From the publisher of The Good News magazine.

Request this FREE booklet

View booklet in PDF format

Internet TV Program The Myth of the Immortal Soul A Place Called Hell Better Than Heaven

Related Articles

Do Good People Really Go to Heaven When They Die?

People Believed in 'Going to Heaven' Long Before Christianity

Coming: Heaven on Earth

Is Everyone Being Judged Now?

'Dust to Dust'

What Does the Bible Say About the "Immortal Soul"?

The Penalty for Unrepentant Sinners

FREE Booklet What Happens After Death?

Was Enoch Taken to Heaven?

Some people believe Genesis 5:24 and Hebrews 11:5 declare that God took Enoch to heaven. But is that what these verses say?

Genesis 5:24 tells us that "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." Hebrews 11:5 adds: "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."

Neither scripture tells us how or where God took him, only that He did. Did God take Enoch to heaven? Clearly not, because Jesus Himself said that "no one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man ..."

Further, Hebrews 11 lists many faithful men and women of the Bible (including Enoch) but concludes that "all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise ..." (verse 39). Obviously, then, Enoch neither ascended to heaven nor received
the promised eternal life.

So what did happen to Enoch? Genesis 5:23 makes it clear that Enoch ultimately did die: "So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years." He lived 365 years and no more. He isn't still alive and walking with God. The expression "all the days" is used of eight other people in this same chapter-all of whom obviously died.

Hebrews 11:5 tells us Enoch was "taken away." The same Greek word refers to the remains of the patriarch Jacob being "carried" from Egypt (where he had died) to Shechem, where he was later buried.

The Scriptures simply do not reveal all the details of what happened to Enoch. They do record, however, that Elijah, in a similar manner, was physically removed by a fiery chariot only to die later (see "Did Elijah Go to Heaven?,"). Also, God instructed Moses to go to the top of Mount Nebo to die-apparently alone (Deuteronomy 32:48-50). Then God buried his body where it would not be found (Deuteronomy 34:5-6), possibly to prevent the grave site from being made into an idolatrous shrine. Something similar might have happened to Enoch.