Ascension/Assumption of Moses blatantly teaches that Open Theism is wrong
By Original Truth Movement
Saturday, March, 5, 2016
All quotes from the Ascension/Assumption of Moses are from the biblicalaudio.com version found at this link: http://www.biblicalaudio.com/ascension.html.
Dear reader(s), please read the following with emphasis on the bolded and especially underlined parts:
“1:10Therefore, Moses spoke to Joshua, “Keep this word, and promise me that you will2 do everything which has been commanded in such a way that you will be blameless. 1:11 Therefore, this is what the Lord of the universe has decreed. 1:12 For he created the universe on behalf of his people; 1:13 but from the beginning of the universe, he did not make this design of creation openly known, in order that the nations might be found guilty, yes, that they might abjectly declare themselves guilty by their own deliberations.
1:14“Therefore, he3 has designed and devised me, I, who have been appointed4 before the founding of the world, to be a mediator of his covenant. 1:15 But now, I shall reveal it to you, because the years of my life have come to an end; and, in the presence of the entire community, I am going to the resting-place of my fathers. 1:16 But take this writing, so that, later, you will remember how to preserve the books which I shall entrust to you. 1:17 And you shall arrange them, and anoint them with cedar, and deposit them in earthenware jars in the place which God has chosen from the beginning of the creation of the universe, 1:18 a place where his name may be called upon until the day of recompense when the Lord shall visit them in the consummation of the end of the days.
[. . .]
12:1 And when he had finished speaking these words, Joshua again fell at the feet of Moses. 12:2 And Moses grasped his hand and raised him into the seat before him; and responding to him, he said, 12:3 “Joshua, do not despise yourself, but free your mind from care and pay attention to my words. 12:4 All the nations in the universe, God has created, along with us. And he has foreseen both them and us from the beginning of the creation of the universe even to the end of the age. And nothing, even to the least thing, has been overlooked by him. But rather, he has seen everything, and he is the cause of everything. 12:5 [The Lord] has foreseen everything which might come to exist in the universe; and, behold, they have come to pass […12:6 The Lord has] established me for them, and [appointed me to pray] for their sins, and [to make intercession] on their behalf. 12:7 Yet, this is not on account of either my strength or weakness, but simply that his mercies and longsuffering have descended upon me.
12:8“For I say to you, Joshua: it is not on account of the piety of this people that you shall drive out the nations. 12:9 However, everything of the heavens, the firmaments of the world, have been created and approved by God, and are under the ring15 of his right hand. 12:10 Therefore, those who truly fulfill his commandments will flourish and will prosper. 12:11 But those who sin by disregarding the commandments will deprive themselves of the good things which were previously mentioned, and they will be punished by the nations with many tortures; 12:12 but it is not possible for the nations to completely drive them out or to completely leave them. 12:13 For God, who has foreseen all things in the ages, will go forth; and his covenant has been established, and by the oath which […]”
[. . .]
[Footnotes:
2 possible emendation “[Be strong] and of a good courage, so that you may”
3 Lat / Gk “God”
4 Gk / Lat “prepared”]
[. . .]
15 emendation / manuscript “nothing””
I don’t think I need to exegete this for anyone with any understanding, even an Open Theist. If I do, I feel really sorry for that person. It is very clear what this is teaching. It blatantly teaches that God before the creation already foreknew the whole future and he predetermined everything that would happen in all the ages, he decreed all that was to come to pass. For anyone who believes the entire Bible, this should be enough. The reason is, Jude clearly endorsed this Book as authoritative holy writ in Jude, when he wrote:
“1:8Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 1:9Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”” (NKJV)
He is clearly alluding to and quoting this part of the Book:
“CONCLUSION
[[The remainder of this book is non-extant; but a possible summary has been composed using the surviving fragments, most which derive from the quotations of various early writers who had this book still in their possession.]]
And Moses said to Joshua son of Nun, “Let us go up into the mountain.” And when they had gone up, Moses saw the land ofpromise and said to him, “Go down to the people and tell themthat Moses is dead.”
And Joshua began to go down toward the people, but Moses came to the end of his life. When Moses died on the mountain, Sammael the slanderer tried to bring his body down to the people so that they might make it a god, but Michael the chiefmessenger, commanded by God, came with other messengers to take it, in order to have it buried. But Sammael would not allow him to remove the body to be buried. Wishing to deceive, he resisted him, and they argued.
The slanderer said, “The body is mine, for I am the master of material things.”
And the messenger said, “For by a holy spirit of his were we all created; and from the face of God, his spirit went forth and the world was made.”
The slanderer also said, “God has lied by bringing Moses into the land which he swore he should not enter.”
Michael answered and said, “For the serpent, which you inspired, was the cause of the transgression of Adam and Eva.”
The slanderer also slandered Moses, proclaiming, “Moses is a murderer; he struck a man in Egypt and hid him in the sand.” And because of this, the slanderer would not allow him to receive the honorable burial.
Michael the chief-messenger did not tolerate the revilement against him. Yet, since he lacked authority, he dared not bring a reviling judgment against him; instead, he declared to the slanderer, “The Lord rebuke you, slanderer!”
Then Michael prayed to God. And the Lord, in answer, sent thunder and lightning out of the heavens. And so the slanderer, being defeated, suddenly took flight and disappeared.
It seemed that, then, some cloud or shining light came upon the place, obscuring it and walling it off from the onlookers, so that they might not know the location of his grave. But Joshua son of Nun saw this spectacle from above, when he, along with Caleb, was lifted up by an unseen-power.16
Two Moseses became visible: indeed, one was alive in the unseen-power,17 but the other was dead in the body. Indeed, the one went along with the messengers as their companion, where a new name was given to him in the heavens: Melchi. But the other, by the command of God, was removed by the chiefmessengerMichael and committed to the earth, being honoredwith a burial in the ravines on the mountains, where Michaelburied him with his own hands. And the messengers who hadburied the body of Moses were not made unclean18 by touchingthe holy body.
Instead, both Joshua and Caleb did not behold this in the same way. Instead, indeed, one descended with greater speed, (asif the weight he carried was greater); while the other, on descending after him, subsequently described the glory which he had been looking at, (since, being purer than the other, he was able to perceive more).19
[. . .]
[Footnotes:
16 may also be translated “spirit” or “wind”
17 may also be translated “spirit” or “wind”
18 literally “common”
19 parenthetical clauses may be comments made by the quoter, rather than part of the original text]
[. . .]”
I understand however that this will not convince most Open Theists, as they, like most “Christians”, hold to the biased and baseless view of the 66 Books of the Protestant Bible being the only true authoritative Word of God, even though it contradicts that very Bible of theirs itself because that Bible clearly has no such doctrine in it and also there are things that clearly teach, like what I have showed here, that there are extra-biblical books of Scripture. But these people have to use vain twisted and hoop jumping logic to reason away what is absolutely clearly taught in their Bible and to prop up and defend what is absolutely taught nowhere in their Bible. This will only convince and settle the matter for those who fully believe the Bible. For those who are Open Theists but know the Truth about the Canon, you must change your views and reconcile your biblical “proof” texts with this Apocryphon just like how those on the other side of this debate reconcile their biblical proof texts with your supposed ones. There is just no real way out of this. No real way to wrest this in favor of Open Theism.
By Original Truth Movement
Saturday, March, 5, 2016
All quotes from the Ascension/Assumption of Moses are from the biblicalaudio.com version found at this link: http://www.biblicalaudio.com/ascension.html.
Dear reader(s), please read the following with emphasis on the bolded and especially underlined parts:
“1:10Therefore, Moses spoke to Joshua, “Keep this word, and promise me that you will2 do everything which has been commanded in such a way that you will be blameless. 1:11 Therefore, this is what the Lord of the universe has decreed. 1:12 For he created the universe on behalf of his people; 1:13 but from the beginning of the universe, he did not make this design of creation openly known, in order that the nations might be found guilty, yes, that they might abjectly declare themselves guilty by their own deliberations.
1:14“Therefore, he3 has designed and devised me, I, who have been appointed4 before the founding of the world, to be a mediator of his covenant. 1:15 But now, I shall reveal it to you, because the years of my life have come to an end; and, in the presence of the entire community, I am going to the resting-place of my fathers. 1:16 But take this writing, so that, later, you will remember how to preserve the books which I shall entrust to you. 1:17 And you shall arrange them, and anoint them with cedar, and deposit them in earthenware jars in the place which God has chosen from the beginning of the creation of the universe, 1:18 a place where his name may be called upon until the day of recompense when the Lord shall visit them in the consummation of the end of the days.
[. . .]
12:1 And when he had finished speaking these words, Joshua again fell at the feet of Moses. 12:2 And Moses grasped his hand and raised him into the seat before him; and responding to him, he said, 12:3 “Joshua, do not despise yourself, but free your mind from care and pay attention to my words. 12:4 All the nations in the universe, God has created, along with us. And he has foreseen both them and us from the beginning of the creation of the universe even to the end of the age. And nothing, even to the least thing, has been overlooked by him. But rather, he has seen everything, and he is the cause of everything. 12:5 [The Lord] has foreseen everything which might come to exist in the universe; and, behold, they have come to pass […12:6 The Lord has] established me for them, and [appointed me to pray] for their sins, and [to make intercession] on their behalf. 12:7 Yet, this is not on account of either my strength or weakness, but simply that his mercies and longsuffering have descended upon me.
12:8“For I say to you, Joshua: it is not on account of the piety of this people that you shall drive out the nations. 12:9 However, everything of the heavens, the firmaments of the world, have been created and approved by God, and are under the ring15 of his right hand. 12:10 Therefore, those who truly fulfill his commandments will flourish and will prosper. 12:11 But those who sin by disregarding the commandments will deprive themselves of the good things which were previously mentioned, and they will be punished by the nations with many tortures; 12:12 but it is not possible for the nations to completely drive them out or to completely leave them. 12:13 For God, who has foreseen all things in the ages, will go forth; and his covenant has been established, and by the oath which […]”
[. . .]
[Footnotes:
2 possible emendation “[Be strong] and of a good courage, so that you may”
3 Lat / Gk “God”
4 Gk / Lat “prepared”]
[. . .]
15 emendation / manuscript “nothing””
I don’t think I need to exegete this for anyone with any understanding, even an Open Theist. If I do, I feel really sorry for that person. It is very clear what this is teaching. It blatantly teaches that God before the creation already foreknew the whole future and he predetermined everything that would happen in all the ages, he decreed all that was to come to pass. For anyone who believes the entire Bible, this should be enough. The reason is, Jude clearly endorsed this Book as authoritative holy writ in Jude, when he wrote:
“1:8Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 1:9Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”” (NKJV)
He is clearly alluding to and quoting this part of the Book:
“CONCLUSION
[[The remainder of this book is non-extant; but a possible summary has been composed using the surviving fragments, most which derive from the quotations of various early writers who had this book still in their possession.]]
And Moses said to Joshua son of Nun, “Let us go up into the mountain.” And when they had gone up, Moses saw the land ofpromise and said to him, “Go down to the people and tell themthat Moses is dead.”
And Joshua began to go down toward the people, but Moses came to the end of his life. When Moses died on the mountain, Sammael the slanderer tried to bring his body down to the people so that they might make it a god, but Michael the chiefmessenger, commanded by God, came with other messengers to take it, in order to have it buried. But Sammael would not allow him to remove the body to be buried. Wishing to deceive, he resisted him, and they argued.
The slanderer said, “The body is mine, for I am the master of material things.”
And the messenger said, “For by a holy spirit of his were we all created; and from the face of God, his spirit went forth and the world was made.”
The slanderer also said, “God has lied by bringing Moses into the land which he swore he should not enter.”
Michael answered and said, “For the serpent, which you inspired, was the cause of the transgression of Adam and Eva.”
The slanderer also slandered Moses, proclaiming, “Moses is a murderer; he struck a man in Egypt and hid him in the sand.” And because of this, the slanderer would not allow him to receive the honorable burial.
Michael the chief-messenger did not tolerate the revilement against him. Yet, since he lacked authority, he dared not bring a reviling judgment against him; instead, he declared to the slanderer, “The Lord rebuke you, slanderer!”
Then Michael prayed to God. And the Lord, in answer, sent thunder and lightning out of the heavens. And so the slanderer, being defeated, suddenly took flight and disappeared.
It seemed that, then, some cloud or shining light came upon the place, obscuring it and walling it off from the onlookers, so that they might not know the location of his grave. But Joshua son of Nun saw this spectacle from above, when he, along with Caleb, was lifted up by an unseen-power.16
Two Moseses became visible: indeed, one was alive in the unseen-power,17 but the other was dead in the body. Indeed, the one went along with the messengers as their companion, where a new name was given to him in the heavens: Melchi. But the other, by the command of God, was removed by the chiefmessengerMichael and committed to the earth, being honoredwith a burial in the ravines on the mountains, where Michaelburied him with his own hands. And the messengers who hadburied the body of Moses were not made unclean18 by touchingthe holy body.
Instead, both Joshua and Caleb did not behold this in the same way. Instead, indeed, one descended with greater speed, (asif the weight he carried was greater); while the other, on descending after him, subsequently described the glory which he had been looking at, (since, being purer than the other, he was able to perceive more).19
[. . .]
[Footnotes:
16 may also be translated “spirit” or “wind”
17 may also be translated “spirit” or “wind”
18 literally “common”
19 parenthetical clauses may be comments made by the quoter, rather than part of the original text]
[. . .]”
I understand however that this will not convince most Open Theists, as they, like most “Christians”, hold to the biased and baseless view of the 66 Books of the Protestant Bible being the only true authoritative Word of God, even though it contradicts that very Bible of theirs itself because that Bible clearly has no such doctrine in it and also there are things that clearly teach, like what I have showed here, that there are extra-biblical books of Scripture. But these people have to use vain twisted and hoop jumping logic to reason away what is absolutely clearly taught in their Bible and to prop up and defend what is absolutely taught nowhere in their Bible. This will only convince and settle the matter for those who fully believe the Bible. For those who are Open Theists but know the Truth about the Canon, you must change your views and reconcile your biblical “proof” texts with this Apocryphon just like how those on the other side of this debate reconcile their biblical proof texts with your supposed ones. There is just no real way out of this. No real way to wrest this in favor of Open Theism.
