Did God take Enoch and Elijah to heaven?

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Did God take Enoch and Elijah to heaven?

The Bible talks of Enoch being "translated" and Elijah being taken up in a chariot of fire. What do these passages mean?



Answer:



Hebrews 11:5By 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.



See All... tells us, "Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death." The verse continues with a quotation from Genesis 5, saying that he "was not found." The wording implies that someone was looking for him to cause him harm, and that God protected him by removing him to a safe place. Some assumed that God took him to heaven, but the verse does not say that. "Taken away" ("translated" in the King James Version) is from the Greek word metatithemi and it means "to transfer to another place" ( Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words , 1985).



What of Elijah—did God take him to heaven? Without reading the full account of the history of Judah and Israel, one might easily assume that 2 Kings 2:11And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.



See All... reports the death of Elijah and his subsequent removal from earth to heaven. Actually, the prophet did not die, as is borne out by the astonishing record of a letter that he wrote some years later! You can read this letter in 2 Chronicles 21:12-15 [12] And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah,

[13] But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself:

[14] Behold, with a great plague will the LORD smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods:

[15] And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day.





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What was the "heaven" to which Elijah was taken? Scriptures speak of three heavens:



•The first, the atmosphere that envelops the earth (Genesis 1:8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.



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•The second, what we call "space" (Genesis 15:5And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.



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•The third, the location of God's throne (2 Corinthians 12:2I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.



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The prophet was supernaturally transported to a different location—through the "heaven" of earth's atmosphere—allowing his associate, Elisha to step into the office of the chief prophet to Israel.



The Bible teaches that "no one has ascended to heaven" (John 3:13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.



See All...). What we find in Acts 2:29Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.



See All... and 34 clearly illustrates this fact. It says that righteous King David was still in his grave about 1,000 years after his death! Remember Jesus' comment in John 10:35If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;



See All..., "the Scripture cannot be broken." That is, its teachings are consistent throughout. The biblical teaching is that heaven is not the reward or the destiny of the saved.



A more complete explanation of all that the Bible teaches about the afterlife is available in our booklets Heaven and Hell: What Does the Bible Really Teach? and What Happens After Death?

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