The generations of men had turned evil and the Nephilim were the worst. So God determined to destroy all men through a world-wide flood, except the family of Noah whom He instructed how to build an ark.
The theories surrounding the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men or humans” abound and produce some pretty entertaining stories. Who were the Nephilim? Were they fallen angels? Perhaps the Nephilim were not fallen angels – just evil men, men of renown – but not renown by God. How did they survive the flood if they were mentioned as being alive in Numbers? Was someone being referred to as a Nephilim just as a metaphorical reference resulting from the collective memory of Noah’s family? A metaphor for a giant of evil?
Some folks believe the Flood was not a global event but rather a partial flood as there seems to be geological evidence for many partial floods but, for many, questionable evidence for a global one. Well, I am no geologist. But a partial flood seems not to fill the bill as God wanted to destroy everything and everyone and one only had to wander outside the flood area to survive.
Would I have been saved if I were alive at the time of the flood ? I suppose not unless I had been Noah or one of his sons. And now it is our time and God will again rearrange the earth and the heavens and we will be destroyed if we are not made righteous through Jesus Christ – we have the choice again to be saved through the simple expedient of belief. A global flood is coming again but this time not with water but fire. And not just the earth, but the heavens too – so no spacecraft or future colony on Mars will provide a way of escape as it would have in the time of the flood.
I see why atheists laugh at us – it sounds crazy.