And Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God; and he was not, for God took him [home with Him]. ~ Genesis 5:24, AMP

Because of faith Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven, so that he did not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For even before he was taken to heaven, he received testimony [still on record] that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God. ~ Hebrews 11:5, AMP

It was of these people, moreover, that Enoch in the seventh [generation] from Adam prophesied when he said, Behold, the Lord comes with His myriads of holy ones (ten thousands of His saints)  To execute judgment upon all and to convict all the impious (unholy ones) of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed [in such an] ungodly [way], and of all the severe (abusive, jarring) things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.  These are inveterate murmurers (grumblers) who complain [of their lot in life], going after their own desires [controlled by their passions]; their talk is boastful and arrogant, [and they claim to] admire men’s persons and pay people flattering compliments to gain advantage. ~ Jude vv. 14-16, AMP

The Holy Bible gives us more than our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. The Holy Bible also gives us picture-perfect patterns that prove to us that whatever God has promised will happen, definitely will come to pass. In other words, once we realize that a spiritual truth stated in one part of the Holy Bible has been repeated in a similar fashion in another portion of the Holy Bible, then we truly can take what God says to the bank because we recognize the process in the biblical pattern!

For example, from one specific biblical pattern we learn that Noah’s generation and our generation have something in common: an Age that ends in a catastrophic global destruction! That is right! The Holy Bible makes it clear that the Age of Conscience, in which we find Noah’s generation, and the Age of Grace, in which we find our generation, both have this biblical pattern in common:  disappearance, sign, warning, and global destruction.

Thus, where we modern-day believers are concerned, since God has taken the time to say something twice, this means that He wants us to take careful note of what He is saying. That is why this repeated biblical pattern, which is first found in Genesis, is of the utmost importance to us, because it teaches us that God’s dealings with us (or His methods used to test us) have a perfect order. This pattern of a disappearance, sign, warning, and global destruction also is of the utmost importance to us, because it helps us understand what is currently happening to us, as well as what is going to happen to us.

For these reasons, when we examine the major events that take place near the end of the Age of Conscience—the era when God tests mankind’s moral responsibility to do good and avoid evil—we find that the disappearance, the sign, the warning, and the judgment/destruction pattern in the Old Testament will repeat itself again in the New Testament, in the exact same order.

This particular biblical pattern is said to be one that God reveals, in part, to the first Adam. According to Jewish tradition, as recorded in Flavius Josephus’ The Antiquities of the Jews, Trans. William Whiston, 1895; and as recorded in the Jewish pseudepigraphic work, Latin Life of Adam and Eve, “Adam’s Vision,” chapter 29.2; and according to the Christian Gnostic text, The Apocalypse of Adam (Codex V, 5) of the Nag Hammadi Codices, Adam tells Seth and his offspring about the mysteries God revealed to him that pertain to future events, such as the Flood and Fire destructions. According to Whiston’s translation of Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 2.3, because of:

…Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone: they [Seth and his seed] inscribed their discoveries [inventions] on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day. ~ Josephus (inserted bracketed words are this blogger’s emphasis)

Apparently, Adam not only has foreknowledge of the Flood and Fire destructions of two Ages, but also this foreknowledge is supposed to have been etched on antediluvian tablets and passed on to Adam’s descendants, from generation to generation, beginning with the line of Seth (see also Latin Life of Adam and Eve “The Two Stelae Legend,” chapter 50.1-50.2). Additionally, oral Jewish tradition claims that God promises Adam that he would have a sign that would let him know when the water destruction is near. Thus, there can be no doubt that Methuselah is that sign God allegedly promises Adam, because Adam got to know Methuselah for 243 years before Adam died! More on this sign, later.

As earlier mentioned, the biblical pattern seen in Noah’s Age will be repeated in our generation, and this pattern is found in Genesis, specifically Genesis 5:21-32, and Genesis 6:5 through Genesis 7:11-12. The first rule of this pattern is: God either raptures or, in some other way, allows faithful people to escape destruction right before He pours out His wrath/judgment upon the Earth.

With Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, we see how God illustrates a picture-perfect image of the Rapture. Enoch, whose name comes from the verb hanak (Strong’s 693) and means “to dedicate,” “begin,” and “to wet the palate,” is an Old Testament man of faith who is translated (raptured) and is seen no more.

Believers need to take note of this truth, which is that before God destroys the Earth with the Flood He has a disappearance. Now, the first Adam is still alive when Enoch is translated (raptured), and yet God does not translate the first man who walked with Him in the Garden of Eden. God also does not translate any of Adam’s other living descendants. Thus, here is where a parallel can be drawn between Enoch’s disappearance and the apostle Paul’s depiction of the great disappearance—the Rapture of the alive Bride of Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Just like Enoch symbolizes the Old Testament’s version of a dedicated, righteous, and sanctified human being who faithfully walked with God during a time when the wickedness of mankind was abounding, the truly Christ-like alive Bride of Christ symbolizes the New Testament’s dedicated, righteous, and sanctified individuals who faithfully are walking with God at a time when global wickedness once again is increasing. Likewise, just as Enoch’s genuine faith walk is the reason why this righteous man is translated (raptured) off of the Earth before mankind’s wickedness becomes so bad that humans’ thoughts are consistently evil, modern-day believers’ genuine faith walk will be the reason why they will be raptured off of this Earth before God’s promised second judgment comes upon the Earth during the Tribulation Period, which is the time when the never-seen-before satanic evilness will exist. Lastly, just as Enoch never experienced a physical death, because of the Rapture the last days’ dedicated, righteous, and sanctified alive Bride of Christ also will not experience a physical death!

The Scriptures also say this about Enoch: “…after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:22, NIV). It should be noted here that those 300 years Enoch walked with God are part of the total 969 years of Grace God allowed before the Flood Judgment happened. 

Thus, the parallels between Enoch and the Bride of Christ also include this spiritual truth: just like it takes the fulfillment of a prophecy (the birth of Methuselah)—the prophesied sign that lets Adam know God’s Flood Judgment is near—to encourage Enoch’s walk with the Lord, it takes the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the promised Messiah—Jesus the Christ—to encourage centuries of believers to walk with God. This spiritual truth also is why the collective Bride of Christ is like a second Enoch (they are all raptured; taken; seen no more; were not). Moreover, just like Enoch’s life after the birth of Methuselah completes the disappearance rule of the previously mentioned biblical pattern, the Bride of Christ’s life after the birth of Christ Jesus will complete the rule for their future disappearance. Christ Jesus (the promised Savior) is the ultimate sign that points to the coming future global destruction. Then too, just like Enoch did not have to see or live through the Flood Judgment, those alive believers in Christ Jesus who faithfully are pleasing God, at the time of the Rapture, also will not have to live through God’s wrath, which happens in the Tribulation Period.

Therefore it is no coincidence that the disappearance rule of this biblical pattern is followed by this rule of the pattern, which is: God ALWAYS provides a sign that lets people know that His wrath/judgment is near. As mentioned earlier, Methuselah is the promised sign that would let Adam know the Flood is near, so Methuselah’s life and death fulfill the sign rule of the pattern in question.

Methuselah is Enoch’s son, and Methuselah’s name means “when he dies it will come.” Additionally, the “selah” in Methuselah’s name is an obvious reference to a large “pool of water.”

Now, Methuselah is 187 years old when he has Lamech, and Lamech is 182 years old when he has Noah, and Noah is 600 years old when the Flood comes; furthermore, 187 + 182 + 600 = 969, or the age of Methuselah when he dies! Thus, to the world’s surprise, the “it” that is sent forth, or comes upon the Earth, after Methuselah dies is the foretold Flood—a sure enough HUGE pool of water that God uses to destroy every human and every animal living outside of the Ark, which Noah enters seven days before the actual Flood starts (cf. Genesis 7:6-11).

The Scriptures say that Adam lives for a total of 930 years (cf. Genesis 5:3-5). According to Adam’s genealogy listed in Genesis 5, Adam is 687 years old when Methuselah is born, and Adam dies 126 years before Noah is born. Moreover, Lamech is Methuselah’s son and Noah’s father. The point here is that Adam’s longevity leaves no doubt that up until the time Adam dies he more than likely retells God’s world-destruction prophecies to his descendants, perhaps even emphasizes the meaning of Methuselah’s name as a confirmation of the Flood prophecy.

After Adam’s death, Methuselah also probably reiterates the Flood prophecy to his descendants, as Lamech and Noah probably do with their offspring. Then too, the fact that Enoch doesn’t walk with God until after Methuselah is born also confirms that Adam and his offspring must be aware of God’s Flood Judgment.

However, no one from Adam to Noah had ever seen rain before, as evidenced by the absence of a rainbow, and because the Scriptures say that the pre-flood water was only water vapor that came up out of the ground (cf. Genesis 2:5-6). This biblical truth is why it would have to take God’s declaration to Noah about covering the Earth with water (cf. Genesis 6:17) to strengthen Noah’s faith and remind him that his grandfather is the sign, which signals to God it is time to send forth the first-ever rain that will debut as the Flood: “when he dies it will come” (cf. Genesis 7:11-12).

The clear parallel to the Age of Grace’s sign portion of this pattern is this spiritual truth: the Earth and everyone living on it have been judged once before.  Now, God has given us more than one sign that lets us know that God’s promised Fire destruction is near. However, the most important last day’s sign is revealed to us in Jesus the Christ’s own words. He says:

For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:38-39, KJV)

The writer of Genesis (Moses) says the following about Noah’s generation: “… The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil” (Genesis 6:5, NLT). Thus, their total evilness is why God lets the underground waters burst forth, and why He opens Heaven’s floodgates so that the rain would fall like mighty torrents upon the Earth.

A point of clarification, the “Noe” in the Matthew 24:38, KJV verse is Noah, and to Noah’s foully wicked generation’s chagrin, the rains finally do come. Needless to say, they are shocked. The Flood catches the majority of Noah’s unprepared generation by surprise. As a result, only a handful of humans get to enter the Ark where they are safe from the Flood, (exactly eight people … cf. 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5, KJV)—a TRUE remnant!

Likewise, to the Age of Grace’s foully wicked generation’s chagrin, the Rapture soon will come. Needless to say, the people today who are living the same licentious (without moral discipline), lascivious (lecherous), violent, arrogant, and rebellious lifestyles that the pre-flood people were living also will be shocked when they realize that they have been left behind to face the Tribulation Period, just like the people in Noah’s generation were left behind, were not raptured with Enoch, and consequently shocked when the Flood came. No doubt they quickly realized they had missed the opportunity to enter the Ark.

Now while the Rapture also will catch the majority of the current contemporary unprepared professed Christian populace by surprise, because they will not be alert and watchful, it is important to note here that the Ark doesn’t symbolize the Rapture. Here’s another point of clarification, which primarily is for those people who do not believe in the pre-Trib Rapture. Noah’s Ark represents a place of safety, a hiding place where a remnant of Israel will be able to escape the Antichrist’s tyranny, as well as the wrath of God. This blogger believes these hills Christ Jesus says the end-times Hebrews should flee to are in southern Jordan or ancient Edom, where Petra is located. Be that as it may. Christ Jesus prophesies the following, saying that in the Tribulation Period,

…when you see the abomination that causes devastation spoken about through the prophet Dani’el standing in the Holy Place (let the reader understand the allusion), that will be the time for those in Y’hudah to escape to the hills. If someone is on the roof, he must not go down to gather his belongings from his house; if someone is in the field, he must not turn back to get his coat. What a terrible time it will be for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that you will not have to escape in winter or on Shabbat. For there will be trouble then worse than there has ever been from the beginning of the world until now, and there will be nothing like it again! Indeed, if the length of this time had not been limited, no one would survive; but for the sake of those who have been chosen, its length will be limited. ~ Matthew 24:15-22, CJB; the red lettering is this blogger’s emphasis

Once again, the Rapture is not symbolized by the Ark; however, the Rapture is a kind of Ark, in the sense that the Rapture is the way that the true Bride of Christ (another remnant) is transported to Heaven where the Lord keeps Her safe from the Tribulation Period. Everyone who is left behind will experience the wrath of God that is poured out upon the Earth in the many forms of His Fire Judgment! 

The third rule of the end of the Age pattern is: God ALWAYS gives fair warning before He sends His wrath. In Noah’s day, God’s fair warning is Noah’s righteousness preaching. In our Age of Grace, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers broadcast God’s fair warning in similar manner. The only difference is our ministers are preaching the same Salvation or the Gospel of Jesus Christ message that has been preached since the first century until our twenty-first century.

God’s Word says that “…Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God” (Genesis 6:9, NLT). Thus, when Noah was 500 years old, God intimates to him that He would send a Flood that will destroy every living thing in that corrupt Age, except for Noah, his offspring, his son’s wives, some animals, and some birds (cf. Genesis 6:13, 17-20).

According to Jewish traditions, it either is both before and during the time of the building of the Ark, or only while the Ark is being built, that Noah takes on the role of a righteousness preacher and preaches to the masses about living a righteous and sanctified life. His repentance message is God’s fair warning that soon a Flood (God’s wrath/judgment) will come and destroy everyone who continues with life as usual.

There are those individuals who maintain that Noah NEVER warns anyone. However, it was a commonly held Jewish tradition that Noah preaches repentance to his generation. The Jewish historian Josephus records:

But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married; so he departed out of that land. (Josephus, Antiquities, Book 1, Chapter 3.1)

It is obvious that Noah must have warned his generation about the coming Flood, because the Scriptures tell us that even Enoch prophesied that God was going to pour out His wrath on the wicked people who were living in Enoch’s day (see Jude vv. 14-16).  For this reason, the fact that NO ONE had ever seen a flood before, let alone rain, makes Jesus the Christ’s Matthew 24:39 statement about Noah’s generation not understanding what he was talking about clear evidence of Noah’s repentance preaching. The Lord’s statement clearly implies that the masses were too consumed in their wicked ways to take the time to pay attention to Noah’s warnings, for they simply continued about their affairs in a kind of blissful ignorance.

Nevertheless, Noah’s preaching is God’s fair warning, and Noah’s generation ignores this fair warning. As a result, when Noah is 600 years old, the Flood comes and wipes out that generation—ALL human and animal life, minus the human beings and animals on the Ark.

As mentioned earlier, our generation also has preachers who have been spreading the Salvation or Gospel of Jesus the Christ message about repenting and accepting Jesus the Christ as Lord and Savior so that the Holy Spirit can sanctify us and eventually conform us to the image of the Lord. These preachers, like Noah, are uneasy with the unholy and unrighteous way people are living.

Because of the preached Salvation or Gospel of Jesus the Christ message, we are aware of this fulfilled prophecy: our generation is full of scoffers! Knowing this fact should help us to realize that the Rapture, the first event in the closing out of the Age of Grace, is right around the corner, because all that needed to happen by our time, before the Rapture could take place, was the manifestation of an abundance of scoffers, mocking Jesus the Christ and Christians’ belief in the Second Coming of Christ.

Therefore, people today need to heed preachers’ warnings, for collectively these preachers/ministers/evangelists are giving God’s fair warning to a spiritually dead world. That warning is His promised wrath/judgment is coming! If the unsaved masses in this world continue to ignore God’s fair warning, by refusing to repent their sins and accept Jesus the Christ as their Lord and Savior, the Rapture will come and they will be left behind to experience the horrors of the Tribulation Period, most of which end with the left-behinders experiencing a gruesome physical death.

Now the last rule of the biblical pattern that happens during the closing out of two Ages—the Age of Conscience and the Age of Grace—is: God ALWAYS pours out His wrath/judgment when He is finished dealing with or testing mankind. It should be noted here that, of the seven or so dispensations, only the Age of Conscience and the Age of Grace’s individuals receive a GLOBAL destruction as punishment (God’s wrath/judgment) for the sins they committed.

In the case of the end of the Age of Conscience, God’s GLOBAL destruction (wrath/judgment) is the Flood. In the case of the end of the Age of Grace, God’s GLOBAL destruction (wrath/judgment) is the seven-year Tribulation Period, which is full of different forms of Fire.

Once again, it is important to mention that God’s final GLOBAL wrath/judgment will culminate on the Day of Judgment (the White Throne Judgment), when all of the centuries of rebellious people—the world’s sinfully wicked people from EVERY century—will have to stand before the Great White Throne of God. There they are judged unworthy to receive an eternal life in the presence of God, after which they are thrown into the Lake of Fire.

The first global destruction—the Flood—happens because the people in Noah’s generation were corrupted by the “sons of God” who married human women, had intercourse with them, and produced GIANTS in size and in evilness (cf. Genesis 6:2). Since “sons of God” (in Hebrew bene Elohim) is never used when speaking of human beings, but always used when speaking of those supernatural beings (both good and bad) that are higher than mankind but lower than God, then it is evident that these fallen angels are the ones who mixed with humans. As a result, God makes the decision to no longer allow the genetic mixture of these fallen “sons of God” to continue, because their offspring had corrupted the Earth.

The humans in Noah’s generation, however, also were corrupted by their own intense worldliness—their eating, drinking, planting, building, marrying, and giving in marriage, which became hedonistic in nature. Their high degree of overindulgence and their perverted appetite for more evilness caused them to no longer think logically and to no longer care about the health of their own individual soul, as well as the souls of other humans. Indeed, the Scriptures confirm that the people in Noah’s generation became violent and immoral individuals who ONLY followed the imagination of their own hearts. The end result was unrestrained crime and uninhibited wickedness (cf. Genesis 6:11).

The second global destruction—the Tribulation Period—happens because, by the end of the Age of Grace, many people in this present-day generation will choose to be willingly ignorant. Many end-times people deliberately will choose to not believe:

(1) that God created the world, which at first was cool (that is, it was covered with water);

(2) that God once judged this world with a calamitous global Flood that often is called Noah’s Flood; and

(3) that Jesus the Christ is coming back near the end of the Tribulation Period, and His coming will bring God’s catastrophic global Fire destruction. (cf. 2 Peter 3:5-7; Revelation 8:7-11, 16:8-9; and Revelation 20:10, 14-15)

These three rejected Divine Truths will result in left-behinders, people who miss the Rapture because they have not repented their sins and accepted Jesus the Christ as their Savior, or they are not prepared and watchful genuine believers. In the case of the former, they are the people who also are guilty of following the evil imaginations of their own hearts, the result of which is that they commit unrestrained crimes and wickedness!

As in the days of Noah, today, increasing by leaps and bounds, are numbers of people who have chosen the broad road to death, because the pathway of life is just too narrow for them to walk on while they carry their dishonesty, avarice, pride, and habitual sins. Moreover, similar to Noah’s generation, who thought God would not destroy the world with the Flood, people today think God would not destroy the world with Fire, because if He did that would prove that God is not a loving God.

Additionally, not only will many people of today’s generation mock the Gospel message of love, grace, mercy and Salvation, but also those individuals who are in possession of Divine/spiritual Truths will refuse to live  by them! As Jesus the Christ explains, in the last days, there will be many people who will be given the opportunity to develop a relationship with God and the Lord, as well as given the opportunity to spend time fellowshipping with God and His Son, but many of these individuals will ignore the call—the invitation—and turn aside, one person to his field, another to his business (cf. Matthew 22:4-5).

In other words, our generation will have countless people who will have a field mentality, which is symbolic of selfish interests, and many people also will have a buying and selling mentality, which is symbolic of the false ideas and false perspectives that self-interest generates in order for that selfish person to be able to financially support him or herself. This is why masses of people in our generation will pay little or no attention to God’s invitation to the Great Wedding Feast, which really is Him “calling” (asking), even the ones whom He knows will make light of His invitation,  to accept His Plan of Salvation—regeneration, repentance, confession, Salvation, justification, and sanctification (transformation), which ends with glorification.

The point here, especially where believers in Christ Jesus are concerned, is that God wants our generation as a whole to put a higher priority on our spiritual life instead of on our natural life so that we can gain a deeper understanding of the Divine/spiritual Truths we already possess. For those individuals in our generation who are unsaved unbelievers who continue to make light of God’s invitation, they will be those individuals who eventually choose to be willingly ignorant, and consequently will be left behind to face the Tribulation Period (cf. Matthew 22:4-5). Furthermore, we believers who deliberately decide to reject portions of the Gospel’s Divine Truths will be unprepared and unwatchful, and as such will be people who also get left behind!

Looking once again at the parallels between the Age of Conscience and the Age of Grace, we see that the similarities are astonishing, primarily because of the biblical pattern of disappearance, sign, warning, and global destruction. We also see that God’s pattern has a clear order, and we absolutely have learned what will happen to us in our generation from examining the events that took place near the end of the Age of Conscience. Those events, once more, are: Enoch’s disappearance (translation or rapture); a child being born whose name means “when he dies it will come,” and that child is Methuselah, which means his death is the prophesied sign that would indicate that a Flood destruction would soon happen; the imminent Flood warning Noah more than likely preaches about to his willfully ignorant and foully wicked generation; and the actual Flood, that catastrophic global destruction that comes at the end of the Age of Conscience, beginning seven days after Methuselah dies.

What we can take to the bank is that, as the end of the Age of Grace draws near and God’s wrath becomes ever-so evident to us, we will know that, just as God promises, the true Bride of Christ will experience a disappearance (called the Rapture). Following the Bride of Christ’s disappearance, there will be many signs, but the definitive sign will be our generation behaving just like Noah’s generation behaved. A Salvation Gospel message will be preached, as God’s fair warning about how critical it is for the unsaved masses in our generation to turn away from their sinful wicked ways, right NOW, and move toward the Light of Jesus the Christ. Lastly, there will be a global Fire destruction.

Finally, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, we must realized that the Holy Bible gives us more than our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. The Holy Bible also gives us picture-perfect patterns that prove to us that whatever God has promised will happen definitely will come to pass. Therefore, this Rhema word to the wise should be sufficient! 

 

Peace out!!!!