An Ancient Rock Concert

I've learned much about the Bible from non-canonical sources - the sacred writings of unknown origin, but dead-on. Over the years I have reflected often on Scripture. I perceived my own gift to be discernment, not only between right and wrong, but the symbolism in scripture. It came to me one day that all Holy Scripture is about Jesus Christ. The patriarchs of old undoubtedly did things and were righteous because God spoke directly with them!

Two "stories" opened my eyes: (1) Abraham's willingness in His sacrifice of his only beloved son on the mountaintop was my most profound realization, being symbolic of God's own sacrifice. I believe that the Word must have told Abraham about God's sacrifice of Jesus. At that time, in spite of professing the Trinity, I still separated God into three "people" - Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Many Christians still do that! My other profundity was, (2) that the Word who spoke to the patriarchs was pre-incarnate Jesus. Why so? Jesus Is God! That explained how Abraham knew so much about Jesus - He spoke with him!

Angels are messengers of God. In the Old Testament "the Angel of God" is the Word Himself. God manifested Himself as a burning bush, a man in the fiery furnace, a cloud, a light, and as the angel. All those appearances were supernatural. Then, when the time was optimal, God came to mankind "in the flesh". He became as His Creation, felt what we feel, and dreaded death just as we do. We tend to look at God in Heaven but earth is His footstool. On Calvary, iniquity yanked Him off that footstool for three days, but now Jesus reigns in Heaven on His throne. He was here and there at the same time because he is omnipresent.

Because of my earlier discernment, I pondered on many other things. When I read Holy Scripture in the Old Testament, I came to realize that all scripture is all about Jesus! When I read, I looked forward in time, just as the patriarchs did, and questioned the meaning of what I was reading. I made many conclusions. The first was that Abraham knew all about Jesus! That realization revealed to me "the mystery of God" (aka, "the mystery of Christ) of which Paul wrote. In one sentence that mystery is, "there is one testament - the covenant was always by grace, for all, and only through the blood of Jesus". 

I then thought much between the lines. It came to me that the Garden of Eden can't be found because it is no longer there. I deduced that somehow it ascended  just as God ascended Himself to the heavens. I came to the conclusion that the Garden is there, but in an invisible realm that we cannot see.  Now, I work on the idea that Jerusalem "the foundation of peace" which is now the armpit of war, is where Paradise once was and will be again.

With time, I discovered the sacred writings which are not canon. They aren't "Bible" but whoever wrote many of them had great discernment. To understand Jesus and His sacrifice hundreds of years before it happened, had to be God-inspired. Even if they were written after His death, whoever wrote them understood in detail "the mystery of God"! 

I wondered at times what dress, makeup, tattoos and the like had to do with spirituality. Because lipstick, earrings, immodest and colorful dress, tattoos and so forth are so prevalent today, we wonder, "just what is the problem?" I personally have attacked music often, not because music is bad but because it is misused. In scripture, all things are about God; not about us. With that said, the reader right now may quit reading because we all have our pleasures of choice. We know that God destroyed the earth by water because of wickedness. The pseudopigrapha story I include herein explains why God detests so badly the things which we think are harmless. It is why God destroyed the world. It seems the righteous on the Holy Mountain looked down on sin on the plain and desired it. The lesson is that Christians must not look on the things of the world, or they too, can be destroyed.

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I call these passages “Ancient Rock Concert Before the Flood”. This is from sacred literature written either before 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. Regardless of when it was written, it is insightful although it is not canon.  My comments are in parenthesis. I thought these chapters interesting because the description is so much like modern music, and its hold on even the Christian community. Also, it describes the evilness which resulted in the earth being cleansed by water. 

2 Adam & Eve 19:

1 Then God revealed to him (Jared) again the promise He had made to Adam; He explained to him the 5500 years (from Adam’s sin until salvation comes), and revealed unto him the mystery of His coming upon the earth (the mystery of God of which Paul wrote).

2 And God said to Jared, "As to that fire which thou hast taken from the altar to light the lamp withal, let it abide with you to give light to the bodies; and let it not come out of the cave, until the body of Adam comes out of it (In the end of days).

3 But, O Jared, take care of the fire, that it burn bright in the lamp; neither go thou again out of the cave, until thou receivest an order through a vision, and not in an apparition, when seen by thee.

4 "Then command again thy people not to hold intercourse with the children of Cain, and not to learn their ways; for I am God who loves not hatred and works of iniquity." (Cain’s line  produced “the daughters of men”.)

5 God gave also many other commandments to Jared, and blessed him. And then withdrew His Word (pre-incarnate Jesus) from him.

6 Then Jared drew near with his children, took some fire, and came down to the cave, and lighted the lamp before the body of Adam; and he gave his people commandments as God had told him to do.

7 This sign happened to Jared at the end of his four hundred and fiftieth year; as did also many other wonders, we do not record. But we record only this one for shortness sake, and in order not to lengthen our narrative.

8 And Jared continued to teach his children eighty years; but after that they began to transgress the commandments he had given them, and to do many things without his counsel (honoring not their father). They began to go down from the Holy Mountain one after another, and to mix with the children of Cain, in foul fellowships.

9 Now the reason for which the children of Jared went down the Holy Mountain, is this, that we will now reveal unto you. (Until then Seth’s line had been so righteous, being separate – sanctified, on the Holy Mountain that God had considered them angels, and were referred to as “Sons of God”).

2 Adam & Eve 20:

1 AFTER Cain had gone down to the land of dark soil (off the Holy Mountain, and the soil was dark physically and spiritually), and his children had multiplied therein, there was one of them, whose name was Genun, son of Lamech the blind who slew Cain.

2 But as to this Genun, Satan came into him in his childhood; and he made sundry trumpets and horns, and string instruments, cymbals and psalteries, and lyres and harps, and flutes; and he played on them at all times and at every hour (instruments had been unknown until then, except maybe the shofar).

3 And when he played on them, Satan came into them, so that from among them were heard beautiful and sweet sounds, that ravished the heart. (Satan made seductive music to be played on the instruments).

4 Then he gathered companies upon companies (various bands) to play on them; and when they played, it pleased well the children of Cain, who inflamed themselves with sin among themselves, and burnt as with fire (sexual passion); while Satan inflamed their hearts, one with another, and increased lust among them.

5 Satan also taught Genun to bring strong drink out of com; (alcoholic spirits) and this Genun used to bring together companies upon companies in drink-houses (the bars of antiquity); and brought into their hands all manner of fruits and flowers; and they drank (partied) together.

6 Thus did this Genun multiply sin exceedingly; he also acted with pride, and taught the children of Cain to commit all manner of the grossest wickedness, which they knew not; and put them up to manifold doings which they knew not before (Lead them to temptation by removing inhibitions).

7 Then Satan, when he saw that they yielded to Genun and hearkened to him in every thing he told them, rejoiced greatly, increased Genun's understanding, until he took iron and with it made weapons of war. (The first mention of war, and it was instigated by Satan).

8 Then when they were drunk, hatred and murder increased among them; one man used violence against another to teach him evil taking his children and defiling them before him (pedophilia).

9 And when men saw they were overcome, and saw others that were not overpowered, those who were beaten came to Genun, took refuge with him, and he made them his confederates.

10 Then sin increased among them greatly; until a man married his own sister, or daughter, or mother, and others; or the daughter of his father's sister, so that there was no more distinction of relationship (incestuous relationships… and “others” were surely “other”men), and they no longer knew what is iniquity (sin became the norm); but did wickedly, and the earth was defiled with sin, and they angered God the Judge, who had created them.

11 But Genun gathered together companies upon companies (band after band), that played on horns and on all the other instruments we have already mentioned, at the foot of the Holy Mountain; and they did so in order that the children of Seth (those who were righteous) who were on the Holy Mountain should hear it (tempt them with pleasure).

12 But when the children of Seth heard the noise, they wondered, and came by companies, and stood on the top of the mountain to look at those below; and they did thus a whole year. (The first “Woodstock-type rock concert ” it seems).

13 When, at the end of that year, Genun saw that they were being won over to him little by little (sin is gradual), Satan entered into him, and taught him to make dyeing-stuffs for garments of divers patterns, and made him understand how to dye crimson and purple and what not (the same gaudy costumes that concert-goers still wear).

14 And the sons of Cain who wrought all this, and shone in beauty and gorgeous apparel, gathered together at the foot of the mountain in splendour, with horns and gorgeous dresses, and horse races, committing all manner of abominations.

15 Meanwhile the children of Seth, who were on the Holy Mountain, prayed and praised God, in the place of the hosts of angels who had fallen; wherefore God had called them "angels," because He rejoiced over them greatly.

16 But after this, they no longer kept His commandment, nor held by the promise He had made to their fathers; but they relaxed from their fasting and praying, and from the counsel of Jared their father. (Pleasure relaxes them from spirituality) And they kept on gathering together on the top of the mountain, to look upon the children of Cain, from morning until evening (Like Woodstock), and upon what they did, upon their beautiful dresses and ornaments (even the righteous gave way to sin).

17 Then the children of Cain looked up from below, and saw the children of Seth, standing in troops on the top of the mountain; and they called to them to come down to them. (what you are seeing and hearing won't hurt!)

18 But the children of Seth said to them from above, "We don't know the way." (Certainly not God’s Way!)  Then Genun, the son of Lamech, heard them say they did not know the way, and he bethought himself how he might bring them down (Genun showed them another way).

19 Then Satan appeared to him by night, saying, "There is no way for them to come down from the mountain on which they dwell; but when they come to-morrow, say to them, 'Come ye to the western side of the mountain; there you will find the way of a stream of water, that comes down to the foot of the mountain, between two hills; come down that way to us.'" (The “way” was perilous and likely broad, according the New Testament).

20 Then when it was day, Genun blew the horns and beat the drums below the mountain, as he was wont. The children of Seth heard it, and came as they used to do (entered into temptation).

21 Then Genun said to them from down below, "Go to the western side of the mountain, there you will find the way (the wrong path) to come down."

22 But when the children of Seth heard these words from him, they went back into the cave to Jared, to tell him all they had heard.

23 Then when Jared heard it, he was grieved; for he knew that they would transgress his counsel.

24 After this a hundred men of the children of Seth gathered together (peer pressure), and said among themselves, "Come, let us go down to the children of Cain, and see what they do, and enjoy ourselves with them." (Join the concert!)

25 But when Jared heard this of the hundred men, his very soul was moved, and his heart was grieved. He then arose with great fervour, and stood in the midst of them, and adjured them by the blood of Abel the just, "Let not one of you go down from this holy and pure mountain, in which our fathers have ordered us to dwell." (Jared was to them the closed-minded overly righteous parent).

26 But when Jared saw that they did not receive his words, he said unto them, "O my good and innocent and holy children, know that when once you go down from this holy mountain, God will not allow you to return again to it." (To deny God after knowing him would be as crucifying him again – NT).

27 He again adjured them, saying, "I adjure by the death of our father Adam, and by the blood of Abel, of Seth, of Enos, of Cainan, and of Mahalaleel, to hearken to me, and not to go down from this holy mountain (apostasy); for the moment you leave it, you will be reft of life and of mercy; and you shall no longer be called 'children of God,' but 'children of the devil.'" (They became the sons of perdition).

28 But they would not hearken to his words.

29 Enoch at that time was already grown up, and in his zeal for God, be arose and said, "Hear me, O ye sons of Seth, small and great--when ye transgress the commandment of our fathers, and go down from this holy mountain--ye shall not come up hither again for ever." (Enoch, because he was true to God bever suffered death but was taken up to heaven. He never suffered the flood).

30 But they rose up against Enoch, and would not hearken to his words, but went down from the Holy Mountain.

31 And when they looked at the daughters of Cain, at their beautiful figures, and at their hands and feet dyed with colour, and tattooed in ornaments on their faces, the fire of sin was kindled in them. (It seems they were dressed in the apparel of modern concert-goers down to the tattoos which God forbids)

32 Then Satan made them look most beautiful before the sons of Seth, as he also made the sons of Seth appear of the fairest in the eyes of the daughters of Cain, so that the daughters of Cain lusted after the sons of Seth like ravenous beasts, and the sons of Seth after the daughters of Cain, until they committed abomination with them. (Fornication).

33 But after they had thus fallen into this defilement, they returned by the way they had come, and tried to ascend the Holy Mountain. But they could not, because the stones of that holy mountain were of fire flashing before them, by reason of which they could not go up again. (Apparently, the seraphim also guarded the gate to the Holy Mountain just as they did to the Garden so that they could not re-enter).

34 And God was angry with them, and repented of them because they had come down from glory, and had thereby lost or forsaken their own purity or innocence, and were fallen into the defilement of sin. (Herein sin is pretty much described as leaving righteousness for pleasure).

35 Then God sent His Word (pre-incarnate Jesus) to Jared, saying, "These thy children, whom thou didst call 'My children,'--behold they have transgressed My commandment, and have gone down to the abode of perdition, and of sin (doing the things of the world). Send a messenger to those that are left, that they may not go down, and be lost."

36 Then Jared wept before the Lord, and asked of Him mercy and forgiveness. But he wished that his soul might depart from his body, rather than hear these words from God about the going down of his children from the Holy Mountain.

37 But he followed God's order, and preached unto them not to go down from that holy mountain, and not to hold intercourse with the children of Cain (the true Way).

38 But they heeded not his message, and would not obey his counsel.

(And then the world was dirty enough for the flood!)

(It seems that there are two possibilities for “giants” in the days before Noah. Here, the Sons of God were of the line of Seth, and the Daughters of Men were Cain’s line. Other stories relate that angels came down and had intercourse with humans. Since, God likened Seth’s line to angels, when they fell, they were as dark angels. Somehow this intercourse created a giant people. In earlier writings Satan took the form of being taller than the angels who consorted with him? It would seem that giants were a penalty for this intermingling of the righteous with the wicked, and indeed Seth’s line were “men of renown”).