“If we fear God, we have nothing else to fear.” That verse of scripture should infuse us with joy, boldness, and peace. But I’ve heard Christian pastors say they are like undercover agents going around surreptitiously evading contact with others who might blow their cover.

Timidity does no one any good. In fact, we hand the victory to the enemy every time we are afraid of anything.

3/12/2025

Today was my first day in Miami to minister to the Spring breakers on South Beach. The air was cold for South Florida at eight in the morning, 56 degrees to be exact. I hustled on down to the Dunkin Donuts for some hot coffee. As I pulled into the parking lot, two Emerald Green parrots flew overhead as a man whom the clerk referred to as “Paco” arrived on his motor scooter wearing a heavy jacket and gloves.

I ordered Cafe Con Leche, then set about making final preparations for my spiritual assault on Miami Beach. Afterward, I got a bag of ice for the bottled water I would be passing out to the overheated kids at the beach.

At about 10 A.M., it was beginning to warm up, so I headed to the most southern part of South Beach, where I could set up shop on a paved pathway under some trees, sit in a comfortable lawn chair along with the signs I made up the day before that read “Free, living water and drinking water too!” The little red Bibles I use have the Living Water found therein – Jesus and the salvation message.

I was only able to pass out about fifty of them and about a dozen bottles of water. Was I being too sedate? Tomorrow, I’ll be a little more open, as that is my natural state of being. I might even sing show tunes just to get people’s attention since they walked past me with arrogant ignorance of the End Times, their zombie-like lives hanging by a thread.

Last year, the Spring Breakers were rude and running riot on the beach. They were swilling beer and twerking on the top of police cars. This made me think of 2nd Timothy as I watched them.

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Have nothing to do with such people. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (vv 1-9).

3/26/2025

Today nothing seemed to be going right for me, but I’ve learned to wait on the Lord to work things out for me. So, I went about my business and went to my bank to straighten out some matters. A young woman and a young man in their tidy suits were seemingly awaiting me, which is not usually the case in this environment at 11 am. I walked up to them, glad not to have to wait my turn (take a number, please) as is always the case.

I asked, “I need someone to check and see if this notice on my laptop is legitimate.”

“Yes sir, we’re here to help you!” replied the young man eagerly.

“My laptop says your bank is going to eliminate my such and such services unless I respond immediately. I want to know if it’s a phishing scam to garner information on me?”

The young man said, “Step into my office; we have these complaints more and more each day,” as he led the way.

As we sat across from each other, I could see that the young man was quite young to be holding such a position.

The young man looked me over and asked about my ethnic heritage. “I’m a 10th-generation North American,” I replied. Then, I opened my laptop, and we proceeded to work. Looking at his nametag, I noticed he had an Arabic name. “Tell me about your name.” I inquired.

The clean-cut, friendly young man answered, “I’m Arabic, born in Columbia.”

“Is that to say you are Muslim?” I asked.

“No, I’m a Catholic and go to church every Sunday with my parents.”

Catholic? “I’m a writer and working on my second book about the end times.” What do you, as a Catholic, know about the end times?”

“I don’t know anything about those things.”

After telling him about my Christian website and all the things I had posted on it, he became very interested. I told him about the archeological finds I had on it, like the videos of what’s left of Sodom and Gomorrah and the sulfur balls (brimstone) found that rained down everywhere on that ash heap. I also told him about the video of the sand that melted into glass where the pillar of fire stood on the shore of the Red Sea before it opened to let the Israelites through to the other side. He grabbed a pen and paper and handed them to me. “Here, write your website down for me.”

I left him, knowing he had other work to do, and I didn’t want to get him in trouble for dilly-dallying. As I stood to leave, I finally asked him how old he was, and he replied – 19. Seeing the expression on my face, he added, “I’m a very smart kid!”

I will take him a Bible and get to know him better, maybe over lunch. I think I may have found someone to mentor.

YBIC

Jim Towers

You can write me at jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com or visit me at www.dropzonedelta.com. You can also find me on my newly restructured website www.propheticsignsandwonders.com, which now features videos of worldwide events taking place in the present time, as well as proof of God’s existence and the reality of Biblical places, and Moses himself.

 

I received an email from a reader asking for some information about the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible’s account of Noah’s Ark.

“I have some coworkers that argue that the Epic of Gilgamesh shows evidence that the Genesis account of the Flood of Noah was taken from this document. I need some “ammunition” to refute this,” he wrote.

First, a little historical background. Gilgamesh was a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in modern Iraq.

Many stories and myths were written about Gilgamesh, some of which were written down on clay tablets that still survive. The oldest existing fragments date to about 2000 BC — roughly the time of Abraham.

The most complete surviving version of the Epic of Gilgamesh dates from the middle of the 6th century BC and was found in the ruins of the library of Ashram, king of Assyria, at Nineveh.

The Gilgamesh Epic itself dates to about 2700 BC, say the experts, relying on the text of the surviving fragments.

In it, Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim was granted immortality by the gods after he and his wife became the only human survivors of a worldwide flood, and Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is widely considered to be the oldest human composition ever found. By comparison, the first five Books of the Bible were penned by Moses around the 13th century BC, at least seven hundred years after the Epic of Gilgamesh had been in circulation.

Because the Gilgamesh story is older, the automatic assumption is that it was the inspiration for the Hebrew account of Noah’s Ark.

It sounds convincing, but only if one approaches it with a built-in bias. If one is looking for an alternative explanation for the Bible’s account, then Gilgamesh fits the bill.

On the other hand, if one is looking for the most logical explanation, then the entire argument collapses under its own weight.

There is a principle of logic attributed to the medieval philosopher William of Occam, commonly referred to as ‘Occam’s Razor,’ also known as the ‘principle of parsimony.’ It underlies all scientific modeling and theory building.

Occam’s Razor is a method by which to choose from a set of otherwise equivalent models of a given phenomenon the simplest explanation. In any given model, Occam’s razor helps us to “shave off” those concepts, variables, or constructs that are not really needed to explain the phenomenon.

By doing that, developing the model will become much easier, and there is less chance of introducing inconsistencies, ambiguities, and redundancies. In its shortest form, Occam’s Razor states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed.

To beat a dead horse to death, let me simplify it even more: the simplest explanation is logically the most likely to be correct.

Assessment

This isn’t an effort to ‘prove’ the Genesis account is true. I believe that it is true because it is the only logical explanation that fits the known facts.

The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the following story: In the time before the Flood, there was a city, Shuruppak, on the banks of the Euphrates. There, the counsel of the gods held a secret meeting; they all resolved to destroy the world in a great flood.

Gilgamesh may, however, be the explanation for the saying ‘the walls have ears.’

All the gods were under oath not to reveal this secret to any living thing, but Ea (one of the gods that created humanity) came to Utnapishtim’s house and told the secret to the walls of Utnapishtim’s house, thus not technically violating his oath to the rest of the gods.

He advised the walls of Utnapishtim’s house to build a great boat, its length as great as its breadth, to cover the boat, and to bring all living things into the boat.

Utnapishtim, eavesdropping on the conversation, gets straight to work and finishes the great boat by the new year. Utnapishtim then loads the boat with gold, silver, and all the living things of the earth, and launches the boat.

Ea orders him into the boat and commands him to close the door behind him. The black clouds arrive, with the thunder god Adad rumbling within them; the earth splits like an earthenware pot, and all the light turns to darkness.

The Flood lasts for seven days and seven nights, and finally light returns to the earth. Utnapishtim’s boat comes to rest on the top of Mount Nimush.

The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis account converge on several points, but one thing immediately leaps out. Gilgamesh’ account is a logical description from the perspective of man. It is an effort to put an ancient memory into an understandable historical context.

The Genesis account is a logical description of the same event from the perspective of God. The Genesis account fills in details missing from Gilgamesh that could be known only to God.

The Gilgamesh account is an effort to make sense of a global catastrophe — the Genesis account puts it into logical context, connecting the dots from Adam to the Rapture.

The Flood is a necessary part of the Bible’s outline of human history — remove it and the Scriptures lose all context. God’s promise to Noah is fulfilled at the Cross. The power of sin is destroyed rather than the destruction of sinners.

Jesus refers to the ‘days of Noah’ to describe the last days; Peter uses the salvation of Noah as an example of the Rapture (2nd Peter 3:3-7)

The Genesis account provides answers. The Gilgamesh account only poses new questions.

Legends of a worldwide flood can be found in the folklore of such diverse places as the Middle East, India, China, Australia, southern Asia, the islands of the Pacific, Europe, and the Americas.

Was the Chinese legend of a global flood inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh? Did the Australian Aborigines and the Native Americans read the Epic of Gilgamesh? The Pacific Islanders?

If the Flood is a myth, why does every civilization or culture share the same common, distant memory of a global catastrophe that NEVER happened? There must be a logical explanation. A Sumerian cuneiform tablet unknown until relatively recently doesn’t make the cut.

Occam’s Razor says that the only logical conclusion is that there must really have been a worldwide flood that a handful of survivors escaped by boarding a giant ark filled with animals that came to rest on a mountaintop after the waters receded. No other explanation fits the facts.

There are many differing accounts, but all are rooted in the same historical occurrence. If there were no Biblical account, it is likely that the Flood would be an accepted part of the human historical record, like dinosaurs or cavemen.

It is precisely BECAUSE the Bible says the Flood was a Divine judgment against sin that the Genesis account is so vigorously opposed by its critics.

Remove the references to an all-powerful God demanding personal accountability from His creation, and a global flood is no more fantastic than concluding a giant asteroid hit the earth 85 million years ago and killed all the dinosaurs.

‘Stuff happens’ is a more comfortable conclusion to live with than personal accountability to an all-knowing and Perfect God. That is also perfectly logical, as Paul notes in Romans 1:28:

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind…”

The Genesis story fits a logical timeline, has a logical place in history, and answers the questions Gilgamesh does not (like, who told the Australian Aborigines there was a worldwide flood if it is really a myth?)

Occam’s Razor says the simplest explanation is also the most logical.

“…for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure” (Isaiah 46:9-10).

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on December 19, 2005.