Saturday, October 12, 2024

ENOCH, MOSES, ELIJAH——ARE THEY IN HEAVEN???

 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.

by

Keith Hunt



       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 mine 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;2-10;

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 the way 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.

  

      All children of God in by-gone ages who "died in faith"

(including Enoch, Moses and Elijah) are awaiting the TRUMPET

SOUND - when they, together with us who shall remain and be alive

at Christ's coming, will be raised and CHANGED from MORTAL to

IMMORTAL (1 Cor.15:50-54; 1 Thes. 4:13-17).  So shall we ever be

with the Lord.

       

      God speed that glorious day!

                        

          

      For further study on this subject of DEATH, HELL AND

IMMORTALITY read the articles "LAZARUS & THE RICH MAN,"  and 

"MANSIONS IN THE SKY?"

          

                ................................

  

  

Written in 1981


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