Biblical Reason & Revelation

  🌟 “Taken Up vs. Assumed: Why Enoch and Elijah Are Not Where Mary, Mother of God, Is” --- 📖 Introduction Throughout Scripture, we encounter extraordinary accounts of individuals taken up by God: Enoch in Genesis, Elijah in Kings, and later, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of God in Catholic tradition. At first glance, these events may seem identical — but a closer look reveals profound differences. Understanding these distinctions not only clarifies Scripture but also deepens our appreciation of Christ’s unique role as the mediator between humanity and the Father. --- 📖 Enoch: Walked With God • Genesis 5:24: “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.” • Hebrews 11:5 adds: “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.” • Yet Hebrews 11:13 later says: “All these died in faith,” suggesting Enoch’s “taking” was mysterious, not full glorification. • Interpretation: Enoch was preserved by God, but Scripture does ...

Part 2: “From Salem to Calvary: How Melchizedek’s Blessing Points to Christ’s Eternal Priesthood” When Melchizedek steps onto the stage of Scripture, he appears for only a moment — a mysterious king‑priest offering bread and wine to a battle‑worn Abraham. But that brief encounter becomes a thread that runs through the entire Bible, pulling together the priesthood, the sacrifice, and the city where God will complete His plan. If Part 1 was about the meeting, Part 2 is about the meaning. Because Melchizedek doesn’t just bless Abraham. He foreshadows Christ. — 1. A Priesthood Older Than Moses, Older Than Levi, Older Than Israel Before there is a Temple, before there is a Law, before there is a Levitical priesthood, there is Melchizedek. A priest of “God Most High.” A king of Salem — ancient Jerusalem. A man with no recorded genealogy, no beginning, no end in the text. Hebrews 7 seizes on this: “Without father or mother or genealogy… resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.”...

The Raven and the Dove: From Literal Curiosity to Spiritual Discernment The story of Noah releasing the raven and the dove in Genesis 8 is one of those deceptively simple biblical moments that grows richer the longer one sits with it. At first glance, the detail seems almost incidental: Noah sends out a raven, and unlike the dove, it never returns. Many readers — myself included at one point — assume the raven must have died searching for land, exhausted by the endless waters. It’s a natural, almost childlike interpretation: the bird flew too far, found nothing, and perished. ————— But as scholars have long noted, the text itself tells a different story. Genesis says the raven “went to and fro until the waters were dried up.” In other words, it survived. It simply did not return to the ark. Scholars point out that the raven, being a scavenger, had no need to come back. It could land on floating debris, feed on the carcasses left by the flood, and survive in conditions the dove could no...