Cees en Anneke Noordzij — Hamartology
b2 — The Ark of Noah
Sin in the Days of Noah
“In the days of Noah people lived recklessly. Violence and injustice dominated, therefore God’s judgments (=corrections) could not fail to occur. This happened through a water flood.”
God said: “The end of all flesh (literal translation) is decided by Me, for the earth is full of violence” (Gen. 6:13-16).
Source reference: Noordzij, De ark van Noach, §“As in the days of Noah”.
Interpretation: Noordzij connects universal human sin (violence, injustice) directly to divine judgment through the flood. The words “all flesh” are translated literally and used to denote sinful humanity as a whole.
The Sin of Achan: Covetousness, Appropriation and Punishment
“Achan answered: ‘Yes, I have sinned against the Lord. I saw among the spoil a mantle of Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold of fifty shekels in weight, and out of covetousness I took them. Everything lies in my tent, hidden in the ground’” (Josh. 7:21).
Noordzij describes how the guilty party was identified by lot and works out the collective consequences: “Israel has sinned and therefore cannot stand against the enemy.”
The punishment: “Achan was stoned and burned with fire, together with his possessions, the Babylonian garment and his stolen silver and gold” (Josh. 7:25).
The theological conclusion: “God only gives victory to a people that makes short work of Babylonian coveting.”
Source reference: Noordzij, De ark van Noach, §“The sin of Achan”.
Interpretation: For Noordzij, Achan is a type of individual sin (covetousness) with collective consequences. The sin affects all of Israel; guilt here is both individual and communal. Punishment encompasses the destruction of the sinner and his possessions.
Abuse of God’s Spirit as Contemporary Sin
“Achans render the power of God’s Spirit ineffective, storing it in the ‘ground’, in ‘their own tents’. […] Have we Christians not too often behaved like Achan and stored ‘gold’ in ‘tents’, in earthly institutions and church denominations?”
“God’s Spirit was put into ‘old wineskins’, misused to patch up old systems” (Luke 5:36).
“The gifts of the Holy Spirit were good enough to satisfy our desires and to give our church denominations a bit more lustre. Out of greed many wanted more and more of the Holy Spirit (cf. James 4:3). Thus ‘the new wine’ was lost and ‘Babel’ was produced.”
Source reference: Noordzij, De ark van Noach, §“The sin of Achan”.
Interpretation: Noordzij extends the Achan typology to the present: appropriating spiritual gifts for one’s own glory or institutional interests is designated as an equivalent sin. Abuse of the Spirit is a specific hamartological category in this article.
Absalom and Adonijah: Rebellion and Self-Exaltation
“These two royal sons (children of David) both died shameful deaths. They were rebellious against their father.”
“‘Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him’” (2 Sam. 15:1). “‘Adonijah exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him’” (1 Kings 1:5).
Theological interpretation: “Both royal sons typify children of God who have misused, or still misuse, the anointing of Pentecost to exalt themselves and draw attention to themselves.”
“Anyone who, however subtly, uses the Lord’s blessings for personal gain, dishonors Him.”
The ensuing judgment: “‘The haughty eyes of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, for the Lord alone will be exalted. Yes, everything that exalts itself will be humbled’” (Isa. 2:11-12).
“Everything that does not glorify the Lord alone must totter. All honor belongs to Him alone. The Almighty gives His glory to no other! (Isa. 48:11).”
Source reference: Noordzij, De ark van Noach, §“Absalom and Adonijah”.
Interpretation: Self-exaltation by spiritual means is an explicit sin category for Noordzij. The shameful death of both serves as a type of the judgment on those who misuse God’s gifts for their own glory.
Ahaziah: Idolatry as Counterfeit of the True
“Ahaziah had completely lost his way.”
Background: “Jeroboam had established idol worship in Bethel and Dan… an imitation of the temple service in Jerusalem… He provided his own gods (two golden calves), his own Passover, his own Pentecost and his own Feast of Tabernacles. In short: he provided a perfect imitation.”
“It is clear that all of this is a picture of the refined work of the antichrist, who imitates everything of the Holy Spirit.”
“All these histories are recorded as a warning for us (1 Cor. 10:11). For also today the antichrist has created an almost perfect imitation with soulish experience instead of spiritual, earthly church building instead of heavenly.”
“‘Sick Ahaziahs’ from ‘Bethel’ have ‘golden bulls’ as ‘idols’… It is all counterfeit, an abomination to the Lord.”
Source reference: Noordzij, De ark van Noach, §“Ahaziah and Elijah”.
Interpretation: Idolatry is typologically interpreted by Noordzij as the religious deception of the antichrist. The ‘counterfeit’ of the spiritual (soulish instead of spiritual experience) is the core of this sin category.
Consequences of Sin: God’s Withdrawal and Judgment
“When something like this happens, God withdraws. What was built with ‘wood, hay and stubble’ will then be ‘burned’.”
“Every earthly-minded, worldly Christianity is doomed to ruin.”
Source reference: Noordzij, De ark van Noach, §“The sin of Achan”.
Interpretation: Noordzij formulates a hamartological principle: sin — particularly the misuse of spiritual gifts for earthly purposes — leads to God’s withdrawal and ultimately to judgment (the ‘burning’ of what is not truly spiritual).