Blessings in Jesus

I am in Vietnam and working with the underground church which is currently facing persecution in the highlands and am unable to respond at length at present.

In any event, Moriel and I firmly reject the "serpent seed" doctrine which is essentially a Branhamite heresy propagated by the false teacher/false prophet Willam Branham. We have in past years warned against both this and other false teachings from Branham and his followers which today include the leading false prophet from the defunct Kansas City Prophets, Paul Cain, who has been outed as a homosexual predator. These heresies continue to circulate in the false prophetic circles of Mike Bickel's International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOP) ‚   and much of the Vineyard movement of the late John Wimber.

The apocryphal books of Enoch I and II are of course non canonical and therefore not a basis for doctrine. We cannot be dogmatic about the content or historicity. This is not to say however that there is not truth in it but it is to say it is not something to build a doctrinal position on.

From a scholarly viewpoint in academic theology which studies scripture from a literary viewpoint (as opposed to a doctrinal viewpoint), the book of Enoch is important in that it illustrates the fusion of Hebraic and Hellenistic apocalyptic literary genres in the inter-testamental period between Malachi and the Gospel narratives. From this literary perspective it is a supplemental reading to the book of Revelation, but only to help understand how the book of Revelation is written and what it says, but not necessarily what it means doctrinally.

Academic theology has value in the study of scripture to help us correctly arrive at doctrine under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, but it is devoid of doctrinal value itself . Having said that, it also-comes into valuable play in the area of apologetics and refuting liberal higher criticism, etc. The study of Enoch would be in this category but would be of little interest to most Christians who did not attend a seminary or post graduate school of divinity or working in certain areas of discernment ministry. ‚  Be advised however that those building doctrine on apocryphal literature such as Enoch are heterodoxical false religious systems such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Talmudic Judaism or cults outside of traditional Evangelical scriptural orthodoxy.

I am not at the moment in a position however to elaborate further.

In Christ,

JJP / Moriel

(Philippians 1:6)