Did Enoch and Elijah go to heaven? Or somewhere else?

Krypto · Mighty Morphin Prayer Warrior

Did Enoch and Elijah go to heaven? Or somewhere else?

nateblack · Senior Member

never heard this question before... it'll be interesting to look at...

TaterHead · Defender of Truth, Justice and the American GAY!

I have to do some research on this one...but I'll tell you this much about the subject:

Some believe that Enoch & Elijah will be the two Jewish witnesses that will convert most of the Jews to faith in Christ during the first half of the 7-year Tribulation Period. During this time, they will convert 144,000 Jewish "virgins" (some believe that this refers to the ultra-conservative Hasidic Jews) to Jesus Christ, making them into a legion of modern-day apostle Pauls. These will then go out into the world and witness to whoever is left in the world after the Rapture. At the midway point of the Trib Period, the Antichrist will kill these two great Jewish leaders, display them for the world to see, and declare their deaths an international holiday. But God will raise them back to life, for all the world to see, bringing them up into heaven just like Jesus did, and then striking the city of Jerusalem with a major earthquake that will cause a part of the city to be destroyed. This will lead whatever Jewish non-believers that are left to put their faith in Christ, and to run to Petra for safety and supernatural protection by God from the wrath of the Antichrist upon all of the world's religions by forcing the world to either take his mark of "666" or be killed...thus fulfilling the words of Paul when he said that ALL Israel will be saved.

I'll get back to you on this.

Jeffrey

TaterHead · Defender of Truth, Justice and the American GAY!

I've done some studying in my collection of study bibles and commentaries and I think that Jesus is once again talking in metaphors. He is referring to Nicodemus' fellow Saducees and their self-righteousness, claiming themselves to be so "righteous" that they can "travel Jacob's ladder" of spiritual truth by their interpretations of God's law and putting their "traditions" on the same level as God's word, if not OVER it. This is how the MacArthur Study Bible puts it:

This verse contridicts other religious system's claims to special revelation from God. Jesus insisted that no one has ascended to heaven in such a way as to return and talk about heavenly things (cf. 2 Cor. 12:1-4). Only He had His permanent abode in heaven prior to His incarnation and, therefore, only He has true knowledge regarding heavenly wisdom (cf. Prov. 30:4). (I underlined the important parts.)

The Sanhedrin was so self-righteous that the impression that they left upon the people was that if you wanted to come to God to find spiritual truth, forgiveness of sins, etc...then you had to first come to THEM, and become one of THEIR followers. This is why Jesus goes into His most famous sermon about being "lifted up" to save the world, just like Moses lifts up the serpent in the widerness to save his people.

It isn't a reference to someone PHYSICALLY going up to heaven, like Enoch and Elijah did.

Chris · Why can't my life be more like the Ainulindalë?

I agree. Enoch and Elijah's stories don't specifically say "they went up into heaven and received eternal life without ever dying; God took them while they were alive." BUT that's probably the conclusion we're supposed to draw, rather than these crazy claims that God whisked Elijah away in a tornado and set him down in some foreign country.

It just irritates me when people say things like "The Bible doesn't specifically say Elijah went to live in Heaven with God, so you shouldn't just draw that conclusion." Then they proceed to draw their own non-Biblical conclusions that make even less sense- and the only reason for doing so is because they've mis-applied a later quote from Jesus.