THINK ON THESE THINGS - SATURDAY

ENOCH, TAKEN UP!

HEBREWS 11:5  AMP: Because of faith Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven, so that he did not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For even before he was taken to heaven, he received testimony [still on record] that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God.


The popular LEFT BEHIND book series by La Haye and Jenkins made the so-called "Rapture" of the Christian church even more prominent than it was. This "Pre-Tribulation" Rapture is a fictionalized notion started by a mystic named Margaret MacDonald in Scotland and because some English pastor thought it sounded good, he promoted it so much that an American bible guy named Scofield multiplied the error and brought it to America! Way to go, guys!


To round off our three day look at ONE VERSE - HEBREWS 11:5 - I will explain more, in tomorrow's message, about the fatal error of believing the Pre-Trib Rapture and then what God really said in the Bible. This is of vital importance to the real church, because it affects our outlook on outreach and evangelism.


Only two men experienced, what we called RAPTURE, in the Bible - Enoch and Elijah. Elijah is a 10 week study! Enoch is such an interesting and intriguing man of God. To keep this short, I wish us to look at a couple things.  The words in the verse above for "TRANSFERRED TO"...."TRANSLATED" and "TAKEN INTO"....are all from the same word "Metatithemi"....meta being the root word for example, methamorphosis , which means a COMPLETE change of life and position!!

Words mean things and what is really fascinating to me is the last phrase of the verse which says "...he received testimony (still on record) that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God"!!!


This raises the following questions:
- How did he "receive testimony" ?  It was from The Lord! The word implies there were witnesses to Enoch's faith, proclamation and obedience to God.
The Eyes of the Lord run to and fro across the WHOLE earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those who are loyal to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9) - 
Are you loyal to Him?  Enoch was.
Do you even know Him?  Enoch did.
Does your life reflect Him in application?  Enoch's did.
Do you proclaim Jesus as the ONLY WAY? So did Enoch.
Do you bless the Lord "oh my soul, all that is within me bless His Holy Name?" Enoch sure did!
Do you obey Him in your oaths, vows, tithes, statutes, commissions to evangelize? The record said Enoch did.
Do you teach others the Way of the Truth? Enoch's walk should inspire us to do the same!


Do you know why the verse said "still on record" because God is not only watching but recording our own deeds. If we are REALLY saved, our sins are forgiven and forgotten - those or not remembered. Even if we sin as saved and sanctified sons and daughters, as long as we repent, that sin is wiped away.


The bottom line is this - Enoch, like the great prophet Daniel, was highly esteemed by God! Every record in Heaven testified to the man he was during his time on earth...which was hundreds more years than Daniel even lived!


The question which you or I or anyone of us should ask ourselves - are we really satisfactory to God? If we have Christ as our Lord and Savior we surely do!  Now let's live each day as a living testimony so when the Body of Christ is really taken out of the world  BEFORE THE WRATH of God is poured out, we will have stood the test of Time and corruption just like Enoch!
Amen.

(image: Google Images)