Monday, September 28, 2020

E.W. Bullinger vs. those who claim Enoch Died

 

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)