…So why bother with it?

Because many Christian groups, perhaps without even realising, still hold a belief in its story and what it teaches.

It is quoted and referenced by two new testament writers. Jude and Peter.

Jude and Peter both wrote to encourage believers to reject false teachers, myths and false doctrines, specifically those found in the book of Enoch about fallen angels.

The book of Enoch claims to be from the time before Noah and the flood. It goes like this:

“And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’ And Shemihazah, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear you will not agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ Then they all swore together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred who descended on the earth in the days of Jared.” (Enoch 6:1-6)

It carries on that the wives then give birth to giants.

The arc angel Michael then accuses the 200 angels of their sin and has them bound for 70 generations in Tartarus.

The angels ask Enoch to mediate with God on their behalf, but Enoch’s requests are refused by God.

The giants also cause havoc on the earth, Michael appeals to God again, and they are drowned in the flood.

In another book, the Book of the Giants, these giant children of the angels, led by their leaders Ohiyah and Mahawi, also ask Enoch to mediate for them.

God decrees that the spirits of the giants shall survive to torment mankind and they become a new class of beings, the demons. The giants’ human mothers also survive and become Sirens.

This became a very popular story similar perhaps to something like the Da Vinci Code these days.

The book of Enoch is rejected as Gods word by most Jews and Christians today due to it’s major inconsistencies with the rest of scripture.

It claims Enoch was the 7th from Adam.

Adam
1 Seth
2 Enos
3 Cainan
4 Mahalaleel
5 Jared
6 Enoch… Not the 7th…

Inconstancies also appear in the fact that this book quotes from Moses despite claiming to be written before Moses time.

In truth this book takes a flight of fancy from one verse written by moses in Genesis.

Gen 6: 1And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

The author of the book of Enoch has run with this idea and created a best selling book on fallen angels. Paul and Jude call it presumptuous, denying authority and slandering the dignities.

Why? Because this verse is not about angels.

When the phrase sons of God is used it is talking about the faithful descendants of Seth intermarrying with those who were “of men” rather than those “of God.”

This is something God tells Israel not to do in Nehemiah 13 and Ezra 10. And also Paul instructs the church not to be “yoked together with unbelievers.” 2Cor 6:14 as it leads to the diluting of Gods standards. It is recorded just two verses later in Genesis:

6:5 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Note The hebrew word for “God” in “sons of God” is Elohim. This often refers to angels yet is also used to describe men and even wicked rulers on occasion. (Exodus 21:6 – judges)

Peter and Jude in the new testament are writing against the kind of mythical teaching presented in Enoch about fallen angels.

2 Peter 2 starts with A warning:

“there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you”

But Peter also encourages the faithful by saying that “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” – the false teachers will be judged and the godly delivered says Peter.

False teachers will come but God can judge and deliver.

Peter illustrates how God has saved Noah from the flood and Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah but he also ironically uses the Book of Enoch itself to prove the point saying “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” Peter shows that ironically the book of Enoch condemns the ungodly and it was written by the ungodly!

try reading 2 Peter 2:1-9 to see if this makes sense:

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,

Note Peter introduces the Enoch story with an “if” to show how he doubts it’s validity but not the biblical accounts.

Think about it if Peter was writing to back up the idea that Angels fell from heaven why does he leave out the quote from Gen 6? Maybe because that verse is nothing to do with fallen Angels? Peter uses the reference from Enoch to show these false teachers will be judged by God as their own words say.

Peter then goes on to say these false teachers “despise authority” the authority of Gods scriptures, they are “presumptuous” about what Gods scriptures mean, (specifically Genesis 6), they are “self willed” about adding their own meaning to the scriptures and “not afraid to speak evil of dignities.”

They were not afraid to make up stories about angels wrongly saying they would intermarry with humans.

Jude backs this up by recounting what the arc angel Michael says to Gods opponents in Zechariah.

Instead of accusing the wrong doers (like the arc angel does in Enoch) he says “the LORD rebuke you” for “angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.”

Peter and Jude understand that the angels do not even judge others let alone sin thmselves.

They both then use language from the book of Enoch to condemn these teachings:

Jude 12 “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”

Jude then says the only people Enoch is prophesying to are the false teachers that teach from the book of Enoch itself ironically turning its teachings back on the very people that teach it:

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied to* these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15To 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.”

*most bibles read “of” taken from the Latin Bible translation yet the earlier original Greek reads “to”

Jude purposefully calls Enoch the 7th from Adam to have a subtle dig at it’s inaccuracy.

So what we have seen is that Peter and Jude write against the myths of Enoch and the fallen angels. They say such things are blaspheming the angels who won’t even accuse the wrong doers let alone consider sinning in such a way as Enoch portrays, instead we see them let the LORD rebuke them as Michael does in Zechariah.

These verses verify the integrity of angels as being sinless:

Matt 18:10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

Psalm 34:8The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

Hebrews 1:14 Are they (the angels) not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Check out this pamphlet for more info

It may be useful for you to read again 2 Peter 2 and Jude to see if this makes sense to you:

2 Peter 2

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, 13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. 15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds[b] carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped[d] from those who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,”and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Jude
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied to these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Glory to God

24 Now to Him who is able to keep you[f] from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
25 To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.

We both had very different opinions on who the Satan was.

In her opinion Satan was a fallen angel testing jobs faith in God.

In my opinion satan is the personification of the the friends pride as they oppose Gods pronouncement of Job being a righteous man, they are rebuked by God at the end of the book.

God pronounces a truth, the satan opposes and God rebukes the Satan.

However no matter how much we pushed each others views and opinions neither of us were swayed we both though we knew the correct interpretation.

Then it struck me.

Jobs friends say to him “we have examined this and it is true. So hear it an apply it to yourself” in other words listen to us job we know what Gods doing here.

We have the answer.

They had an assumed knowledge and they were proud of it.

This of course gets Job really angry and he says that they’re totally wrong and he actually disproves them and their ideas, he says “come on again” and they throw the same ideas at him by the end of it all Job is fuming and now full of his own self righteousness like the friends at the start he thinks he knows exactly what’s going on and what Gods doing and is very proud of it.

I could feel myself in a similar situation.

So when God speaks he uses lots of figurative language to describe Jobs pride.

Can you tame wild animals?

Were you there when the earth was created?

Can you make the proud humble?

Can you set boarders for the sea and tell their proud waves to halt?

No…no I can’t. Says Job but doesn’t quite get it he says “I will put my hand over my mouth” I will shut up and you can just boss me around some more since your so mighty!

God then makes it a bit more obvious with his description of the lethiathan a untameable creature so huge and fierce that lives in the prions waves.

What God is saying is this pride of yours Job is too much for you to handle don’t fight it on your own. It will devour you.

You need to trust me. Only God can bring the proud low.

This is what Jesus does in his wilderness temptations he falls back on Gods word not his own strength. He does the opposite of fight and he flees sin there is no “come on again.”

Job didn’t need to argue with the pride of his friends he just needed to wait on the Lord.

“lean not on your own understanding fear the Lord and depart from evil” proverbs 3

Just walk away.

I’m not saying the JW’s are evil and we should run away from them but the confrontations we have trying to prove a point because of our own understanding are not encouraging or uplifting just frustrating and they just feed the pride we have in our own knowlege.

Instead pray, wait on the Lord. Serve one another Trust God that his truth will shine through.

Make sure we know for ourselves the different theories and explanations and rightly divide the word preaching to those with open hearts and minds being gentle as doves and crafty as serpents.

Romans says : Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Embrace unity depart from devisions.

Look here for some fantstic talks on Job by John Pople http://www.bibletalks4u.com/pople-john.htm

Last night a few of us met at Hamstead Hall School’s Aspiration Centre to look at Leviticus Chapter 2. An Old Testament account from the time of Moses instructing the priests from the family of Levi on their sacrificial offerings.

Leviticus 2 looks at the Grain offering which was an offering of fine flour -  easy that’s just a trip to Tesco right? – obviously…noo. Back then you’d have had to grind it down yourself with a mill stone or a pestle and mortar and it would have taken ages to get out all the lumps – in fact if you were just making it for regular use it would have sufficed to be a bit lumpy. This however was for a sacrifice to God and here we have our first spiritual lesson:

The flour: In our lives we need to shake things up a bit remove the stodgy  lumps and kernels. Submitting to God grinds us down so that the next ingredient can take effect.

The oil was added to the mix next, it would permeate through the fine flour soaking through all of it. Lumpy flour would not soak up the oil quite as well. Oil in scripture  was used to anoint those who were to carry out Gods will – Priests, Kings Prophets and Jesus himself. Gods will is carried out by His “Spirit” a word which in Hebrew means Breath or life it alludes to the way God thinks and acts… so now for Spiritual lesson number two:

The Oil: We should fill our lives with the will of God – get in tune with His Spirit and how he would like us to do things. To understand Gods will we must communicate with Him through reading his word and being constant in prayer which leads to the next ingredient

The frankincense a valuable perfume made from the sap of Boswellia trees which was burnt as an incense. Spiritual Lesson Three:

Incense: Often representing prayer in scripture rising up as a sweet smelling savour as Ephesians tells us the sacrifice of Christ was to God “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” So in our life of service to God we must be pure as fine flour that is crushed and broken.  Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” In this way we can let the Spirit of God permeate through our lives and produce prayers to God that are sweet like perfume.

Finally Salt was added to the sacrifice. A preservative and a distinct flavour. Time for…Spiritual Lesson Four:

Salt: In the law Salt represented an everlasting covenant because Salt can never lose its Saltiness. Jesus tells us to be the Salt of the Earth and not to lose our saltiness,because if Salt loses is saltiness then it can’t be Salt. As Christians we have to act as Christians if a Christian loses their Christian-ness they simply aren’t Christian. The Salts saltiness defines itself just as a Christians Christian-ness should define them.

Of course the perfect example of the crushed servant of God, full of Gods spirit that was a sweet smelling sacrifice and defined by his actions was Jesus Christ our Lord. How perfect Gods word is that His son fulfilled the law completely.

Love in Jesus – Handsworth Christadelphians.

Need that spiritual boost to get your mind in the right place again? Desperate to find something fun for the kids to do on a Sunday? Want something more than stale biscuits with the vicar and old Mrs Gubbins?

Its Handsworth Christadelphians Special Sundays!

Once a month you are invited to bring friends and family to a Special Sunday! There will be:

• Bible studies and workshops.
• Singing.
• Copious amounts of food,
• Good company.
• Spiritual understanding.
• and if thats not enough: its totally suitable to bring the kids along to as there is a Sunday school (thats every week) to keep the little rotters amused and who knows they might learn some pretty important life lessons.
• And finally- Copious amounts of food!

Its all totally free (so fill up a spare Tupperware box if i were you)

Come along on the 13th of December (2nd sunday of the month) for the next which is actually a Special Christmas Special Sunday Special! how much more specialness do you want. Wowee!

From then on its the first sunday of every month. Hope to see you there. God Bless!

The Aspiration Centre, Hamstead Hall School, Craythorne Avenue, B20 1HL

The trip was organised by The Christadelphian Bible Mission who plan preaching trips all across the world to aid the learning and living of those interested in reading the Bible for themselves you can learn more about the CBM here.

We arrived monday expecting the weather to be cold and harsh as we had been warned before hand to wrap up warm. Yet soon after we had landed were we shedding the layers and in t-shirts. On the first evening we enjoyed a chance meeting with two friends we had made on our last trip out in Easter. We all went to our Hotel to read Phillipians. Heres a pic of Shkodran, Luke and Fabian:

The three talks we held were on The Miracle of The Bible, The Miracle of Prophesy and The Miracle of Jesus all were well attended. Kosovo is a very young country with the majority of the population being under 30 it is also mainly a Muslim country and we had the opportunity to hold many discussions and debates with Christians and Muslims alike to both our benefits, I certainly learnt a lot anyway.

The trip was mainly taken up by fly billing to advertise the talks and also meeting friends we had made on previous trips, all apart from the last day. Here is the entry for the Friday from our CBM report:

Friday
We woke at 4:30 am and were at the bus station just after 5 to go to Skopje for a few hours before our flight home!
We arrived at Skopje at 8 am after some delays at the border.
We all took to Marko very quickly as he helped us exchange money, book our return tickets and then led us to a traditional breakfast of doruchek.
We then wandered through the town over the Stone Bridge into ‘Beat Bizarre’ chatting away to Marko, eventually ending up on the fort overlooking the city
This is where we sat in the sunshine to read the Chronicles and Daniel reading before making a rush to catch the 11 o’clock bus home.
It was then rush, rush, rush all the way to the airport where we again met the Hyseni family on the plane and enjoyed chatting together.

We had gotten up ridiculously early to meet Marco (above). Marco was the only Christadelphian in the whole of Macedonia and possibly the nicest person in the country too. “Rush rush rush” doesn’t quite give you the real idea of the panic that was the mad dash to the bus staion via a very relaxed Taxi driver (with whom i was proud to use my school German to the best of it ability by shouting ”Shnell Shnell!” (most folks speak German as a second language)) and also a school load of Macedonian children walking through the bus station. yet we still managed to get on the bus just as it was leaving the gates. Phew…

So that was our trip, please check out the CBM website. Were all hoping to go out again very soon and hope that God blesses us with some Baptisms into the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus.

Tom

A beautiful video that shares the beliefs of Christadelphian faith.There are lots more videos made by Christadelphians all over the world, posted on YouTube.

Handsworth? Well, we’ve been in Handsworth since about 1970 – that’s 37 years ago! We used to meet in Whitehall Road, then moved to Devonshire Road in Handsworth Wood. Now we’re meeting in The Aspiration Centre in Hamstead Hall School.

So what’s a Christadelphian? That’s made up of two words: Christ- , because we believe in Him, because He is the Son of God, our Saviour, and the “-adelphian” bit means “brothers of”. So the big word simply means “brothers and sisters in Christ”.

We can’t do better in telling you what we believe, why we exist at all, and why we aren’t part of some larger church group, than by giving you this statement, which is based on a very famous and ancient one called the Apostles Creed:

We believe in:

• God the Father Almighty
• Maker of heaven and earth
• And in Jesus Christ His only-begotten Son our Lord
• Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary
• Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.
• The third day Jesus rose again from the dead
• He ascended into heaven
• Where He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
• From which He will come again, to judge the living and the dead
• To reward His saints
• To take the throne of David his father
• To rule on earth from Jerusalem the capital
• Until death be destroyed
• And God be all and in all
• We believe each of those statements extremely simply, extremely literally, and extremely seriously.

There are always lots of things going on within the church, so please come along and visit us!

In the Arctic, heat is at a premium. And so, the Arctic Rose uses the freebie of heat to attract the insects which pollinate it!

The flower of the little Arctic Rose is shaped like a radio telescope monitoring outer space: but for a far more useful purpose.

The shape of its petals gathers and reflects heat from the sun’s rays, and focuses warmth on the stamens and the stigma.

Insects come to these flowers not only for the food (nectar and pollen) but also for warmth. They come to these private sun traps, which are about 10 degrees than warmer anywhere else. The insects themselves become warmer and better able to fly in a very short time, and move on to the next solar heated flower, carrying the precious pollen to it.

Now these insects have to work hard, because the Greenland summer is only about 7 weeks long, although there are nearly 24 hours of daylight. Therefore the plant has to keep warm all day.

So how does it do it? Well, its stem rotates because of its extraordinary design, and it tracks the sun 24 hours per day, being never more than 2 degrees off course!

Isn’t that amazing? If no insects came, the flower would not be pollinated. If the flower wasn’t pollinated, the plant would die out, because there would be no seeds, and no new plants to carry on when the parent died.

So, in one of the many, many flashes of genius we see in the natural world, the Almighty God of heaven and earth, made provision for His little plant, and gave it this ingenious device to help it survive in the cold, cold north.

He cares about the plants. And He cares no less for us. His Son said so, in some of the most comforting words ever spoken anywhere (read the Bible verses to the right).

Like the little Arctic Rose, we too must track the Sun of Righteousness – that lovely name for the Lord Jesus is in the book of Malachi. Because from Him we gather and reflect the warmth of God’s love, which warms ourselves, and the others who come to Him.