How does the Son of Man help the righteous to remain always righteous?

 How does the Son of Man help the righteous to remain always righteous? It is all about first believing that the Son of Man exists in all historic timeframes, including ours now and forever, and then holding to His teachings, so He frees us from sins, enabling a saintly life which is ongoing and eternal.

A denial stance

An acquaintance of mine thinks Jesus doesn’t exist. So until he changes his mind, he must think he is on his own. His only hope is that Jesus convinces him to change his mind - or someone else convinces him. That might be possible, even with his denial stance: Like a Damascus Road experience. I had a word with Jesus for him. We’ll see if he gets convinced that Jesus exists; that he’s not on his own; that there is hope for him forever. I am reminded that Jesus died for him. Maybe Jesus will convince him that He exists. Even the apostle of Christ who started Christianity in India initially thought Jesus was dead, until Jesus changed Thomas’ mind. This chap is a lot further behind than Thomas but hey, that just makes it more fun when he finds out Jesus is. There are a lot of churchgoers who are in the same position as him. In my case He showed me convincingly He exists. Plus that the gospels got it right. Then over the following years I got to piece it together that He was crucified and rose to live forever. I was rather slow on the uptake getting my head around things. It is a personal growth thing.

The power of Science

 What would divide us if there were no religion? Science. If you regard Science as not a religion. Science can do most of what a religion can do. It can persuade people that black holes exist, even though people have no accessible way to verify that. It can order people to wear masks and wash hands. It can run countries and overrule rulers. It can amaze the world with wonders. With its vaccines it can divide countries and regions.

Will you repel it?

If I tell you that Jesus warns that many of you will die a liar or a murderer, perhaps not judged as such by other liars and murderers, but still, die as one and have it on your record. That Jesus wants you to not die like that and wants you to believe He exists in all times, including yours now and future, to help you avert it. That these problems along with similar ones like ending up an adulterer with that on your name, or other such tarnishings of your name on your death bed, are the purpose of Jesus having come, to provide a way out. It is religious so will you repel it? It is vital to learn the actual teachings of Jesus and hold to those. Jesus taught that the real God is the Father and that Jesus is the Son. Don’t let Roman theological philosophy confuse you. Reading John’s gospel might help. Over time, holding to the teachings of Jesus, Jesus gives knowledge of what He and the Father are like and first hand experience of the Holy Spirit. No need to worry about the Roman Hellenistic theology philosophy. Getting to know God is possible. I’ve had a share of it so I could tell others. God is the one who is just pure spirit, rather austere, very understanding and kind, in mind-bogglingly great authority, even over Jesus. Then Jesus is human Son who is the overcomer. That is why we call Jesus, Lord. His overcoming of temptations and worldly powers and even death gives Him Lord status, given by God whose power raised Jesus. He overcomes and He wants disciples who overcome like He did. He is the same now as when those first disciples met Him after His resurrection. Then the believers have the Holy Spirit among them, in them, producing wondrous signs and teaching with a continuation of Jesus’ teachings. Scripture assures we are on the right track and gets us on to that right track in the first place. Useful to have the testimony of pioneers who went that way before and whose veracity was proven over time. Think of the villagers who heard the Samaritan woman testify that Jesus had told her everything she had done. They went and got direct experience of Jesus then said to her “We believed because of what you said about Him but now we have heard in for ourselves and believe.” 

To overcome

 Jesus, the Lord, the Christ, has overcome temptations, powers of empire and even death and He wants disciples to overcome as He overcame.

Genesis

 Genesis says Abraham (Abram) was a citizen of Ur. It says he travelled to Harran. His name style is born out by texts extant from Ebla’s ancient library. It calls the seventh from Adam, Enoch. That matches the extant name, shortened from Enmenduranki, seventh patriarchal king of Sumer, grandfather of the man who survived the Flood. It describes the Flood in a series of steps exactly matching the series of stages described in the Epic of Gilgamesh for which there are near extant copies. It describes the first patriarch as a man with no human parents, then a succession of nine or ten generation patriarchs down to the one who survived the Flood. This matches the extant Sumerian King Lists.

“Let all God’s angels worship Him”

“The sons of God must work together with the Son of Man to achieve the will of God in Creation” (and subsequently).

Called to stop sinning

 “Stop sinning” says Jesus. Treat it as a calling. You probably can’t stop but you are called to stop and Jesus can help. 

Let’s be fair

These days people are so often characterised by their sins and failures, which is so unfair. Saintly ancients in the Bible are not characterised by one-off sins. Not all are. Some such us Judas are. But there are others such as King David. He is hardly characterised by his affair with Bathsheba, except in the song by Len Cohen of course. Normally we remember King David living a holy life, though a violent one. Always true to God and obedient to God. Society could do with recalibrating how it allows celebrity culture and jealousy to drive the characterisation of people by the scandals they get into, somehow forgetting the deeds which made them celebrities. Then all of us should relearn how to be fair and how to resist those social abuses in our summing up of our associates and colleagues, family members and friends, as well as enemies too. God might then be more happy to listen to our prayers.

What, Jesus a Unitarian?!

I’m pretty sure Jesus is a unitarian of sorts: He said it so often that the Father is both His God and the disciples’ God , and that even He, the Son, must worship God and serve Him only.  I say He seems to be unitarian ‘of sorts’ because Jesus knew with certainty that in spirit He existed before Abraham was born. Because His existence is real at any time in history, He assuredly said of Himself “I am”.  The truth of His statement “I am” is true in any historical concept, which is the significance of His use of that tense. He is now. He is yesterday. Last century. A thousand years ago, He is. Five thousand years ago. Next year. A thousand years from now. Aeons from now. He is. The Spirit of Christ interacted directly with the ancient prophets and even people such as Enoch and Abraham in the most ancient Sumerian times. And with disciples such as the Apostle Paul after Jesus rose from the dead and with disciples still today and years from now.

Normal Sabbath

NORMAL SABBATH

Seventh day of week - for twenty four hours

No strenuous work or strenuous physical activity

No business

No use of money other than charitable giving

No causing others to have to work

No fasting - enjoy nice food

Light activities are alright

Social interaction is alright

Doing good with low level effort, such as entertaining is alright

Giving to the poor is alright

No accident the cross

No accident that Jesus died on a cross. First the prophets for centuries had foretold a coming, suffering One anointed by God, chosen by God, given by God to relieve the guilt of Mankind towards God and help those who seek to get right and live right. Secondly, the preaching of John the Baptist echoed this message and pointed at Jesus as this One, and that God sent Jesus, the Christ, as a Lamb to be sacrificed. Third the miracles done by Jesus speak volumes and provide God’s witness statement about His Son, this Christ. Fourth, this very emblem of a cross is the ancient cuneiform symbol + which meant a sacrifice for settling a debt, sometimes to make way for both atonement and an oracle. Fifthly, the resurrection shows the sacrifice provided by Jesus’ crucifixion is accepted by God and makes Jesus exalted as Lord in the eyes of all. The Lord, in that Jesus overcame all, Rome’s imperial power, Israel’s power, sin’s power, even overcoming death itself, by God’s power. Now ever living and there to lead those who believe it. In all this, God made way for the provision of the Holy Spirit to all who believe and seek to get right and do right by God.

@Unitarians

 @Unitarians, to those Unitarians who doubt the preexistence of the Spirit of Christ: 

“Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.” So it says in Hebrews 3:3. The writer is identifying Jesus clearly as builder and Moses as part of the house Jesus built. How could the Spirit of Christ build that house, including Moses in that building, if He did not exist in Moses’ time and exist even before the original stone of that house, Abraham, too?

Verifiable Evidence?

 What if there were verifiable evidence of the existence of God? I suppose it would be about more than mere verifiable evidence. Multiple agreeing witness statements are verification of evidence. What it needs is evidence of a miraculous kind that God doesn’t only exist but is good enough to know who believes and who doesn’t. Evidence of a miraculous kind that God is loving enough to hear the prayer of such a believer and to reach out with an answer. Evidence of a miraculous kind of the power of God over the fabric of space-time, able to control the outcome of random events of all kinds. Evidence of God being top God, not subject to the control of any other being which might be evil and override God. Evidence that Jesus is the Son of this God and is Lord and is like this God in kindness and power and wisdom yet human enough to be a mediator of this God mediating between God and us. Evidence of the veracity of the testimonies given by apostles and prophets about this God and this Son and the reliability of God’s promises and Jesus’ promises. Evidence of the Holy Spirit having been given to believers even today. All this. Please. Existence is tip of the iceberg. But God gives it all.

This life?

Does God tell us about this life? Sure, but the interventions of God in this life are understood in terms of what happens in the next. God is judge right at the top of the totality of justice. Should God let wrongdoing be allowed to happen? God could intervene. He does so proportionately. That can mean wrongdoing continues for a time. You still have to understand this, if seeing it God’s way, in light of what happens after death. See Jesus’ testimony and the Book of Enoch for reference. The Book of Enoch tells how God lets evil happen in many circumstances, but in His sovereign will may intervene if a limit of tolerability is reached and prayers of anguish reach God’s throne. Those suffering can be compensated in the appropriate place for it after death. There is of course an implicit requirement that the victims do not themselves become the wrongdoers, otherwise they would have the same end as those who did wrong to them. Jesus has in more recent history confirmed this teaching of Enoch by first the testimonies given by Jesus about the importance of knowing Enoch’s teachings regarding angels, adding more clarity about the resurrection making humans like angels, but also Jesus spoke a similar teaching in the story of ‘the rich man and Lazarus’. The poor beggar Lazarus suffered neglect and indifference from a rich neighbour but after both died, Lazarus went to a place for comfort of his soul after death, while the rich man was tormented after death. Lazarus had suffered long in poverty and pain but had not himself become a doer of wrong like the selfish, neglectful rich man. So Jesus confirmed Enoch’s teachings we find in the Book of Enoch.

Should God intervene?

 The Book of Enoch answers an important question: Should we expect God to stop wrongs being done to the innocent? We might think God should always intervene when wrongdoing is about to happen. Or would that be oppressive? You might be kept in chains from birth. So might I. We could be prevented from doing wrong which in our cases could mean being pretty much prevented from doing anything. In extremes the Book of Enoch tells us that God does do that, such as with Azazel and other fallen angels, kept bound in chains for thousands of years because they had a record of abusing their powers as angels back around 3500 BC. God uses proportionate measures in dealing with things. This intervention involved sending angels to capture the angels who were abusing the trust they were given. An angel had led others into taking human girls as wives, against God’s purposes for angels. The fallen Azazel, the leader of the fall of angels, was bound under rocks. An immortal was buried alive, it seems, and has been kept like that for thousands of years. Should God resort to this all the time? With humans it would be different. Humans die. Wait a few decades and a human serious offender will be gone from the land of the living. Then they are kept in one of four different places depending how they lived and whether they already received justice. Heaven has only to wait. Yet the innocent suffer. So God lets things happen in some circumstances, but in His sovereign will may intervene if a limit of tolerability is reached and prayers of anguish reach God’s throne. Those suffering can be compensated in the appropriate place for it after death. There is of course an implicit requirement that the victims do not themselves become the wrongdoers, otherwise they would have the same end as those who did wrong to them. 

Jesus has in more recent history confirmed this teaching of Enoch by first the testimonies given by Jesus about the importance of knowing Enoch’s teachings regarding angels, adding more clarity about the resurrection making humans like angels, but also Jesus spoke a similar teaching in the story of ‘the rich man and Lazarus’. The poor beggar Lazarus suffered neglect and indifference from a rich neighbour but after both died, Lazarus went to a place for comfort of his soul after death, while the rich man was tormented after death. Lazarus had suffered long in poverty and pain but had not himself become a doer of wrong like the selfish, neglectful rich man. So Jesus confirmed Enoch’s teachings we find in the Book of Enoch.

Science and religion

 Scientists have a purpose of trying to pick out what can be known and understood without any knowledge of anything supernatural. Priests and prophets have a purpose of trying to discern what the supernatural God wants known without resorting to shamanism. 

Scary

 God, the wisest, most powerful judge is scary, even though also very loving. He has therefore provided mankind with the ideal,  human mediator, Jesus.

Fear God

God is called the terror of Isaac. Also called “Hide yourself!”. Also a consuming fire. The real God is more frightening than any mafia godfather. Even though God is good, don’t make the mistake of thinking He isn’t all those other things too. Someone who can keep punishing even long after the body is killed by His punishments. God is love. Love casts out fear. Yet God’s love is not to be taken for granted or despised as if it were weakness. Exhausting His patience is difficult but possible. Think of the most powerful emperor monarch then take it up several notches. Yet fear God and preserve that proper respect and you will have His angelic protection. That is why God has provided a mediator. The man, Jesus, the Christ. Crucified, resurrected, now alive forever.

Denial as a coping mechanism?

Denial as a coping mechanism has some harmful side effects. Try saying “Gravity does not exist” over and over until you believe it and it will have harmful side effects. 

Many scientists and philosophers have offered differing theories about gravity. Some say it is a force. Others that it is curvature of space-time. Has any theory been proved? Any more so than theories of theology? 

This lack of agreement on what gravity actually is, could lead to confusion, tension and uncertainty as to its existence. One way to cope with this would be to try denying its existence. Form a kind of Atheist Republic to find solace in others denying it too. A bit like a Flat Earth Society. But then do you risk believing your denial and suffering harm that might result when you walk towards a cliff edge?

Like Jesus

 If you can be like Jesus then you can be dead and then alive forever. But He holds the keys.

Flesh Having the Spirit of Christ

Having the Spirit of Christ. That comes by being born again, finding hope in Christ’s resurrection, in Christ being alive forever, alive from the dead, having paid for sins. Having the Spirit of Christ. Jesus truly came in flesh like our flesh so we can be like Him but He is what He is by spirit so we must be too. Having the Spirit of Christ. 

Peace

 I am asked whether we should strive for a humanitarian kind of discipline and decency, rather than the gospel of Christ. Humanitarian discipline and learning does not get anyone pardoned. If we were perfect maybe it would be all we need for a decent life. But over time we blow it. Drugs. Sex perversion. Even illness can make us go off the rails. Discipline on its own does not put things right when it all goes wrong. Military life is one traditional way young people try to get back on the rails and get good discipline. But it is not a road to peace. The road to peace involves redemption. Why should we have a peaceful life if we did terrible things and caused misery to others. All kinds of things we do are the undoing of others. Even our wealth cannot be separated from the slave trade that bought it. Someone had to pay. If that someone was forced to pay, we deserve no peace. We need peace in which to learn to do right but we deserve no peace. But Someone, Christ, paid willingly by crucifixion to buy our peace, paying off the reproach of our peace. Trusting in that is the path to peace. Trusting and obeying His teachings and relying on His crucifixion to pay our debt to God and His resurrection to give us hope that Christ can keep our way ahead blessed by God as eternal life. Having His teachings within and the actions of His Spirit to help us and discipline us.

Spirituality in Christ

 The Spirit of Christ existed, exists, will exist. Having the Spirit of Christ working within means having the Son and having life.

“And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?” 

Salt and light

 True church participation is modelled on Solomon who was tasked with building the Temple for God precisely because he was not a violent king. God gave Solomon wisdom and protection with anointing of Holy Spirit so Solomon ruled peacefully and therefore was accepted not only as a son of God but as a builder of the Temple for God’s name. This is how it works with the true church too. It requires there to be peace in its building - in the tasks God gives which build up the lives and spiritual growth of the members. The Body of Christ. As such it influences the world around it towards less violence and more peaceful goals such as trade and justice for the poor provided by economic growth. Salt and light.

Incorruptible Spirit

I was asked: Was the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11) before incarnation corruptible? If you read the Book of Enoch and the Book of Daniel and 2 Esdras you find the Son of Man spirit is recognisable as like a man. Incidentally the description of Him after His resurrection and ascension in Revelation is intentionally similar to that in Daniel. This implies He was similar in sprit before incarnation to how He is now after incarnation and resurrection. So I would say He is incorruptible both before incarnation and after incarnation and resurrection. He became flesh and at that time was mortal and died and rose again. Jesus Christ. But isn’t there a sense in which spirit is always incorruptible? The Spirit of Christ being given a body by the Holy Spirit to be born of the virgin Mary meant the body itself can face temptation, suffer and die. Yet the spirit persists, and in the case of Christ preexists too such that Christ could proclaim, “Before Abraham was born, I am”

The Spirit of Christ

 The kind of spirit to which Peter referred in 1 Peter 1:11 is like the Holy Spirit referred to in other scriptures. This kind of spirit can manifest itself. In the case of the Spirit of Christ, one manifestation was the manifestation of becoming flesh. Previous manifestations had been by exerting influence in ancient times over prophets to lead them towards truth regarding this Christ. Also visions (example Isaiah 6) and other manifestations which were akin to something even more physical in the here and now (examples Daniel and Enoch).

What Jesus meant by “I am”

Compare what the apostles such as John and Peter believed about John the Baptist with what they believed about themselves and what they believed about Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was foreknown and foretold by prophets. Yet he did not say of himself “I am” nor did he imply he had existence before conception. The prophetic foretelling of his coming did not constitute preexistence of John the Baptist. Peter wrote of foreknowledge about believers in 1 Peter 1:2 yet it is not written that this foreknowledge had any behaviour or took action. Then look at how John the Baptist and the apostles spoke about and wrote about Jesus Christ. They do attribute much more than just foreknowledge to this Spirit of Christ of which Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:10-11. John reports how Jesus said “I am” in referring to His existence in ancient times and also into the eternal future. John the Baptist said that Jesus has surpassed him because Jesus was (existed) before him. Peter wrote of the Spirit of Christ existing in ancient times, inspiring the prophets. The apostles clearly believed in Jesus’ existence since very ancient times as a spirit and His ongoing existence forever as resurrected human but immortal spirit. So for them it is clear what Jesus meant by “I am”. And they firmly believed it. Jesus said if we don’t believe it, we will die in our sins (John 8 ). Christ Jesus’ spirit is aeons old and will exist forever. That is the “I am” truth about Him.

Spirit of Christ - preexistence

That the Son of Man seen by the prophet Enoch and taught about extensively in the Book of Enoch is truly the Spirit of Christ long before Christ became flesh is demonstrated by this statement by the Apostle Peter in his first epistle. 1 Peter 1:10-11 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them.” 

Holy Spirit

 How many of us believe in Jesus but haven’t ever become aware of receiving the Holy Spirt? Maybe thinking such awareness is impossible? Ask that you may receive. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus went on to say “Which of you if your children are asking you for bread, would give the child a stone? How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” But be sure you have a faith God the Father puts within you as Father of that faith: Persuasion which is faith which comes by God’s word persuading you and God’s power convincing you.

Is ‘living in sin’ a sin?

 Is ‘living in sin’ a sin? Is marriage the only way to have a sexual relationship? Depends on your social circles. I got excluded from a great church because of ‘living in sin’ (plus divorce was another factor), but love won the day. Marriage is a social circle phenomenon. Left to your private decision for you and your partner or potential partner you might simply make a private commitment as my partner and I did. Later I bowed to social pressure and got married formally when my partner accepted. But only after I lived together ‘in sin’ for years. Personally I don’t believe it was sin. Singleness with living in lustfulness is a sin though. The church did not chuck me out for that. So sin is a factor but not the only factor. Social acceptability is a factor too.

To quit lying

 If we are united in Christ we are part of the same body of Christ and it is utterly inappropriate to lie to each other. Putting off lying both in word and thought is a first step in obedience to Christ Jesus. Lies are of the devil. So to start to obey Christ means to quit lying. 

Lockdown churches

Too many online church services are merely begging opportunities for full-time church workers who have no other trade with which to support themselves.

The Word became flesh

 The truth and spirit of Jesus’ teachings were there with the Father before, long before, Jesus came in flesh and blood. The Holy Spirit points to the veracity of the Book of Enoch scriptures saying that this truth and spirit took form before being flesh and blood. Even in Enoch’s time millennia before the coming of Christ in flesh this form existed, the Book of Enoch strongly suggests. This explains the Book of Daniel and Book of Revelation together implying Jesus was taken into the presence of the Father, Ancient of Days, even in Daniel’s time, manifest in the form of one like a man, like a son of man. This Son of Man taught of by the Book of Enoch and with whom Jesus identified Himself. That existence of spirit and truth had humanlike form. Logically it leads to the deduction that as soon as the first cell of Jesus existed the existence moved to it from what existed before. The manifestation took human flesh. 

Dear Unitarian

 Dear unitarian. Isn’t the knowledge that Almighty God the Father before creation had of Jesus something that existed? Did that knowledge merely reside in the mind of the Father or did it form a school of knowledge among the angels? After the creation of all Creation what form did that knowledge take? How else was it manifested besides in the prophecies and hopes of prophets and followers of God? In their prophecies and hopes did it start to take shape? Did it even before Abraham’s time start to take form? Human form. Did Abraham realise it would eventually take human physical form? It surely had a very real, though hidden existence. Abraham rejoiced in the day of its human physical flesh manifestation. Did that faith in an invisible entity become within Abraham and others a manifestation of the image of the Father? Something or someone they could all look up to and follow and hang upon in their hopes? Goings forth that were of old of times of Abraham and before. A lamb slain even then.

Prophecy Today

 If I was given the privilege by God of rebooting true religion, how would I do it? I would preach. I would preach that a cross is only known so widely as a religious symbol today because a single special sacrifice was made. The cross as a medical or shamanistic symbol is long known irrespective of the religious cross. Yet both have common roots. A sacrifice making way for an oracle. A religious cross tells of the one sacrifice of the Son of Man, the Christ, making way for the oracles going globally widespread of true prophecy by the Holy Spirit so there can be true prophets lighting up the world. So we should live by this light and be saved.

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.

God’s Fatherhood seen in the Book of Enoch

God’s Fatherhood seen in the Book of Enoch:

Book of Enoch ch 90:32-33

32. And those sheep were all white, and their wool was abundant and clean. 33. And all that had been destroyed and dispersed, and all the beasts of the field, and all the birds of the heaven, assembled in that house, and the Lord of the sheep rejoiced with great joy because they were all good and had returned to His house.

Book of Enoch ch 105

1. In those days the Lord bade (them) to summon and testify to the children of earth concerning their wisdom: Show (it) unto them; for ye are their guides, and a recompense over the whole earth. 2. For I and My son will be united with them for ever in the paths of uprightness in their lives; and ye shall have peace: rejoice, ye children of uprightness. Amen.

At the start of the Book of Enoch we have descriptions of God’s ways, God’s will being accomplished in Nature but not in humans. Humans are rebuked for lack of constancy in obeying God. Then there is much help and nurture given throughout history to humans as God sends servants and eventually His Son, the Son of Man, the Elect One, to bring a change in the righteous humans so not all is lost and so that God still has a remnant. Then at the end, after judgement, the persistent, Fatherly efforts of God finally pay off and succeed and God has around Him both His Son and His many children who have at last learned to live in love and to stay close to the Father in fellowship with the Son. We can have a taste of this fellowship now when we learn to all look after each other and build up constantly what can eventually become this household for God.

Message from God

I’m asked what message God was giving me at the time He showed me Himself, His Son the Lord and revelation that the Book of Enoch is a work of the same Holy Spirit who speaks today. Well God did give me a clear message. After revealing by the Holy Spirit that the trees grow and planets orbit by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the follow-up message God gave me was clear: “Israel has sinned” is what He said. But He also said the same back in ancient Joshua’s time so it is not new that God confronts sin this way with these words. The gist of the message: Just look at how Israel has brought upon itself a spying eagle or vulture flying overhead watching the ground below with a big white eye. It is sin which has brought this about. And it is not just Israel the nation but the wider context of spiritual Israel, house of God scattered among the nations, the circumcision by the Spirit. “Israel has sinned!” Where is the love for God? The Book of Enoch starts with a similar message. The trees grow and then lose autumn leaves each year by obedience to the Lord’s authority but humans are an embarrassment and affront to angels because we are not constant like Nature, nor obedient to God’s commands through Jesus but we sin and as humans we keep sinning. Jesus’ message as Son of Man sent to save us: Stop sinning. Believe He is the same today as yesterday and will be so forever, then follow the teachings He gives by holding to them and adhering to them and He will set us free.

Gifts

When you believe Christ died for you there are things God gives you miraculously: To save you and to build His Temple.

In my case one of several such gifts was to see God in a vision and to meet with His Son, the Lord and then to hear things from heaven among believers.

The way the Holy Spirit does it is very clever/wise and absolutely persuasive, giving certainty.

The way Jesus shows Himself is very, very spiritually powerful, showing that He truly is Lord. In so doing it shows the Father confesses Jesus as His Son. It also showed me Jesus is just the same today as in the gospel records. Doing and teaching by example the same things as long ago. 

Out of all this came recognition of the Book of Enoch as true, holy scripture. 

Plus it all verified to me that the gospels of Jesus’ apostles are faithful, true testimonies to be relied on and adhered to, John’s gospel accounts of Jesus’ more lengthy discourses in particular.

But the Book of Enoch so matching what the Holy Spirit said in me, that was a complete surprise and delight, leading me to tell others persistently over the following years about the Book of Enoch and the glory of Jesus it proclaims.

So Jesus clearly wants this book of scripture known and wants us to come to Him for life because it testifies concerning Him. 

The Holy Spirit and the Book of Enoch

 The manifestations of the Holy Spirit have two major characteristics: He causes the uttering of mysteries and the knowledge and wisdom He imparts is that of Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ. In both of these key ways in His work you find truths also found in the Book of Enoch. So it helps to know the Book of Enoch or to read it having experienced the Holy Spirit. The mysteries of God are found so prevalently in the Book of Enoch because Enoch had this same Holy Spirit as gives utterances of mysteries today, so there is major overlap between what is in the book and what the Holy Spirit says. The Lord Jesus had deep knowledge of the Book of Enoch so when the Holy Spirit takes what is known by Jesus and makes it known to believers you find plenty of overlap with the truths in the Book of Enoch. Shunning the Book of Enoch is foolish because those who do this are shunning the Holy Spirit too.

First horseman of the Apocalypse

 Looking at the Rev 6 four horseman prophecy it is alarming that although economic crisis and massive global >20% lethal pandemic are coming, what comes first is widespread global violence (first horseman). I bet that is almost imminent, or maybe within the next few years.

Metamorphosis

 During the chrysalis stage of a caterpillar or other such creature, so I read, the structures of the pupae or caterpillar or larvae break down to a mush. It would be difficult to think of such a mush as being a living creature. It has no organs, just substances. So the new form that grows is like a resurrection. Yet by faith we can believe that the butterfly IS the caterpillar. Something persisted from caterpillar to butterfly. The caterpillar is not a new individual but a new form of the individual that used to be a caterpillar. Surely there is a soul. This teaches us a lot about Theology. 

The same Jesus

 “Jesus Christ yesterday and today is the same and to the ages” https://biblehub.com/text/hebrews/13-8.htm This is what the closest disciples and apostles believed just decades after Jesus Christ was born. How can you believe that except you believe there is preexistence? Did they believe it because they watched Jesus growing up and noticed He never changed? No. Obviously not. It is there in the nature of Jesus which they saw over just a few years following Him and especially after the resurrection when He was still the same Jesus. They matched what they saw with what He said about Himself. “I am”. They knew it meant He is existent over time in a mysterious yet real way and more so than other people. This gave them faith it would continue “into the ages” ahead. That is the essential belief Jesus spoke of in John 8. That is part of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of Man.

Pranksters

 Translate “φαρμάκοις” from Greek to English: you get “medicine”, but also “pranksters”. In Revelation 21:8 it is translated “sorcerers”.

Build or be blind

Enoch’s prophetic dream of the history through all time of God’s people. It all hinges on whether they are devoted to God’s house or forsake it, and the result of having spiritual discernment of God’s will or blindness to it.

If believers build each other in love as each one does the task God gives us, we will have discernment of God’s will and our eyes will remain open. If we forsake it all we will become blind and suffer the consequences. 

From the Book of Enoch (R H Charles translation) chapters 89 and 90:

89:28. But the sheep escaped from that water and went forth into a wilderness, where there was no water and no grass; and they began to open their eyes and to see; and I saw the Lord of the sheep pasturing them and giving them water and grass, and that sheep going and leading them. 

...

89:41. And sometimes their eyes were opened, and sometimes blinded, till another sheep arose and led them and brought them all back, and their eyes were opened.

...

89:50. And that house became great and broad, and it was built for those sheep: (and) a tower lofty and great was built on the house for the Lord of the sheep, and that house was low, but the tower was elevated and lofty, and the Lord of the sheep stood on that tower and they offered a full table before Him. 51. And again I saw those sheep that they again erred and went many ways, and forsook that their house, and the Lord of the sheep called some from amongst the sheep and sent them to the sheep, but the sheep began to slay them. 53. And many other sheep He sent to those sheep to testify unto them and lament over them. 54. And after that I saw that when they forsook the house of the Lord and His tower they fell away entirely, and their eyes were blinded; and I saw the Lord of the sheep how He wrought much slaughter amongst them in their herds until those sheep invited that slaughter and betrayed His place. 55. And He gave them over into the hands of the lions and tigers, and wolves and hyenas, and into the hand of the foxes, and to all the wild beasts, and those wild beasts began to tear in pieces those sheep. 56. And I saw that He forsook that their house and their tower and gave them all into the hand of the lions, to tear and devour them, into the hand of all the wild beasts. 57. And I began to cry aloud with all my power, and to appeal to the Lord of the sheep, and to represent to Him in regard to the sheep that they were devoured by all the wild beasts. 58. But He remained unmoved, ...

...

72. And forthwith I saw how the shepherds pastured for twelve hours, and behold three of those sheep turned back and came and entered and began to build up all that had fallen down of that house; but the wild boars tried to hinder them, but they were not able. 73. And they began again to build as before, and they reared up that tower, and it was named the high tower; and they began again to place a table before the tower, but all the bread on it was polluted and not pure. 74. And as touching all this the eyes of those sheep were blinded so that they saw not, and (the eyes of) their shepherds likewise;

...

90:6. But behold lambs were borne by those white sheep, and they began to open their eyes and to see, and to cry to the sheep. 7. Yea, they cried to them, but they did not hearken to what they said to them, but were exceedingly deaf, and their eyes were very exceedingly blinded.

...

90: 20. And I saw till a throne was erected in the pleasant land, and the Lord of the sheep sat Himself thereon, and the other took the sealed books and opened those books before the Lord of the sheep.

...

90:26. And I saw at that time how a like abyss was opened in the midst of the earth, full of fire, and they brought those blinded sheep, and they were all judged and found guilty and cast into this fiery abyss, and they burned; now this abyss was to the right of that house. 27. And I saw those sheep burning †and their bones burning†.

...

90: 28. And I stood up to see till they folded up that old house; and carried off all the pillars, and all the beams and ornaments of the house were at the same time folded up with it, and they carried it off and laid it in a place in the south of the land. 29. And I saw till the Lord of the sheep brought a new house greater and loftier than that first, and set it up in the place of the first which had beer folded up: all its pillars were new, and its ornaments were new and larger than those of the first, the old one which He had taken away, and all the sheep were within it. And I saw all the sheep which had been left, and all the beasts on the earth, and all the birds of the heaven, falling down and doing homage to those sheep and making petition to and obeying them in every thing. 

...

90:35. And the eyes of them all were opened, and they saw the good, and there was not one among them that did not see. 36. And I saw that that house was large and broad and very full.

Curious

I guess just like an atheist, I’m curious. Curious about myself, whether I believe. Curious about what kind of faith is necessary. Curious about God or whatever is meant by God. I was raised to preach but at one point realised I probably didn’t really believe. I had a crisis when in a foreign country whose language I could barely speak. So I sought faith, real faith. I had a personal pursuit of it. Eventually I started praying hard. Then things started happening. I had a vision and was told to build the temple. I asked for confirmation and got it indubitably. I assumed preaching was how to build the temple which is the church. But I did not have real knowledge of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit so how could I preach? I asked God over and over to show me Himself and the Son and Holy Spirit. The gospels had taught me that only those who obey Christ get blessed like that so I tried to obey every command of Christ in the gospels which I could understand well enough to obey. Then when I thought to the best of my knowledge I was doing that I asked earnestly to see God. Then one night He came to me and stood there in a dream so real. What He told me is what happened the next day so I knew it was no mere fantasy dream, it was a vision of God. Then weeks later Jesus met me three times. Then the Holy Spirit. It was what the Holy Spirit said that turned my life around and gave me a message. I’ve been following through on that same message for twenty years. I found the message in the Book of Enoch first time I came across the book perhaps a few months after all this. I saw the Book of Enoch in a Christian bookshop and opened it and there were the words, pretty much just as the Holy Spirit said them. I started writing about my subsequent research into the book, starting a ‘Geocities’ website about it not long after the internet became accessible. Later I started writing in a Google blog instead. I keep that blog going plus several Facebook groups about it. A fair few followers. It has led me to a purer form of Christianity. Similar to what is found in Ethiopia. Miaphysitism.

Not all the Jews rejected the Book of Enoch

 Beta Israel are Jews. They accept the Book of Enoch. Israel recognises them as ancient Jews. And Ethiopic Christians accepted it long before many countries had a Christianity. But I understand this is obscure for Westerners and Eastern Europeans. Even Bulgarian Orthodox Christians have ancient links to Myaphisite Ethiopic Christianity which accepted it. But modern Chalcedonian ‘normal’ denominations and orthodoxies get all the kudos. Most people’s knowledge of Christianity is limited to such denominations. They lost the Book of Enoch around 400 AD at a time when the Chalcedon Council made their orthodox opinions the law. The Holy Spirit glory seems to have departed from the leadership by that time too. Not so with the Ethiopic and Coptic Christians. There seems to be a link. Now the Holy Spirit is returning even to the West, since the revivals. And the Book of Enoch is coming to the fore. And the Christology is changing again.

More about Jesus

Thinking you are a god is OK if that is what you are, if the lives of others is very much in your hands, as with some politicians, officials, doctors, judges and generals, even humbler soldiers or secret agents. Gods with a small g. The Lord Jesus being a Lord over many followers and judge even over unbelievers and atheists admitted that His godlike status in that respect is similar to that of many other humans. See John 10. The Jews did not like a person to allow themselves to be seen as a god. They called it blasphemy. But Jesus showed that a human leader with judging powers can be called a god and a son of God, like the angels who are sons of God (as in Job 1 and Genesis 6), so this applies to Jesus too. It is not blasphemy. Likewise a resurrected human made immortal is a god, a son of God, as Jesus is now. And the Lord of David who David called “my lord” is called “my Son” by God. So Jesus was not blaspheming. And Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever and can say “before Abraham was born I am” so is a kind of human god. So not blasphemy. Yet the Jews could not believe it is true and were angered that in saying it He seemed to be blaspheming. So they tried to stone Him. Pontius Pilate recognised their attempts to have Jesus executed as jealousy. Their hatred of God spilled over into hatred of His Son, Jesus. When they killed Him, God used it to purify sin, and raised Jesus from the dead. So now Jesus is a human but an immortal god, a son of God by the resurrection, the firstborn Son of God by virgin birth, the firstborn Son of God by being first ever before any angel and before all creating which God did, through Jesus. Thrice son of God yet human sent by God to humans, the Son of Man.

Christ is one person, not two

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

I believe the truth the Book of Enoch teaches, neglected in Christianity since the Council of Chalcedon, is that Christ Jesus is one person, a divine person (although not the Father, the one true God) and yet a human being. The Son of Man. 

Very importantly the Book of Enoch does not say there is a Triune God, nor does it say the Son of God is two persons in hypostatic union, so it shows up the errors of Council of Chalcedon. The Son of Man about whom it prophesies and who the Book of Enoch says lived with the Lord of Spirits, His Father, even in Enoch’s time of going into Heaven, five thousand years ago, before Abraham was born, is believed by churches who preserved the Book of Enoch to be one person, not two, who is both divine and human.

The preservation of the Book of Enoch

 Holy Spirit gifts never, I heard, died out among the Coptic Church, of which the Ethiopic Church is a part. The Ethiopic Church kept the Book of Enoch in its Bible. Among the Roman Church the Holy Spirit gifts did perhaps cease, according to Crysostom and Augustine, sometime around the third century. That is the time they turned against the Book of Enoch. I suspect lacking the Holy Spirit they stopped being sure about the Book of Enoch but where the Holy Spirit was continuously manifest, the Ethiopic believers still believed the Book of Enoch because the Holy Spirit backed it up. Now churches are finding the Holy Spirit gifts given them again. As a result some, myself included, are beginning again to believe in the Book of Enoch as true prophetic scripture. For me it happened because the same things are written in the book as are said in gifts by the Holy Spirit, glorifying the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Paradox

 Why would atheists have invented theism? It makes no sense. What does make better sense is the alternative, that theism is revealed by gods.

The problem for many with the Book of Enoch

 The problem for many with the Book of Enoch is that like Jesus said of it, if you are ignorant of it, or of God’s power, you can find yourself in error. And many religious groups are ignorant of it. But the errors are manifested as Jesus brings the book to light.

Immoral to make society depend on atheism

 If society were based on paradox it would be unstable and eventually fail whenever it’s logical founding became important. Religion is not as paradoxical as atheism. It depends on a logical tenet that it is revealed by gods. Atheism depends on a logical tenet that it is invented by humans but has a paradoxical corollary that the inventors were atheists and were therefore lying in their invention and therefore atheism tends towards lies and inventions of religion. Thus to make society depend on atheism is immoral whichever way you look at it.

Which came first? Religion or Atheism?

 If you think religion was invented by humans then you have a paradox that it must have been invented by atheists. If you think religion is real then there is no paradox of how it started: God or gods revealed it.

Jesus full of grace and truth

 There is an underlying meaning to the word grace coming from the Hebrew of the OT verses concerning grace, also there in English meanings of the word. Meanings of words are not a recommended study because they are never as certain as faith from God. But this sense of grace is compelling because it is certainly found in Jesus. It is grace seen in behaviour of graceful creatures such as gazelles or young maidens. It is that elusive deftness of movement, excellence of liveliness in how the body movements almost effortlessly flow and the joy it is to see it. Jesus could and still can do things in a way that extends sheer joy and hope to those who see it, full of a promise of all that life can be and all that He makes life to be if we receive that grace. Jesus is full of grace and truth. Expressing to all around the abundance of life that is in Him given Him to forever have in Himself by God. 

The Holy Spirit

 On one hand the Holy Spirit, as an influencer on the inner being, creates a holier state within, making it clean, making the inner mind disciplined according to heavenly principles such as honesty and humility. It keeps this state maintained. This gives joy in the resulting salvation from destructive thinking and behaviour. On the other hand this same Holy Spirit can at times (perhaps rare occasions, as in Samuel’s time when it says the word of God was rare) manifest openly in various ways which build up the household of God, believers together, and create new believers, creating faith. All of this is given by God in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord.

As we think, so we are

 As we think in our minds, so are we. We might claim to be interested in facts and led by facts, yet our inner thoughts, even barely conscious ones we hardly notice ourselves thinking, guide our beliefs and influence us more than we admit to ourselves. We need a lot of discipline to stop ourselves believing things are fact which are only suppositions or inadvertent conclusions. We become the sum of all such thoughts. Having a safety system of objective truth to counter all of this is crucial to survival. We need to be careful what is leading our inner minds. Call it ‘spirit’ maybe. Something in addition to random or inadvertent thought processes is essential. Hopefully a truthful spirit. Now you know where this is leading. The Middle East Messiah offered this two thousand years ago and that offer is backed up by resurrection. Gotta take notice really. You owe it to yourself.

Prophesyings

Random inner voices are not what true prophesying is about. Rather the truth in Jesus comes first. Honesty is a crucial part of that. Christ died for you. But only in order that you become honest and kind and put aside lies (that Christ’s heavenly home abhors) and speak truthfully and write online truthfully and put aside angrily hating and such things too. The Holy Spirit teaches this in power. Then you might find God does speak to you and through you as you walk in Jesus’ truth so God can become your Father. God shows Himself and Jesus shows Himself to those who lovingly obey their commands. Then you can have real faith based on God’s loving power. God is love. No lie comes from the truth of God. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. Learn according to this and then you can learn to filter out random thoughts and focus on truth and then in the midst of a heart stayed on truth you can discern the still, quiet, authoritative voice of the Lord if He does meet you in that way. Do not prophesy lies. Do not say God speaks to you if He doesn’t. Learn the ways of God and serve Him. Obey His commands in honesty and truth. If He tasks you then with spiritual gifts all well and good so the body of Christ, the Temple, is built up. But in love. The goal is love.

LORD JESUS’ BRIDE

 It is a great mystery and wonder how because of the greatness of Jesus and His Father’s plan and power, a huge multitude can all collectively comprise the bride of Jesus. Like a knitted garment woven from many small strands of wool all joined together. Each has a portion of the overall grace of Jesus. Each builds others around them into this one entity. All supported and supporting each other. All infused with spirit and exuding spirit, the Holy Spirit, side by side with Jesus the chief master of fountains of spirit, by the Holy Spirit without limit. All in fellowship with Jesus which only God can grant, in sufferings overflowing from Jesus’ sufferings. All hopeful of resurrection, like Jesus’ resurrection. It is an intense spirit mystery. 

Resurrections

The most striking feature I have come across about Jesus Christ is resurrection. In Larnaca in Cyprus I came across what to many living there must seem normal religious life in the form of their landmark church building the building of the Church of Saint Lazarus where there is housed the remains of the tomb believed to have belonged to Lazarus, a bishop of ancient Cyprus who is believed to be the man who was raised from the dead by Jesus. Just before this Lazarus left Judea to flee to Cyprus there was another resurrection too, that of Jesus Himself. The story is recorded that Lazarus fled persecution death threats in Judea and arrived in Cyprus where he lived another few decades and became a bishop. So the tomb, even though the body was reportedly moved to Marseille centuries later, is a second tomb of Lazarus whose first tomb is mentioned in scripture. He was twice buried after Jesus raised him from the dead but still kept him mortal. When Jesus Himself died and rose it was an end to Jesus’ mortality beginning His immorality. Not so Lazarus, not that first resurrection he underwent but another awaits him. So this remarkable evidence, traditionally established by the Orthodox Church, left to us as reminders of Jesus, shows us Jesus the resurrection and the resurrector. The hope of the nations. Thanks be to God.

I AM

Scripture was not written in English. But we read English translations. In the Semitic and Greek of the writers of scripture the essence of holy words, be it those of God or of the Son of God, saying “I am” have subtly different meanings to the English translations. Lost in translation, it is a serious problem. In the Book of Isaiah God is on record having spoken through Isaiah the prophet to tell us “I am” in words of Semitic language which have subtlety of meaning conveying extreme longevity, more lifetime longevity than any other. In the Book of Revelation both Jesus, God’s Son and also the Father, God Almighty, are on record having spoken through the prophet and apostle John, to tell us “I am” in words of Ancient Greek language which have that same meaning of great longevity. Translated into English there is loss of certainty of such meaning. In English I can say “Hey, don’t push in! I am next in this queue!” and it lacks any longevity of being next in the queue since if that fellow succeeds in pushing in front of me I will not be next at all. I can use that same “I am” to say “I am the boss in this office” but my retirement might be next week. I can say “I am your father” and it will be true long after I said it. In rare situations my “I am” might convey greatly long lasting “I am”, such as in answer to a question “Who is the longest reigning champion of the famous book club darts team?” Well that isn’t true, but it could be. I might in some fantasy universe be able to proudly reply “I am!”. Yet the words, if the language is English, only convey longevity in particular contexts. In scriptures the announcement of God and also of Christ His Son saying “I am” is sometimes meant to be unambiguous in its proclamation of unequaled longevity. In Isaiah 41:4,

 “Who has performed and done this,

    calling the generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord, the first,

    and with the last; I am he.” 

In Revelation, the “I am” is also several times accompanied by that same phrase “the first and the last”. In the Gospel of John chapter 8, Jesus says it in answer to ridicule by Jewish religious sectarians who expressed incredulity that Jesus could be any older than fifty when Jesus implied to having seen Abraham who lived thousands of years earlier. Jesus said “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am”. It had such weight, implying again unsurpassed longevity of Jesus in some mysterious sense, that they picked up stones to try to stone Him, though He simply walked away.

When indoctrination doesn’t work

 Indoctrination does not seem to work on adolescents. They reach the age where they are self-aware and need to know for themselves. They then need to find their knowledge by learning, not by trusting in the knowledge of their parents and indoctrinators. It is a scary time for them because they are aware they might never find the knowledge they need but there is no alternative except to either remain ignorant or find the true facts or be conned into believing lies. Just think how many adolescents are in that situation. Into this situation comes someone they need more than anyone. Someone who is the same yesterday and today and forever. Unless they can believe in this Jesus they will never learn the truth and they will die in their sins. Many would read something like this and agree with it, all of it except the Jesus bit. So people are stuck: stuck but along with billions of others too. So society ends up riddled with alcoholics, druggies, drug cartels, big pharma cartels, liars and haters.

Names of God

 Book of Enoch chapter 10

1. Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him: 2. '〈Go to Noah〉 and tell him in my name "Hide thyself!" and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it. 3. And now instruct him that he may escape and his seed may be preserved for all the generations of the world.'

Names of God, such as this one made known to Noah, have varied over time, as the Book of Enoch and later scriptures tell us. Here God is made known by the terrifying name “Hide Yourself!” Later to Abraham the name became “Almighty” and the Semitic language of the wording El Shaddai is similar to the the terrifying looking beasts the Semitic peoples called a Sheddu, like a huge bull with human head and lion’s legs and wings. Like an extremely strong Cherub. The name is each time an outstanding characteristic of God on which His activities of that time would cause all to focus, the Flood especially showing His utterly terrifying sovereignty as most high judge, so “Hide!”. Be afraid. Be very afraid. That kind of name. Later to Moses the name changes and the Creator aspect of God comes to the fore as Yahweh, Becomer, Maker, who becomes known as such when He brings forth Israel as a Son for Himself out of Egypt. This change is further developed as in our times we especially know God as the Father who brought forth Jesus His Son, bringing Him forth from the tomb and from death into immortal life. 

Praying during lockdown

 There is something rather noble about being taught to frequently pray to God. The habit of praying has payoffs for those who are open to what God can do. Yet there are times in our lives when circumstances tend to provide solitude. Circumstances such as lockdowns. What a great opportunity for someone who has learned a habit of daily prayer. What an opportunity for some in such solitude to seek more diligently a better learning through prayer of the ways of God. Come let us seek the Lord God and He will teach us His ways. Look out world! A people might arise from this lockdown time who have learned the ways and counsels of the Almighty. 

Why obey the commands of Christ?

 Why obey the commands of Christ? Firstly, our stubborn disobedience adds to Christ’s sufferings but Jesus Christ is used to it, having already suffered on the cross for us. Secondly, more positively, look at where the command leads us, to becoming a better person and taking us one more step towards being worthy of the resurrection, so we live forever.

Lest we die in our sins

 When Jesus was a child and lived with brothers and parents the brothers later were recorded by John as not believing Jesus was particularly all that special. He must have lived such a very, very human life growing up with them that they could regard Jesus as a human and nothing else. After the resurrection that must have changed a bit. Yes, a human, definitely, no question, but now the kind of being other humans if worthy of it can become by Jesus’ God’s power, immortal resurrected human, a son of God, a god. Still the same as other believers and human like me and you - just exactly like me and you. Yet never again to die, being risen and made immortal by God’s power. Yet there is a mysterious aspect to Jesus in His extremely long ancient past. He alludes to it in John 8. Same yesterday and today and forever, where yesterday goes back aeons, and forever goes on forever. Still utterly human, but extremely long-lived and much of that life prior to becoming flesh. A mystery. Yet a mystery we essentially need to believe lest we die in our sins.

See Nature, See Jesus

 See Nature, that in being tied to Jesus’ name of being the same yesterday (even in Enoch’s time) and today and forever, Nature likewise is made constant in its behaviours. Stars keeping passage through space. Trees keeping on dropping leaves in Autumn and budding forth in Spring. 

Rest on this. Follow this. Become this. 

We have sinned. We are not living up to it. Yet Jesus promises freedom from sin if we believe He is the same yesterday and today and forever and if we hold to His teachings. 

And God bless you in 2021 and forever. 

Book of Enoch 

Chapter 3

“Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.”

Chapter 4

“And again, observe ye the days of summer how the sun is above the earth over against it. And you seek shade and shelter by reason of the heat of the sun, and the earth also burns with growing heat, and so you cannot tread on the earth, or on a rock by reason of its heat.”

Chapter 5

“Observe ⌈⌈ye⌉⌉ how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed ⌈and know⌉ with regard to all ⌈His works⌉, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so. And ⌈all⌉ His works go on ⌈thus⌉ from year to year for ever, and all the tasks ⌈which⌉ they accomplish for Him, and ⌈their tasks⌉ change not, but according as ⌈⌈God⌉⌉ hath ordained so is it done. And behold how the sea and the rivers in like manner accomplish and ⌈change not⌉ their tasks ⌈from His commandments⌉.

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.”

... 

DO YOU REJECT THE PREEXISTENCE OF CHRIST?

 DO YOU REJECT THE PREEXISTENCE OF CHRIST?

The (Socinian) answer given by some to Jesus’ claim in John 8 of existing before even the ancient first ever Hebrew Abraham was born is that Jesus meant not that He existed back in the Bronze Age, thousands of years before His birth but rather, these, typically Unitarians or Socinians say, Jesus was prophesied about way back then. This falls apart if you look at the context. 

John 8:54-59 ‘Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.’

How does seeing Abraham get explained by Jesus being prophesied about before Abraham was born? How does being not yet fifty years old have anything to do with being prophesied about before Abraham was born? Jesus clearly, we should all see from the context, is addressing His having seen Abraham because He existed before Abraham was born, having immense personal experience because of this preexistence.

The most unambiguous scripture in support of this is in the Book of Enoch, a scripture book highly quoted by Jesus and endorsed by Him, much loved in Jesus’ time by those who were neither Pharisees nor Sadducees. In many passages in the Book of Enoch the author describes the Son of Man seen in heaven in Enoch’s time and this is clearly the preexistent Jesus. Some would dispute this by again saying it is prophecy foretelling Jesus Christ (those who do not outright reject the Book of Enoch). Yet in one passage in the Book of Enoch the author describes being taken into heaven “to that Son of Man”, clearly implying the Son of Man being there actually in heaven at the time. 

Book of Enoch 

[chapter 70]

And it came to pass after this that his name during his lifetime was raised aloft to that Son of Man and to the Lord of Spirits from amongst those who dwell on the earth. And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them. And from that day I was no longer numbered amongst them: and he set me between the two winds, between the North and the West, where the angels took the cords to measure for me the place for the elect and righteous. And there I saw the first fathers and the righteous who from the beginning dwell in that place.

[Chapter 71]

And it came to pass after this that my spirit was translated

And it ascended into the heavens:

And I saw the holy sons of God.

They were stepping on flames of fire:

Their garments were white [and their raiment],

And their faces shone like snow.

By not saying “before Abraham was born, I WAS” but rather “before Abraham was born I AM” Jesus indicates He is the same today as in ancient times and so into the future too. So Peter could later write “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

The sons of God are gods

 The sons of God are gods. They are not God. The Holy Spirit teaches us to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He does not teach us to believe that Jesus is God. 

The generation that knew not Joseph

 “And there arose up another king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.” Exodus 1:8

The Sovereign Lord God does not only reveal Himself kind and saving, but also strong and judging. A generation which knows both sides is superseded by a new generation which knows neither in order for God to once more show His power and kindness. To believing chosen ones He shows salvation and kindness while to hardened unbelievers He shows power and judgment. It happens simultaneously at times and surely such times are coming again with this new generation rising under human gods who know neither God nor His human friends who follow Jesus. The shutting of churches might seem warranted and might actually be warranted in pandemic times (although as centres of education that seems ironic when universities are open and spreading the disease) but it is symptomatic of a rising new generation of leaders who are ignorant of the Almighty Father who dwells among His people, even though they have sinned, and gives His people the Holy Spirit in the name of His Son. Ignorant now. Not ignorant for long, if history indeed repeats itself.

How sudden will Jesus Christ’s return be?

 How sudden will Jesus Christ’s return be? “As the lightning strikes in the East and flashes to the West, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” “In the twinkling of an eye.” But like pregnancy there will be “birth pangs”. Pregnancy and birth are not sudden but are phased in. You get more and more sure the birth is near. Then when it comes to the actual birth you might find it sudden on some occasions. When it comes to the coming of the Son of Man it will be very sudden but will come at the culmination of several occasions when it will be as if He is just about to come but doesn’t. The birth pangs. You will find many have experiences of Him which mirror His final full coming. In these experiences they will perceive Him coming in the clouds of heaven but it will not His final complete coming, just a foretaste. “Men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven.” These foretastes lead up to the full coming which will spread like lightning from one end of the earth to the earth such that all see it almost simultaneously. That will be very, very sudden. And the dead will rise, many of them, to become judges throughout the earth, and many living will join them after being made immortal suddenly. Nobody knows exactly when this will happen, not even Jesus, the Son of Man Himself. The birth pangs will make clear it is on its way though, like in the final stages of pregnancy which can be mistaken as the birth itself, except by those who know better and know it is not necessarily imminent, just approaching. 

The Aeons

 Great mystery: the name of who Jesus is, His reputation, the work of God He fulfils, it all radiates out from Him, and by it God creates all the aeons of time, past, present and future.

“I am”

 All of time, past present future, radiates out from Jesus. “I am.”

Nature and us

 The Holy Spirit teaches that Nature is like it is because God brought into being His Son and raised Him from the dead. But we sin.

Glory

 By sinning we have so fallen short of being worthy to be called Children of God but by faith which God fosters within us, He is Father.

So poor a body we are for Christ but so great a Head He is for us.

Break free

 Break free. Get your authority from Lord Jesus the Christ’s teachings and name and break free.

The Noah Flood

 People having misgivings about the records of the earliest events that shaped human civilisation does not mean the events didn’t happen. Looking just at archeology of it and extant texts from before and after the time (texts written after but indicating earlier documents existed of which they were copies) you see Utnapishtim (Noah) surviving a catastrophic flood ingrained into folklore and historic narratives. You see him living in a city Sharappak and possibly resetting there again long afterwards and the city being rebuilt preserving a flood layer dating it all to the third millennium BC. Something happened and the people involved are perpetuated in history.