Tag: Christianity

Noah Was Perfect in His Genes

On By TimIn Genesis 06, Sons of God, Spiritual WarfareLeave a comment

These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and blameless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with God.

Genesis 6:9

This verse is from the Bible, which I read and use regularly. But, there is a problem with it that may go unnoticed, which is going to become apparent. I do use tools other than just reading the Bible. Because I love going beyond just reading, I understand what this verse is really getting at, despite the simplicity in translation that may obscure some facts.

To help with your understanding, I am going to give a link to a plethora of translations of this verse. I want you to look there before moving on with reading. I want to give you, the reader, an opportunity to discover the issue for yourself. When you have examined the translations, continue reading.

Here is the link to the list of Genesis 6:9. Bible Hub is a great resource. It provides a generous number of commentaries on the Bible, including cross references and other resources.

While the Modern English Version I use is reliable. Mainly, I use an electronic version. I do have a print version, and the notes in the study portion drop hints of the doctrines the translators embrace. Basically, they go along with the Sons of Seth being the sons of God in Genesis 6:1–2. The beginning of Genesis 6 provides a fork in the road to two distinctly different understandings. The Sons of Seth doctrine is fraught with many problems; there is a better understanding, as you may see by continuing. It also tends to shed light on the pressures of translating the Bible.

The sons of Seth doctrine was introduced by Augustine of Hippo in his work The City of God. He saw these as righteous men who took wives of the daughters of men. The daughters of men in this case means the daughters of Cain. This was a huge divergence from the traditional Jewish interpretation that the sons of God were fallen angels. Augustine held that the traditional Jewish idea was incredible. He didn’t like it

So, which is the better understanding?

Genesis

This is the most important part of the conversation in this part of the text. It is the usage of the Hebrew word toledot translated as correctly as generations. It properly points to the descendants of Noah.

If you were paying attention back at the link above, it was discovered that some translations use the English word generation twice. The Modern English Version above uses generations first and contemporaries second. Which does sort of convey the idea. Contemporaries is translated from the Hebrew word dor. It is used in a specific form here, which only occurs once in the Tanakh.

Some translations use the word generation twice. This idea comes from how the King James Version renders both Hebrew words. Those translators probably used the way the Septuagint translators used one Greek word for both Hebrew words.

Now these are the generations of Noah: Noah, a righteous person who was perfect among his generation. Noah was pleasing to God.

Genesis 6:9 (Lexham English Septuagint)

The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Tanakh. It was used at the time of Jesus. In that work, both Hebrew words of different meanings were translated into the Greek word genesis. The first occurrence is plural, the second singular.

The first Septuagint usage of the Greek word genesis is from the title of the first book of the Tanakh. That is why the first book is named Genesis in English. The first usage in the text of the Greek word genesis is in Genesis 2:4, where it is translated from the Hebrew toledot, which means origins in English.

To recap, the Greek word genesis is connected to origins or beginnings. By its usage in the verse above, it includes ancestry. Ancestry brings to mind genetics and DNA. These two ideas are inherently important in the second chapter of Genesis. Then there is the real hint that DNA is important and that the seed or offspring becomes the cornerstone of the redemption.

I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he will bruise your head,
and you will bruise his heel.”

Genesis 3:15

What becomes clear is that this is a gene war to claim the Human Race. One side employs corruption, the Other, redemption.

Though I don’t think the language of the time had specific words for genetics like we modern folks do. The ideas are apparent. Another necessary point to understand is that the English word gene comes from the German language by way of the original Greek word genea.

It is also important to know that the Greek word genesis also conveys the idea of nativity or nature.

Perfect Character or Perfect Nature?

That is the dilemma presented between the traditional (Septuagint and KJV) understandings of what is being said and the way modern scholars tend to translate.

The traditional understanding is clear. Noah’s genealogy is perfect. Modern Bibles say Noah’s life is perfect. Compare the MEV at the beginning with a more literal translation.

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, without defect in his generations. Noah walked with God.

Genesis 6:9 (Lexham English Bible)

Comparing that with the former MEV reveals some seeming loss of precision in the way it handles the text. It seems to blur the distinction between righteous and perfect to make this inference about Noah’s moral character.

With a modern blurred distinction, one comes away with the idea that moral imperfection was everywhere, and Noah was perfect. But that cannot be so, as God conveys that it is all flesh, not just humanity.

The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence. God looked on the earth and saw it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Genesis 6:11–12

This idea also adds complication, as it would include animals and creeping things. It also indicates that all flesh somehow willingly participated in this corruption.

The obvious conclusion is that there was a genetic imperfection that affected all kinds of flesh. Yet Noah’s perfection hints that not all individuals were affected. Is this idea explained in the text?

Bring every living thing of all flesh, two of every kind, into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creeping thing of the earth will come to you to be kept alive.

Genesis 6:19–20

What is implied there is that God chose the animals to go on the ark, not Noah. This is another indicator of which animals were genetically fit to repopulate the Earth.

With this understanding, this judgment by flood was necessary because of genetic impurity. It is not about Noah being morally righteous or blameless. Most of us know that after the deluge subsided, he planted a vineyard and got drunk. Paul writes of the simple truth of the lot of humanity, we have all missed the mark and fallen short.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23

One side in this war corrupts, the Other redeems.

Politics in Translation

As much as one would like to think that translations are objective. The people who do the work are susceptible to societal pressure. They are not immune to being influenced by the zeitgeist and politics from within the cultures where they live and work.

For example, the translators of the King James Version rendered the Greek word ekklesia as church. This deviated from William Tyndale’s earlier English translation, which was foundational to the KJV. Tyndale rendered ekklesia as congregation. This is the better reading and tends to follow the Septuagint, which used the word ekklesia to describe the mixed multitude in the Exodus. Consider a modern translation that brings clarity. The better English word is congregation or assembly.

This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us,

Acts 7:38

Here is the KJV for contrast.

This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

Acts 7:38 (King James Version)

One might wonder how and why these things happen. The translators were aware of the king’s preference for the Anglican High Church. However, it was the independents (low church) who eschewed the hierarchy, preferring local control of congregations. This attitude of the king is still prevalent. There is a tendency among those who prefer high church liturgical ministrations to look down on independent congregations.

These independents and other separatists preferred to call themselves congregations and assemblies. This would create an apparent distinction between the Catholic and Anglican churches.

Remember, the KJV came about at a time when sovereign kings could still behead people who crossed them. The translators would not want to do something that would lead to beheading.

Subtle Corruption Enters

As with Augustine and the KJV, there is still a subtle inclination to dissipate the true teachings of God’s Word. Whether that dissipation is intentional or not, it is something of which a student of the Word needs to be aware. The constant barrage has been from the genesis, “Has God really said?” And it continues today.

The political pressures that stem from World War II still affect cultures today. That war pitted the Allied Powers against the Axis Powers. In an odd pairing, the Allied Powers were generally English-speaking nations with capitalist economies oddly partnering with the communists in Russia and China. These were allied to defeat the nationalists in Germany, Italy, and Japan.

The common thread amongst the leaders of the Axis Powers came from a belief that they were racially superior to other people. The Nazis in Germany claimed descent from a master race of ancients called Aryans. The foremost idea was to cleanse the Reich of genetically impure undesirables. The leaders in Italy wanted to revive the glories of the Roman Empire. In like manner, the popularity of eugenics was used to improve the quality of the Italian race. The Japanese considered themselves genetically superior to other Asian peoples and established themselves as protectors of asians against the encroachment of the Western Powers. Eugenics drove the effort to purify the Japanese race.

I must add a caveat here. I am certain there is only one race. It is Adam’s. We all share his blood and have a common Redeemer named Jesus. (Whether you actually believe it or not. Those truths remain.)

Back to World War II… The media in the nations of the Allied Powers often portrayed the driving narrative of the Axis Powers in stark racial language. Which is kind of weird because the demonic practices of eugenics were worldwide, even in the Allied Powers. This racial language stoked the hatred of the nationalist Axis Powers. It is also important to consider that the Marxist tenets of communism rejected ethnicity. Communist nations tended to avoid explicit declarations of inherent nationalist superiority. That makes for strange bedfellows.

Rejecting capitalism, communism prefers collectivism. It attempts to unite the masses of the poor of all races for the common good. Communist ideals attempt to better humanity through the proper application of social theory toward an equal outcome for all. It denies any natural inherited advantage, which tends toward celebrating mediocrity.

With time, the mass media in capitalist countries increasingly embraced the ideas of equal outcome. Those sympathetic to communism began to seek positions of influence. Eventually, the portrayal of World War II became a war against nationalism. Over time, this Marxist ideal against favoring one’s own nation or people of that nation over another subtly transformed from patriotism to nationalism and then to racism.

So the problem coming from the traditional interpretation of Genesis 6:9 becomes self-evident. With this subtle Marxism that entered the culture, it came to be preferred by the instructors in learning institutions. We can see the end result of this just by watching the news in the United States and other nations. Eventually, the Bible’s commending of Noah’s genetic purity to renew Adam’s race became quite unacceptable in academia. It is subtly embraced in many seminaries. Hence, the perfection moves from being applied to Noah’s ancestral genetic nature to his moral nature.

The Sons of God

The significance of Genesis 6:9 is subtly and increasingly obscured. With a proper understanding, Noah’s lineage becomes extremely important. The necessity of the flood is then overtly apparent. Something happened to corrupt all the kinds of flesh on Earth.

This is told immediately before Noah finds favor. And before it is revealed that God chose Noah.

When men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair and took as wives any they chose. The Lord said, “My Spirit will not always strive with man, for he is flesh; yet his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was continually only evil. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Genesis 6:1–8

This text exposes another subtly corrupted understanding of Genesis. One that I mentioned earlier. That is, that the good guys took the bad girls to wed.

The reality is that beings called the sons of God took human females as wives. This is stated in the above (Genesis 6:1–4) and parallels the apocryphal book of Enoch. I know what you might think of the apocrypha. Yet Enoch was included in the Tanakh.

And it happened that when the sons of men multiplied in those days, they begat good and beautiful daughters. And the angels, the sons of heaven, saw them and longed for them and said to one another, “Come let us choose for ourselves women from among the people and bring forth for ourselves children.”

Enoch 6:1–2 (Lexham English Septuagint)

These sons of God have transgressed in such a way that prompts God to bring certain judgment to them for their sin. Their sin involved flesh, as it is clear that flesh was condemned to perish in the flood.

The text says the sons of God found the women attractive, so they took whom they wanted as wives. There is some assumptions I make here. First, if they are marrying, it must have followed the traditions of marriage. Traditional marriage requires a bride price… A dowry. I also know from others’ testimonies that the spiritual world is legalistic. That is not a far-fetched notion, as God makes and keeps covenants.

With that, I think that the Bible shows these dowries in Genesis 4:17–24, where Cain’s progeny are lavishly endowed with technological knowledge.

Not After Their Kind

So, if the human sons of Seth took the human daughters of Cain, what is the grievous sin?

The answer is encoded in the phrase any they chose. That is, not who they chose but from where they came… Humanity.

Angels doing what was unseemly, taking daughters of men, they took strange flesh. That is, they took something that was not intended for the purposes for which the fallen wanted to use it. They made odd human-angel chimeras. These became the giants, the titans, the gods of old. Which were found in the pantheons of the Ancient Near East. Then migrating into the pantheons of Greece and Rome.

Let me explain… The purposes of reproduction are to multiply after their kind, just as established at creation. Humans reproduce humans. Angels don’t reproduce. Which probably leads to an objection some may have based on this:

Jesus answered, “You err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven.

Matthew 22:29–30

The first thing to grasp about this passage is that Jesus is correcting the Sadducees who didn’t understand the Torah and its clear teachings on angels and resurrection. Second, Jesus did not say that angels cannot reproduce. He is saying they don’t marry, meaning there is no need for reproduction after their kind in heaven; their kind being elohim. Likewise, in the resurrection, there is no reproduction after their kind necessary. The Bible clearly states that the serpent (Shining One) of Genesis 3 has seed. It follows that other elohim (angels) do, too.

(Elohim is used as a spiritual class of being when used with lower-case e. Capitalized Elohim is the Most High God. God is Elohim, but not all elohim are God.)

When angels take humans as wives and bear children, chimeras are created. Just this act alone violates many of the guardrails God established. The resulting progeny were not from reproduction after their kind.

There are lots of technicalities wrought in this idea. But the underlying issue is that of comingled DNA. I will save you the details, but it is inherent that the same happened to the animal kinds, as they were also destroyed in the flood.

The Bible says there is nothing new under the sun. Genetic manipulation has always been around. Human technology has advanced much. We can manipulate genetics with novel tools.

Do you wonder what God thinks about technologies like CRISPR that can edit the genome?

Humanity has the technology to create chimeras. This isn’t just hybridization or selective breeding for desired traits that already exist in an organism’s genome. It is a very different practice of combining genetics from one organism to another.

Consider something so familiar as corn. Your home probably contains products made from genetically modified corn. This would probably be an organism that is called BT-Corn. It gets its name from the naturally occurring bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. (Science cannot create bacteria.) The bacteria produce a toxin used as a pesticide. In making BT-corn, scientists take a gene that produces the toxin from the bacterium. It is then inserted into the genome of corn. The corn then produces the toxin that kills predator pests by destroying the digestive tract of the caterpillar larvae.

In effect, that corn is a chimera. There is going to be some disagreement in my distinction between chimera and hybrid. But I want to make clear that inserting traits by genetic manipulation is not traditional hybridization.

But these things don’t reproduce after their kind. Bacteria do not reproduce with corn. I know about ligers, mules, and other hybrids like them. Ligers would be a kind of feline, and mules a kind of equine. Felines don’t reproduce with canines or equines.

All that to say, when angels sire with humans, the result is something that wasn’t properly meant to be. It was seeking after strange flesh.

Stranger Danger

Does my choice of words sound familiar?

It should.

Likewise, the angels who did not keep to their first domain, but forsook their own dwelling, He has kept in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities in like manner, gave themselves to immorality and went after different flesh, they serve as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

Jude 6-7

Jude’s epistle helps to bring understanding to what really conspired before the flood. I think the epistle also supports my opinion that the daughters of men were really the daughters of Cain. (Augustine got something right.) The angels who fell entered into a covenant by marriage with human families in the progeny of Cain. As stated previously, there was a technological explosion among the children of Cain. It seems likely that the fathers of those taken received technological knowledge as dowry. Jude tells us that the way of Cain has to do with selfish greed.

Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily after the error of Balaam for a reward, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

Jude 11

Noah Was Perfect

We know Noah, like Adam, sinned. We all do. He did not lead a perfect life and needed the same Redeemer we all do. But what is given is that Noah’s ancestry was genetically pure enough to be the progenitor of the renewal of the human race. All eight of those selected to be on the ark would have had untainted genetics.

The unspoken necessity is that angels intermarrying with the daughters of men imposed themselves into the genetics of humanity. Without the intervention of the deluge, all of humanity would have been changed, and redemption would have been impossible.

This gets really technical. The angel-human chimera comes from the seed of angels. Angels have no kinsman. Without a kin relationship, which is in the blood, there is no redemption. This whole idea comes from the Hebrew word goel, which is translated as kinsman, redeemer, and blood avenger in the Tanakh. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, is the Kinsman, the Redeemer, and the Blood Avenger of the entire lot of Adam’s seed.

This was the enemy’s first great incursion to stop redemption. When one considers Jude 1:6, it is clear that what happened is disorderly. I’m no Greek scholar, but when Jude writes, “the angels who did not keep to their first domain, but forsook their own dwelling.” He is saying that those angels left their sovereign domains and forsook their own dwellings (idiomatically analogous to the container we call our body).

Think like this, at creation, humanity was given a domain to master and become sovereign over. (I know the word might upset sensibilities, but the idea is important and contextual.) In Genesis 1:26, humans were given the imperative by God at creation to take dominion over the earth. This is His order He established. The underlying idea connects to the words in Jude, again by way of the Septuagint. The Hebrew word for rule is rada. It is an imperative meaning to dominate or lord over. The Septuagint translates the Hebrew rada to the Greek archo. That verb means to rule or to begin. In other words, to be first. In Jude, the Greek word arche is translated as domain. Which is a word that means power, ruler, and the sphere of authority. So the usage of sovereign fits. The angels did not keep their own sovereignty.

The next idea from Jude 1:6 is the phrase proper dwelling place. This is from a somewhat unique Greek word oiketerion. This word is used only once in another place in the New Testament.

In this one we groan, earnestly desiring to be sheltered with our house which is from heaven.

2 Corinthians 5:2

Here, oiketerion is translated as house. Paul uses it as an idiom of our physical body, which houses us.

These angels violated their proper place by insinuating themselves into another. I don’t know how to convey the stark importance of the legalities violated. The goal originated from angels to corrupt the seed of man. The sentence was immediate and everlasting confinement. Their progeny were sentenced to be destroyed in the flood. From that, it is easy to infer that there was no place on Earth for these chimeras.

Having no Redeemer, it follows that the spirits of these dead chimeras now have no dwelling place. There is much debate, and some say they roam and antagonize humanity as demons. They endlessly pursue a vicarious experience through others. They yearn for the things that they partook in with their own bodies. Essentially, they are forever searching for satiation of their lusts. The Bible does say demons have no dwelling places of their own and roam around deserted places.

I cannot help to point out how Peter seemed to consider this idea. Because these chimeras died in the flood, they went into the water and never came out. It’s a quaint euphemism for death.

Believer’s Baptism

Now, picture how baptism is done. People are plunged into the water and then forcefully pulled out… Alive. It’s the antithesis of what happened to the angel-human chimeras at the flood. In essence, these ones pulled from the water are appointed to resurrection, unlike the spirits of the chimeras who perished under the water. Every single time someone is baptized, the fallen ones are reminded of their fated eternity.

Peter speaks of Jesus going into Sheol. It was to show the triumph over death He had. It was to show His triumph over all authorities and powers who are now subject to Him. Peter also likens baptism as idiomatic of the reality. It is a picture of the resurrection, proclaiming those appointed to that end.

For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, by whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who in times past were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. Figuratively this is like baptism, which also saves us now. It is not washing off the dirt from the body, but a response to God from a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him.

1 Peter 3:18–22

In his second epistles, Peter uses baptism as the antithesis to those perishing beneath the waters.

For if God did not spare the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be kept for judgment; and if He did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those afterward who would live ungodly lives; and if He delivered righteous Lot, who was distressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man lived among them, and what he saw and heard of their lawless deeds tormented his righteous soul day after day); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment, especially those who walk after the flesh in pursuit of unclean desires, and despise authority.

2 Peter 2:4–10

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to punish the ungodly.

Which are you?

The Last Trumpet (Yobel) and the Jubilee!

On By TimIn Exodus 19, Rapture1 Comment

As I was reading and studying to the previous post, something caught my attention.

The Lord said to Moses, “Indeed, I am going to come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and always believe in you.” Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

Exodus 19:9

In discussing the rapture, it is not overtly apparent that the meeting of the people of God with Him at Mount Sinai is the first occurrence of that type of event. God coming in the clouds and meeting His people. Them being called out as a people to meet with God.

There are some things one is going to be required to understand when I say that. The people of God here are not just Israelis. They are a mixed multitude of people. Most of them are Israeli having lineage from Abraham. God is coming to them in a thick cloud to meet them… Not as their Judge nor is it in judgment. This kind of spoils the usual narrative employed about the ancient idea that coming in the clouds an indicative of judgment. This idea of first mention of God coming in the clouds indicates much.

In the text, Moses serves as a type playing the role of Jesus. These types and shadows are almost always incomplete. Those things can and do get blurry, because Moses also plays a type of the body of Christ. I will leave that for another time.

Anyway, Moses is instructed by God to do many things to prepare the people for Him. They are to set themselves aside, wait, and be ready. What do you think is going to be the signal for them to leave camp and go meet God?

When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.

Exodus 19:13b

It’s a fascinating thing that the call to assembly for the people of God is by trumpet. This is a reality played out many times in the law that Moses gave. Trumpet calls were also used to transmit commands on a battlefield. They also proclaimed the presence of God.

The conspicuous thing is something called the law of first mention. What it entails is that the first time an idea or word is used in the Bible, it has significant foundational meaning to the latter occurrences.

Here, the English word for trumpet is first used. Yet the Bible was not written in English. The Hebrew word for trumpet as used here is yobel. That is the first time that that Hebrew word is used in the Bible.

It seems to me there are many firsts occurring in this particular account. God is assembling His people to meet with them, and the sign is the blast from a trumpet.

So on the third day, in the morning, there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet. All the people who were in the camp trembled.

Exodus 19:16

The third day seems to be significant. There is nothing in the Bible that is insignificant. We know Jesus rose on the third day, so the reference seems to loosely reference resurrection. I think there’s more here, and I have previously hinted about it. In the close of Hosea 5, the last verse God is speaking of His withdrawal from His own people. Eventually the people respond with a call to repentance. There are some significant numbers mentioned.

Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn, and He will heal us. He has struck, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us. On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.

Hosea 6:1–2

After two days and on the third day revival comes. What if these were not the typical 24-hour day?

Could it be a precise indicator of something else that may be significant?

Could it be that a day is like a thousand years as Peter states in his second epistle?

Some may object to that as it is a New Testament reference. I think there’s evidence that the people of that time could understand the concept.

For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a night watch in the night time.

Psalm 90:4

It seems as if this may have some significance. Especially considering some other things like the seventieth Jubilee coming quickly. There is a convergence of ideas from the Bible coalescing to a point of time that is just near future to now. If the two days is as two thousand years, as I write today puts the two-thousandth anniversary of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem just a bit over seven years away in AD 2032. Perhaps that would be the third day when all Israel is restored under a rightful King from David’s lineage. It sounds like a Millennial Kingdom to me.

But nah! That couldn’t be.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was received as King on the traditional day for the beginning of the electoral year. Israeli kings were crowned on Passover just as Jesus was. 10 Nisan would be the presentation of the King on a donkey, that first time remembered as Palm Sunday. The patter would hold that Jesus comes into Jerusalem the next time on a horse. Kings rode donkeys in peace, and horses to war. As there is a seeming pattern, wouldn’t that coming prince counterfeit such a thing?

That means the antichrist would ride into Jerusalem on a horse. This would need to be at least seven years prior to Jesus’ return as King. This points at the next 10 Nisan.

Let that sit. Back to Exodus, and that really loud trumpet and the gathering clouds on Mount Sinai. God comes on those clouds and settles on the mountain, the people are called by the sound of a trumpet.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely covered in smoke because the Lord had descended upon it in fire, and the smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice.

Exodus 19:17–19

This is one of my favorite passages in the Scriptures.

Now, what is obscured by the English word translated as trumpet is another Hebrew word sopar. This, too, is the first occurrence of the word sopar, and it appears twice in the passage. Sopar usually references the ram’s horn or shofar it English. It is also used to convey the sound the trumpet makes. The meanings of the word sopar and yobel can overlap. Sopar is rather commonly used throughout the Tanakh. Yobel is significantly more rare.

Yobel is translated elsewhere as either ram’s horn or jubilee. But is is translated as trumpet for the first time it is used in the Tanakh, and only once at that in Exodus 19. It is apparent that this connects to the Jubilee.

Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord.  (Leviticus 25:2, MEV)

On entering the Promised Land, the Israelis were given specific instructions. One of the involved the establishment of a sabbath year of rest for the land. They were to count six years, and the seventh was a year of rest. The other inextricably linked to the sabbath year is the Jubilee.

You shall count seven sabbath weeks of years, seven times seven years, and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the horn blasts on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall make the sound of the horn throughout all your land. You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee to you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and every person shall return to his family. That fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you. You shall neither sow nor reap that which grows by itself, nor gather the grapes of your unpruned vines. For it is the Jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You shall eat the produce of the field.

Leviticus 25:8–12

Israel was to make the sound of the shofar to proclaim the Jubilee. It seems that these ideas of rest, Jubilee (setting captives free,) and a call to assembly are intertwined.

The Hebrew word yobel translated for its first usage in the Bible as to be the sign of assembly. It is also translated elsewhere as jubilee. The English word jubilee has its roots in the Hebrew word yobel. As it is used in Leviticus , it is referencing the 50th year when the land returned to rightful owners and indentured servants were released.

When Israel entered the Land, they were to keep a Sabbath for it to the Lord. It followed that would also be the first Jubilee as the start of the 49-year count until the next 50th year. It is a very similar count to the one that establishes the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost.) That also causes my mind to pay attention to this.

In a not-so-roundabout way, Pentecost hints of the body of Christ, the universal church.

As has previously been explored, the next Jubilee for Israel will most likely be the 70th. The number seventy conveys the meaning of a complete set or all of them. If that holds true, this coming Jubilee is the last one. If it is the last one, the trumpet announcing it would be the last trump.

As a teacher says, if 1446 BC, then 14406 BC. If 1406 BC, then 2025 AD. But always 10 Nisan. It is the intertwining Biblical themes introduced with the gathering at Mount Sinai. There are patterns that can be dually applied to the return of Jesus to Israel, and the return of Jesus for His bride the church. As Moses draws near to God at Sinai the people remained at a distance. Moses and some of the elders go up to the mountain and sup with God.

That trumpet-Jubilee proclaims liberty and restoration. It signified the year the Israelis entered the Promised Land and eating of the food some forty years later. That being the first Jubilee and the fulfilling of the promise God made for rest.

Some 3,430 years after Israel entered the Promised Land 10 Nisan in 1406 BC, the seventieth Jubilee comes on 10 Nisan (AD 2025.) Are we to soon expect that last trump call to gather and meet God?

Apostosy in Thessalonians, It’s Probably Not What You Think

On By TimIn 2 Thessalonians 02, Apostasy1 Comment

Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For that Day will not come unless a falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,

2 Thessalonians 2:3

What would you think if I told you that what you believe about this verse may be a bit wrong?

I am speaking specifically about the idea of falling away. That idea is translated from the Greek word apostasia from which we get the English word apostasy. Abandoning faith is the idea behind the definition of the English word apostasy. You, like me, have probably been taught to look at it with a church-centric focus. That is, the falling away will be some sort of mass walking away from Christianity.

But, is that the right way to understand what Paul is saying?

He used that word once in his writings here. It occurs in one other place in the New Testament. It’s here:

They have been informed concerning you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to observe the customs.

Acts 21:21

The Greek word apostasia is translated here to the English word forsake. It is specifically applied to leaving the observance of the law of Moses.

Could that be important?

It seems to go along with the idea of leaving something. Some even think apostasia can mean something akin to rapture. Granted, that idea has always intrigued me… And I may have embraced it. I have a tendency to challenge the ideas I hold as truth… To see if they are true.

Let’s examine what Paul wrote in the next verse where he used apostasia.

who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself as God.

2 Thessalonians 2:4

The idea of apostasy is connected to the revealing of the man of sin. That revelation comes at a very specific event… When he exalts himself as God in the temple, causing the sacrifices to stop.

And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator.”

Daniel 9:27

Because of the connection Paul makes in context, it would be that this is entirely Jewish in nature. That is, all of this is happening in the temple to Jewish people. The antichrist is revealed for who he is here. And it’s with an abandonment of the law of Moses, causing the sacrifices to cease.

The apostasy here is most likely just like Luke used in Acts 21, the forsaking of the law of Moses.

That makes a lot of sense considering that this person is called the lawless one. There comes another conundrum that reinforces the abandonment of the law. Lawlessness and the lawfulness cannot coexist. The law must be removed before the lawless one can be revealed. It follows that this son of perdition can only be revealed with the removal of the law of Moses.

This reinforces the idea that the Thessalonians thought they were already in the Day of the Lord. This error was perpetrated by a seeming previous letter that was a forgery.

Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and concerning our gathering together unto Him, we ask you not to let your mind be quickly shaken or be troubled, neither in spirit nor by word, nor by letter coming as though from us, as if the day of Christ is already here.

2 Thessalonians 2:1–2

Reading this passage with this new information reveals precision not previously encountered here. It also shows us that at some point in the future, a temple odd going to be built and sacrifices will resume.

It opens some unexpected insights that may add to indignation. If as Hebrews 10:4 says the old is taken away to establish the new which is better. It is then a blatant affront to God to reestablish the old and again deny Jesus. That would be abhorrent and could be why the plural is used in the phrase the wing of abominations. That is the abomination of resurrecting the law of Moses coupled with the usurpation of the worship in God’s house.

The Sons of His Inheritance

On By TimIn Deuteronomy 32, Nephilim, Sons of God3 Comments

Can you show someone Jesus from this?

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

Deuteronomy 32:8–9

This is Moses instructing the Israelis on their history. The history of the Jewish people includes them being chosen and set aside for the Lord by the Lord.

What many do not quite track in this passage… The “children of Israel” did not yet exist when the nations were formed. It helps to understand the background of this text. With that understanding, we gain some surprising insights into what an ancient Israeli might have known.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words As the people journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

Genesis 11:1–2

Yes, it’s the Tower of Babel event. It is at the time of the first world leader.

They said to each other, “Let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top will reach to heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 11:3–4

Babel means the gate of the gods. (See page 170 here.) Many were not taught the real significance of this particular event. The popular teaching is that the people were trying to reach up to God. But that is not the purpose of the tower.

To understand the tower’s purpose, we need a bit more background. And that comes a few chapters back in Genesis.

When men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair and took as wives any they chose. The Lord said, “My Spirit will not always strive with man, for he is flesh; yet his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:1–4

Before the flood, angels came down to men. They took women in exchange for technology. That idea we pick up from the account of Cain’s progeny in the latter part of Genesis 4. It is my thinking that it was the progeny of Cain that commiserated with the fallen angels. That’s another discussion. For the idea at hand, it suffices that Angels came down to men and had progeny called Nephilim.

It didn’t work out well for those angels who did that. Those angels that came down and took women were then locked away.

Likewise, the angels who did not keep to their first domain, but forsook their own dwelling, He has kept in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.

Jude 6

It would seem to follow that the severity of punishment for coming down to take women and create progeny would serve as a deterrent.

Our text in Genesis 6 says this occurred before the flood… And would occur after. I would assert that things also changed after the flood, and it wasn’t so easy for angels to just come down to men as if they were instigating the exchange. The idea wouldn’t be attractive.

Then this tower, or gate of the gods, would be humans asking for the exchange. Humans would be the ones granting permission of rights. Hence the idea of building the gateway.

Concurrent with the incident here, we are introduced to another character important to Babel.

Cush was the father of Nimrod. He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Even like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, the city Rehoboth Ir, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).

Genesis 10:8–12

Nimrod, the first world leader… Became a mighty one. The underlying Hebrew text seems to indicate that he became like those Nephilim of old. The Hebrew also indicates that he wasn’t a mighty hunter of game, but one that assailed other humans.

I would say that the construction of the tower was to provide a place to perform rituals. These rituals would extend rights and permissions from humans to angels.

The tower was also believed to have a bed chamber in it. Almost always, these types of rituals are sexual in nature. It would seem to be the case here, and given the mighty hunter of men, I would also offer that is necessary (meaning a particularly sanguine fluid in human bodies.)

I know it’s macabre. I know it’s dark. But there is a real Hero, a real Man to defeat all of this.

The end purpose of the tower was to call the gods down to commiserate with men. What happened next?

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men built.

Genesis 11:5

Well, the gods don’t come. But the Most High God over all the other gods (see Psalm 82) comes down. It’s like an unexpected plot twist.

The Lord said, “The people are one and they have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; now nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them.

Genesis 11:6

This text needs no explanation. The ingenuity of humanity is explained. It is a powerful force because humans work together with one language and can do extraordinary things. With one language, what can be imagined can be accomplished.

So what does God do?

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. From there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11:7–9

This is the establishment of the nations as explained by Moses in Deuteronomy 32 above. God gave 70 nations, established their lands, and assigned that as an inheritance. An inheritance to who?

Deuteronomy 32:8 says the children (or sons) of Israel. But Abraham wasn’t even born yet. How can that seeming conundrum be resolved?

Back before Jesus came, the common language was early Greek. Most Israelis at the time would know Greek but not Aramaic or Hebrew. At the behest of Ptolemy II, the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek by 72 Hebrew translators. There were six chosen from each tribe of Israel. That translation is commonly called the Septuagint.

I was always taught that the Septuagint was a post-Jesus forgery. A bit of pursuit in truth revealed that probably is not the case. Many of the quotations of the Hebrew Scriptures in the New Testament were from the Septuagint. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls also exposes the folly of what I was taught. Besides, the very line a virgin shall conceive comes to us from the Septuagint Greek and not the Tanakh’s original Hebrew.

How does the Septuagint help our conundrum?

With the understanding of the Hebrew translators and the ideas they held from the Tanakh, it came in the translation. Our passage in Deuteronomy 32 is no different.

When the Most High distributed nations as he scattered the descendants of Adam, he set up boundaries for the nations according to the number of the angels of God.

Deuteronomy 32:8, Lexham English Septuagint

Angels of God does also mean sons of God. In other words, God put angels in charge of physical property and humans to populate that property. They were to be stewards… But it is easy to infer that didn’t happen. It is probably the impetus for the plethora of religions. Again, that’s another idea for another time.

The nations were given as inheritance to the sons of God. That is the important thing. It follows that sons inherit their father’s things. In this case, the sons of God inherited the nations from the Father.

For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

Deuteronomy 32:9

There is the 71st nation, Israel. It is allotted as an inheritance to the Lord given by the Most High.

Fathers do not inherit. Sons do. Moses is pointing directly to Jesus.

So, when someone tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God. They are wholly incorrect and do not grasp the weight of Scriptural evidence that undergirds what Jesus says to the Pharisees

Jesus answered them, “Though I bear witness of Myself, My testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. Yet if I do judge, My judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me bears witness of Me.”

John 8:14–18

The Pharisees then pose another question to Jesus. They believe what they know.

Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?”
Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as He taught in the temple. No one arrested Him, for His hour had not yet come.

John 8:19–20

John adds the commentary that nobody attempted to arrest Jesus. In this exchange, the Pharisees reveal that knew the identity of Jesus. This is evidenced by the addition of the personal pronoun your… “Where is Your Father?”

They knew Who He is, the Son of Inheritance. Tragically, they didn’t know Him or His Father.

The Morning Star and the Sun of Righteousness

On By TimIn 2 Samuel 23, Day of the Lord1 Comment

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me: He who rules over man justly, who rules in the fear of God, is like the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning with no clouds, gleaming after the rain like grass from the land.

2 Samuel 23:3–4

This is a description of the ideal King. Moving on, let us focus on the simile that this King is like the light of the morning. The reference to the Person here also brings to mind a specific day. It foreshadows Jesus in the Millennial Kingdom as He rules the Earth from Jerusalem. This day is known as the Day of the Lord. Most focus on specific judgments, but there is far more to be understood. Just like any day, the elements establish a pattern. The Scriptures assume a similar pattern for the Day of the Lord.

Dusk to Dark Night

Consider that in Israel, a day begins at dusk, keep that in mind. Seizing the simile that the Coming King is like the sun, when He left Earth to go to heaven would seem an appropriate allusion to dusk and night. Peter helps to demonstrate that this would be one of those harbingers that announce the arrival of the last days.

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all you who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it shall be,’ says God, ‘that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on My menservants and maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth below: blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and glorious day of the Lord comes. And whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Acts 2:14–21

Peter cites Joel 2: 28-32. The greater context of Joel introduces us to a time called the day. It is the Day of Jehovah.

Alas, for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and like devastation from the Almighty it comes.

Joel 1:15

The Israelis present understood the Scriptures. They understood what Peter was saying clearly. Devastation was upon the nation. The last days were here, specifically announcing the Last Day.

We know the nation of Israel ceased to be around 70 AD when the temple was destroyed and Jerusalem besieged by Rome. It was not until the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD that resulted in a genocidal assault on Jewish populations around Jerusalem. Emperor Hadrian eventually erased the name Judaea from the map and replaced it with Syria Palaestina. Israel was gone, just as Joel foretold.

Given what is written in Joel, it is clear the Day of the Lord had already begun. Keeping consistent with the pattern of the day, dusk turns to darkness of night. Malachi also educes the same idea. The day coming will bring devastation. Yet it would not leave believers without hope.

Surely the day is coming, burning like an oven; all the proud, yes, all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming will burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. You will go out and grow up like calves from the stall. And you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I do this, says the Lord of Hosts.

Malachi 4:1–3

Malachi tells us that the day is coming when all the unbelievers will be vanquished. The One saying this is the Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts is Jesus and it specifically calls to the mind His return as He leads the armies of heaven.

The Son Rises

For believers on Earth, His coming will be like the rising sun. I think the reference is very important. The sunrise is reckoned here as the second coming of Jesus. There’s more to this…

Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them has He set a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; it rejoices as a strong man to run a race. Its going forth is from one end of the heavens, and its circuit extends to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Psalm 19:4–6

The sunrise is likened to the coming of the Bridegroom. This is but another reference that points to the second coming of Jesus.

“May all Your enemies perish like this, O Lord!
But may those who love Him rise like the sun when it rises in full strength.”

Judges 5:31a

Again, the time when all God’s enemies perish is at the time the sun rises in full strength. It is at the second coming of Jesus as King. There is more to this correlation.

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the breach of His people and heals the wound from His blow.

Isaiah 30:26

So what to make of this?

Considering the reference to the day, there are many parts of it. There’s the sunset. There’s the dark of night. There’s the dawn. There’s the sunrise. There’s the bright sun of the day.

We have focused on the sunrise. There is a difference between dawn and sunrise. Dawn announces the sunrise. This is important to understand as the Scriptures use these terms. Clearly, sunrise and the Second Coming of Jesus are correlated.

Why is this important?

Morning Star

Well, Peter helps us to understand.

And we have a more reliable word of prophecy, which you would do well to follow, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

2 Peter 1:19

The dawning of the day happens before the sunrise. The Morning Star arises in the dawn to announce the coming sunrise.

When Peter writes of the dawn of day, that is a reference to that Day, the Day of the Jehovah. We know that sunset brings dusk turning to darkness. Dawning announces the sunrise of the day. The event Peter is alluding to will announce the sunrise of the Day.

Likewise, scholars believe the reference to the Morning Star as pointing to the second coming of Jesus. We know that the sunrise is the Second Coming of Jesus. But the Morning Star is given in the dawn to church-age believers.

I Give the Morning Star

Moving forward to Revelation, and specifically to Jesus’ epistle to the church of Thyatira. He rebukes the church with some strong words.

“But I have a few things against you: You permit that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, but she did not repent. Look! I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

Revelation 2:20–22

Along with the rebuke, there is a specific promise given to those who do not change, they will be cast with the seductress into great tribulation. It is a precise phrase that many think points to the seven years known as Jacob’s Trouble.

Yet Jesus promises something to those who still believe…

And I will give him the morning star.

Revelation 2:28

A bit later, John reveals to us exactly Who Jesus says this Morning Star is.

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”

Revelation 22:16

The Scriptures reference the Second Coming of Jesus as the sunrise (of the Day of the Lord.) For the unbelievers, it will be devastating. But for those living, they will rejoice and enter His kingdom. The previous citation above from Judges 5 also seems to hint at the resurrection at the end of the age. This is when the Israeli saints are given their inheritance. (To understand resurrection, see this post: The Surprising Way That Resurrection Proves Futurism and the Rapture Before the Hour of Testing)

The Morning Star comes in the dawn. It announces the coming sunrise. It is the harbinger of the sunrise of the day, that Day.