by Leonard V Johnson
A few days ago, I typed up an article “One Came in the Spirit of Elijah──’ If you are willing to receive it’” and I would like to continue with two of the greatest of the LORD God’s prophets ── Enoch and Elijah. In that article I only lightly touched on the fact that the Prophet Elijah was still alive on Earth many years after Elisha had taken the mantle. Yet, God’s living word says that Enoch was “translated” so that he should not see death, and that Elijah went by a whirlwind into “heaven.” Well … in truth, neither one is in the upper heavenly realms today. Where are they?
Enoch Walked with God
We are told some of his genealogy in the Book of Genesis ──
“Jared [Enoch’s father] lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.
19) After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 20) So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
21) Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22) After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. 23) So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24) And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” – Genesis 5:18-24.
So, here was a man who pleased the LORD God (the Elohim, the family of God consisting of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ), a man who walked with God. Enoch had faith--because God’s living word tells us, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” – Hebrews 11:6. Enoch walked with God ── which means that he obeyed the LORD God.
No one can walk with the LORD God unless he is in agreement with God and doing their will. The Prophet Amos tells us using a rhetorical question, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” – Amos 3:3. So throughout Enoch’s generation it has been recorded for us that he──and he alone──was the only person who walked with God. He had walked with God some three hundred years!
Three hundred Earth years is certainly a long time to walk with God. Notice that the Prophet Moses did not record that Enoch was still walking with God. He wrote, “So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.” So, then Enoch is not still walking with God.
All the days, meaning the length of his lifetime, were three hundred and sixty-five years. Not only part of his days, but “all the days.” If Enoch did not die──if he had been changed from mortal to immortal──and thus continued walking with God, then the Prophet Moses would certainly not have written this passage this way──wouldn’t you agree? Yet, God’s living word is clear: “So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.”
But what of this “and he was not, for God took him”?
Of course, I’ve heard and seen a whole plethora of interpretations and beliefs on this──from God snapping His fingers and “taking him,” to “Enoch was abducted by Yahweh the alien, picked up in a spaceship!” Does all that mumbo jumbo mean that he didn’t die? Well … multiple millions have been taught that he didn’t die──that he was “taken to heaven” without any proof otherwise.
What is really meant by “for God took him”?
It should be noted that the Prophet Moses did not write that Enoch did not die. What he wrote──and let’s quote the New English Translation here── “And Enoch walked with God, and then he was not, for God took him.” – Genesis 5:24.
The Apostle Paul speaks of this same event by saying ──
“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.” – Hebrews 11:5.
So, God’s word records for us that Enoch ‘was not found, because God had taken him.’ Taken him where? It does not say heaven. Instead, the Apostle Paul wrote, “he was not found.”
Now certainly Enoch was “not found” ── or rather, “translated” as it reads in the Authorized Version. But what does “translated” mean? The word in Greek is “metatithēmi,” which means, “to change (from one place or position to another).” 1
In Acts 7:16, the Greek word for “carried over” is μετετέθησαν (Strong’s #3346) ── the exact same word ──
“And were carried over into Sý-chem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Eḿ-mor the father of Sý-chem.”
So, after Jacob died, his body was “carried over” ── transported, “translated” to Sý-chem where he was buried. That’s what your Bible actually says! Jacob was translated to the place of burial.
This is why the Prophet Moses wrote that ‘God had taken’ Enoch. God had taken Enoch and buried him.
Let’s turn in our Bibles to the Book of Deuteronomy chapter 34. We read how God took Moses from the people, after he died and was buried by God ──
“So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6) And He [the LORD God] buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.” – Deuteronomy 34:5-6.
It was the LORD our God who carried Moses ──or rather, “translated” Moses ── and notice that he was “not found” either.
So, the Prophet Enoch was not changed from mortal to immortal. Instead, he was carried away and not found. Again, “all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years,” and then he died.
Here is something else to ponder ── it’s found in Colossians 1:13. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Well … what Greek word is used here? It’s methistēmi, or methistanō, meaning “to move, remove.” 2 Here God’s living word tells us that His saints are already “moved” or translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, yet we are not immortal. That though we were once part of the power of darkness, we have now been “translated” into the light of Christ.
Having Not Obtained the Promises
The Apostle Paul includes Enoch among the fathers who “died in faith, not having received 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.” – Hebrews 11:13.
What promises? The glorious “hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” – Titus 1:2.
Indeed, Enoch therefore is among our great fathers who has yet to obtain the promises that the Lord our GOD has promised ── of eternal life and inheritance. The Prophet Enoch, and all His faithful patriarchs and matriarchs, will receive the promises of eternal life upon the glorious and powerful return of our Savior, Jesus Christ ── at the very moment, “in the twinkling of an eye,” that all His saints are changed from corruptible to incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:51-53; Hebrews 11:40).
The Prophet Enoch is dead. And this is exactly what we are told in God’s living word (Hebrews 11:13). These “all died in faith” ── Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham ── along with all the patriarchs and their wives. Again, “These all died in faith.”
But what about the Apostle Paul saying, “Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death”?
The Death That Enoch Did Not See
Here again, “all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.” It is reckoned that he lived between 3382 BC and 3017 BC. “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God “translated” him.’” He writes nowhere here that the Prophet Enoch did not die. Rather, “Enoch was taken away so that he should not see death.” What does this mean?
Let us keep in mind that there is more than one death spoken of within God’s word. There is the first death that all men are appointed ── “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” – Hebrews 9:27. And there is also a second death ── “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, …” – Revelation 20:6. So, which death do you suppose the Apostle Paul was speaking of?
The first death ── as I’ve spoken of before, had Adam chose the tree of life, he would still have lived out his days and died; and indeed, we find this did happen, “So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years; and he died” – Genesis 5:5. But would have, after losing consciousness, “in the twinkling of an eye,” been resurrected unto eternal life! Our first death cannot be avoided ──as one of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, quipped, “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” The Apostle Paul was not speaking of this first death. The phrase “that he should not see” is in the conditional sense of the verb ── regarding a future event. It’s not in the past tense. So, this death that Enoch escaped seeing by being “translated” is one that he has escaped from ── because of certain conditions.
Now, did our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, speak concerning a death that we “should not see”? Yes! Let’s notice the Book of John, chapter 8 ──
“’ Most assuredly, I say to you, If anyone keeps My word he shall NEVER SEE DEATH.’” – John 8:51.
Did our Lord Jesus mean, “they will be abducted by Yahweh the alien, and taken off to heaven”?
Again, John 11:26 ── “’ And whoever lives and believes [on] Me SHALL NEVER DIE. Do you believe this?’”
So, this is a death that we can come to “not see” upon the condition of ‘keeping His word – keeping His commandments, statutes, ordinances, and judgments.’ Again, our Lord Jesus asked, “’ Do you believe this?’”
The Prophet Enoch had faith. He believed the LORD God, and walked with God, and obeyed. In keeping His commandments, including our great God that became our Savior and the only begotten Son of God – our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord did not speak of Himself but spoke what the Father commanded Him (John 14:10). Thus, Enoch met the conditions and “shall never die.” The second death shall never touch Enoch.
Now you can surely see and hear what God’s Spirit is saying concerning “translation.” “By 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.” – Hebrews 11:5, KJV.
Enoch, the same as all of our Lord Jesus’ true saints are, was “carried over” from the power of darkness in which he had been living (apparently for his first sixty-five years). He was “translated” from the ways of the world and came to live three hundred and sixty-five years. So, what “translation” is spoken about within God’s living word is on condition of faith? The one we read in Colossians 1:13 ── “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.”
This is a “translation” of our heart and mind──carrying us over from spiritual darkness that this world is covered with and brought into the glorious light of our Lord Jesus Christ! In verse 10 the Apostle Paul explains that – since the day we heard it, we should not cease in praying (not only for ourselves, but also) for our brethren, that they may be ‘filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; and that they may walk worthy of the Lord, fulling pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and INCREASING in the knowledge of God.’ And I pray that you do. The Prophet Enoch certainly walked with God.
So, then Enoch, the same as all true Saints of God, was “carried over” ── “translated” from the power of sin and darkness and brought into the glorious light of the same hope of all our fathers (2 Corinthians 4:13–14), so that he might inherit eternal life upon our Lord Jesus’ powerful return and that he should not suffer the second death. And not only was our beloved Prophet Enoch figuratively “carried over” from the society of his day, but he was also literally removed ── “translated” ‘because God had taken him.’
The LORD God physically took them away from the people, just as they would later take the Prophet Moses. And the LORD God buried each so well ── their sepulchers have not been found to this day.
An Untimely Death
Lamech, his two wives, and the Prophet Enoch (Genesis 4:23-24) (AI-generated)
Let’s notice again Genesis chapter 5, and verse 23 ── “So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.” Yet, as you continue chapter 5, the shortest lifespan besides Enoch’s is Lamech’s at seven hundred seventy-seven years. And the longest lifespan was Methuselah’s at nine hundred and sixty-nine years.
And yes, I am aware that many biblical scholars think these ages might be lunar months, not solar years. But we absolutely believe that these were literal years ── there was no pollution, no processed foods, and no chemicals we’re exposed to today. Plus, they probably had better genetics since they were closer to creation. It makes logical sense that proper self-care could have helped them live longer lives. Still, we’re certainly working against a lot of environmental challenges than our early patriarchs and matriarchs faced. Also, some researchers actually think higher oxygen levels could have played a role. There is some evidence that increased atmospheric pressure and oxygen content can affect cellular aging. But here, the Prophet Enoch only lived three hundred and sixty-five years. Clearly, Enoch had an untimely death. What might have happened? Does God’s living word give us any clue?
Methushael Begot Lamech
Lamech, a seventh-generation descendant of Adam, was Cain’s lineage’s first known polygamist, boasted to his two wives, Adah and Zillah ──
“’ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me. 24) If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.’” – Genesis 4:23, 24.
God’s living word doesn’t actually tell us who it was that killed Cain ── but violence was spreading rapidly throughout humanity by Lamech’s time, and the LORD God was watching it unfold. These verses do indicate, however, that Lamech had killed two people. Who was this “young man” that he had killed?
Certainly, the Prophet Enoch, at only three hundred and sixty-five years old, would have been considered at that time to have been “a young man.” Enoch was walking with God, and he was prophesying of the coming of the Messiah ──
“Look, He comes with the myriads of His holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to destroy all the wicked, and to convict all humanity for all the wicked deeds that they have done, and the proud and hard words that wicked sinners spoke against Him.” – 1 Enoch 1:9.
The Apostle Jude quotes from the Prophet Enoch ── Jude 1:14-15. During that era of time, Enoch was indeed a “preacher of righteousness.”
The LORD God’s living Message ── even since the beginning of the world ── has not been popular. As a true servant of the LORD God, the Prophet Enoch ── during this time when the “wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5) ── would have certainly enraged many concerning his Message. And then, finally, that generation of wickedness would tolerate his warnings no longer. By comparing Lamech’s boasting here with the age of the Prophet Enoch and his early death, one can surmise, or deduce, the possibility that Lamech killed the Prophet Enoch.
It’s interesting that after describing a sinful and wicked people, Flavius Josephus writes ──
“But Noah was very uneasy at what they [the pre-Flood world at that time] did; and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them [preached] to change their dispositions and their acts for the better: but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married, so he departed out of that land.” ── Antiquities of the Jews, 1.3.§1.
The great-grandson of Enoch had to flee for his life because he was afraid that they might kill him.
Well … whatever the circumstances of the Prophet Enoch’s untimely death, the LORD God did not allow his body to be desecrated. The Lord God physically “translated” his body ── likely in the very sight of murderers and deplorables ── before they could defile it.
The Question can be asked ── why would the LORD God allow their righteous preachers to be killed? God’s living word contains a type of chronicle of the deaths of their prophets and the apostles throughout history. Most of the greatest of the LORD God’s righteous men and women were martyred.
Absolutely the LORD God is concerned about our physical welfare. But they are even more concerned about our spiritual welfare. Like us all, brethren, the Prophet Enoch had to have been willing to die to live (John 12:25; John 11:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:12).
The Prophet Elijah being carried away in a chariot of fire pulled by horses of fire (2 Kings 2:11) (AI-generated).
Did the Prophet Elijah go to heaven? Sadly, millions of people have been told that Elijah went to heaven ── meaning, the upper heavenly realms. Yet, over 895 years after Elijah was carried away in a whirlwind, our Lord and Savior Himself said, “’ No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man …’” – John 3:13.
God’s living word does not contradict itself! The Prophet Elijah did not ascend to the upper heavenly realms where the glorious thrones of the LORD God are. Well … where did Elijah go?
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” – Genesis 1:1 (AI-generated)
Here it should be explained that God’s living word actually speaks of THREE SEPARATE HEAVENS. Not just one. And when our Savior, High Priest, and Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, ‘No one has ascended to heaven where I came from,’ then the heaven into which the Prophet Elijah was carried away is a different heaven. Which one?
Having AI create the above illustration, I explained it thus: The Third Heaven is where the LORD God’s thrones are ── what I called, The Northern Part of the Universe on the Edge of the Universe. This is where our Lord Jesus Christ resides today, sitting as our High Priest on the right-hand side of God the Father. According to God’s living word, only they and their holy angels reside “in the farthest sides of the north” – Isaiah 14:13.
The Second Heaven represents the space where we find the planets, moons, and stars ──certainly including our sun. I explained it thus: Space, where the planets reside and our sun. We can see King David truly admiring the night sky, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained.” – Psalm 8:3. We also have this Second Heaven spoken of in Genesis 1:14-18 ──
“Then God [the Elohim] said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15) and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so.”
And besides all this glorious beauty ──the plants, moons, and stars ── there’s the First Heaven, the atmosphere around the Earth – with its five main layers: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere, each with distinct characteristics and functions. I just simply explained it thus: The sky-blue atmosphere with clouds and flying birds. We also have the First Heaven spoken of in Genesis 1:20 ──
“ … ‘and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’”
Truly, it is this First Heaven from where rain falls upon the earth, where clouds form and where the wind roams. Everyone alive on this planet is breathing in the oxygen (which makes up approximately 21% of Earth’s atmosphere), which is primarily made by photosynthesis, a process carried out by plants, algae, and certain bacteria called photoautotrophs ── in which the oceans are a major source of Earth’s oxygen.
So, since the Prophet Elijah could not have ascended to the Third or even the Second Heaven, then to which heaven did he go up into? Again, “ … when the LORD was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, …” – 2 Kings 2:1, and 11). The answer is obvious ── the First Heaven.
Another Question can be asked. What was the reason behind this unusual act of the LORD God? Why did God take Elijah up into the atmosphere? Does God’s word reveal to us the reason for his removal? Yes.
Sadly, over time, the Prophet Elijah began to exhibit what we would call today overwhelming anxiety and depression ── an onset of a nervous breakdown, and he was replaced by the LORD God as their prophet (1 Kings 19:13-18). Indeed, many scholars view Elijah’s episode in 1st Kings 19 as a nervous-breakdown-type crisis. He was emotionally exhausted, anxious about Jezebel’s threats, and had even prayed to the LORD God, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!’” Here we are shown that even great prophets had deep struggles.
So, what did the LORD God do? He showed the Prophet Elijah great mercy and allowed him to essentially retire. From a practical Management standpoint, you’d want someone mentally stable for such an important role. The LORD God showed great compassion for Elijah’s breakdown, providing food and rest rather than condemnation.
Where Did the Prophet Elijah Go?
This is the million-dollar question ── isn’t it?
He did not ascend to the Third Heaven ── where the thrones of the LORD God are. Our Lord Jesus, again, tells us, “’ No one has ascended to heaven.’” The sons of the prophets who knew that their master was going to be replaced also knew that their master wasn’t going to die at that time. Notice ──
“Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, ‘The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.’ And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him. 16) Then they said to him, ‘Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.’” – 2 Kings 2:15-16.
The Prophet Elisha, of course, knew that the LORD God would preserve his master’s life and keep him from falling, but at their insistence he permitted them to go in search of him ── but to no avail.
Elijah was gone. But to where?
King Jehoram of Judah being handed a letter from Elijah (2 Chronicles 21:12-15). (AI-generated).
Now, just before the Prophet Elijah was “translated” ── or rather, carried away ── a new king had come to the throne in the kingdom of Judah. Jehoram, a son of Jehoshaphat. The first year of his reign was roughly 852 BC. During his eight-year reign, Elisha was the recognized prophet of the LORD God (2 Kings 3:11).
Then, in the fifth year of Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat “having been king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat began to reign as king of Judah” – 2 Kings 8:16.
The name Jehoram can be confusing here, because it speaks of both Jehoram of Israel and another Jehoram of Judah in the same verse, and both reigned at the same time.
King Jehoshaphat died in approximately the year 848 BC. This was roughly 4 years since the Prophet Elijah had disappeared. When Jehoshaphat died, his son Jehoram became sole king of Judah ── and he had brothers, Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azaryahu, Michael, and Shephatitah. “Now when Jehoram was established over the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself and killed all his brothers with the sword, and also others of the princes of Israel.” – 2 Chronicles 21:4.
A year after his reign, Edom “revolted against Judah’s authority, and made a king over themselves” ── 2 Kings 8:20; 2 Chronicles 21:8-10. After this brief war, Jehoram of Judah set about making “high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit [spiritual] harlotry, and led Judah astray.” – 2 Chronicles 21:11. He followed the ways of the nations around him and did evil in the sight of the LORD.
So, a full four years had passed since the Prophet Elijah had been taken from the people. And then … a letter comes.
Oh, yes! After this wicked and vile king began to rule, the LORD God had inspired the Prophet Elijah to write a strongly worded letter and have it sent to the king!
Now, certain scholars insist that letter wasn’t written or sent by a “living” Elijah; they think it was written by Elisha or written in Elijah’s name after his ascent ── “to heaven,” they claim. What I have to say concerning this: If God’s living word says that it “came to him from Elijah the prophet” ── that settles it. Because if you cannot believe God’s word in one little area, then you cannot believe God’s word in its entirety. Scripture’s integrity stands or falls as a whole, not in pieces.
The contents of the letter ──
“‘Thus says the LORD God of your father David: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father’s household, who were better than yourself, BEHOLD, the LORD will strike your people with a serious affliction ── your children, your wives, and all your possessions; and you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day.’”
The Prophet Elijah wrote and sent this letter after these events had occurred, for he speaks of them in a PAST TENSE, and of the coming disease as in the near future. Indeed, only two years after this letter, the king was struck with a grievous illness that caused his intestines to come out, leading to excruciating pain. This condition is often interpreted as a severe bowel disease, possibly resembling rectal prolapse or another serious gastrointestinal issue. He suffered for two years before succumbing to this illness at the age of 40. He reigned only eight short years (2 Chronicles 21:18-20).
The LORD God had inspired Elijah to write and convey this grave warning because he was the prophet of the LORD in the days of King Jehoram’s father, Jehoshaphat──and this present king was not obeying the LORD God. This letter that he had delivered was recognized as Elijah’s, showing us that he was known to be alive somewhere on Earth. Just how much longer Elijah lived──God’s word does not say. Yet, in the living words of God, “It is appointed for all men to die,” including Elijah, he indeed did die. □
1 Strong, J., LL.D., S.T.D., “translated” #3346, The Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 21st Century Edition, Zondervan © 2001, pg. 1627.
2 ibid. 1, “translated” #3179.
