Gilbert House Fellowship

THE STORY of a global flood is common to many cultures all over the world. Today, we read the real story behind the flood of Noah. We read the corresponding chapters in the Book of 1 Enoch that expand on Genesis 6:1-4. It was more than just human sin that led to the Flood; the Watchers and their monstrous offspring brought witchcraft, sexual depravity, and even cannibalism to the earth. We also co...

AT SOME point in our distant past, angels descended to the summit of Mount Hermon and made a pact to corrupt the earth through interbreeding and sharing knowledge that humanity was not meant to know. This week, we begin to decipher one of the strangest, but most important, sections of scripture in the Bible. We explain why Genesis 6 means what it says and compare it to the extrabiblical account in...

PRIDE AND a drift away from the Creator is evident in today’s study, which features the generations of patriarchs between Adam and Noah. We discuss the first city built (Gen. 4:17) and explain why we think the builder was Cain’s son, Enoch (not the Enoch who “walked with God,” who was a descendant of Seth). That was probably the ancient city of Eridu, home of the god Enki, lord of the abyss, site...

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS have been messed up for millennia because of what happened in Eden. This week, we discuss the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, taking a deep dive into Genesis 3:16, a difficult passage that suggests husbands and wives have been cursed by sin to struggle with one another for control. Then we talk about the curse directed at the serpent and explain why it has more to...

THE TREE in the middle of the garden proved to be a test and a trap—not just for Adam and Eve, but for the serpent as well. This week, we discuss the location of Eden and explain why it was Jerusalem based on the identities of the four rivers named in Genesis 2:10-13. We also talk about the relevance of the rivers Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates to ancient cosmology, as reflected in Isaiah 47...

GARDENS WERE not just for growing vegetables in the ancient world. This week, as we study days five through seven of Creation Week, we discuss the spiritual significance of gardens in the ancient world and their connection to the cult of divinized ancestors, especially dead kings—in other words, the mighty men who were of old. We also discuss the identity of the “we” and “us” whose image we bear,...

BACK TO the beginning! Today, we begin our study of the Old Testament for the second time, nearly five years after our very first dive into Genesis 1. We discuss the meaning of various Hebrew words and their implications, and we explain why the first chapter of the Bible isn’t just a creation account, it’s a repudiation of the creation stories told by the cultures of the ancient world. ———— Join u...

WE'RE BACK with a brief summary of highlights from our whirlwind tours of the Holy Land and the UK. We discuss sites we visited, such as Gilgal Refaim, Joshua's altar, and Harosheth Haggoyim (the headquarters of Sisera, commander of the army of the Canaanite king Jabin), the amazing artifacts at the British Museum, and an incredible divine appointment at the site of Aleister Crowley's home overloo...

WE WEREN’T quite finished after all! Marilyn Abbott, who spotted our oversight of Deuteronomy 9 about six weeks ago, informed us this week that we’d also skipped over three chapters of the Gospel of John. (Thank you again, Marilyn!) So, today we discuss Jesus’ final meeting with his disciples just before his betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane. This included his promise of the coming of the Holy...

WE REACH the end of the Old Testament today, the Book of Malachi, and with that we have completed our first journey through the entire Bible. We discuss God's condemnation of faithless rituals and the priests that perform them, His anger at those who had "married the daughter of a foreign god," and His promise to return on "the great and awesome day of the Lord." ———— Josh and Christina Peck need...

NEHEMIAH DISCOVERED what God had known for centuries (well, since the beginning of time, actually): His people were a stubborn lot. After returning from a visit to the Persian king Artaxerxes to report on the work that had been done in Jerusalem, Nehemiah discovered that the reforms he and Ezra the priest had instituted, a return to the Law given to Moses, had already been forgotten. Jerusalem was...

PERSEVERANCE IN the face of opposition is one of the lessons from our reading today. The Samaritans, Ammonites, and Arabs in Nehemiah's day tried to discourage the Jews through threats, political pressure, and even a conspiracy to assassinate Nehemiah. With the work completed, Ezra led the people in a reading of the Law and a restoration of the Feast of Tabernacles, which, we were surprised to lea...

NEARLY ONE hundred years after Cyrus issued his decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem, the walls of the Holy City still had not been rebuilt. Nehemiah, cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, was granted permission to return to Judah for twelve years and oversee the rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem. We discuss the opposition to Nehemiah, from without and within, and how h...

THE SECOND group to return from Babylon to Jerusalem was led by Ezra the priest, who secured permission from the Persian king Artaxerxes in 458 B.C. It was a four-month journey, which the Jews undertook without an armed guard, something that was unheard of in a time when caravan raiders were likely to prey on unsuspecting travelers -- especially a group loaded down with more than 30 tons of gold a...

AN ASTUTE listener pointed out that we skipped chapter 9 of Deuteronomy way back between studies #44 and #45, so we begin this week by correcting that oversight. (Thank you, Marilyn!) We find a wonderful nugget in Moses' directions to the Israelites, based on the intriguing link between the Hebrew word for "cities" and the Aramaic word for "Watchers." Then we move to the climax of the Book of Esth...

THE STORY of Esther, a Jewish woman who became queen of Persia, is the origin of the Purim holiday, celebrating the salvation of the Jewish people from Haman, a key advisor to Xerxes, the king. In today's #MeToo culture, however, the story has been hijacked by our 21st century Western worldview. We discuss the differences between Esther and the deposed queen Vashti; obvious changes to the Book of...

APOCALYPTIC PROPHECIES of the coming Day of the Lord are the focus of the last three chapters of Zechariah. Today we discuss the prophet's vision of the final battle of the age and compare it to Armageddon and the war of Gog and Magog. We also talk about the aftermath, the millennial reign (although Zechariah doesn't call it that), and the final world order, when God rules and reigns over the enti...

GOD PROMISED that the tears and fasting of the Jews who'd returned to Jerusalem would be turned to joyous feasting. Then we turn to prophecies of God's judgment against the unrepentant nations on the Day of Yahweh. We analyze Zechariah's references to specific places, such as Tyre, Sidon, Greece, Damascus, Lebanon, and Bashan, a clear prophecy of Judas Iscariot, and a mysterious "worthless shepher...

A FLYING SCROLL, a woman named Wickedness, other women with wings like storks, and four chariots pulled by red, black white, and dappled horses continue the fascinating vision of the prophet Zechariah. Picking up from his vision of the "two anointed ones" last week, we discuss the link between the flying scroll and the one unsealed by the Lamb in Revelation 6. We speculate on the significance of t...

WE OPEN 2019 with a study of two of the shorter prophetic chapters of the Old Testament, but they are rich with multiple layers of meaning — messages that point forward to the end times, but also back to Babel and the spirits behind it. We discuss the Angel of Yahweh, another appearance in scripture of the Second Power of Heaven; the symbolism of Joshua, the first high priest of the remnant that r...

NOT SURPRISINGLY, the exiles who returned to Jerusalem in 538 B.C. got discouraged pretty quickly and left off rebuilding the Temple. About eighteen years later, in 520 B.C., God sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to encourage the people to get busy. Somewhat surprisingly, the people listened! We discuss the prophetic aspects of the messages given to Haggai and Zechariah, and compare them to t...

THE PROPHESIED return of the exiles from Babylon is the focus of our study today. Under the leadership of Zerbbabel, who led the first group back to Jerusalem in 538 B.C., and with the encouragement of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. We discuss the return of the people and the overwhelming emotions of the elders who wept when they saw the foundation of the new...

PHYSICAL RESURRECTION is an aspect of Bible prophecy that's not often discussed. Today, we link Daniel 12:2-3 to Isaiah 26:13-19, Ezekiel 39:11, Matthew 27:52-53, and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 to show how the prophets and apostles understood not only that we will be physically resurrected someday, but that the Rephaim -- i.e., the spirits of the Nephilim (yes, them again) -- will be "blocked" from th...

THE END of the 11th chapter of Daniel reads like a prophecy of the wars of Antichrist. Since the first 35 verses of that chapter are a prophecy of wars that were over the Holy Land in the two centuries before the birth of Jesus, concluding with Antiochus IV and his abomination of desolation, this analysis makes some sense. We revisit last week's study of Daniel 11:1-35, and then spend the rest of...

THIS WEEK, we dig into one of the most historically dense sections of scripture. It's especially fascinating because the history recorded here was written in advance. Daniel was shown a vision of the wars that would rage across the land formerly held by Israel during the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C. following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. Kingdoms established by two of Alexander's gen...