Reasons to believe… Sons of Enoch 28

I’ve been asked many times in as many ways why I believe in God, or more specifically why I believe in Jesus. Though this post of course can only scratch the surface I felt impressed to offer a few of the practical reasons I believe.

Most recently, after stating that according to the Bible, Adam lived 930 years, I was asked how I could believe such a thing, and how could anyone know seeing as there was no written language that far back . A flurry of other questions came along with the most recent one as follows:

“If God made Adam as a likeness of himself and as the first human, why was he the only person to live that long, which means he was unlike other humans”. “And how do they know how long he lived, as there are no records from his time as they could not write, also his bones were never found”.

The answer to the first, and most important question, “Why do I believe in God, or Jesus”?, simply put, for the most part answers the question of why I believe  the words of the Bible.

My belief is based on faith He has given me proven trust- worthy through both life experiences, and precise verification within the Bible itself. Was it blind faith? No, not at first, He lovingly offered me much evidence, both spiritual, and physical to see He is real.

Have I lived spotless, righteous, and holy?  What?  Before or after He came into my life..? Don’t answer that…Heh, If I could have saved myself from the second death I wouldn’t need a savior.

But, the reality is, though I am still not where I would like to be, and nowhere near the person He would have me to be, I know He has not, nor will He utterly cast me away. He’s not looking for the perfect specimen, as there are none. Which is why He stepped into time and died, to afford us eternal life with Him.

I wont go into many, if any , life experiences, or personal God encounters throughout this particular article, unless of course one happens to present itself while I’m sitting here.  However, based on some of the questions asked about the Bible, I do find that a brief run down of its chronology may be helpful to some who have similar questions. And as time is of the essence, apparently more the pertinent.

Therefore, a good starting place might be the most recent question(s) asked on the matter.

“If God made Adam as a likeness of himself and as the first human, why was he the only person to live that long, which means he was unlike other humans”. “And how do they know how long he lived, as there are no records from his time as they could not write, also his bones were never found”?

First of all, Adam wasn’t the only one to ever live that long. In fact many who came after him lived longer. Noah, who lived 950 years, and Methuselah, the Bibles oldest man at 969, are just a few examples. Moses, however, only lived 120 years, and his bones were never found according to the Bible, as God himself buried him.

Now, also I should point out that God declared around the time of the 7th Generation, (a numerically significant generation as I’ll explain later in this post) that soon, a human’s life span would no longer exceed 120 years. Moses was the first of all the generations beginning with Adam to live only the 120 (natural) years God allocated. Abel of course being the first murder victim did not.

As for the question, whether there was an actual written language from that time or not, I’m certain much of what was written when the first alphabet, whenever it was actually invented, came from closely kept oral traditions. Exemplifying evidence of this is seen in the traditional; “Oral Torah”.

(Interesting Unrelated Note): After many years of woolgathering, theorizing, and hypothesizing, based on fossilized evidences and assumptions,  archeologist of the U.S. Southwest, rather than insisting their personal presupposed explanations are correct, of what became of the lost civilization  known as the “Anasazi” , have now concurred that the truth of the matter lies in the age-old “Oral Renderings” of the surrounding tribes. Which, parenthetically, the “Modern Pueblo” have told them for years. Go figure…er, wait that’s exactly why it’s taken them this long to see the forest for the trees…Anyway, back to the topic and region at hand.

Regardless whether one believes in the Torah, or Old Testament account,   archeological documents take us back to the Sumerian (just outside of the presumed location of the Garden of Eden) Cuneiform language written in stone around 4000 B.C. as well as Egyptian hieroglyphics in 3800B.C.

There are those who claim that Chinese writings have been found reaching back to at least 4500 B.C. Although, as tight-lipped as the Chinese government is ..?

“Who knows? They may have more Nuclear Warheads than anyone in the world as far as the rest of the world really knows.

Shy these validations, other than a few apocryphal scribes who claim that Enoch, “the seventh from Adam” (who was said to be accepted, or walked with God and was taken to heaven without seeing death) himself invented the alphabet…(Which if one cross references the book of Enoch, the books of Jude, and Peter in the New Testament, with the renderings of Flavious Josephus, is not that hard a suggestion to accept) little else is known for sure.

Now, am I proclaiming that the Hebrew language is the original written language? Well, not me persé, as I would submit to entertain such an idea we would first have to narrow the origins of the “Spoken Language”.

Now, If tangible scientific evidence is more your speed, you’re going to love this next part. Oh, and rather than decorate this already lengthy article with more fluff and stuffed words, I’ll just post a quote from Peter Pettersson, of the “Science Mysteries” magazine section of  WORLD MYSTERIES.com web site, on the study of Cymatics, Dr. Hans Jenny’s  study on the effects of sound waves on matter, by observing shapes and symbols on sand, when subjected to certain sound waves.

  I strongly recommend checking that, and other websites about the scientifically documented phenomena of Cymatics when you have a minute, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Scientifically Documented Phenomena? Almost as paradoxical sounding as the ways of the Biblical God does many times.  I know. Anyway…

“Quote”

“In his research with the tonoscope, Jenny noticed that when the vowels of the ancient languages of Hebrew and Sanskrit were pronounced, the sand took the shape of the written symbols for these vowels, while our modern languages, on the other hand, did not generate the same result! How is this possible? Did the ancient Hebrews and Indians know this? Is there something to the concept of “sacred language,” which both of these are sometimes called? What qualities do these “sacred languages,” among which Tibetan, Egyptian and Chinese are often numbered, possess? Do they have the power to influence and transform physical reality, to create things through their inherent power, or, to take a concrete example, through the recitation or singing of sacred texts, to heal a person who has gone “out of tune”?”

End Quote

Here is just one of many other sites on the subject to look into.

                                                       Rexresearch.com                                    Geometric Symbols Of Ancient Letters and Words

Flavious Josephus, tells us in his chronical: Antiquities of the Jews: Book 1, paragraph 3, chapter 3:

“Now he says that this flood began on the  seventeenth day of the aforementioned month; and this was one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years from Adam, the first man; and the time is written down in our sacred books, those who then lived having noted down with great accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men”.

I personally have little evidence to support his claim, though there is certainly less evidence to deny it. In fact, as he is speaking about the 7th to the 10th generations from Adam, which include Enoch the seventh, through Noah the tenth, there is more evidence to support the possibility of a written language by that time than there is to rebut, or refute it.

In the Book of Enoch, Enoch himself is called a “Scribe” by the Angels. In chapter 13, Enoch actually writes a prayer of petition in behalf of the fallen Angels for their teaching humans hidden things of the heavenly realms.

Some of those things were evil from the knowledge of Satan, and others from the Watchers, such as writing.  Which Enoch goes on to explain that the original human-race had no need of as they were yet un-touched by knowledge of good and evil.

  Among some scholars, and evangelical Christians, especially, I realize the book of Enoch is considered a controversial book. And, there were indeed proven counter-fitted versions of the book showing up in hopes of profit after the original version disappeared for many of the dark years until 18th century travel writer, James Bruce, brought three copies of the original version to the western world from Ethiopia, where it had been used, and is still considered sacred text, by the Orthodox Christian Church. It was also one of the many pre second- temple scrolls found in the caves of Qumran, better known as the “Dead Sea Scrolls” in 1947, as I delve deeper into in my writings on “Sons of Enoch” beginning in chapter 3.

These facts in themselves makes it clear to me that the art of writing was likely taught to man just after Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, as Adam and Eve were tempted in the garden, and once Cain, and Abel were born, the first murder in history was committed just east of Eden.

Either way, some fallen Angelic beings were among the people between the time of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and Noah’s flood, according to Judaic scripture believed by the second temple worshipers to be sacred.

Nonetheless, the assumption that a historically sound written language came into being as long as 2000 years after Adam was kicked out of the garden is not that hard to accept either,  given the fact that the Legend of Santa Claus has now lasted over 2000 years.

Unlike Father Christmas, ( Saint Nicholas of Myra’s), story of course, which has succumbed many veritable renditions along the way, ( as one might expect from centuries of Mommas explaining to a child why they saw Momma kissing Santa Claus last night), the Rabbi’s of Jewry, before being pronounced a Rabbi were held to the utmost verbatim chronological, and historical recital standards.

One other possible scenario believed by some is that the written language was first devised 200 years after Noah’s Ark landed on Mt. Ararat. After all, assuming one believes in God, He wouldn’t send the Patriarch of the New World across the waves of time without either a written account, or at least an accurate memory of traditional World history, would He?

The following is a quote from the book of Enoch, who lived before the flood found in the New Testament book of Jude.

♪,,,, ♫,,,, ♪     “Hey Jude”    ,,,♫,,,♪,,,,      No  wait… that was Paul McCartney…

Here it is:  The Book of Enoch

9. And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of ⌈His⌉ holy ones
To execute judgement upon all,
And to destroy ⌈all⌉ the ungodly:Who refuse to repent.

And to convict (not condemn) all flesh
Of all the works ⌈of their ungodliness⌉ which they have ungodly committed,
And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners ⌈have spoken⌉ against Him.

And the quote, or comparison as found in the New Testament:

Jude 1:14-15

New Living Translation (NLT)

” ¹⁴ Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Listen! The Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict (NOTE… Convict…Not Condemn)!!! every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”                  ( He offers a choice )

An even more spot on quote is found in the King James Version of the new testament:

Jude 1:14-15

King James Version (KJV)

 ¹⁴And Enoch also, the “seventh” from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

¹⁵To execute judgment upon all, and to convince, (convict) all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (End Quote)

I should probably take this time to point out that I find significances in numbers used throughout the Bible, affirming a divine architect where human geological, and historical records are concerned.

These numbers undeniably recur throughout the Bible in great frequency, and in instinctive like passages. ( Not to be confused with the Jewish system of assigning a numerical significance to every letter of the Hebraic alphabet called Gematria ).

Albeit, the Gematria plays into the acrostic patterns throughout the Bible, as I will touch on a bit further in this post.

To further explain the frequently used numbers I am referring to and their distinct significances, I’ll give a few examples.

You’ve likely heard it said that #7 is the number of Gods “completeness”, “perfection”, or as the “Good Number”.  Some obvious reasoning’s for that assertion are:

At 562 appearances the number 7, or, a derivative of, is used more throughout scripture than any other number. It is also used more in the prophetic language/symbolism, of the Bible than any other. Just a few examples are as follows:

God created all things by the seventh day and said it is good. God rested the 7th day. There are 7 days in a week, Noah was instructed to carry 7 pairs of each clean animal on the ark, etc…

In the “Prophetic language” arena of the Bible, in Revelation and Daniel alone the #7 is used 42 times. (e.g., Seven Spirits, Seven Churches, Seven Vials, Seven Trumpets, Seven Angels, and the list goes on)

The first example in the Bible alluding to the number seven being the number of completion is found here:

Genesis 2

^“1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

²And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

³And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

And  just a few cross references to further clarify my point:

(Note): Based on much study of His word, many of us find Jesus‘ finished works on the cross to be the undeniable representation of the “True Sabbath”   afforded to those who believe in Him. ie,

  Hebrews 4:10
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.“

Remember, Jesus’ final words on the cross were:  “It is Finished” 

“7 =complete. In other words the Lords Day, Spiritually speaking, is not just one specific day…Neither Saturday or Sunday, but the day Jesus fulfilled the law by nailing it to the cross, the ultimate day of rest began.

Psalm 119:164

 ¹⁶⁴Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.

Of course, it’s probably just a coincidence that the number seven is used exactly seven times in Genesis 7 , right?

Parenthetically, though I initially intended only to expound briefly on the number 7 and the number 12 as examples, it just occurred to me that it might be a great time to point out the significant Biblical meaning of the number 8, since the number of people on Noah’s ark was indeed 8.  ( The ark is also easily seen as type of savior, As many other Old Testament characters, and sacred items were).

The number 8 is frequently used in context of a “New Beginning” “New Birth” and  “Resurrection”  ( 3 e.g.,  1. The Hebrew letter assigned with the number 8 means to be super-abound, or fattened with life giving abundance. 2. On the eight day Jewish boys were consecrated unto God via circumcision. 3. Jesus rose on the third day, and according to Mathew 28 that would be the dawning of the 1st day of the next week, or, the 8th day.) 

Here are just a few other examples, yet again, I can’t begin to scratch the surface in one post on the symbolic usages of numbers in the bible. Realistically, to even make a small dent in the common synonymous use of the number eight alone in our everyday lives corresponding with bible usages, one would have to write a book.

(e.g., There are 7 days in a week, then the 8th day begins a new week, their are 7 notes in a musical scale and the 8th note begins a new scale an octave higher than the 1st note in the previous scale. (There are 12 notes in a perfect measure.) 12 being the number of Perfect Governing Order…Gee, I wonder what time it is? Time to get the house in order maybe?

Circumcision,was a type of baptism to be performed on baby boys on the eight day. However, when Jesus fulfilled the law, circumcision was no longer required to enter into the New Covenant which reunites us all with our creator without the need of ritualistic ceremonies, or fleshly sacrifices. After Jesus came on the scene…   the true (Spiritual Baptism/circumcision) is what makes us a new person by the Grace of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  (Romans 2:28-29)  (Colossians 2:11-13),

♪,,,♫,,,♪,,,  “Eight Days A Week”   ,,,♪,,,♫,,,♪.. Not now !!!          Ringo I’m a Little busy…

Well, I wasn’t going to throw a lot of scripture into this post, but, believe me…None of these, if you will actually read them will be perceived as empty, legalisms, because –

Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

  Just a quick digression before moving on. The number 6 is always affiliated in context in the Bible as the number of man, beginning with the fact that man was created on the sixth day.

Many of you have seen the prophetic mention of 666 in ( Revelation 13:18 ) which reads:

¹⁸Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

This may or may not be speaking of using the Gematria calculations I briefly mentioned above, but, I’ll leave the counting method up to you on that one. However, since the opportunity manifest itself, I’ll take this time to touch on what the Gematria is.

Each letter of the Original languages has an equivalent, or corresponding number, and original geometric symbol, assigned to it. Most, if not every time   a word is used throughout the Bible, the letter itself equates to the same significant meaning as the number, if that makes sense?  No? I didn’t think so.

Math, obviously was never my strong suit, but, should one take a moment to google (significant numbers in the Bible) or the system of  Gematria, called Isopsephiathey, in the Greek, you will find that this system of word/ number association goes way deeper than I could possibly attempt to explain, though I can certainly say the synonymous meanings and recurring, calculative parities are astonishingly endless.

(There are many sites to choose from on the subject).

Anyway, I only mentioned all that to point out that according to many scholars of the Gematria, regardless of which name of Jesus one uses, and which alphabet (Greek or Hebrew) or which Gematric formula one uses to calculate it, the Gematria numerical value of the name Jesus is always: 888

Now, back to where this all began.., Both the post, and the World for that matter.

“The Genesis”

It wasn’t until the 13th generation (Moses) that the completion of God’s Genesis 6 proclamation, that “mans life span would be shortened” is realized in it’s completion. If you recall, this proclamation came about in Enoch’s day. Enoch, the 7th from Adam.

After Noah’s Ark landed on Mt Ararat, (Or wherever it landed) we begin to see the life expectancy of man become shorter and shorter. For example; Abraham lived 175, and his wife Sarah to 127, and so on until, (Joshua), of the 14th generation.

Joshua lived only 110 years, but not before he delivered the Israelites into the promised land.Unfortunately, Joshua could lead the camels to water, but, he couldn’t make them drink.

Which brings up another great truth…God will never force anything against our personal will… He simply gives us a choice. And that choice is to simply believe, and be thankful for the life He has given us…And that eternal.

Joshua is the same name as Jeshua, or Jesus, by the way, which brings us back to the reference of His being our day of rest. Being as it was interpreted from the Hebrew language in the Old Testament, and from the Greek, in the New, this name was wrongly transliterated by the King James gang in at least one place in the Bible.

eg;

Hebrews 4:8

King James Version (KJV)

  ⁸For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

Here are a few more accurate interpretations of what that verse really says, which, is very important in ones studies to arrive at the message of Christ as our day of rest. And first let me just say, thank you Jesus…What a sweet rest it is.

Hebrews 4:8

New Living Translation (NLT)

 ⁸ Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come.

Joshua, like Noah’s ark, the ark of the covenant, and so many other Old Testament means of temporal salvation, are all pointing us to the coming day of Jesus. Whether one takes them as allegories, or actual events in everyday lives of people from the beginning of time is between them and God. The end result still, is JESUS saves without our help.

The divine plan, and necessity of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ are self explanatory when one reads the overall story.

 Like the endless recurring number/letter significant revelations throughout the bible, one Old Testament story after the other reveals all of the physical laws, days, and religious observances of that time were only temporal means of cleansing ones spirit of sin. When we compare the things Jesus did throughout the New Testament, we see that He once and for All fulfilled those things for us. How? 

  God Himself…stepped into time to do what no man could ever do.

One old man who’s grandson came telling him he had found God, and was now saved, said it best. The grandfather had prayed for the salvation of the boy for years. One day as the old man sat rocking in his chair on the front porch the boy came home ecstatic, laughing, and shouting “Praise God” Grandpa, he said, “I really heard and understood His word today when I was told at Church that Jesus said no greater thing can any man do than to lay down his life for his friends.”  The old man, extremely happy and thankful that the boy was on his way to salvation through Christ, looked up with tears in his eyes and said; “Yes son, no greater thing can any Man do”..”But, Jesus died for His enemies.”

Romans 5:8

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He did it for us…Not for Him. And there’s nothing we can do to help Him save us, but to accept what He did for us. And accept the “Not So Hard to Believe Reality that  …We didn’t crawl out of a can of primordial mushroom soup one day and grow legs and a brain.

Oh, sorry…Didn’t mean to sound preachy… But, Testifying, that I could really get wrapped up in…

Where was I …Oh yeah, the number 12.

The number 12 in scripture always shows up when speaking of God’s Perfect Governing plan..How things are meant to be...In Tune, if you will. In fact, the first mention of number 12 in the bible speaks of many kings who served under King  “Chedorlaomer”, and after 11 years they rebelled, guess they didn’t quite get it, as any one thing taken from the number twelve leaves us with number 11, which is mans attempt to be god.

All through the Bible the number 11 falls just one short of God’s way. Case in point, the Israelites wandered through the desert for 40 years…complaining, giving in to the heat, frustrated they no longer had Chef- Hatshepsut of Egypt serving up leeks, garlic and cream cheese on a bagel, yet they walked past the place of crossing over into the (number 12) promised land many times, as the Bible clearly states the trip was only an 11 day walk:

Deuteronomy 1: ² (There are eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadeshbarnea.)

³And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them;

40 Years..?

Not to mention that any one number added to the number twelve throughout the Bible equates to bad news as well. The Number 13 always points to rebellion, beginning with the lineage of Cain’s offspring, where as Seth’s offspring rolls a 7 every time.   “Ah… Lots of course, not dice”..

• There are 12 notes of a musical scale…when including sharps and flats.
• The Sun governing the moon and stars travels a 360 degree path=30×12
• The solar system rotates through all 12 constellations of the Zodiac.
• There are 12 months in a year.
• There were twelve sons of Jacob
• Twelve Apostles
• Twelve Cranial Nerves
  
• Twelve Tribes
• Twelve Gates of Heaven
• Twelve Guarding Angels
• Twelve eggs to a dozen…erm..well, you get the point

I know this all sounds silly to some, and complicated, and, I admit it is a little deep…But oh so fulfilling when one takes an interest.

I tell you what isn’t complicated though…Salvation through Jesus. He’s done all the work.

 ♪,,,♫,,,Imagine there’s no heaven,,,♪,,,♫,,,it isn’t hard to do,,,♪,,,♫

Sorry John Lennon, back when you wrote that I was inclined to agree…But,  knowing what I do now…Imagining There’s No Heaven…doesn’t add up, and is a total impossibility for me.

Just a few other points of how easy it is to be accepted by God…unto eternal life with Him. You may recall I mentioned the Old Testament offering many foreshadows of Christ, and Gods ultimate plan for our salvation.

Here’s the thing. The 10 commandments could never save anyone… they only brought us face to face with the reality of our selves,where if we are totally honest,,,We become self-condemned, But Jesus said:

John 5:24

King James Version (KJV)

 ²⁴Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

All those before Christ could use the commandments to TRY  to please God… But, it was “Faith in God” that actually saved them.

Just as Abraham…all those listed in the Hebrew Hall of Fame, ( Hebrews chapter 11) whom, shy of Enoch, were murderers, liars, thieves and adulterers, were all accounted righteous to God,  by…Faith…and responding to Gods conviction, (not condemnation) with a true contrite, humble heart of remorse for the things they did, not by any good thing they did.  Hebrew Hall of Faith…Hebrews chapter 11, now there’s a story.

Well, I guess I’ll sign off for a while now, (and I wish I could have gotten this message out before Christmas), but, please take this thought…

If Jesus wasn’t the true reason for the season, after all the chronological lineage trails, and begat, after begat, after begat, from Genesis to the 4 Gospels, why is there not another birth mentioned in the remaining 10 books of the Bible?

No other birth was recorded in the Bible, after the birth of Jesus.

Just a thought…God Bless You All, and have a wonderful, thoughtful 2012.

                        In loving Memory of George Harrison