Previously, we discussed faith, repentance, and baptism.
These first two are principles, and baptism is an ordinance, or ritual; but I didn't cover what the gospel is.
Paul defines the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
In simple terms, it is the gospel by which we are saved. In other words, we are saved by Christ.
The gospel is Christ dying for us, and him rising again. This is the good news. He suffered and died so that we may live.
Unfortunately, this ignores the horrible agony in Gethsemane, but it is included in dying. All of the prophets pointed to this event, but I'll mention only 1.
Moses lifted up the brazen serpent on a pole or cross and those who would look upon it would live. Brazen means unashamed. The serpent is the symbol for sin. Christ was unashamed on the cross because he committed no sin, yet he became sin for us to become sinless. Christ was no serpent, he had no forked tongue.
Those that exercise faith to look to Christ, will be saved. Those that have this faith will seek to overcome their own sin, and they will desire to show their devotion publicly by baptism.
What is significant about the thousands that saw our risen Lord? Why does Paul include their witness? Does that add validity to his claim that Jesus rose from the grave?
Next up, what does "born of the spirit" mean?
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Friday, January 17, 2020
Great wickedness in the Earth - part 2: Return of the Giants
Before we continue, I have an addendum to the previous post. I leave my posts alone once I've uploaded them. The book of Jasher has more evidence for there being great technology and what kind of wickedness there was. Jasher 4:
16 And all the sons of men departed from the ways of the Lord in those days as they multiplied upon the face of the earth with sons and daughters, and they taught one another their evil practices and they continued sinning against the Lord.
17 And every man made unto himself a god, and they robbed and plundered every man his neighbor as well as his relative, and they corrupted the earth, and the earth was filled with violence.
18 And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.
If you read the previous post, I needn't say more.
So we had the flood. How did the giants return?
We know they returned because of Genesis 6:4 saying: ...and also after.
Let's take a look at some of the more popular theories.
The first is that there was another incursion by angels. If that were to be the case, why does the bible (through Moses) only mention the one in genesis 6?
A second theory is that because they were technologically advanced, they could have escaped death from the flood by hiding in bunkers or remaining in aircraft for the duration of the flood. While this is theoretically possible, the giants mentioned in the bible don't seem to have that technology after the flood.
The third theory gets closer to how I recently viewed the matter. Ham was cursed by Noah for whatever he did with "uncovering his nakedness". This curse brought about giants through his seed. It is true that the seed of Ham became giants (Cannanites and Philistines for sure, perhaps other tribes as well; Goliath was a Philistine).
However, why would a curse make one's offspring giant? Also, while that event was significant, it isn't brought up relating to any giants.
Another theory:
Let's look closer at Genesis 6.
9 ¶ These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
So Noah was perfect in his generations, he was genetically clean. As were his sons. However, verse 12 says all flesh was corrupt. Were Noah and his sons not flesh? Yes they were, but they were the only exceptions to "all flesh being corrupt". We do this sort of thing today in our language. An example: all of them were wicked, save one.
So the women that Noah's sons married were not listed before the "all flesh was corrupt". The idea is that Ham's wife carried DNA of the giants. With our current understanding of DNA, she may have only had 1/2 or 1/4 of the DNA of a giant. (Or even less, I suppose). This would easily explain why some of the canaanites and philistines were giants, but not all of them.
There's one more theory that we must discuss; and it involves nimrod, an early descendant of Ham. The bible says he became a mighty one. What did he really become? The book of Jasher says that he was feared in all the earth. Why would one man be so feared if he was an ordinary man? This idea is that somehow Nimrod changed his DNA and became a giant, which, if it were a "germ line mutation" it would be transferred to his seed.
I'm not here to tell you which one is most likely, and it's possible that something else entirely occurred. Either way, the giants returned, and some few still remain to this day. I, myself have heard eyewitness testimony of this fact from multiple sources, and have no reason to doubt them, given the biblical ramifications.
There is still much debate about how the giants returned, and I have only given a cursory summary of each, as it is not my purpose to provide an in-depth analysis of each.
I highly recommend spending time in prayer on whether this matter is important for you to learn about and how it may impact your understanding of history.
Next, we will delve into the significance of the tower of babel (or really, its destruction), and how that has impacted the very direction of human history.
It's my goal to connect a few dots that have been forgotten in the sands of time.
May the peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you.
16 And all the sons of men departed from the ways of the Lord in those days as they multiplied upon the face of the earth with sons and daughters, and they taught one another their evil practices and they continued sinning against the Lord.
17 And every man made unto himself a god, and they robbed and plundered every man his neighbor as well as his relative, and they corrupted the earth, and the earth was filled with violence.
18 And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.
If you read the previous post, I needn't say more.
So we had the flood. How did the giants return?
We know they returned because of Genesis 6:4 saying: ...and also after.
Let's take a look at some of the more popular theories.
The first is that there was another incursion by angels. If that were to be the case, why does the bible (through Moses) only mention the one in genesis 6?
A second theory is that because they were technologically advanced, they could have escaped death from the flood by hiding in bunkers or remaining in aircraft for the duration of the flood. While this is theoretically possible, the giants mentioned in the bible don't seem to have that technology after the flood.
The third theory gets closer to how I recently viewed the matter. Ham was cursed by Noah for whatever he did with "uncovering his nakedness". This curse brought about giants through his seed. It is true that the seed of Ham became giants (Cannanites and Philistines for sure, perhaps other tribes as well; Goliath was a Philistine).
However, why would a curse make one's offspring giant? Also, while that event was significant, it isn't brought up relating to any giants.
Another theory:
Let's look closer at Genesis 6.
9 ¶ These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
So Noah was perfect in his generations, he was genetically clean. As were his sons. However, verse 12 says all flesh was corrupt. Were Noah and his sons not flesh? Yes they were, but they were the only exceptions to "all flesh being corrupt". We do this sort of thing today in our language. An example: all of them were wicked, save one.
So the women that Noah's sons married were not listed before the "all flesh was corrupt". The idea is that Ham's wife carried DNA of the giants. With our current understanding of DNA, she may have only had 1/2 or 1/4 of the DNA of a giant. (Or even less, I suppose). This would easily explain why some of the canaanites and philistines were giants, but not all of them.
There's one more theory that we must discuss; and it involves nimrod, an early descendant of Ham. The bible says he became a mighty one. What did he really become? The book of Jasher says that he was feared in all the earth. Why would one man be so feared if he was an ordinary man? This idea is that somehow Nimrod changed his DNA and became a giant, which, if it were a "germ line mutation" it would be transferred to his seed.
I'm not here to tell you which one is most likely, and it's possible that something else entirely occurred. Either way, the giants returned, and some few still remain to this day. I, myself have heard eyewitness testimony of this fact from multiple sources, and have no reason to doubt them, given the biblical ramifications.
There is still much debate about how the giants returned, and I have only given a cursory summary of each, as it is not my purpose to provide an in-depth analysis of each.
I highly recommend spending time in prayer on whether this matter is important for you to learn about and how it may impact your understanding of history.
Next, we will delve into the significance of the tower of babel (or really, its destruction), and how that has impacted the very direction of human history.
It's my goal to connect a few dots that have been forgotten in the sands of time.
May the peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)