Are Enoch, Moses, Elijah, in Heaven?
Enoch was translated not to see death. Elijah was taken up to heaven by a whirlwind. Moses appeared at Christ's transfiguration. But your Bible says they are not in heaven. Here's the answer to why they are not.
Hundreds of years after Enoch, Moses and Elijah had supposedly "gone to heaven," Jesus, who was WITH the Father from the beginning(Jn.17:5, 1:1-2,14) came down from the Father (Jn. 17:4,8) as a flesh and blood human and plainly said, "NO MAN has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven - Son of man... (Jn.3:13). Jesus said that HE alone of all humans was the only one to ascend to heaven. (For a full understanding of how Jesus ascended to heaven, request the article "GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT"). Enoch, Moses and Elijah were not IN HEAVEN! It is written, "Enoch walked with God: and HE WAS NOT: for God took him." (Gen.5:24). Notice what this verse DOES NOT SAY. It does not say Enoch went to heaven. It says he was NOT FOUND, for God TOOK HIM. But this verse does not say WHERE God took him! To say God took Enoch to heaven is only human conjecture that has no basis in Biblical FACT. Concerning this event Paul said, "By faith Enoch was TRANSLATED that he should not see DEATH: and was not FOUND, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Heb.11:5). Many have just assumed again that the word "TRANSLATED" must mean "made immortal". They have assumed WRONG! The Greek word for "translate" is METATITHEMI. According to VINE'S Dictionary of NT Words, this word means, "to transfer to another place." This same Greek word is rendered "REMOVED" in Gal.1:6. In ACT 7:16 it is rendered "CARRIED OVER" where we read that after Jacob DIED his body was "carried over" - removed, TRANSLATED - to Sychem. God took Enoch. God removed him - translated him - so that HE WAS NOT FOUND. Nobody knew where he was! The LAMSA translation renders Gen. 5:24 as "And Enoch found favor in the presence of God, and DISAPPEARED; for God took him away." (emphasis ours throughout). In Deut. 34:6 we read also how God TOOK Moses from the people, after which he DIED and was BURIED by God. "But no man knows his sepulchre unto this day." God REMOVED Moses - God translated him also - and HE WAS NOT FOUND either! LAMSA translates the Aramaic Heb. 11:5 as, "By faith Enoch DEPARTED and did not taste death, and was not found, because God took him; but before he TOOK HIM AWAY, there was a testimonial about him, that he pleased God." ENOCH DIED! Does Heb.11:5 mean that Enoch NEVER experienced PHYSICAL death? Is this what Paul was trying to convey to us? Oh no! For after Paul had spoken about a number of FAITHFUL people of God (Enoch one of them), notice what he says in verse 13: "These ALL DIED in faith - NOT HAVING RECEIVED the promises..." Later in this same chapter, after talking about yet more of the faithful, Paul, as if to emphasize his point, again says, "And THESE ALL, having obtained a good report through faith, RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE" (verse 39). What promise? The "...hope of ETERNAL LIFE, which God, that cannot lie, PROMISED before the world began" (Titus 1:2). Enoch did NOT - has not, as yet - received the promise of eternal life. Why? Paul answers in Heb. 11:40: "Because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for US, so that THEY (those heroes and heroines of faith) should not come to PERFECTION apart from us, (that is, before we could join them)" The AMPLIFIED BIBLE. And when do we join them? When do we ALL come to PERFECTION together? AT THE RESURRECTION! See 1 THES. 4:13-18, 1 COR. 15:49-54. Paul says the faithful ALL died. Enoch was one of "all these." Enoch, then, DID DIE. Jesus said only the Son of man had evee ascended to heaven, so Enoch never went to heaven! Now GEN. 5:24 and HEB. 11:5 should start to become plain. Enoch was a man of God, walking with God by obeying and seeing His maker. He was a man of whom the world was not worthy (Heb. 11:38). Evil and sin were all around him, yet he had FAITH. It was nearing the time when the wickedness of man became so great that only Noah and his family were found worthy to escape destruction. Enoch would have had MANY enemies - enemies that would want to see him DEAD. After only 365 years (relatively a short period for the length of days they lived back then) God REMOVED Enoch - took him away from his enemies and spared his physical life from destruction and death at their hands. NONE could find him. Just like Moses was removed from Israel and died sometime after (only known to God), so too Enoch was removed by God to live in safety and eventually DIE at some point and place only known by God. Enoch, like all the faithful, awaits the promise of eternal life at the RESURRECTION. WAS ELIJAH TAKEN TO HEAVEN IN A WHIRLWIND? If Jesus said NO MAN had ascended to heaven except Himself, then WHERE did Elijah go? It may surprise many, but there are THREE heavens mentioned in the Bible, not just ONE! The first heaven is the ATMOSPHERE, the air surrounding the earth. Birds fly "in the heaven" - certainly NOT to God's throne. We read in Gen.l:2 of "foul that may fly ABOVE THE EARTH in the open firmament of heaven." Jacob, when blessing Isaac, said: "God give you of the DEW of heaven," and Moses was joyful that the "heavens shall drop down dew" (Gen.27:28; Deut.33:28). The DEW comes from the FIRST heaven - the atmosphere. The SECOND heaven is the expanse of this awesome universe - where the stars, comets, moons and planets are. The Psalmists often wrote about the "HEAVENS, the work of Your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which You have ordained" (Ps.8:3; Gen.1:15-17). The THIRD heaven is where the throne of God exists, where the heavenly temple is found and the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the heaven where Paul and John were caught up to in vision (2 Cor.12:l-4; Rev.4:l-2). As Elijah could not have gone to the heaven where God's throne is found, then into which heaven did he go? We read, "and Elijah went up by a WHIRLWIND into HEAVEN" (2 Kings 2:1,11). The answer should be obvious! Elijah was carried by the whirlwind into the FIRST heaven, where physical whirlwinds function. WHY WAS ELIJAH TAKEN UP? Did God intend to make Elijah IMMORTAL by taking him up into the atmosphere? There is not one word to that affect in the scriptures ! Turn to 2 Kings 2:3,5 and see for yourself WHY Elijah was to be taken away. Elijah had been used by God as head or leader of the sons of the prophets. Now God wanted Elisha to assume leadership. God wanted Elijah to by-and-large "retire" - at least in an active and open directorship. Elijah granted Elisha a request before he was taken away (verse 9) and Elisha requested that "a double portion of your spirit be upon me." If he was to see Elijah taken away it would be granted (verse 10). Elisha DID SEE Elijah taken away and he inherited his MANTLE (verses 12-14). The mantle had great significance, it was, "worn by PROPHETS and PRIESTS as the simple insignia of their office" (CLARKE'S COMMENTARY VOL. 2: p. 484). The purpose of removing Elijah was to replace him with another man who would assume his office in Israel as head of the prophets. Elijah, having ascended into the AIR by a whirlwind was carried away out of sight - beyond the horizon. WHERE DID ELIJAH GO? He did not go to the THIRD heaven of the throne of God. Jesus said so! But he also could not logically remain in the air forever either. And God did not say Elijah was to die at that time, otherwise there would have been no need for such a spectacular removal of him from his office of head prophet. The sons of the prophets who KNEW Elijah was to be removed DID NOT BELIEVE he was to DIE then or to go "to be with the Lord." That's why they were fearful that the Spirit of God might have allowed him to drop " upon some mountain, or into some valley " (verse 16). Upon their hard pressed persistence Elisha allowed 50 men to go out and try to FIND Elijah - "they sought for three days, but found him not "(verse 17). Now if Elijah knew it was time to go and "join the Lord" it would have been easy for him to have told Elisha, who then would have told the sons of the prophets. The whole happenings before and after this miraculous event would clearly indicate that neither Elijah, Elisha or any of the fifty prophets understood that the removing of Elijah was to make him immortal and take him off to the third heaven. Where was Elijah taken? The Bible itself gives us the answer. Several years AFTER he was taken away, King Jehoram received a LETTER from him! How long after? There are some difficulties in figuring the EXACT chronology, it varies from 2 to 10 years or more. A note in JOSEPHUS (a Jewish historian of the first century A.D.) says 4 years, while the JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA figures it at 7 years. Regardless of the exact number of years, "there came a writing to him (Jehoram) from Elijah the prophet, saying..." (2 Chron 21:12). Now the wickedness of Jehoram, for which he was being rebuked in the letter, took place AFTER Elijah was taken away, yet the letter speaks of these things as PAST events, and the punishment to come upon him as yet FUTURE. So the idea of some, that Elijah wrote the letter BEFORE he was removed by the whirlwind, is proved wrong.. Elijah was taken up by the whirlwind into the first heaven and transported to another location ON EARTH. God did not see fit in His purpose to reveal his whereabouts. Some copies of JOSEPHUS come right out and offer this explanation: "For he was yet upon earth" (ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS, 9, 5:2). ELIJAH DIED! A marginal note found in SOME editions of the Bible concerning Elijah's letter says this: ".. .which was written before his death," meaning, the death of Elijah. There is a traditional site of Elijah's TOMB near a tributary of the Jordan River. HARPER'S BIBLE DICTIONARY (p.760), which lists various feasts and fasts of the Jewish calendar, says the tenth day of the second month ZN was a "fast to commemorate the DEATH of Elijah." The main proof that Elijah DIED is in the Bible itself. Paul, speaking about the people of FAITH says, "And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jeptha, of David also, and Samuel, AND OF THE PROPHETS..." (Heb.11:32). Elijah was ONE of the PROPHETS! Did Elijah receive the promise of ETERNAL LIFE when taken by the wind into the heaven? NO! "And these ALL (including the prophets), having obtained a good report through FAITH (and faith is the confidence of things HOPED FOR, the evidence of things NOT SEEN: Heb.11:1) RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE." (Heb.11:39). Why? "...that THEY without US should not be made perfect" (verse 40). We shall all be made PERFECT together in the RESURRECTION! MOSES DIED Besides the verses in the book of Hebrews that show Moses did DIE, we have also the plain statement in the book of Deuteronomy, "So Moses the servant of the Lord DIED there in the land of ....... And He(God) buried him in a valley in the land of Moab... And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he DIED ..." (chap.34:5-7). There's just one remaining section of scripture that puzzles some: Jesus' TRANSFIGURATION. Did not both ELIJAH and MOSES appear with Christ on the mount of transfiguration? The record of the event is found in MAT. 17:1-9; MRK.9;2-1O; LK.9:28-36. But the ANSWER is only given by Matthew. Leaving the mountain, Jesus told his disciples: "Tell the VISION to no man" (Mat. 17:9). In part the DICTIONARY defined VISION as, "...the power of perceiving some-thing not actually present to the eye..." A VISION IS NOT A MATERIAL REALITY but a supernatural picture. JESUS HAS PRE-EMINENCE!! Of all that have ever been FLESH & BLOOD - born of women - Jesus Christ ONLY has gained IMMORTAL LIFE! So says your Bible. He alone of all humans was RESURRECTED to receive the promise of ETERNAL LIFE. He alone is the only one to be changed from MATTER into SPIRIT - from human to DIVINE! Read it in your own Bible, never forget those plain verses. A child can understand them: "But now is Christ risen from the DEAD and become the FIRSTFRUITS of them that slept...For as in Adam ALL die (that includes, Enoch, Moses and Elijah), even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive (see Jn 5:25-29 and request our article "WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT") BUT every man in his own order: CHRIST THE FIRSTFRUITS..." (1 Cor. 15:20-23). It was not Moses that was first from the dead, nor was it Elijah or Enoch that first received eternal life - IT WAS CHRIST JESUS! "And He(speaking of Jesus) is the head of the body, the church: who is THE BEGINNING, the FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD..." (Col. 1:18). Jesus was "the firstborn of every creature" (Col. 1:15). Yes, the FIRST Human to be BORN into life eternal. Christ was the FIRST to be PERFECTED as an immortal being and so, "...being MADE PERFECT, He became the AUTHOR (the one who wrote the book on it - who led the way) of ETERNAL SALVATION unto all them that OBEY Him" (Heb. 5:9). Do you see friends? It was NOT Elijah, Moses or Enoch that led theway to eternal life. It was not Noah, nor David, nor Abel, Sarah or Abraham. It was not ANY other human person but JESUS that wrote the book on how to attain IMMORTALITY. He ALONE is the author. He is the CAPTAIN, the leader into eternal Salvation (Heb.2:10). Why? "...that ALL THINGS He might have the PREEMINENCE" (Col. 1:18). Read that wonderful passage of scriptures in COLOSSIANS 1:15-19. Jesus was and is the FIRST in creating ALL things (it wasn't Enoch, Moses or any other man). He is the FIRST, the head of the church (it's not Elijah, Paul, Peter or any other man). He is the FIRST from the dead (it wasn't Moses or any other man). Jesus is FIRST in CREATING, first in the CHURCH, and first of any human in eternal SALVATION. JESUS SAID NO MAN HAS GONE TO HEAVEN BUT HE WHO CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN—— JOHN 3: 13 |
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