But then that would mean everyone else, the majority of humankind, was saved outside of the method that reflects the symbol of baptism…
No, I don’t think that’s accurate.
By saying “the majority of humankind was saved…”, I presume that you mean “saved from the flood”, and not “saved by Christ and baptism into His Church.” Am I correct? (After all, the fact of my baptism doesn’t depend on an OT reference – it only depends on Christ’s command to the apostles to “baptize all nations.”)
On the other hand, though, if you’re saying that “the majority of humankind was saved outside of the method that reflects the symbol of baptism”, that doesn’t make any sense, either. Circumcision – that is, that precursor and symbol of baptism we find in the OT – itself is a method in which a majority of humanity did not participate. Does that mean that, since only a relatively few people experienced circumcision prescribed by the Law of Moses, then circumcision does not prefigure baptism? That’s just untenable. Similarly, then, whether it’s “eight out of all humanity” or “eight out of those afflicted by the flood”, the symbolism of salvation through the ark from the flood remains intact.
and that leads to some interesting theology the RCC wouldn’t accept.
Not at all. Just as Noah and his family were saved through the waters by the ark, we are saved through the waters by the Church. There’s no theological downside to a super-regional flood.
Kliska:
Gorgias:
Yes, but: “The covenant with Noah remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until the universal proclamation of the Gospel.” (CCC, 58)
That doesn’t annul the direct reference and the “why” of the reference.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by this. You claimed that the CCC asserts that Noah was “the patriarch of the only surviving family”; yet, the CCC doesn’t make that claim – that’s something that you’re asserting. The CCC only affirms the Scriptural teaching that, through the ark, eight were saved from the flood. It affirms Peter’s assertion of the same fact. And yet, Peter
doesn’t make the assertion you do – that, by virtue of the fact that eight were saved, all the rest of the ancient world was killed. (You can make that assumption, if you wish, but not hold us to it, inasmuch as the Church does not hold us to it.)
Your claim was that the covenant of Noah holds for us if and only if we all are descended from the eight who survived the flood. That’s not what CCC 56 claims, and that’s why I cited it to you. Rather, CCC 56 points out that the covenant was in effect – for the ‘nations’ (which is weird, since if all were killed but the eight, then there would be
no more ‘nations’, only Semitic people) – only until the proclamation of the Gospel. In other words, there is no requirement that we receive baptism through any relationship with the covenant of Noah. (That is, no ‘annulment’ necessary.

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