No letters after my name. Free to be me.

3 Responses

With all the talk these days about Emergent/Missional and Seeker Sensitive Churches plus the discussion around liberal or fundamental Churches and whatever else, I ground myself in Scripture as to what to expect as a reaction to the Gospel being taught.

As Christians, lets not kid ourselves about the message we deliver. We preach Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and the reasons for it. This is the Gospel and this is the message we are asked to spread across the whole earth.

All the different streams of Christianity mentioned above attempt to get this message across in a meaningful way in the hope that people respond to it. But what gets in the way is when we deliver it in a way to maximize acceptance rather then focus on the substance of what we teach.

More and more I am shifting my opinion to focusing on the message instead of focusing on the acceptance of it. And in doing so, scripture says that we will always encounter 3 responses to what we believe:

1. Disbelief and mockery
2. Interest and further discussion
3. Belief and commitment

As anyone following this blog would know, I am a fan of Mark Driscoll and the Church he pastors - Mars Hill Church. Mars Hill gets its name from an interesting passage of scriptures found in Acts 17 when Paul visits Athens. The entire story can be read here.

In a nutshell, Paul visits Athens and is moved by the idolatry found there. Being the center of civilised society, Athens is alive with culture, education and arts. But because of the idols found in the town, Paul is moved to reason with the Jews, devout people, anyone in the market place and philosophers about the Gospel.

Read the passage this way: Paul speaks to everybody and anybody about the Gospel. And in doing so, he comes across Epicurean & Stoic philosophers. The “epics” taught that the pursuit of pleasure, not knowledge, is the meaning of life. The “stoics” taught that wisdom is found in being free from intense emotion, unmoved by joy or grief and a belief that everything in nature is God - aka pantheism.

In many ways, what the “epics” and “stoics” stood for is what we in modern society also hold dear to our hearts.  So perceived as a “babbler,” Paul is asked to address Mars Hill - where all these goonies get together and try to “out-philosophise” each other. There, Paul tells the Gospel in a relevant and missional way - a way their mindset is able to digest.

The result of this?

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst.  But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Acts 17:32-34

Here are our 3 responses:

1. Some mocked
2. Some wanted to know more
3. Some believed

What Paul did was address Mars Hill in a relevant, and yet confrontational way - not shying away from controversial issues and then he hit the topic of resurrection. And this is when “the *@!# hit the fan” at Mars Hill.  Anything in regards to resurrection was a major issue at Mars Hill given their philosophical beliefs - and this is probably why Paul didn’t get to finish his spiel and get to his favorite topic - the resurrection of his Messiah.  And Paul simply left Athens leaving a few members of Mars Hill as believers, some wanted to know more and probably most chasing him out of Athens in mockery.

Fast forward 2000 years and we find ourselves in the ridiculous cycle of which “conversation” or approach is better in getting people to accept the Gospel of Jesus.  I hear and get every perspective:

• To the fundamentals, I get your desire to hold onto truth and prevent the twisting of scripture in order to make the Gospel more “palatable” to the masses.
• To the emergents, I get your desire to present the Gospel in a relevant, new and fresh way - to keep up with the times.

The Rebel’s Guide To Joy

If you’re a Mark Driscoll fan, you would immediately recognise the title of this post is the current series he is preaching at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. If you haven’t checked out his preaching yet, I strongly suggest subscribing to the Mars Hill podcast.

Driscoll cops a lot of flack from Christian and non-Christians alike due to his inability to be meek and mild. This guy tells it like it is and it’s this that attracts me to his teaching. His style of teaching keeps you glued even though he talks for over an hour many times. What also helps is that the guy is actually funny. I know it sounds like an oxymoron but this is one serious and funny guy.

Below is the video intro to the current series, “The Rebel’s Guide To Joy”. It’s a sermon series based on the Book of Philippians.

This series focus is on the topic of joy. Not some airy fairy joy you “feel” when good times roll on. No this is the attitude and mindset of joy despite what’s happening in your life - real joy.

Philippians is written by Paul while in prison in Rome waiting his death sentence. Hardly the place you would expect a letter to be written about joy. An yet, through the Holy Spirit, Paul pens a letter which turns our understanding of joy upside down.

Driscoll’s sermon series on Philippians has blessed me so much and I’ve only heard 3 messages so far. This series will continue through to mid December and Driscoll will cover the topic of joy through many circumstances.

• October 7: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy (Acts 16; Phil. 1:1-1a)
• October 14: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Loneliness (Phil. 1:1b-11)
• October 21: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Suffering (Phil. 1:12-18)
• October 28: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Death (Phil. 1:19-30)
• November 4: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Humility (Phil. 2:1-11)
• November 11: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Temptation (Phil. 2:12-30)
• November 18: The Rebels Guide to Joy in Conflict (Phil. 3:1-11)
• December 2: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Exhaustion (Phil. 3:12-4:1)
• December 9: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Anxiety (Phil. 4:2-9)
• December 16: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Poverty (Phil. 4:10-23)

Click here to visit the Mars Hill “Rebels Guide To Joy” website.

One really cool thing Mars Hill has done with this series is video vignettes at the end of each sermon outlining how joy was found by a person despite his or her situation. If you love the good old hymns, you will find the video’s particularly interesting. At the time of writing this post, there were 4 videos released and I have included them below. Click here for updates.

Tags: Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, Philippians, Joy, Saints

The Demon Seed - And Also Afterward

Three of the most telling and chilling words in the whole Genesis 6 text are found in verse 4:

“The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” Gen 6:4

Apparently this unholy union wasn’t happening in pre-historic times only. The text says that whenever angels had sex with humans, the offspring was the Nephilim.

Let me paint the grand picture here. God declares war on Satan and states the battle will be played out between the seeds. This was very general so Satan tries to pollute the seed of man before the flood - and almost succeeds.

After the flood, history travels very quickly from Noah to Abraham. Then one day, God selects Abraham and tells him that through his seed, the nations of the world will be blessed. He is told that his descendants will spend 400 years in captivity in Egypt and then inherit the promised land.

Now Satan can narrow his attack. If God’s people were to dwell in Canaan in 400 years time, Satan had 400 years to corrupt the seed of man in that area. Indeed scripture indicates that the area was already well under way in being corrupted anyway.

Fast forward to Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. As they near the promised land, 12 spies were sent out on a recon mission to check out the land they were about to enter. The story they came back with was the cause of the 40 years wandering of the Hebrews in the desert.

“However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

“Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Number 33:28-29, 31-33

Despite Joshua and Caleb pleading to the people that God will deliver them against these genetic freaks, the Hebrews doubted God and spent the next 40 years wandering the desert.

Next time someone asks you, “why did Israel spend 40 years in the desert”, now you know. Next time someone asks you, “why is God so cruel that he orders the slaughter of women and children when Israel entered the promised land?” You can know in your heart that what God was orchestrating was the cleansing of the demon seed in Canaan. These were not normal humans but genetic mutations as a result of an unholy union.

Even King David had an encounter with the Nephilim. As the story goes, Israel did enter the promised land and defeated most of the people. Some they didn’t and this continued to play havoc. One such people were the Philistines - and in particular, Goliath.

Goliath was a giant. Him and his four brothers (now you know why David gathered 5 stones - he was gonna whack Goliath and his brothers) were direct descendants of the races of giants in Canaan. These freaks had 24 fingers and toes - 6 on each limb - something apparently normal with demon DNA.

So if you still think the Nephilim have nothing to do with our understanding of scripture, I hope you are starting to sit up and take notice. They were the reason why God destroyed the earth with a flood. They were the reason why the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. David defeated Goliath.

From here on, the seed of the woman is promised through the line of David. Widespread corruption of human DNA is no longer needed as now our enemy has a family to deal with. Just a casual reading about the story of David and his descendants tells a story wrought with sin and it’s devastating effects.

Remember, this was an ongoing war and Satan even managed to thwart the line of David. But God, in His wisdom found a way around it and led to the virgin conception of Mary. Even a reading of the events leading up to Jesus’ birth and early childhood reveal an ongoing Satanic inspired attempt to crush the seed of the woman. But Satan failed and the seed of the woman was born on the earth. His name is Jesus.

Revelation has a much better description of these events:

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.

And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.” Rev 12:1-6

The tale of the two seeds. It’s still being played out in our day. After all, Jesus says that as in the days of Noah, so shall it be when He returns. A huge event happened with the Nephilim in WW2. Next time I will delve into the mind of Hitler and what the Nephilim had to do with his wicked plans.

Tags: Nephilim, Israel, Canaan, Promised Land, Giants

The Demon Seed - Demon DNA

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecc 1:9

You can’t follow current events these days without hearing of genetic engineering, cloning or the debate over embryonic stem cells.

DNA - the blueprint of life, is present in every living thing. Within the double helix of anything with life lies a remarkable data storage system which - for you Matrix fans - happens to store a digital message.

Every detail of a living organism is stored in the strands of DNA. Every nanosecond, this data is accessed like a hard drive on heat, copied and replicated countless times on this planet.

God, our ultimate “geek” (with all due respect of course) continues to trash evolutionary thinking with the existence of DNA. Newly established sciences such as Information Sciences are screaming proof that there is an extreme intelligence behind all of life.

And God set this all in place back in pre-historic times. Thousands of years before the flood as He was master engineering all of reality, scripture records…

“And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.

The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.” Gen 1:11-13

“And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” Gen 1:20-25

Do you get the impression that God creates and then allows His creation to re-create according to the pattern He created? DNA is His tool for allowing this to happen.

Then after He set all this in place, He created His ultimate earthly creature - mankind. A being in His image to subdue and rule over everything God had created and declared good.

But the enemy of God is not blind to the workings of God. By commanding some of his angels to have sex with humans, Satan knew that mankind would not reproduce according to it’s own kind.

A new hybrid creature, a demigod - half physical and half spiritual, would result. The DNA of mankind forever and irrevocably changed. The “seed of the woman” destroyed forever - therefore thwarting the Messiah to enter into human history and redeem man back to God.

You got to admit, Satan’s plan was as genius as it was evil. And to think that he almost achieved his goal is a sobering reality as when God surveyed the land, He only chose to save Noah and his family from the flood. So let’s look at Noah’s story.

“These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” Gen 6:9-10

You get the impression that Noah was a good guy with words such as “righteous man” and “Noah walked with God”. But the term “blameless in his generation” refers to his physical purity. The word “blameless” is the Hebrew word “tamiym” and is most often translated “without defect” and is splashed all over the pages of Leviticus when it talks about the physical purity of animals chosen for sacrifice.

So to unpack all this, Noah was a good guy, a righteous and Godly man. Furthermore, his lineage was also unblemished from what was tormenting earth - that is the unholy reproduction of demigod like creatures known as the Nephilim.

His wife and the wives of his sons must have also come from “blameless generations” as they were also saved. Which indicates that not all human DNA was corrupted. But is must have been very close as scripture records…

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” Gen 6:5-6

And…

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” Gen 6:11-12

In those days, the heart of God was grieved that He had made mankind. Why? Because it had stopped reproducing after it’s own kind. What God had once declared very good, was now engulfed in a murderous and evil reality where even the plan of God was threatened unless He took a drastic step.

The flood.

I hope you now have a greater appreciation of why God used the flood to wipe mankind off the face of the earth. It wasn’t simply because there was sin on earth. There was a very specific sin on earth. But this specific sin raised it’s ugly head after the flood also and I’ll get into this next time also.

Furthermore, it was this specific sin which drove Hitler mad and was the cause of WW2. For those of you who want to race ahead, join the dots between Nephilim, Atlantis, Demigods, the Aryan Race and the Swastika.

Ah yes, the mystery of lawlessness held back has been raging for millennia. It wasn’t time during WW2. But will it be soon?

The Demon Seed - The Nephilim

In researching this topic, the most frustrating thing I uncovered is how people get it so wrong as to fallen angels and Nephilim. Look at the text;

“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” Gen 6:1-4

Let’s set this straight. Angels left their position in heaven and “fell” to earth - therefore becoming the fallen angels. These beings had sex with women and bore offspring. As was described in my previous post, these fallen angels were bound and sent to Tartarus.

Their offspring, the Nephilim were allowed to wreck havoc on earth. The Book of Enoch is a text which didn’t make it into the cannon but was quoted by Jude and James - the brothers of Jesus. This book gives an extraordinary account of what happened.

“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 the 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.’

And Semjâzâ, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’

Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations 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 upon it.

And these are the names of their leaders: Samîazâz, their leader, Arâkîba, Râmêêl, Kôkabîêl, Tâmîêl, Râmîêl, Dânêl, Êzêqêêl, Barâqîjâl, Asâêl, Armârôs, Batârêl, Anânêl, Zaqîêl, Samsâpêêl, Satarêl, Tûrêl, Jômjâêl, Sariêl. These are their chiefs of tens.

And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.” Book Of Enoch. Sec 1. Chap 6-7

Compare this with the biblical account:

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen 6:5

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” Gen 6:11-12

To tie this all in together, fallen angels took (abducted) women and bore offspring with them. These half spirit, half human beings were giants and were taught sorceries and all manner of occultism. Further chapters in Enoch outline how the Nephilim and mankind were also taught the means of warfare and other technologies. The end result of all this is death, destruction and evil - to the point were God was “sorry” that He made mankind.

What on earth was going on here? The fallen angels and the Nephilim were Satanic strategies to thwart the arrival of the Messiah. Think about it for a second. If you were the enemy of God and were told that your seed - your future generations - would see the culmination of this battle and that the “seed of the woman” will crush you, wouldn’t you seek to corrupt the seed of the woman?

In other words, Satan and his 1/3 of heaven set into motion an attempt to defile the genetic makeup of man - thereby preventing the “seed of the woman” - the Messiah - to be born. According to the Book of Enoch, 200 fallen angels impregnated women and offspring were born. Replicate this time and time again and let it run for generations and you start to see that mankind’s gene pool had some serious issues.

But Noah, good old Noah was different for he found favour in God’s eyes. The trick is to know why he found favour and I will cover this next time. But going back to fallen angels and the Nephilim, there is a a serious question to be asked..

What are demons?

Satan and his 1/3 of heaven are not demons. Some have been imprisoned for what they did pre-flood. However they are angels - beings with the ability to manifest physically - just ask the women impregnated by them as to how physical they are.

Are demons Nephilim? No as they were destroyed by the flood and the conquest of Canaan when they re-surfaced again before Israel took possession of the land.

There is a thought that demons are the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim seeking embodiment again as they cannot manifest physically. That’s why demons need to posses instead of manifest.

Chew on that one for awhile and then reconsider if you think this study is not relevant to our Christian walk.

Tags: Nephilim, Fallen Angels, Book of Enoch, Noah, Genetics, Demons

The Demon Seed - Fallen Angels

“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” Gen 6:1-4

If you read the above text carefully and were not disturbed by what you read, then go back and read it again. Paraphrasing, it reads, “Sons of God married daughters of man - had sex with them and had some pretty whacked out offspring.”

If you’re diligent in your studies, you’d want to know who these “sons of God” are and what were their offspring. Get to understand this and you get a glimpse into the real reason God destroyed the earth with a flood.

The Hebrew for “sons of God” is B’nai Elohim and it occurs 3 other times in the OT:

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” Job 1:6

“Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.” Job 2:1

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38:4-7

By now you get the picture that the “sons of God” the B’nai Elohim are angels. So now the narrative reads, “Angels married daughters of man - had sex with them and had some pretty whacked out offspring.”

The reason why God destroyed the earth with a flood is the fact that angels had sex with humans and bore an unholy offspring - the Nephilim. Now before you throw that quote at me saying that Jesus said that angels don’t marry, don’t bother, because here it is;

“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Mat 22:30

So angels don’t marry in heaven. Why should they? They have no need to procreate. But these angels in Genesis left their positions in heaven and became the fallen angels. Jude, the brother of Jesus, states;

“And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day” Jude 6

And just in case if you still don’t believe the chronology of these events, Peter nails it;

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly..” 2 Peter 2:4-5

To tie this all in together:

1. Angels don’t procreate in heaven.
2. Some angels left their positions in heaven and procreated with women.
3. These fallen angels are now bound in chains and are awaiting judgement. They are in Tartarus - Homers Iliad describes this place “as far below hades as the earth is below Heaven…”.
4. These angels and the daughters of man had offspring - the Nephilim - mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

The fallen angels who caused all this are bound in chains in Tartarus. Their seed, the Nephilim, was left on earth. These beings are half spirit and half human.

Demigods.

Mythology doesn’t sound “mythological” all of a sudden does it? Half human, half spiritual beings. Did you know that nearly all ancient civilisations had a record of demigods in their history? And these beings, what they represent, and the implication of their reality is what prompted God to format planet earth.

Think gene pool and you are on the right track. Next time we will discuss Noah - the hope of mankind.

Tags: Fallen Angels, Nephilim, Noah, Genetics, Heaven, Marriage