The Flood
The Noachic Flood (Gen. 6-8) is identified by Stephen E. Jones as a prophetic type of the end-time outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jones establishes a direct typological parallel between two floods: the flood of water that came upon the earth after 120 years, and the “Flood of the Spirit” poured out over humanity after 120 Jubilees. The Flood of Noah is thus not an incidental punitive event but a divine prophetic pattern — a type that prefigures the scope, the conditions, and the result of the end-time outpouring of the Spirit. Distinct from the Noah entry (which treats the ark and Noah as a person typologically), it is here the flood-event itself that carries the typological weight.
Biblical Anchoring
| Reference | Context |
|---|---|
| Gen. 6:3 | ”My Spirit shall not always strive with man… his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” |
| Gen. 7:23 | ”He blotted out every living thing… only Noah remained, and those that were with him in the ark” |
| Joel 2:28-29 | ”Afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” |
| Acts 2:17 | Peter quotes Joel at Pentecost as first fulfillment |
| 1 Pet. 3:20-21 | The ark (flood) as antitype of baptism — water as type of saving judgment |
Typological Interpretation per Author
Stephen E. Jones
In Secrets of Time (chapter 3), Jones builds the most direct typological parallel between the Noachic Flood and the end-time outpouring of the Spirit. The starting point is Gen. 6:3: God announces that His Spirit will not always strive with man and gives 120 years of grace. Jones reads this number not as a maximum human lifespan but as a prophetic time period:1
“Most people think that this means God would shorten the lifespan of men to 120 years. But this is not really the force of the statement. Bullinger and other commentators agree that it means that the gracious time of man would be 120 years. In other words, the Flood would come after 120 years of opportunity for repentance.”1
The number 120 is for Jones the exegetical pivot. The flood of water — the literal judgment — typifies a greater flood: the end-time outpouring of the Spirit. What the flood of water did for the earth (cleanse, set a new beginning), the Flood of the Spirit will do for humanity:
“The Flood of water occurred after 120 years; the greater Flood is connected with the 120th Jubilee (1986 A.D.). […] The Flood of water occurred after 120 years; the Flood of the Spirit occurs after 120 Jubilees.”1
The structural parallel is Jones’ core argument: numerical analogy as prophetic pattern. Just as God sent the flood of water after 120 years as a cleansing of the earth, so God sends the Flood of the Spirit after 120 Jubilees as a cleansing of humanity. The number 120 here is not coincidental but a key of divine prophetic architecture — the same law that connects the 120 priests at Solomon’s temple dedication (2 Chr. 5:12) and the 120 disciples at Pentecost (Acts 1:15).
In Secrets of Time (pneumatology section), Jones makes the typological interpretation even more explicit by connecting the Noachic Flood to the withdrawal and return of the Spirit. The flood removed the Spirit from “all flesh” — that is the judgment. The Flood of the Spirit is the reverse: the Spirit is poured out upon all flesh. This makes the flood-event a negative antitype: what the Flood took away, the Pentecost outpouring restores, and what Pentecost began, the Tabernacles-Flood completes:
“The first is the Flood of Noah, where the wind, breath, or spirit was removed from all flesh; the second is the Flood of the Holy Spirit, where the Spirit of God will be poured out upon all flesh. The ‘latter rain’ of Joel 2:23 is the antidote for the Flood of Noah. The basic outline of God’s plan to place His Spirit back in all flesh is revealed in Noah’s actions at the end of the Flood.”2
The typological arc Jones draws here is eschatologically complete: the flood of Noah removed the Spirit from fallen flesh as judgment; the Spirit’s outpouring returns the Spirit to redeemed flesh as restoration. Noah’s actions after the flood — the sending out of doves, the sacrifice, the covenant — are for Jones together a prophetic scenario of God’s plan to place His Spirit again in humanity. The Flood itself is the pivotal event in that narrative: the dividing line between the era before and after the Spirit.
Related Types
- Related: noah (Noah as a person is a type of Christ/the Comforter; the ark as type of Christ — distinct from the flood-event itself)
- Related: feast-of-weeks (Pentecost as the first fulfillment of the Flood of the Spirit)
- Related: feast-of-tabernacles (the Age of Tabernacles as the goal of the complete Spirit outpouring)
- Via number symbolism: 120 (120 as the connecting number of the flood and the Spirit outpouring)