Thank you for this. For about a decade now I have made a practice to ask God for a Word for the coming year. He has been faithful to always provide one that leads me and allows me to trace His hand at work in my life. This year the word is Refined. Past tense. He has refined me through the fires of the past years. He has strengthened me by removing impurities. Now I am that offering.
I've always felt that the 'Apocryphal' Book of Enoch were the Q-drops of their day, and one of the most important non-canonical books of the Biblical era. Specifically, because the items they detail relate to both old and modern struggles humanity was faced with due to Demonic presence.
As for why they might've been revoked from Canon in Christian circles; Discussions regarding the fact that Demons influenced mankind for millennia, and were essentially treated as gods instead of the one true God, is something that validates belief therein; if you follow the Nordic demon Loki, for instance, you are technically following a being truly more powerful than you, so you can likely mark yourself as following a 'god' of some sort. I can understand why the Churches would suppress and discard such information from Canon; such truths would be enough to lead you to madness.
With that said, the Book of Enoch is referenced as part of Biblical Canon in the Book of Jude, and it references the coming reign of Christ, something Jewish scholars in the Christian era became hellbent on erasing (Maccabees - Christian canon in Eastern and Western 'Catholic' aka 'Orthodox' Churches / left and right lungs of Christianity - was disposed of by Jews in the era of the Talmud).
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince 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."
As a side note... By excluding anything that wasn't (Hebrew) Masoretic text, I feel like Protestant Christianity was deprived of valuable wisdom that came from the Bible in its entirety. Lists of other works you might've missed since "apocryphal" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterocanonical_books
There is no doubt in my mind that certain elements of the Bible were withheld by the Churches - perhaps for the good of mankind - but to digest such truths, it would feel the equivalent - for StarGate fans here - of saying that the Goa'uld could indeed be considered minor gods, which would be enough to illicit some fools to return to their worship.
I love the BEMA podcasts. Marty Solomon was a student of Ray Vander Laan who did the That the World May Know series. Both of those series (BEMA and That the World May Know) have taught me so much about the word and things Christians often miss in the scriptures since our culture and mindset is so different than the Patriarchs and the Judaean cultures.
I read my Bible daily and am immeasurably blessed. Its been a while since I read Malachi, working my way towards it.
Thank you for this. For about a decade now I have made a practice to ask God for a Word for the coming year. He has been faithful to always provide one that leads me and allows me to trace His hand at work in my life. This year the word is Refined. Past tense. He has refined me through the fires of the past years. He has strengthened me by removing impurities. Now I am that offering.
Amen amen amen. God bless u
I've always felt that the 'Apocryphal' Book of Enoch were the Q-drops of their day, and one of the most important non-canonical books of the Biblical era. Specifically, because the items they detail relate to both old and modern struggles humanity was faced with due to Demonic presence.
As for why they might've been revoked from Canon in Christian circles; Discussions regarding the fact that Demons influenced mankind for millennia, and were essentially treated as gods instead of the one true God, is something that validates belief therein; if you follow the Nordic demon Loki, for instance, you are technically following a being truly more powerful than you, so you can likely mark yourself as following a 'god' of some sort. I can understand why the Churches would suppress and discard such information from Canon; such truths would be enough to lead you to madness.
With that said, the Book of Enoch is referenced as part of Biblical Canon in the Book of Jude, and it references the coming reign of Christ, something Jewish scholars in the Christian era became hellbent on erasing (Maccabees - Christian canon in Eastern and Western 'Catholic' aka 'Orthodox' Churches / left and right lungs of Christianity - was disposed of by Jews in the era of the Talmud).
As a side note... By excluding anything that wasn't (Hebrew) Masoretic text, I feel like Protestant Christianity was deprived of valuable wisdom that came from the Bible in its entirety. Lists of other works you might've missed since "apocryphal" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterocanonical_books
There is no doubt in my mind that certain elements of the Bible were withheld by the Churches - perhaps for the good of mankind - but to digest such truths, it would feel the equivalent - for StarGate fans here - of saying that the Goa'uld could indeed be considered minor gods, which would be enough to illicit some fools to return to their worship.
I love the BEMA podcasts. Marty Solomon was a student of Ray Vander Laan who did the That the World May Know series. Both of those series (BEMA and That the World May Know) have taught me so much about the word and things Christians often miss in the scriptures since our culture and mindset is so different than the Patriarchs and the Judaean cultures.
Amen.