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. 

Micah”s Advent Prophecy

 "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity."

So said the prophet Micah.

This Jesus, Son of Man, who came, His coming in flesh was in the times of most ancient aeons past going to become a manifestation in recorded history just two thousand years ago. For those aeons past it would appear the existence was spiritual, not flesh, but was always going to one day become flesh. 

When an angel is manifest, that angel is in some ways just like a human. Yet before and after such manifestations it still exists but in a spiritual existence. It’s identity is preserved yet its physical features are not actually physical in our sense of hard matter until its time of manifestation. Those times seem possibly to be interspersed with spiritual existence. Maybe so too with the Son of Man. Existing spiritually with actual real identity but no flesh of natural elements like we have until formed in the virgin womb and later born a mortal human. Yet existing long before all this in a spiritual existence, even such that spiritual perception of prophets and angels could see Him, the firstborn over all creation through whom the Father made all things. Now, both killed and resurrected, He is immortal and thrice a Son of God, firstborn over the acts and outcomes of creation, only begotten son of God and now firstborn of God from the dead, alive forever: This Son of Man up to whom Enoch was taken to be like an angel five thousand years ago, as the Book of Enoch records for us.

Where Christianity and Islam seem to agree

Christianity and Islam seem to agree that the Lord, Jesus Christ, Isa al Masih, will judge the living and the dead and if your sins characterise you in certain ways, you will not end well. 

Liars, murderers: The same end for each (and these probably overlap in some people) if you die in your sins. But Jesus came so you do not have to.

Model or Truth

 Tragically the majority settle for knowledge of a philosophical model over knowledge of the truth and die in their sins.

Theological philosophical models

Many when trying to understand God subscribe to an existing philosophical model of God, perhaps already picked out by their peers or church denomination. These models were formed over centuries since Roman Christians and others started to develop them on Hellenist philosophical lines in the third century, two hundred years after Christianity took shape. They called these models “orthodoxies”. The first two were Arianism and Trinitarianism as distinct from the more variant Gnosticism. Later Manichaeism, Muslim theology, Unitarianism and Binitarianism were added. Most recently Pentecostals added Oneness. They make approximations of understandings of scriptures and of philosophical theological theories about God and the Holy Spirit and Jesus. They also tend to distort scriptures to make them fit the model. Now a model is fine. We naturally create them. If say we make a phone-call to a loved one we know well, we might make a model in our minds of their likely situation. We picture how they might be. Maybe they are working and the kinds of things they might be doing could make it awkward to answer the phone. However, then when they do answer, and we get a real picture of their situation we quickly put that model picture on hold and replace it with reality. So too with our knowledge of God. Once we get the reality we can replace our model with that. We need to accept that the model might be replaced with reality once the connections are made with God. We need not cling to it. But danger comes when our social contacts and circles depend on maintaining that model. To get a grip on reality when it comes, if the social contacts tie us too tightly to the shared, agreed model we might do well to loosen those ties so we are not hindered when reality comes and God shines it into our minds. Love God enough to do this. Love God the most. Love Jesus the more than other loves. Truth sets free from sin and we need that truth more than the model and the ties that come with it.

The One with whom we can identify

 God made the firstborn son of His over all creation into a fully natural human being to help us understand and be truly represented before God. Yet now this firstborn over all creation is firstborn from the dead too and immortal like an angel, so humanness itself is taken to the next level like it can be with us too. We can identify with Jesus’ mortal time of being like we are now. We can hope that when we, if worthy of it, become resurrected immortals we will still have Jesus who is already like that for us. But before Jesus was born of a virgin He was not like us. He was very much like an angel but always destined to be like us and have an entry into this world by birth like we do. He ever was and still is the Son of Man. That is just the way it is. You are not expected to identify with that angelic state but Enoch could and Elijah could because they became angelic like this Son of Man before His advent. You and I can identify with the mortal state He took when God the Father, His Father, sent Him.

My first experience of the Holy Spirit and subsequent encounters

 My first experience of the Holy Spirit was not long after I was baptised in my teens. My believer church friend and I were playing chess. I never experienced the Holy Spirit before. We were playing chess and discussing Einstein and Creation and the speed of light, like most wannabe intellectual teens about to start more heavy duty academic courses. (My friend later married a daughter of a world-top scientist and became a respected radiographer. I didn’t do anything like that but, well, I hoped.) We did that chess thing where to decide who plays white and gets to go first, one of you juggles a black and a white pawn behind your back then holds them out in closed fists, one pawn in each hand. The other then chooses a hand and you play the colour you chose. My friend did the hand juggling while I got to choose a fist held out. Our minds were full of quantum theory and Einstein. Suddenly a kind of voice said inside my head “Choose the fist that looks the whitest”. One hand looked a bit whiter than the other in my perception. So I chose it. The pawn was the white pawn. For some reason we did it again but I said nothing about the voice. Another hand looked whitest. I chose white again. We did it thirty two times. Each time I chose white. We got scared and stopped. It is a lesson to me in how God can bypass the uncertainties of quantum physics and create the outcome He wants, whatever it is He wants it to be. The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God the Father and makes them known to us. 

Years later I was at university in London and my friend was at a different university in London. We went to the same church but it was so big we only realised that when we met up a year or so ago. When at that church a great preacher was leading it. Dr R T Kendall. He would preach an hour or more and it was never enough for me. I shut my eyes and soaked it in. Pure scripture exposition, a verse or less at a time, going through a single book over many, many weeks. Three services each Sunday. One Sunday I burnt my finger so badly on the toaster at breakfast that I got a blister over a centimetre (third of an inch) wide. It was agony. I went to church and he preached on the verse “If you have faith and do not doubt you can say to this mountain move and it will move”. I could not concentrate even with my eyes shut. The pain was excruciating. Then suddenly as he read the verse an inner certainty arose inside me that this blister was a mountain God wanted moved so I could listen. In my mind I shouted at that pain “Go!” Immediately it disappeared and I struggled against doubts trying to rise up in my mind (memories of how folk would say it is all in my head and the pain will come back) and I was able to resist because of the certainty that had welled up inside me. Half an hour he preached and my eyes were shut and no pain came back. When he finished I opened my eyes, and yes the blister had disappeared and never came back. I went to meet RT afterwards and told him about it. He said “that is what we can expect when we faithfully preach the word”. Years later I wrote and reminded him. He still had that belief. 

Just a few years ago I was debating with online social media associates and sometimes I would go and lie on my bed, letting it sink in what we debated and meditating a bit to get consolation and reflect. One time as I did so I reflected on things that went badly for aggressive unbelieving attackers or even for respected friends at work or in my general life who actually started to become a serious, even life endangering threat to me. They would end up suddenly in a bad way and be removed from harms way. A couple even died. It suddenly struck me how it had been happening in the background. In my childhood I got persecuted at school for believing in Jesus but I had had dreams in which Jesus stood there and fended the attackers off and these so greatly encouraged me. Now looking back it seemed an angel had been physically fending off attacks and keeping me safe. It suddenly dawned on me it might be an angel doing it. Then the verse popped into my head “the Angel of the Lord encamps around them that fear Him”. I could not remember where it was, a psalm I thought. Suddenly a voice spoke inside my head as clear as a bell “DANIEL 3”. I knew it was the Holy Spirit (or an angel, I later thought). I just got up and looked up Daniel 3 in a Bible I never used but which I had in the next room. Nothing about an angel or the like but I kept reading, then at the very end of the chapter it had “Angel” capitalised and a margin reference. I looked up the reference and it was that very verse “the Angel of the Lord encamps around them that fear Him”. The chapter in Daniel was about lives of believers being spared from certain death by what looked like an Angel of the Lord and even their persecutor had to admit this proved God is real. 

In my childhood I must have read about God appearing in a dream to Solomon because over and over I prayed Him to appear to me like that. I so wanted to see Jesus too but I read He told Thomas “blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” so I didn’t want to forfeit such a blessing. I heard from Pentecostal grandparents about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and they took my sister to church and she came back telling me about speaking in tongues. Never did anything like that happen in churches I attended. I was distraught that I was ever missing out. I prayed more so in my late teens at university and a believer got visions and I never did, and another told me I was missing out. I then did get a vision in our university Christian student meetings of glory of God and this believer saw my face all lit up and was delighted for me. But it did not assure me I had received the Holy Spirit. I had nobody to assure me. In my twenties and early thirties it got too much so I started earnestly praying for all this and especially to be certain I had received the Holy Spirit. One day I really prayed so earnestly and suddenly a vision happened like seeing a TV program in front of my eyes of a bucket of builder’s sand tipped out before me and words like subtitles across that ‘screen’: BUILD THE TEMPLE. I love it. Never had it happened to me before. But still I wasn’t sure. So I beseeched God, if it is the Holy Spirit doing this please confirm it threefold. I was taken by a friend to a Saturday church miles away and in it anybody was allowed to stand and speak if God gave them something. Three girls from ‘Sunday School’ stood at the front and sang the song they had written: it went “Build build build the temple. Build build build the temple“! A man stood and played a redemption hymnal hymn on a guitar and sang it then spoke about David being told by God that his Son Solomon could build the Temple and the man spoke about a David being awestruck at the privilege. Then an elderly man spoke about building the temple too. I had my threefold confirmation. 

After that command BUILD THE TEMPLE I tried to do the only method of building the temple of believers I knew about: preaching. I became a lay preacher with the Methodists and also tried to find churches where anyone was allowed to preach and I really wanted to prophesy but did not know what that entailed. I got conviction that I did not know enough to preach well. I remembered a verse where Paul criticised wannabe teachers of the law, saying they did not know what they were talking about. I told God it was me too who did not know really anything much about God nor even have full assurance He existed, since most days since childhood I woke up in the morning and before getting up I had to persuade myself God exists. It was not good enough for a preacher. If God wanted me preaching I beseeched Him to give me knowledge of Himself, Father and Son and Holy Spirit (that was my Trinitarian church thinking). Knowing how Jesus said such privilege of seeing God and Himself and having the Holy Spirit first and was only really promised for those who obeyed Jesus, I went on a personal audit to check that every command of Jesus I could understand well enough, I was indeed obeying. Then I asked God to show me Father and Son and Holy Spirit. One night a little later in a dream the Father did come and stand in my dream in front of me. He was like an imposing male elderly great figure standing very upright dressed in a long gown and He said sternly “I am God” and the vision showed me the thing God wanted me to do the next day at work and what the cue would be. It happened as was told me and resulted in someone’s day being saved (a gifted poet getting married that coming week). Months later in a ferocious storm that is in Wikipedia, there was a voice again but this time different like a voice nobody could refuse. “PUT DOWN YOUR UMBRELLA” and as I put it down the torrential rain stopped dead so not a drop hit me. “It is the Lord!” I exclaimed to myself. As usual I went home and that night asked for proof. A dressing gown I never used at all was on a nail in the wall. By morning let it come off that nail if indeed it was Jesus who had spoken to me and stopped the storm. In the middle of the night I suddenly felt someone reaching so deep into my mind it was to a part of my consciousness I never knew existed, turning a key of my will like total master and compelling me to wake up. I jumped out of bed and in the dark reached for the dressing gown and as I took it down I remembered the sign request and was stunned that Jesus had done that. Months later again I was taken by my lay preaching supervisor to a different church where he assured me I would witness real speaking in tongues. A weight kept me inwardly in a kind of straight jacket. A hand was upon me of the Holy Spirit. In the service a man spoke a message in tongues at a microphone and the interpretation was given me as I heard each sentence. “Consider the trees, they bring forth buds and leaves. They do so by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It said more too, about planets I think. The speaker himself then said those very words. Months later I got my first (only so far) prophetic word. Israel has sinned, the eagle over the house of Israel is the sign. And the church I said it to, they had one of the first police helicopters fly over them and their locals were in the news about it. Mass surveillance started from that time onwards to this day. 

It is not always pleasant what the Holy Spirit can do. I stayed with a friend and went with him to a church in another town where mostly the pastor had worked among the mentally disabled and there were maybe fifty who attended and they were all full of the Holy Spirit somehow unhindered by their disabilities. The meeting started with singing and there was no gradual warming up of the energy of the spirit of the singing. Then went instantly into joyous powerful praise to God and never got tired or deflated. Red hot Spirit-filled praise to God in their joy in Jesus. I was suddenly overcome with utter conviction. I felt nothing but conviction of my own sinfulness. There was no consolation except I could only try to utter with my proud-hearted mouth “Lord Jesus!”. That is the Holy Spirit too.

Unitarians

Unitarians are greatly affected by teachers of the Sozzini family of Italians in the sixteenth century who questioned and contradicted the belief that Jesus existed before coming in the flesh. Some now believe Jesus did not exist at all before coming in the flesh but that prophecies about Jesus did exist before that time. Others believe the existence of Jesus before becoming flesh was in the form of the word of God, the Logos. Personally I find it strange that there is reluctance to accept that the word of God about Jesus which eventually became flesh did not before that time have any material nature. The scriptures speak of this Logos in anthropomorphic terms, saying that all things were made through this Logos. This ascribes to the Logos a state of existence. What kind of existence do the Socinian (followers of Sozzini teachings) ascribe to the prophecies and the plan for Jesus to come? Is it too mysterious to accept that the word was so glorious that something real, somebody real, came into existence when God first, before creating anything else, uttered His powerful will that there would be the Son of God. Light existed when God said “let there be light”. Why not His Son? Yet scriptures such as the Book of Enoch expressly say that the Son of Man did indeed exist with God even before the rest of the Bible was written. So to my mind this mystery is being revealed and has been from the dawn of history. Christ truly came into the world from heaven, from God. 

Muslims and the Gospels

 Muslims think the death of Jesus Christ on a cross never happened and the gospels accounts of it were fabricated. That would be weird indeed: To fabricate a death that looked like failure. And if they fabricated their eyewitness accounts, why did they not go to more trouble to make the details agree? Anyone attending jury service knows that eyewitness accounts which completely agree are to be regarded suspiciously. Eyewitness accounts never agree on details. That is human nature. But lies are usually, a frequent court attender I know tells me, obviously lies because liars tell blatant lies which undermine their credibility. The accounts of the death on a cross of Jesus have differences which show authenticity. Like whether Jesus drank the vinegar. Immaterial but authentic. And the differences show real events were witnessed by multiple people. So a sensible person examining these accounts is likely to be convinced that Jesus the Messiah did die on that cross. This adds weight to the testimonies that afterwards Jesus was seen alive again. Billions draw hope from this. The idea that the whole thing was fabricated is bad enough, but to say it was Jews who fabricated it, not disciples, is weirder still. Why would Jews who wanted Jesus dead write the gospels?

Alive today and alive forever

 It is crucial whether Jesus is alive still today having risen from the dead. It puts preexistence into the background because it is clear that a risen Jesus alive today is not gonna die tomorrow and let us all down. Yes a preexistent Jesus made before anything else was made by the Father is immense in authority but some cannot accept it. However, two thousand years alive! Might as well be ten thousand years. It means He truly IS. Not just was. Not just is. Not just will be tomorrow. He IS. Just like the Father IS. And it means Jesus is the Son of God forever. Not sinless today, fallen tomorrow. Not like an AA member happy to be drink free for a month of year. This is eternal. Eternally a son. Like He says “a slave has no permanent place in the household but a son abides in it forever”. Dependable to save us, eternally. So do you believe all this is true, that Jesus IS? Believe!

Becoming a son/daughter of God

 BECOMING A SON/DAUGHTER OF GOD

There is more to it than abstaining from obvious sins like lying, though that is a major part of it. It takes power: Power given by Jesus to those who believe the message of the apostles about Him and believe their records of His words. Hold to these teachings. Especially seek those who proclaim them to you faithfully. If you love Jesus you will not discard the lessons you learn from Him but you will let them build up and create a picture of truth within you, believing that God sent Him, and God calls Him His beloved Son.

Christ’s Advent

 Phrases like “firstborn over all creation”, “only begotten son”, “through Him all things were made”, these aren’t inventions or mistranslations. Whole gospel chapters are devoted to proving the Christ came into the world as the Son of God by virgin birth. This is not superimposed. This is what those believed who Jesus chose to push out His message and truth and grace. Doubt this and you doubt Jesus. But hey, even one of the inner circle doubted physical resurrection until Jesus gave first hand evidence he could not refute and Jesus told him “Stop doubting and believe”. This Jesus also told off those who doubted the apostles’ testimony of His resurrection. But blessed those who had not seen and yet believed. Having not seen but received clear evidence proved absolutely by the Holy Spirit, I too can testify that JESUS IS. And is the same as what the gospels say of Him. Alive from the dead. Firstborn from the dead. 

The Big Picture of Jesus

 Believing in Jesus’ veracity and a bit of confidence in scripture faithfulness (albeit wary of textual variations) leads to awareness of truths, but love of Jesus leads to keeping those things over time, not forgetting or ignoring what we learn from Him and those He has sent. Then they all build into a big picture. And God gives works of power to give us something solid for our faith.

Learning truth

 Truth is not just about scriptures, is about God too, since there are so many word variations in scriptures, and God chose to have His Son and the Holy Spirit be the way He reveals truth via those to whom Jesus shows Himself and then sends. You can’t truthfully test what is said about Jesus without having first that faith which is Fathered by God, who never lies.

My belief in Jesus

 Jesus is, I believe, the Son of Man. Man as distinct from spirit that is the Father. Human of human birth as distinct from angel who merely looks like a man (angels are often described as men or young men in scripture). Yet born of a virgin on whom the Spirit of God descended. So only begotten Son of God, unique in this regard, THE only begotten Son of God. Also preexisting and firstborn over all creation, existing with God, generated by God, before anything else was made. First of all the angelic sons of God the Father. Also firstborn from the dead, made a living immortal being after having died. First of all those who will later be so resurrected. So set aside by God for this purpose and sent into the world to reveal the truth. 

How to deal with truth and lies about Jesus today

Believing in Jesus is not believing in lies since liars are everywhere and you need to start with one person who can believed and nobody meets that criterion like Jesus does. Yet you need to believe in Jesus enough to believe the veracity of anyone sent by Jesus. That includes those who Jesus kept closest during the years of ministry and then sent out to testify to everyone. This also includes some Jesus sends today to whom enough of Jesus is made known that they too can testify.

Learning by miracles

 Look at the gospel of John and all the miracles there. They each convey truths about Jesus. They are God’s testimony about His Son. That can be true in lives of those who experience His works today. The lesson is taught through the works. The works God does through Jesus and apostles and miracle workers today are teaching people. What are they learning? The same kinds of things as the gospel testimony recorded. But learning by power of God is better than meanings of words and arguments about words can teach anyone. The truthfulness of God and what God teaches is conveyed by the faith these miracles produce. It is the same today as it was in those gospel times. These lessons lead into all truth. 

The Lord on King David’s throne

 The Lord on King David’s throne

Israel knows it’s king of ancient times left that throne to a future descendant who would live forever, dying but rising from the dead, because David himself foretold it in a psalm. So there is no reason to doubt that Jesus is that descendant and is alive from the dead and has been given that throne by God. It means not only is Jesus the Christ but He is the One who David acknowledged as his Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ alive from the dead, living forever and forever to reign on David’s throne. Israel has sinned. Repent and baptised in the name of Jesus to keep His teachings. Behold your Lord and King.

Modern apostleship

 We can share in maintaining the faith of Jesus Christ in these times continuing it from the first century. Faith given us can be like faith given then coming from Jesus and the Father directly as well as from the Holy Spirit and miracles.

The only resurrected immortal

 The only immortal to die and rise again is Jesus. He had to be born a mortal to do it. All within recorded history, at a time when accurate historic records were being kept. 

Christmas Truth

 The Christmas truth is that not just Jesus’ death is a sacrifice but the very human lifeform taken by the divine being, the god, the heavenly entity from before the beginning of time, the Son of Man who is first Son of God to ever exist, Jesus when that first Noel advent this person became a human flesh crying baby is itself a sacrifice of great immortal majesty to take humble mortal flesh humanity then die on that cross for sins of you and me, that son of God sacrifice led to a new kind of son of God status as first ever human to rise immortal from the dead to live forever.

The John 9 Experience

 The John 9 experience: Even after a miraculous experience of Jesus, a result of which saw the healed man punished for having believed Jesus is the Christ, the man still experienced Jesus telling him more. Jesus told him that He is the Son of Man, the Son of God made flesh: Begotten, but begotten of God. Jesus was later challenged about telling him this (John 10) but He stood firmly by His statement.

More than Christ

 Many acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. Muslims do so by calling Him Isa al Masih. Western world by calling Him Jesus Christ. But for those who have experienced His power miraculously, He challenges to believe He is more. He confesses to us that He is the Son of Man, He is the Son of God. The Father says so too.

Not just Christ but Son of Man too

It was illegal at one point for Jews to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ and so He challenged a believing Jew to confess Him as the Son of Man. If that meant the same as Christ then Jesus would have been encouraging the man to break the law. Obviously the way John records it, that wasn’t the case. Jesus was avoiding the tricky question of being the Christ and focusing on the equally important matter of Him being the Son of Man and being believed to be such, and being believed in as such. John 9. So the fact that Jesus is the Son of Man is not quite the same as Him being the Christ. I believe it is about His preexistence. As seen by Daniel, Enoch, Esdras. The man had already been punished for confessing Jesus as the Christ, so this was different. More than Christ, Son of Man. 

Offer and counteroffer

 Someone candidly and intelligently wrote to me:

“I can make others more like me by being a living example. I can raise my children to live by those values. When I die, in all likelihood my atoms will continue on as part of of the cosmos from whence they came. I can’t guarantee anything to anyone, nor can you. The issue with Christians such as yourself is that you constantly put the responsibility for yourself on others. Everyone has to take personal responsibility for themselves and their actions. I’m by no means rich and have tasted destitution in my life. You also know nothing of the suffering I’ve endured in my life and are in no place to be speaking about me “succumbing”. Big words from a man who can’t live without an imaginary big brother protecting him.”

— an atheist in LinkedIn (discussion on Atheist Republic 21 Nov 2020, quoted anonymously with permission) 

My answer:

“Well Jesus does provide a constant ongoing provision for others to have ongoing righteousness because He does not die and He is proven long term.”

Jesus is. That you gotta believe - if you don’t want to die in sin, He said. He existed before Abraham was born (c1800 BC) and lives forevermore having been raised from the dead. So no issue about death. That is one better than your offer. Then He knows God and what counts as righteousness to God. And He is appointed the judge so He knows the basis on which each of us will be judged as to whether we really have been living right. That is another better point of offer. There is a lot more in John 8. It is where that famous phrase comes from “the truth will set you free”. If you do wrong you are a slave to wrongdoing. I know that from experience. Truth that sets free is truth given by Jesus. The Holy Spirit makes it real. So not just a good example. A good example won’t liberate an alcoholic. Truth from Jesus liberates from wrongdoings. That is another better offer. It goes on. You have to hold to His teachings to get this once you believe.That’s the deal. 

I know folk find it hard to believe this Jesus, brought into flesh life by virgin birth having previously lived aeons with the Father in heaven, rose from the dead and will live forever and can deal with sinners’ sins but I pray He’ll back it up with signs from heaven.

Duranki a state of worship

 This is a mystery, and the words for saying it are elusive, but Enoch’s name might be about the Holy Spirit. It seems likely that Enoch is historically the person whose name in extant texts is Enmenduranki. Predecessor of Ubaratutu (Methuselah) and Utnapishtim (Noah) kings and leaders of the ancient Sumerians before the Flood. Enmenduranki is Sumerian meaning ‘The lord who is a bridge to the heavenly state of the sons of God’. This heavenly state of the sons of God, Duranki, or as Jesus puts it ‘the kingdom of God’, indicates that heavenliness is a state of being. Jesus indicated that this state of being is like a place and is the Spirit. A woman of Samaria, John’s gospel tells us, the place outside the main religious site of Israel, away from Jerusalem the holy city of God, asked Jesus about the site of worship and the stigma of worshiping away from it and being labelled not truly Jewish. Jesus replied “The Time is coming and has now come when all true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth for these are the kind of worshippers that God requires”. So the place of worship is not of so much importance with God as the state of the person worshipping which is acceptable to God if it is in spirit and truth. This hints at the Holy Spirit producing a truthful state of being in a person, the state of spirit and truth, by which their worship becomes acceptable to God, more so than if they worshipped in the place of Jerusalem. Enoch’s name Enmenduranki is a hint at this. A prophecy of it perhaps. 

Jesus according to the scriptures

 What a curious person Jesus is. Disagreement over what kind of person Jesus is pervades the history books and ripples through social media today. Yet I hope it can be cleared up what scriptures say about this Son of Man and everyone who knows scripture could at least agree on this. Jesus in scripture goes back to prophecies of times long before the birth people celebrate at Christmas. Yet some scriptures less well known exist which even describe this Son of Man as existing many centuries before this extraordinary man was born. The scriptures written later by the apostles Jesus sent show that these first believers regarded Jesus as firstborn over all creation who was with God the Father before God made the world. Firstborn means no other sons of God, beings brought into existence by God, existed when this firstborn existed but God placed the firstborn over everything He subsequently made through His Son. Then scriptures tell of this Son becoming a human in Roman times and being born of a virgin, so becoming begotten by God the Father. Lastly the scriptures tell how this Jesus died by crucifixion as a sacrifice for your sins and mine and God the Father raised Jesus from the dead to be immortal forever, firstborn from the dead, later to be joined by others so raised, all to be sons of God by resurrection. Amen.

The First and the Last

 A god is a son of God and a son of God is one whose very existence was because of God. So firstborn as a son of God means being the only one of your kind until others are brought into existence by God in that same way. As firstborn over all creation there were no other sons of God for a while when Jesus was brought into existence by God before the world began. As one born of a virgin there was only Jesus brought into existence by God this way as an only begotten son of God. As firstborn from the dead there are no other resurrected immortal humans for a while when Jesus is the only one brought again into living existence from the dead until others too are so raised.  So Jesus became a god three times - a firstborn son of God three times: First by spirit by which He came into existence before Creation; Second by water from the virgin’s womb; Third by blood being raised immortal from the dead. So as firstborn over creation He is alpha and as firstborn from the dead alive forever He is omega. First and last.

Three times a god the Son of God

 Jesus became a god three times - a firstborn son of God three times: First by spirit by which He came into existence before Creation; Second by water from the virgin’s womb; Third by blood being raised immortal from the dead.

Where Trinitarians go wrong

 The proof texts used by Trinitarians I believe have an alternative as true meaning, Thomas saying “my lord and my god” seeing Jesus resurrected, John writing “the word was with God and the word was [a] god” and writing “only begotten son” which might be “only begotten god”. The true alternative is as follows.  A god is a son of God and a son of God is one whose very existence was because of God. So firstborn as a son of God means being the only one of your kind until others are brought into existence by God in that same way. As firstborn over all creation there were no other sons of God for a while when Jesus was brought into existence by God before the world began. As one born of a virgin there was only Jesus brought into existence by God this way as an only begotten son of God. As firstborn from the dead there are no other resurrected immortal humans for a while when Jesus is the only one brought again into living existence from the dead until others too are so raised.