David in NJ
Well-Known Member
Aunty Jane - you keep giving these funny posts about how not to believe the Scripture.Are you serious? This shows that you know nothing about this man or his fate.
“Enoch walked with the true God” at a time when his enemies were about to do away with him because he alone was speaking the truth. In order to save him from a violent death, “God took him”......that means that God took his life gently, in order to save him from the violent death that threatened him.
Enoch died and went to the same place where all the Jews believed that they will go when they die. (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10) “Sheol”....the common grave of all of us. As all the ancients lived and died before Jesus, they are all still “sleeping”, waiting for the life we were all promised in the beginning....everlasting life in paradise on earth. God never changed his because of the actions of a few rebels....he made a detour, but that detour will still lead us back to the beginning...to God’s original purpose. (Isaiah 55:11)
For Jews, there was no belief in an immortal soul, so “sleeping” in death awaiting a resurrection was what they expected. There was no belief in going to heaven, up to the time of Christ’s ministry when he spoke about going to “prepare a place” for his disciples, though they did not fully understand what he meant until after his death and resurrection, when the promised holy spirit would reveal to them their “heavenly calling”. (Heb 3:1)
At John 3:12-13 in his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus states...
“If I have told you earthly things and you still do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven but the one who descended from heaven, the Son of man.”
So Jesus was telling a Jewish teacher, who knew the scriptures, (none of which spoke of going to heaven after they died) that “no man has ascended to heaven but the one who descended from heaven”....that was himself. Jesus was the first human to die and go to heaven, opening the way for his elect to follow in time.
After Pentecost, Jesus’ disciples were invited to become part of the kingdom that they had always believed was earthly, but now Jesus opened up a new hope for those chosen to assist him in administering a new world rulership, bringing redeemed mankind back into reconciliation with their Maker. Humans were never designed to go to heaven....God made us to live on this beautifully prepared earth....forever.
Jesus came to give us back what Adam took away from us.
Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him = Enoch disappeared off the earth and has yet to see death.
Hebrews 11:5 "By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God"