Jesus Is The Way ... Understanding the Ancient Belief System That Led To This Truth.

I am always blown away by how much the Bible opens up to me when I make the effort to study the origins of man and the ancient civilizations that have influenced us. That information is essential to understanding our Biblical ancestors and our comprehension of Scripture, as it was written. Unfortunately, we 21st Century Believers can get so caught up in our own self-importance [and condescending attitudes] that we can invalidate, [or even remove all traces of], what ancient cultures believed about a Creator and man's access to him. What's more, we can even develop a contempt for that belief system; beliefs that might actually benefit us with a more truthful interpretation of what the Creator intended. Just because we think man has advanced in intelligence, expertise, and achievements doesn't mean our theological belief system is any closer to our God's objective and desire.

Of course, we must take into account all the efforts of the Rebellious One [and his followers] to sow deception, misdirection and untruths into our historical relationship with the One who created us for His purpose. But I think we need to be careful not to carelessly dismiss what the cultures of our forefathers-in-faith understood. Although their belief system might seem antiquated or simplistic to us -- and maybe even heretical to some Christians -- it just might provide some incredible insight to a deeper view of the Gospel. 

I'm going to say, right off the bat, that what I'm going to try to explain is better suited to an academic paper, and indeed, could be expanded to a book on its own merit -- but I'm going to try to condense it to a reasonable length in this post that will, hopefully, incite enough interest that you will take it to the Lord and ask for more information. So, let's take for instance, the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden, and how I see that it is a representative allegory of our way to the Father. That might seem contrary to our understanding of Genesis, but keep reading ...

I would say that most Christians today conceive of the Garden as an actual physical place that once existed on the earth. After all, the Bible gives us a limited description of Eden in Genesis 2:8-14 ... a garden ["a hedge of protection and defense", according to the Hebrew meaning], was established in the east, and called Eden [which means "delight"]. In the midst of this garden God planted the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Bible tells us that a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers, of which only the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are still known. 

Our modern, and simplified, version of the Garden of Eden is symbolized by the notion of innocence, temptation, and of "Paradise Lost". The desire to return to the Creator's gift of Paradise - where we resided in intimate relationship with God -- is an embedded part of our divinely created DNA; it cannot be destroyed or removed.  Would it surprise you to know that all the religions of the historical cultures of the world all share a theme of a divine connection between gardens and their gods? Furthermore, they share narratives of the gods/angels descending from Heaven to earth on the summit of a mountain, in the midst of a lush garden. 

NOTE: At this time, I want to address the arguments that our Faith is founded on the mythological stories of these other religions because they were in existence long before the Bible was written [therefore making our faith just a replica of these primitive belief systems]. But what if these other cultures/civilizations were shown the Creator's truth but did not experience His Presence [as we have], and therefore represented His Truth in different ways? What if the fallen Angel, Lucifer, was able to tempt these early civilizations to worship him and his fallen angels as false gods and creators, teaching them that they could have access to the heavenly realms through other garden-like access points? The fact that there are similarities between the ancient belief systems does not negate that the Word of God reveals the True Creator's Truth for all men through Time! It just means that humanity from the antediluvian period of history [pre-Flood] did not understand what God began to reveal to our forefathers in the faith, and therefore, has revealed to us.

Now, back to the narratives of the gods/angels descending from Heaven to earth to land on the summit of a high mountain, and in the midst of a lush garden ... Nebuchadnezzar's famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon were his attempt at building a ziggurat (a step pyramid with a series of platform levels that ascends to form a temple or shrine] as a means of establishing an artificial mountain where the gods could come down and hold court on its summit. The Word, in Ezekiel 28, tells a very accurate depiction of this concept of a divine mountain theory that explains the defection of Lucifer and the Fallen Angels ... You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God ... You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God... 

There is so much more about the corruption of Lucifer [and the subsequent end of Satan] in that chapter, but I must remain focused on the point of this post; connecting the Garden of Eden to our Way to the Father, through Jesus. So I hope you can begin to see that throughout the history of man [from the ancient and first civilizations in Sumer and Akkad up to today] there have been belief systems that accepted the thought that the gods [or in our case, God and His Son and the angels] dwell in heaven, but they can also dwell on the earth, and there have been specific points of contact that provide access to the heavenly realms where the Divine reside. 

In the context of our faith, Mount Hermon has great significance, and has certainly been a "point of contact" for several important events in our Biblical history. Mount Hermon is a very real place and the root of its name, charam, signifies that it has been devoted for the purpose of both destruction and a sacred use. Our ancient ancestors believed that the gods dwelt in heaven, and that certain locations were somehow supernaturally joined to earth at these specific places. In other words, from the dawn of various civilizations, man has been aware of "gates" or "portals" that provide access from the earthly realm to the heavenly realms. Again, it has simply made sense to seek the highest points of elevation in this realm to try and find those "access points"; sacred places that serve as the connection point, linking heaven and earth, and allowing passage from one realm to the other. 

Biblically, Mount Hermon serves as both a place dedicated to destruction and a sacred site. According to an article about Mount Hermon, there were over 20 temples on the slopes of this Mount, which corroborated biblical accounts that the mountain was considered sacred to the worshipers of the Canaanite god Baal. And Chapter 6 in the apocryphal book of Enoch tells us, "And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children' [which aligns with Genesis 6:1-4] ... Then they swore all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations [spoken curses] upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended [in the days] of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations [spoken curses] upon it". Here, we can see that "Hermon" means a dedication to the destruction of Jesus's pure birth by the contamination of our bloodline.

NOTE: For those who will question my use of Enoch as a reference, I will simply say this: The Lord uses specific passages of this apocryphal book in the Bible as well, which, to me, affirms that [although not inspired], the Book of Enoch holds clues that God has concealed, hoping that we will search them out [see Proverbs 25:2].  

We see this idea of specific sites on earth serving as "gates" that lie between the earthly realm and the heavenly realms when we consider Matthew 16:13-19. Caesarea Philippi was known as a "gate to Hades" [the realm of the dead; the underworld]. Jesus takes His Disciples there to challenge them to see that it was not only an access point/gate for all the people who went there to worship the gods of the underworld, but to recognize that He was the Son of the Living God who was also a gate to the Kingdom of God, and He had the keys to defeat the gates of God's Enemies.

And again, Mount Hermon may have been a gate that was meant to give Satan and his rebellious angels an access point that would lead to the destruction of the redemptive plan of God through the birth of His Perfect Son, but it was also a sacred gate that Jesus shared with Peter, John and James when they witnessed His transfiguration. On the summit of Mount Hermon, which is the highest mountain in ancient Israel, the three Disciples witnessed a meeting between Jesus and Moses and Elijah, which is a clear picture that this sacred gate was an access point that existed between Heaven and Earth. For Biblical support of this premise, read Matthew 17:1-8 and 2 Peter 1:16-18.  

NOTE: I would be remiss if I did not mention that the Bible clearly [and often] makes note of the "high places" in the Old Testament. These were places of worship (usually mountaintops) where the people would offer sacrifices to their gods, in the hopes of calling these gods to intercede for them. These high places were earthly access points or gates into the heavenly realm. It is important to realize that there were generations of Israelites who spent years of building pagan high places when they would fall into the temptation of worshiping and sacrificing to the false gods of other nations. When they returned to following the Most High God [YHWH] they would dedicate themselves to destroying these high places. The verse of 2 Kings 23:5 speaks to this truth: He [King Josiah] did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven.

So, hopefully, we can begin to see the universal principle shared by the peoples of the world throughout history: there are connection points, or "gates", that conjoin all realms with "paradise", the place where Earth and Heaven intersect. And that place of intersection -- that access point -- is perfectly [and allegorically] represented by the Garden of Eden. Rather than an actual physical garden, Eden is representative of that spiritual gate where earthly man once had physical access to the God of Heaven.

And here is my final premise that I hope you will consider ... From the days of the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia to modern-day Christians and Jews, mankind has preserved the memory of our access to paradise; that place where we can commune with God. The "gates" on earth are the access points; "the way" to our reunion with our Creator. The Garden of Eden in the Bible is not meant to give us the address to a specific location on the map of Earth. Rather, it is to show us the representation of a point of access, a gate, a way to be in relationship with Him -- and after the fall of man, a way to be reconciled to that spiritual relationship.

I hope you will read this passage in John 14 with renewed spiritual insight ... "In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. Where I am going you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, " I am the  way [to God], and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me." 

So, in summary, I know I have presented a lot of information and, in all humility, I hope I have been able to show you that the ancient belief systems that speak of Gardens like Eden serve to lead us to the Truth that Jesus is our gate; our way to that Paradise that was lost to us. I believe that our longing to return to that Paradise is truly written on our DNA and our spirits yearn to return to that idyllic place. The Biblical Garden of Eden was intended to show us a picture of the access point between man and God, where Adam could receive divine instruction on how best to steward his realm on earth; a picture of how the perfection of Heaven could be replicated on Earth. Adam's directive to "subdue" the earth was not just a commandment to bring Earth under God's design, but to expand God's rule and reality of Paradise throughout his [Adam's] domain. 

It speaks of the Grace of God that He gave men free will and the choice whether to follow His standard of Eden or give in to the temptation of God's Enemy. Because of Adam and Eve's failure to be faithful to their Creator, the gate to Eden has been closed. But because of God's everlasting faithfulness to His creation, the Cross has provided a "gate" and a "way" [through our faith in Jesus] that will culminate in the gate being opened again when we receive our resurrected bodies and once again enter into Paradise, our original Heavenly Home. Until then, we rejoice in the hope and the belief that Jesus is the way, and that the gate will be opened. And as we receive our instructions through our access point of Jesus, we persist in our spiritual war to expand the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. 

Genesis 3:24     So God drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He [permanently] stationed the cherubim [ministering angels who avenge assaults on God's holiness] and the sword with the flashing blade which turned round and round [in every direction] to protect and guard the way [entrance, access] to the tree of life.

 

How God's Sacred Knowledge Got Corrupted

 

I'm going to be honest. I'm kind of blown away by what I discern the Holy Spirit is showing me, and I just hope I can put my thoughts into some kind of order that makes sense. So, I'm just going to launch in to this latest revelation. As I take a break from my exegesis of Genesis, I am going to connect some dots that I had never seen before. Remember, in Genesis 1:28, when the Bible says, And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 

Then in Genesis 2:8-9, the Word says, And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So, those are two pretty profound statements, and I would daresay that most Christians are familiar with them. But do we really understand them and their implications? And how does that tie in with the title of this blog? First, let me say that I believe the Church has missed the opportunity to stress that God intended us to have power and authority on the earth as He does in Heaven. He instructs us to "subjugate" the earth or "subdue" it, as most versions say. Those words imply conquer, overcome, restrain. This all falls under the command to have dominion [rule] over the earth. 

So, keeping those two passages in mind, I want to give you a quote from Josephus, the noted Jewish historian from the first century AD. It will begin to give you an idea of where I'm going... Josephus is considered by most Bible scholars to be a trustworthy and dependable source of Jewish first-century history, as well as a reliable chronicler of Jewish beliefs, culture, and antiquity. So, it was with great interest that I read this excerpt from his The Antiquities of the Jews: (quoting from the writings of Moses), "Moses says [further], that God planted a paradise in the east, flourishing with all sorts of trees; and that among them was the tree of life, and another of knowledge, whereby was to be known what was good and evil; .... God therefore commanded that Adam and his wife should eat of all the rest of the plants, but to abstain from the tree of knowledge; and foretold to them, that, if they touched it, it would prove their destruction. But while all the living creatures had one language, at that time the serpent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife, showed an envious disposition, at his supposal of their living happily, and in obedience to the commands of God; and imagining that when they disobeyed them, they would fall into calamities, he persuaded the woman, out of a malicious intention, to taste of the tree of knowledge, telling them, that in that tree was the knowledge of good and evil; which knowledge when they should obtain, they would lead a happy life, nay, a life not inferior to that of a god: by which means he overcame the woman, and persuaded her to despise the command of God". (Josephus, Ant. 1.1.3-4).

So, this parallels our modern translations of the Bible, from Genesis 2:8 - 3:6. I find it interesting that in Josephus's sharing of the writings of Moses, it is revealed that the serpent was present in the Garden with Adam and Eve, and knew that God had commanded them not to eat of the tree of knowledge. Furthermore, he knew what knowledge was contained in that tree, both good and evil. And it is clear that he sought to deceive them by promising they could become a "god", implying that status was superior to their human state. Adam and Eve had been commanded by God not to eat of that tree. I believe they had been given righteous knowledge by God in order to properly rule the earth and maintain it for God's Kingdom. But by yielding to the temptation of Satan, they now had access to the ways that knowledge could be corrupted for evil. What did that knowledge consist of?

Gary Wayne, in his book, Genesis 6 Conspiracy, writes that among the knowledge given to Adam by God, [while he was in the Garden of Eden and still innocent], were what has become known as the Seven Sacred Sciences. These seven sciences, when used for righteous purposes, are meant to help man carry out his dominion on the earth. They are Grammar (whereby humans were to speak and write in truth); Rhetoric (the ability of humans to speak in subtle [precise] terms and using the art of virtuous persuasion); Dialectics (a dialogue between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned argumentation; learning to discern between truth and falsehoods); Arithmetic (the study of numbers); Geometry (learning to measure the earth and all things; related with distance, shape, size, and relative position thereof); Music (the learning of songs and the language of musical instruments); and Astronomy (the learning of the course of the planets and stars).

In their original creation [by God] these Sciences were meant for only good, and humankind was bequeathed this knowledge to control the universe, provided they mastered the wisdom given to them and did not use this divine gift for evil. Adam had access to all this knowledge, but when he and Eve ate from that tree of knowledge, they were immediately corrupted and so opened up a path for the knowledge to become corrupted as well. Just as God had prophesied, their disobedience led to their destruction, and they were driven from the Garden. Here's where it gets interesting! The Bible tells us [in Genesis 4] that after their banishment from the Garden, Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. We know that Cain slew his brother Abel, and God cursed Cain and made him to be a "fugitive and a vagabond [roaming aimlessly] on the earth [in perpetual exile without a home, a degraded outcast". 

Josephus, quoting from Moses' writings says Cain "became a great leader of men into wicked courses". He was the author of measures and weights and he changed the world from living in simplicity to a world of "cunning craftiness". Cain vigorously practiced the 5th Science of Geometry or Masonry, building many projects including the Great Pyramids. At this point in history, there's no evidence that Cain and his descendants have used the Seven Sacred Sciences for evil. But apparently that didn't last long, and according to Josephus, "even while Adam was alive, it came to pass that the posterity of Cain became exceeding wicked, every one successively dying one after another more wicked than the former".

Enoch, the first son of Cain,  -- not to be confused with Enoch, the son of Jared and from the line of Seth, who "walked with God, and he was not, for God took him; (Genesis 5:24) -- discovered the zodiac and was the first to initiate worship through religious rites. He is credited in Freemasonry with teaching the sacred mysteries in religious rites and ceremonies. He appointed festivals and sacrifices to the sun and was considered an idol worshiper. Now, how could this "evil Enoch" have received ways and methods to corrupt the Sacred Knowledge given to man by God? Remember the serpent was on the earth, and if we believe that Satan was cast from Heaven to the earth with one-third of the angels, then there was a contingent of evil all too willing to assist men with evil hearts to corrupt anything God has created. But before I come to my conclusion how this is still affecting mankind today, I want to mention the third son of Adam and Eve that the Bible talks about. 

Seth is born in the image of Adam, who was born in the image of God, and his name means "to set firmly in place; appointed; foundation". Just like Cain, Seth would have been taught the Seven Sacred Sciences by Adam. Seth was a farmer and his descendants focused on the 7th Science of Astronomy. The knowledge of Astronomy and how the heavenly bodies moved would have been invaluable in understanding seasons and when to plant and when to harvest. The line of Seth remained righteous in their practice of the Sacred Sciences until the 7th generation, while Cain's line was immediately vile, treacherous and evil from the time God ostracized Cain. Josephus writes, "Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues. Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers... for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness; whereby they made God to be their enemy." 

Can you see the influence of Satan beginning in the garden and running through the ancestral lines of Adam? It appears that from the time his pride, arrogance and disobedience got him kicked out of Heaven, his goal has been to usurp God's creation on earth. Since he had no access to the tree of knowledge, he carefully persuaded Eve, and then Adam, to believe in his own vision of becoming "like a god".  This enabled him to influence their progeny to share that Sacred Knowledge, including the Seven Sciences. The myths and legends from antiquity all reveal the existence of a Snake brotherhood, or secret societies of the Snake. It only took the second generation after Adam (evil Enoch) to see the Sacred Knowledge hijacked and kept for these exclusive and secretive societies. This leads us all the way to Freemasonry, and the symbol of the entwined snakes around the phallus of the god Baphomet. 

But Enoch, the evil son of Cain, was able to do so much more! From astronomy, Enoch created astrology and sun worship. He implemented pagan rituals, ceremonies and rites with a new repulsive religion in which knowledge could only be passed on to initiates and selected guardians of "the truth". Now it also is reported in ancient texts that the nefarious application of the Sciences waned sometime after this Enoch's generation, but was renewed under his great-great grandson, Lamech. His children further contaminated the Seven Sacred Sciences and the entire antediluvian (pre-Flood) world. And here's what we need to understand -- an outside force (fallen angels) partnered with Lamech's descendants to violate the divine rules of creation, further defiling what was left of their innocence, which left their original nature unrecognizable. 

In conclusion, those Seven Sacred Sciences are at the heart and root of what we call "Science" today. The inventions and belief systems that have emerged down through the centuries still carry the corruption brought about by Satan and his fallen angels. Modern Science still rejects the divine truths and knowledge that come from God in favor of man's logic and rationality, and it often serves an evil purpose instead of righteous goals and benefits for which God created them. Now, just as at the beginning of creation, Satan's agenda has been to de-legitimize the ways of the God of the Universe, and entice men to gain power and authority through his nefarious schemes. Solomon got it right when he wrote, “Behold, I have acquired great [human] wisdom and experience, more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of [moral] wisdom and [scientific] knowledge. And I set my mind to know [practical] wisdom and to discern [the character of] madness and folly [in which men seem to find satisfaction]; I realized that this too is a futile grasping and chasing after the wind. For in much [human] wisdom there is much displeasure and exasperation; increasing knowledge increases sorrow." All we have to do is look how Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectics, Math, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy have been corrupted to present an anti-Christ message to the world. Does our increased knowledge glorify the Lord or ourselves? If the latter, then we must admit we have fallen for the same temptation that our ancestors did in the Garden.

Ecclesiastes 1:14-15   I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity, a futile grasping and chasing after the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is defective and lacking cannot be counted.