fitting that he, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing
many children to glory, should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.’ (Heb. 2:10). The Greek word for many is *pollon *which can mean either practically everyone or a large number of people amounting to a great multitude. And the apostle is speaking of those who are not merely predestined to grace, but also to glory.
Only 2 Hebrews out of 2 million made it to the Promised Land,
Apparently Joshua and Caleb were the only two men over the age of 20 who entered the promised land. With the number of young women and children who accompanied the rest, the total number of Israelites would have approached two 2 million, which is about the same number of Jews who left Egypt with Moses 40 years earlier. The two generations of Israelites, taken figuratively as the faithful as opposed to the unfaithful, were relatively of equal number (cf. Num. 26:51; 32:11-12).
and only 4 were saved out of the entire city of Sodom.
We mustn’t ignore the esoteric nature of the Bible. And so let’s not assume that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is to be taken literally because it is presented in a historical way.This narrative as well serves to convey an important spiritual message as anagogical tales are intended. This account is not actually about God’s destruction of two cities, but rather God’s saving intervention. Sodom and Gomorrah represent the dark passions and desires of the human soul and our selfish ego respectively. Metaphorically the reason for their complete destruction is that they are both situated in a valley, which in Scripture may stand for complete darkness and separation from God. If there had been at least ten righteous people in these cities or, in other words, a trace of light, they would not have been utterly destroyed. A soul that is found to be completely dark, deprived of sanctifying grace, has no eternal life within it and is doomed to perish in the flames of spiritual death and destruction.
The inhabitants of the cities represent people who obstinately refuse to crucify the flesh and die to self by shunning the light of Christ which should penetrate and illuminate their minds and hearts by the grace of God. In order to avoid the destruction of their souls, their thoughts, feelings, and deeds must conform to the image of Christ in his humanity. St. Paul wrote that if we have died with Christ, we shall also live with him (cf. Rom. 6:8). The total number of the inhabitants of these cities alludes to the whole world in general, whose pattern we are not to conform ourselves to through the transformation of our minds (cf. Rom. 12:2). Lot and his family, for instance, represent ‘the children of light and children of the day’ who ‘do not belong to the night or to darkness’ (cf. 1 Thess. 5:5). The size of their number simply signifies a singular break from the general pattern of human behaviour and the soul’s liberation from the pervading darkness that looms over our human nature with its sinful inclinations, a nature we all possess and which could lead us all to spiritual destruction and the second death if it were not for the intervention of divine grace. Lot and his family mark a radical break from the wisdom of the world. They are a type of God’s family, uniquely distinguished from all the children of this world in general. As members of this family they have received the spirit of God as opposed to the spirit of the entire world in the natural order of human existence (cf. 1 Cor. 2:12).
In his letter to the Colossians (3:1-5), the apostle writes: ‘If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.’ We read in the Gospel that Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, which means ‘the place of the skull’. Esoterically we may conclude that in order for our Lord to be resurrected in us, in our thoughts and feelings, we must with the help of God’s grace first crucify the flesh and put to death whatever darkness has hold of our souls and rules in our nature. It was by his obedience to the will of God that Jesus was made perfect through suffering and sacrificing himself on the cross (cf. Heb. 2:10), which we are expected to take up and carry ourselves if we hope to be saved.
Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city–which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt–where also their Lord was crucified.
Revelation 11, 8
PAX
:heaven:
YES!
