Nobody removed the book of Enoch from the bible. It is not included in the Bible we have today, but there's a good reason for that. It was completely unknown prior to the KJV Bible and all of the pre-KJV translations and collections of scripture, so there could be no way for it to have been included in the Bible we have today. The book of Enoch was first discovered in Africa (Ethiopia) in the mid 1700's. So your title is unfounded and a lie on its face.
Just because it's claimed to have been lost in all but Ethiopia doesn't mean it was unknown elsewhere previously.
Mathew 22:23-32
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[b]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
Where is this scripture Jesus referred to here?
Jude 1:14
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones
Where is this prophesy, other than this reference to it in Jude?
Jesus is the Way, the TRUTH and the Life. If you're not seeking Truth, you're not seeking HIM, the ONLY Way to everlasting Life.
You are missing the point entirely. I am not discounting the fact there are over 100 passages that reference Enoch throughout the bible. I have read the book of Enoch and I do however disagree with the notion it was not included for nefarious reasons because of what it contains. Nobody took it out when it never was in. There are lots of writings that were known that never made it in the bible. Some were quoted by Paul and some of the other writers of the New Testament. Some from reading and others that were preserved in passing the message down verbally.
There was also a group of writings from Christians. These were writers of the second and third generations, people who did not know Jesus or Paul personally but whose writings made a difference in the life of the church. Here’s how that happened. Fairly early, church leaders began to recognize differences in the books. Some books, such as the Gospels and Paul’s letters, were to be read in church as part of the worship service. Others were good books but were reserved for private reading at home, much as we read books of theology or devotional material today. Most of the writings fell into this second category. Much as we might enjoy reading Clement or Barnabas, for example, they are not a part of the canon.
Which get to the bible in its entirety. Princes, philosophers, prelates, politicians and poets have all conspired against it. It has been insulted by the scorn of fools. It has become the jest of infidels and the joke of sceptics. It has been assailed consistently and persistently by professed scholars and has been made the butt of the critic. Assaulted by every known plan of hell, it has come forth unscathed from the inferno. Like the three Hebrew children it has been in the fire and like them it has been wonderfully preserved and there is not a smell of burning upon it.
The cunning of hell and the craft of earth have combined against the Bible but it stands unmoved, for it is as the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture. The Bible consists of sixty-six books written by some forty different authors over a period of a millennium-and-a-half (1,500 years). The first writer, Moses, died about 1450 years before the last writer, John, was born. Yet none of these writers ever denounced, criticized or condemned any inspired teaching in the books of the others. Their historical position was diverse, but their spiritual position was one and the same. Such a diversity creating such a unanimity must of necessity strike the candid reader of Holy Scripture with profound wonder, and surely underlines the unimpeachable conclusion that One Divine Mind was behind this One Book.
Had God wanted Enoch included it would have been included. Simple as that.
In your glee, to try to point out a contradiction you failed to read other passages that are relevant to this story. It parallels the story of Job 1. God allowed Job to be tempted by Satan. You can also read James 1:13 which says, “When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me.? For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed?” So, on the one hand, the Bible says that God does not tempt anyone, yet on the other hand, from Job 1 we know that God will allow Satan to tempt us, and James 1 adds that even when we are tempted by Satan, it is ultimately our own evil desires which must combine with Satan?s work of tempting in order to bring about evil behavior. I believe that taking these passages together yields a balanced theology of temptation and sin. Actually, this is just a further working out of Genesis chapter three and the fall of mankind. In Genesis three, God allowed the temptation to be in place, Satan did the tempting, but it was the ultimate responsibility of Adam and Eve for their giving in to temptation.
Now, let me get to the issue of whether God incited or Satan incited David. I will have to concede that at first blush this appears to be a blatant contradiction. Nevertheless, there is a unity in these passages, in view of what I already stated above. 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 Samuel 24:1 says that, “the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.?” Here is how I see these passages working together.
I believe that God allows us to be tested by evil so that our hearts may be revealed and so that we may come to humility and repentance and turn toward him. God allows Satan to tempt us toward evil, but it is ultimately our own evil, working with the temptation, which leads toward evil. This is exactly what happened with David. His heart had become hardened and prideful. In order to reveal his sinful heart, God allowed Satan to incite David to do the evil which was more or less already in his heart. So, who incited? Satan incited David, but it is not inaccurate to say that God, in a sense incited David.
David freely chose to give into this temptation, and that God allowed it all to come about because he was sovereign over the entire situation. The difference in the two passages, though, brings out a different emphasis in both. While in the Chronicles passage the idea is that David had gone so low as to succumb to the temptation of the devil, in the Samuel passage, the main idea is that God did not abandon Israel nor was God’s sovereignty ever in question. Given the themes of both books this makes sense. Chronicles seems heavily “David focused” and Samuel seems heavily focused on the relationship of God to the rulers of Israel.
The net result of God?s allowing and Satan?s inciting David toward sin? Repentance.
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20594697? ago
Nobody removed the book of Enoch from the bible. It is not included in the Bible we have today, but there's a good reason for that. It was completely unknown prior to the KJV Bible and all of the pre-KJV translations and collections of scripture, so there could be no way for it to have been included in the Bible we have today. The book of Enoch was first discovered in Africa (Ethiopia) in the mid 1700's. So your title is unfounded and a lie on its face.
20594872? ago
Just because it's claimed to have been lost in all but Ethiopia doesn't mean it was unknown elsewhere previously.
Mathew 22:23-32
Where is this scripture Jesus referred to here?
Jude 1:14
Where is this prophesy, other than this reference to it in Jude?
Jesus is the Way, the TRUTH and the Life. If you're not seeking Truth, you're not seeking HIM, the ONLY Way to everlasting Life.
20598922? ago
You are missing the point entirely. I am not discounting the fact there are over 100 passages that reference Enoch throughout the bible. I have read the book of Enoch and I do however disagree with the notion it was not included for nefarious reasons because of what it contains. Nobody took it out when it never was in. There are lots of writings that were known that never made it in the bible. Some were quoted by Paul and some of the other writers of the New Testament. Some from reading and others that were preserved in passing the message down verbally.
There was also a group of writings from Christians. These were writers of the second and third generations, people who did not know Jesus or Paul personally but whose writings made a difference in the life of the church. Here’s how that happened. Fairly early, church leaders began to recognize differences in the books. Some books, such as the Gospels and Paul’s letters, were to be read in church as part of the worship service. Others were good books but were reserved for private reading at home, much as we read books of theology or devotional material today. Most of the writings fell into this second category. Much as we might enjoy reading Clement or Barnabas, for example, they are not a part of the canon.
Which get to the bible in its entirety. Princes, philosophers, prelates, politicians and poets have all conspired against it. It has been insulted by the scorn of fools. It has become the jest of infidels and the joke of sceptics. It has been assailed consistently and persistently by professed scholars and has been made the butt of the critic. Assaulted by every known plan of hell, it has come forth unscathed from the inferno. Like the three Hebrew children it has been in the fire and like them it has been wonderfully preserved and there is not a smell of burning upon it.
The cunning of hell and the craft of earth have combined against the Bible but it stands unmoved, for it is as the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture. The Bible consists of sixty-six books written by some forty different authors over a period of a millennium-and-a-half (1,500 years). The first writer, Moses, died about 1450 years before the last writer, John, was born. Yet none of these writers ever denounced, criticized or condemned any inspired teaching in the books of the others. Their historical position was diverse, but their spiritual position was one and the same. Such a diversity creating such a unanimity must of necessity strike the candid reader of Holy Scripture with profound wonder, and surely underlines the unimpeachable conclusion that One Divine Mind was behind this One Book.
Had God wanted Enoch included it would have been included. Simple as that.
20599126? ago
2 Samuel 24 tells the story of David counting the fighting men. So does 1 Chronicles 21. They're both talking about the same incident.
2 Samuel 24:1
1 Chronicles 21.
If the Bible is infallible, do you believe God and Satan are the same?
20601176? ago
In your glee, to try to point out a contradiction you failed to read other passages that are relevant to this story. It parallels the story of Job 1. God allowed Job to be tempted by Satan. You can also read James 1:13 which says, “When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me.? For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed?” So, on the one hand, the Bible says that God does not tempt anyone, yet on the other hand, from Job 1 we know that God will allow Satan to tempt us, and James 1 adds that even when we are tempted by Satan, it is ultimately our own evil desires which must combine with Satan?s work of tempting in order to bring about evil behavior. I believe that taking these passages together yields a balanced theology of temptation and sin. Actually, this is just a further working out of Genesis chapter three and the fall of mankind. In Genesis three, God allowed the temptation to be in place, Satan did the tempting, but it was the ultimate responsibility of Adam and Eve for their giving in to temptation.
Now, let me get to the issue of whether God incited or Satan incited David. I will have to concede that at first blush this appears to be a blatant contradiction. Nevertheless, there is a unity in these passages, in view of what I already stated above. 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 Samuel 24:1 says that, “the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.?” Here is how I see these passages working together.
I believe that God allows us to be tested by evil so that our hearts may be revealed and so that we may come to humility and repentance and turn toward him. God allows Satan to tempt us toward evil, but it is ultimately our own evil, working with the temptation, which leads toward evil. This is exactly what happened with David. His heart had become hardened and prideful. In order to reveal his sinful heart, God allowed Satan to incite David to do the evil which was more or less already in his heart. So, who incited? Satan incited David, but it is not inaccurate to say that God, in a sense incited David.
David freely chose to give into this temptation, and that God allowed it all to come about because he was sovereign over the entire situation. The difference in the two passages, though, brings out a different emphasis in both. While in the Chronicles passage the idea is that David had gone so low as to succumb to the temptation of the devil, in the Samuel passage, the main idea is that God did not abandon Israel nor was God’s sovereignty ever in question. Given the themes of both books this makes sense. Chronicles seems heavily “David focused” and Samuel seems heavily focused on the relationship of God to the rulers of Israel.
The net result of God?s allowing and Satan?s inciting David toward sin? Repentance.
20602999? ago
You completely miss the point.