Were Enoch And Elijah Taken Alive To Heaven?
We read the following about Enoch: “Enoch walked with God; and he was not [found] for God took him” (Gen. 5:24, NASB)
“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” (Heb. 11: 5, NKJV)
Whenever Christians fail to compare scriptures with scriptures, they will often come to faulty interpretations of God’s word. That is why many teachers of the Bible have made the erroneous conclusion that God took Enoch to heaven while still alive. A careful examination of the scriptures has shown that Enoch, who pleased God, couldn’t have lived for only 365 years while those immediately before and after him lived up to between 777 and 969 years. If he pleased God, then he should have been given long life by God who promised to satisfy those who please Him with long life (Psa. 91:16).
The phrase “and he was not” (Gen. 5: 24) is rendered in the Septuagint (LXX) as “and he was not found”. This LXX rendition is what is quoted by Paul in Heb. 11:5.
Does the phrase “God took him” literally mean that God took Enoch to heaven as widely taught and believed? No. First, it should be noted that the word “heaven” is not mentioned either in Gen. 5: 21-24 or in Heb. 11:5. The idea that he was taken to heaven are a supposition of men. Secondly, the phrase has been used by Elijah (1 King 19:4) and Ezekiel (Ezek. 24: 16-18) to mean death.
But the Hebrew word laqach (to take) used in Gen. 5:24 cannot be taken to mean that Enoch’s disappearance was as a result of death. It simply implies that God took him away to some unknown place on the earth. He was taken away to a place unknown to those who knew him so that he would not see death through their evil hands.
If anyone stops reading at Heb. 11:5, he will easily conclude that Enoch did not die. But Heb. 11:13 says that Enoch did actually die. It reads: “All these men died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
Clearly, what the author of Hebrews has written in this verse is that all the faithful people he mentioned – Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Rahab the harlot, and many others not specifically mentioned (Heb. 11: 32-39) – all died in faith.
The author writes that the people who died in faith include those who raised dead children of some women back to life (Heb. 11:35). This obviously include Elijah (1 Kings 17: 22) and Elisha (2 Kings 4: 32-37).
We see from Hebrews 11 that, contrary to what is generally taught and believed, Enoch and Elijah were not carried alive (or raptured) to heaven. Both of them died. Is there any other proof? Yes, and this is very important.
Jesus Christ, the Amen, that is the final word, who also is the truth personified said, “No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man” (John 3:13 NIVUK). This is the truth that the writer of the Book of Hebrews affirmed when he wrote that all the Old Testament faithfuls, including Enoch and Elijah, died in faith. None of them was carried alive to the celestial heaven wherein God lives.
To those who may erroneously believe that the word “heaven” in 2 Kings 2:1,11 is the celestial realm where God dwells, it is pertinent to let them know that there are many “heavens” known in the Bible, one of which is the visible sky. If airplanes were existing in the days of Elijah, any airplane that takes off from any airport, say from Lagos on its flight to London, will be said to have gone into heaven.
As will be seen shortly, there is a strong biblical evidence that when Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind, he was not taken to the highest heaven which is God’s throne. He was simply transported through the sky, also known as heaven (Gen. 1:8 KJV), to somewhere else on the earth where he lived the rest of his lifetime before he died. This is similar to the case of Philip who was carried away by God’s Spirit but was later found at Azotus (Acts 8: 39, 40).
There is clear biblical evidence that Elijah was not taken up to heaven where God dwells. Carefully consider the following accounts in the historical books:
- Jehoshaphat succeeded his father Asa as king of Judah when he was 35 years old. He ruled as king for 25 years (1 King 22:42).
- Ahaziah the son of Ahab succeeded his father as king of Israel (the 10 Northern tribes) during the 17th year of the reign of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah (1 Kings 22:51).
- Jehoram the son of Ahab succeeded his brother as king of Israel in the 18th year of the reign of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah (2 Kings 3:1). This means that his brother, Ahaziah, ruled for about two years.
- Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, was invited by king Jehoram of Israel to visit him in Samaria. This was at a time when Jehoram was preparing to attack King Mesha of Moab. Before going to war, Kings Jehoshaphat and Jehoram went to Elisha to seek God’s word on the planned attack of Moab. By this time, Elisha had stepped into the shoes of his master Elijah (2 Kings 3: 1-14). Evidently, Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1-12) during the reign of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah.
- Jehoshaphat later died and his son Jehoram succeeded him as king of Judah (1 Kings 22:50; 2 Chron. 21:1).
- Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat took the people of Judah back to idolatry. He murdered all his brothers and some of the officials of Judah. God became angry and made Elijah write a letter of condemnation to him (2 Chron. 21:1-6, 11-15).
Bear in mind that Elijah had been taken up by a whirlwind “to heaven” when Jehoshaphat was still alive as king of Judah. But Elijah later wrote to his son Jehoram. The question now is this. Did Elijah write the letter from heaven? That cannot be. See Luke 16: 27-31. Evidently, Elijah was still alive somewhere on the earth. God merely took him through the sky (also known as heaven) to somewhere else on the earth. It is from that place that he wrote the letter and sent it through someone to Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat.
Many teachers have written many things about this letter. Some say that Elijah wrote it from heaven and sent it through an angel. Others say that Elijah had written down, by the spirit of prophecy, what the wicked king Jehoram would do before his assumption and left it to be delivered by Elisha or one of the prophets. All these are wild conjectures. See what the Bible says: “Then a letter came to him [Jehoram] from Elijah the prophet saying, ‘Thus says the LORD God of your father David, Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father and the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot as the house of Ahab played the harlot, and you have also killed your brothers, your own family, who were better than you, behold the LORD is going to strike your people, your sons, your wives and all your possessions with a great calamity, and you will suffer severe sickness, a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the sickness, day by day’” (2 Chron. 21:12-15, NASB).
Looking at the content of the letter, it is unmistakably clear that the letter is historical; it was written after Jehoram had murdered his brothers. That Elijah had prophetically written the letter before he was “taken up to heaven” is completely unsupported by the tenses used in the letter. It should be noted that Elijah addressed Jehoram in past (historical) tenses in verses 12 and 13. Then in verses 14 and 15, he foretold him what was going to happen to him as punishment from God for his evil deeds. It is very plain from verses 12 and 13 that Elijah’s letter to the wicked king was not written beforehand.
We note (in 2 Kings 2:3, 5, 7) that “the sons of the prophets” who told Elisha that his master would be taken away from him that day were the same people who told him to permit them to send 50 men to go and search for Elijah. Elisha refused but they urged him with much persistence until Elisha consented (vv. 16 & 17). They knew that Elijah was not taken to heaven (v. 16). The fact that the search party they sent did not find Elijah should not be interpreted to mean that Elijah was not on the earth. No one can find a man who is hidden by God. Earlier on, Ahab and the officials and soldiers of Israel could not find the same Elijah when God hid him for a period of three years, in spite of the fact that they searched all lands and kingdoms for him (1 Kings 18:1-12).
Enoch Did Not See Death?
The phrase “not see death” is used in four places in the KJV Bible. In Psalm 89:48, the Psalmist asked,
“What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?” In Luke 2: 25, 26, it is written that Simeon came to the temple during the purification rite of baby Jesus. It is written that it had been revealed to him that he would not see death until he has seen the Lord’s [God’s] Christ. In these two places the common, physical, death is meant. In John 8:51, Jesus Christ said that whoever obeys His word will never see death; the word “death” here means spiritual or eternal death.
Coming to Hebrews 11: 5, the fourth place where the phrase is used, does it mean that Enoch did not die? Does it mean that he was carried alive to the realm where God dwells? and If we believe this, there are two obstacles we will face: (i) we will contradict what Jesus Christ said in John 3:13; and (ii) we would have made Paul contradict himself because he wrote in verse 13 that the faithful people talked about in this chapter – all died in faith.
Recall that Apostle Peter said that Paul’s letters contain certain things that are hard to understand, and the lack of understanding has made men distort, not only Paul’s words, but many other scriptures (2 Pet.3:16).
The word “translated” used twice in Heb. 11:5 (KJV) is a translation of the Greek “metatithemi,” which is defined in Strong’s Greek Lexicon #3346 as “to transfer, i.e. transport, exchange, change sides, or pervert.”
Paul wrote in Heb. 11:5 that “Enoch was translated [so] that he should not see death” (KJV). But in verse 13, he wrote that all the faithful people mentioned in the chapter, including Enoch, died in faith. This means that the death Enoch was saved from seeing was not the natural death. It must have been a particular kind of death, perhaps martyrdom in the hands of those who hated him because they were unable to bear his fearsome preaching (Jude 1:14,15). Enoch disappeared at the age of 365 years. How long he lived after his transfer to the unknown place is also unknown.
All that was known of Enoch was up to the time God took him away, not to heaven but to a secret place where he lived and eventually died. No one knows where and when he died.
The idea that Enoch was taken to heaven came from men’s lack of insight into the scriptures. The reader’s attention is drawn to the fact that “heaven” is not mentioned in either Genesis 5: 21 – 24 or Hebrews 11:5.
Conclusion
The belief that Enoch and Elijah were taken alive to heaven is decisively flawed by three passages. First, the letter which Elijah wrote to King Jehoram (2 Chron. 21:12-15) has shown that Elijah was simply transported through the sky (also called heaven) to another part of the earth from where he wrote the letter. This letter was written after Elijah’s supposed assumption to heaven during the reign of King Jehoshaphat, the father of Jehoram. The words of Jesus Christ in Luke 16:27-31 implies that God will not make a person in heaven to write a letter from there to anyone on earth. The words used in 2 Kings 2:1,11 are what many people have misunderstood as being taken to the celestial realm where God lives. But what is revealed in 2 Kings 2 is that Elijah was transported through the sky, the chariot of fire and horses of fire serving as the angelic aircraft used by God to carry him to the unknown destination here on the earth. God did this to make him escape martyrdom in the hands of Jezebel who swore to get him killed.
The second passage is Heb. 11:13 which says, “All these people died having faith. They didn’t receive the things that God had promised them, but they saw these things coming in the distant future and rejoiced. They acknowledged that they were living as strangers with no permanent home on earth.” (Heb. 11:13 GW). The author here says all the heroes of faith, including Enoch (v. 5) and Elijah (implied in verse 35), died in faith.
The third and most important is the truth revealed by the TRUTH Himself. He said, “No one has gone to heaven except the Son of Man, who came from heaven.” (John 3:13 GW). His words here put an end to any supposition or argument that Enoch and Elijah were taken to heaven, the realm where God and Christ now lives. They died in faith and are still in their graves awaiting the resurrection of the righteous at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Earth is the only planet God has created to be the eternal dwelling place of mankind (Psa. 115:16; John 8:23; 13:33). Ab initio, it was not in the plan of God to make mankind come to dwell with Him in heaven. No human being has seen God at any time (John 1:18; 6:46; 1 John 4:12). Neither will mankind ever see Him. He lives in unapproachable light, whom no-one has seen or can ever see (1 Tim. 6:16). Why will the Omniscient God cause mankind to come to heaven when He already knew that mankind cannot see Him? You see, the idea of going to heaven did not originate from the Bible. It has its roots in some pagan religions and Greek philosophy.
