Very often in evangelical circles I have run across various teachings and ideas which claim a scriptural warrant, but when one researches the verse, the idea claimed doesn't necessarily follow directly from the verse as claimed.
How does this differ from the "teachings of men" for which the Catholic Church has been criticized on this thread?
I have always been interested in "near death experiences" - especially those of children. Pastor Buck died shortly after writing Angels on Assignment and I read it as the insights or visions of a spiritual man nearing the end of his mortal life. The book centers on Christ and radiates his love for Him. He quotes many Scriptures throughout.
I was particularly engaged by the drawing of a tesseract by a visiting angel (Pastor Buck was not a math geek but I am.) The picture (which Buck called a picture frame) is shown in chapter 3.
Another of the many beautiful truths God gave me through the mouth of the angel Gabriel was that everything God has promised is already completed as far as God's book in heaven is concerned. This statement was very difficult for me to understand, so Gabriel took a pencil which I held in my hand, and drew a rough sketch of the picture frame. Webmasters Note: Picture below is from the book.
Everything God has promised is completed in this picture. But, he said, "Here is a tiny little spot representing things unclear to you - things not yet complete. You often spend your time looking at these things until the tiny spot expands outward and fills the frame, and totally hides what God has done. If you look to Jesus instead of the problem, you will see the complete picture." In Is. 43:2 the Lord said, "When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you." If you look at the waters of trouble, it will hide the picture, but if you look to Jesus, that little piece that looks so ominous to you has to shrink back into place and then you will see the whole picture complete with everything that God promised.
Like Kaluza/Klein, many geometric physics theories involve the compactification of extra dimensions, e.g. string theories. But Vafa's f-Theory and Wesson's 5D/2T call for additional temporal dimensions. And Wesson's is an expanded model, elegant.
In theories which involve an additional dimension of time, time is not simply an arrow (past>present>future) but can be seen either as a plane or a volume. This means that past, present and future exist concurrently. And it also means that cause>effect can be effect>cause or cause=effect.
I find this interesting because:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: - Ephesians 1:4
The Book of Enoch (also known as 1 Enoch) was once cherished by Jews and Christians alike, this book later fell into disfavor with powerful theologians–precisely because of its controversial statements on the nature and deeds of the fallen angels…
The theme of the Book of Enoch dealing with the nature and deeds of the fallen angels so infuriated the later Church fathers that one, Filastrius, actually condemned it openly as heresy (Filastrius, Liber de Haeresibus, no. 108). Nor did the rabbis deign to give credence to the book’s teaching about angels. Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai in the second century A.D. pronounced a curse upon those who believed it (Delitzsch, p. 223).
So the book was denounced, banned, cursed, no doubt burned and shredded–and last but not least, lost (and conveniently forgotten) for a thousand years. But with an uncanny persistence, the Book of Enoch found its way back into circulation two centuries ago.
In 1773, rumors of a surviving copy of the book drew Scottish explorer James Bruce to distant Ethiopia. True to hearsay, the Book of Enoch had been preserved by the Ethiopic church, which put it right alongside the other books of the Bible…
Though it was once believed to be post-Christian (the similarities to Christian terminology and teaching are striking), recent discoveries of copies of the book among the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran prove that the book was in existence before the time of Jesus Christ. But the date of the original writing upon which the second century B.C. Qumran copies were based is shrouded in obscurity. It is, in a word, old…
There is abundant proof that Christ approved of the Book of Enoch. Over a hundred phrases in the New Testament find precedents in the Book of Enoch.
Another remarkable bit of evidence for the early Christians’ acceptance of the Book of Enoch was for many years buried under the King James Bible’s mistranslation of Luke 9:35, describing the transfiguration of Christ: "And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son: hear him." Apparently the translator here wished to make this verse agree with a similar verse in Matthew and Mark. But Luke’s verse in the original Greek reads: "This is my Son, the Elect One (from the Greek ho eklelegmenos, lit., "the elect one"): hear him."
The "Elect One" is a most significant term (found fourteen times) in the Book of Enoch. If the book was indeed known to the apostles of Christ, with its abundant descriptions of the Elect One who should "sit upon the throne of glory" and the Elect One who should "dwell in the midst of them," then the great scriptural authenticity is accorded to the Book of Enoch when the "voice out of the cloud" tells the apostles, "This is my Son, the Elect One"–the one promised in the Book of Enoch.
The Book of Jude tells us in vs. 14 that "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied…" Jude also, in vs. 15, makes a direct reference to the Book of Enoch (2:1), where he writes, "to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly…" …
Many of the early church fathers also supported the Enochian writings. Justin Martyr ascribed all evil to demons whom he alleged to be the offspring of the angels who fell through lust for women (from the Ibid.)–directly referencing the Enochian writings.
Athenagoras, writing in his work called Legatio in about 170 A.D., regards Enoch as a true prophet. He describes the angels which "violated both their own nature and their office." In his writings, he goes into detail about the nature of fallen angels and the cause of their fall, which comes directly from the Enochian writings.
Many other church fathers: Tatian (110-172); Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (115-185); Clement of Alexandria (150-220); Tertullian (160-230); Origen (186-255); Lactantius (260-330); in addition to: Methodius of Philippi, Minucius Felix, Commodianus, and Ambrose of Milanalso–also approved of and supported the Enochian writings…
One by one the arguments against the Book of Enoch fade away. The day may soon arrive when the final complaints about the Book of Enoch’s lack of historicity and "late date" are also silenced by new evidence of the book’s real antiquity.
Charlesworth's collection has many other fascinating manuscripts which were familiar to Jews and early Christians. One of these for instance explains events which preceded God calling Abraham. Another explains why Satan was so upset with Job.
Nothing of them "ring true" in my spirit like Enoch does. And no wonder, Enoch is quoted in Jude and 2 Peter - and appears to be referenced around a hundred times throughout the New Testament.
God's Name is I AM.