WWUTT 1445 Q&A Book of Enoch, Bible Book Videos, Bible Project Misunderstood

The Book of Enoch and Whether Jude Cites It

Does the book of Enoch belong in the Bible? Who was Jude referencing when he quoted from Enoch? And are we just misunderstanding the Bible project, guys? The answers to these questions, When We Understand the Text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast. That we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, who is not in studio with me this week. And as my regular listeners surely notice, this episode's even coming in a little bit late. It's still dated for May 21st, but it's not going to be uploaded until May 23rd.

It's one of those things where if I don't record it in the time that I have set aside to work on the podcast, playing catch up is really hard. So here we go. Finally getting this done and getting it uploaded.

This is the Q &A where we take questions from the listeners and respond to them on the Friday edition of the broadcast. I'm going to come back to a question that I answered last week. It was really the only question that I answered last week with Joy asking about Robert Breaker, a false teacher on YouTube who has tens of millions of views.

And we summarized his false teaching into these three problems. Number one, Breaker's a King James only-ist. He has gone as far as saying that if you don't have a King James version of the Bible, then you don't have a Bible.

That's an exact quote. He thinks that the King James Bible is the only translation that God approves of, which is a lie. So that teaching in itself is lying. Number two, Breaker's a false prophet. He makes all kinds of prophecies about stuff that doesn't come true, or he will make you think that he's prophesying something that may or may not come true.

And for Breaker, it's not necessarily a thing of God showed me this, and so here, he thinks that he's deciphering these secrets from the King James Bible and then telling you about this stuff that's going to happen in the future, even coordinating specific dates in which these events are going to take place.

And all of that is a lie. Thirdly, Breaker wanders off into myth and vain discussion. He reads things in the text that just simply are not there, even when it comes to things as basic as preaching the gospel.

So you can go back and listen to that episode for more stuff and clips of Breaker's teaching. The other question that Joy had, though, in her email was about the book of Enoch, because Breaker believes that the book of Enoch should be in the Bible.

Now, I don't know what his justification is for this. I've not heard him talk about it, but I would imagine that his reasoning is the same as I've heard from a lot of false teachers who have asserted the same thing.

Jude quotes the book of Enoch in his letter, the second to last book of the Bible. And so because Jude quotes the book of Enoch as having been the word of God, therefore, the book of Enoch should be included in canon in the Bible.

Now, this is not just a Breaker teaching. This is something, again, that I've heard lots of false teachers say. Should we be including the book of Enoch in scripture? No, we should not. And the two main reasons are these.

We'll go through some texts and kind of break all this down. But here's the two main reasons. Number one, Enoch, as mentioned in Genesis five, did not write the book of Enoch. It is not divinely inspired.

The Holy Spirit did not give these words to Enoch that we now have as the book of Enoch. So it did not come from God. That's number one. Number two, I don't even believe Jude is quoting the book of Enoch in his letter.

So let's go through this. Let's just kind of understand who is Enoch and where has this book of Enoch even come from? Well, Enoch is in the Bible, of course. This is the man who was taken before he died.

This is the first man who did not ever actually die. But the Lord took him, as talked about in Genesis chapter five. It's in verse 21, where it says, when Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.

Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. And we know that this statement that Enoch walked with God and God took him is that God just took him up into heaven.

He did not die in his body. He was privileged to be taken up into the presence of God without dying, just as Elijah was, according to second Kings chapter two. One of the other reasons we know that's what Genesis five means when it says that Enoch was and he was not is because of what Hebrews 11 5 says.

By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. That's Hebrews 11 5. The only other place in the New Testament that Enoch is mentioned, other than Jude and Hebrews, is in the book of Luke.

He's mentioned in Jesus genealogy from Adam to Christ. That's in Luke chapter three. There's the three occasions in the New Testament where Enoch is mentioned. Nothing is ever quoted from Enoch, except in the book of Jude.

And this is what we read in Jude, beginning in verse 14, just one chapter, verse 14. But Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam also prophesied about these men talking about false teachers saying, behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds, which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Now, I'm reading that from the Legacy Standard Bible. That sounds a lot like a particular verse that comes out of the first book of Enoch. There's three books of Enoch, first, second and third Enoch. But in the first book of Enoch, in the first chapter, ninth verse, it sounds a lot like what Jude just cited in his letter.

Here's what we read in Enoch, first Enoch one nine. It says this, and behold, he cometh with ten thousand 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.

That sounds really, really close to what we read in Jude, doesn't it? So is Jude quoting from the book of Enoch? No, no, he's not. Now, Jude is writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So it doesn't even matter if the book of Enoch actually does precede the writing of Jude.

Jude did not quote this other book in his letter. He's quoting something that the Holy Spirit gave him that either was part of a Jewish tradition up to that point. Maybe something that Enoch said or wrote pre-flood, Noah either held on to it in the writings or maybe as part of an oral tradition.

And then maybe it's that Jude is referencing in a certain way that, you know, people would recognize it. Oh, yeah, I've heard this quote from Enoch or something like that. But Jude writing it has nothing to do with quoting another book that especially a book that was not inspired by God.

What Enoch or I'm sorry, what Jude is saying came from the Holy Spirit. So if Jude is saying Enoch said it, according to the Holy Spirit of God, then Enoch actually said it. Not because it's in the book of Enoch, but because Jude said that Enoch said it.

Enoch, the of the seventh generation after Adam, seems pretty clear cut what it is that Jude is referencing. There was something that Enoch actually said. So Jude is not quoting this pseudepigraphy work.

There's a word for you. And then saying it came from Enoch when it didn't really come from Enoch. What do I mean by pseudepigraphy? Well, first, second and third Enoch, even among the Jewish rabbinic literature, these are considered pseudepigraphy.

I might even say that a few more times just because it's fun to say pseudo means fake. It's from a Greek word meaning fake. We use the same prefix in words like pseudonym, where you come up with a fake name.

Right. So pseudo means fake. Pigraphal means writing. It is a fake writing. And again, even among Jewish historians, they consider first, second and third Enoch to be a fake writing. Enoch did not write this.

The first book of Enoch. Now, each one of these books of Enoch has a different timeline on them, when they were written and how they ended up in tradition and stuff like that. But the first book of Enoch, no one is even really sure when this book was written.

It's dated somewhere between 400 B .C. to 200 A .D. That's a huge gap. And the possibility remains that it was written after Jude. It could be that there were some books of or some writings of Enoch that may have existed still pseudepigraphal.

So they had this kind of like collections of sayings of Enoch or something like that. Then after Jude wrote his book, somebody or his letter, rather, somebody got this idea. Hey, Jude quoted Enoch. What if we put that quote in our book and it gives it a little more credibility?

And so they grabbed what Jude said and stuck it right at the very beginning. That even makes it look a little bit better. It's the ninth verse of our book of Enoch in a section of the first book of Enoch.

That's called the Book of the Watchers. So they stick it in there, they gain some credibility, and it even makes it look like Jude had quoted from that book. But once again, there's no evidence of that.

Jude does not say that he's quoting from the writing of Enoch. Peter talked about the writings of Paul in 2 Peter 3 16. He talks about Paul's letters, things that he had written. Jude is not talking about a writing here.

He's talking about something that Enoch said. And even if there was not some large body of writings or text of Enoch that had been preserved all the way up to the point that Jude was writing this point that Enoch said thousands of years before Jude wrote this was apparently so significant that it was remembered and passed down from Noah through the generations and even Moses to the Israelites and so on and so forth.

It is such a prophecy that it still rings true this warning about false teachers and the judgment that is coming upon them. Once again, let me read it from Jude, beginning in verse 14. But Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam also prophesied about these men, about these false teachers, saying, behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones.

Paul talks about this in second Thessalonians chapter one, where he's talking about how Jesus is going to be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

That second Thessalonians chapter one verses seven and eight. So Paul talks about that right going on in Jude, verse 15, to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds.

This is not a conviction that they're then going to repent from. It's like a a final conviction or a final judgment that is upon them because of what they falsely proclaimed about God, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

So what was falsely said about God and what was even falsely done in their flesh in rebellion against God? The Lord is going to return and he is going to judge these false teachers for this. So if this was something that Enoch said prior to the flood, it is so true and so prophetic, so fulfilling down through the ages that it was remembered and passed down in in Jewish oral tradition.

But once again, as Jude is writing it, this comes by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It really doesn't matter if it was some oral tradition that somebody made up or if it appeared in some previous writing.

That's insignificant. What Jude is writing is what the Holy Spirit told him to write. So any connection that this has with the book of Enoch is illegitimate. There is I'm telling you, there is no connection there.

And there's not even enough in history for us to make some direct link. Between first Enoch one nine and Jude versus 14 and 15, there's not even enough historical evidence to say conclusively that first Enoch precedes the writing of Jude.

Who is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not drawing from some pseudo picker for work. Peter says in second Peter chapter one, beginning in verse 19, and we have as more sure the prophetic word, the prophetic word to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Know this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes by one's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by the will of man. But men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. That is how Jude is writing, that is where that quote from Enoch even comes from, for Enoch credited with this prophecy in the book of Jude spoke from God.

Thank you for your questions, Joy. This next question has to do with, uh, I think the most recent what video. I may not have done one since this video. Anyway, a few weeks ago I did a video on the book of Genesis, which was a two minute video summarizing Genesis.

And I made the announcement that I'm going to be doing all 66 books. So you will find what videos that give kind of an overview of each book of the Bible. Here's the video on Genesis, and then I'll take our next question.

Genesis is a history book, the first book of the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Bible. These were all written by the prophet Moses in the 15th century B .C. Genesis means origins, and that's what this book is about.

The origins of creation, the human race, sin and the Jewish people. It opens with one of the most famous sentences in history. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Chapter one is of the six day creation, with chapter two focusing on the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, made in the image of God.

In chapter three, we read of the fall of man, when a serpent tempted Eve to eat of the one tree God told them not to eat from. Eve gave some of the fruit to Adam and he ate. This was the original sin.

And as a result, all creation is cursed. Death enters the picture and man is separated from God. Yet it's here that we have the first mention of the gospel. In Genesis 315, God said to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This is like the thesis statement of the Bible, foreshadowing the coming of a savior, Jesus Christ, whom the whole Bible is about. In chapters four through 11, we read about Cain and Abel, Noah and the great flood, the Tower of Babel and the table of nations.

Chapters 12 to 50 tell us about the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob called Israel, Jacob's sons who fathered the 12 tribes of Israel. And we finish with Joseph in Egypt. Genesis features three main themes, land, seed and covenant.

For example, God promises Abraham land, gives him children or seed and makes a covenant with him. The book ends with promises not yet fulfilled. But even Genesis looks forward to that ultimate promise, Jesus Christ, who will defeat death and undo the curse of sin for all who believe by faith when we understand the text.

And when you watch the video version of that, you have the entire transcript right there on the screen. So that outline is shown for you there, texts and quotes and stuff like that. Therefore, what you're hearing is also what you see.

And the videos are just as much for the hearing impaired as for those who want to watch a summary of the book of Genesis. All the books of the Bible will be like that. The videos on the books of the Bible.

So because of that video or after that video, this question came from Banksy in Oklahoma City. Banksy says, hey, Pastor Gabe, I was excited to hear that you are planning on doing a series of videos. Giving an overview for each book of the Bible, the video you did on Genesis looks great.

I can't wait for Exodus and the other 64 books after that. I have a suggestion. It looks like you are just planning on doing two minute videos for each book. Is there a chance that you could spend more time on them than just two minutes?

The Bible project videos are more like seven minutes long. I know a lot of people are going to be looking for a replacement to the Bible project, and that is part of your motivation for making these videos.

If your videos were longer, they would be more comparable or able to compete with the Bible project. Just a suggestion. Thanks again for your work. Well, one of the reasons why I'm doing it in two minutes is because, come on, that's just what videos they've always been short and to the point.

So we're going to keep them short in the nature of other what videos. I'm not trying to do like an exact parallel of what the Bible project was doing only with sound doctrine, because if you haven't been keeping up with the ministry with what I do, then you've probably missed that the Bible project guys.

I mean, they're heretics. They deny penal substitutionary atonement. They're universalists. They think everybody's going to get to heaven. Eventually, that hell is actually a place that man is created.

It's real wonky. Oh, and they've also fallen into the whole critical race theory and intersectionality thing. They're also pushing that as well. So a lot of false teachers have influenced these guys. Tim Mackey and John, I can't remember the other guy's name anyway.

Stay away from the Bible project. Don't use them, even though some of their videos where they summarize books of the Bible can be somewhat helpful. It's usually their other videos that wander off into the weeds when you go to their website and you download the study guides that they have that go with each video.

It's in that material. It's in the podcast. It's in the printed material and stuff like that. That's where stuff goes really awry. They might draw you in with the video, and it seems pretty solid for the most part.

Summarizing what that book of the Bible is about. There's few things even in those videos that I've found that are particularly wrong. I might have done more than they did on the book of Romans, but you wouldn't necessarily watch that and think that what they're espousing is heresy until you realize that they deny penal substitutionary atonement.

That Christ died on the cross for our sins as an atoning sacrifice. And then once you realize that they deny that, you see it everywhere in everything it is that they do. So I am trying to provide an alternative video for you to use that summarizes a book of the Bible that you don't have to use the Bible project.

But I'm not trying to mirror what it is that they do. I'm not using the same sort of graphics and the artistry that they use to illustrate all of these videos that they have made. They've also got a lot of money backing this stuff, and this is what they do.

This is their jobs. The guys that run the Bible project, and then they've got a staff that works for them as well. This is their job. That's all they do. I'm a pastor. What videos is not all I do. Hence why this episode of the podcast was late because I've had other things to do.

I haven't had the time to be able to invest in things like that. It's easier for me to crank out more videos if I keep them short. Plus, I mean, was there anything that you felt like was lacking from that Genesis video?

If I say too much, then I'm teaching Genesis. But if I can keep it short and sweet, then I'm providing a basic overview for you to use that helps you when you are reading that book. Now, thanks to that video, you know to look for the themes of Land, Seed and Covenant, right?

In all those stories, you see a breakdown of how Genesis is written and presented. If I'm going into a really detailed account of the creation story, I can spend a lot of time on that. And then the stories of Abraham don't get as much, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

Maybe I'll do some things longer sometime in the future. But in the meantime, I'm just going to stick with the two-minute format when it comes to summarizing these books of the Bible. The other beneficial thing about that, about doing the two-minute summary, and not all of these videos are going to be two minutes.

Some of them will only be a minute and a half. Like we just talked about Jude. I don't think I need to take two minutes on Jude. It takes you two minutes to read it. I'm just kidding. It takes longer than that.

But anyway, I can spend a minute and a half, another one of those 90-second videos talking about Jude rather than taking the full two minutes. So some of those videos will be shorter. You take 66 books.

If I was doing 66 videos, two minutes long, that would be 132 minutes. That's about the length of a movie, right? A little bit longer than a movie. So the intention there would be that the videos basically come out side by side.

They come out to be about 120 minutes. And then you could watch them all in one sitting as almost like a two-hour film. And then you have in two hours an overview of every book of the Bible, Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.

How's that? So that's really what was in my thinking when I was trying to decide how long do I make these? Do I go into as much detail or as much, you know, even illustration and things like that, like the Bible Project guys did?

Do I just stick with the format that I've always done? And that's the direction that I decided to go with it. So they're going to be short, sweet, and to the point. I'm thankful. And this email from Banksy is not the only request that I've received like this.

There are others that have said, can you make these videos longer? Or even the videos that I've done that are a minute and a half. Somebody saying, can you expound on that and give me some more information or go through some more text?

Give me more than what you just gave me in a minute and a half. I appreciate that. It means that you like what you have heard and you want to hear more of it. But I'm always just trying to put out videos that are short, sweet, to the point, addressing various topics.

There are people that are going to spend more time on that. That's fabulous. Sometimes I do spend more time on that because here we're talking about it on the podcast. So I'll put out a video, somebody watches it, ask a question, and then we're able to expound a little bit more on an episode of the podcast.

So, yeah, ask those questions. And I didn't give out the email at the very beginning. It's when we understand the text at gmail .com. This last question here actually has a little bit to do with that previous question.

So this one comes from Aaron. And Aaron, when he sent me this, he titled it super awesome business endeavor. I almost deleted the email, if not for the fact that I could also see the first line of the email in the way my email is set up.

You know, you can see the first line of the email next to the subject. So if it weren't for that feature, I would have just deleted Aaron's email and not have even read it. But he says, just kidding. It's a response to your Bible project criticism.

Am I funny? So he yeah, he titled it with a junk mail title. Super awesome business endeavor. Anyway, so Aaron goes on. You seem to misunderstand Tim talking about Tim Mackey of the Bible project. Jesus oftentimes spoken metaphors and used words with double meanings.

The way he frames it doesn't appease your very literal interpretation of the text. However, the way you frame it seems to miss the greater message Jesus was trying to get across. He was trying to pass the flaming torch to us as he was a catalyst to wake us up out of Judaism slash paganism.

I got to be honest with you, Aaron. I have no idea what you just I really I don't even know what that means. Jesus was not a catalyst. He came to undo the works of Satan, as it says in first John. He came to reveal to us the father, as it says in John one, he came to seek and save the lost.

He came to give his life as a ransom for many. So he didn't come as a as a catalyst to wake us up out of Judaism and paganism. He came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Matthew 517. I could go on and on.

And this is what the text says. This is not some like random mysterious metaphor that we have to, you know, decipher as being like something poetic. So it's whatever it means to you. No, the scriptures are straightforward with their meaning.

We can read it and we can understand what it says, but we cannot understand without the spirit of God. That's what we've been talking about reading through first Corinthians chapter two in our study on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

It is the Holy Spirit that reveals to us spiritual things. The natural minded man cannot understand spiritual things for they are spiritually discerned. Come back on Monday and listen in as we continue that study through first Corinthians chapter two.

Jesus also said this to his disciples. The disciples came to him and said, why do you speak in parables? And Jesus answered and said to them, to you, it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

So if you do not understand these things, Aaron, it's possible that you're not one of Jesus sheep. Jesus said to the Jews who did not understand him, why is it that you do not understand what I say? It's because you are of you are not of my sheep.

You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire. That is something Aaron for you to examine in yourself. Aaron goes on in this email and says, we are made in God's image.

We play the critical role when it comes to enabling heaven and hell here on earth. Oh, yeah. Yeah. See, you're very clearly influenced by the Bible project stuff. We play the critical role when it comes to enabling heaven and hell here on earth.

That sounds like something Tim Mackey would say. I don't see the same separation between the astral and the tangible as Jesus often use spatial language such as another meaning from above. As far as the Nicaean Council's area saw fault with boiling God down to a set of literal notions as it did not do justice to the duality of it all.

It's hard for us mere mortals to truly comprehend time, God, heaven, hell, and these were often portrayed in graspable forms such as father. Another example would be the story of the earth being created in seven days.

This story is literally older than language and time. It was an oral tradition long before literature. And yes, a bit simplified. I can't speak for Tim's sake on these councils, but nonetheless, language fails to frame these complex terms with justice and actually can make us Pharisees feel more like God's ourselves.

What are you saying, man? I just don't get I read through this email before I did this on the program, but reading it silently and reading it out loud are it's it's two completely different things. So he makes this comment about the story of the earth being created in seven days.

This story is literally older than language in time. Well, it's not literally older than time because, as Augustine said, with the creation of matter was also the creation of time. So when God said, let there be light that that was also the beginning of time.

So the story, the creation story can't be older than that. Right. Yeah. And by the way, God did not create the world in seven days. I have never said God created the world in seven days. He created the universe, the world and everything in it, seen and unseen in six days and rested on the seventh.

There you go. So Aaron goes on. I've seen Tim's videos talking about God's wrath. He's personified as being slow to anger, but definitely angered by sin. Long story short, would you please take a fresh breath and reapproach these topics with a new lens?

I'm very patient and will do my best to function as a resource for you, Aaron. Thank you for taking the time to write that email, but I will not be seeking your counsel on anything, not because I'm full of myself, but because the pride is yours.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. Repent and study his word. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10, 17. Folks, thank you so much for listening to the program today.

Thank you for being patient with me as it is a couple of days late. Don't forget about the Wokeness and the Gospel Conference coming up June 11th and 12th at Denton Bible Church in Denton, Texas. You can register going to Wokenessandgospel .org.

Becky and I will be there with a booth at the conference, and we hope to see you there as well. I just happened to catch a couple of days ago that they have now more than a thousand registrations for this conference, so it's going to be great.

There's going to be a fantastic turnout. Terrific speakers like my own pastor, Tom Buck, Daryl Harrison, Owen Stran, Tommy Nelson, and others. Go to Wokenessandgospel .org. God bless you all. God willing, I'll be back on the podcast tomorrow as we continue our study in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

Find a good, Gospel-teaching, Christ-centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more Bible study when we understand the text.