The Old and New Testament stories seem like a collection of parables and old folklore stories at first. However, if you look more closely, these stories carry concealed messages and keys.
Many of the stories are so old they are hard to grasp. They were translated numerous times from Hebrew and Aramaic and may become distorted due to mistranslation. In spite of that, the Bible provides certain clues about what was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil really was and a basic understanding of life and creation in general.
In the past, almost everything was written by people with a certain primitive knowledge of basic things. However, they were aware that the Creator of the universe is an omnipresent, all-knowing Supreme Being that has all divine power over His creation.
In ancient times, it was a common practice for high priests to set up their own rules and to favor one religious group over the other. In addition to the basic moral rules, they created their own rules and laws to serve their agenda in politics and rulership. For instance, their way of punishment was so severe that they could assign the death penalty to a person simply because he was a thief or didn’t follow the rules set by the high priests.
Many Old Testament stories were written in such a manner that everything God did was cursing and punish humans for committing sins, which made Him look like a cosmic ogre. In addition to the 10 commandments, God created many spiritual laws to govern the universe.
The Universal Laws or Principles bring order and harmony into the mechanism of creation and govern its existence. The man-made customs and rituals which served a political or religious agenda for the rulership had nothing to do with the 10 Commandments and the universal laws which created harmony and perfect order.
The Law of Cause and Effect
The 10 Commandments (known as the Decalogue) were given to people at Mount Sinai to keep their moral behavior under control. The Spiritual Laws of the universe keep everything else in cosmic realms in the right order.
The Law of Cause and Effect is a well-known law among other spiritual laws. It states that ”Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause.” Every effect is originating from someone’s inner or mental world and has a very specific cause. Every thought, word, or action sets a certain effect in motion that is going to materialize over time.
If someone wants to become a master of his or her destiny, they should train their mind first. Many people used to wonder why God didn’t protect his creation in the beginning to avoid confusion, sin, and punishment. One of the reasons is because He gave free will to all intelligent beings.
For the Creator, having creatures that serve Him like robots without other options does not satisfy an intrinsic need to be honored. To see the Law of Cause and Effect in action, think of the story of Adam, Eve, and their children from Genesis 1. In the Garden of Eden, God created the first humans and told them they can touch everything except the Tree of Knowledge. Since Adam and Eve had free will, they could choose to break or not to break the given commandment.
At the point of disobedience (the fall), a man moved away from the Creator’s standards of truth to substitute his standards. Adam’s willful disobedience resulted in losing paradise and facing pain, suffering, and death. We know that life began at least 3.5 billion years ago because that is the age of the oldest rocks with fossil evidence of life on earth. But this is by far the only evidence we have regarding the life of the planet.
Many think that Serpent, a famous creature from the Bible, is an imaginary character, but we have no evidence of what creation looked like a billion years ago. According to Genesis, for example, Serpent was a creature with legs and the ability to produce offspring. Later, it got enmity between his and Eve’s offspring (Genesis 3:15).
Nowadays we can confirm what dinosaurs (such as Alectrosaurus) looked like by using digital modeling and fossil evidence. The easily identifiable fossils such as snakes (though often retaining hind limbs) first appeared during the Cretaceous Period. There are also various records of reptilian humanoid cryptids as well as alligator cryptids.
The Tree of Knowledge
The Bible gives us very limited information on what the “Tree of Knowledge” was. The Book of Enoch, for example, adds more clarification about the Genesis story and describes this tree as “a beautiful and fragrant tree that no physical being had the authority to touch until the day of the great Judgement Day” (Book of Enoch 25.4). These fruits were designed to “give life to the chosen after the Judgement Day to live eternal life”.
According to Genesis 3, it’s obvious that God didn’t want to destroy any of His disobedient creatures, but instead, He put them on trial and questioned them about why they did what they did. When they were proven guilty, God proclaimed a verdict of their future life describing what was going to happen to them.
So the question is, why God didn’t block access to the Tree of Knowledge from the beginning? Why would He create something He had to contend with and tempt others to disobey Him? It was done for testing and teaching purposes.
By breaking God’s rules and commandments, Adam and Eve began to feel the consequences of their actions immediately. God didn’t tell them that death will be immediate, nor did He state how death is going to occur (even if one day in that particular environment lasts for a thousand years). By revealing to Adam, Eve, and Serpent their future and what they and the next upcoming generations are expected to do, God introduced the Law of Cause and Effect to them for learning purposes.
According to Genesis, Adam and Eve lived about 930 years and had many kids including the first three: Cain, Abel, and Seth. Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote that the number of Adam’s children was thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters. Also, some scholars believe Cain was not Adam’s son.
The Book of Enoch also tells a story about Enoch’s vision/dream he had while he was with his wife Edna (Book of Enoch 85.3 – 85.8). This vision adds more information regarding Adam and Eve’s dilemma. In that dream, he saw a white bull that “came out of the earth” with a heifer and two young bulls: black and red. After the black bull struck the red one, a heifer bore another white bull. After this one, she gave birth to many other bulls and cows.
The color variety such as black, red, and white, can be a clue that the first woman may produce offspring with some genetic mutations because of the corrupted DNA. This idea matches the scriptures when God placed enmity between the Serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring (Genesis 3:15-16), and then made her future labors severe and painful.
In Genesis 4:6, God gave Cain a few lessons to learn about acceptance. When Cain didn’t make God happy with his offerings, God questioned Cain why he was angry and why he considered himself a downcast. God told him that to be accepted, he should do what is right. If Cain doesn’t do what is right, sin would “enter his door” and he wouldn’t be able to “rule over it”. He favored Abel more on purpose to see how Cain would handle it. God gave him a chance to learn what was right and do the right thing.
However, Cain couldn’t control his anger, jealousy, and temptation and murdered his own brother. Once again, God didn’t kill Cain on the spot and didn’t send him to Hell. Instead, He put some mysterious mark on Cain that prohibits others from killing him.
The Bible doesn’t tell us how Cain died. According to the Book of Jubilees, Cain’s house fell apart killing him with its fallen stones. As a result, Cain got killed with the same object he used against Abel. The narrative of Cain’s death was followed by the heavenly law:
With the instrument with which a man kills his neighbor with the same shall he be killed; after the manner that he wounded him, in like manner shall they deal with him.
God wanted Cain to learn his lesson and like in Adam’s situation, God created a learning plan for Cain making him a “restless wanderer” on Earth (Genesis 4:13-14).
The Story of Noah and Nephilim
Intelligent life is not possible in the chaotic and unstructured universe. There is a perfect interconnection that originates from the One Source. There is a perfect pattern that can be tracked from a small electron to a large planet. The physical and spiritual laws of the universe bring harmony, agreement, and correspondence between the physical, mental, and spiritual realms.
Noah’s story tells about God’s punishment of mankind to prevent chaos and destruction of future generations. The story starts with the Sons of God (“Godlings” in Hebrew) who sinned by desiring the daughters of men. These prohibited unions produced Nephilim (which means “the fallen”) and corruption of genes. Nephilim also taught people how to use advanced technology and weapons to create wars, and use power and destruction.
Similar events are described in the Mahabharata, an ancient Hindu text, where gods fought a war with many advanced weapons such as laser technology similar to modern-day nuclear missiles.
Enoch wrote his book before the flood, and like Noah’s father, Noah claimed to speak with Enoch. The Book of Enoch describes Noah as a child with white or blonde hair, a red birthmark, and perhaps blue eyes:
And it seems to me that he is not sprung from me but from the Angels and I am afraid that something extraordinary may be done on the Earth in his days. (The Book of Enoch 106.6)
and
Whiter than snow, and redder than the flower of the rose, and the hair of his head is whiter than white wool. And his eyes are like the rays of the Sun; and he opened his eyes and made the whole house bright. (Book of Enoch 106.10).
Enoch was telling him not to worry about his son’s appearance as God was planning to do new things on Earth because “some from the height of heaven transgressed the word of the Lord” (Book of Enoch 106:13). According to Genesis, mankind was extremely wicked in the days before the flood and the earth was filled with violence:
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). The Earth also was corrupt before God, and the Earth was filled with violence (Genesis 6:11–12).
The Book of Enoch warns about future doom events when inhabitants of the earth will see their families fighting and destroying each other. The prophecy continues saying that they are going to suffer in the afterlife and the societies they founded will be wiped away by a flood (Book of Enoch 10.12).
God made Noah’s family a remnant for Him to save Noah from the destruction which is coming to Earth because of all the sins and iniquity:
And those same waters will change in those days; for when those Angels are punished in those days, the temperature of those springs of water will change, and when the Angels come up, that water of the springs will change, and become cold (Book of Enoch 67.11).
This does fit with the theories of Charles Hapgood in his book The Path of the Pole, where he suggests that the huge ice melt (that probably caused the flood) occurred when the poles shifted – perhaps due to an impact from space. The North Pole shifted from Hudson’s Bay to its present position.
Testing of Job
In the Book of Enoch, God confirms His motives for testing and trial:
And I will establish your offspring before me, forever and ever, and I will scatter those who dwell with you, over the face of the dry ground. I will not again put them to the test, on the face of the Earth, but they will be blessed and increase on the dry ground in the name of the Lord (Book of Enoch 67.3).
The story of Job is another good example of how God tests His creation. Job was a wealthy man with a big house, servants, a wife, and many kids. He was very righteous and obedient to God’s words. It was unclear why God made Job suffer over an argument between God and the devil.
It seemed unfair to let the devil destroy such a good and righteous man. However, the devil himself was sure that Job was pious only because God blessed him with a big family and good health.
The devil wanted to prove that Job’s righteousness was due to the expectation of a reward. He was sure Job is going to curse God if his children and servants would be killed and his perfect health would be taken away from him.
During his trial, Job was praising God’s name instead of cursing Him, saying that he came out naked out of his mother’s womb and he will return naked. Job’s friends saw his suffering and assumed he was guilty since God is just.
Job, knowing he was innocent, concluded that God must be unjust. But later, Job admitted his lack of wisdom and understanding of how the universe works and how to maintain it. In the end, Job gave his final response, confessing God’s power and his lack of knowledge of “things beyond me which I did not know” (The Book of Job 42:1-6).
When God finally spoke to Job, He didn’t explain the reason for Job’s suffering nor defend his justice. Instead, God explained His role in maintaining the divine order of the Universe and the list of things He does to demonstrate His divine wisdom and the order which is the heart of wisdom.
It was not Job who was on trial, but simply God’s policy of testing. Job proved to God that his righteousness was truly genuine and was not because he expected a reward. Also, God’s answers revealed that He loved Job and was by his side always. Only God and not Job’s friends/family saw real proof of Job’s obedience and absence of sin.
In the end, God restored everything he took away from Job and blessed him with a better life than he had before. This new life was not some kind of a prize for Job’s suffering, but instead, it was God’s promise to all who serve faithfully as redemptive agents of the Creator.
A perfect world is possible through unselfish service. For things to work in the universe, they should be in perfect working order, structure and harmony. Law and order will bring harmony and correspondence between the cosmic realms.
But why does God need to test His creation?
The Book of Enoch states that when elect receives wisdom, they are not going to die from God’s wrath or anger. They will not behave incorrectly again, either through forgetfulness or through pride. Those who have wisdom will be humble. There will be light, joy, and peace for them and they will inherit a new Earth (The Book of Enoch 5.7-9).
The Book of Revelations gives us another prophecy that there will be a “new Heaven and new Earth” after the first Earth disappears. Nothing impure will ever enter it nor will anyone who commits shameful or deceitful acts. New inhabitants will be those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 21). Growing and overcoming the process takes a lifetime.
In Luke 19:19, God instructs followers to grow in grace and knowledge and develop God’s given talents. This life is a training ground for God’s people to maintain and develop a holy, righteous character, so one day they can see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and rule in the Kingdom of God.
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