Have you believed the lie, like the rest of us?
Jeremiah 16:19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
One of the biggest lies, which started in the Garden, is the lie that says, “If you sin, you won’t die.”
Genesis 2:16-17 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 3:3-4 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.” “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.”
The lie that says we can sin and not die grew to say, “You don’t die, you just go somewhere else to live.”
Today, people are being taught that when you die, you go somewhere else to live. For example, they say that your dead relative is looking down from heaven and is very happy to see you in your wedding dress or your dad is looking down from heaven and is proud to see you graduate from military boot camp. According to the Bible, none of this is true about those who have died.
Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. Whatever they did in their lifetime—loving, hating, envying—is all long gone. They no longer play a part in anything here on earth.
There is only one person who has died and gone to heaven, never to die again and that is, the Son of God.
John 3:13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
Romans 6:9 We know that Christ was raised from the dead. He will never die again. Death has no more power over Him.
If there are people who have died and gone to heaven, before Christ, then the Son is not the firstborn from the dead and nor does He have supremacy over all.
Colossians 1:18 And Jesus is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.
So, how do we fix this lie?
First, we must correct the false doctrine of what happens when a person dies. There are three people in the Bible that people use to prove the dead are alive.
1. Enoch
2. Moses
3. Elijah
In this study I will only cover Enoch and save the other two for a different study. The reason for this is because to help people come out of a false doctrine takes time and most people won’t read a study that is too long.
Today, just about every mainline church says God took Enoch to heaven, but we have already seen, this can’t be true nor is it true that our dead relatives are visiting us from the grave.
Let’s take a closer look at what happened to Enoch. To do this, it’s very important that we use the Bible to interpret the words in the Bible and not the words to interpret the Bible.
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken so as not to experience death, and he was not found because God took him. For before he was taken, he was commended as pleasing to God.
When people read the above verse they say, “See! Enoch didn’t die; God just took him to heaven.” This is not true; people are reading that into the verse, but the verses are not saying that. As a matter of fact, the context of the above verse tells us they all died without even receiving the promise, including Enoch.
Hebrews 11:13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth.
When we read Hebrews 11:5, we need to remember that its speaking of something that took place in the past, so let’s go back and read what happened to Enoch.
Genesis 5:23-24 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
When the Bible says, “All the days of (_ _ _ _) were” it means the person died.
Genesis 5:8 So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.
Genesis 5:11 So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.
Genesis 5:14 So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.
Genesis 5:17 So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.
Genesis 5:20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
Genesis 5:23-24 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis 5:27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
Genesis 5:30 So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.
Genesis 9:29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
The Bible says all these people lived to be a certain age and then they died, but with Enock it says, “Enoch lived to be 365 years old, and then God took him”.
When the Bible says someone is “Taken or God took him” it means the person died. Now, the difference with Enoch is that he was walking with God when God took him. All this means is that Enoch didn’t experience the process of death, God just took him. In other words, he didn’t die by the sword, or sickness, or an earthquake, God just took him. Sometimes this happens to people, God just takes them, which means, they died. We see this with Ananias and Sapphira, God just took them. They didn’t experience the process of dying; they just stopped living.
Acts 5:1-11 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” When Ananias heard Peter say this, he dropped dead. Everyone who heard about his death was terrified. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” Immediately, she dropped dead in front of Peter. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
Sometimes God will take a righteous person so that they don’t experience the pain and suffering of death.
Isaiah 57:1-2 The righteous man perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away while no one understands, for the righteous man is taken away from the evil to come. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.
When someone is “Taken, taken away or is took” it means they died.
Notice in Ezekiel 33:6, the sword took some people away, which means they died by the sword.
Ezekiel 33:6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’
Remember the context of Hebrews 11:5 is Hebrews 11:13. All the names in Hebrews 11 died without receiving the promise of heaven, including Enoch.
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken so as not to experience death, and he was not found because God took him. For before he was taken, he was commended as pleasing to God.
Hebrews 11:13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth.
Some people will say, “Yeah, but it says Enoch could not be found”. Again, that’s a strange way of saying “Enoch died.”
Psalms 37:36 Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more; indeed I sought him, but he could not be found.
The same verse in a different translation.
Psalms 37:36 But he died and was gone. I looked for him, but he couldn’t be found.
Because of people not using the Bible to interpret the words, they are now misinterpreting what happens at the second coming of Messiah.
Let’s take a look at it.
When people read about how “some people are taken, and some are left” they have been told to view those who have been taken as going to heaven, but this is not true. The one who was taken, died. Notice at the end, when the disciples asked Messiah where they are taken, Messiah says, “Where the body is, the vultures gather!” which means, they died.
Luke 17:36-37 Two women will be working together at household tasks; one will be taken, the other left; and so, it will be with men working side by side in the fields.” “Lord, where will they be taken?” the disciples asked. Jesus replied, “Where the body is, the vultures gather!”
Isaiah 66:23-24 “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, “So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence unto all flesh.
If you need more proof of this, read the beginning of this discussion in Luke, it’s talking about the second coming and what happens to those who were taken is the same thing that happened to those who were taken by the flood in Noah’s day.
Luke 17:26-27 When the Son of Man comes again, it will be the same as it was when Noah lived. People were eating, drinking, and getting married even on the day when Noah entered the boat. Then the flood came and killed them all.
Did you notice how it was the flood that killed them, in other words, the flood took them or took them away. Read the same story in Matthew 24:37-39 to learn what it means to be taken or took.
Matthew 24:37-39 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so, shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
The conclusion:
Enoch was walking with God when God took him. God was probably saving Enoch from experiencing a painful death, so God took him. Enoch live 365 years and then he died without receiving the promise, just like all the others in the book of Hebrews.
At Messiah’s second coming we are going up to meet Him in the air, while the world below is experiencing judgement. In this judgement, one will be taken and one will be left. The one who is taken is destroyed by fire, the one who is left enters the 1000 year Millennium as mortals.
Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the Lord of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch.
2 Thessalonians 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who refuse to acknowledge God and on those who refuse to respond to the Gospel about our Lord Jesus.
Isaiah 66:15-17 For see, the Lord will come with fire and with swift chariots of doom to pour out the fury of his anger and his hot rebuke with flames of fire. For the Lord will punish the world by fire and by his sword, and the slain of the Lord shall be many! Those who worship idols that are hidden behind a tree in the garden, feasting there on pork and mouse and all forbidden meat shall be consumed together,” says the Lord.
Isaiah 24:5-6 The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.
The few who are left after this judgment will enter the Millennium as mortals, the rest of God’s faithful people are in heaven enjoying the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. After the Wedding is over, Christ will return with 144000 to govern the 1000 year Millenium. Pay close attention to Revelation 14:1 because Messiah is standing on Mount Zion. This is taking place after the Wedding because when He came for His Bride, He does not touch the earth, the Bride goes up to meet Him in the air.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So, encourage each other with these words.
This means He returns after the Wedding with the 144000 to rule with Him as kings and priests during the Millennium.
Revelation 14:1 Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
Revelation 5:10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.
Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.