Dr Paul Allen

Elijah and Enoch (ancestor of Noah) - an icon 17th cent., Historic Museum in Sanok, Poland (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.” ( Jude 1:14 ) There are two Enochs in the First Age of the world. One is a son of Cain ( Genesis 4:17 ), and the other is a seventh-generation descendant of Adam through his son Seth ( Genesis 5 ). Jude makes very clear which one he means. Luke references Enoch in his genealogy of the Lord Jesus ( Luke 3:37 ), also indicating that this Enoch is important to remember. Enoch was the father of Methuselah , who was the grandfather of Noah. Although the Bible does not mention it, several of the early church scholars allude to a Book of Enoch and cite passages from it about the awful days before the world was destroyed by the great Flood. Perhaps the most startling fact recorded about Enoch is that he “was translated that he should not se...

The Last Judgement. The Louvre. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) An issue that must be addressed before proceeding to an examination of the text of Revelation is our basic hermeneutical approach to the book. Over the course of the church's history there have been four main approaches: the futurist, historicist, preterist , and idealist approaches. i  The futurist approach understands everything from Revelation 4:1 forward to be a prophecy of things that are to occur just before the Second Coming of Christ . In other words, all of these prophesied events are still in the future from the perspective of the twenty-first century. According to proponents, this conclusion grows out of a belief that there is no correspondence between these prophesied events and anything that has yet occurred in history. ii The historicist approach understands Revelation to be a prophecy of church history from the first advent until the Second Coming of Christ. This approach appears to have had its root...

Elijah and Enoch (ancestor of Noah) - an icon 17th cent., Historic Museum in Sanok, Poland (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "And Enoch walked with God : and he was not; for God took him." ( Genesis 5:24 ) Surely one of the most godly, as well as interesting, characters who ever lived was Enoch. He is one of only two who lived before the Flood ( Noah also, Genesis 6:9 ) of whom it is said that he "walked with God." He is also one of only two individuals who never died ( Elijah , 2 Kings 2:11 ). Little is known about him, but the Bible reveals him to be exemplary among men and special to God. Notice that he was, first of all, a man of faith. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; . . . he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is |i.e., that God exists|, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" ( Hebrews 11:5-6 ). En...