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

The Ethiopian Bible

 Happy Monday everyone. 

As promised, today let's talk about the Ethiopian Bible. I listen to a couple of You Tube channels that explain the history and some of the books. One is called Bible Hidden Truths and another one that was really good but only had a couple that I saw was called Osho Secrets. Bible Hidden Truths has quite a few. It has one I just saw titled The Ancient Map Of
Heaven. I've listened to it before and have been thinking about it lately, and now it showed up. 

If you aren't familiar with the Ethiopian Bible that isn't surprising. As you may have figured out, I'm always looking for scripture that mainstream Christianity would reject. I'm usually a non-conformist. if I'm told to do, or not to do something, I at least want to know why and decide for myself. Sometimes I'll bring stuff up on a popular social media site just to stir the pot and get a conversation going. Once the lady in Arkansas wrinkled her nose at my request for an Ethiopian Bible I knew it was a challenge for me to buy one and see why the hard core, rigid, Holy Bible only readers feel that way about something different than their belief. Something that basically says the same thing there's just more books that the Ethiopian Bible considers scripture, and the reason they feel justified and required to keep those scriptures sacred.

So let's get into it.  In the Bible that is typical for what most people in Modern Mainstream Protestant and I would imagine Catholic Churches are used to, we'll call The Western Bible. I think some Catholic churches use a Western Bible with The Apocrypha included. I think I've seen this, but you can let me know if this isn't correct. In the books of 1 Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-12 we read the story of the Queen Of Sheba visiting King Solomon. Each of these stories say basically the same thing, almost word for word. The Ethiopian Bible and the Western Bible have the same stories. That's why I struggle with the idea that back in the 3rd century the rulers said what they would allow in the Bible and NOTHING else. But anyway, you've read my rants about that before.

These stories say that The Queen Of Sheba went to visit King Solomon arriving with great pomp. Bringing with her camels carrying spices, and a large quantity of gold and precious gems. A little later it gives a little more detail but the rest of the story is how she was very impressed with his wisdom, all the work he was doing to build the temple, the knowledge he had to be able to do it, how his God had blessed him and how, because of this she would follow King Solomons God. 

The Ethiopian Bible I bought, and I'm glad I did, came with a bunch of bonus digital PDF scriptures. I've included an image of it below. One of the bonuses was a scripture called The Kebra Nagast. It is called the "National Epic Of Ethiopia." It claims there in an unbroken ancestral line from King Solomon to today. There has been some question about that. I don't know if anyone would or could find out if it's true but my interest is, their Bible is the same as the Western Bible that I've always had with the exception is, they've included other scripture that weren't allowed in the Western Bible. The Book Of Enoch being one of many. 

The Kebra Nagast has more detail regarding the Queen's trip to see King Solomon. It still says she prepared with great pomp, but goes on to say she had 797 camels, innumerable mules and asses, and without delay she set off on her journey, her heart having confidence in God. Another key part of this scripture is that in one of her conversations with the king, she asked him to take an oath that he would not "TAKE HER by force." He agreed with the condition that she wouldn't take anything in the palace without permission...she agreed. After 6 months when she decided it was time to go home, she told Solomon and that night for the lavish dinner he had the servants cook a spicey meal. None of the stories really give a description of the queens appearance, but this one says Solomon was having a hard time keeping his oath to her because of " A Woman Of Her Splendid Beauty has come to see me from the ends of the earth. Will God give me a seed in her?" Knowing she would stay thirsty after the meal the king stayed awake after she had gone to bed. Shortly after that he heard her get up. He went and found her drinking water. He told her that he considered that breaking her oath and that she should allow him to break his. She agreed and they slept together that night. During the night he had a dream that a bright sun shone on Israel. It left, went to Ethiopia and never came back.

The result was she became pregnant and had a son. While the boy was growing up he would hear that King Solomon was his father. He would mention that to the Queen and she would keep telling him "I am your mother and father." Finally when he became an adult he and some friends took supplies and headed off to see the king. It doesn't mention much about his stay in Israel. It mainly mentions a dream of an angel saying to take the Ark Of The Covenant home with him, and how to do it. During the night his friends take it and they leave. In the morning Solomons men go after them but eventually Solomon remembers his dream about the sun and calls them off. Supposedly the Ark Of The Covenant is still in Ethiopia guarded by a monk day and night. When one dies another is replaced immediately. This is why Ethiopia claims to have more rights to be the official church and have felt the responsibility to preserve all the scriptures instead of denying any.

Another book I want to get into is The Book Of Jubilees. It is from back in the 2nd century. It is also included in the bonuses of my Ethiopian Bible purchase. The summary says "It retells Genesis and Early Exodus claiming to be an angel's revelation to Moses on Mt. Sinai, adding more details to biblical stories like naming Adam and Eve's daughters, Cain's wife, and elaborating more about the Watchers that we'll cover in the Book of Enoch. Depending on how much of each one I get read, I'll try to cover one of each every week.

Have a great week and as always,

Keep Searching,

Paul              

   

What Is God?

 Hi everyone, yes I know it's been awhile. Saturday will be 4 weeks since my Search For God post. Andrea and I got home from Christmas Vacation. Thankfully it was a whole lot better than the movie. Northwest Arkansas had record high temperatures in the 70's. That was nice. The day we left to head to Oklahoma it got cold and was cold in Oklahoma. The next day we went down to Dallas then the next day  a town near Austin where we spent New years Eve and day, then headed home. After getting home I caught up on some work, now I'm ready to become more focused on sharing all the things I'm learning. 

In Eureka Springs Arkansas there's a Play called the Passion Play. It recreates the Jesus' trial, crucifixion and resurrection. There are others but this one is the largest in the country. There isn't a play in the winter because it takes place at an outdoor amphitheater. At the same place there is a huge statue of Jesus called The Christ Of The Ozarks, (tap the link, It's pretty cool) some gift shops and a Bible Museum. I've been interested in The Ethiopian Bible. In case you aren't familiar with it, the Ethiopian Bible has books in it that weren't allowed in the western Bible that we call The Holy Bible. During the council of Nicea and Constatinople the determined that 15 books didn't make the cut to be included in the Bible, even though The Book Of Enoch is mentioned a couple of time in the Bible. There is a Book of Thomas and some that the Catholic faith do include called The Apocrypha. I asked the lady working at the Bible Museum gift shop if they had the Ethiopian Bible. Her feathers got all ruffled and asked if I have ever read The Holy Bible. I explained my background, told her I had heard the Ethiopian Bible included other teachings that weren't allowed during those councils where we were told what we were allowed to learn, and I want to find out what was in those other books that made those religious leaders back then so worried that called the heretical and banned them from being in the Bible.

The Ethiopian Bible includes those books because they didn't fall under the authority of the Roman rulers. They protected ALL the scriptures. We'll get into the Ethiopian tradition and why they felt the need to preserve the scriptures, and why they felt it was actually their duty to do so, but today, part of what's been filling my brain is, I've been reading the Book Of Enoch. It talks about 200 fallen angels coming to earth to mate with humans. Other Archangels are designated to watch over the earth and they reported back to God all the devastation that was creating, and God handed out punishment for the angels that rebelled. What I was struggling with was, I can understand the angels being in their angelic form and even changing their form, like when they appeared to Mary to tell her she was going to get pregnant with Jesus. What I couldn't grasp was, when they reported to God who did they go to? What did "HE" look like? What form did "HE" take? I've mentioned before that I don't believe God looks like our images of God, a man with white hair and white beard sitting on a golden throne in the clouds. So naturally in today's technology I, as Andrea says, I asked the robot. While coffee was doing whatever you call what it does in the French Press I asked Google Gemini

"According to Edgar Cayce's readings what is the source of creation made of, energy, vibration, angelic or matter?                 Here is the response. 

"According to Edgar Cayce's readings The source of creation is fundamentally vibration. Cayce often stated that life in it's essence is Vibration. While he did use terms like energy, spirit, and mind to describe the creative process, he viewed vibration as the underlying mechanism or language of existence. Cayce taught that everything in the universe, from the most solid matter to the highest spiritual realms are made of the same "One Force". The only difference between a rock, a human soul and a star is the rate of vibration. Low vibration results in what we perceive as dense physical matter, high vibration results in spirit, light, and God Consciousness." In some of Cayce's readings he mentioned that angels are a higher vibrational expression of the same "One Force." 

That helped me to put into perspective the heavenly realms, and with our limited human understanding, and other video teachings from Cayce and Yogananda that I've listened to, astral plane and the angelic realms don't communicate like humans do. Communication is telepathic or just "A Knowing." If we think about the heavenly realms in that context, and if God/The Divine is the highest vibration possible, then maybe the Angels answer to that highest vibration. 

Last night when I woke up at 2:45 and didn't get back to sleep til after 3:30 I was pondering this and asking/meditating on receiving the answer to this and how to explain it. Hopefully this is the message The Divine has given for me to give to you. This will help me, and hopefully you guys as well, as we get into the Book Of Enoch and we talk about the angels. Since there are 3 Books Of Enoch, I'll refer to the one we'll be discussing as 1 Enoch. It is actually the one that describes Enoch as Noah's great grandfather and the knowledge he had. The other 2 expand on the flood and other stories in the Bible.

Sunday or Monday we'll talk about the Ethiopian Bible and their role as protectors of the scriptures because of their connection with Solomon, then next week we'll get into the 1 Enoch.

If you live in the US north of Florida, stay safe warm this weekend there's suppose to be a serious winter storm. If you're somewhere else, it is winter everyone be safe and warm and as always,

Keep Searching,

Paul