The Lord’s Name

 The Lord’s name is how we characterise Him or how He characterises Himself, and sums it up in a word or phrase. It is not merely the letters, spelling or pronunciation used for that name. It is His reputation.

Climate Responsibility

 Climate Responsibility is now on us. While we are still in lockdown, we should be looking for new jobs closer to home or with remote working, or our employers should be planning changes to working practices for once lockdown ends, or risk losing us. Just forcing workers to continue as before is unethical madness. This is the opportunity now, pandemic or not. Missing it will incur the responsibility for failures to meet climate targets.

Obscured Teachings of Jesus

 The vain zeal to find Trinitarian dogma in the teachings of Jesus obscures how people receive the words of Jesus. The meaning gets twisted in people’s minds caused by historical Trinitarian orthodoxy.  We need to try to put it aside and focus on what Jesus is actually saying. He is the same yesterday and today and will be so forever. Trinitarianism does not change the true nature of Jesus, yet it sometimes obscures it. 

Location

 “The dew of Hermon falling on Mount Zion.” The Book of Enoch points to the meaning of this scripture: That God lives deep within a mountain like Hermon but makes that dwelling fall like dew on Mount Zion too. Though God’s physical location is high within a lofty mountain distant from the walks of life of humans, it is also true that God dwells within the love that a group of humans have as brothers and sisters together. The dwelling extends beyond that lofty mountain place right down to the ordinary habitations of those who live in love.

Being Slain in the Spirit, the Pentecostal Experience and the Second Blessing

King David had the Holy Spirit (hence the Psalms) but so did King Saul. The latter was even, in modern terminology, ‘slain in the Spirit’ - forced to lie prostrate for hours by the Holy Spirit to keep him from killing David https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2019&version=NIV after the Holy Spirit put him into a trance of compulsive prophesying, as had previously happened to guards Saul sent to kill David. But hopefully we receive the Holy Spirit in better circumstances when the gospel opens our hearts, cleansing us from compulsive mortal sins. Of course the spirit that made King Saul so jealous of David that he tried to kill him, that was not the Holy Spirit but was given Saul as punishment for poorly serving God. So the Holy Spirit came upon him but was not the only spirit to do so. It is all more complex than the revival preachers like it to be. Nevertheless the way it should be for those being saved and kept pure in heart like David is to have the constant home made in the heart by the Holy Spirit. So we need to stay at one with God’s will and at one with Christ by the word of Christ being nurtured in our hearts unto obedience so we are always given the Holy Spirit visitations and His influence is always there within us controlling our lives. For the first disciples of Christ it was all complicated somewhat by the Holy Spirit only being given to Jesus at first. They had to wait till that glorious Pentecost to receive the full benefits of the completion of Christ’s mission and His return to heaven. They were not without the benefits completely though because they initially had Christ’s words which were spirit too. They could dwell on those words and those words could work within them achieving the remoulding of their minds and ways by the Spirit that was within Christ without measure. So too when waiting for the Holy Spirit, who for many (not all, as Acts relates regarding the centurion’s family) is given by laying on hands, not always within reach, a believer can still have the benefits of letting Christ’s words, sayings, dwell within them richly.

An Example of True Prophecy Today

 I went to a church where God was giving true prophecies. There was a leader telling everyone to prophesy. I was troubled by that. I prayed before the next church service and I asked God, since I was new to the church and was advised not to speak until they knew me a bit, for God Himself to give a message to warn people there that not everyone has to prophesy. Some do good service by just listening. Some are not supposed to speak in church (women). So I went to the service. We were split into two groups with around twenty in each group. In the group I was in one by one three or four spoke up speaking about Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet and just listening. One of the prophets who spoke was new to me. He so clearly said what I previously had asked God to say that I asked someone who this fellow was. They told me he was a prophet who rarely came to the church so God must have sent him just to say that. The following service I spoke saying how in the previous service it was if God Himself had been the visiting speaker. The leader said he thought he knew what I meant. Later afterwards I was going there hoping to speak a prophecy. As I meditated before going the word of God came to me, “Israel has sinned” and “this sign will be given you, the eagle will be flying overhead” and a vision of the eagle was given me showing it with a big white eye. I told someone in the church and later overheard him telling it to others saying “It is like those Old Testament prophecies”. I turned on the TV news at home and it showed spy planes from the US (this was the mid to late 1990s) and that night the first ever police helicopter in our area was flying all night overhead with a searchlight on. I read in the news paper that the helicopter was flying over that church trying to stop someone on the roof of houses nearby throwing roof tiles down on people below. The news on TV later reported that the new helicopters were called Operation Vulture. The next few years saw the beginnings of cameras being put up in streets and mass surveillance. All this according to that few words of prophecy “Israel has sinned”.  God gives prophets and apostles still today. They should shout the words from rooftops. We must love God with all our Voice.

The Unnamed Sect

 We live in a society dominated by an unnamed sect similar to the Sadducees of Jesus’ time. It dominates everything.

The Context of the Flood

 The Book of Enoch gives us a context for the Flood: That great event known in cultures throughout the world, happening in early human history. The event was a future event when the ancient writer wrote about it as a prophecy. Yet the book points to a few historic sites, not mentioning them by name but giving pointers of people we can find in other ancient texts of that time before the Flood, copied by later scribes a few hundred years after it took place. These people are leads towards places of Sippur and Sharrapak in the Near East in the Tigris and Euphrates region of what is now Iraq. The book points to a time of turmoil ravaged by semi-supernatural giants made to fight each other to the death by gods or angels under the rule of the highest god, the Lord of Spirits, the Father of the Son of Man. Never did any editors edit the Book of Enoch to note that the Flood ever took place, it all happens as a foretold future event. This contrasts with other books of the time such as the Sumerian King Lists which bring the reader up to date with later characters who ruled the region after the Flood but also includes textual history of the kings before that Flood which we can align with the people mentioned in the Book of Enoch. The cities ruled by these kings were Sippur and Sharrapak. Archaeology fits consistently with all this in that it reveals a flood layer deposit from 2900 to 2500 BC in Sharrapak (Tell Fara). Later dynasties used these same places and others nearby as capitals from time to time, long after the Flood but before the time of patriarchs such as Abraham.

Jesus and the Book of Enoch

 Jesus was a great proponent of the Book of Enoch, not recorded as having mentioned it by name yet clearly recorded in several gospels as having endorsed its teachings as vital truth to know, teachings found in no other scripture. Church councils, on the other hand, historically tend to have people in them who are administrators like the Sadducees. They tend to like to restrict people’s reading to books that are less likely to challenge the administrator career path. Safe books. Nothing too prophetic. Nothing that reflects too much that God is higher than administrations. Thank God for Jesus still being alive to challenge these kinds of leaders. Alive forever and Lord even over the bosses of religion, the clergy. The Holy Spirit does not come with authority of clergy but with far greater authority and truthfulness, that of Jesus Christ. The same anointing as that with which God anointed Jesus and it is given to us who believe in Jesus.

Power of God

Already a foretaste of Jesus’ judgements is happening in the earth, presided over by Jesus, the Son of Man, being seen by some in the clouds of heaven, even as it draws near to the time of His rule. These judgements are beginning with the house of God. Most churches have had a year of closure. There is far more to come. The mass surveillance is a sign of what the LORD says, “Israel has sinned”. Look in Deuteronomy at the commandment to love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind. Jesus called it the first and greatest commandment. It is in a section where it tells the children of the covenant of God to write out and put where they can see it the words of God. The Lord Jesus includes “all your strength” in the way He relates that commandment. You have a voice on social media, we all do. Use all that voice as part of your overall strength in love for God. Tell the true words of Jesus there. Put what Jesus actually says up in or around your house. Jesus’ words are with the Spirit of prophecy, they are given by God the Father who sent Him. If you are not sure something is truly the words given by God, then by all means, do not put it up. Stick to what you truly believe and put up in your house or on social media what you believe is surely from God. But that belief will grow, if it is a belief which God is giving you and you are becoming a child of God through it.

If you are believing that Jesus is the Son of God you have Jesus embodying the word, and Jesus IS the word. The word of Jesus is spirit.  Not letter. Spirit. Look to Jesus. He architected our life. He lived our life. He mastered our life. He died and rose. He lives our eternal life. He is perfected in our life. He perfects our life. If you believe He is God’s Son you need to let His word remain in you, adhering to it, so Jesus will remain in you and you in Him. We in Him. Let Jesus’ authority be our only authority as we build this Temple of God by Jesus. We need to look very closely at what Jesus said. And He still says it now. He does not drop what He said back then. He confirms and persists it in perfected power and authority. Let the churches be one united church in this authority. God bring it about. Amen.

Jesus told the Sadducees they were in error because they did not know the scriptures OR THE POWER OF GOD. Know the power of God by the message that CHRIST DIED FOR YOU sinking in and becoming your hope.

We are all in this together. Let us correct and encourage each other accordingly. Perfecting what Christ has started, with Christ’s eternal help.

We don’t have to get it all sorted out on our own. That old way of doing it alone is dead. Christ crucified it in His own body. We are together as His body. We can help each other know, love, live, building each other up, not tearing each other down. To live in understanding of Christ and His teachings. The anointing from God teaches us and leads us into all truth, that we bear much fruit.

Warning concerning angels

 The Book of Enoch warns us against us serving angels. Look at angels in the Book of Enoch. There are those which teach magic arts. There are those which, among them Satan, berate and falsely accuse the righteous and will try to attack them at any opportunity. There are those given by God great power in worldly affairs to punish and preside in judgment over the righteous, causing persecutions. There are some who are better than all this. Some protect the righteous. Some serve only God. So if you allow angels to influence you unwittingly you might find yourself doing service to them many a time when they want to use you, but which ones and for what purpose? It could be good but it could be for great harm to others. Persecutors of many could be serving an angel. Victimisers of the godly believers could be doing the service of a satanic angel. So serve God alone. If God sends an angel to help you and serve you in doing God’s will all well and good but do not give yourself over to the angel in service. Serve God and do God’s will, lest you fall into the clutches of the wrong kind of angel as many tragically have done through history, ending up on the wrong side of history.

Enoch’s Calendar(s)

 The Book of Enoch has two calendars, one solar, one lunar, and a way to keep them synchronised. I think the Egyptians used this, or a very similar approach around 2000 BC. This is pragmatic because sometimes one calendar is easier and sometimes the other calendar is easier. The sun angle and where it sets and where it rises are needed for the solar calendar but what if the weather is cloudy for a couple of months? Finding the midpoint between extremes of its setting and rising positions is difficult if you do not have much time to devote to it. But it gives you the year length clearly if you can use it. On the other hand the moon phases are easy to keep track of and predictable so you can work them out even if the moon is hidden. But the moon months do not precisely fit into a year. So having the Book of Enoch allows you to use both calendar methods - sun and moon because it tells how to fit lunar months into a solar year. It is slightly inaccurate though and all history has seen the accuracy gradually improved. The intercalary days were simplified in the Book of Enoch. Sophistication and priesthood and astronomy knowledge later in history allowed better intercalary insertions. Today even a second can be added now and then, not just a whole day, because we have computers and atomic clocks. Then there was no such technology but God did not advocate such magic technology and so a simpler version which did not need it was provided in Enoch’s teachings. It worked for a thousand or more years. Egyptians and then later Greeks  all knew the solar year was really 365,25 days approximately but technology limitations and human pragmatism prevented them using that knowledge. Only the Romans eventually used it, led by Julius Caesar and Greeks, then Gregory perfected it in the 1500s. 365.242199 days is supposed now to be the tropical solar year length. The Gregory calendar allowed for something close to it. I think the accuracy of Enoch’s calendar fits it well into pre-Egyptian history because later in history the year length was measured more accurately.

Event or Command

Is your wish an event or a command? Even a prayer can be an event. Make it like a command by believing it will happen without doubt. Telling a sick person “Get well soon” is either an event or a command. If you do not actually intend that your wish will result in their recovery your kind word to them is an event. Simply you said it. End of. If you intend it to happen by some miracle of faith, it is a command. You said it to bring a result. Not just a smile on their face but a recovery of health. Likewise your prayer. Do you intend your prayer to be answered? If not then the prayer happened and that is the end of it. That prayer was an event. If you pray without doubting at all that it will be answered then it is more like a command. It results in something. This is when the prayer or the kind words have no doubt attached, only belief in God. These are more than events. These are commands that have an effect, a result. Something happens. “Have faith in God” said Jesus Christ. Excel in Jesus Christ.

The Contrast

Two thousand years ago we see Jesus Christ there in history. All kinds of evidence points to this. The Book of Enoch highlights the significance of this. It contrasts this with others who came into history leaving turmoil more than three thousand years previously, the fallen angels who came to women bringing magic arts and metallurgy and with it promiscuity and violence. The difference with Jesus is: God sent Him.

That is the problem faced by God. Does He let a person grow in influence without stepping in to stop it? Fallen angel wisdom had to be curtailed. So we got the Flood disaster and other divine interventions. If allowed to grow and grow and fill the world and fill all history on into eternity that would be dire so God stepped in. Even now God interrupts that spread of earthly wisdom, science and technology. A big intervention is coming soon too. On the other hand there must be an alternative which is more positive and hopeful: A person of promise who once perfected can be allowed to fill all future earth for eternity without limit. That is what Christ is. A person with full approval to grow forever in influence with no need for God to ever intervene - ever. Lord, ever growing and Christ, ever approved. Anointed with full approval. 

Even a most famous alchemist admitted chemistry came from fallen angels

In 300 AD a Roman Greco-Egyptian alchemist named Zosimos of Panopolis wrote:

“The ancient and divine writings say that the angels became enamoured of women; and, descending, taught them all the works of nature. From them, therefore, is the first tradition, chema, concerning these arts; for they called this book chema and hence the science of chemistry takes its name.” 

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

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bQF6Wz-u4yYC&pg=PA299&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

He seems to imply the Book of Enoch is the ancient divine writing from which we learn of this fallen angel origin of chemistry.

Jacob and his stripey posts

 Sympathetic magic? How about Jacob putting steaks in ground with stripes to attract likelihood of his uncle’s sheep and goats producing speckled lambs and kids? Genesis 30:25-36. Magic? I think most likely it was standard practice in most ancient times and known to well-educated Jacob. Look at Stonehenge origins. Posts arranged in a circle possibly to attract mating ancient cows and bulls. Seems they knew posts attract mating livestock. But was sympathetic magic a part of it, the stripey posts attracting livestock with markings. Maybe just normal wisdom of the ancients.

Deceptive medical mqgic

 One of the UK’s medical public-funded salespeople, Mike Hancock MP, told UK Parliament today “I want to update the House on some new information that we have on this. As of 3 June our data show that of the 12,383 cases of the Delta variant, 464 went on to present at emergency care and 126 people were admitted to hospital. Of these 126 people, 83 were unvaccinated, 28 had received one dose and just three had received both doses of the vaccine.” 

So 31 out of 128 emergency covid admissions had been vaccinated. Mmm. Magic. Deceptive as magic. Medicine as magic.

Push forward with spirit

 When Jesus was facing death and was in a garden with His disciples and praying but His disciples in tiredness at this sad time could only sleep, Jesus said “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. Years later the apostle Paul who was sent by Jesus wrote that we should live not by that weak flesh but live by that spirit which is willing to watch and pray. We should let that spirit press on, despite the flesh being weak: Then we shall live. Jesus pressed on that way. He kept on doing the will of God, despite that way ahead being darkened by a bloody cross and a temporary death. The way ahead for Jesus was extreme suffering of the flesh and death of the body but beyond it was joyful resurrection and glory in the fullness of God’s kindness and graciousness extended out to us all in the resurrected Son. We should press on. We should find the way ahead which the spirit within wills for us when it is sanctified by God’s grace and we should not be swayed from it by the weak flesh but press on towards it by the willingness of the spirit. The end of this is life, life for us and life extended from us to others, though death might be temporarily darkening our path.

Jesus, the smile of God

 When someone smiles, they show an expression of their kindness so we can see their disposition is warm towards us. They reveal their inner attitude towards us. Well, God is revealing by Jesus that His kindness goes on forever and His attitude towards us is a reaching out attitude of graciousness. I’m not saying God actually smiles, but this expression of His seems much like a smile to me. It brings joy to the soul, joy which begs to be expressed in praise, song, clapping. Expressing it gives God a place to inhabit. Somewhere for the Holy Spirit to enter in visitation.

Magical Thinking

 The Book of Enoch tells of ancient fallen angels teaching what might today be called magic or folk medicine or root work or whatever a particular culture calls such things. The angels who taught such things were severely punished by the Lord of Spirits (God) for doing so. Look how far these teachings have mingled into societies, passed down from ancient times to today. Magic is not just about practices but about the thinking behind those practices. An angel, fallen, condemned by God, taught the cutting of roots. Look how magic today uses roots cut to human form to emulate a person and try to cause effects to happen based on the likeness similarity between root and person. Perhaps this is what was taught by the angel. Hermeticism is a word for magic which was in use five hundred years ago in Europe. It included Alchemy. It also included what seems to have been incorporated today into modern medicine and pharmaceutic industrial thinking and practices. The modern counterpart of the magic thinking of sixteenth century Europe and Britain might be mingled with modern medicine. Scientists claim it is all about fact-based and evidence-based studies but the thinking that goes into the devising of the studies seems to carry forward to our times the thinking of magic centuries ago which seems to be the same kind of thinking found in magic today, such as is found in many cultures around the world. How often a medical technology uses likeness as a strategy. A vaccine is like the bacteria or virus being fought. An animal is used to study a drug based on a likeness of a feature of the animal to a corresponding feature of a human. Commonalities are sought out. Assumptions are made that equalities of effects correspond to equalities of features. Science uses facts discovered but it also requires that scientists adopt certain ways of thinking and these ways trace historically back to ways of magical thinking still very much present in various cultures. We might do well to ask: How far does God’s condemnation of magic, and the fallen angels who have introduced it, extend into our modern medical health technologies and ways of thinking? The Lord Jesus’ famous lesson of the Good Samaritan shows how a kind and responsible person acted to help and injured man using techniques devoid of medical thinking and drugs. No drugs, just pouring onto the wounds of wine and oil and wrapping with simple dressings before kindly and wisely taking the victim of crime, not to a place of medicine and magical thinking and drugs but to a place of common hospitality and daily care. Eternal life thinking must replace magical thinking, if we are to follow Lord Jesus the Christ, being freed from sins that lead to deadly punishment by God and punishment beyond death.

Orthodoxy and the Consensus of Errors

 Lots of silly things got said even by disciples. Like John never dying. Like Jesus and the Resurrection being new deities. Like all the many gnostic doctrines. Plus the later Trinitarian philosophical ideas. And the thirty nine articles and 66 book canon. Disciples aren’t immune from error, even mainstream dogma errors. Just by an error going mainstream it doesn’t cease to be an error. Orthodoxy is not a way to avoid error. The errors just get baked in to the orthodoxy. People think they are wise tempting God, forcing God’s hand, like in divination, or human sacrifice, by trying to gain consensus as an orthodoxy thinking that God would never allow error to get set in stone so would intervene to make only truth get agreed: Foolish because God steps back like a father with a toddler, and watches the mistake being made, but loves us all the same, errors and all.