HISTORY OF PROPHECY

By Charles J. Voss



A history of prophecy, that sounds like a contradiction of terms. Someone once said, "That prophesy is history written in advance." The convex of that is, "History is prophesy that has already been lived." Is that a confusing muddle? Not really, especially if you realize that prophecy is nothing more than the promises of an almighty, everlasting, all-powerful CREATOR that will never change or be replaced. Therefore, anything He said at the beginning of man's existence is still true today. If our CREATOR only spoke it one time, it is still in effect and is still binding whether it is a law, a commandment, a judgment, or something that He said He will bring to pass.

If our CREATOR promised to bring a happening for the 'good' for the right actions of a group or individual, i.e. as a prophesy to Abraham and his descendants, it is a prophesy that will be lived and become the history of Abraham's descendants. If He promised to bring bad happenings for the wrong actions of a group, i.e. a prophesy to Israel for breaking the laws, it is a prophesy that will be lived and become Israel's history also. Both of the prophesies work together because Abraham's descendants are more numerous than the sands of the sea, but most of them do not know who they are because they became the Lost Tribes of Israel.

Beginning with Adam our CREATOR had contact with humans. It is written that He walked with Adam in the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:16) and also walked with Enoch (Gen. 6:24). The CREATOR spoke with Noah (Gen. 7:1) and to Abraham (Gen. 12:1).

It is interesting to see the overlap in the lives of the ancients who were close to our CREATOR. This task has been simplified by Frank L. Klassen in his book Chronology of the Bible and the information for this chronology is found in the fifth chapter of Genesis. To avoid the confusion of using BCE/CE (BC/AD) dates Mr. Klassen uses the dates AM (Adoni Moni) which means the year of the world.

For our purposes here we will use Mr. Klassen's system. Using this system, the first year AM started when our CREATOR refashioned the earth. Adam was created on the sixth day of the week of the first month of the first year or Abib 6, 0. That beginning is the year zero in Klassen's AM system. Using the AM system and counting forward avoids the confusion of trying to establish the actual BCE date of creation and then counting backward.

For our purposes, our group under discussion will be labeled Hebrews. The choice for that name is based on the fact that Abraham is a part of this group and he is called a Hebrew (Gen. 14:13). This group had a certain religion which we will call The Hebrew Faith. (Note that the word Hebrew, as used here, has no connotations to Judaism or Christianity or any known large group of orthodox believers.) The purpose here is to show you that there is a continuity in history, up to a point, for the ancient religion of the group of Hebrews. That group observed the original religion of The Hebrew Scriptures (OT). This group formed, if you would, a support group of this original Hebrew faith.

From the death of Joseph forward this continuity stops. It stopped because the patriarchal support group disappeared. Then the children of Israel went into captivity in Egypt and the idolatry of baalism.

The Original Faith
Perusing The Chronology of The Bible gives the dates the ancients were born, how many years they lived, the age they were when they had a child, and when they died. It is interesting to see how many of the these patriarchs were alive at various times together to watch over each other.

Click to view full scale image.
Adam was born in zero AM. and died in 930 AM, thus he lived 930 years. Seth which means "substituted" (Strong's 8352) was born in 130 AM, died in 1042 AM, and his son Enosh (I'm using NKJV unless noted. KJV says Enos) means "mortal" (Strong's 583) was born in 235 AM and died in 1140 AM. Seth now began in earnest to seek the face of our CREATOR (Gen. 2:26). (Unless noted all dates will be AM.)

Enosh's son Cainan was born in 325 and died in 1235. Cainan means "fixed in place as a bird nest" (Strong's 7018 Kenan) and his son Mahalaleel was born in 395 and died in 1290. Mahalaleel means "praise of the Almighty" (Strong's 4111). Mahalaleel's son Jared was born in 460 and died in 1422. Jared means "a descendent" (Strong's 3382) and his son Enoch was born in 622 and was taken in 987.

Enoch's name means "to initiate or discipline" (Strong's 2585) or to "teach" (The Companion Bible p. 4). Notice what is stated about him in Gen. 5:24, "And Enoch walked with [Elohim]; and he was not, for [Elohim] took him." Note here that he walked and talked to his Maker and was close to Him so Enoch could teach and support the other patriarchs.

There is a whole doctrine in the religious world that Enoch was translated into heaven. The legend has it that, he and later Elijah, were taken bodily into heaven and are still there as human beings . The point is that from that time forward Enoch was not around. He and Elijah were taken bodily somewhere. The chariot took Elijah away from his enemies to another safer spot on earth. We know this because farther over in the scriptures you find that Elijah had written a letter to king Libnah (2 Chron. 21:12) after being translated. There is no record of where Enoch was transferred to.

Since our CREATOR is going to stand on the Mt. of Olives (Zech. 14:4) the legend that Enoch was translated into heaven is false. His enemies were after him and he was taken up in a chariot, or by some other means, to a different location to preserve his life. While looking at this subject I read in The Book of Enoch, which by the way is not of inspired cannon but is interesting reading, and there was no mention of the translation. We will refer back to the book Enoch momentarily.

Enoch's son Methuselah was born in 687 and died in 1656 which Klassen states was the year of the flood. The Companion Bible (p. 4) states that Methuselah means, "when he is dead it shall be sent." In other words when he died, the CREATOR sent the Deluge.

Methuselah's son Lamech was born in 874 and died in 1651. When Lamech was born everyone mentioned up to this point in time was still alive. Note that there was a direct continuity starting with Adam and Seth to Lamech. In fact Lamech (Noah's father) was only fifty-six years old when Adam died.

The Book of Enoch also makes a statement about Noah. When Noah was born, there was a radiance about him and as a baby he began to speak. So Lamech went to his father Methuselah who went to Enoch to find out why this baby was speaking and had this radiance. Enoch told Methuselah who told Lamech that Noah would be a savior for the world and take them through a period of destruction of the earth. The point of mentioning this is to emphasize the support group of the patriarchs.

Lamech means "powerful" (The Companion Bible p. 4) and his son Noah was born in 1056. By the time Noah was born only Adam and Seth had died. So there was a continuation of the beliefs and the worship for the one true CREATOR. This was the original religion of The Hebrew Scriptures.

When Noah, which means "rest" (The Companion Bible p. 4), was born Lamech, "Called his name Noah, saying, 'This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which [YHWH] has cursed" (Gen. 4:29).

Can't you just picture the whole group of patriarchs gathered on the Sabbath at Grandfather Enoch's house while he explained the way to live in order to live in harmony with the laws of the CREATOR?

When Noah's son Shem was born in 1585, Methuselah, Noah's grandfather, and Lamech, Noah's father, were still alive. In addition, "Noah found grace in the eyes of [YHWH]... and Noah walked with CREATOR" (Gen. 6:8-9). The patriarchs had their own support group and kept close to our CREATOR following His true religion.

Faith of Hebrew's Not Written Down
Coming through the flood was Noah and Shem. Noah died in the year 2006. Shem means "the name" or "renown" and he died in 2158. Shem's son Arphaxad was born in 1658 and died in 2096. Arphaxad's son Salah was born in 1693 and died in 2126. Salah's son Eber was born in 1723 and died in 2187. Eber's son Peleg was born in 1757 and died in 1966. Peleg's son Reu was born in 1787 and died in 2026. Reu's son Serug was born in 1819 and he died in 2049. Serug's son Nahor was born in 1849 and he died in 1997. Nahor's son Terah was born in 1878 and he died in 2083. Terah's son Abram was born in 2008 and died in 2183.
When Abram was born only Nahor, Peleg and Noah, of those mentioned after the flood, had died. All the rest were still alive, in fact, Noah lived to within two years of Abram's birth.

When Abram was a young man, surely he heard Grandfather Shem explain to the family the religion of YHWH, our CREATOR whose name is ETERNAL (Ex. 6:3) which is the only true religion of the Scriptures. This religious faith is centered around the oneness of our CREATOR and our relation to Him as explained by the first four of the Ten Commandments. It also includes our relation to each other as explained by the last six of the Ten Commandments

But you might contend that, "The Ten Commandments were not written down until Moses," and you would be right, to a degree. True they were not WRITTEN down until later, however, they WERE KNOWN and practiced from Adam to Joseph. How can such a statement be made? In Malachi 6:3 our CREATOR Himself states that He does not change. But then, how can He change? He is YHWH ELOHIM or ETERNAL Almighty CREATOR and something that is eternal cannot change; only physical temporal things can change. We have seen where our CREATOR spoke with Adam, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham and whatever He said to them is the exact same thing He told Moses when His words finally were written down.

Pagan Look-Alikes
Abraham's son Isaac was born in 2108 and died in 2288. Salah, Shem, and Eber were still alive. Eber died two years after Abraham so the patriarchs all lived basically at the same time. Isaac died one year before his Grandson Joseph became second only to the pharaoh in Egypt.
Isaac's son Jacob was born in 2148 and he died in 2331. Jacob was fifteen when Shem died. Jacob's son Joseph was born in 2259 and died in 2369. The religion of the Hebrews was still stable until the time Joseph died which was one hundred forty-four years before Israel was delivered out of captivity in Egypt. After the death of Joseph, the last of the patriarchs, the Hebrews (Israelites) sank into complete idolatry as the Hebrew faith began to be lost.

Now remember the support group of the ancients. It was not just one or two scattered people in an age, it was all of the great men, of our CREATOR, all together as a group supporting one another. In addition they had direct contact with YHVH Himself and they did not need any to have thing written down. With the death of Joseph came the end of the line of the ancients of old and their support group. Now there no patriarchs to stand in the gap for the Hebrew Faith, the Faith of Abraham and the Fathers and it dwindled away.

So after a stint in slavery, now and ONLY NOW WAS IT TIME to have anything written down. Why? Because the ancients of old were all dead and gone, so the knowledge had to be written down for coming generations.

Do not ever think that "the nations," who were not of the line of Abraham and the Fathers, did not know who they were and their belief in the one true Deity. They knew all about them. Remember, legend has it that Shem killed Nimrod. Nimrod had tried to place himself in front of the people instead of ETERNAL (Gen. 10:8-9).

"The nations" not only knew the ancients but they knew of their beliefs and rebelled against them. Thus, the adversary had open house and a field day to develop all the look-alikes that its mind could muster up.

What would be some of the look-alikes that our adversary would want to come up with? First of all would be a religion that did not require repentance but only belief. But what would the belief be in? It would be a belief system that someone else paid the penalty for their sin and all the person needed to do was to believe in the shed blood of the sacrifice and they would be relocated after death to a mystical wonderland--and after all, there has been sixteen of them (Sixteen Crucified Saviors by Kersey Graves).

In one of the ancient versions of this adversary-devised look-alike belief system they copied a true belief of the patriarches, that of eternal life by resurrection. This copied doctrine of the resurrection was later Hellenized by the Greeks to make this an "immortal soul." These look-alikes were written long before Moses was inspired to write the Torah. Hammurabi had time to make his code available on the scene long before the Torah was written. Of course the adversary would change, modify, and mystify all of the true history of the ancients such as: the Garden of Eden and the serpent, the flood, the ark and Mt. Ararat, Noah and his sons, Isaac's sacrifice, Samson between the pillars, and Solomon's judgment in order to have it written to appear as ancient truth. These examples come from Deceptions and Myths of the Bible by Lloyd M. Graham.

How easy it would be to fabricate look-alike stories based on the CREATOR, His way, and His people. These look-alike legends could include stories such as the god "Amen" who was called the "One One" "who has no second." But the ledgend of the "OneOne" was not even the first of these look-alike writings of and about YHWH and His people, for the Egyptians already had inscriptions of their god who had no equal. Other ancient look-alikes included "Thoth" who was "the lord of the law, the maker of the law, and the begotten of the law" and also a fable that "everything that exists had its origin in the primeval Celestial Waters." These illustrations come from The Book of the Dead by E. A. Wallis Budge.

The objectives of both books is to try to create the illusion that the legends of these pagans occurred before the Faith of the Hebrews was known. These books use the legends of the look-alikes in order to put forth the notion that YHWH and His scribes borrowed the ideas of the Torah from pagan civilizations around them and this, my friends, is pomposity beyond belief.

This list of legends of the look-alikes go on and on, but I hope you see the point that TRUTH WAS FIRST LIVED AND BELIEVED by the patriarchs and then the mythical look-alikes of baalism followed in their wake.

The entirety of The Hebrew Scriptures is basically a struggle of the Israelites, including the tribe of Judah, and their battle with baalism. This struggle started shortly after Joseph died and has continued until today. During the time of the judges, the CREATOR would work with a judge to deliver Israel. But then that judge would die and Israel would slip back to baalism. From that time forward we find prophesy after prophesy warning that failure to live by the faith of Abraham and the Hebrews would result in problems in the future.

This continued back and forth until finally Israel was taken into captivity by the Assyrians and shortly after that, Judah was taken into captivity by the Babylonians. The tribe of Judah came back out of captivity with the thoughts that they were never going to forget who the one true CREATOR was; and that they were never going to forget the Sabbath day; and they were going to maintain His laws. Under inspiration from The Righteous One of Israel Judah has preserved The Hebrew Scriptures. However, Judah was not following the Hebrew faith of Abraham or they never would have been taken into captivity. It is sad but the religion of Judah, when they emerged from captivity, was not and is not the Hebrew faith of Abraham!

Israelites worldwide, wherever you would find us in whatever country, are still are battling with baalism. We are now living the History of Prophecy because we are still battling baalism. Most of the scholars of men still do not want to keep the laws of our wonderful, loving, caring, forgiving, and compassionate CREATOR. Misery loves company so they want others to follow in their miserable path. The adversary is alive and well on planet earth and is still trying to deceive those it can into not searching the Scriptures for the true Hebrew faith of Abraham.