Are we ready for faith?

Now faith is the assurance (reality) of things hoped for, the conviction (evidence) of things not seen....

- Epistle to the Hebrews

Personal note: can we imagine that?

On Enoch

Recently, I watched a Joe Rogan podcast in which he interviewed United States Representative, Anna Paulina Luna. I remember hearing her mention the Book of Enoch several times throughout. Although, the main topic of discussion was about UFOs and UAPs. Rep. Luna is Chairwoman on the House Oversight Committee Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. Moreover, one can learn more by reading the following article at the following link.

https://oversight.house.gov/release/luna-opens-hearing-on-restoring-public-trust-through-uap-transparency/

Also, one can watch the Rogan podcast with her at the following link.

https://youtu.be/v-yPOBaYDOo?si=s2B45kS9jZYpBxbu

But why Enoch? I will answer that soon. I was reading the material the Representative was referring to on Rogan about Enoch already when she was probably still in her early teens. Enoch was the seventh patriarch from Adam before the flood. In the Book of Genesis in Bible, we read that Enoch lived 365 years. Genesis reads that, he was not; for God took him. The Book of Hebrews said that Enoch did not see death. We really have very little else with relevance to Enoch.

However, in the Epistle of Jude in the New Testament, we get a little more. Jude quotes Enoch in verses 14 and 15, but we do not have the texts Jude references in our western canon (our Bible). So, where are the words taken from? Many scholars agree that the text in Jude are taken from the Book of Enoch (Enoch 1). There are three apocryphal books attributed to Enoch (Enoch 1, 2, and 3). These books may not be in our Bible, but the Ethiopian canon does contain them, which the Representative knew about. Seemingly, Jude also had copies of the Enoch manuscript back in the first century, and St. Athanasius kept Jude in the canon for a reason. Of course, he was a bother of James and very likely a brother of Jesus himself. If you want to know about Jesus’ siblings, there is mention of them in the Gospel of Mark 6:3. Obviously, there is way more to Enoch than we are often led to believe, but this is just a brief post designed to encourage everyone to do more research on the subject. Now, back to  Rep. Anna Paulina Luna.

Why did she mention Enoch so much? Well, when one reads the apocryphal text, at a certain point it sounded as if Enoch was describing that he was taken onboard of a spaceship, but I am going to stop here and leave it up to you. Take some time and read for yourself at the following link.

https://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/enoch/ENOCH_1.HTM

 

 

 

References:

https://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/enoch/ENOCH_1.HTM

https://oversight.house.gov/release/luna-opens-hearing-on-restoring-public-trust-through-uap-transparency/

https://youtu.be/v-yPOBaYDOo?si=s2B45kS9jZYpBxbu

 

 

 

Legacy?

Since I was a child, I have heard the word legacy tossed about here and there. I have personally known people who have said they would like to leave a name for themselves when they pass away. Of course, I don’t recall ever challenging the idea, but it did and does make me question why? I have always wondered how they would even follow up on whether they are remembered or not. I suppose the only ones who could confirm this question are those who have already passed on.

This post is basically a meditation on this idea of leaving a legacy. I will keep it brief and share a couple of scriptures with relevance to perhaps make a case for the idea. The first verse is the following from Genesis 6:4, NRSVUE.

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

My question here is who were these “heroes that were of old” that existed before the flood of Noah? It seems we don't know their names. Or perhaps we don't have the manuscript which contained their names. We only know about Noah and his family from the same chapter. We don’t really have a specific timeline in the scriptures that even tells us when the flood took place. Perhaps it was ten thousand years ago, or twenty thousand years. We just don’t know. We do not know the names of many people who have lived and died on our planet who came before us.

Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible Ketuvim (Writings) contain a verse that relates to the subject in this post, which perhaps answer the questions I have brought forth. Ecclesiastes 1:11, NRSVUE, reads as follows:

The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.

I don’t know if the foregoing verse answers any questions you may have with relevance to leaving a legacy and making a name for oneself. The verse, however, does answer my questions. Perhaps one can establish a huge presence in the present moment in time, and for a while after one is gone, but eventually there will be no lasting memory. Leaving a legacy? Good luck with that!

Excerpt from Ephesians 6

...for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

- Saint Paul 

Reference:

NRSVUE 

Lots of virtue signaling

Our current society seems to do a great deal of virtue signaling. Yes, there seems to be a whole lot of self-righteous finger-pointing lately. The thing is that all this virtue signaling these days is being done by people who think they are good but are far from perfect towards people who are also far from perfect. The Judeo-Christian Scriptures has something to say about this.

 

1 Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”

                They are corrupt; they do abominable deeds;

                 there is no one who does good.

2 The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind

                 to see if there are any who are wise,

                  who seek after God.

3 They have all gone astray; they are all alike perverse;

                 there is no one who does good,

                no, not one.

- Psalm 14: 1-3, NRSVUE

 

Psalm 53: 2-3 repeats the foregoing message found in Psalm 14 once again. Moreover, in Roman 3:10-12, Saint Paul repeats it in the New Testament. If one is too self-righteous for Scriptures, I suppose the behavior will not stop. However, I must say that when one points a finger there are three other fingers pointing back in one’s own hand. I will keep this brief and stop here. Blessings!

 

 

Reference:

Bible, NRSVUE Version

Apologies for not posting

Apologies for not posting in May. Back in 2021, I gave a reason whenever that happens in a post. See the following link at Arango's Apologetics Page: On new posts

On new posts


Reference:

https://arangoapologeticspage.blogspot.com/2021/10/on-new-posts.html?m=0

Sharing of Unifying the Faith: Reexamining the Papacy

Pope Francis passed away last week. In fact, his funeral is/was this weekend. I don’t really have any comments to make with relevance other than perhaps saying, Rest in Peace. In this post, I simply wanted to share a post from September 25, 2015, that was inspired by him on a sibling blog. I hope you enjoy reading. Click on the link below to access.

Unifying the Faith: Reexamining the Papacy