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shedding new light on stories of old

Tales of Forever - Preview 10

Literary treasures from antiquity provide the West with a glimpse into humanity’s spiritual origins and destiny

The Curtain Rises

Impossible Wonders

In 1768, an ancient manuscript known as The First Book of Enoch was located in the mountains of Ethiopia. At the same time, Britain and America and, in effect, most of Europe were hopelessly embroiled in what was actually the first world war of ideas. Then, just when it seemed that our troubled world needed them most, more and more of these literary treasures from antiquity began to be rediscovered.

Ironically, though, after managing to recover these impossible wonders from the depths of oblivion, no one bothered to translate them. Rather than being seen as potential gems of spiritual wisdom, these priceless documents were relegated to the status of rare artifacts. So, for more than half a century, they sat unopened and unread on various museum shelves, simply gathering dust. But once the arduous task of decipherment had been completed, manuscripts like First Enoch began providing the West with a vivid, haunting glimpse into humanity’s spiritual origins and destiny. Almost overnight, an entirely new way of understanding ourselves had been unveiled, as old as time itself.

Centuries of Suppression

Still, as much as these manuscripts have managed to illuminate the human condition, they have also sparked an inordinate amount of derision and controversy. Having survived for twenty centuries or more, these priceless documents depict events that reach far beyond normally accepted limits of prehistoric time. Most notable among these—besides First Enoch—are The First Book of Adam and Eve, The Secrets of Enoch, The Book of Jasher, The Letters of Herod and Pilate, and The Gospel of Nicodemus. Sadly, however, they have all generally been ignored, dismissed, or suppressed, presumably because of their provocative rendering of historical events and characters.

(…you’re reading Part 16 of a 32-part series. If you like what you’re reading and want to continue, please SCROLL DOWN. Or to read this series from the beginning, go to Part 1…)
Story Continues Below
To hear Kent and Zen continue their discussion concerning the implications of the 5,500-year chronology from Adam to Christ as it pertains to the faithfulness of God, CLICK BELOW.
Story Continues From Above

A typical example of this is First Enoch, which had been read and respected by Jews and Christians alike, and which had stood side by side with The Book of Revelation during the first four centuries of the Christian Era. While many of the Church Fathers, such as Clement, Ambrose, and Tertullian, endorsed it, others did not hold to this favorable view.

Because of the efforts of influential opponents of the book, like Augustine and Jerome, who were critical of Enoch’s description of those peculiar angels, or Watchers as they were called, the book was eventually deemed heretical. Along with other Enochic writings, it was banned from the mainstream of Scripture. Shredded and burned, the book was lost to the West for over a thousand years. Yet with remarkable persistence, many of these ancient gems have, slowly but surely, made their way back into circulation. Today, thanks to the efforts of a handful of men who were uniquely capable of seeing beyond the veil of skepticism and doubt, nearly everyone has heard something about these remarkable books.

So ends this Preview of TALES OF FOREVER. To read more, please click on one of the following links:

To continue with this series, read an Excerpt to see that with the unexpected findings of The Dead Sea Scrolls, the notion of recovering “hidden” wisdom literature has become widespread.

Read the Next Preview to see how the story of Enoch as a type of Christ provides the building blocks for countless mythological motifs.

Read the Next Excerpt to learn of the story of a man who soared through a hole in space and time.

Read the Previous Preview to ask, if Jesus never spoke in iambic pentameter, then why do Bible translators depict Him doing so?

Read the Previous Excerpt to see why the depiction of a character’s dialog is the paramount hurdle for an author.

To read this series from the beginning, go to the First Preview to discover a work that sheds light on long-lost truths that most modern-day Christians know nothing about.

To hear Kent talk more about his book Tales of Forever, CLICK HERE.

To get a copy of Tales of Forever, CLICK HERE.