Author: joanie

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Covenants: unconditional/conditional

Generations past and present were/are taught that the Bible is only a book about the Jewish nation and moral laws that apply to all regardless of the age in which we live, and that its contents are a precursor to the arrival of the Messiah. All that mentioned is true, but not complete. It is common knowledge that some clergy, archaeologists, anthropologists, and related scholars have asserted that the Bible is not a book to be relied upon for science, accurate history, or some concepts of religion. Personally, my research does not agree with the aforementioned concepts, and will be a future topic for this site. The Bible is all that and more.

God himself exists as an unconditional, immutable state of eternity.  Unconditional means nothing can change for any reason or condition that relates to His person or presence in Heaven.  On the other hand, when man participates in a covenant, man’s part is always conditional.  God has yet to fail in keeping what He promises, man on the other hand has more often than not, broken his promise to God due to lack of faith, impatience or some other human flaw.

A covenant with God is a commitment instead of a contract that emphasizes God’s promises and laws.  The main Old Testament covenant (Ex 19-24) was at Mount Sinai, when Israel committed to obey God’s laws after He had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt.  Other covenants such as the one with Abraham (Gen 12:1-3) and his family, and the one with David (2 Samuel 7:1-17) provide a more broad context for the Sinai covenant, focusing on God’s promises.  Noah also received a covenant from God (Gen 9:8-17) that centers on a promise by God to not destroy the world with a flood again.  God also made a “covenant of peace” or an “everlasting covenant” (Ezekiel 34:25) with the people of Israel that the time would come when He would send a perfect shepherd, the Messiah, and would stop rebuking them, would restore their wealth, and would personally teach their children.  Peace in this case means more than lack of conflict it also means contentment, fulfillment, and security.

Four Unconditional Covenants:

  • Noahic Covenant – God promised to Noah that he would never flood the earth again (Genesis 9:11 NIV).  There was no involvement by man in this covenant, a promise was made by God alone, and therefore it was unconditional.
  • Abrahamic Covenant – Again, God made promises to Abraham, stating that “I will” each time provide a great nation, make your name great, bless those who bless you.  All promises made by God alone.  Another example of God’s unconditional covenant with man and mankind.  (Genesis 12:1-3 NIV)/
  • Davidic Covenant – in this covenant God establishes the throne of David as an everlasting king sit upon the throne of David, an everlasting kingdom.  God did not require any condition from David or mankind, thus it was God’s promise soley and another example of an unconditional covenant.  (2 Samuel 7:5-17)
  • Messianic Covenant – God states that a World Savior and King are coming through Israel, no conditional aspects with man regarding this covenant, just God’s promise.  (Isaiah 11:1-11

Three Conditional Covenants:

  • Covenant of Circumcision (Genesis 17 NIV) presents a condition that anyone who is not circumcised will be cut off from his people.  This invokes a decision by man to be circumcised or not, therefore it is a conditional covenant.
  • In (Deuteronomy 28 NIV) God requires that Israel remains faithful to Him, and threatens to put them into exile if they persistently disobey.  Their obedience is “conditional” remaining in the land.
  • Mosiac Covenant – This involves God and the nation of Israel, in which God places conditions.  God reminds the people they are to obey His laws (Exodus 19:5 NIV) and the people replied they would do all that God has asked them to do (Exodus 19:8).  It is “conditional” upon the Israelites following God’s law.

“Unconditional covenants, God makes promises that are His actions only, and God never lies thus these covenants are unconditional.  “Conditional” covenants require action by man or nation to fulfill the covenant, and due to man’s sinful nature and lack of ability for patience, and being prone to follow their own lead instead of the Father’s they break the covenant.  God never lies and His unconditional covenants are forever.

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Revisiting the Oldest Biblical Related Book: Enoch

Revisiting the Oldest Biblical Related Book: Enoch

By V. J. Berry

Copyright 2017

            The Book of Enoch asserts that it contains the gathered, sacred writings of the pre-flood patriarch and prophet, Enoch (Church, 2017). It is believed by biblical scholars that the book is the oldest book written because it is mentioned in Genesis. Several accounts that appear in Genesis first appear in the Book of Enoch written ca. 300 B.C.E. (Lamsa, 1957). The Book of Genesis was written after the Exodus during the 15th century B.C.E.that is accredited to Moses as the author. Enoch’s writings describe 7,000 years of world history and the events that would occur even to the “latter days” and the Tribulation period (Burns, 2006-2016).

            Although the Book of Enoch is not a part of the canon, it is considered to be a sacred book much revered by Jews and Gentiles alike well into the 8th century C. E. Its contents were also quoted by theologians into the 9th century C. E. The prophet Enoch was well known among Jews, Muslims, Mohammedans, and mentioned in the Koran (Schodde, G., 1882).  When there was a doubt about the authenticity of the authorship of the book, R.  I. Burns (2006/2016) presented 110 pages of evidence to prove that Enoch really wrote the book that bears his name.

Enoch

            Enoch is one of four biblical persons bearing that same name: (1) oldest son of Cain (Gen. 4:17); (2) the second son of Jared (Gen. 5: 18); (3) the son of Midian (Gen. 25:4); (4) the oldest son of Reuben (Gen. 45:9, Ex. 6:4). The prophet Enoch being discussed in this paper is the second son of Jared because of the prominence given him in the following scriptures: Gen. 5: 18-24; Jude 1: 14-15; Hebrews 11:15; Book of Enoch 68: 1. He is 7th from Adam. There are 70 generations from his son, Methuselah, to Jesus. He lived 365 years on earth and was taken by God and did not see death (Schodde, 1882).

Ancient Aramaic

            The Book of Enoch was written in ancient Aramaic and was neither changed nor revised. To this end, the Patriarchate of the East, in 1957, praised the translation of the book by Lamsa (1957) as being a most excellent, accurate work. He said as follows:

The Church of the East received the scripture from the hands of the blessed Apostles themselves in the Aramaic original, the language spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and the Pershitta is the text of the Church of the East which has come down from the biblical times without any change or revision.

The ancient Eastern texts translated from the Aramaic are closely related to ancient Hebrew  much like the relationship of American English and English spoken in Great Britain. The ancient Aramaic language was spoken and written by the Jewish people from the 4th to 6th century B. C. E. from Persia to Europe and along the Nile River area through the length of Egypt. Due to the similarity of the ancient languages of Aramaic and Hebrew, words were often interchanged. Ancient Aramaic was the language of the church as it spread eastward (Lamsa, 1957).

Descriptions of Sections One and Two of the Book of Enoch

            Following are brief descriptions of the first ten chapters of the Book of Enoch which demonstrates the similarity to Genesis that was written 300 years later (Lamsa, 1957).

            Chapter One: Enoch prophecies the destruction of the earth – it will be submerged but a remnant will be saved. He further describes who that remnant will be.

            Chapter Two: He records his astronomic observations and that the luminaires of the sky do not depart from their paths.

            Chapters three, four, and five: Enoch describes the work of God in creation. He also warns the people for their lack of obeying God’s commandments and reminds them of the final judgment and destruction of sinners — they will be cursed eternally. For the chosen, they will receive light, joy, peace, and wisdom forevermore.

            Chapter six: Enoch recalls the angels lusting after the children of mankind and took many as wives. This chapter leads into Chapter seven and details of this event.

            Chapter seven: The angles taught their wives and children how to make charms and conjurations. . The descendants of this culture were giants who consumed all that could eaten including each other, and drank the blood of their victims.

            Chapter eight: Enoch continues: Mankind was taught to make swords, knives, shields, coats of mail, and how to see behind them. They were also taught how to create works of art, jewelry, and how to use the metals of the earth. And there was great wickedness upon the earth. Enoch also gives the names of the angles and what specials skills they possessed.

            Chapter nine: Michael, Gabriel, Surjan, and Urjan (good angles) appealed to God for a solution to this problem.

            Chapter ten: God response: God spoke and sent Arsjalojur to the son of Lemech and ordered him to tell the son, in God’s name, to hide and reveal to him the end which is to come. The whole earth will be destroyed, and the water of the deluge will come over the whole earth and what is upon it will be destroyed. And instruct him that he may escape and his seed remain on the whole earth. In later chapters, Enoch tells of shortening the lifespan of mankind after the great flood.

God did not stop there. For further reading of the Book of Enoch, you may find a good translation at: http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/enoch.pdf

References

Burns, R. I. (2006/2016). The Book of Enoch. San Francisco, CA: Messianic Prophecy Edition.

Church, J. R. (2017). Enoch the first book ever written. Oklahoma City, OK: Prophecy Publication.

Lamas, G. M. (trans). (1957). Holy Bible from the ancient Eastern text. New York, NY: Harper Collins Pub. (George M. Lama’s translation from the Aramaic of the Pershitta, 1933/1957).

Schodde, G. (1882). The Book of Enoch: Translation from the Ethiopic with introduction and notes. Andover, OH: Warren Draper.

Noah and Enoch lived about 1500 yrs  after the creation.

The first reference is the original translation of Enoch/ the second reference is the latest one. Read the Watchers chapter first.

*http://scriptural-truth.com/stuff/BookOfEnoch.pdf

*always look for this in translations. It is a true copy.

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Important for Women

Question to Professor Ngong — Important for women

I also have a question for you, Dr. Ngong, that I have pondered for some time. It is rather controversial and you may not want to deal with it, so no hard feelings on my end if you don’t answer it.  In 1 Cor. 7:12, Paul says “I, not the Lord say this…and he goes on a discourse about women. Then I noticed in 1 Tim. 2: 8-12 his opinion, which I explained in my post, again about women. I began to notice that he uses “I” a lot and I mean a lot. It makes me wonder just how much of his discourses are his own opinions and how many are truly of God. I have always believed that the scriptures were infallible, but this bothers me. Jesus had great respect for women and never have I seen a thing he said about restricting women in the faith. When I read Paul’s comment in Tim., I have always thought that it did not sound like Jesus. It seems out of place considering how many women leaders served under Paul in the new churches. Can you clarify this for me?  I posted a NIV note on this in my main post which explained it from a commenter’s view that it was for the women in the Ephesus church only.

Violet,

This is an excellent question and you did well to take note of Paul’s views. As you rightly noted, the question of biblical infallibility is strained by claims like Paul’s, especially when he appears not to consider his own personal views as infallible. This may suggest that the doctrine of infallibility is not a biblical doctrine and Paul would himself not hold to that doctrine. That is why we need to read the Bible with discernment. Personally, I hold that women should be treated equally in church and society, period. There should be no biblical grounds for discrimination.

Dr. Ngong

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Judging Others

We are to use our judgment to evaluate, not to condemn. According to Firestorm, p. 127, it says we are not to condemn people to heaven or hell; that is God’s domain, but we can use our judgment for discernment of a situation and this is our right and responsibility to discern wrongdoing. This is the real meaning of “Do not judge, or you, too, will be judged.” I thought this was a good way to understand Matt. 7:1.  What you do think about it?

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Aliens, giants, and ancient advanced civilizations

Provocative Thoughts . . .

Aliens, giants, and ancient advanced civilizations           

 Sometimes I wonder just how ignorant the government thinks we are along with some religious leaders. For example, the other day during a discussion on TV, one of the speakers said that finding out there are other beings in the universe would create chaos in the Christian religion. And not only that, people would cease to believe in God or Jesus Christ. There is a Creator (God) who created us (a separate species) in His image (the godhead). The Bibles peaks of other worlds (Hebrews 1:2; 11:3). The important thing here is that Jesus is God’s only begotten son. He is born of God the Father and a human female. Jesus was not created in the manner as were Adam and Eve, who were prototypes. As for dismissing Jesus Christ, that is ridiculous. Scribes and historians such as Josephus wrote about Jesus as well as the disciples.

            We live in a universe that contains millions of planets. Why would an almighty God only pick our Earth alone to start life here? We know from astronauts, scientists, and others that UFOs are real and other species of humanoids exist. A fleet of UFOs flew over the capitol, Washington, D. C. in 1952 and was filmed. That must have been hard to explain away. And then there are people who scoff at the idea of giants roaming this world in Biblical times. That giant humans once roamed Earth is easy to prove. Let’s start with Enoch, who wrote about the giants over 3,000 years ago. He describes them as being about 15-feet tall. Genesis, Deuteronomy, Numbers and other Biblical books all discuss the giants often referred to as Nephilim. After the flood, they disappeared for a while, and then reappeared later as God’s enemies. Goliath was of this race. Several studies have been made concerning this race of people that I consider interesting.

Captain Cook and his crew of explorers reported seeing strange looking inhabitants on some South Pacific islands and described as being 12-feet tall. Josephus (37-95 C.E) wrote about the king of Persia sending hostages 10-feet tall to Rome. Skeletons of giants have been found in eastern China and Peking; Wisconsin, U. S. — 10 giant skeletons found in Wisconsin in a burial mound, others were found in caves; and others were found buried on California islands, and still others in the New England states. Gigantism exists today, not as a race, but rather based on growth hormone problems induced or as an existing disease. 

If we truly read the Bible for understanding, the truth is right before our eyes. Aside from parables that teach lessons for us, the Scriptures are quite literal. People used to believe that some accounts were myths, especially the account of Jericho.  Scientists, archaeologists, and anthropologists have discovered the city and probable cause used to bring down the walls just as the Bible states. The Bible is often compared to an onion, layer upon layer. What we read on the surface is good, but the more we study, it gets much better. We have to consider that we need to read the Bible taking into consideration the time in which it was written and the circumstances.

With an open mind, we can see the symbolic language. The ancients compared what they saw to their surrounding just as we do. For example, Ezekiel describes a flying machine and how he traveled in it. He was trying to describe what he saw in symbolic language of the time. Before the Great Flood of Noah’s time, great advanced civilizations existed, notably the Sumarians. According to the Sumarians’ cuneiform records, they had the power of flight and submarines. . Sumarians called their submarines “sunken boats” because they traveled underwater, not wrecks. We must take into account that before the Great Flood, there were great civilizations. After the flood, mankind had start all over again.