The importance of the age of the Book of Enoch

 The great five thousand year age of the Book of Enoch is so vitally important because through it, with faith in the veracity of it to which Jesus and Jude and Peter testified, the picture is given us in the perspective of the millennia, of the steadfastness of Jesus Himself. He IS. The same yesterday, from ancient times, and today, and indeed forevermore. This Jesus, the Logos, the word of God, we must believe in. Or we die in our sins. 

When Jesus (John 8 ) told us of the steadfastness of the Son of Man (Himself) the immediate response of intelligent hearers was the objection because of His age of not even fifty years. How could Jesus show Himself as an example and source of the kind of enduring steadfast persistence in unsinning righteousness for living as children of God into aeons in the future if He had only Himself lived less than fifty years. He explained that “Before Abraham was born, I am”. Yet it gets misunderstood (although the Pharisees understood it well enough to try stoning Him in response). The Book of Enoch reveals the Son of Man being there with God in times when Enoch was taken up to heaven such that Enoch could be saved any resulting desolate loneliness and lack of righteous consolation by the fact he was going up to that Son of Man. This reveals just how very long Jesus has been steadfastly righteous and sinless. So long that we can hope for Him to be thousands of years from now just the same still, able to be a sure repose for those He saves.  So the Holy Spirit goes to the trouble of completing this revelation for us today, having started it in Enoch’s time and having been privy to it beginning before God made all things and put all things under His governing power. I too can witness to this having been revealed to me also, by this Holy Spirit, bringing even me into the picture too. And witnessing that Jesus indeed has not changed in His character, sinlessness and steadfast teachings. 

God’s Christianity

 God’s Christianity. God really likes His Son and always has done and puts all His teachings into Him and always has done since before Creation. This is the mystery, that God made all there is about real and true Christianity before God made Creation and all things. It is not new. Christianity was with God before the beginning of time. It has been the creation of God, the word of God, with God all through time. Go to heaven in 3000 BC, like Enoch did, and you find Christianity there. The crucifixion cross sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The resurrection of this Son of God. Even the manifestation in a spiritual sense of Christ thousands of years before this Son of Man, this Elect One came in the flesh. All there with God. Heaven has always been Christian. The Book of Enoch reveals this and the Holy Spirit presents it to us.

This is really about the Name (teachings, reputation, everything stood for, which has authority) of the Son of God which is there with God before time began, just as the Son is with God there before time began. 

Elohim

 Elohim 

A term reflecting the ancient world practice of having a kind of pantheon of gods for each nation. God merely used the existing concept and made it clear that He Himself is the only member of the Israelites’ pantheon of gods. 

So, say for Egypt (ancient), its Elohim (pantheon) would be Osiris, Horus, Amun, Isis, and others. Whereas for Israel its Elohim is (should be) Yahweh alone. 

An analogy would be if an absolute monarch said to a country “I am your political party” even though ‘party’ implied a group of people.

Fitting in

If we believe the Book of Enoch is true scripture, how does it affect how we fit in with believers? Pressure to conform?

Most Jewish, Christian or Islamic religions or denominations today are quite like the Pharisee sect of early church times. Amazes me that my local churches would all put huge pressure on me to conform to this implicit Pharisee-like sect by only accepting 66 books or a similar number. If they don’t individually apply this force, they will collectively use the collection money to hire someone to apply it. It is almost automatically a part of attending church. I deny their authority to do this. Jesus is Lord. Jesus authors our faith.

Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Foster resilience. Invest time in furthering this faith, to bolster it constantly. 

Another Counsellor

 Once as I meditated on a verse I thought might be way to explain what was being fulfilled around me I had no certainty but just a hunch. Then a voice whispered a bible reference. I looked it up and read the chapter and there at the end was a cross reference in the margin to the verse on which I was meditating. The meaning was clear. The Holy Spirit is so very great as a teacher and guide into all truth. All He said was “Daniel 3” yet it led to certainty of truth.

Notes on Tartarus and Hades (Sheol) - places or states we now call Hell

The ancient teacher Enoch (Enmendanki) taught around 3000 BC about what happens after death: Perhaps even before the earliest pyramids. Beliefs concerning the afterlife or underworld have persisted from that time till the present in many civilised cultures with remarkably little diversity. Egyptians with Anubis weighing hearts of souls before determining destinations. Greeks had same concept of underworld with Pluto governing it and of course the river Styx. Sumerians had the underworld as a geographic place with an entrance near Eridu. The Adapa legend sees Adapa entering into the regions of gods by way of a tunnel in a mountain guarded by some of his descendant chief elders. Abraham did not differ in his beliefs on such things and he and his patriarchal grandchildren are recorded as having blessed the Book of Enoch for its teachings. Moses too learned such things and did not contradict them and there is the reference to Azazel who Enoch implied ended up buried in Dudain, which might likely be the desert near where the Exodus took the Israelites so the scapegoat might literally have been sent off towards where Azazel was (is) incarcerated. It seems Enoch’s teachings to a great extent formed the basics of most civilised religions till Roman times.  A word used by Hellenistic theists for a destination of the dead was Tartarus and a geographic place (or places) is implied but think how we speak of prison. We say a particular statesman might be in charge of imprisonment or a particular person went to prison or spent some time in prison, without implying any particular place. In some cases it might imply a particular place locally to say you visited the prison. Likewise Tartarus in some contexts might mean a state of incarceration with no specific geographic place implied, as with angel Uriel’s status in charge of Tartarus. This place might not be place of the dead but a place for rogue angels. It could mean spiritual incarcerations generally, whatever the place. Or in the Book of Enoch it (or whatever was later translated as Tartarus in Greek) might imply a specific place known to the contemporaries of Enoch (perhaps because of his teachings). In the case of angels being bound in Tartarus it might again imply prison-like incarceration generally. Yet other contexts might speak of a specific Tartarus, such as Sheol where all the dead are gathered in a partitioned underground complex. So through history roughly the same teachings were persisted by most civilised cultures as exist in early Christianity and contemporary Hebrew and Hellenistic Jewish sects. These beliefs are still present in Christianity and Judaism and indeed Islam, etcetera today but the idea of “going to heaven” after death has somewhat superseded them in popular theistic cultures. 

Living charitably

 If you rely on God’s charitable love, you find it is real and knowable and known. It is renowned so much that someone famously once wrote “God is charitable love. Whoever lives in charitable love lives in God.” Living charitably and lovingly is how best to discern the reality and existence of God. 

Living waters

 We live in a time of restrictions placed on us by mere men without consultation with God. The prophet who has not sat in God’s counsel is a false prophet. We can leave this behind and hold to Jesus’ actual teachings we find in the gospels. He embraced scriptures outside human restrictions placed on believers today. The true scriptures are brought to light by the Holy Spirit clarifying what Jesus truly said. “As the scripture says, out of him will flow rivers of living water” 

Enoch wrote: “And in that place I saw the fountain of righteousness

Which was inexhaustible:

And around it were many fountains of wisdom;

And all the thirsty drank of them,

And were filled with wisdom,

And their dwellings were with the righteous and holy and elect.” 

This is true scripture in line with Lord Jesus’ teachings. The rivers of living water attest to it.

Did a historical Enoch write the Book of Enoch?

 Is the Book of Enoch written by a historic person? Enoch? In Roman times Enoch, Noah and Moses were still considered historical. By the 1700s that historicity was being questioned. By the 1800s it was so much denied that by the end of that century Nietzsche could write  “God is dead, God is murdered”. So historicity evidence and belief in it seems to take around 3500 years to disappear. In Enoch’s case, almost 3000 years after he wrote his the first of his writings he was still considered the author of the scriptures that bear his name, those parts which are attributed to him (other parts were added by his son and great grandson too). But 500 years further on and the doubts crept in. That was around 400 AD. Yet the Holy Spirit testimony through the Lord Jesus and also through Jude, brother of Jesus, and later through many others, is that Enoch did write the main parts of the Book of Enoch translated for us today. They are holy scripture and their historicity was clearly believed at the time of Christ Jesus’s ministry and those first followers and apostles and later leaders in the first few centuries of the Church. Even Wikipedia acknowledges that the Ethiopic Christians who preserve the book in their biblical canon will hold it true that Enoch is its author and historical.

Mark of 666

 If you lived in China or India and knew the Revelation Apocalypse prophecy you might think the 666 mark is already here. Social credit in China. Aadhaar in India. These are trials on a local but huge scale, as technology allows a system to eventually be developed to help track down those who refuse a mark of the future global pseudo-religious cult once it comes. In my childhood my classmates mocked my belief in the prophecies of Revelation because they said a global way to enforce something and execute those who refused it could not happen. Now it can. Does not mean it is imminent. Lots prophesied has to happen first. But the technology is possible. Already RFID and Aadhaar show how a non-adherent can technically be singled out as an enemy or non-participant. Religious objectors can be refused social benefits and food. The cancel culture shows there is a growing political will for it too. The US Democrats can sweep every country into their schemes, as can WEF. So the makings are there and no longer funny and the mockery target of scorners. It is no laughing matter now. But it is some way off, I think. 

BUT...

First the temple has to be built and half the world destroyed.

The Temple is almost ready to be started. A Sanhedrin is formed. Temple articles are made. Still several years away, it seems. Could be done quickly though. 

We are getting told by WHO and WEF about global plagues which could wipe out populations in biblical way. Add wars and global outbreaks of violence, plus continental scale food shortages. Plus Sahara growing. Then comes fires like forrest fires of Australia and California but on global scale. Third of trees destroyed worldwide, it seems. 

Plus there is the rise of the first Beast - something like the Shiite Crescent: Simultaneous with building of the so-called Third Temple. Then the two witnesses. All this plus a mega earthquake on global scale perhaps a magma wave going around the world. 

Ways the Book of Enoch helps towards salvation

Ways the Book of Enoch helps towards salvation in ways not clearly covered by other scriptures read by the Jews in Christ’s times:

1. Places of the dead are more precisely described in the Book of Enoch - not just Sheol.

2. Angels are not supposed to marry. The Book of Enoch tells us this.

3. Angels took human wives and had offspring with them. This is described (and is unambiguous compared to Genesis 6).

4. The Oath is how the angels control creation and it is now linked to the name of the Son of Man.

5. It shows the power even before creation of the Son of Man’s name.

6. The preexistence of the Christ, even before Abraham was born, is made unambiguous when it tells us that Enoch (some say Noah) was taken up to the Son of Man (the Christ) years before the Flood.

7. The planning by God of the future of the children of Israel is laid out in full, showing that it was all planned out by God even before the time of Abraham, even before the time of Noah and it is evident how this plan has worked out precisely. It even shows the timing of Jesus’ first coming. 

8. It clearly describes the Christ as being the Son of God, acknowledged as “My Son” by God since ancient times, even before the time of Abraham. (Ch 105) 

9. It foretells elect ones being given knowledge of all of Creation, possibly foretelling the Geonic Schools and the insight behind the Babylonian Talmud. 

10. It warns of even the ‘sheep’ being thrown into the lake of fire if they are still blind when the Lord comes in judgement. 

11. It tells how blindness of the ‘sheep’ is linked to forsaking of the house of God or building a polluted house.

12. It tells of those who will open the eyes of many of the blind sheep (such as the ‘great horn of one of the sheep’). 

13. It describes how the Holy Spirit will well up like a fountain of water of wisdom within those who adhere to the teachings of the Son of Man and stay with Him.

14. It foretells that the destinations of souls will be determined by the Elect One, the Son of Man.

15. It explains how even the mightiest people can fail morally by living by trust in riches and strength rather than by accepting the Holy Spirit and relying on teachings coming from God.

The evidence of the cross

The cross was always a symbol of a sacrifice by a mediator for sins or debts. This was true long before the crucifixion started being used by Romans. The cross now symbolises Christ and so it is evidence of Someone very big who can transcend time and have very long term purposes and carry out very long term plans beyond the scale of human lifetimes.

Faith and hope produced by God

 God made available a faith only He can put within us and when He raised Jesus from the dead who died for you He produced hope too.

So many church denominations

 So many different church denominations. There is no one denomination. There are mostly influences of Jewish Sadducee and Pharisee sects on the Western denominations. Seems strange yes? But looking into the history of Western Christianity, that is what you find. Jesus was neither and Pharisee nor a Sadducee. So if you encounter Jesus, do not be surprised if He leads you away from them, into truth. That is what happened with me. I also learned that churches too easily tolerate unrepentant sinners and fail to shun when they should do. I was deeply caught in sin for years but never even rebuked in church for it. They should have excluded me to some extent, but with an open door for me to return if I repented. Maybe even so today, I do not know. We have all wandered so far we no longer recognise sin as sin. When Christ judges sin it can even end in death. In extreme cases if the sinner is too entrenched. Seen that happen. So it is not all about doctrine. Many doctrines are wrong in all denominations. It is about belief in Christ being same yesterday and today, and into eternity in the future, and about holding to His teachings and practicing them and finding freedom from sin by God’s spirit power. Then loving as one family of those whose faith is formed in them by God. So I do not see denominations. I look for the faith which God forms in certain people’s hearts and the outcomes of that.

Church

 A church is just a circle in the teachings of Christ. If Christ’s teachings are central in the circle you are in, you are in a church.

The scriptures

 If you don’t read the scriptures, how will you understand when you come across the resurrection? The truth is out there.

God Reflected

 When you see a reflection you do not need to see who or what is reflected directly because the reflection shows you they are there. So too with Jesus. He shows you God is there. No He Himself is not God but He reveals God to those who perceive Jesus and therefore in Jesus perceive God. 

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

There is a little known scripture known as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. It is implicitly quoted or at least used as a sacred source by the Apostle Paul (R H Charles, translator of the Book of Enoch claimed) and so it seems to be genuinely ancient and trustworthy. It mentions the Books of Enoch (the Book of Enoch is a collection of books) existing at the time of Abraham and the sons of Jacob. It has a prophecy in it that perfectly describes the baptism of Jesus, explaining the holy signs which marked it. It seems this is a foretelling of that baptism since the use of the scripture by Paul as a source and his apparent reliance on its trustworthiness would place it before Christ came. 

Seven ways Jesus is the Son of God

 Seven ways Jesus is the Son of God

1. Firstborn over all creation: God made Him before anything else and then made everything through Him. So angels are sons but not firstborn sons. Jesus is firstborn over all creation. God gave Jesus to have life as a distinct person, alive in His own right, with life in Himself.

2. Jesus’ character has always been and always will be consistent with the character and righteous requirements of God: no lie is found in Him and He is in this way constantly like God and therefore a son of God.

3. God taught Jesus all His ways and showed Him all He does, lovingly raising Him in heaven before sending Him, keeping Him hidden as the Son of Man.

4. Virgin birth: The Only Begotten Son of God. No other being is begotten in this way by God. The Spirit of God caused Mary, a young maiden, a virgin, to bear Jesus as the only begotten Son of God.

5. Fulfilment of the prophecy of God to King David that a descendant of David would build the Temple for God and would be as a son to God in that if ever He needed chastisement God would chastise and restore Him and never let Him perish nor let His body ever see decay.

6. Twice God from the sky by the voice of an angel declared Jesus His beloved Son and declared His good pleasure in Jesus. So this too made Jesus the Son of God. The works of miraculous power God gave to Jesus also declared Him to be the Son of God.

7. Firstborn from the dead: When Jesus was crucified, God raised Him from the dead to live forever. The resurrection. The first of many others too who will rise to be fully sons of God. Raised by Jesus to be immortal.

A one being Trinity? A one-person Oneness?

 A one being Trinity? A one-person Oneness? If the Father and the Son are one person or the one being, how can they corroborate each other’s testimonies? It would be dishonest, if they are one person, for the Son to say His Father bears testimony about Him. Truth: the Father is one being in His own right. The Son is one person in His own right, given life in Himself by the Father. The Father testifies about the Son that Jesus is His Son.

What is spirit?

WHAT IS SPIRIT? There is a part of our inner being called our spirit. I could sense it today. My mind truthfully telling me my sins really ought to mean my death. My spirit taking me on sudden flash of awareness of life for eternity transcending it all. My understanding telling me that the death is of my body but the life eternal is of my spirit. It all came through my mind in an instant but there among it I sensed that spirit. A distinct entity of me there orthogonal to my mind, body, understanding, yet real and an important component of what makes up my inner and outer being. Spirit can receive truth led by the Holy Spirit so we can trust it if we carefully weigh it and find it is right. Then we can live our lives according to it.

“Your bodies are dead because of sin but your spirits are alive because of righteousness” Righteousness, whether ours or God’s or Christ’s or the Holy Spirit’s , has power to awaken the spirit. If we are opened in our hearts to the righteousness of Christ dying for us, hope kindles within, and God does not disappoint it, pouring His love into our hearts and awakening our spirits. Likewise our obedient righteous acts of faith kindle spirit within. The spirit comes alive where before it lay dormant. We can then live by it, instead of by the flesh. (See Psalm 51.)

The mystery of instrumentality in creation

 How did the early apostles of Jesus Christ come to believe that Jesus is the One through whom God made all things? It is not evident from the gospels that Jesus clearly stated it. John’s gospel tells how Jesus spoke of glory He had with God before the foundation, the making of the world, but it does not say Jesus made it clearer than that what He meant by it, only that Jesus said He had much more to say which the disciples could not at that time cope with. The Holy Spirit would continue the teaching work of Jesus when Jesus returned to God, so this must be what led to these great beliefs about Jesus being so much part of God’s work in creation. For example, on the day of Pentecost when many believers went around uttering mysteries in tongues which foreign speaking visitors to Jerusalem were all able to understand in their own languages. It does not say what the uttered mysteries were. Likewise the many occasions afterwards when tongues were spoken and interpreted. The outcome was that the apostles and disciples taught their faith that Jesus was instrumental in the creation of all things. God created through Jesus just as God also spoke and wrote through prophets. The apostles and core believers who wrote the New Testament scriptures clearly believed this.