Friday, December 27, 2019

A Review of Spiritual Anime: Suisei no Gargantua



Japanese anime is a hit and miss affair, and without standardized ratings as with most western animations and movies its often hard to find good quality ones that I can recommend.  However in Japanese anime the creators have more freedom to express their creativity than most other animations produced elsewhere. My all time favorite anime is Code Geass - the first anime I ever watched - but I thought I would recommend a lesser known anime released in 2013, Suisei no Gargantia (or Gargantia on the Verduous Planet).  It has a spiritual message similar to the theme of this blog.  I had blogged about an episode of another anime earlier which also has a spiritual message, and strangely it appeared in another person's dream the same night (see A Clairvoyant Angelic Dream of Japanese Anime). This anime may have also appeared in another person's dream the same night I was watching it, so I took note and decided it was worthy to share it in this blog.

Without spoiling it, the anime does discuss a human extraterrestrial society wandering in space, highly regulated and under military control, where freedoms we take for granted given as special privileges.  There seem to be elements drawn from reports of contacts with extraterrestrials - such as one our government does not want us to know, that they live in a society where there is no money. Also we can see here probably how some extraterrestrials truly see our society as extremely inefficient and wasteful (see Extraterrestrial Contact from Iarga: their Origin and Philosophy). Another aspect shown in this anime is the danger of open extraterrestrial contact, how it can change society for the worse and bring about a distorted religion. It discusses how different societies have different moral codes which govern their behavior. It may show an aspect of our future, when our planet may become covered with larger amounts of water due to global warming.

However that is a side story. The main message comes at the end: when one devoutly follows a religion based on authority and tradition (see Truth by Religious Tradition & Authority vs. Spiritual Truth), and then one comes to the realization that the religion is false, and was used as a means of control. It is preceded by an extraterrestrial also having to confront the falsehood of propaganda that was fed to him all his life in order to control his behavior.  It reminded me of the time when I forced myself to confront the falsehoods of Christianity - and to acknowledge the falsehoods of one's own religion is a very, very hard thing to do. Few people question what they grew up with. But when they do, and realize that it is false, one cannot just go alone and follow the truth: there must be a battle between the old religion and the new truth.  This is known as spiritual warfare, and this battle between the old Christianity and the new is described metaphorically in the battle of Armageddon (see also The Prophecy of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet). The ending of this anime would be a good symbolic representation of that battle.

The anime has 13 episodes, and I would say in terms of pacing it starts good and then it falls into a series of "fluff" episodes in the middle, and then it picks up at the end. It was rated as #10 in the top ten best action animes by one reviewer (see Top 10 Action Anime) and while the others may be more action packed this is the only one I have seen so far that ends with a good moral and spiritual message. Thus for me, it would be higher in my list of favorites.

Saturday, December 21, 2019

A Revelation on the Incarnation of the Word, the Logos, the Pre-Existence of Christ




The New Testament reveals that Jesus Christ, before He was born, had a pre-existence. This is made apparent in the Gospel of John, where Jesus is the "Word made flesh" (John 1:14). Here the Gospel of John uses the Greek word Logos, which had various meanings in ancient Greek philosophy. It simply meant "word," or "discourse" or "opinion" or it could mean "reason" among other meanings. Plato used the word Logos to mean not just the word, but also the unspoken word, the rational principle that governs order in the universe. The Hellenistic Jew Philo of Alexandria used this meaning: Logos was an intermediary between God and the material world, and even called it the "first born of God" - similar to how Paul called Christ "the firstborn of every creature" (Col. 1:15). It is this meaning, from the philosopher Plato, that the apostle John uses in opening the Gospel on the Word. Thus many of the early church fathers saw the philosophy of Plato as a precursor to the revelation of Christianity (see Take It from the Church Fathers: You Should Read Plato).

The Greek concept of Logos fits in with ancient Jewish thought in the Old Testament, as God creates everything through His Word. Just as the Law provides order on how man should live, so His word commands and orders all of creation. This has been continually confirmed in the discoveries of modern science, which continues to describe how the material world is governed by physical laws. While science can trace the origin of the universe to the Big Bang, in which time and space were created, it was revealed to Swedenborg that the universe was not created out of nothing, but from the Divine Truth, from the spiritual world in which there is no time or space.

Concerning the pre-existent Word, John says this:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1)
From this we know there are two aspects to God: the Divine itself (God) and the Word of God.  But the Word of God in itself is also Divine.  We can also view the Word of God as an emanation of the Divine, which in itself is also Divine.  But what is the distinction? Swedenborg offers some insights here: the Word of God is not just the mere speech of God, it is the Divine Truth:
"...truth Divine which is from the Lord fills the heavens, and makes the heavens; and if you will believe it, all things are made and created by it. The Word, which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, by which all things were created, and by which the world was made (John i. 1-14), is Divine truth. That this is the one only substantial thing, from which are all things, few are able to apprehend, as no other idea is at this day held concerning Divine truth than as of the speech of the mouth of one in authority, in accordance with which his commands are executed" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9410.5)
The Divine Truth progresses through several spiritual levels: it first emanates from God and passes through the highest celestial heaven, then the middle spiritual heaven, then the lower heaven, and from there into the natural world, where it becomes speech and words and has been preserved in the literal sense of scripture (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9407). The Bible is the Word of God, written in symbolic correspondences, and through the Word of God contained in scripture man has the power to become spiritual:
"...man becomes spiritual by means of the knowledges of truth and good from the Word applied to the uses of life. Why men become spiritual by means of knowledges from the Word, and not by means of other knowledges, shall now be told. All things that are in the Word are Divine, and they are Divine for the reason that they have in them a spiritual sense, and by that sense communicate with heaven and with the angels there. When, therefore, man has knowledges from the Word and applies them to life, then through these he has communication with heaven and by that communication becomes spiritual; for man becomes spiritual by his being in like or in corresponding truths with the angels of heaven. It is said in "corresponding" truths, because each and all things in the sense of the letter of the Word are correspondences, for they correspond to the truths that angels have. But the knowledges derived from other books, which set forth and by various means establish the doctrines of the church, do not effect communication with heaven except by the knowledges from the Word they contain; such knowledges do give communication if they are rightly understood and are applied to life, and not to faith alone. Everyone can see that this is so from this, that the Word in itself is Divine, and what is Divine in itself can become Divine with man by his applying it to life. "Becoming Divine with man" means that the Lord can have His abode with man (John 14:23), thus dwelling with him in what is His own (that the Lord dwells in His own with man and angel, and not in what is their own [proprio illorum], see in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 12). The Lord dwells in His own when He dwells in those things with man that are from the Word, for the Lord is the Word (John 1:1, 2, 14); and the words that He spoke, that is, that are in the Word: Are spirit and life (John 6:63, 68; 12:50)" (Apocalypse Explained, n. 195.4).
Swedenborg was revealed something further concerning God and His Word (or Logos): God is not just the Divine itself, but the Divine Love itself, and the Divine Truth emanates from the Divine Love as light emanates from fire in the natural world:
"The Lord is the Word, because it is the Divine Truth of the Divine Good. That the Lord is the Word, He teaches in John in these words: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us (John i. 1, 14). Because this has been hitherto understood to mean only that God taught man through the Word, therefore it has been explained as a hyperbolical expression; and its being so called implies that the Lord is not the Word itself. This is because they did not know that the Word means the Divine Truth of the Divine Good, or, which is the same, the Divine Wisdom of the Divine Love. That these are the Lord Himself is shown in Part First of the treatise concerning the "Divine Love and Wisdom:" and that they are the Word, is shown in the "Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture" (n. 1-86). How the Lord is the Divine Truth of the Divine Good, shall also be here briefly told. No man is man from the face and the body, but from the good of his love and from the truths of his wisdom; and because a man is man from these, every man also is his truth and his good, or his love and his wisdom; without them, he is not man. But the Lord is Good itself and Truth itself, or, which is the same, is Love itself and Wisdom itself; and these are the Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, and which was made Flesh" (Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Providence, n. 172).
That God is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, which act as one as the will and understanding in each person, is something that has been kept hidden from the Christian church until now.  In scripture the Divine Love is known as the Father, whom no man has ever seen, and this became manifest in the incarnation of the Divine Truth in Jesus Christ.

The concept of Divine Love and Divine Truth pervades the entire revelation of Christianity in the writings of Swedenborg: the Father and Son are one in Jesus Christ as the soul and body are one. Love and faith must work in conjunction with each other to produce the fruits of faith.  All words in scripture have relation to aspects of love and truth, which is spelled in detail in Heavenly Arcana, providing proof that the Bible is Divinely Inspired. The union of love and truth manifests in the marriage of one woman with one man, as women are forms of love and men are forms of truth, and this is why all sexual relations outside of marriage are forbidden, for it is a spiritual relationship from the Divine which forms the love between man and woman.

God as Divine Love and Divine Truth is explained in detail in Swedenborg's work, Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love and Wisdom.  It does, at first, look like something new.  Once one understands it, scripture begins to open up in a new light, for every word in scripture is related to the union of love and truth, or to its opposite, evil and falsity.  What is interesting is that over 2000 years ago, Philo of Alexandria, who also attempted to uncover the spiritual sense of scripture, was given a brief revelation of this truth:
"I have also, on one occasion, heard a more ingenious train of reasoning from my own soul, which was accustomed frequently to be seized with a certain divine inspiration, even concerning matters which it could not explain even to itself; which now, if I am able to remember it accurately, I will relate. It told me that in the one living and true God there were two supreme and primary powers - goodness and authority; and that by his goodness he had created every thing, and by his authority he governed all that he had created; and that the third thing which was between the two, and had the effect of bringing them together was reason, for that it was owing to reason that God was both a ruler and good(On the Cherubim, 1.27-28).
This passage from Philo is so close to the revelation that Swedenborg received that God is Divine Love and Divine Truth that it is simply amazing. It is one of the few occasions where Philo states he received this from inspiration, not his thought from reasoning. God here is good, which is the same as Divine love, and authority, or God as ruler, is the same as Divine Truth. In fact Swedenborg explains that Jehovah, or the Lord, is given the title of King as kingship is a symbolic office that signifies Divine Truth, as kings rule from the law. Moreover, Swedenborg explained that the human rational acted as an intermediary between man's internal spiritual nature and man's external knowledges and memory from the senses of the body. Unfortunately, besides this brief moment of inspiration, Philo did not develop the thought further and did not associate the Divine "authority" with the concept of Logos, or the Word which we see in the gospel of John. Instead rather, he viewed Logos as what unites the two aspects of the Divine. The revelations given to Swedenborg is more complete on this matter, as it was explained that Divine Truth passes through several levels or degrees, and does at length descend in the form of a Divine Rational that is an intermediary between the Divine Love and the more external form of Divine Truth.

Now, as the Divine Truth descends through various degrees of order, from the Divine itself, through the heavens, to the material world in which we reside, Swedenborg was shown something else: the union of the Divine love with Divine Truth takes on the human form: The human form is the form of truth.
"In conclusion I would mention a certain arcanum [secret] as yet unknown, namely, that every good and truth which proceeds from the Lord and makes heaven, is in a human form; and this not only in the whole and in what is greatest, but also in every part and in what is least; and that this form affects every one who receives good and truth from the Lord, and causes every one in heaven to be in a human form according to reception. Hence it is that heaven is like to itself in general and in particular, and that the human form belongs to the whole, to every society, and to every angel, as was shown in the four chapters from n. 59 to 86; to which it is here to be added, that it belongs to every thing of thought from heavenly love with the angels. This arcanum [secret], however, falls with difficulty into the understanding of any man, but clearly into the understanding of angels, because they are in the light of heaven" (Heaven and Hell, n. 460)
Thus literally, man is made in the image of God, for the human form is a receptacle of love and truth in man's understanding. Because of this, the angels only see God through the human form (Heaven and Hell, n. 79). God is a Divine Man, a Divine Human, from Whom proceeds Divine Truth, and this proceeding Divine from the Lord is known as the Holy Spirit which sanctifies us through the truth.

So now we come to the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. As He is the Word made flesh, before He became incarnate in human form, which human form is the Son of God, He was seen by the angels as a Divine Human in the heavens:
"Before the coming of the Lord there was a Divine Human of Jehovah in the heavens, for by passing through the heavens He presented Himself as a Divine Man before many on earth. But at that time the Divine Human was not so one with the Divine itself, which is called the Father, as when the Lord made it in Himself altogether one." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6000.7)
The reason why Jehovah as to His Divine Truth had to become incarnate in human form to save humanity, is that before the coming of Jesus Christ the Divine Human could only flow into man through the angelic heavens, but man was becoming cut off from the angelic heavens due to sin:
"...the Divine Human before the Lord's coming into the world, was Jehovah Himself flowing in through heaven when He spake the Word; for Jehovah was above the heavens, but what passed from Him through the heavens, was then the Divine Human, inasmuch as by the influx of Jehovah into heaven, heaven was in the form of man, and the Divine Itself thence was the Divine man. This now is the Divine Human from eternity... But because Jehovah by this His Divine Human could not flow in longer with men, since they had so far removed themselves from that Divine, therefore He assumed the Human and made this Divine, and thus by influx thereby into heaven He was able to reach even those of the human race who received the good of charity and the truth of faith from the Divine Human, which was thus made visible, and thereby deliver them from hell" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6280.1-2)
This Divine Human that was in the heavens through the angels ceased, or was made more manifest, once God became incarnate in Jesus Christ (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6371.2). Up until that time the Divine could only become manifest to humanity be temporarily investing its presence in an angelic being, which scripture calls the "angel of the Lord." With the Lord, however, the Divine Truth became incarnate in human form so that the Divine was the soul to the human body born in time. Through this human body, the Divine launched an attack against all the hells, as the hells were able to tempt Jesus through the human body. Though born with two natures, upon the resurrection Jesus Christ had one Divine nature - a new nature, which Swedenborg calls the "Divine Natural," where the Divine can interact with us and be a direct intermediary. Up until the incarnation, there were only two degrees of the Divine: the Divine celestial, and the Divine spiritual, through which the Divine Human could descend through the heavens of the angels. And Swedenborg was told this:
"I have been told from heaven that in the Lord from eternity, Who is Jehovah, before the assumption of the Human in the world, there were the two prior degrees actually, and the third degree in potency, such as they are also with the angels; but that after the assumption of the Human in the world, He put on also the third degree, which is called the natural, and that thereby He became a man similar to man in the world, with the difference, however, that this degree, like the prior degrees, is infinite and uncreated in Him, while these degrees in angel and in man are finite and created." (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 233)
This "Divine Natural" is the Divine Human of the Lord, and is the Son of God.  Only when the Divine was able to completely unite the body to Himself and make it Divine was the Divine could flow from Him in the form of the Holy Spirit, thus the Holy Spirit did not exist until Jesus was glorified as to His body (John 7:39). How the Lord progressively united His Divine essence to His human form is described in detail in Heavenly Arcana, and in truth it is the most detailed revelation of the Christology of Christ, solving many of the theological disputes that had occurred in the early Christian church, as their thought was hindered by some falsehoods inherent in Greek philosophy. With this revelation, we no longer have to speculate on the nature of Jesus Christ: He is the Divine Truth incarnate, and His body has been made completely Divine so that He can now interact directly with us through the Holy Spirit, as well as by living according to His Word - for to read and learn by the Word, is to be taught directly by the Lord Himself.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

What is the Spiritual Meaning of the Rapture?



A very popular prophecy in Christianity is the rapture, where Christians will be caught up into heaven to be with the Lord.  It comes from the following writing of Paul:
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thes. 4:17)
This is preceded by a final judgment, in which those who "sleep" are raised up:
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  (1 Thes. 4:7)
From the revelations received by Emanuel Swedenborg, we now know that those who "sleep" are the souls who have not been judged immediately after death, who entered a state of sleep or unawareness in a place Swedenborg called the "world of spirits" which lies between heaven and hell. Periodically there are last judgments in this region to divide the good from the evil, where the good ascend into heaven and the evil are cast down to hell. These last judgments occur at the end of a dispensation of the church: one happened during the flood of Noah, another happened at the time of Jesus Christ, and another happened in the year 1757, to which Swedenborg was a witness. After each of these judgments, a new revelation is given which begins a new dispensation for the church. For the 18th century, it brought us the revelations of the New Church, and it ushered in the Age of Enlightenment and rational thinking, instead of blind belief in tradition and authority.

But what does it mean to be "caught up" or "raptured" to be with the Lord?  I did explain before that we are not to take this literally: heaven is not the sky above, but it is the spiritual heaven, and the apostle John was also "caught up" into heaven in a spiritual vision (see Rev. 4) that was recorded in the book of Revelation (see the previous blog post, Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?, for more details). However I read a passage where we can be raptured with the Lord, not literally but in a spiritual sense.

In the book of Revelation, we read of the two witnesses who are killed and are brought back to life, and then are taken up into heaven:
And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them (Rev. 11:12)
The two witnesses are symbolic: they symbolically represent two principles of the New Church:
  1. That God is One Person in Jesus Christ, and that His Human is Divine, and,
  2. One must live a life according to the commandments.
The witnesses are rejected and killed by a false church: those who divide God into three persons, and state that one is saved by faith alone. Those who hold to this faith are in hostile opposition to the principles of the New Church. For them to ascend into heaven in a cloud means that this revelation will be protected by the Lord from the evil. For a time, our time, this revelation will be accepted by only a small number of people.

However it has another meaning, which I thought was interesting. In scripture, the word "cloud" symbolically refers to the literal sense of the Word itself, which is a cover or veil for the glory of God. Hidden within the literal sense there is a higher spiritual sense which reveals the true spiritual meaning, and this is known as the "Son of Man coming in His glory" (Matt. 24:30). But here is a passage from Swedenborg on the meaning of the two witnesses ascending into the cloud of heaven:
"And they ascended up into heaven in a cloud, signifies them being taken up into heaven, and conjunction with the Lord there through the Divine truth of the Word in its literal sense. By going up into heaven is signified being taken up by the Lord into heaven... here also conjunction with the Lord there, because they went up in a cloud; for by a cloud the sense of the letter of the Word is signified (n. 24); and through this there is conjunction with the Lord, and consociation with the angels" (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 513)
So in other words, when reading scripture, and understanding the spiritual sense hidden behind the literal sense, and applying it, means we are with the Lord in the clouds.  For Swedenborg also saw that when scripture is read with an open heart, conjunction with the Lord and the angels are effected. However when we actually understand the spiritual meaning, as revealed in the revelations of the New Church, we are actually raptured and caught up with the Lord in our internal spiritual state, and have conjunction with the Lord when we apply it to our lives, fulfilling this prophecy. I thought, how beautiful. The spiritual rapture is thus fulfilled - and we can experience it whenever we so desire.

I do encourage everyone who reads this to read scripture in light of the revelations of the New Church, for understanding what scripture means in the spiritual sense opens the spiritual understanding, and allows for us to come into closer communion with the Lord in love and truth.

Saturday, December 7, 2019

The Spiritual Symbolism and Health Benefits of Pomegranates



I have been working on a new book concerning the prophecies of Isaiah, and I just found something rather bizarre in what was revealed to Emanuel Swedenborg in regards to the symbolism of the pomegranate fruit, which helps indicate he indeed was receiving information from a heavenly source concerning the symbolism of Biblical scriptures in general. I was examining Isaiah's vision of the Lord in the temple (using my new translation of the work):
It was in the year that king Uzziah died,And I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,And His hem filled the temple (Isaiah 6:1)
In general, the word "throne" represents a lower degree of order that supports a higher degree. In a spiritual sense this vision speaks of how the Divine truth of the Lord flows in from the Lord, into heaven, and into the literal sense of the Word and from thence into the minds of those who follow good and truth in the church, represented by the temple. I then focused on the word "hem" (sometimes translated as "skirt" or "train," or mistranslated as "robe" -- bad!!) which is the edge of the robe which filled the temple. The robe is a symbol of the influx of Divine truth, and the "hem" represents Divine truth in its most external natural form, which are knowledges of the memory as indicated in the commentary on Ex. 28:33:
"And upon the skirts of it thou shalt make. That this signifies in the outermosts where is the natural, is evident from the signification of the skirts or borders of the robe, as the outermosts, where the natural is. For by the robe is signified in particular Divine truth in the spiritual kingdom in its internal form, and in general the spiritual kingdom (see n. 9825); and by the skirts or borders, which are round about below, the outermost parts of it; and the outermost parts of the spiritual kingdom are natural" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9917)
Now, in the practices of the Jewish temple it was commanded that pomegranates and bells be designed on the hem of the rob for the Aaronic priesthood:
And upon the hem of it you shall make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about (Ex. 28:33)
So all of this seems just arbitrary decorative commands. And most people skip over passages such as this in the Bible, because they are not aware of the symbolic significance of each and every word. So what is the spiritual symbolism of pomegranates? According to Swedenborg, it was given him to know that pomegranates represent knowledges of good, and bells the knowledges of truth in memory:
"Pomegranates. That hereby are signified outward knowledges of good, is evident from the signification of pomegranates, as outward knowledges of good (see n. 9552). That pomegranates were set upon the skirts of the robe, was because the skirts signified the ultimates or outermosts of heaven and the church, and those ultimates or outermosts are outward knowledges, as is evident from what was said above (n. 9915, 9917) concerning the successive order of the goods and truths in the heavens and with man. The knowledges of good and truth which are signified by the pomegranates, are doctrinals from the Word, that are mere knowledges so far as they are in the memory which is in the external or natural man. But when they enter into the memory which is in the internal or spiritual man, as is the case when the life is lived according to them, then the doctrinals regarding truth become of faith, and those regarding good become of charity, and are called spiritual. When this comes about, they almost vanish out of the external or natural memory, and appear as if innate, because they are then implanted in the life of man, like all those things which through daily use have become as it were one's nature. From this it is plain what outward knowledges are, and what purpose they serve; consequently what use the doctrinals of the church serve so long as they are held only in the memory; for so long as they are held only as knowledge in the memory, they have a place beneath intelligence and wisdom, and they do not ascend or enter into the life until they become of faith and charity in the internal man" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9917).
So pomegranates as knowledges of good first seems like an arbitrary symbolism. But fruits in general signify good, and the color red signifies the will, and pomegranates have a hard outer shell which cannot be eaten like other fruits which indicates that it represents something external in the natural. But what are the health benefits of pomegranates?  I looked it up, there are several, but I found this article from the U.S. National library of medicine:

Pomegranate Juice Augments Memory and fMRI Activity in Middle-Aged and Older Adults with Mild Memory Complaints


To quote from the article:
"Recent animal studies have reported memory and other cognitive benefits of polyphenols, found abundantly in pomegranate juice. ... While preliminary, these results suggest a role for pomegranate juice in augmenting memory function through task-related increases in functional brain activity."
This was published recently, in 2013. Swedenborg wrote back in the 18th century, and the command given to Jews to put pomegranates on the hem of the priestly robes was given about 3500 years ago. Thus we can see here how the knowledge of modern science supports and confirms both the Jewish and Christian revelations concerning the spiritual sense of the Bible. It also helps show how each and every word of scripture is important, and thus care should be taken to have an accurate translation of scripture. Similar to pomegranates, another food mentioned often in the Bible that has a similar meaning is fish, which represents in general sensual affections for knowledge in the natural man, which I covered earlier in my work The Symbolism of the Psalms. Fish, we now know, contains large amount of omega-3, and many take fish oil as a supplement as it has been demonstrated to help brain function. Thus the age of Christianity took place in the Age of Pisces, in which Jesus commanded his disciples to become "fishers of men," as Christianity spread the knowledge of Jesus Christ in a simple form to those who could see things in only a natural and external way.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

The Errors and Falsehoods of the Apostle Paul


Image from testeverything.net, now 119ministries.com, a Christianity from a Jewish perspective

In the New Church there is a stricter canon for the New Testament, where the Gospels and the book of Revelation or Divinely inspired in such a way where every word is spiritual, and the epistles of the apostles are of lesser authority, and included to give simple instruction to the church. Swedenborg does state that Paul was Divinely influenced in what to say (Spiritual Diary, n. 6202), but what he wrote was not inspired word for word as the Gospels or the book of Revelation which includes the direct sayings of Jesus.

So, given this premise, did Paul make any errors?  Paul admits even in his epistles that at times he gives his own opinion which is not from the Lord (1 Cor. 7). The apostle Peter noted that his writings could be distorted to the point of "lawlessness." Some have recognized that the epistle of James was written directly against the apostle Paul, which is due to the fact that Paul was not exactly clear that in most cases when mentioning the word "works" he was talking about the Jewish rituals of the Mosaic law and not works of charity (see Christus Victor, Pauline Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls).  However giving priority to the teachings of Jesus, lets re-examine Paul's writings with the critical eye of reason.

IS IT TRUE: NONE CAN DO ANY GOOD?

Throughout his writings, Paul emphasizes faith over that of the commandments. Paul misquotes from Psalm 14:3 in such a way to give the impression that not just all are sinful, but none can do any good:
"We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:9-10)
All humans are indeed sinful, and evil originates from the love of our ego. Many take this to mean that none has the ability to do any good, and Paul also misinterprets this to mean the entire world (Rom. 3:19). But this quote is taken out of context: Psalm 14 is not talking about all humanity, it speaks of those who deny God:
The fool has said in his heart, There is no God (Ps. 14:1)
There can be no good done apart from God, for God is good itself. Some may say they can commit a good act without a belief in God, but the external action is judged by its intent. If one does good for the sake of return, or for credit to one's self, it is not good. It has to be done out of love for others, and love is not possible without God for God is love.

There are many passages that need to be ignored in order to support the false theology that none can do any good (e.g., God regarded Noah as righteous - Gen. 7:1). One has look at scripture as a whole, and not just be focused on the writings of Paul.
IS NO MAN JUSTIFIED BEFORE GOD?
From Paul's misquote of Psalm 14, he jumps to the following conclusion:
"Therefore by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight" (Rom. 3:20)
Paul is repeating what he said in Gal. 3:11. By "works of the law" Paul is referencing the rituals of the Mosaic law. The word "justified" is a word that is more properly translated as "righteous." The word "justify" has unfortunately taken on a false meaning in a false theology that the evil will be justified no matter what they do. That God does look upon those who are righteous can be seen in this passage:
The eyes of Jehovah are upon the righteous (Ps. 34:15)
That no one is righteous (or justified) in God's sight is taken from the Psalms:
And enter not into judgment with Your servant,
For no one living shall be justified before You
 (Ps. 143:2)
And this has nothing to do with the external rituals of the Mosaic law, the subject of Paul's epistle. Rather man, of himself, cannot justify himself apart from God who is good (Job 9:2, 20, 15:14). But in doing good with acknowledgment of God as the source of good man can indeed be righteous:
In Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified (Isa. 45:25)
Israel here is not the Jews but the spiritual church, or those who live by the truth, the word "seed" signifies the truth of faith implanted in the mind to bring forth works of charity.

The reason why there can be no righteousness apart from God is because God is righteousness itself, and the source of evil is from the selfish ego. On the surface, Ps. 143:2 contradicts Isa. 45:25. But one has to look deeper into the meaning - without true doctrine, it is easy to take one scripture out of context to develop a false theology.
IS THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW JUST TO TELL US WE ARE SINFUL?
From Paul's misquote of Psalm 14, he also jumps to the following conclusion:
"for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20)
This is unfortunately taken by many that the entire law was given just so that we could fail at following it, and Paul repeats that the purpose of the law was just to reveal our sinful nature again in Rom. 5:20 and Rom. 7:7-9. But this is incorrect - the commandments of the law are the external forms of what is internal, for even the Old Testament states that God will write the commandments not on tablets of stone, but on our heart (Eze. 11:19, 36:26, Jer. 31:33) and Paul repeats this in Heb. 8:10. As an example, Jesus declared that anyone who internally hates his brother is guilty of the sixth commandment, Thou shall not murder (Matt. 5:21-22). Jesus also said that one must follow the commandments (Matt. 5:19, John 14:15). Whereas Jesus strengthens the law, Paul in his writings sidelines it. Only the external rituals of the law were abrogated. The commandments remain in force, for they are based on the love of God and love of the neighbor which are necessary for eternal life (Matt. 22:36-40) and this is later admitted by Paul towards the end of Romans (Rom. 13:8-10).

Paul elsewhere acknowledges that the Mosaic rituals were shadows of things to come (Heb. 10:1), and more so than any other person Swedenborg explains there are deep spiritual truths hidden within the Mosaic rituals which is explained in his massive work, Heavenly Arcana. It is because of Paul's influence that many in the Christian church decide to largely ignore the Old Testament.
IS EVERYONE WHO FOLLOWS THE LAW UNDER A CURSE?
Paul further sidelines the law of Moses in the following statement:
"For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”" (Gal. 3:10)
This is a quote of Deut. 27:26, ending a series of curses. In this case, Paul is misusing this scripture to state that everyone who tries to follow the law is under a curse, which is false. The series of curses is referencing those who disobey God's commandments, and it has nothing to do with the Jewish rituals of the Mosaic law. Those who do good will go to heaven, those who do evil will go to hell - and this blessing and curse is still valid today. That this is the correct interpretation can be found earlier in the book of Deuteronomy:
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today (Deut. 11:26-28)
What would be more accurate to say is this: the man's sin became a curse, causing a separation between mankind and heaven, threatening eternal damnation for all mankind. God removed this curse by becoming incarnate and making His human Divine, so that we could receive the Holy Spirit directly from Him and no longer be dependent on the angels as intermediaries.
WHAT IS THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE LAW OF MOSES AND THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST?


This passage from Paul is not necessarily an error, but it can easily be twisted and misinterpreted:
"For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)
“or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)." (Rom. 10:3-7)
When Paul says "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" many interpret this as what just has to believe in Jesus Christ and it does not matter what one does.  But this is a false and distorted theology. Paul is quoting from this passage:
You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am Jehovah. (Lev. 18:5)
The word "statutes" specifically refers to the external rituals of the Mosaic law, and "judgments" to the civil law. The Jewish nation was representative of the spiritual church, and these external rituals, and some of the civil laws, were symbolic and representative in nature. With knowledge of their spiritual meaning, it is no longer necessary to follow them in the Christian church. They were intended only for the Jews. Paul was dealing with the problem of Jews trying to convert Christians to the Judaic religion. Unfortunately Paul quotes this out of context, and people miss the fact that this passage was referencing the statutes and judgments, not the commandments.

Christ's descent into hell and ascension to heaven was necessary in order to restore the spiritual connection between heaven and mankind, for without that connection no man would have been capable to do any righteousness (see Jesus the Shaman - Descent into the Underworld and The True Spiritual Meaning of the Cross and Resurrection: Christus Victor). Up until that time the spiritual connection was maintained between heaven and man through the angels, but sin had separated mankind from heaven where it became necessary for God to descend in human form and make His human Divine, restoring the spiritual connection by conquering the hells that had dominion over humanity.
WILL THE SAINTS JUDGE THE WORLD?
Paul believed saints would judge the world:
"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" (1 Cor. 6:2)
This belief probably originated from the following saying of Jesus:
You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28)
This is a case where Paul took a statement of Jesus in its most literal fashion. Only God will judge others, not man. This saying of Jesus can only be truly understood in a spiritual manner, which is explained by Swedenborg as follows:
"This does not mean that the twelve disciples were to sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel, but it means that the Lord is to judge all according to truths from good, which are from Him, for "the twelve disciples" signify all who are of the church, and in an abstract sense all things of the church, which are truths from good." (Apocalypse Explained, n. 851)
WILL THE SAINTS JUDGE ANGELS?
This one is strange. Paul not only believed that the saints would not just judge the world, but also angels:
"Do you not know that we are to judge angels?" (1 Cor. 6:3)
From the revelations given to Swedenborg, we now know that angelic beings were previously men who have already been judged and are now dwelling in heaven. This statement of Paul is just plain false. So where did this come from? It is nowhere mentioned in scripture. The only explanation I have for this statement from Paul is from the apocryphal book of Enoch, which describes so-called "angels" who committed a sin by mating with women, who are kept bound in a lower prison until judgment day. Paul may be making an indirect reference to this when he mentions that women should cover their heads, because of the angels (1 Cor. 11:10). My opinion on that is this apocryphal work is actually one of the earliest records mentioning an ancient extraterrestrial contact, which I discussed earlier in Ancient Astronomy and Extraterrestrial Contact in the Bible. That the book of Enoch was regarded as scripture by some of the apostles is shown by a direct quote of the work in the epistle of Jude.
SHOULD WOMEN KEEP SILENT IN CHURCH?
This one is just obviously wrong, a product of Paul's cultural background:
"the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission" (1 Cor. 14:34)
This is just plain bad advice, and in practice most churches do ignore this one. When discussing marriage, Paul admits earlier in the epistle of the Corinthians that he at times gives his own advice, which is from himself and not from God (e.g., 1 Cor. 7). Thus from Paul's own admission, we should not take everything he says as "gospel truth."  He at times expressed his own opinion, and that opinion was sometimes wrong as it was in this case.

This passage from Paul is a big turn off for women. If more people understand that the epistles of Paul are not inspired in the same way as the Gospel and book of Revelation, this problem goes away and I believe more women will find Christianity to be more acceptable, and take positions of teaching within the church.

SUMMARY CONCLUSION

I have not covered all the writings of Paul, I just selected here what I see to be the most blatant of errors which are also seen by some as a roadblock to understanding true Christianity. Other than what I selected, the majority of Paul's epistles are essentially correct in matters of doctrine. In addition to arguing against just blind following the external rituals of the Jewish law, the main point was that salvation must be driven by an inner transformation of the heart before it manifests in external good works. The major errors can be seen in Paul's false reasoning and misquotes in Romans and Galatians, and unfortunately from that many have created a false theology of "lawlessness" as the apostle Peter described. If priority is given to the teachings of Jesus, and if one understood the historical context of Paul - that the early Christians were having problems with Judaizers - then his epistles can be understood in a better manner.

With this distinction, we now can have a true living faith guided by the true teachings of Jesus, and not a blind faith that ignores reason.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

A Prophecy of the 2019 Nuclear Accident in Russia


Russia tests its 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile in this clip released July 19, 2018 by the Russian Defense Ministry

In May of this year (2019) I published a work entitled the X Prophecy, which can be found here on Amazon. The book details a series of prophecies, based on a dream that references a series of precognitive stories published in a series of fictional stories. It predicts some global events, and I have mentioned the following world wide events that were predicted in the following previous blog posts:

And now there is another which happened in August of this year (2019), and I just noticed it - I should have been paying attention to the news.  This concerns a mystery nuclear explosion near the Arctic, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl - see the article TWO RUSSIAN RADIATION DETECTORS WENT SILENT AFTER MYSTERY NUCLEAR-POWERED MISSILE EXPLOSION:
Monitoring stations near the site of a failed nuclear-powered missile test in northern Russia have reportedly stopped transmitting data, bolstering concerns that the Kremlin is trying to cover up evidence of the accident. ... the explosion took place at the site in Nyonoksa on August 8 during tests on a liquid propellant rocket engine... The failed test is thought to have involved the nuclear-powered cruise missile in Russian known as "Burevestnik" and in the U.S. as "Skyfall."
So what is significant about this is that the dream pointed us to a series of stories mentioned in the X-Men comics, and one of the stories concerned the explosion of a nuclear cruise missile in the Arctic. Here is the actual graphic that I included in the book:


These nuclear cruise missiles are launched by Russia against a secret base that Magneto had established in the Arctic. It takes place in Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The city where the nuclear accident in Russia took place was at Nyonoksa, on the coast of the White Sea. After they are launched, the missiles cause a nuclear explosion, despite the fact that Magneto attempted to stop them.

At the time of writing and publishing The X Prophecy, there had been no nuclear accident involving nuclear cruise missiles from Russia.  I wrote, "Russia confirmed its development of a nuclear cruise missile in March of 2018. They had tested a nuclear cruise missile in the Arctic known as “Skyfall” in November of 2017... A partially successful test of a nuclear cruise missile took place on Jan. 29, 2019." This timing of this nuclear accident actually fits in with the chronology of events that I had already identified, most notable is the U.S. Presidential election for 2020.

I would like to add this event as a postscript, but now it looks like I am going to have to leave that e-book untouched, so I can show what was written before the event.

Very strange indeed, and an unexpected surprise. It is one of the weirdest precognitive dreams I had interpreted. It provides a definite warning for the future, a warning against the use of low level tactical nuclear missiles.

As this nuclear cruise missile is known as "Skyfall" to NATO, and threatens to pollute our waters, I thought it fitting to include the song Skyfall with an interesting symbolic video, from the movie Skyfall:




Wednesday, October 30, 2019

The number 23409: Man Wearing 'Jesus Saves' Bib is saved by a Man Named Jesus

And now for some very weird news: a man wearing a "Jesus Saves" bib during a marathon race collapses due to a heart attack, and is saved by a man named Jesus who gave him CPR:


The man named Jesus was Jesus "Jesse" Bueno, who is a certified nurse anesthologist. The man, Tyler Moon, had suffered a heart attack, and is lucky to be alive. See Man wearing 'Jesus Saves' race bib collapses, is given CPR by a man named Jesus for the full story.

So this is what is called a "coincidence" or a case of synchronicity.  But, according to Swedenborg, there is no such thing as randomness or coincidences, all things that manifest in the natural world originate from the spiritual world. Or as Jesus said, A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven (John 3:27).

So that is what seems to be the end of the story.  But notice the number 23,409. That number happens to be an interesting number - the number 23,409 is the sum of the cubes of the first 17 positive integers. I created a spreadsheet with formulas just to confirm this for sure:

-->
NumberCubed
11
28
327
464
5125
6216
7343
8512
9729
101000
111331
121728
132197
142744
153375
164096
174913
Total23409

If we look at the spiritual symbolism of the number 17, in the spiritual sense it represents the beginning and end of temptation, as explained in detail in Heavenly Arcana by Emanuel Swedenborg. For proof, the flood of Noah represents a period of temptation and there are several dates that happen on the 17th of the month (see Gen. 7:11, 8:4).  Joseph is also seventeen years old when his brothers decide to kill him (Gen. 37) but instead he is sold into slavery. Jacob, believing his son to be dead, finds out he is alive in Egypt many years later. Similar to the man collapsing from a heart attack in the race does not die but survives. For a summary of the spiritual meaning of numbers see The Spiritual Meaning of Numbers.

The number 23,409 is the sum of the cubes of the numbers 1 through 17. If we sum up the numbers 1 through 17, the result is 153.  And the number 153 appears in the Bible related to salvation from Jesus:
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them (John 21:11)
It signifies salvation from Jesus as he commanded his disciples, who were fishermen, to become "fishers of men." The number 153 appears in the geometry of the ichthus (fish) symbol of Christianity, otherwise known as the Vesica Pisces. For details see the earlier post written back in 2009: Sacred Christian Geometry - the Seed of Life.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Ancient Astronomy and Extraterrestrial Contact in the Bible

This article contains a more in depth analysis of a discovery I made concerning ancient astronomical cycles embedded in the antediluvian chronology of the patriarchs back in 2009 (see Ancient Astronomy of the Bible).  Back then, I concluded that each of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah symbolically represented one of the planets in the solar system, as follows:

PatriarchPlanet
Adam?
SethNeptune
EnoshUranus
CainanSaturn
MahalalelJupiter
JaredMars
EnochEarth/Sun
MethuselahVenus
LamechMercury
NoahMoon

What the evidence shows is that somehow in ancient times they knew of the planets Neptune and Uranus. This is corroborated by an account in Josephus stating that the antediluvians were experts in making astronomical observations. As for Uranus, it can be faintly seen with the eye, and it is referenced as a star in an ancient Babylonian tablet. But there is no explanation for knowledge of the existence of Neptune. And also note whereas we number planets of the solar system from the Sun going outward, here the planets are ordered from outside the solar system going inward. At the time I had no explanation for the chronology given to the patriarch Adam.

The spiritual interpretation of this is that the race of Adam fell from direct contact with heaven. However there is a more literal interpretation here: that there was some extraterrestrial influence or contact in ancient times involving the race of Adam. Contact was at first open, but then was broken off as man degenerated into evil. Swedenborg does state that the first 11 chapters are semi-historical, but written in a symbolic mythical manner. From the spiritual revelations he received, he was shown that Adam was not a literal individual, but rather represented the first race of men who were spiritual, unlike the previous inhabitants of earth.

In other revelations received by Swedenborg, he saw that extraterrestrials exist on other planets, and the ones he encountered are all in human form, like us. Due to the limited scientific knowledge of his days he assumed they were from our planets of the solar system (see An Explanation of Swedenborg's Extraterrestrial Encounters). The question then arises: how is it that these extraterrestrials are human like us? And do they share the same genetic code? There are two explanations:
  1. Life tends to evolve throughout the universe toward the human form, or,
  2. An advanced race, due to the harshness of each planet's environment, "seeds" a planet to establish and expand their own race.
I think both explanations are possibilities. But let us first examine the evidence.

ANTEDILUVIAN CHRONOLOGY

From a very precise astronomical observation during the birth of Abraham as recorded in the book of Jasher, we can establish that Abraham was born in 1953 B.C. (see The Astronomy of the Birth of Abraham (1953 B.C.)). From this we can derive the dates of the chronology of the patriarchs before the flood:

PatriarchTotal YearsBirth (B.C.)Death (B.C.)
Adam93039012971
Seth91237712859
Enosh90536662761
Cainan91035762666
Mahalalel89535062611
Jared96234412479
Enoch36532792914
Methuselah96932142245
Lamech77730272250
Noah95028451895

The book of Jasher also contains a curious chronological reference: Adam died in the 243rd year of the life of Methuselah, which was the 243rd year of the reign of Enoch:
And it was in the year of Adam's death which was the two hundred and forty-third year of the reign of Enoch, in that time Enoch resolved to separate himself from the sons of men and to secret himself as at first in order to serve the Lord. (Jasher 3:17)
A period of 243 years is something that is significant to modern astronomers: every 243 years the planet Venus makes a direct transit across the Sun. While conjunctions are common, transits of Venus across the face of the Sun are not. Two transits will occur 8 years apart, which will repeat itself exactly 243 years later. Enoch began his reign in 3214 B.C., the year his son Methuselah was born. As it turns out, there was a Venus transit across the face of the Sun in 3214 B.C., and this Venus transit repeated itself exactly 243 years later in 2971 B.C. which was the year of the death of Adam.

This can hardly be a coincidence. It implies that the chronology embedded in Genesis is symbolic, and is related to astronomical events. Presuming that these ancient astronomers knew that the earth rotated around the Sun, Enoch represents the earth since his life of 365 years represents a solar year of 365 days. As the 243 year period of the transits of Venus begins with the birth of Methuselah we can say Methuselah represents Venus.

Are there any other significant numbers in the chronology? Below is a table which shows the age of each patriarch at the time of death. Significant periods that match astronomical cycles that match exactly I have marked in red, whereas ones that are close are marked in orange:

Death of:SethEnoshCainanMahalalelJaredEnochMethuselahLamechNoah
Adam80069560553547030824356
Seth807717647582420355168
Enosh81574568051845326684
Cainan840775613548361179
Mahalalel830668603416234
Jared800735548366
Enoch857752662592527300113
Methuselah1034782600
Lamech1029595

The first column represents the year of the death of a patriarch before the flood. The other columns represent the age of the other patriarchs at the time of death. As Enoch did not die but ascended into heaven, his row shows the age of each patriarch at the time of his ascension. As his death is not mentioned, his age is shown in italics for the years of the deaths of each patriarch.

Just as the ages at death may be significant, the same applies to the age of birth. Below is a similar table showing ages of the patriarchs at each birth:

Birth of:AdamSethEnoshCainanMahalalelJaredEnochMethuselahLamech
Seth130
Enosh235105
Cainan32519590
Mahalalel39526516070
Jared46033022513565
Enoch622492387297227162
Methuselah68755745236229222765
Lamech874744639549479414252187
Noah926821731661596434369182

Below I discuss how each of the numbers are astronomically significant.

ENOCH AND THE CALENDRICAL YEAR

Enoch was 308 years old at the time of death for Adam. There is a cycle of the moon which lasts about 19 years during which time the eclipses repeat during the same time of the year, but it is off slightly and after 308 years it is off by a day from the solar calendar. His life of 365 years obviously represents a solar year.

After the death of Adam Seth next dies, at which time Methuselah was 355 years old. There are 355 days in the lunar year. Just as the life of Enoch represents the solar year, his son Methuselah in this manner represents the lunar year.

In the antediluvian chronology a Saturn-Uranus conjunction occurred in the year of the ascension of Enoch in 2914 B.C., and another had occurred earlier near the time of Enoch's birth in 3275 B.C. Eight Saturn-Uranus conjunctions occur over a period of about 360 years, which represents a perfect year of 360 days just as Enoch's life of 365 years represents a solar year of 365 days. A Saturn-Uranus conjunction occurred near the birth of Adam (3905 B.C.) and another near the birth of Seth (3770 B.C.).

During the 360 year period of Saturn-Uranus conjunctions, Saturn does 12 revolutions around the Sun as it has a 29.5 year. This corresponds to a year of 360 days, with months of 29 or 30 days, similar to a 29.5 day lunar month. This may be the origin of applying a year to a day in prophecy throughout the Bible:
According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure. (Num 14:34)
Forty days I assign you, a day for each year. (Ezek. 4:6)
Thus the life of Enoch represents the solar year of the earth orbiting the Sun, and Methuselah's age at the death of Seth represents the shorter lunar year of 355 days.

ENOSH AS URANUS

The book of Jasher notes in another passage the age of Noah as the patriarchs before him die before the coming of the flood:
And it was in the eighty-fourth year of the life of Noah, that Enosh the son of Seth died, he was nine hundred and five years old at his death. (Jasher 5:1)
The first one who dies is Enosh, who died in the 84th year of Noah. This is significant - according to this theory Enosh represents the planet Uranus, and Uranus has an orbital period of 84 years. A multiple of 84 years appears in three other numbers: Lamech was 168 years (2 x 84) and Enoch was 420 years (5 x 84) when Seth died; and Mahalalel was 840 years (10 x 84) when Cainan died. Seth and Cainan are the father and son of Enosh respectively who represents Uranus.

Enosh, who represents Uranus, was 90 years old when he gave birth to his son Cainan who represents Saturn. Saturn-Uranus conjunctions occur on a periodic basis every 45 years, and 90 is 2 x 45.

SETH AS NEPTUNE

Seth should represent Neptune, since his son Enosh represents Uranus. If we look at all conjunctions between Neptune and Uranus, the latter of which represents his son Enosh, there were three conjunctions in the years 3664-63 B.C. which is close to the birth of Enosh by Seth in 3666 B.C. A Uranus-Neptune conjunction is a perfect representation of the birth of Enosh by Seth. Uranus-Neptune conjunctions take place about every 171 years, and this is the only date in the antediluvian chronology that is close to a Uranus-Neptune conjunction.

As Seth is the first after Adam he did not live to see any death, however his age at births of a couple of other patriarchs is significant. Neptune has an orbital period of about 165 years, and Seth was 330 years (2 x 165) at the birth of Jared. Seth was 492 years old at the birth of Enoch which is close to 494 years (3 x 165), or three revolutions of Neptune.

CAINAN AS SATURN

Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune enter into a conjunction about every 179 years, and Cainan died in the 179th year of Noah. This 179 year period is noted in the life of Mahalalel his son who lived 895 years which is 5 x 179.

Saturn and Neptune enter into a conjunction about every 35-36 years. Cainan was 70 years old when he gave birth to Mahalalel which is double this cycle.  There were a series of Saturn-Neptune conjunctions from 3571 to 2676 B.C. over a period of 895 years which is 5 x 179. This is an inexact match for the life of Cainan which was from 3576 to 2666 B.C.

Adam was 325 years old when Cainan was born which is 11 revolutions of Saturn. Seth the son of Adam was 225 years old when Cainan's son Mahalalel was born which is 9 revolutions of Saturn.


MAHALALEL AS JUPITER

Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years which is 5 x 179. There is a 179 year period (178.73) in which Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune enter into a conjunction.  Mahalalel lived from 3506 - 2611 B.C. There was a Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune cycle that lasted from 3501 – 2608 B.C. On Aug. 5, 2611 B.C. Jupiter was occulted by Mercury – a rare occurrence.

Jupiter has a synodic period of almost exactly 83 years. Lamech was 416 years old at the time of Mahalalel's death, which is close to 415 years which is 5 x 83. Jared, the son of Mahalalel, was exactly 830 years old at the time of Mahalalel's death which is 10 x 83. Enoch's age of 668 years comes close to 664 years which is 8 x 83.

JARED AS MARS

There is a synodic period of 32 years between Venus and Mars. Jared lived 962 years which is 30 x 32. Jared lived from 3441 to 2479 B.C. and there is a series of Venus-Mars conjunctions which lasted from July 9, 3438 B.C. to July 9, 2479 B.C.

Jared represents Mars and Methuselah represents Venus, and there is a clever method by which the Mars-Venus conjunctions in the timeline of Jared is indicated in the chronology. In the year Jared was born, Enosh was 225 years old and Venus has an orbital period of 225 days. In the year Methuselah was born, Adam was 687 years old and Mars has an orbital period of 687 days. The orbital periods are switched for the planetary representations of Jared and Methuselah to represent a conjunction between the two planets in the chronology for the life of Jared.

Methuselah gave birth to his son when he was 187 years old where the last 2 digits represent the number 687, similar to how the last 2 digits of 130 and 930 in the life of Adam represent the number 330 in the life of Seth (see above section, "Seth as Neptune").

LAMECH AS MERCURY

According to this theory Lamech represents the planet Mercury, which has an orbit of only 88 days. However there are longer synodic cycles for the planet Mercury. From Mercury Catalog (now defunct):
“…consecutive transits of Mercury appear to be separated by either 3.5, 7, 9.5, 10 or 13 years. The pattern is rather complex because of Mercury's elliptical orbit. The shorter periods are a consequence of several longer harmonics between the orbital periods of Mercury and Earth. The 13 year period is of particular note because it corresponds to nearly 54 orbits of Mercury around the Sun (it falls short of a perfect fit by just 2.01 days). A longer period of 33 years (10 + 10 + 13) produces an even better fit which corresponds to 137 orbits of Mercury minus 1.67 days. If one combines the 13 year and 33 year periods together, the 46 year total equals 191 orbits of Mercury plus only 0.34 days.” 
There are a series of 17 synodic periods of Mercury each lasting 46 years from 3032-2250 B.C. which lasted 782 years. The year 2250 B.C. was when Lamech died. Lamech lived 777 years, but if he had lived 5 years longer he would have been aged 782 when his son Methuselah died in 2245 B.C., which was also the year of Noah's flood. Lamech was 182 years old when he fathered Methuselah which symbolically references this longer 782 year period.

There is thus a five year discrepancy in the chronology of Lamech, and this five year discrepancy is noted in the book of Jasher, which adds the odd detail that it took Noah five years to build the ark from the death of Lamech to the time of the flood:
In his five hundred and ninety-fifth year Noah commenced to make the ark, and he made the ark in five years, as the Lord had commanded. (Jasher 5:34)
This five year discrepancy also shows up in other areas of the chronology:
  • Cainan was born in 3576 B.C. but his astronomical cycle began 5 years later in 3571 B.C.
  • Mahalalel was born in 3506 B.C. but his astronomical cycle began 5 years later in 3501 B.C.
  • Enoch was born in 3279 B.C. and there was a Saturn-Uranus conjunction 5 years later in 3275 B.C.
The five year discrepancy thus seems to be intentional.  The Saturn-Uranus conjunctions demarcate a 360 year period, and in ancient times a 360 day year was seen as a "perfect" year since the circle was divided into 360 degrees to simplify mathematical calculations.

NOAH AS THE MOON

Noah represents the Moon, as the crescent Moon was often viewed as a boat that travelled across the night sky in the ancient world. The ancient Sumerian god of the Moon, Nanna, was originally depicted as a crescent boat.

Lunar eclipses repeat over a 19 year period which is known as the Metonic cycle and was the basis of the ancient Greek calendar. As the Hebrews used a soli-lunar calendar the 19 year the Metonic cycle was likely known to them as well. Noah and three other patriarchs lived a multiple of 19:

PatriarchTotal YearsMetonic Cycles
Adam93049 x 19 (for 931)
Seth91248 x 19
Methuselah96951 x 19
Noah95050 x 19

Adam is one year off from 931 years which is a perfect multiple of 19, which was perhaps done to signify his fallen state. There is a 76 year Callippic cycle which is an improvement over the 19 year Metonic cycle of the Moon, and Seth lived a multiple of the Callippic cycle (912 =  12 x 76).

In the year 2245 B.C., the year of the Flood of Noah, the Moon constantly occulted the star Beta Capricorni in the constellation of Capricorn, the fish goat. This star is close to the constellation of Aquarius, the water bearer, and is thus a fitting symbolism for the Flood of Noah.

OCCULTATIONS OF STARS BY LUNAR ECLIPSES

A period of 800 years appears twice in the chronology:
  1. Seth was 800 years old when his father Adam died.
  2. Enoch would have been 800 years old when his father Jared died.
It just so happens that similar lunar eclipses will occult stars close to the ecliptic every 800 years.  Studies have been done on the star Regulus as it is one of the brightest stars in the sky that is close to the ecliptic (see PREDICTABLE PERIODIC EVENTS and Occultations by Eclipsed Moon).

In studies of occultations of the the star Regulus similar lunar eclipses will be separated by 19 or 65 years. The 19 year periodicity is from the Metonic cycle of the Moon. The 65 year period is more accurate for predicting the return of a similar lunar eclipse in the sky. That a 65 year period was considered significant is shown in a prophecy of Isaiah:
And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people (Isa. 7:8).
It would be interesting to study if this 65 year period was actually related to a lunar eclipse cycle. A period of 65 years appears three times in the antediluvian chronology, all related to a birth:
  1. Adam was 130 years or 2 x 65 when he gave birth to Seth.
  2. Mahalalel was 65 years old when he gave birth to Jared.
  3. Enoch, the son of Jared, was 65 years old giving birth to Methuselah.
We will first take a look at the first instance to see if the chronology is related to any occultations of stars by lunar eclipses.

ADAM AND THE PROPHECY OF THE STARS

The numbers 65 and 800 are related to occultations or conjunctions with stars by lunar eclipses and these two numbers also appear in the chronology for Adam.  Adam was 130 years or 2 x 65 when he gave birth to Seth after which he lived 800 years. This implies an occultation or conjunction of a star in the vicinity of a lunar eclipse at the birth of Adam (3901 B.C.) and again at the birth of Seth (3771 B.C.) and again at the death of Adam in (2971 B.C.). The following chart shows the lunar eclipses and occulted stars that occured close to the eclipse in those years:

Event:3901 B.C.3771 B.C2971 B.C.
Lunar eclipseFeb 15Feb 17Feb 23
Occulted starFeb 17 (Alpha Librae)Feb 19 (Alpha Librae)Mar 2 (Beta Capricorni)
Lunar eclipseAug 10Aug 14Aug 18
Occulted starAug 8 (Beta Capricorni)Aug 8 (Beta Capricorni)Aug 13 (Beta Capricorni)

This is not a good match. The Moon did not occult a star near the time of a lunar eclipse. The years are our calendrical year from January to January, and in ancient times years typically began with the vernal or autumnal equinox. Moreover Adam lived 930 years, but 931 years is 50 x 19, a multiple of the Metonic cycle of the Moon. If we shift the date by 1 year to begin at 3902 B.C., the time when Adam was in the Garden of Eden, we obtain this result:

Event:3902 B.C.3772 B.C2972 B.C.
Lunar eclipseFeb 25Feb 28Mar 5
Occulted starFeb 25 (Spica)Feb 27 (Spica)Mar 5 (Spica)
Lunar eclipseMar 27Mar 30
Occulted starMar 24 (Spica)Mar 27 (Spica)
Occulted starMar 26 (Alpha Librae)Mar 28 (Alpha Librae)
Occulted starMar 27 (Beta Scorpii)Mar 30 (Beta Scorpii)
Lunar eclipseAug 22Aug 24Aug 29
Occulted starAug 27 (Zeta Tauri)Aug 28 (Zeta Tauri)Sep 4 (Zeta Tauri)
Lunar eclipseSep 23
Occulted starSep 25 (Zeta Tauri)

This is an amazing result. Two of the years contained more than two lunar eclipses, and the stars Spica in the constellation of Virgo and Beta Scorpii in the constellation of Scorpio were occulted on the same night as the lunar eclipse (marked in red). In two cases three stars were occulted by the Moon right before a lunar eclipse. Thus the year 3902 B.C. was astronomically significant enough to choose it as a starting point in the chronology.

The association of the creation of Adam with the constellations of Virgo and Scorpio is probably intentional. The myths surrounding the original constellations preserved prophecies given to the Most Ancient Church, long before the Messianic prophecies were given to the Jews. Swedenborg confirms that there were two ancient churches that preceded the Jewish church before they were corrupted by idolatry. This was discussed in detail in the book The Witness of the Stars by E.W. Bullinger. Virgo is the virgin and Jesus was born of a virgin, whose birth was prophesied in a prophecy given to the serpent in the Garden of Eden:
I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel (Gen. 3:15).
In depictions of the constellation Scorpio, it is shown as stinging the foot of the hero Ophiucus, the serpent holder who struggles with the serpent:


Beta (β) Scorpii is the star in Scorpio that is near the ecliptic:


What we may see here is that in ancient times the Moon was seen to occult three stars before a lunar eclipse, and from revelation that may have been interpreted as a future prophecy of the God-man born of a virgin, who would defeat evil represented by the scorpion.

JARED, ENOCH AND THE PLEIADES

Jared died 800 years after having given birth to Methuselah. As periods of 65 and 800 years apply to occultations of stars by lunar eclipses, this is a strong indication that the chronology references a lunar eclipse that occults or is in conjunction with a star at the birth of Enoch (3279 B.C.) which repeats 65 years later at the birth of Methuselah (3214 B.C.) and again 800 years later at the death of Jared (2479 B.C.). Focusing on stars up to magnitude 3, the following chart shows what stars were occulted by the Moon near the time of a lunar eclipses:

Event:3279 B.C.3214 B.C2479 B.C.
Lunar eclipseMar 10Mar 11Mar 15
Occulted starMar 11 (Alpha Librae)Mar 12 (Alpha Librae)(none)
Lunar eclipseSep 2Sep 5Sep 9
Occulted starSep 5 (Alcyone)Sep 8 (Zeta Tauri)Sep 11 (Alcyone)

In 3214 B.C. the moon was in a close conjunction with Alcyone on September 7.

The other 65 year period is between the birth of Mahalalel (3506 B.C.) and the birth of his son Jared (3441 B.C.). The following alignments occurred in those years:

Event:3506 B.C.3441 B.C.
Lunar eclipseMay 27May 27
Occulted starMay 30 (Deneb Algedi)May 26 (Kaus Borealis)
Lunar eclipseNov 20Nov 22
Occulted starNov 19 (Zeta Tauri)Nov 18 (Alcyone)

The chronology of Jared and Enoch is pointing us to the star Alcyone in the Pleiades cluster.  This fills in several gaps: the birth of Mahalalel, Jared and Enoch can now be explained by an astronomical cycle.

THE SONS OF GOD OF THE PLEIADES

We can tentatively conclude that the chronology for Jared and Enoch is pointing us to the star cluster of the Pleiades. So why? It is actually an interesting result and I was surprised to find it. It is related to an odd passage in the Bible concerning the antediluvians:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ...There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. (Gen. 6:1-2, 4)
The word for giants in Hebrew is Nephilim, which literally means "the fallen ones." They were inhabitants in the land of Canaan before it was conquered by the Israelites under Joshua. There is some debate as to the identity of these "sons of God." The only other time the phrase "sons of God" is used in the Old Testament is in the book of Job (Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7) and it either refers to the angels of heaven or evil spirits.

The apocryphal book of Enoch was written beginning in the 3rd century B.C. which preserves the tradition that these sons of God were "angels" who descended from heaven and sinned by mating with the women on earth. This belief is preserved by early Jewish authors such as Philo, Josephus, ancient Rabbinical texts, and several ancient church fathers of the early Christian church. It is quoted as scripture in the book of Jude and the Epistle of Barnabas. These "angels" somehow changed their nature into flesh. If this tradition preserved an actual event, they are obviously not angels but rather extraterrestrial humans, with a slight genetic difference that would cause giants to be born. The book of Enoch may in fact be the earliest explicit reference to an extraterrestrial contact.

Now, the book of Enoch contains a couple of curious references when describing the punishment of these "angels" who sinned in the afterlife:
"...I saw a place which had no firmament of the heaven above, and no firmly founded earth beneath it: there was no water upon it, and no birds, but it was a waste and horrible place. I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, when I inquired regarding them, the angel said: 'This place is the end of heaven and earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven. And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times. And He was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated (even) for ten thousand years.'" (Enoch 18:12-16)
And in another passage the "angels" are described as seven stars:
"I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire. Then I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?' Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: 'Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.' And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture. Then I said: 'How fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!' Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?' And I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.' And he said ⌈⌈unto me⌉⌉: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.'" (Enoch 21:2-9)
There is only one set of stars that are said to be be seven in number, and these are the seven stars of the Pleiades. Thus I was rather surprised to find that the symbolic chronology of Jared and Enoch were associated with lunar eclipses near the time that the star Alcyone of the Pleiades was occulted by the moon.

There are several other indications that this tradition is ancient, and even predates the book of Enoch. In Greek mythology, the Pleiades are seven sisters who were put into the starry heaven in order to escape from the pursuit of the giant huntsman Orion. However there is even an earlier tradition from a myth from the Near East:
"In the ancient Near East, the Pleiades were associated with the binding of the Sibettu demons of which there are seven. The Sibettu-Pleiades were designated sons of the underworld god Enmesarra, who, when defeated by Marduk, were bound and placed in jail. Enmesarra and his sons remain under permanent guard, and at night the demon sons are the Pleiades in the eastern sky, seven stars bound." (A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19, by Kelley Coblentz Bautch, p. 148).
Just as the angels in the book of Enoch are bound in the netherworld for having sinned, so this myth associates the binding of the seven Sibettu demons with the Pleiades. However this is not all: the Pleiades are singled out in the Bible in three passages (Job 9:9, 38:31, Amos 5:8). Of these the second passage is worth quoting:
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? (Job 38:31)
This may be in fact a reference to the binding of the sons of God in the underworld for having sinned by mating of the women of this earth.

If we go even earlier still to ancient Babylonian and Sumerian tablets, we find that all star names have the prefix of MUL to indicate a star. However the Pleiades are given a special designation: MUL.MUL - meaning, the star of stars (see Babylonian star catalogues). It is never explained why the Pleiades are given such a special designation.

In addition to the book of Enoch, the book of Jasher associates Enoch with these "sons of God":
"...an angel of the Lord then called unto Enoch from heaven, and wished to bring him up to heaven to make him reign there over the sons of God, as he had reigned over the sons of men upon earth." (Jasher 3:23)
This explains why the chronology for the life of Enoch is associated with the Pleiades. But what about Jared? Actually the book of Enoch explains this as well:
"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." (Enoch 6:1-6) 
The name Jared means "descent" in Hebrew and the book of Enoch states he was so named as the sons of God descended from heaven at the time of his birth. From the chronology it was shown Jared was born in 3441 B.C., and in this year the star Alcyone of the Pleiades was occulted by the Moon near the time of an eclipse.

This, in my opinion, can hardly be a coincidence. A very early tradition preserved in an extra-Biblical work is confirmed in the hidden astronomy embedded in the early chapters of Genesis. We thus have here the earliest explicit reference to extraterrestrial contact, and it had an influential role on early Christianity as the book of Enoch also contained early prophecies of the coming Messiah.