Still an important statement Christians doctrine, The Westminster Confession of Faith just seems to summarize what serious believers have historically thought about their faith. How do modern beliefs measure to these classical Christian teachings?


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". . .Enoch was born hundreds of years BEFORE Moses, and therefore was before the Torah laws. Enoch was quoted by almost every Apocalyptic Prophet of the OT, as well as almost every Apostle, JESUS CHRIST included, yet his work is not in the Canon. Does that make any sense? None at all....."

Hmmmm - that's interesting. I have to ask that question as well; why isn't the book of Enoch not included? After all, he is from the line of Seth and the scriptures clearly states in Genesis 5:22-24: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. No doubt, Enoch had a relationship with God and by this fact, his book should have been included.

-the 400 years of silence were anything but silent years.

I would have to agree with this statement. This so-called silent years only encourages us to speculate and attempt to teach what we do not know in order to fill in the gap or, we simply ignore it as if those years do not matter. That's too big of a gap to ignore.
It is a shame and a scandal as to the reasons why they excluded the Books of Enoch:

The book of Enoch was written in the 2nd century B.C., and was popular for about 500 years, with both Jews and early Christians. It is one of 15 works of the Jewish apocrypha, and the Jews rejected the book of Enoch when they made a canon of their own scriptures late in the second century A.D.

During the first three hundred years of Christianity, early church leaders made reference to it. The early second century "Epistle of Barnabus" makes much use of the Book of Enoch. Second and Third Century leaders, including Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origin and Clement of Alexandria all reference it. Tertullian (160-230 A.D.) even called the Book of Enoch "Holy Scripture". The Ethiopic Church even added the Book of Enoch to its official canon. It was widely known and read the first three centuries after Christ. This and many other books became discredited after the Council of Laodicea. And being under ban of the authorities, afterwards it gradually passed out of circulation.

Later theologians disliked it because of its content regarding the nature and actions of fallen angels. The Reformers, influenced by the Jewish canon of Old Testament, also considered it as non-canonical and thus it was removed from the Protestant Bible. Catholics apparently do consider the book of Enoch as canonical, as one of 12 of the 15 they accept.

Many of the early church fathers also supported the Enochian writings. Justin Martyr ascribed all evil to demons whom he alleged to be the offspring of the angels who fell through lust for women (from the Ibid.)–directly referencing the Enochian writings.

Athenagoras, writing in his work called Legatio in about 170 A.D., regards Enoch as a true prophet. He describes the angels which "violated both their own nature and their office." In his writings, he goes into detail about the nature of fallen angels and the cause of their fall, which comes directly from the Enochian writings.

Many other church fathers: Tatian (110-172); Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (115-185); Clement of Alexandria (150-220); Tertullian (160-230); Origen (186-255); Lactantius (260-330); in addition to: Methodius of Philippi, Minucius Felix, Commodianus, and Ambrose of Milanalso–also approved of and supported the Enochian writings.

http://yourgoingtohell.com/enoch.html
http://reluctant-messenger.com/enoch.htm
http://www.logoschristian.org/revealed/

THE COUNCIL OF LAODICEA IN PHRYGIA, the same council that chose the Canon of Scripture originally in the year 364 A.D. excluded the Book of Enoch and the Book of Revelation, and included the Book of Baruch. This same Council also did the following:

- banned female Ministers (CANON XI.)
- Deacons are to stand in the presence of Pastors (CANON XX.)
- Deacons cannot bless the Cup of the Holy Communion (CANON XXV.)
- do not feast together with Jews (CANON XXXVII.)
- don't receive unleavened bread from Jews (CANON XXXVIII.)
- no woman at the alter (CANON XLIV.)
- no dancing at weddings (CANON LIII.)

http://reluctant-messenger.com/council-of-laodicea.htm
Enoch was quoted by almost every Apocalyptic Prophet of the OT, as well as almost every Apostle, JESUS CHRIST included...

Jude clearly quotes the historical Enoch (although he doesn't identify his source for the quote, so it is at least arguable that the Holy Ghost directly revealed Enoch's words to the apostle, or that he recorded an oral tradition that a pseudonymous Book of Enoch repeated as well). Who else attributes a quotation to Enoch? Where does Jesus quote him?

I have some other questions about what you wrote, but maybe they are better suited for another thread:
http://www.blackpreachingnetwork.com/forum/topics/thoughts-on-these...
These are two sites I posted are from a copy of the Book of Enoch, a copy found with the rest of the Dead Sea scrolls, long before JESUS was born into this world:

http://www.stargods.org/EnochQuoted.htm
http://www.stargods.org/EnochQuoted2.htm

To my knowledge, James was the only Apostle to write scripture yet not quote the book of Enoch. Yes Jude quotes the historical Enoch, but what does him is not being clear as to where he got it from matter? Apostle Paul or the writer of the book of Hebrews or any other writer for that matter almost never directly reference their quotes, but we know who they quoted.
Thank you for the link: Are you genuinely persuaded the the examples listed are attributions from Enoch? I am more than a little incredulous.

Take the example given of Enoch 62:11a:
"In his judgments he pays no respect to persons..."

The table indicates this is repeated by Paul in s to Romans 2:11: "For there is no respect of persons with God."

However, Paul could have just as easily been quoting Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 2:11, couldn't he?

Similarly, 1 Corinthians 10:20 ("But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.") seems to borrow from Deuteronomy 32:17 ("They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.") rather than from Enoch 19:2 ("And being numerous in appearance made men profane, and caused them to err; so that they sacrificed to devils as to gods...").

I think most of these are specious as direct attributions. Even allowing the book as genuine Spirit-inspired prophecy, a similarity in imagery with another prophecy is not evidence of attribution. Otherwise, how do we explain the similarity of biblical prophecies (as I recently learned about on this message board, like Jeremiah's and Ezekiel's prophecies of a coming rule of David--in Jer. 30:9 and Ezek. 37:24)? Do we believe the prophets cribbed from one another when they said similar things?
"Do we believe the prophets cribbed from one another when they said similar things?"

Yes and no. GOD speaks to each Prophet individually, but He may repeat the same message to each. At the same time, the Prophets did closely study each other's words and writings. This was for checks-n-balance, for sharpening their own Prophetic awareness, and simply because it was GOD's word. Daniel was reading Jeremiah's words in his book, but Jeremiah wasn't even dead yet according to the time line. If he was, it wasn't that long after.
Your supposition that the prophets would be attentive to past and contemporary prophets is believable. Daniel clearly kept Jeremiah's prophecy at the forefront of his prayer life for the Jewish exiles. But of course he gave full attribution to Jeremiah, and did not make unattributed use of another prophet's words.
Very true. Prophets study each other and quote each other. We know that no matter who says what, it first came from GOD. We attribute who said what out of respect and reference.

JESUS didn't always say "Daniel said.....", "Joseph said......", or anything like that. He simply spoke, for the Prophets of old were speaking about Him and His FATHER by the Holy Spirit in the first place.
Apostle Paul or the writer of the book of Hebrews or any other writer for that matter almost never directly reference their quotes, but we know who they quoted.

Actually, Paul frequently indicated biblical attributions by affixing the preface "it is written." He didn't have chapter and verse demarcations to aid in his references.
Yes he said "it is written", but he didn't always say "it was written BY....."
However, what the table of Enoch "quotations" purports is that Paul made six or seven references to the Book of Enoch, yet never bothered to preface them with "it is written," as was his style with biblical references. Therefor, the accusation is that he made the references without attribution, allowing his reader to believe Enoch's words were his own. I don't believe this. Paul may have not indicated the specific writer of lines he quoted, but he at least let it known that he was quoting.
He didn't always say the words "it is written".

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