The Book of Enoch Part II

Last week we looked a little at the Book of Enoch (BOE) and what it is.  This week, I’d like to clarify a few things about the book itself, and then we’ll look at whether it is  genuine and inspired: should it be included in the Canon of Scripture?

Nearly all Enochian scholars agree the book is not genuine, it is not what it presents itself to be: a book written by Enoch, the seventh from Adam.  Nearly all scholars believe the book is a compilation of several authors.  The “Book of Enoch,” is the common name for “The First Book of Enoch” (there are three) or the “Ethiopic Enoch.”

First, we need to understand the BOE is simply an old (200 b.c. to 100 a.d.) book of Jewish religious writings.  We have partial manuscripts of the book found among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran community, but no complete manuscript of all 108 chapters. The earliest complete manuscript that exists is dated about the 15th century.

It is mostly written in apocalyptic symbolic language and therefore can be interpreted in many ways.  The book itself is divided into five sections:

Book of the Watchers 1–36  Strongly apocalyptic: angels, heavenly journeys, judgment

Book of Parables 37–71 Apocalyptic visions and symbolic descriptions of the coming judge

Astronomical Book 72–82 Astronomical descriptions and revelations about heavenly order

Book of Dream Visions 83–90 Symbolic dreams, animals representing people and nations, history and judgment

Epistle of Enoch 91–108 Ethical exhortations, wisdom sayings, warnings, and apocalyptic prophecy

Though eleven manuscripts were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, more than forty have been found elsewhere: in Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Vatican Library.  The original is believed to have been written in Aramaic, and only those found at Qumran are in Aramaic.  Others are in Greek, Coptic, Syriac, but these are small fragments or merely quotations of the BOE.  The largest number of manuscripts and most important to scholars are in Ge’ez, an ancient Ethiopic language.  There are 40 of these of which at least five are complete.  These 40 are dated 15th to 17th centuries. Two Orthodox sects include the BOE in their Canon: The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo churches totaling about 60 million followers.

The Protestant Canon has four major tests for inspiration:

 
1.  Does the book have apostolic or prophetic origin?  The BOE does not. It is not what it presents itself to be.

2.  Agreement with previously recognized revelation?  There are some disagreements between the BOE and Old Testament books – BOE chapter 22 gives a contrary view of what happens to the dead than Jesus gave.  So, no.

3.  Reception by God’s people and the early churches.  The Qumran community certainly saw the POE as important.  There were even commentaries on the BOE found.  So, I’ll give this a “Maybe.”

4.  Recognition as authoritative Scripture.  While there were a few in the early church that wanted this book included in the Canon – Tertullian and the writer of the Epistle of Barnabas are named.  Others said they respected it but did not want to include it in the Canon.  Given the very few in favor, I’ll give this point a No.

Why is this important?

Once again, the BOE is an interesting piece of early Jewish writing which gives opinions on things like Genesis 6:1-4, about the angels perhaps marrying human women.  The issue is that this is Jewish tradition, not scriptural evidence.  It is the opinion of the writer(s) as to how some portions of Scripture might be interpreted.

There is much more to the BOE, but it is the portions related to scriptural interpretation which seems to be of the greatest interest in the church.  Scripture is the standard by which we must judge all things.  It is when we drift from Scripture in favor of “some new thing” that we lose our way.  Read the BOE with interest but not with the expectation of enlightenment.

The Book of Enoch Part I

In recent years , The Book of Enoch has gained something of a cult following, so I thought we would look at it a little here, maybe answer some questions, and point out some problems.

What is it?  The Book of Enoch presents itself as a record of revelations given to Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam (Jude 14), concerning angels, heaven, human wickedness, divine judgment, and the future vindication of the righteous.

The central historical distinction is this: the book claims to preserve revelations associated with the biblical patriarch Enoch, but scholars generally conclude that the surviving work was composed by multiple authors centuries after the patriarch’s lifetime.

Is it genuine?  The question of the Book of Enoch’s genuineness needs to be divided into three separate questions:

  1. Authentic authorship: Did Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, actually write the book?
  2. Historical reliability: Does the book preserve genuine ancient Jewish traditions or accurate accounts of spiritual realities?
  3. Canonicity and inspiration: Is the book divinely inspired Scripture that belongs in the Bible?

We will look at the arguments for the genuineness of the book first:

Argument 1.  Probably the strongest argument offered in favor is Jude 14–15 (ESV):  14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

This matches very closely to Enoch 1:9: “And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all, And to destroy all the ungodly: And to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

The argument is that if an inspired apostle identifies Enoch as the source of a prophecy, Christians should take the book seriously. 

The two main objections to this reasoning are that a book with a prophecy associated with a Biblical prophet does not mean that prophet Enoch actually wrote those words.  And even if the words Jude quoted were inspired, this does not indicate the rest of the Book of Enoch was inspired. 

Some of the understanding or misunderstanding rests on one’s philosophy of inspiration.  Was the text from the Book of Enoch which Jude quoted inspired, or was Jude inspired to include them?  It is probably the latter.  We have several quotes in the New Testament of secular, non-inspired works which, upon being quoted, became a part of the inspired text:  Paul quotes Epimenides (Titus 1:12), Menander (1 Corinthians 15:33), and Aratus (Acts 17:28).  These quotes were not inspired in their original works, yet Paul and Luke were inspired to quote them, and they became a part of the inspired text.

Argument 2.  The book is genuinely ancient.  Sections of the Book of Enoch were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, so the book is not a medieval fabrication, as are some books we find.  It was known more than a century before the Christian era.  This fact does not point to anything more than the book being old, neither genuine nor inspired.  Scholars date its composition to well after the flood and the age of Enoch, so it is almost certainly not genuinely the Book of the Enoch, seventh from Adam.

Argument 3.  Some early Christians accepted it and defended it.  Tertullian (160-225 A.D.) defended the Book of Enoch as inspired.  The Epistle of Barnabas mentions the Book of Enoch in a way favorable to Scripture.  There are a few others who followed some Enochic traditions as well, but the majority of early church Fathers did not recognize the book as inspired.  Origen, for instance, said it was not inspired.

Why is this important?

For as long as the Church has been in existence, people have looked for “special” revelation or “secret” knowledge concerning our faith.  In the first century and for a few centuries thereafter, the Gnostics offered “Secret Knowledge” to those who would pay to learn it.  In the late 20th century, writers were obsessed with the “Bible Code,” hidden messages in the Bible.  Christians are often distracted by these things, and I think the Book of Enoch is just the latest installment in the greater knowledge search.

A personal hero of mine, Dr. Walter Martin, was once asked what he thought of the Bible Code writers.  His answer was “I have enough trouble learning and living the Bible as it exists.”  I think that’s wise.  We know God has given us the 66 books of the Bible.  Let’s look at the Book of Enoch with interest if we want, but the absolute guidance for the Christian life comes from the Bible alone.

Jesus Prayed for you

John 17:20-26 (ESV)  20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Chapter 17 of the Gospel of John is Jesus’ final prayer before being arrested and tried.  The passage is divided into three portions: verses 1-5 are a sort of progress report (vs. 4) and Jesus saying it was almost time for Him to return to the Father (vs. 5); verses 6-19 are Jesus’ prayer for the apostles, “the twelve,” that the Father would help them complete their work, that they would remain doctrinally sound, and that the Father would protect them from the devil.

The passage above is Jesus’ prayer for us, those who have come to Christ through the writings of the apostles.  He wants us to remain united, as one family, as loving of our fellow Christians as we are of our Lord and Savior.  To tell you the truth, I think we’ve done a pretty terrible job of that.  Churches have cliques, narrow, exclusive groups of believers who have separated themselves from others in the congregation.  That isn’t what Jesus prayed for.  We shouldn’t have divisions within the body of Christ.

Yes, we have thousands of denominations with differing views or interpretations of Scripture, but the central truths remain the same: the Trinity, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the deity of Christ, salvation by grace alone.  The historic Christian Church actually excludes as heretical or cultic any group which disagrees with these doctrines.

A good example.

Early in my Christian walk, we had a wonderful pastor, “Pastor Dan.”  As a fairly young couple, my wife and I began to serve at that church and were excited to be used so much by the Lord.  Saying “yes” to everything, however, brought us to a point of being overwhelmed.  At the same time, I was feeling a lot of pressure at work.  The result was that I started looking for someone to blame.  Pastor Dan had started on his PhD, and I felt he was letting his pastoral work suffer as he needed to dedicate more time to school.

I wrote him a very nasty letter accusing him of “starving the congregation” and worse things.  My wife and I left the church as a result. 

God used the next year and a half to reshape my attitude.  I began to see my hypocrisy clearly.  Through a brief set of circumstances, we returned to that church and were welcomed with open arms.

When I was able to talk alone with Pastor Dan, I deeply apologized for the letter and asked if he ever wanted to give me something that would mean the world to me; could he please give me back my letter?

A few years later, Pastor Dan, the man who had every right to never do anything for me and who, by worldly standards, should have banished me from the church, asked me if I would like to be a deacon.  A few years after that, he invited me to be an elder. 

It was later that he said he could see God’s hand in my life for ministry and suggested I be licensed (an honor second only to ordination).  At the licensing service, the one being licensed is expected to give a sermon.  As I stepped up to the pulpit, I saw a sealed envelope.  Pastor Dan had returned my letter.

Why is this important?

We as human beings are attracted to those who are like us, not so much to people who are different.  Jesus’ prayer is for us to treat all people in the body, whether they’re heavy, ugly, smarter, dumber, or stuck up, as brothers and sisters.  In fact, I think Jesus wants us to seek those people and pray for them.

Like Pastor Dan, we can’t carry a grudge.  In fact, we should reach out to those who have wronged us. We must forgive and continue as if all is well.  Are we treating others differently because we heard a rumor, because they don’t look or think like us, because “just something about them bothers me?”  We don’t have that privilege.  Heaven isn’t going to have separate neighborhoods for Lutherans, Presbyterians, Reformed, Independent, etc.  The only question we will face at the gates of heaven is “Do you know Jesus?”  Let’s act like it.

Jesus Prays for His Apostles

Last week we looked at the first five verses of John chapter 17, Jesus’ final prayer to the Father before He was arrested.  The chapter is divided into three sections: Jesus’ personal message to the Father about sharing their glory (vs. 1-5), Jesus prayer for the apostles (vs. 6-19), and Jesus prayer for all other believers (vs. 20-26).  Today, we’ll look at the second part, Jesus prayer for His apostles.

First, we see that the Father gave “the twelve” to Jesus as disciples to spread the Word throughout the world (Matt. 28:10-20).  Aside from Judas Iscariot, this was always their mission, whether they recognized it or not.  After all, Jesus spent their time together teaching and training them to do that very task to come. 

These were Jesus’ friends, men who eventually saw that they were not just learning a new way of life but would be sharing that with others. Mark 6:7-11 (ESV)  7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”

They were forewarned of the trials they would face, but all stayed the course: John 15:18 (ESV)  “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” But Jesus prayed that the Father would watch over them and protect them (vs. 19-20), and Jesus prayers are always answered. 

The work the apostles did, and the work we do for Christ, glorifies Him (vs. 10).  As we saw last week, glorifying Jesus is sharing who He is, that He is God: John 14:9 (ESV)  9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  To look into Jesus’ face was to see the face of God.

I have to note that Jesus uses two terms for the Father in chapter 17: Holy Father (vs. 11) and Righteous Father (vs. 25).  These titles are found nowhere else in Scripture.  There are contrasts drawn by Jesus for both of these.  In verse 11, Jesus speaks about being in the unholy world but will soon be in the presence of the Holy Father.  In verses 25-26, Jesus is comparing the righteousness with which believers are held to who they/we were prior to our faith in Christ.

Jesus prays for the apostles’ protection from the world, so that the world will have those who carry the message of Christ.  He would no longer be physically with them to protect them.  The world hates us and fears us at the same time, but God will watch over us.

Why is this important?

Jesus’ prayers are always answered.  While we will serve Him while we’re in the world, we needn’t be afraid.  Until it is time for us to go and be with Him, we are invulnerable.  We need only read the Book of Acts to see how Peter, John, and Paul were treated but not killed for preaching the gospel.  What was their response to this treatment? 

2 Cor. 4:16-18 (ESV)  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

1 Peter 4:16 (ESV)  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

Revelation 1:9 (ESV)  I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

With all we know these men went through, we can be sure Jesus was praying for their protection until their hour had come.

Jesus’ Prayer

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

As Paul says, all Scripture is breathed out by God (inspired), but some passages just seem to be more intimate, more “special.”  John 17 is one of those passages.  It’s a prayer.  In fact, it’s the longest prayer in the New Testament and is between Jesus and His Father. It’s about what has been done and what the plan is for the church.  It is Jesus’ final prayer before His arrest. Here are the first five verses:

 John 17:1-5 (ESV)  When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

God’s plan of compassion for man and redemption for believers is at hand.  “The hour has come.”  This is the Father and Son working together in their pure love for mankind.  Now mankind will have a pathway to heaven paid for by the very blood of God’s Son:

Acts. 20:28 (ESV)   Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood

Glory appears four times in the first five verses of chapter 17.  The Son will glorify the Father in verses 1 and 4, and the Father will glorify the Son with the “glory that I had with you before the world existed” in verse 5.  This draws our minds back to the first verse of the book:

John 1:1 (ESV)  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

And, of course, the Word is Jesus.  But I’d like to look at another word, the word glory that I brought up a minute ago.  What exactly does that word mean?  According to The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament, it means “to render conspicuous and glorious the divine character and attributes.”

Both Jesus and the Father will prove their deity and be glorified over the next few days. Jesus will show His power over death by raising His body from the grave, as will the Father and the Holy Spirit:

John 2:18-22 (ESV)  So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Galatians 1:1 (ESV)  Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead

Romans 8:11 (ESV)  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Together, all three Persons of the Trinity working together would raise Jesus, three Persons, but one God:

Acts 2:32 (ESV)  This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

Why is this important?

In these five verses, we see how much God loves us: He was willing to give His own blood, the blood of His human nature, because of His love and compassion for us.  We see that He, in the Person of Jesus Christ, gave up His glory, the glory He had with the Father, to come to earth, demonstrate God’s love to us, and tell us that God did not send Him to condemn the world but that through him the world might be saved. 

Even in the final hours before His death on the cross, Jesus repeated the message: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  It’s a simple message, simple but not easy.  We need only give up the world we love for the treasure we will gain. What treasure? We will receive glory as well.

2 Thess. 2:14  To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Here, the word glory means, “Of that exalted state of blissful perfection which is the portion of those who dwell with God in heaven.” (The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament)

We have much to look forward to as believers.

What’s in a Name?

Matt. 6:9 (ESV)  Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.“

Most of us recognize this as the first line of the Lord’s Prayer.  Note that this is not a prayer of Jesus but an instruction from Jesus to us, teaching us how to pray: a sample prayer.

What I find interesting here is: if Jesus is speaking of God’s specific name, Yahweh, then why doesn’t He use it?  He calls Him Father instead.  Some would say, “Do you call your father by his name?”  But that doesn’t apply.  Jesus isn’t praying but teaching how we should pray.

Jehovah’s Witnesses try to compensate for this by inserting the divine name as they understand it – Jehovah – 237 times in their New Testament of The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.  This is disingenuous, though, in that there is no Greek New Testament manuscript of the nearly 6,000 currently in existence that contains the divine name.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses just insert it because they want to.

Just as a side note, of the 237 times they insert the divine name into their New Testament, they quote Jesus as using it only 22 times.  20 of those are Old Testament quotes, and two are in passing.  Jesus never used it in speaking to God the Father.  So, even if they were right, Jesus didn’t think it was all that important for us to use.

Psalm 138 has something to say about this: Ps. 138:2 (ESV) I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

Jehovah’s Witnesses hold God’s name, Jehovah, in such high regard, but are willing to add and remove words from God’s Word freely.  According to Psalm 138, God’s Word is to be revered as highly as His Name.

But what exactly does it mean to say things like “in God’s name?”

Psalm 20:7 (ESV)  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Should we take Psalm 20 to mean God’s name is a sort of lucky charm or magical word?  No, the word name in both Hebrew and Greek carries much more meaning than just a name like Mike or Jim.  It carries the idea of reputation, authority, even commission:

1 Sam. 17:45 (ESV)  Then David said to [Goliath], “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

David was saying to Goliath, “You may have come with all those weapons of war, but I have something greater.  I have been sent by God, commissioned by Him, and have His authority to vanquish you.”

Why is this Important?

John 17:6 (ESV)  “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”

Jesus is talking to the Father here about Jesus’ disciples.  He didn’t make known God’s literal name to them.  These guys were Jews.  They knew the name of the God of the Jews.  The word manifested here means revealed.  Jesus showed His disciples by example just who their God truly is:

John 14:9 (ESV)  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

So, when Jesus showed His person and nature to the disciples and to us, He was showing us exactly who God is:

Hebrews 1:3a (ESV)  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature

There is a lot in a name. 

The Presence of God

2 Chron. 5:11-14 (ESV)  And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions, 12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; 13 and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,

       “For he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever,”

the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

I read this passage this morning and was struck by the overwhelming presence of God.  Why don’t we often experience God’s presence in such a powerful way?  Imagine that God’s presence was felt so strongly that the 120 priests present could not remain standing.  I want some of that, don’t you?

The way my mind works when I see something in Scripture that intrigues me is to look more deeply into the passage and seek what might have caused this wonder.  So, I thought, how about the phrase “for his steadfast love endures forever:” how often does that appear in Scripture?  It appears 38 times in the ESV and only in the Old Testament.  Most of those appearances are in Psalm 136, where it appears in every one of the 26 verses.  It must be important.  God dedicated an entire Psalm to it, listing a series of reasons Israel should be grateful to Him.  Why?  Because, as the passage above says, “For he is good.” 

We are to praise Him and thank Him because He is good.  In Psalm 136, God lists things Israel should be thankful for.  These range from creation, to defeating their foes, to God’s material provisions.  Maybe, just maybe, our praise of God and the things He has done in our lives are the key to His overwhelming presence.

What I get from this is that it is God’s goodness that must cause us to thank and praise Him.  How can we do otherwise?  The other day, I was listening to a woman give her testimony of God’s enormous deliverance from her terrible situation.  Though she was certainly grateful to God for delivering her, she wanted to emphasize God’s interest in even the little everyday things in our lives.  We’ve all wondered if maybe God has made us lose our keys for a few minutes to keep us from a possible traffic accident, or if if His hand was in the seemingly banal events that led us to some tremendous blessing or other. 

God is interested in every little thing in our lives.  He may not affect every event, but because of His love, He seeks to celebrate the grand ones with us and weep with us over the bad.

Why is this important?

Maybe God doesn’t overwhelm us with His presence very often because we would be little good to Him unable to stand as were the priests. 

Have no doubt, God is present.  Jesus Himself promised this.  Does Jesus lie?

Matt. 28:20b (ESV)  “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Christianity isn’t based on feelings; it is based on the absolute fact that God loves us, even celebrates us, and died for us.  We are His; there is nothing in our lives He is disinterested in.  Because of this, we know He is good, and His steadfast love endures forever.

How should we respond, then?

Phil 4:4-7 (ESV)  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Through the response of praise and thanksgiving, God will make Himself known.  Follow the Psalmist’s lead from Psalm 136: think of a list of things God has done in your life over the years and praise Him for them.  You can be certain of God’s presence. Psalm 22:3 says the Lord inhabits praise.

The Intimacy of God

Jesus repeatedly expressed His desire for deep, personal, abiding closeness with His disciples—not as distant subjects, but as those united to Him in life, knowledge, presence, and shared purpose. The Bible uses terms such as “coworkers” (1 Thess. 3:2), “fellow heirs” (Rom. 8:16-17), “friends” (John 15:13-15), and even “brothers” (Matt. 12:50) to describe Jesus’ intimate relationship with those who love Him.  To be God’s friend- what could be a greater honor, a greater joy?

The way God speaks of lowly human beings shows what I’ve talked about before: God does not have pride but perfect love.  Jesus’ love for us, His disciples, is a love we can’t explain.  John tries to in John 13:1 (ESV)  Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The Expositor’s Commentary says this about the verse and the last three words in particular:  “To the fullest extent” is a better rendering of the original eis telos than KJV “unto the end.” It does not mean that Jesus continued to love his disciples only up to the end of his career but that his love has no limits.”  God’s love for us has no limits; it is infinite. 

In the transition verse from chapter 12 to chapter 13 in his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul points to this as well:  1 Cor. 12:31  (ESV)  But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.  The Greek word translated “excellent” here is huperbole, from which we get our word “hyperbole.”  Paul is saying, no matter how much we might try to exaggerate our understanding of the love of God, it isn’t even close.

In philosophy, God is defined as, “That of which there can be nothing greater than.”  This is what Paul is saying about God’s love.  If you can think of something greater than your current understanding of God’s love, then that is the best you can do to define it . . . for now.

So, how can we access this intimate closeness Jesus offers to all who love Him?  A. W. Tozer is credited as saying, “Every man is as close to God as he wants to be.”  I think that’s true. Our level of intimacy with God is totally up to us.  God is waiting for us to take the first move:

Jeremiah 33:2-3 (ESV)  2 “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: 3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. 

Rev. 3:20 (ESV)  20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

God is a gentleman.  He won’t intrude on us if we’re not seeking Him. 

Why is this important?

Eternal life itself is defined as relational knowledge of the Father and the Son—not mere information, but personal intimacy.  John 17:3 (ESV)  And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

God uses the most intimate of terms to address us but also offers the most intimate term to us in addressing Him:  Gal. 4:6-7 (ESV)  6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Don’t get me wrong; we must still recognize Who and What God is.  He is still the God the train of whose robe filled the temple, Who is Holy, Holy, Holy, Whose glory fills the whole earth (Isa. 6:1).

It’s hard for us to balance this in our minds: a God who wishes to be intimate but is so great that He spoke and the entire universe came to be.  Personally, I think this rests on God’s lack of pride.  While He desires intimacy with each of us, He is also worthy of all honor and praise, glory and majesty, dominion, and power. This same infinite eternal Being says to draw near to Him, and He will draw near to us as His children. 

There are several photographs of President Kennedy working in the Oval Office where his son, “John Jr.,” is playing at his feet.  Maybe it’s a little like the positions the photograph shows: while JFK was the most powerful man in the free world, this did not lessen his desire for intimacy with his son or the freedom of access John Jr. had to his dad.  

The Love of God

1 Cor. 12:31b (ESV)  And I will show you a still more excellent way.

The sign gifts experienced by the Corinthian church and mentioned in 1 Cor. Chapter 12 were truly miraculous: God would speak directly through one person to another; they would speak in other languages, speaking prophecy, receiving divine wisdom and knowledge, etc.  Then after listing all these wonderful gifts that so occupied the Corinthian church, Paul says, “I will show you a still more excellent way.”

This short sentence has a lot to consider.  First, of course, is that what Paul is about to describe is greater by far than the gifts he just addressed.  How much greater?  He has two modifying words to present the fullness of the word “excellent:” still and more.  Still (eti in the Greek) can mean even as in even more.  The two words translated “more excellent” are actually one word in Greek: huperbole, from which we get our word hyperbole, and means to throw beyond or surpass.   It means beyond an extravagant exaggeration, a far better way.  The verse can be translated And now I will show you a way that is beyond comparison (NET).

The thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is rightly called “The Love Chapter.”  Because of this, we hear it often at weddings.  In the first three verses of the chapter, Paul tells us that all of the gifts he just talked about are pointless without love at the foundation.

Starting in verse 4, Paul lists the traits of a godly love: patience, kindness, humility, selflessness, patience, gratefulness, forgiveness, moral goodness, and truthfulness.  It bears slings and arrows, trusts, is hopeful, and endures.  Then Paul says a very interesting thing.  He says, “Love never ends.”  In the Good News Translation, that is translated, “Love is eternal.”

Imagine that.  Those of us who are getting older and seeking to leave a legacy behind must embrace this promise.  Our love will last forever.  My love for my wife is eternal; our giving a meal to a homeless person because God loves them will be counted to us forever.  The things that we do here in this life that are based in love will live on forever. I believe when we stand before God after death, God may well ask what loving acts we’ve done and what we’ve done that was unloving.

After all, the evidence is pretty substantial: 1 John 4:8 tells us God is Love.  Jesus gave us two great commandments: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  I think Paul is trying to inform us that love will be the basis of much of the judgment to come. It does seem God has placed us here to show His love in all the things we do, as Paul asserts in our passage here and again in other passages:

Eph. 2:10 (ESV)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

I believe God’s love is so far above our understanding that He has authored a series of 66 books, written by more than 40 authors, penned over a span of 1500 years to tell us much about His love.  Of course, that collection of ancient books is the Bible.  I don’t think we really get it, though.  The limitation isn’t God’s, it’s ours.

Why is this important?

In his Republic, Plato talked about reality in a story called Plato’s Cave. It briefly goes like this:  Imagine a large group of people lives in a darkened cave where they are chained to a standing position since birth.  Their heads are fixed so they can’t move.  Behind them is a fire casting shadows on the wall in front of us.  So far as they know, their own shadows, the shadows of workers behind them, the items they might hold, and the way they interact are all seen by these people in two dimensions and basically black and white.  That is reality to them.

Then one breaks free and finds his way out of the cave into the outside.  At first the light blinds him, but as his eyes adjust, he begins to see color; he sees three dimensions, he sees the world as it really is.  After a while, he runs back into the cave to tell the others what reality is truly like, but all he has is a vocabulary limited to a world of two dimensions and in black and white.  He can’t explain in words that can approach an even rudimentary description of what’s out there.

Our language isn’t broad enough or versatile enough to fully express what God and His heaven are like.

Our limitation in understanding what God and His love are truly like is that we have no common point of reference. There are no words in our three-dimensional world that we see only in a limited color band to explain it.

Like Paul says at the end of the passage, 1 Cor. 13:12 (ESV)  : For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  

We have tasted of the love of God, but we do not know it fully.  That will only come when we join Him in heaven.  All we can say for certain is that it is far greater than any exaggeration, far deeper than we have ever felt, and will last forever.

The following was allegedly found written on the wall of an insane asylum more than a century ago:

Could we with ink the ocean fill
and were the skies of parchment made,
were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill
and ev’ry man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry;
nor could the scroll contain the whole,
tho’ stretched from sky to sky.

Near Death Experiences

I watched the movie, After Death, from Angel Studios a few weeks ago, and it has encouraged me in my faith about what heaven is like and what awaits us.  The film is a documentary about near-death experiences (NDEs) and takes a very conservative, even scientific, approach to the issue of what happens to us when we die.  Since seeing the movie, I’ve read the very first book published about NDEs, Dr. Raymond Moody’s Life After Life (1975), and read Dr. J. P. Moreland’s book, Immortality (1992), on the subject a few years ago.

Life After Life is a secular look at hundreds of NDEs, while Moreland’s book is a conservative Christian’s view of the experiences.  I’m currently reading Imagine Heaven, another book based on more than a thousand NDEs from a Christian perspective.  To take a Christian approach is important.  These experiences happen all over the world with different interpretations of the experiences.  Most are filtered through the culture of the individual. Since I am fully convinced of the truth of Christianity and the Bible, I see those as the standard for truth, the rule by which all other claims must be compared.

There are more than 20 commonalities in the thousands, maybe millions, of NDEs reported.  About 80% report leaving their bodies upon death or near death; most experience extraordinary joy or happiness (as many as 75%).  Most tell of a feeling of peace or calmness, an altered sense of time, seeing a brilliant light, and so on.

Dr. Michael Sabom, a cardiologist, studied a small group of cardiac arrest survivors comparing those who had NDEs and those who did not.  He asked each patient to describe the CPR procedure done to revive them.  Those with NDEs gave mostly accurate descriptions that could be checked against what actually happened; the group that did not have NDEs did poorly in this.  This would imply those with NDEs are not making it up or simply visualizing what they heard while being revived.

One of the more famous cases took place here in Arizona.  Pam Reynolds had a large brain aneurysm.  Her surgery was extremely risky and rare.  Ms. Reynolds was put under anesthesia, her body was cooled to about 60°F (15.5°C), her heart was stopped, breathing was stopped, the cardiopulmonary bypass machine was turned off, and the blood was then drained from her head, leaving the brain without normal cerebral circulation.  Her EEG became electrically silent, and the brain-stem responses being monitored disappeared.  She was in this state for 60 minutes.

When Pam woke up in her room, she described things that she said she saw from above her body that happened while she was without brain activity, including details of her procedure as well as doctors who entered and exited the room during surgery.  These were people she had never met before or after the surgery, yet could describe them accurately.  Ms. Reynolds’ experience included seeing a bright light and meeting some of her relatives who had died.  This was not a trick of the brain, as the brain was totally inactive and monitored.

The reason I warned about studying NDEs from non-Christian sources is that there may well be counterfeits out there.  Some may be the work of the enemy; some may be cultural misinterpretations.  Dr. Moreland rightly, I believe, excludes from his research stories by anyone who did not see Jesus personally as a safeguard. 

Why is this important?

Heaven is being with God.  For the Christian, this is the greatest hope.  To stand in the presence of the God of the universe, to listen to His voice, to fellowship with Him, is the most wonderful desire of the believer.  Jesus promised this to the thief on the cross: Luke 23:43 (ESV)  And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Will we see our families?  Yes:  1 Thess. 4:13-18 (ESV)  13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

What will it look like?  Rev. 22:1-5 (ESV)  Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Are there dark NDEs?  Yes.  Stories tell of fear, of dread, of punishment and even violence for those who have not turned to Christ for salvation, and these are stories of people who had not yet even reached their final destination.

The stories told by those Christians who have been revived after an NDE match what the Bible tells us.  God has not left us uninformed as to what is to come for the believer.

One Thing almost all the Christians who have had an NDE tell us is that love is central to our relationship with God and with each other. We won’t be judged by our academic achievements or awards, promotions, etc. How we treat each other and how we love God is the standard. Matt. 22:37-40 (ESV) 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

WARNING: These are interesting and novel stories, to be sure, but not to be held above Scripture.  Scripture is the test, not experience.  When experience becomes the standard, heresy blossoms.