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THE BOOK OF
ENOCH: TRUTH OR HERESY?
Or...What's
Left Of The Holy Bible?
As many who have read the
manuscript know, the Book of Enoch
is a very powerful document and
may not be suitable for new
or young Christians who are not yet sure of their faith. In
reading this text, please be
reminded of the warning found
on the Welcome Page of our E.D.G.E. Online web site. The
Book of Enoch contains some
things which are highly
controversial topics and which
are not accepted by a certain
sector of traditional Christians. One of the primary reasons
for its non-acceptance is due to
its enlarged account of
'The Watchers', the fallen
angels who, according to Genesis
chapter six, left their heavenly
abode, and came down to the
Earth to make love to mortal
women. This resulted in the
birth of super-human giants
referred to as 'Nephilim' taken
from the Hebrew word 'Naphal' which
means 'to fall.' Please
refer to my article 'The Giants
of Genesis' as well as the
file 'Enoch-2.zip for more details
on this intriguing
subject.
Because of its controversial
contents, the Book of Enoch
belongs to a group of writings
which are referred to as
Apocryphal Works. This means
that their authenticity or
original author is in doubt. It also means that whether or
not they were divinely inspired
is also in question...and
that is exactly what has been
the point of contention since
about the 3rd or 4th century
with the Book of Enoch and
similar texts widely unknown to standard Christians. In
reading the geneologies
in the book of Genesis, we find
Enoch listed as a descendant of
Seth, the 3rd son of Adam
and Eve, and also the ancestor
of the patriarch Noah:
"And Adam lived an hundred
and thirty years, and begat a son
in his own likeness, after his
image; and called his name
Seth: And the days of Adam after
he had begotten Seth were
eight hundred years: and he
begat sons and daughters: And
all the days that Adam lived
were nine hundred and thirty
years: and he died. And Seth lived an hundred and five
years, and begat Enos: And Seth lived after he begat Enos
eight hundred and seven years,
and begat sons and daughters:
And all the days of Seth were
nine hundred and twelve years:
and he died. And Enos lived ninety
years, and begat Cainan:
And Enos
lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and
fifteen years, and begat sons
and daughters: And all the
days of Enos were nine hundred and
five years: and he died.
And Cainan
lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel: And
Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel
eight hundred and
forty years, and begat sons and
daughters: And all the days
of Cainan were nine hundred and
ten years: and he died. And
Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: And
Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and
thirty years, and begat sons and
daughters: And all the days
of Mahalaleel
were eight hundred ninety and five years: and
he died. And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years,
and
he begat Enoch: And Jared lived
after he begat Enoch eight
hundred years, and begat sons
and daughters: And all the
days of Jared were nine hundred
sixty and two years: and he
died. And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat
Methuselah: And Enoch walked
with God after he begat
Methuselah three hundred years,
and begat sons and
daughters: And all the days of
Enoch were three hundred
sixty and five years: And Enoch
walked with God: and he was
not; for God took him. And Methuselah lived an hundred
eighty and seven years, and
begat Lamech: And Methuselah
lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two
years, and begat sons and
daughters: And all the days of
Methuselah were nine hundred
sixty and nine years: and he
died. And Lamech lived an hundred
eighty and two years, and
begat a son: And he called his
name Noah, saying, This same
shall comfort us concerning our
work and toil of our hands,
because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed."
(Genesis 5:3-29 KJV)
As can be seen from the above
verses, what is unique about
Enoch is that, according to
Scriptures, he did not face a
normal death like mortal humans,
but rather he 'walked with
God,' and 'God took him.' This means that he was translated
or transported to the spirit realm,
similar to the prophet
Elijah. It is believed by some
that before his translation,
he communed with angels and
wrote what is known as the Book
of Enoch.
So the question arises: If Enoch
was so favored by the Lord
that he didn't taste of physical
death, and he wrote such an
important book, why aren't his
writings included in our
present-day Bible? Well, sad to say, this is where politics
comes into the picture. You see, prior to the 4th century,
there were quite a few
books/scrolls/manuscripts which the
early disciples believed were inspired writings. However, as
time progressed, and we got
further away from Jesus and the
original 12 Apostles, and the
Spirit of that age, the more
things began to change and to become corrupted. I am
referring specifically to
doctrines and beliefs which
incorporated occult practices
and pagan rites, or which
totally twisted the meanings of
the Teachings as originally
intended by Jesus and His immediate followers. We must
remember that since the days of
the Old Testament, the
children of Israel have had some serious problems with
paganism slipping into their midst. After all, the ancient
Hebrews, and even the New
Testament Christians, were
surrounded by a pagan world which worshipped other gods. Let
us not forget that Abraham was
called from the ancient pagan
worship of Babylon, i.e., Ur of the Chaldees, and that this
problem with worshipping ancient
Babylonian gods extends
right up to our present day,
albeit in more subtle forms
unbeknownst to most people. Please see my article 'The
Children Of God And Politics,' 'Babylon The Great' and
similar articles. Even in Paul's days, there were problems
with false doctrines creeping in perverting the Truth. The
purity of the Gospel, (Good News), was already being lost.
But this is not the only thing
that was happening at that
time. From the very beginning of Christianity when Jesus
began His ministry, His message
was not well accepted by
those who were in power, those
in political power, or those
in religious power, even though
the common people gladly
heard Him. Jesus' doctrine of love and caring, while pure
and true, was too radical for
the established system of the
time which was greedy, selfish, cold and self-satisfied.
They didn't want Jesus upsetting
the status quo. This same
attitude was applied to his
first disciples and their
followers as well. The last thing the Jewish rulers wanted
was to upset their cozy
relationship with the Roman
government. Even though they had managed to get Jesus out of
the way, His radical followers
weren't doing anything to
help strengthen their relationship with the Romans. Thus,
persecuting Christians became a
very popular sport, both by
the Jewish spiritual hierarchy,
as well as by the Roman
authorities. A slow merging of the two sides had already
begun. Before long, they would become indestinguishable,
the
one from the other.
Eventually, it got to a point
where some of the early Jewish
Christian leaders decided that
they no longer wanted to die
for the cause of Christ in the
Roman coliseums or at the
hands of their Jewish brethren
who controlled the Sanhedrin,
(the assembly of 70 elders at
the time), so they compromised
with the pagan Roman
Empire. Part of this process
was to
remove the more radical elements
and questionable teachings
from the Faith. Undoubtedly, part of their motivation in
doing this was to sincerely
clean up the Faith of any
questionable doctrines, but
also, they wanted to remove
anything which might make them
less acceptable to the
Romans, or which might make them
in any way appear similar
to 'those radical Christians.' In short, by becoming
manpleasers and seeking the praise of men instead of the
praise of God, those responsible
for taking these steps went
directly against the counsel of
the Lord when He told His
first disciples that while they
were in the world, they were
not to be a part of it:
"I have given them thy
word; and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the
world, even as I am not of the
world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the
world, but that thou shouldest keep
them from the evil."
(John 17:14-15)
Please read the whole chapter to
understand the full meaning
of Jesus' prayer.
James also echoed the Lord's
words when he said:
"Ye adulterers and
adulteresses, know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever
therefore will be a friend of
the world is the enemy of
God." (James 4:4)
While the early 'Church Fathers'
removed a lot of things
which they deemed uninspired by
God or just plain to radical
of a teaching, regardless of
whether it was or not, they
didn't remove it all as is
evidenced by some of the heavy
doctrines of Jesus which we
still find in our modern-day
Bibles. It was beginning at this
time, only a few hundred
years into the Christian Era,
that many of the Apocryphal
Works, such as the Book Of
Enoch, began to be banned and
declared heretical in nature. In other words, it was decided
that the common believer just
didn't have the spiritual
integrity or know-how to discern
between the good and the
evil in the manuscripts available at that time. As such, the
'Holy Mother Church' delegated itself the responsibility of
deciding what they, (and we), should and should not read.
From that time until now, our
belief system has been
carefully molded for us by
others, particularly for those
who happen to be Catholics.
I remember even as a young
Catholic several decades ago, a
list was displayed in our church
advising us which movies we
were allowed to see, and other related guides. While it is
commendable that the shepherds
of the flock should go to
such lengths to ensure the
spiritual integrity of their
followers, at the same time, it
is an insult to our
intelligence, as if we can't
decide for ourselves what we
wish to see, or what we feel is
appropriate for our children
to see. I remember seeing the epic film 'Spartucus' with
Kirk Douglas and a famous cast
of others. It was a very
moving film, and although it has
been many years, I still
remember that it left me with a heavy impression. To this
day, I don't know why it was banned by the Catholic Church.
There was another beautiful very
inspired film a number of
years ago produced by Italian director Franco Zeferelli. The
movie, 'Brother Sun & Sister
Moon,' dealt with the life of
Saint Francis of Assissi. This movie caused no small stir
within the Catholic Church! And why was this? Because it
expressed the genuine sincerity
and purity of simple faith
in God while severely exposing
the hypocrisy and
materialistic wealth of the 'Holy Mother Church.' In one
scene, which must have had the
Catholic hierarchy aghast,
St. Francis removes all of his
clothes and is stark naked,
symbolic of his total renouncement of worldly things.
As explained in other of my
articles such as 'Babylon The
Great,' 'Mary Worship And
Catholicism' and 'The Children Of
God And Politics,' during the
time of Emperor Constantine,
the merger between the
compromising 'Church Fathers' and the
pagan rulers of Rome was completed. Previously known as the
'Pontifus
Maximus,' the Roman emperor became known as the
Pope of the 'Holy Roman Empire' -- the birth of the Roman
Catholic Church! To ensure that
the 'Holy Mother Church'
maintained its control over the
masses, the Scriptures were
kept in Latin, which was NOT the language of the common man!
Whereas Jesus and his disciples
had made His teachings
freely available to all men,
teaching publicly and from
house to house, once the Roman
Catholic Church took control
of things, the Scriptures became
available only to learned
scholars. Later on in church history we find even more
sinister and horrible attempts
to control the common man's
beliefs and destiny. Thanks to Tomas Torquemada,
(first
Grand Inquisitor), and those who
followed in his footsteps,
we are all familiar with the
atrocities committed during the
time of the Spanish Inquisition! Surely, this was not the
religion taught by Jesus and His first disciples! This was a
religion of fear, and NOT a religion of love! And what
techniques are being used today
to keep the faithful in
bondage?
Considering the radical
information contained in the Book Of
Enoch and similar Apocryphal
Works, it is no wonder that
they were banned by the early 'Church Fathers'. As stated
previously, the idea of angels
being able to materialize in
physical bodies and make love to
human women, was just too
much for those tight-collared religionists. This was nothing
short of heresy and blasphemy in their eyes! A deceptive
work of Satan for sure worthy to be burned!
At the same time, it seems a bit
odd that they have no
problem accepting other angelic encounters. For example, in
the Book of Tobit,
a part of the Catholic Bible, we have the
story of the arcangel
Raphael taking on human form to assist
in a wedding arrangement, as
well as in healing an old man's
eyes. And consider too Jesus' own birth which has been
shrouded in deep mystery.
We are never told EXACTLY how
Mary became impregnated with the
Christ child. The
terminology used in our modern
Bible is rather nebulous,
don't you think? Exactly what was meant by Mary being
overshadowed by the power of the Most High? Some say it
means that Jesus was zapped into
existence by the Spirit of
God inside of Mary's womb, which
is indeed quite possible,
but considering the Book Of
Enoch, we can only wonder if
another method might have been used. We can only wonder if
this blurring of the facts was
also due to politics of ages
gone by. Granted, the manner of Jesus' conception is a very
minor issue. What is important isn't HOW He came here, but
WHY He came here,
and what He did for all of humanity.
What is interesting to note here
is that a close reading of
even the King James Bible will
reveal hints that the early
disciples did in fact accept
works, such as the Book Of
Enoch, as being inspired by God.
For example, if you read
the very short epistle of Jude,
you will find a direct
reference to the Book of Enoch. In one place, Jude quotes
from the Book of Enoch regarding
the angels who left their
heavenly abode:
"And the angels which kept
not their first estate, but left
their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting chains
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." (Jude
1:6)
The above is taken directly out
of the Book Of Enoch, except
that the Book of Enoch deals
with it in much more
detail...which is the whole
reason why the early 'Church
Fathers' rejected it. It tells
you what they did after they
left their heavenly abode, which
Genesis only hints at, and
this talk of angels having sex
with human women which bore
giants is what they couldn't stomach. One must wonder if it
is the talk of angels
materializing in our realm, or the sex
talk which bothered them...or maybe both.
Further down in his epistle,
Jude again refers to the Book
Of Enoch when he says:
"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." (Jude
1:14-15)
Obviously, Jude considered the
Book of Enoch to be an
authoritative source, yet it is
absent from the modern-day
Bible due to events which we had
no control over. The only
way to justify it not being
included would be to remove the
Book of Jude from the Bible and
say he was a heretic as
well! After all, surely he must have been out of the spirit
to even refer to such a devilish work, right? One other
interesting poing
on this: some believe that this is the
Jude who was one of Jesus' four
brothers...which is also
scripturally provable.
Another shaded reference to the
Book Of Enoch can be found
in the book of Leviticus where
it discusses the duties and
responsibilities of Aaron the high priest. Now, unless you
are Jewish and can read Hebrew,
you might not even know this
one exists. Why? Well, because they use the English
equivalent. In Leviticus 16:8 we read:
"And Aaron shall cast lots
upon the two goats; one lot for
the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat."
This set of verses dealing with
Aaron sacrificing a bullock
as a sin offering and then
choosing between two goats, has
some very deep spiritual implications. What is important for
this discussion is the Hebrew
equivalent for the word
'scapegoat.'
The word actually used is 'Azazel.' Most people
have never heard of the word. However, if you read the Book
of Enoch, you will discover that
Azazel happens to be the
name of one of the leaders of
the two hundred angels which
left their heavenly domain and
rebelled against God by
making love to Earthly women and
teaching humankind other
things as well.
As can be seen, were it not for
the Book of Enoch, this
mention of Azazel
in the modern Bible would be completely
overlooked...and what is
interesting is that this is the
only verse in our English Bible
where there is even a shaded
reference to the sins of Azazel and his
followers. Could it
be that this is just one that
was overlooked by those who so
kindly purged the Bible for us?
Another example of a
little-known Apocryphal Work can be
found in the famous chapter of
Hebrews 11 where Paul
expounds on faith and the heroes of the Old Testament. In
one place, in referring to how
some were martyred, Paul
mentions how some of the Old
Testament saints were sawn
asunder. Now, in case you don't know what that means, it
means that the prophets of God
were literally cut in half
while still alive, with a
two-man saw:
"They were stoned, they
were sawn asunder, were tempted,
were slain with the sword: they
wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins; being destitute,
afflicted, tormented;"
(Hebrews 11:37)
How does Paul know this? Well,
there is another Apocryphal
Work most people have never
heard of called 'The Martyrdom
Of The Prophet Isaiah By King
Manasseh.' The account very
graphically describes how, after
many years of faithfully
prophesying the word of the
Lord, old man Isaiah is strapped
in and cut in two while he is
praising the Lord the whole
time! Again, this account fits right into the rest of the
Scriptures, yet the 'Church
Fathers' decided for us that we
had no business reading about
that, that it was not inspired
of God...or maybe they were
afraid no one would want to be a
Christian if they thought they
might get sawed in half! If
that is the case, then we might
as well throw out the entire
Old Testament as it is full of
blood, guts and gore in very
graphic detail, if you take the time to read it. Sadly, we
can probably look forward to the
day when the entire Bible
will be banned anyway! At any rate, if the Martyrdom of the
Prophet Isaiah is not true
scripture, then we can only
wonder why the Apostle Paul would even refer to it. Was he
also out of the spirit when he said it? Having a bad day? Or
maybe those who banned this manuscript are wrong!
Well, I think you see my point
here. We have been spoon-fed
all our lives to teach us what
we can read, what we should
believe, how we should act, how we should dress, etc. The
powers that be, both political
and religious, make every
attempt to keep our lives under their control. They want to
make sure we keep the blinders on. I consider myself to be a
devout Christian. This does not mean I am a sinless saint by
any means. It simply means that I know what I believe, and
that I am sincere in my beliefs,
even if I don't always live
them fully as I should.
A few decades ago you would never
had caught me reading some of the things I read nowadays.
Why? Well, for one, I didn't
know they even existed, and
two, I was taught that anything
outside of my Bible was
wrong and not inspired of
God...unless of course it was
approved Catholic Catechism. This same mentality
is
prevalent in many other churches
and religious organizations
today. Each one has their own set doctrine which you either
accept, or else you can't be a full member of their church.
We have millions of private
members-only clubs all over the
world called organized religion who all claim to be right.
Some of them would rather have
you read the wisdom of men,
or their interpretation of
things, rather than allow you to
go to the source of information for yourself. I still
consider the King James Bible
the most cherished, inspired
and holy book I will ever read,
but at the same time, I have
come to realize
that by reading other materials, even if
organized religion rejects them,
I can create a fuller
picture and gain a wider
understanding of things which might
not have been possible otherwise.
In conclusion, while I
personally read a lot of other
materials to fill in the gaps,
plus to keep tabs on what
others think and believe, I do
not recommend this practice
for new Christians, or for those
who are still young in the
faith. As the Apostle Paul tells us:
"For when for the time ye
ought to be teachers, ye have need
that one teach you again which
be the first principles of
the oracles of God; and are
become such as have need of
milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk
is unskilful in the word of
righteousness: for he is a babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even
those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil." (Hebrews 5:12-14).
Until you have a solid
foundation in the Word of God, it is
best to stay away from other writings. The reason for this
is simple: Until you have been a Christian for a while
and
have reached a level of
spiritual maturity where you can
differeniate between what is of the Spirit of God, and what
isn't, it is just plain
dangerous business to become
involved with these things. As I explain in some of my other
writings, right now there is a
lot of spiritual deception in
the world, and it is only going
to get worse as the many
false messiahs and prophets begin to perform their wonders.
The best way to differeniate between what is true and what
is false is by studying that
which is true until you know it
inside and out. This is precisely what bank tellers must do.
They learn to identify a real
dollar bill so that when a
false one comes along, they will spot it right off. In the
same manner, we must study the
Word of God to learn the
Spirit of God, so we are not
deceived by the false teachings
of those who follow not the truth. In my case, I have been
doing this for over 25 years now. I feel I have learned
enough to go exploring into
other areas, even into the
Devil's territory to find out
what he is telling his
followers.
The Book Of Enoch is a powerful
book. I have read it. I was
definitely moved by its
contents...even though some of it
was just too deep for me. It contains things I had never
read before. Due to the support I have found for it in my
King James Bible, I do not
entirely reject it as being
heretical in natural. In my view, it seems to fill in the
picture in some ways. As to its accuracy, I cannot say. All
works with time tend to become a
bit exaggerated or
distorted so that some truths are lost or mishaped.
This is
how myths are born. As far as Divine Inspiration is
concerned, if I were to compare
it with say, the books of
the Maccabees,
I would say I felt more inspiration in the
Book Of Enoch. Maccabees seems drier and more historical in
nature, but this is just my personal opinion.
In this article, I have dealt
with just a few examples of
Apocryphal Works. There are many
many others, some of which
are available on my BBS or by request via Internet email. I
have not read them all yet, and
of the ones I have read, I
will admit that I have some
serious reservations about some
of them inasmuch as being the
inspired Word of God is
concerned. The main consideration here is that unless we
read, we will never know. Not only does reading other works
help to confirm and strengthen
our own Christian
convictions, but it also helps
us to know what the enemy of
God is up to so we know how to
combat his lies; for after
all, Jesus warned us that Satan
is the father of lies and a
master of deception:
"Ye are of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your
father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44)
And, as the Apostle Paul warns
us:
"Lest Satan should get an
advantage of us: for we are not
ignorant of his devices." (2 Corinthians 2:11)
I trust that this paper has been
informative and
enlightening for those reading it. And remember, there are
many precious jewels and deep
truths to be found in the Word
of God, but if we are
close-minded and set in our ways and
doctrines, we may never see them. I learn new things all the
time which sometimes
contradict what I had believed
previously. When this happens, I just have to be willing to
admit that I was wrong and
accept the new truth I have been
given. We cannot be afraid to change, otherwise we lose all
opportunities to grow spiritually. This is the mistake the
Jews of old made when they
rejected Jesus, the very essence
of Truth. Because they rejected the Light of the World,
Jesus told them that they were
blind leaders of the blind
walking in darkness. We must ask ourselves: How much light
and truth have we each been willing to accept?
--
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