God. Other gods.

 Today most people in the West seem to assume that all the gods of the Ancient World were imaginary. The way people read the Bible is biased towards anything that confirms or seems to confirm this view. Yet it is not quite understood what constitutes a true god and a false god, nor what constitutes capital G God, versus small g god. For scripture, it seems to me, to call a god a false god, or an idol, it does not necessarily mean that it is an imaginary being. A real being such as a fallen being like the Devil, can exist as an actual spirit influencing many and bringing about calamities on individuals and major disasters on the masses, but still be false or an idol as far as being a god is concerned. Elevation to god status is an honour conveyed by heavenly order and powers, even on those who turn out to be a disappointment to the one honouring them, as Psalm 82 seems to say. They might be prayed to as gods by the weak yet fail to genuinely help in any lasting and meaningful way. In this sense they can be a real god, but still false, in terms of delivering only unreliable, ‘false’ hope to those who seek their help and offer them worship. They might offer mortals predictions of the future, say, which might actually happen, as the Book of Acts says regarding a fortune teller associated with Python oracles, but not with any real salvation resulting, only material profit. The fortunes told are not false. The fortunes gained by them are not false. The hope is false hope. It maybe leads to moral failings, for example. Then there are misunderstandings about what is meant by God with a capital G. Supreme God. Most High God. A being who is a king above all gods is the main reason to give that being status of Most High God. This is a singular being, as distinct from an assembly of beings or a group of highest gods. We denote this in English by capitalising the G. In scriptures there were other ways. One was to denote this king above gods as the Most High God, or in Hebrew El Elyon. In such cases, as in Psalm 82, the other gods are called Elohim. They are also seen as lower gods when called sons of God, sons of El Elyon, sons of the Most High God. In human cultures in some regions such as Mongolia it was typical for there to be a supreme king whose sons were regarded as lesser kings, while their father king still reigned supreme. This involved both power sharing and subordination by the sons. This same picture of God and sons of God is found in scriptures and other ancient writings, where there is a council made up of these lesser sons of God presided over and subordinate to the Most High God. So gods of nations in the ancient world could exist, but should not be trusted completely to save and provide moral hope, even if they did answer some prayers and provide some prophecies which came to pass. Their failings in fulfilling God’s requirement that they be a true help to the weak put them outside His holy definition of what constituted true gods. In John’s gospel it records Jesus Christ referring to this when accused of blasphemy for as a mortal man claiming to be Son of God. He pointed out that even these sons of God were called gods and not denied that honour. This honour was despite also being told they would for their failings die as if they were mortals. Jesus explained that he was set apart, consecrated, by the Father (i.e. the Most High God in the psalm) and sent into the world, as truly a Son of God. He another time described himself formally as the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep in contrast to others before him who failed the sheep. It was never normal for Jesus to call himself a god, or for his apostles to call him a god, though Thomas might arguably have called him his god, albeit fully aware Jesus taught that it was the Father who was their God in the truest sense. John at the start of his gospel might have ascribed divinity to Jesus, arguably, though his use of language is debated. Usually as a human Jesus taught them to regard him as their lord, their human master, without confusion of using a term like god. Likewise even John in parts of his gospel and in Revelation 1:1 distinguishes Jesus and God as separate distinct individuals. Jesus, John recorded, regarded the Father alone as the one true God, and regarded himself as sent by this God. So here we have both true God as one spirit being and true Son of God as one human being. Other gods might have real existence but are not afforded the unique ‘one true God’ status. And many have been doomed to die like men, which maybe alludes to the waning of the any awareness of  existence of them over time, and any worship of them and eventually any memory of them. Not so the Father. Not so the Son. 

More about oneness with Nature

 Yet again: Harmony is found in Nature, and oneness with Nature is a true and right state of mind. Nature is inherently tranquil but now and then greatly disturbed, such as by predators, plagues, and fierce storms. Then back it goes to tranquility just as peaceful and calm as ever. Day after day, for thousands and thousands of years. Despite human chaos and worries, wars, strife, and hell-bent destructiveness. “Consider the fowls of the air,” said Jesus, “how they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” “Consider the trees,” says the Holy Spirit imparting grace from Jesus, “how they put forth buds and leaves: They do so by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The oneness with Nature he teaches, as the Father teaches him, is a oneness in its calmness without our typically human worrying. The Father backs it up by giving the miracle of the calming of storms. 

Restoring the harmony with Nature

 Again: Harmony is found in Nature, and oneness with Nature is a true and right state of mind. It seems paradoxical, however, that humans, by our nature, are out of step with Nature. Nature functions and supports life by its adherence to the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Humans typically don’t. What can be done about this? Jesus brought the answer. His teachings. Then by his blood on the cross. Not just one without the other, both. And God raised him from the dead to confirm it. The moral gap between what humans are and what we ought to be, ordered by and obedient to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the debt of this gap was paid by his sacrifice of himself. It was the sacrifice on that cross of his body and his blood. Then his teachings bridge the gap. He teaches a faith in God which can command Nature’s real obedience, putting humans with faith in God back in charge of Nature alongside Jesus, if we adhere to his teachings. Humans stray from his teachings or ignore them and teach their own alternatives, and so judgements are sent. The judgements might sometimes reach overly harsh proportions and need averting. For this there is the power of faith in God. Commanding Nature, as Jesus teaches, and he practices what he preaches, commanding Nature can entail commanding a storm to be calm, and when there is no doubt accompanying the command, it goes calm. Even a mightiest of hurricanes can be commanded this way, and if it is by faith in God, according to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the acknowledgement of the power of this name, even the hurricane can grow calm. This puts a human with faith in the place ordained by the Creator Father. It puts Jesus above the human as Lord and Christ, as ordained by the Father who sent him and, after Jesus Christ’ death, raised him. It puts the Father over Jesus as owning the teachings He gave through Jesus about the efficacy of this faith. Nature and human reach their right places in God’s order. And the Holy Spirit starts to lead humans in the order of God’s making, as Nature too is ordered. One in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and its power. 

Oneness with Nature

 Harmony is found in Nature, and oneness with Nature is a true and right state of mind. Chaos is found in human social interactions because by and large humans are not at peace with the Nature around them. There is no fellowship to be had with the chaotic world of humans. It is with Nature, with trees and the like, that serenity of peace and calm can be found, while humans go their way oblivious to the reality of God. We should not be afraid to find solace in being one with Nature, more than with humans and society at large. Nature is ordered by and obeys the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, while humans are often oblivious to it or in direct opposition to it. So to find more communion with Nature, with the trees, animals, stars, than with supposedly fellow humans is just and right. If we start with plants, they are at the smaller end of the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet they show us how that name brings them their natural orderliness and serenity. This gives assurance that it is only just and right to be governed by this name. Then we can shift to stars and planets moving by the very same name, keeping their order and constant paths through the universe in step with one another, and here we find the utter enormity of that name of the Lord Jesus Christ, given to Jesus by the Father. We find the utter greatness of God. It gives us peace to know these things and to live by them. That is living by the Spirit. That is the secret of life. The Holy Spirit breathes this message into those who listen and are enabled by God to accept it. Then there is harmony to be found with others who accept it too. This harmony is God’s true temple, His glory. 

Kingdom - God’s own

 In accepting the government of God, to enter it, there is first a need for the preaching of it. The preaching of the government of God is preaching which needs to be clear, and it needs to focus on the message God Himself gives. There are some who are predisposed to believe it. God enables this. God prepares their hearts for being open to believing the message. I was struck by the letters of the apostle Paul we find in the Bible, letters to groups of those who believed the message. I was struck, years ago on first reading the letters, by how spiritual power, we might say supernatural power, was experienced by those who believed the message of God. I contrasted this with the blandness of preaching I had heard, and how it often fell flat, even when there were sympathetic hearers of it. People walked like snail unwillingly to church, sat for an hour punctuated by hymns, listened or pretended to listen to a sermon, walked out of church with not much to show for it but a more sore lower torso than when they had entered the church. The following week it all started and ended the same. Power? What power? Year after year. So different to what Paul wrote about happening to hearers of the gospel in his time who believed. I sought the reality Paul was writing about, and I kept seeking it, unwilling to take nothingness as an answer. The answer I was not quite expecting came when I got upset with myself for my lack of truth and lack of faithfulness in interacting with friends, and felt bad about how I could not change. In this state, hearing the message of God, particularly when away from home, away from anyone who knew me who I would have tried to impress dishonestly, the message sunk in, cutting me to the heart. Christ died for me. God wanted me to be able to change. It was not hopeless. Then came the power of holiness. I came in touch with otherness. Think how a recruit joining the army, doing drills under a drill sergeant, quickly experiences the otherness of the army. It is different. Their slackness, waywardness, rebelliousness, gets strongly rebuked because the behaviour demanded of them is not like that, it is utterly different. It is a kind of otherness, utterly unlike their own standards of behaviour. Well now I experienced that kind of otherness but from the heavenly realm, in a sense of powerful heavenliness, holiness, quite unlike my own standards of behaviour. I felt power in praying honestly and singing hymns with believers honestly. The power was supernatural and holy, and it was marked by how it vanished every time I was dishonest and boastful. That went on for days, breaking the hold dishonest pride had on me. Then after subsequent years filled with much more honest speech, I later received gifts of the Holy Spirit too. Again holy power. Real power. But for the benefit of those hearing by that power. To enter the government of God takes hearing with belief, but also with accompanying power. Heavenly power of otherness, of holiness. It teaches the kind of behaviour demanded by heaven. It is heaven doing the teaching. The Holy Spirit from heaven. Heavenly spirit of holiness, of otherness. It demands behaviour quite unlike our own standards of behaviour. Lying must be replaced by truthful speech, especially when with believers who are to be part of a single body along with the speaker, since now this otherness, marked by the power of this Holy Spirit, combines all receiving it into one body. Hatefulness must not fester from anger, but must be dissipated within, say, a day of it starting. Stealing must stop and hard work replace it for providing needs. Marriage must be with faithfulness, not cheating. God judges believers who stray from this standard. These are some of the big things. Smaller issues need sorting out too, but give it time, and let not the tiniest behavioural problem take too much attention when bigger issues go unaddressed. Big things first, smaller over time. Helping each other with smaller things might be necessary, over time, since it is hard to see your own faults if they are quite minor. The truth sets free, so believing and holding to the message of God is key. But it needs good preaching. Blessed be the decent preacher, given the gift of it by God, and sent out to preach. It all leads to power which is like a seal sealing a letter, stamped with heavenly authority. The Holy Spirit applies it. This seal is then a joining up of those so sealed. This is how the government of God begins. This joining together creates a temple for God. Herein is then truth, truthfulness, truthful Holy Spirit power, for the worship of God, with heaven-led behaviour quite unlike our own standards of behaviour. 

Accepting the government of God

 Kingdom of God, effectively the government of God, is something to accept and enter. It entails several key things. Hearing the message of God is crucial. Believing on hearing it, this too is crucial. Then it is a matter of understanding the kinds of behaviours God teaches are wrong, and the kinds God looks for instead. This then leads to the crucial matter of quitting the wrong and doing instead the right and pleasing good God wants to be done. This is all based on holy truth. There is baptism there too. And the gifts God gives the believer of His message, for the benefit of all who likewise believe, which is centred on receiving the Holy Spirit from God. This is all part of coming to accept the government of God. It is very much centred on accepting the one on whom the message of God is centred, the Lord Jesus His Son, believing in him. It is also, crucially keeping in remembrance that His Son, Jesus Christ, died and rose again, for all the people of God to bring them together and bring about their cleansing from their sins. That is a lot of crucial elements but it all comes as part of the kingdom of God. It is a bundle. But for many it comes in steps, since nobody is perfect in understanding nor any preacher perfect in preaching and teaching it. 

For this government of God, to accept it and enter into it, it is vital to keep sound thinking, to maintain love, and to strongly keep a sense of freedom to act. It will entail putting an end to lying, learning not to give way to angry hate, ceasing from any cheating in marriage, no stealing, and most of all, learning to always love and speak truthfully to others going down this path. This all requires a determined approach, sound thinking, and fostering genuine care of others. This is all part of the benefit of this way. It is like a pearl of great price. 

Why Son of Man?

 Reading the gospels, what is the deal with Son of Man? The sons of God are celestial divine beings, which in Psalm 82 are called gods, yet they are told they will die like men, due to their failure to help the poor and weak. Death is not of the same kind  of thing for a celestial being as it is for a human. A human dies naturally. To be a son of God does not necessitate being human. In the case of the Christ, though, to suffer and die means doing so not for failure to help the poor and weak. It requires human death for sins of the people, not the Christ’s own sins. To merely be a son of God could mean being celestial and powerfully divine, but the Christ would be more. He would be the kind of human ruler who would be raised up because he is worthy and righteous and pleasing to God, therefore chosen and approved for this anointing, unlike those Psalm 82 sons of God. So the Christ is like one who comes from among the angels above, yet is human and can suffer and die, as a lamb of God for the sins of the people of God. Hence he is the Son of Man, even though seen among angels in heaven, and he is granted entry to the presence of the Father who is the Most High God. It is this kind of Christ that Jesus declared himself to be, and the Father showed it by the signs given by the Father to Jesus to do. 

Alive in body and power of spirit

 He wanted me to know he is alive, human flesh and bone. I was feeling frustrated when in my devoted love for God I was only loving what I had to think of as spirit. There was no human element to that love. My daily life was devoid of all but essential working contact with people. I was not so much lonely, but rather feeling lack of human interaction was unhealthy and damaging to my balanced spiritual life. I was lying in bed one night thinking about it. I suddenly felt the strength to earnestly ask God for human contact with Jesus, alive from the dead. It was pitch black dark. I put my hand behind the head of my bed, beyond my head position. I felt a man standing there. No doubt at all. I instantly had immense peace and fell asleep. I knew without any doubt at all it was Jesus alive and human. It must have been, I think, some time around the late 1990s or early 2000s when this happened. I went many decades never telling anyone. Eventually I told someone, only one person. A while later someone else told me that this person I had told had themselves asked to reach out to touch Jesus and he had let them do so. I do not know if it was true, but find it hard to think they could make it up. Why make up something that makes some think you are mad. I did not make up this story, and I know this. It happened. Another similar occasion happened with someone I know in circumstances by which I know with certainty it was true. Jesus stands by people’s side at night. Scripture said he did this to Paul the Apostle too, to give him strength. I can believe it so well, now from personal experience. He does do that. Yet now it is two thousand years since his resurrection and ascension to the Father. Now it is clear he is with the Father still today and living as very spiritual yet in a body, able to go where the Father sends him to go, even past closed doors, able to do what God who sends him wills that he do. I did not know this from any writings or testimonies but now I know it from experience by grace. “Ask”, he told his disciples, “that your joy may be full.”

Living not dead

 Often it is said that a dying one has gone to be with Jesus. But Jesus is not dead. And now that Jesus is with the Father, hidden from the masses, he still does things the Father tells him to do, saying things the Father tells him to say to those from whom he ceases for a time to be hidden. He is active, and the dead are not active. The death he died, millennia ago, for just a few days, soon followed with resurrection. It might confuse people to think about him being there with the Father, but it is not as someone dead. We say our loved ones have gone to be with God, but this is not the same as how Jesus is with God. Jesus lives and has audience with God as chosen by God for this, now he is alive again from the dead, forever. Being alive means being active in that life. If he works the works the Father gives him in the experience of someone loved by the Father, it is because the Father wants him to do it, telling him to do it. That is why it is said that he and the Father are one. That is why the person experiencing this is experiencing not only Jesus the Son of God, but God the Father who sent him too. Soon all will see him, not just the few who love him. For the time being, love Jesus, keep his commands and sayings, act on them in practice, and so be one of those the Father gives to experience His Son, and the Father too. It is now that we can have this. It is not about what happens to us when we die, but what happens to us when we are alive, since he is alive.

Resurrecton

 I loved visiting Larnaca in Cyprus and seeing the church of Lazarus there. It records Lazarus living there after fleeing persecution after being raised from the dead by Jesus Christ. Wow, they actually wanted to kill him so he would die the second time. That is how people can be. He is recorded living years as a bishop in Cyprus and dying the second time. The church there in Larnaca has a tomb found centuries later now empty because the body got removed and taken elsewhere. Other sites claim to be places where Lazarus died a second time, so it is uncertain which is genuine, yet the reminder of how real this resurrection by Jesus is in history helps educate us. When the Lord raises the many at his return there will be no dying twice. It will be for ever. Living because of faith in him and because he raises the believers on his return will mean having life that never ends. Lazarus was just a taster of something far better yet to happen. I find Jesus can be experienced like this today, even before his full return. It is his gift to those who keep his commands and try as far as they can to obey them. He does miracles by the working of the Father in and through him, thus showing the Father, the power, wisdom, love of the Father. Resurrection is the ultimate expression of this. That is what singles out Jesus the most. He IS the resurrection and the life. 

Economic Isolation

 Money lenders and money changers made temple life all about money and effectively robbed worship, robbing God. Today it still happens. God is robbed of worship when people find ways to make it pay for them. For a city, this can make it a lonely place. To meet in Christ’s name is made expensive. Housing costs make it necessary to put such community life to a lower priority, to make ends meet. Church groups usually require as a bare necessity the employing of a full or part time paid minister. This prices worship out of reach for most people burdened in a city with high housing costs. Jesus overturned the tables. What would he do today? "A time is coming, and in fact has come, when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me."

— John 16:32

We can each seek to focus on a relationship with God, as Jesus did, but only if we believe in and follow God, keeping Jesus Christ’s teachings. Communities once, and in rural life still might do it, allowed community life for both believers and unbelievers, which meant that children who might take a long time to find belief, or might have no way to find it, still had a sense of community belonging. In a city this is made difficult. Everything is made to be about money. So such community life is one cost of living pushed to lower priority. Worship even more so. It should not be this way. “Consider ways of encouraging each other daily.” In my opinion we might think how meeting in the name of Christ need not necessarily involve overheads of hiring a paid minister or hiring a building. The poor need to be included, and in a city most people are effectively made poor. 

Progressive Revelation II

 Progressive Revelation: Enoch, Jesus Christ and the Continuing Ministry of the Holy Spirit

Introduction: Not everything is received at once

There is a principle running throughout the Scriptures which deserves much greater attention: God does not necessarily reveal everything to everyone at once, nor are all people able to receive the same truth at the same stage of their faith.

Jesus himself acknowledged this when he said to his disciples:

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
— John 16:12

This is a remarkable statement. Jesus had more to teach them, but they were not yet ready to receive it. He promised that the Holy Spirit would come and guide them into further truth, taking what belonged to him and making it known to them (John 16:13–15).

This suggests that the ministry of Jesus did not end with his earthly teaching, nor even with his resurrection and ascension. Rather, his teaching ministry continued through the Holy Spirit.

It also gives us a way to consider the development of apostolic understanding, the use of earlier prophetic writings, and the possibility that some things revealed through the Spirit after Pentecost went beyond what Jesus had explained during his public ministry.

One particularly interesting area in which to investigate this principle is the relationship between the ancient writings attributed to Enoch and the later revelations preserved in the New Testament.

1. Jesus taught according to what people could receive

Jesus did not teach every audience in the same way.

He spoke to the crowds in parables, as they were able to hear (Mark 4:33–34). He explained matters privately to his disciples. He also took account of the different religious backgrounds and expectations of those to whom he spoke.

The Samaritan woman at the well, for example, spoke of the coming figure whom Samaritans expected to reveal all things (John 4:25). Jesus responded by identifying himself as that figure (John 4:26). Her religious background was different from that of the Jewish religious authorities, and Jesus addressed her within the context of what she understood.

Likewise, when speaking to the Sadducees about the resurrection, Jesus appealed to the Torah, quoting God's words to Moses at the burning bush (Matthew 22:23–33). He addressed their question through Scripture they recognised as authoritative.

Jesus was not simply delivering information. He was teaching people in ways appropriate to their understanding, their background and their capacity to receive.

This does not mean that he altered the truth to suit different audiences. Rather, he revealed truth progressively.

We should also remember that the New Testament writers often addressed congregations containing people from different religious and cultural backgrounds. Their letters sometimes contain teaching which assumes knowledge acquired through earlier instruction. Not every statement is an introductory explanation intended for someone encountering Christianity for the first time.

This matters when we read the New Testament today. We sometimes assume that every passage is addressed to us at the beginning of our faith, whereas the original recipients may already have received extensive teaching.

2. Peter: believing Jesus was the Christ, but not understanding his suffering

Peter provides an especially clear example of the difference between recognising a truth and understanding its full implications.

He confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). Yet when Jesus explained that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed and rise again, Peter objected.

Peter believed that Jesus was the Messiah. But his expectations of the Messiah did not accommodate suffering and death.

Jesus rebuked him because he was thinking in human rather than divine terms (Matthew 16:21–23).

This is significant. Peter was not an unbeliever. He was a leading disciple who genuinely believed in Jesus, yet he could not receive one of the central truths of the Gospel.

Only after the resurrection did Jesus explain the Scriptures to the disciples in a new way.

Luke tells us that Jesus began with Moses and all the Prophets, explaining the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27). Later, he opened their understanding so that they could understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:44–45).

But even then, the promised Holy Spirit had not yet been given.

Jesus had already told them that more remained to be revealed. The disciples had received an explanation of the Scriptures concerning his suffering and resurrection, but there was still a further ministry of the Spirit to come.

This distinction is important. The resurrection opened their understanding, but the coming of the Holy Spirit would take their understanding further.

3. The continuing teaching ministry of Christ through the Holy Spirit

At the Last Supper Jesus promised:

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.
— John 16:13

He also said that the Spirit would teach them and bring to their remembrance what he had said (John 14:26).

The Spirit's ministry was not to replace Jesus or introduce a competing message. Jesus said:

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
— John 16:14

This provides a theological framework for understanding the New Testament writings.

They contain the teaching of people who had lived with Jesus, witnessed his resurrection, received the Holy Spirit and subsequently experienced visions, revelations, prophetic utterances and other spiritual gifts.

The risen Christ continued to make things known through the Spirit.

Consider some examples.

Peter and the Gentiles

In Acts 10, Peter received a vision which challenged his understanding of the people who could be included among God's people. He subsequently recognised that God shows no partiality.

This was a major development in his understanding of the implications of the Gospel.

Paul and the Gospel

Paul insists that the Gospel he preached was not received merely through human instruction, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11–17). He also describes going away to Arabia.

His ministry demonstrates that the risen Christ could communicate further understanding after the earthly ministry of Jesus had ended.

John on Patmos

Revelation begins by describing a revelation which God gave to Jesus Christ, who communicated it through an angel to John (Revelation 1:1).

John was shown things which went far beyond what could have been learned through ordinary recollection of Jesus' earthly teaching.

These examples show that the apostolic writings were not simply records of conversations during Jesus' lifetime. They also contain teaching received through the subsequent ministry of Christ by the Holy Spirit.

We cannot assume that everything the apostles learned was written down. Their experiences and the teaching received within their communities were undoubtedly greater than the surviving written record.

4. Enoch and the witness of creation

This brings us to the ancient writings attributed to Enoch.

The opening chapters of 1 Enoch contain a striking emphasis on the natural world and its obedience to the order established by God.

In chapters 2–5, Enoch directs attention to the heavenly bodies, the seasons and the trees. The created world follows its appointed courses. Trees lose their leaves and appear to wither, yet some remain green and others put forth new leaves when their season comes.

The natural world provides a witness to the faithfulness of the Creator.

There is a moral dimension to this teaching too. Creation follows the order appointed for it, whereas human beings frequently fail to obey their Creator.

This passage came to have particular significance for me because of a spiritual experience I witnessed many years ago.

During a church service, a message was given in tongues and interpreted. The interpretation was:

Consider the trees. They put forth buds and leaves. They do so by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Two people received the same interpretation.

At the time, I did not know the connection with Enoch which I would discover later. It was only after reading the relevant passages that I recognised the remarkable correspondence.

The message had directed attention to the ordinary renewal of trees, but it attributed that renewal to the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This brings to mind several New Testament passages:

• John 1:3 declares that all things were made through the Word.
• Colossians 1:16–17 says that all things were created through Christ and that in him all things hold together.
• Hebrews 1:3 describes the Son as upholding all things by the word of his power.
• Romans 8:19–23 describes creation awaiting its liberation.
• Revelation 22:2 associates the leaves of the tree of life with the healing of the nations.

The message I witnessed seemed to bring together the Enochic observation of creation's appointed order and the New Testament revelation of Christ as the one through whom creation exists and is sustained.

It was not simply saying that Jesus could perform a miracle in nature. It pointed towards the possibility that the ordinary, continuing processes of life themselves are sustained through his authority.

5. The Great Oath in Enoch 69: the divine Name and the ordering of creation

The connection becomes more interesting when we consider 1 Enoch 69:13–25.

This passage concerns the Great Oath, its relationship with the ordering of the world, and the revelation of a great name associated with the Son of Man.

The text is difficult, and translations and interpretations differ. It is important not to pretend that every detail is straightforward.

Nevertheless, the passage brings together themes which are especially relevant to the message about the trees.

The Great Oath is associated with the preservation and ordering of creation. The passage also describes the revelation of a name in connection with the Son of Man.

One possible theological interpretation is that the Oath represents a heavenly ordinance through which the created order is maintained, with the revealed Name associated with and reinforcing its authority.

The angelic dimension is particularly significant. Enochic literature describes angels who were appointed to heavenly responsibilities, but also describes the rebellion of certain angels who transgressed their appointed order.

The Watchers' rebellion introduces disorder into the world. Against that background, the Great Oath can be understood as an expression of the inviolable order by which creation is preserved.

The interpretation I have come to consider is that the divine Name is associated with this heavenly safeguard, as a buttress to the Oath, and that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the power behind this sustaining authority.

This is an interpretation of the relationship between the Enochic passage and the Christian revelation, rather than an uncontested translation of the passage itself.

But it is a connection worth examining.

It suggests that the Messianic authority of Christ reaches much further back than his earthly ministry or his future reign. It concerns the very ordering and preservation of creation.

The message about the trees takes on a new significance in this light. Their renewal is not merely an illustration of life. It becomes a witness to the authority of Christ over the natural order.

6. The angelic rebellion and the future judgement of angels

Another connection emerges when we consider Paul's apparently brief statement in 1 Corinthians 6:2–3.

He asks the believers:

Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels?

Paul does not stop to explain this. He appears to assume that the Corinthians already know it.

This raises an interesting question: where had they learned it?

Paul had taught the Corinthians during his ministry among them (Acts 18:11). Their assemblies also included teaching, prophecy, revelation and other spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12–14).

It is therefore possible that the knowledge Paul assumes they possess had been developed through oral apostolic instruction and the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The idea also has an important Old Testament background. Daniel 7 describes judgement being given in favour of the holy ones of the Most High, who receive the kingdom.

Enochic traditions provide further background concerning the rebellion and judgement of angels.

Paul's statement is not an explicit quotation of Enoch, and we cannot establish that his readers learned the doctrine from Enochic writings. But the connection between angelic rebellion, divine judgement and the future authority of the saints is worth investigating.

The New Testament also presents Christ as the one through whom all heavenly powers were created (Colossians 1:16), and as the one who triumphs over the principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15).

The saints' future participation in judgement and reign must be understood in relation to Christ's authority.

This suggests a remarkable possibility: humanity, redeemed through Christ, is to share in a restored order which includes authority over heavenly powers.

Hebrews 2:5–8 is relevant here. It speaks of the world to come, which is not subjected to angels, and recalls the divine purpose that humanity should have dominion over creation.

7. The Millennium: a further disclosure of the coming kingdom

The Millennium is another example of a subject which deserves consideration in relation to earlier prophetic traditions and later revelation.

Enoch contains visions of judgement, the defeat of wicked powers, the vindication of the righteous and the transformation of the created order.

In 1 Enoch 90, the Animal Apocalypse describes a great judgement and the establishment of a renewed order. Chapter 91 also presents a sequence of events leading towards the final vindication of the righteous.

These visions provide an apocalyptic background to later Christian expectations.

But Revelation 20 gives a more specific disclosure.

John describes:

• Satan being bound for a thousand years.
• The saints reigning with Christ for a thousand years.
• Those who share in the first resurrection being blessed and holy.
• The subsequent release of Satan and the final judgement.

The thousand-year reign is not explicitly set out in Enoch in the same way.

Jesus had already promised his disciples that they would share in his future kingdom:

Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones.
— Matthew 19:28

Luke 22:28–30 contains a similar promise.

Paul also speaks of the saints reigning with Christ (2 Timothy 2:12), and assumes that they know they will judge the world and angels (1 Corinthians 6:2–3).

Peter speaks of the coming glory and the new heavens and new earth (2 Peter 3:13).

John's vision in Revelation brings these themes together and supplies details not given in the earlier accounts.

Christ's future reign is not an entirely new subject introduced without preparation. It develops the promises already made by Jesus and the expectations present in earlier prophetic traditions.

Whether the thousand years should be understood as a future earthly reign or in a symbolic or other sense remains a matter of Christian disagreement. But Revelation clearly provides a further disclosure of the Messiah's reign and the participation of the saints in it.

8. The coming of Christ and the timing of God's wrath

Two further subjects are closely related to this development: the circumstances and timing of Christ's coming, and the timing and character of God's wrath.

Enoch contains substantial material about the coming judgement.

In 1 Enoch 1, God comes with innumerable holy ones to execute judgement. In chapter 10, rebellious heavenly beings are bound and punished, and the earth is cleansed of wickedness. Other passages describe the judgement of kings and the powerful, and the vindication of the righteous.

These are important prophetic themes.

The New Testament develops them in relation to Jesus Christ.

Jesus speaks of his coming in glory and the gathering of the elect (Matthew 24:30–31). Paul explains the resurrection of believers and their gathering to the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). He also discusses events associated with the coming of the Lord in 2 Thessalonians 2.

Paul describes the revelation of Jesus from heaven in judgement in 2 Thessalonians 1:5–10.

Revelation gives a much fuller apocalyptic presentation through the seals, trumpets and bowls of God's wrath (Revelation 6–16), followed by the defeat of the beast and the final judgement.

Enoch anticipates judgement, but the New Testament gives a more developed account of its relationship to Christ's return, the resurrection, the vindication of believers and the final defeat of evil.

We should not assume that every chronological detail is already present in Enoch. Nor should we assume that all Christians have interpreted the sequence in Revelation in the same way.

The important point is that the New Testament contains further disclosures about subjects which earlier prophetic writings had anticipated.

9. Enoch, Jude, Peter and John

There is direct evidence that Enochic material was known and used in the early Christian writings.

Jude 14–15 explicitly attributes a prophecy to Enoch. The words closely correspond to 1 Enoch 1:9.

Second Peter 2:4 describes angels who sinned and were committed to gloomy confinement for judgement. This closely resembles the Watchers tradition found in 1 Enoch 6–16, although the relationship between the two passages and their sources is debated.

Revelation also shares important themes and imagery with Enochic apocalyptic literature: the heavenly throne, the Son of Man, the judgement of wicked powers, the vindication of the righteous and the renewal of heaven and earth.

These similarities do not prove that John directly copied Enoch. Daniel, Isaiah and Ezekiel are also essential backgrounds to Revelation.

Nevertheless, the Enochic material belongs to the religious and literary world in which early Christians understood the Messiah and the coming judgement.

It is also worth remembering that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has preserved 1 Enoch within its biblical canon, whereas most Western Christian traditions do not include it.

That difference in canonical tradition should encourage careful investigation rather than automatic dismissal or automatic acceptance of every claim made about Enoch.

10. Progressive revelation and the things not yet received

We can now return to Jesus' promise:

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
— John 16:12

The disciples had difficulty receiving even the central truth that their Messiah must suffer and die.

After the resurrection, Jesus opened their understanding of the Scriptures. But the Holy Spirit had still not yet been given.

When the Spirit came, the apostles entered a further stage of understanding. Peter received visions. Paul received revelations. John was shown things on Patmos. The Christian assemblies experienced prophecy, teaching and other spiritual gifts.

It is therefore reasonable to consider whether the Spirit also enabled believers to understand older prophetic traditions more fully.

Enoch is a particularly interesting example.

Its writings contain themes concerning the Son of Man, the angelic rebellion, the divine ordering of creation, the judgement of the wicked and the vindication of the righteous.

Some of these themes appear again in the New Testament, now understood in relation to Jesus Christ.

It is possible that some of the later apostolic understanding involved recognising the significance of prophetic material which had previously been only partially understood.

We cannot demonstrate that every apostolic teaching about the Millennium, the timing of Christ's coming, the wrath of God or the judgement of angels came through an explicit revelation explaining Enoch.

But neither should we assume that the apostles' understanding was restricted to what Jesus had explicitly explained during his earthly ministry.

The Spirit was promised to lead them into further truth.

11. Testing spiritual revelation

There is an important qualification.

Progressive revelation does not mean that every new claim made in the name of Jesus must be accepted as true.

The New Testament itself instructs believers to test spiritual utterances (1 Corinthians 14:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:19–22; 1 John 4:1).

The Spirit who leads into further truth glorifies Christ (John 16:14). Any proposed revelation must therefore be considered in relation to the character, teaching and work of Jesus.

Nor does a connection between Enoch and the New Testament prove that every passage in Enoch has equal authority or that every interpretation of it is correct.

But it does mean that Enoch should not be dismissed without examination. Jude's explicit use of it alone gives Christians reason to take its prophetic traditions seriously.

The task is to examine the texts carefully, distinguish what they actually say from what we infer, and consider how their themes relate to the apostolic witness to Christ.

Conclusion: Christ continues to make himself known

The central theme running through all these considerations is that Jesus Christ remains the source of the truth revealed by God, while the Holy Spirit continues his teaching ministry.

The disciples did not understand everything during Jesus' earthly ministry. They did not understand everything immediately after the resurrection. Jesus himself had promised that the Spirit would lead them further.

The New Testament writings reflect this development.

They contain the testimony of people who had known Jesus in the flesh, witnessed his resurrection, received the Spirit and subsequently experienced further revelations.

The relationship between Enoch and the New Testament provides a fascinating area in which to investigate this process. Earlier prophetic traditions anticipated the coming judgement, the authority of the Son of Man, the defeat of rebellious heavenly powers and the renewal of creation. The apostolic writings disclose these matters in the light of Christ, sometimes adding details which earlier writings had not supplied.

The message about the trees which I witnessed many years ago has become particularly meaningful in this context:

Consider the trees. They put forth buds and leaves. They do so by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It directs attention to the natural world, just as Enoch's opening chapters do. But it identifies the power of Jesus Christ with the continuing renewal of creation.

For me, this illustrates the possibility that an earlier prophetic witness can contain a truth whose fuller significance becomes apparent only through later revelation.

Perhaps we should remember that the limits of what a particular generation, church or Christian tradition has been prepared to receive are not necessarily the limits of what God has made known.

Jesus said that there were things his disciples could not yet bear.

He promised that the Holy Spirit would guide them further.

That promise deserves to be taken seriously.

The truth is not different from one generation to another. But the understanding, reception and appreciation of that truth may develop as Christ, through the Holy Spirit, leads people further into it.

(— From the output of a ChatGPT chat. Prompted by Stephen D Green in a chat with ChatGPT, November 2026. https://chatgpt.com/share/6af32618-ee20-83ed-9617-24dc09c29e11 )