Historical Jesus and His Crucifixion?

Did Jesus exist historically? Well, it seems John the Baptist is a historic person but it is fairly sure he would not even be historically known for anything if he had not baptised Jesus of Nazareth. So both must be historical. But there is more to it than that. Did Jesus actually die on a cross? John the Baptist made the future sacrifice of ‘the lamb of God’ his major message it seems. He did not live to see it. His own death is a historically attested event because it coincided with a historic war between Herod and the father of his first wife whose replacement wife infamously asked for John’s head on a platter. If Jesus had not died on a cross in a way consistent with something sacrificial then nobody would have bothered remembering John the Baptist. Yet they even kept some bones of John the Baptist which seem to have survived as fragments analysed by scientists recently. So he must have been vindicated by what happened to Jesus. It must have been either death on a cross or something very similar. Stands to reason - not just mine but historians down the ages.

Is having a sexual partner ‘living in sin’?

Is it ‘living in sin’ to have a partner with whom you are not married? Do scriptures sanction having a concubine or condemn it? The scriptures indirectly sanction it. They say David’s only sin was in the matter of Bathsheba. Plus they speak of Absolom going into David’s hareem. So by deduction they indirectly say David did not sin by having a hareem of concubines. “For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not failed to keep any of the LORD's commands all the days of his life--except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.” 1 Kings 15:5 

It is not polygamy to have concubines - the ancient morality we see in scriptures is still preserved in non-western cultures and it allows for concubines. So did the Law of Moses. Leviticus 18:18 “"Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.” Having a rival wife is not even condemned if she is sister to existing wife - only sex with one while other is alive is condemned. Likewise Leviticus 18 lists many kinds of sexual sin but never forbids concubines and polygamy. It forbids things we know are immoral quite exhaustively so if concubinage were immoral and sinful it would be listed here. Christians add to the law to condemn it. They imply falsely it is unbiblical. False teaching IS unbiblical. Fornication is really about sex with prostitutes, nothing to do with ‘sex outside of marriage’. Having a partner or a concubine or being a concubine is not ‘living in sin’. Even having several concubines is not condemned in scripture. Christian false teachers condemn it and call it ‘unbiblical’ and ‘living in sin’ but false teaching is not biblical and is sinful and is to be rebuked strongly.

Church Life

CHURCH - IN OR OUT

The Holy Spirit does do that blessed work of God especially on some blessed people who are part of a church as they gather in church. It is remarkable how important being part of church life is even still today. People drop church out of their lives these days often citing hypocrisy of church people as their reason. The sad thing about that is they are not wrong - hypocritical churches are a bane of our times. Often people go to church much of their lives - decades - never hoping to see the Holy Spirit working like scriptures say He worked in ancient times. Yet for some who are receivers and doers of the purest gospel there are times of refreshing to their souls in their churches where if you look closely and with discernment you might be able to see that God is there like He was in times of the Christ’s first apostles like scripture recorded. Yet even outside of such churches - so many lack a chance to go to such churches - still the Holy Spirit works the blessings of Christ - especially in occassional groups of kindred believers coming together socially but sometimes when believers are on their own too. Elijah was all alone but still heard the still small voice. Elishah had plenty of kindred company of prophets and saw endless miracles but Elijah is the one who stood at Jesus’ side on the mountain of Christ’s transfiguration along with Moses surrounded by apostles. 

One Side of the Moon

Looking at the Moon, do you ever consider how you only ever see one side of it? There is a hidden side with far fewer large craters. Never in history has it been facing us. What is the cause of this? It is simply and astonishingly that the Moon spins at EXACTLY the same speed as it’s orbit of the Earth so the same side always faces Earth. If it span such that one cycle of the Moon’s spin took either ever slightly more time or ever so slightly less time than its orbit of Earth then over time we would start to see the other side of it. Consider how such clockwork precision shows God’s hand in it.

The prophetic Book of Enoch chapter 2: “1. Observe ye everything that takes place in the heaven, how they do not change their orbits, ⌈and⌉ the luminaries which are in the heaven, how they all rise and set in order each in its season, and transgress not against their appointed order. 2. Behold ye the earth, and give heed to the things which take place upon it from first to last, ⌈how steadfast they are⌉, how ⌈none of the things upon earth⌉ change, ⌈but⌉ all the works of God appear ⌈to you⌉. 3. Behold the summer and the winter, ⌈⌈how the whole earth is filled with water, and clouds and dew and rain lie upon it⌉⌉.”

Calling Himself the Son of Man

CALLING HIMSELF THE SON OF MAN

When you call yourself the ‘Son of Man’ as Jesus of Nazareth clearly did (as all the Gospel accounts make clear) it begs the question Why? There is only really one credible knowledgable answer to that question which is that the Son of Man passages in the Book of Enoch were well known at that time two thousand years ago. The only other messianic prophecy mentioning the Son of Man is in the Book of Daniel and there is an allusion to a young man messiah in Second Esdras. These would not be enough of a foundation on which to build an understanding of Jesus of Nazareth’s identity so it must be that the Book of Enoch with the parables sections mentioning the Son of Man existed and were well known at that time. This authenticates the Ethiopian Ge’ez version of the Book of Enoch we have translated into English today.

Violence

VIOLENCE

When God once said to me “Israel has sinned!” and showed me His sign like an eagle over the local church I believe He might have meant the complicity of His Church, His People, in the violent genocides that unbeknown to me then had just been happening in Africa. (This was at the end of 1994 and start of 1995.) The response of God was the wars in the Balkans and then later the Gulf and the sudden increase in the UK and Europe and the USA of mass survelillance and spying and monitoring the accompanied those wars. God does not condone atrocities and does not turn a blind eye to complicity even when it is His people who are complicit. Enoch said this (chapter 91):

“Love uprightness and walk therein.

And draw not nigh to uprightness with a double heart,

And associate not with those of a double heart,

But walk in righteousness, my sons.

And it shall guide you on good paths,

And righteousness shall be your companion.

For I know that violence must increase on the earth,

And a great chastisement be executed on the earth,

And all unrighteousness come to an end:

Yea, it shall be cut off from its roots,

And its whole structure be destroyed.

And unrighteousness shall again be consummated on the earth,

And all the deeds of unrighteousness and of violence

And transgression shall prevail in a twofold degree.”

God punishes severely those who mete out severe violence. We see Ebola on the increase after terrible times of violence in the Congo region. Exactly five years ago we saw worse Ebola plague in West Africa after terrible times of violence there. Do not let yourselves be complicit in extreme violence. God does not ignore it, especially when it is caused by His Church.

Fallen Humans

FALLEN HUMANS

https://www.wired.com/story/these-sumptuous-images-give-deep-space-data-an-old-world-look/ 

Look at these images of the orbits of the planets and asteroids. They keep their paths through space because they obey the commands God gave them and honour the name of the Son of Man whose name has power over them. The Holy Spirit through Enoch wrote: (Book of Enoch chapter 2:1-2)

“Observe ye everything that takes place in the heaven, how they do not change their orbits, ⌈and⌉ the luminaries which are in the heaven, how they all rise and set in order each in its season, and transgress not against their appointed order. Behold ye the earth, and give heed to the things which take place upon it from first to last, ⌈how steadfast they are⌉, how ⌈none of the things upon earth⌉ change, ⌈but⌉ all the works of God appear ⌈to you⌉. “

Yet we humans are not so steadfast. Yes we are commanded by God to love God and put all we have and are into doing so constantly but we lose our zeal and waver in our devotion. Yes we are under the power of the Son of Man’s name and teachings yet we lose sight of those teachings and knowledge of His name fades within us and eludes our conversations and laws and teachings of our children. As the Holy Spirit put it through Enoch: (chapter 5:4-6a) “But ye--ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord, But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words. With your impure mouths against His greatness. Oh, ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace. Therefore shall ye execrate your days, And the years of your life shall perish, And ⌈the years of your destruction⌉ shall be multiplied in eternal execration, And ye shall find no mercy. In those days ye shall make your names an eternal execration unto all the righteous, And by you shall ⌈all⌉ who curse, curse, And all the sinners ⌈and godless⌉ shall imprecate by you,”

We need to let the Holy Spirit convict us and convince us of sin. We need to reach out to the Son of Man in our hearts and trust He is and lives forever and hold to His teachings and the truth shall set us free. We need to look at those planets and asteroids how they continue without wavering and know that it is by the power of the name of the Son of Man that they do so. It is the name by which we must be saved.

What better healing than resurrection

WHAT BETTER HEALING THAN RESURRECTION

“... that Christ would suffer. As first through resurrection from the dead, He is about to preach light both to our people and to the Gentiles."

— Acts 26:23

“... the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.”

— Revelation 1:18

The Son of Man has suffered and has a message to preach out of it, having even died but been resurrected, and He preaches that it is all worth it because now He is alive forever and so much has been given Him by God through that experience. He now has all the light needed in how to overcome both death and Hades (the place of the dead). He preaches this light to us all.

Before the Big Bang?

BEFORE THE BIG BANG?

Now that we know about the existence of dark matter and dark energy we should consider the possibility that dark energy and dark matter were not a result of the Big Bang but existed before the Big Bang and fueled it and fed into it. They could result in further such events, perhaps different kinds, in future. We know little of such things but we know we do not know. We should now consider that what we commonly call ‘spirit’ might be like dark matter and dark energy. It might have existed before the Big Bang and to have caused the Big Bang and been materially of such a nature that it was unaffected by the Big Bang. We call it ‘dark’ because of its immunity to the affects of visible matter and visible energy. Now we have long had in human history a belief in divine spirits and we can now add a sentient aspect to the things we call dark energy and dark matter. Yet instead of being dark these spirits are pure light - ‘light’ in the sense of the opposite of dark. What do we mean by ‘dark’ in ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’? They are dark in the sense that they provide no interactions with observable matter and energy. They are dark because nothing about them facilitates our ability to observe them scientifically. That is not to say they cannot ever be discovered since already we have discovered them, e.g. by their observable affect on the speed of the edges of galaxies. They do not provide us with particles we can monitor because they pass through millions of stars and planets without any interactions so likewise they pass through our instruments without any interactions. Now we have opportunity to consider that there can be ‘dark’ sentient beings such as what have long been known as divine spirits which are likewise able to pass through the matter and energy we observe scientifically without interactions - without leaving any observable trace and without themselves being affected materially. We might call these ‘dark beings’ yet they are light because they are able to make themselves known to us and do indeed make themselves known to us. They are pure light in the sense they make themselves known truthfully. Now we should also consider, metaphysically, that there must have been a time when laws of physics started to exist. Human reasoning seems to be behind these laws because they are comprehensible to humans. So before they had existence in reality they seem to have had existence in thought and reason. So sentient spirits existing before the Big Bang and were not affected materially by it, just like dark matter and dark energy might not have been affected by it, these spirits seem to have included sufficient qualities of humanness that their influences on the results of the Big Bang are understandable by our human minds. This leads to possibility our human minds we influenced to be as they are by such humanlike spirit or spirits. Now these spirits with humanlike qualities are not ‘dark’ in the sense of offering us no affordance to know them but on the contrary they do make themselves known to us and are well known by some of us. One in particular is especially known to some as the Son of Man apparently because of these very human qualities but also because this Son of Man has historically come in flesh and blood as Jesus of Nazareth called the Anointed One. He spoke of having come to make known the highest one of these spirits calling this spirit the Father, His own Father and God.

Matter is observable because it is affected by other matter. The sentient divine spirits’ matter is not affected and so we call it ‘dark’ because we cannot force it to show itself to scientific instruments. They can affect our matter and they do so which means they are known and knowable on their terms so they are really light.

When we experience their power it makes sense: They can act without affect on any matter and energy around except the matter and energy they deliberately want to affect.

Our fallen world power structures are but a poorer reflection of these invisible universe power structures. “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven”

Maybe the resurrection is going to unite both universes

Ebola Crosses Border

EBOLA CROSSES BORDER

As the DR Congo Ebola outbreak crosses its first border into Uganda it is time to reflect on what happens if it carries on like the previous big outbreak and around September 2019 reaches other continents such as Europe and the Americas. What causes such disasters? Globalisation of sin and love of money causes globlisation of plagues. People come to your door seeking your support and participation in their big potentially global political plans but behind their apocalyptic horse of economics comes a pale horse of death and the underworld places of suffering. There is one widereaching force we should welcome into our homes who offers hope of being spared this doom and He is the unique Son of Man approved by God to be followed by all. Let Him in but leave the globalisers outside.

So Precious

Perhaps the greatest truth the Book of Enoch shares with us in all those wonderful passages about the Son of Man (chapters 37 to 63) is how precious this Son of Man was, in Enoch’s time and before and after, over milllennia, to God the Lord of Spirits. It tells how delighted God was in this Son of Man who He anointed and set apart from all angels and men and who God hid away from all but a few. God was keeping this beloved righteous and faithful son away from public knowledge and corruption. Of everything that God had in all the universe He has made, His Son, the Son of Man is most cherished of all. This is a tremendous service Enoch has provided in recording all this because it tells us two things that Enoch might not at that time have even known himself. Firstly it tells us what an overwhelmingly great price God paid for a sacrifice for our sins: The one most precious member of His heavenly family so dearly loved from before time, the Son of Man, is the one He sent to suffer and die, and on the third day rise again. Secondly, in telling us how special this Son of Man was to the Lord of Spirits, Enoch reveals the height and breadth and depth of the love God has for each one of us to have paid this beloved Son for the ransom for our wretched souls. Other scriptures touch on this but none in quite as vivid depth of expression of true prophetic words as the Book of Enoch. God be praised forever!

‘They have the scriptures’

‘THEY HAVE THE SCRIPTURES’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_man_and_Lazarus

The parable told by the Son of Man called ‘Rich man and Lazarus” is telling makind a lot about the Book of Enoch and how important it is to read it. The poor man named Lazarus went to be with Abraham in heaven when he died while a rich man who never helped him went to a place where he could see Lazarus and Abraham but from a distance and he was in a hellish place. The lesson relates how the rich suffering deceased man asked Abraham to send warning to the brothers the man left still alive to warn them to live such that they did not go to the hellish place when they died. All this relates to teachings about the afterlife only found explicitly in the Book of Enoch which was regarded as scripture. Then comes the telling part: Abraham replied to the formerly rich now deceased man “They have the scriptures”. So here the teaching of the Son of Man is that the Book of Enoch is not only scripture but is scripture vitally important to read and heed because of its warning about the afterlife and how to live to avoid immense suffering in it. The man had told Abraham that this man’s rich brothers would heed a resurrected man coming to speak to them and warn them even though they ignored scriptures like the Book of Enoch. Abraham replied “If they do not listen to the law and prophets they will not heed even if a man rises from the dead.” This teaching places the Book of Enoch in the category of the scriptures called the Prophets. It is sacred writing written by a prophet and contains prophecy in written form. Ignore it at your peril.

Miracles, Healings, Wonders, Lessons

God works miracles and healings among those who believe and trust God because they let it sink in that God raised from the dead His Son who died for each and every one of us: applying to themselves the love it shows God has for you after His Son died for your sins. This way God becomes Father to you and you can call Him Daddy in your heart. These who believe have miracles worked among them.

Sumerian Texts and the First Kings of Civilisation

In Roman times a Christian writer who knew Jesus (possible his biological brother) wrote of the ancient prophet called Enoch as being a true prophet, seventh in line from Adam, in real history. This disciple, Jude, among the first disciples of the Jesus Christ, has been so respected by Christians that his epistle (The Epistle of Jude) has been considered sacred to the extent it has been included in the Bible these past two thousand years. Yet is it at all feasible that his statements about Enoch were truthfully written? Does the concept of sacred scripture being actually true really stack up in this case? Archaeology might help answer this question. Archaeology of civilisation origins is illuminated by the success of translating Sumerian cuneiform writings from 3400 to 2400 BC although this has been tough and slow and some success has only happened recently. Several very important texts written around 2200 BC being translated from original cuneiform texts (extant texts as they are called because they are the actual physical texts written in those ancient times) are called Sumerian King Lists. Some of these record kings from the time of Enoch and the cities they made their capitals. One such king, the seventh in this dawn of history period, is a man described in other texts as having ascended to heaven with the angels and learned from them. Surely this is Enoch. His name in the texts is sometimes written En-men-dur-ana and sometimes Enmenduranki (this could have been shortened to Enoch over time). His capital was Sippar. The king that followed was Ubara-Tutu who another even more ancient text called the Instruction of Sharappak says was grandfather to the man who took some survivors into an ark when the world flooded who Sumerians named Ziusudra who was of course Noah. Ubura-Tutu must have been Methuselah son of Enoch. He had the city called Sharappak as his capital, according to the Sumerian King Lists. The Sumerian King Lists give large numbers for the periods those kings who were kings before a great flood (Noah’s flood as we call it) ruled, which traditions say were numbers of years which make ridiculously long reign lengths so these numbers might mean days. The archaeology shows these kings must have ruled prior to around 2900 or 2500 BC, the last of the kings (most lists say Ubara-Tutu) ruling up until that time. So the end of the period of these pre-flood kings is somewhere between 2900 and 2500 BC but there is less agreement about the beginning of these king’s period. The first two kings in the lists are associated with the city of Eridu, a city well known to archaeology. The first listed king (Alulim, who was possibly later known as Adapa who today is known as Adam) had a reign which started when Eridu was quite a major city around 3600 BC. So it really is feasible that Jude wrote truthfully about Enoch and Adam being historical real people and Enoch being a prophet “seventh from Adam”. Jude may indeed have been exercising good judgment and true, holy inspiration in writing confidently asserting such things. The reputation of sacred scipture is in this case intact as is the judgment of Christians these past two thousand years in regarding Jude’s epistle as sacred scripture worthy of sitting in the Bible. Furthermore, the fact that Jude quoted a prophecy of Enoch found only in the Book of Enoch known and highly regarded as scripture too in Jude’s time supports the belief of more and more people today that the Book of Enoch is genuine truly ancient holy writ. Refs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_King_List https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructions_of_Shuruppak

Among us Today?

AMONG US TODAY?

Enoch long ago dreamt prophetically about angels in his father’s days (in the Stone Age) as stars and humans (of the Stone Age) as cattle and the angels sinning and living among humans:

Enoch 86

“And again I saw with mine eyes as I slept, and I saw the heaven above, and behold a star fell from heaven...

...and behold I saw many stars descend and cast themselves down from heaven to that first star, and they became bulls amongst those cattle and pastured with them ⌈amongst them⌉.”

THIS SPELT UNPRECEDENTED TROUBLE ON EARTH

Enoch 68

“And after that my grandfather Enoch gave me the teaching of all the secrets in the book in the Parables which had been given to him, and he put them together for me in the words of the book of the Parables. And on that day Michael answered Raphael and said: 'The power of the spirit transports and makes me to tremble because of the severity of the judgement of the secrets, the judgement of the angels: who can endure the severe judgement which has been executed, and before which they melt away?' And Michael answered again, and said to Raphael: 'Who is he whose heart is not softened concerning it, and whose reins are not troubled by this word of judgement (that) has gone forth upon them because of those who have thus led them out?' And it came to pass when he stood before the Lord of Spirits, Michael said thus to Raphael: 'I will not take their part under the eye of the Lord; for the Lord of Spirits has been angry with them because they do as if they were the Lord. Therefore all that is hidden shall come upon them for ever and ever; for neither angel nor man shall have his portion (in it), but alone they have received their judgement for ever and ever.'”

NOT JUST A STONE AGE PROBLEM

PROPHETIC WORDS OF THE SON OF MAN:

Mark 13:25

“... the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”

Revelation 6:13

“... and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.”

Revelation 9:1

“The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.”

Revelation 12:4

“[The dragon’s] tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.”

Boundary Between Two Emerging Empires

BOUNDARY BETWEEN TWO EMERGING EMPIRES

There are three present or near future empires mentioned in the apocalyptic prophecies and two are geographically a reflection of past empires and likely to be important in the coming decades - Revelation calls one the Beast (empire) of the leopard, lion and bear (Balkans, Iraq and Iran) and the other the Beast (empire) associated with the Babylon the Great city (city of Rome). They are neighbours and there seems to be a border between them called by historians the Jireček Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jireček_Line . It is believed that Roman (Rome-origin) and Greek (Balkan-origin) empires of ancient times till today overlapped but with a rough border of this line. It might be of growing importance as the modern counterparts of these Beast apocalyptic empires emerge.