Was Noah's flood water that covered the whole earth, and did God kill everyone?

🔥The question: “How can a story that kills even the children and animals outside the ark be called love?”

🛡️The Church's answer: The Church has not determined that this story must be read as a modern historical report in which every child and animal on the entire earth actually died. But we must not hide the uncomfortable fact that the text describes the flood as God's judgment either. This ancient judgment story carries both a warning that human violence tears down the created world and a covenant in which God promises Noah and every living thing that destruction will not be the last word. That does not make the death of the innocent good, nor does it settle every moral question. Christians read this text within the full revelation of Jesus, who did not tell us to kill our enemies but gave himself up to save life.

🧐If they press further: “So was it a real flood, or a symbol?” — How a historical memory of a great flood became this text can be studied, but doctrine does not fix the height or the extent of the water. What matters is the God who hates violence, preserves life, and is the first to establish a covenant.

✨In one sentence: “The story of Noah is not a test of the geological figures for a flood; it testifies that even when violence ruins the world, God makes a covenant with every living thing and opens a new beginning.”