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This is a non-WLC article. When using resources from outside authors, we only publish the content that is 100% in harmony with the Bible and WLC current biblical beliefs. So such articles can be treated as if coming directly from WLC. We have been greatly blessed by the ministry of many servants of Yahuwah. But we do not advise our members to explore other works by these authors. Such works, we have excluded from publications because they contain errors. Sadly, we have yet to find a ministry that is error-free. If you are shocked by some non-WLC published content [articles/episodes], keep in mind Proverbs 4:18. Our understanding of His truth is evolving, as more light is shed on our pathway. We cherish truth more than life, and seek it wherever it may be found. |
As children in Sunday School class or Vacation Bible School, we are often told the marvelous story of Elijah and Elisha. 2 Kings 2 relates the history of Elisha, the heir-apparent to the ministry of Elijah, following his mentor from Gilgal to the River Jordan, repeatedly refusing to stay behind. Near the end of the long journey, Elisha requested and received a “double portion of your spirit” from Elijah. Then as they continued their walk, “there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven” (v. 11; cf. 2:1). Typically, we are told the story ended there. We are left to believe that Elijah was taken up into heaven, where Yahuwah lives, and never died.
Similarly, we also learn of Enoch, a man who “walked with Yahuwah, and he was not, for Yahuwah took him” (Gen. 5:24). The Sunday School teachers, the pastors, the translators’ footnotes in our Bibles all would have us believe that these two men — Enoch and Elijah — got to go “straight to heaven without dying.” This is taught as a fantastic mystery.
However, doesn’t this “mystery” flatly contradict the Scriptures, which say that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of Yahuwah is eternal life through Yahushua Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23)? Someone might say, “Enoch walked with Yahuwah, meaning he didn’t sin; therefore, Yahuwah could take him directly to heaven.” Again, Romans 3:23 clearly states: “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of Yahuwah.” The word “all” must include every man, woman, and child, without exception. All have sinned; therefore, all must die (unless Yahushua returns first). Would it be fair that Yahuwah would allow these two sinful men — no matter how “good” their lives might have been — to receive immortality without experiencing the wages of their sin?
Or are we being duped? Hebrews 11 gives us a lengthy list of faithful men and women approved by Yahuwah (v. 1). The list even includes the story of Enoch: “By faith Enoch was taken up, so that he should not see death; and he was not found because Yahuwah took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to Yahuwah” (v. 5). That certainly seems to support the notion that Enoch didn’t die. Yet notice verse 13: “All these [meaning all the great men and women of faith who have thus far been mentioned in verses 1-12, including Enoch!] died in faith, without receiving the promises [without receiving the life of the age to come!], but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance [they saw the promise of the life of the age to come on earth as being in the future yet].” So according to Hebrews 11:13, Enoch did indeed die. After that, the writer of Hebrews names over a dozen more faithful people who still “having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because Yahuwah had provided something better for us so that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (vv. 39-40). In other words, nobody was allowed to receive the promises ahead of anybody else. They had to wait for us. We all get to receive the promises involved with the life of the age to come together simultaneously when Yahushua returns to earth.
We now have acquired some information about Enoch, but what about Elijah? He was not mentioned in the roll of the faithful dead in Hebrews 11. Perhaps he did, after all elude death. 2 Kings 2:15-18 recounts that “fifty strong men” fruitlessly searched for Elijah for three days. Surely that is proof? Yet oddly enough, we find in 2 Chronicles 21:12 that Jehoram (Joram), king of Judah, received a letter from Elijah ten years (approx. 843 BC) after his supposed “translation to heaven” (approx. 852 BC). Was the mail service so bad in those days that it took ten years for Elijah’s letter to be delivered? Or did he float it down from heaven? Maybe he had an angel act as a postman? Barring such fantastic notions, we must admit that Elijah the prophet was still alive and working ten years after the whirlwind incident.
In light of this, we should rethink what we have been taught. The Scriptures never say that Enoch or Elijah did not die. They say that Enoch was “taken up by Yahuwah so that he should not see death” (Heb. 11:5) and that Elijah “couldn’t be found” (2 Kings 2:17). Both of those phrases are quite different from saying that someone did not die, or that someone went up to heaven to live with Yahuwah. We have made a grand assumption based on these phrases. We have assumed that if someone was “taken up by Yahuwah,” the person had to go to heaven and still be there. We have assumed that if a person couldn’t be found, he must still be alive thousands of years later, whereas Genesis 5:23 gives Enoch’s lifespan: 365 years, and not a day more.
Could the phrase “taken up by Yahuwah” or “taken up to heaven” have a different meaning than that which we have long assumed? In Acts 8:39, we see that after Philip successfully evangelized and baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, the Spirit of the Lord “snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more.” This is very similar to what happened to Enoch and Elijah, yet we do not assume that Philip was taken up to heaven, never to die, because in the next verse, 
we are told that Philip “found himself at Azotus.” We don’t make the baseless assumption about Philip because we are told where he ended up. On the other hand, because we are not told where Yahuwah dropped Enoch and Elijah, we assume that they are still in heaven. We must make our beliefs align with all of the scripture. Since Romans 6:23 and Hebrews 11:13 tell us that all die, no matter how faithful they are, we must believe that Enoch and Elijah also died.
The more plausible explanation, therefore, for the end of Enoch is that all the others in Enoch’s lineage were buried by their families. Still, in Enoch’s case, as in Moses’ (Deut. 34:6), Yahuwah took him and buried him where nobody knows. He “was,” and then he “was not.” He was never seen again by anyone on earth, just as the eunuch never saw Philip again. Enoch died, and so did, eventually, Elijah. Yes, Elijah was caught up in “heaven” by Yahuwah, but that doesn’t mean he is still there.
Additionally, we must examine the meaning of “heaven” in Scripture. According to Easton’s Bible Dictionary, the Jews claimed there were three heavens: the firmament where birds fly (Gen. 2:19), the starry heavens (Deut. 17:3), and the heaven of heavens or third heaven (Deut. 10:14). Various words which are rendered “heaven” in some verses can also mean heights, elevations, high places, sky, or clouds. And quite curiously, since we are thinking of Elijah, the Hebrew word galgal, literally “wheel,” is translated as “heaven” in Psalm 77:18 or “whirlwind” in the RSV! We cannot know how high or into which “heaven” Elijah may have been taken. We can know for sure, however, that he did not remain there. He was heard from again on earth ten years after being caught up. Because Yahushua did not establish his Kingdom on the earth during Elijah’s lifetime, we can also be sure that Elijah died (Heb. 11:32 says that the prophets died), just as everyone before and after him sleeps the sleep of death (Ps. 13:3) He sleeps “with the fathers,” in the grave, awaiting the second coming of Yahushua, when the dead in Christ shall rise first. As Hebrews 11:39-40 assures us, the faithful will be made perfect together with us. What a great plan!
This is a non-WLC article by Alane Rozelle.
We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team