8 people

Genesis 7:13 - On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I will not worry or seriously complain about how bad my situation is until I know I'm one of the 8 people known to be Christians left on earth.

Eight people! Count 'em: Noah, Mrs. Noah, Shem, Mrs. Shem, Ham, Mrs. Ham, Japheth, and Mrs. Japheth. That's all. You can name more Christians than that (whether you're one yourself or not) without much thought, can't you?

I wonder if there were more people who claimed to believe in the promised Messiah -- but really didn't -- than these 8. Apparently there weren't any closet believers left.

Don't get the idea that everyone else was so nasty you couldn't stand being around them. I'm pretty sure there were still nice people around. Noah's family probably had many friends. They were likely nice folks.

If you've been told

1. the fate of rest of the world
2. to build something that will save your family from that fate, and
3. (possibly) how long it would be until that fateful day arrives,

do you tell anyone else what's going to happen? From what you've been told, it doesn't seem that it will make a difference. You know you're the only 8 who are going to be spared. Yet God has listened to requests from people and changed what he originally said he intended to do. (See Moses' prayer on behalf of Israel.)

Assuming you've hired people to help you build the means of salvation, do you tell them why you're building it when they ask? And you know they're going to ask. What do you tell the network news reporters? What do you tell the Mesopotamian Inquirer? (Men in Black comes to mind here.)

Again assuming Noah hired someone to help with construction, I wonder if he paid them normal wages or fees. He could have paid them whatever he could afford (maybe even more if he got an extra loan from the bank) -- even something much higher than the going rate -- if he wanted or needed to. After all, he wasn't going to need the money where he was going.