Do Not Add or Take Away From the Word /Mankind Created

 Hi everyone. I hope you are warming up, unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere then hopefully you're having a nice summer and weekend swimming. This time I'd like to cover a couple of things before we get back into the Book Of Jubilees. 

The first things is, the other day I saw a title on the Bible Hidden Truths youtube channel that mentioned words in the Lord's Prayer in the Ethiopian Bible not included in the Western Protestant Bible. I didn't write then down but looked in my Ethiopian Bible and although the wording in the Lord's Prayer is phrased differently than the Protestant Bible those extra sentences weren't there. This is the second video making that claim and each video used different phrases. Now, a lot of the information on the channel does match the Ethiopian Bible, this didn't. What was interesting when I checked, in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 after it says "but deliver us from evil" it says "[for thine is the kingdom and power and the glory forever, amen."] with those brackets around it. With a footnote saying this was not included in earlier manuscripts. So, we all learned a prayer created by someone who thought Jesus's words needed to be improved upon. This is called a Doxology (a short formula of praise.) The reason it was added was because, they possibly thought the original ended too abruptly. Fortunately the Author wasn't around to ask permission. 

Naturally that was one more thing that confused and irritated me because I remembered somewhere the Bible says we are not to add or take away from the word of God. Here are the scriptures that say that: Deuteronomy 4:2"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." 

Deuteronomy 12:32 says basically the same thing. but

Revelation 22:18-19 says "I testify to the one who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book."

This is the kind of stuff who catch when you're looking for something else. Otherwise you keep going about your day thinking what your learning is legitimate and accurate. That leads me to the 2nd thing, in wanting to be accurate in what I bring to you, I wanted to be sure my excitement in learning about the Ethiopian Bible was legit, so for the past couple of days I've been searching for where to find the most accurate, authentic teachings of the Ethiopian Bible. I found Dr. Vince Bantu. Check out the video

Now onto the Book Of Jubilees. We'll continue on with creation in Chapter 2. On the 2nd day He created the firmament in the midst of the waters and the waters were divided on that day, half of them went up above and half of them went down below the firmament that was in the midst over the face of the whole earth, and this was the only work that God did on the second day. I wrote this whole 2nd day because I thought it was kinda funny that that was all He created on the 2nd day. Maybe he was trying to pace Himself after doing so much on the 1st day lol. On the 3rd day He commanded the waters to pass from off the face of the whole earth and the dry land to appear. On that day He created all the sees, rivers, lakes, all the waters in the mountains and on the earth and all the dew, all the seed, sprouting things, fruit bearing trees, trees of wood and the Garden of Eden. On the 4th day sun, moon and stars to give light on the earth and divided the light from the darkness and to be a great sign for the days, years, jubilees, sabbaths and the seasons. On the 5th day we're used to reading the fish and birds but the Ethiopian Bible says He created Great Sea Monsters and these were the first things of flesh. It goes on then to say He created fish and birds, and everything that flies and everything after their kind. THEN on the 6th day He created all the animals, cattle, and everything that moves on the earth. THEN after this He created Man. A man and woman He created them. The protestant Bible also says MALE and FEMALE He created them. The Ethiopian Bible says He created Mankind, Male and Female. And they are to have dominion over everything. 

Another thing that came to mind when I read this, was a conversation I had a very long time ago with my pastor and friend when we were talking about creation one day. He brought up the theory that was, Adam and Eve were the first man and woman created, or did God create MEN AND WOMEN and Adam and Eve just made it into the Bible because they were the ones that got to go to the Garden? I mention that because all that was done in the first week, because it tells us there was a 7th day and that was when God rested. Then in the 2nd week nothing was growing because it hadn't rained and THERE WAS NO MAN TO CULTIVATE THE GROUND. In the Book Of Jubilees it starts out by saying all the animals were brought to Adam for him to give them a name. In the Protestant Bible and Ethiopian Bible It says there was no man man so God created one. My question is, why weren't any of the men created in the first week qualified? 

One thought that came to mind was timeframe. Some people theorize that the days were periods of time. In that theory could the men and women have been prehistoric time frame, and Adam was a human man like we imagine him in a later period? Or, was Adam created in a different area, and in that area God will give Adam the garden? 

We'll look at that next time. Until then,

Keep searching.

Paul. 

I know we haven't talked about Eve or the serpent yet, but here's an Artspace.ai picture of them. I love how Eve used the different color leaves for her outfit lol

  

 

Matching Stories in Books Of Jubilees, Enoch and Exodus

 Hi Everyone,

Last night as I started reading The Book Of Jubilees, also called The Little Genesis, I saw a comparison to the Book Of Enoch and wanted to share it with you. In The Book Of Exodus in the Western Bible it mentions Moses being on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights. I had remembered reading and hearing that but wasn't quite sure, so I looked it up. Exodus 24:18 and 34:28 each mention this. The first time to get The Ten Commandments and the second time to the replacement copy. 

In The Book Of Jubilees it says in Chapter 1 that God spake to Moses saying "Come up to Me on the mount and I will give you two tables of stone of the law and of the commandments that I have written, that thou mayest teach them?" vs 1. Both book say Moses was on the mountain in a cloud for 6 days. The western Bible says smoke. Both also say the glory of the Lord appeared like a flaming fire. It goes on to talk about the promises to the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the punishments for disobeying the commandments, festivals and sabbaths. The punishments will be that they will be handed over to their enemies. He also says after that happens they will turn to Me with all their heart and I will build my sanctuary in their midst and I will dwell with them. {paraphrased 10 verses to make the point that shows God will honor His promise}

Towards the end of Chapter 1 God tells the angel of presence to Write for Moses from the beginning of creation til my sanctuary has been built among them for all eternity. I'm not sure what that time frame is, but it makes me think of The Ancient Map Of Heaven video on the Bible Hidden Truths channel on YouTube that talks about angels recording everything that happens on earth in The Akashic Record. 

Beginning in chapter 2 this angel spoke to Moses and told him to write the complete history of creation, how in 6 days the Lord God finished all His works and all that He created and kept the Sabbathon the seventh day. On the first day He created the heavens which are above and the earth and the waters and all the spirits which serve Him-the angels of presence, the angels of sanctification, the angels of the spirit of fire, the angels of the spirit of the winds, the angels of the spirit of  the clouds, of darkness, and of snow, and of hail, and of frost, and the angels of the voices, and of the thunder and lightning, and of cold and heat, and of winter, spring, summer and autumn, and of ALL THE SPIRITS OF HIS CREATURES WHICH ARE IN THE HEAVENS AND ON THE EARTH. That last line made me have to stop for a moment. It made me think of the verse in Jeremiah 1:5 where it says "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart." Chapter 2 continues on in verse to say, He created the abysses, and the darkness, eventide and night, and the light dawn and day, which He hath prepared in the knowledge of His heart. 

This section about the angels stuck out to me because that's the part on the Book Of Enoch that's similar. In the Book Of Enoch, although it doesn't mention angels created for each specific season or type of natural occurrence, but it does mention 12 portals through which the winds blow and 4 angels Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel are associated with the 4 directions.

I had to stop after I read this. I knew my brain would be distracted with this, and I wouldn't be comprehending anymore if I tried to keep going. So, if you'll stay tuned, I'll keep reading and bring more in a couple a few days. This is very intriguing to me, I hope it is for you as well. 

As always, stay tuned and keep searching,

Paul

     

 

Choosing The Light-Finishing the Epistula Apostolorum

 Hi Everyone,

A cold snap has hit Florida. We were outside in 49 degree temperatures getting water pipes ready for the temperatures to get down into the mid 20's tonight, got cold scooping leaves out of the pool so I came in and made hot chocolate with Kahlua. I know that's funny to everybody getting a lot of snow and even colder temperatures. It's even funny to me considering I lived South Dakota over 30 years. It's fun though. 

I wanted to share some thoughts with you about the Epistula Apostolorum. One is, a correction in Thursday's post, and the other is, we'll finish the book and I'll start reading the Book Of Jubilees. 

The correction is, when I mentioned Jesus was in the angelic realm in the 5th Heaven after He was resurrected. It was before He was born. Let's look at that passage....Jesus told them, "The Father gave me the power of greatness and on that day I created archangels with a wonderful voice that they might go into the alter of the Father and serve and complete their service until I go to Him. This is what I did through the wisdom of the likeness. For I was everything in everybody so that I may praise the dispensation of the Father and the glory of the one who sent me, I may complete it and go to Him. For all of you know that Gabriel the angel brought the good news to Mary?" They replied "Yes." Then He said "On that day when I assumed the form of Gabriel the angel, appeared to Mary and spoke with her, her heart received Me to her, she believed. I gave myself form. I went into her. I became flesh. Since I became for myself alone a deacon to Mary in the perceived form of an angel, this is how I will do it after going to the Father, and you, remember my death." He is saying this is how you will remember seeing me when I ascend. 

When I read that I thought how crazy that was. I'm sure a lot if not most or all of us wondered how Mary became pregnant when the Holy Spirit "Came Upon" her. There was another conversation about someone going to prison and missing The Passover Feast but it doesn't say who, Then the Apostles ask "Lord, in what sort of great power will you come, or what sort of perceptible state?" He said, {and I found this very cool} "Amen, I say to you that I will come like the shining sun, I being light of seven times greater than it (the sun) in My glory. The wings of clouds carrying Me in glory and the sign of the cross before Me, I will come upon the earth and give justice to the living and the dead." They asked Him what did He by "I am coming and the one who sent me is the one who is coming?" A few pages later He gets angry and I can see why. They spent 3 years with Him and they appear to still not get it. But He said, "I am entirely in my Father and My Father is in Me. From the likeness of the form and the power and the fullness and the light and the perfect measure and the voice. I am the Logos, {the Word.}"

The Ethiopian Bible and the Western Holy Bible both say in 1 John 1:5 "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. Verse 6 says, If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep walking in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. (We'll be getting back to verse 6 soon.) The Ethiopian Sunday School Department emphasizes this verse saying "God is not just a light source but is light in His very innermost being- He is pure holiness with absolutely no sin or darkness. And Remember You are created in God's Image. 

In the next few paragraphs the Apostles ask more questions about being risen he goes on to talk about at the day of judgement "the body, soul and spirit will rise so that on that day their defense will happen because of what they have done, good or bad. so the selection of the faithful will be made." This is important in the sense that later like in 1 John 1:6 He says "If one believes in Me and does not keep my commandments, having confessed my name, has no benefit from it, he has gone on an empty path." It makes me think about all the televangelists who start out supposedly on the faithful path but money and power start having a bigger influence over them and they get busted for falling into some type of temptation, or even those who say, "I am saved I can do what I want." I feel like this is a really good argument for that comment. 

They asked Him, "How will judgement be made? The just or the unjust? When they say to you, You have not pursued justice, light and dark, good and bad, What will you say?" He said "I will answer, Adam was given the power to choose one of two things. He chose light. He brought his hand down upon it. The dark, however, he left it behind him and cast it from him. In this way EVERY MAN has the power to believe in the light, which is the life, which is the Father who sent me. Everyone who believes and performs the things of the light they will live through them. But is one confesses that one belongs to the light, doing the things of the dark this one will have no defense. 

As I've said, maybe here, for sure on Facebook, 1/3 of the world's population is evangelical christian. According to them 2/3 of the world's population is going to hell, and I'm not buying that theory. This tells me you don't have to be in the mainstream christian churches to fulfill Jesus's requirements. They go on to talk about the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins waiting for the bridegroom in Matthew 25:1-13. Jesus says "the 5 wise ones are faith, love, charity, peace and hope." Those among believers are the ones who will be leaders of those who have believed in Me and sent Me." The 5 foolish ones are knowledge, understanding, obedience, patience, and mercy. These are the ones who have fallen asleep among those who believed and confessed me, but did not keep my commandments through those who fell asleep. They will remain outside the kingdom and sheepfold. 

There are a group of monks in the United States that are "Walking for Peace" from Texas to Washington DC. When I read this I thought about them and how they are showing the world all 5 attributes of the 5 wise virgins. There have been people who have supposedly been Christians that have been picketing along the monks route with signs saying "Jesus is the only way." When I think about this I think about the arrogance and how in Romans 14:13 it talks about not putting a stumbling block in the way of a brother. I'm sure the protesters wouldn't consider the monks brother, but Jesus says every man is our brother. One of the 5 attributes of the 5 wise virgins is love. To me picketing the monks route doesn't show them love. It shows foolish arrogance and turns people away from Christianity. 

In a couple of days we'll get into The Book Of Jubilees. Until then Choose the path of the Light and

Keep Searching,

Paul

I'm not usually one to promote fear based teaching but I wanted to create an image for choosing the Light.  Made from ArtspaceAI  

   

Heavenly Jesus

 Hi Everyone,

With my interest in and searching the Ethiopian Bible, I found out there is a book called Mashafa Kidan. It's also called the Book Of Covenant. It can also be broken up into two separate books, 1 Covenant and 2 Covenant. It can also be called The Testament Of Jesus Christ or Epistula Apostolorum. 

I'll explain why I bring it up but first let's look at Acts Chapter 1. Acts 1 says Jesus appeared to the apostles "by many convincing proofs over a period of 40 days." He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised. He told them they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. He said they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and the remotest parts of the earth. Then The Bible says "after He said these things He was lifted up while they were watching and a cloud took Him out of their sight."

Like other books that have been found, like books in the Nag Hammadi, parts of the books are missing, so when we read it the translators put brackets where the missing parts are, and we just have figure out what was said, or just move on without knowing that part. The Epistula Apostolorum tells us what or at least some of the things that happened during those 40 days. In this book chapters 1-8 are missing. It starts in chapter 9 saying Cerinthos and Simon were in the world and they were told these are enemies of the Lord. It sounds like the Apostles talking because it says, we have not delayed in writing to you about the witness of Our Savior Christ who was crucified by Pontius Pilate. It describes how Mary, Martha and Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus with oils for His body and found the tomb empty. As they were grieving and weeping the Lord said to them "For whom are you weeping? Stop weeping. For I am the one you are looking for." When I read that I imagined Him saying it like we would today, like Oh My Gosh... Stop weeping. {heavy sigh}.

Twice He told Martha then Mary to go tell the Apostles to come with them, Jesus is alive. They didn't believe them so they all went. When they got there and still didn't believe Jesus told them about Peter denying Him, then He finally had to let them touch His wounds. When they were finally convinced, they fell down on their faces and confessed their sins. Now starts what was omitted from the book of Acts.

Jesus told them "It happened when I came coming from The Father of everything. I passed into the heavens. I assumed the wisdom of the Father and I assumed His power. I was in heaven, and the archangels and angels, I passed into their likeness as if I were one with them among the powers and authorities. I passed by them having the wisdom of the one who sent me. The archistrategos of the angels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, they are the ones who followed me as far as the Fifth Firmament. For they thought in their hearts that I was one of them.When I read that about the Fifth Firmament it reminded me about a video I listened to on the Bible Hidden Truths youtube channel called The Ancient Map Of Heaven. Let's stop there with the book and pick it up next time so I can tell you about the Fifth Section of Heaven.

According to the video, the Fifth Heaven is where the Ethiopian tradition describes it where the Angelic Hosts are on watch. It holds the Angelic Warriors. The beings do not govern cycles or record deeds, they stand prepared. Ancient writings describe them as tall, radiant and burning with a fire that does not consume. Their presence is not chaotic or violent. It is disciplined and purposeful. They stand watch. Their songs are songs of power, not gentle hymns. Theirs are voices that shake shake the foundations of the heavens, not in destruction, but in reinforcement. This heaven carries and important correction to modern assumptions. Heaven is not constant perfection, it is active and guarded. Ethiopian tradition says evil does not fade away, so so vigilance is always necessary and eternal. For human beings this realm carries a quiet warning and deep reassurance. The world may appear to be fragile but it is not unprotected. Forces  beyond human sight stand watch, not because humanity deserves it but because divine order demands it. The Fifth Heaven reminds us that strength and holiness are not opposites.

When I think about this and Jesus appearing to to His followers for those 40 days, it makes me think about the spiritual places that we can't see with our human eyes. I've said God is not a man in the clouds with a white beard in pictures like we see. But if Jesus can come to earth, be born as a human, die, go to heaven, look like angels and walk with them, then come back to earth, appear to be human without being born of a woman, talk to and teach His disciples, then return to heaven, the things we can't comprehend in the spiritual world are much too numerous to count. Don't discount anything!!

We'll continue with the book Mashafa Kidan next time and possibly get through it, unless I find another reason to take a side trip  😊😊 

Until then Keep Searching. 

Paul    

PS: My Artspace creation of Jesus in the 5th Heaven