Some who believe in
soul sleep (or its more strict form, soul death) believe that Enoch was not
assumed (KJV "translated") into heaven, but instead, died. As example
of this (absurd) interpretation can be found in the article by Jim Punton and
Anthony Buzzard, Enoch
and Elijah: Where Are They Now?
E.W. Bullinger (1837-1913) answered those
who would try to interpret Gen 5/Heb 11 in such a manner:
It is a perversion of
the truth of God, to hold from Genesis v. (apart from Heb. xi), that Enoch’s translation
merely means “conversion from worldly life and carnal pursuits” (Philo, De
Abrahamo, and elsewhere, thus allegorises the translation of Enoch), or to
say that it means an early death, and thus a transition from this “mortal life
to the immortal.”
Heb. xi. Is doubtless
a Divine addition to Gen. v. The same Holy Spirit, who inspired Moses, inspired
Paul, and gave us, by him, His own explanation.
When He explains
that, “God took him,” and “he was not found,” He means that Enoch
did “NOT SEE DEATH” at all, but that he was translated without dying, and was
taken bodily from the earth.
It is equally a
perversion to take the words “He is not here” used of a Risen Christ, and place
them on a tomb-stone (as we have seen them) of one who is dead, and not risen.
Even in Gen. v. there
is no the whole of the divine revelation; for elsewhere we learn that Enoch’s
body must have been “changed” when he was “translated;” for “flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption”
(1 Cor. xv. 50).
At death, “this spirit
returns to God who gave it,” but “the body returns to earth as it was” (Ecc. xii.
7. Gen. iii. 19). At death, therefore, the body (the dust) remains on and in
the earth. But, in Enoch’s case, his body “was not found:” because “God took
him,” and he did not die at all.
How wrong it is
therefore for any to use those words, spoken of one who did not die, and
use them to-day of any one who has died!
Yet, how common it is
for us to hear it said of one who has died, “God has taken him,” or “God has
taken her!”
It is not true. It is
not the truth. It is not only non-scriptural, but it is an unscriptural expression.
In this case it would have been just as true for the Holy Spirit to have
written “By faith Enoch died,” instead of “By faith Enoch was translated” . . .
people do not die “by faith.” (E.W. Bullinger, Great Cloud of Witnesses in
Hebrews Eleven [London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1911; repr., Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Kregel Publications, 1979], 94-95)