THE FIRST MAN TO ENTER HEAVEN

George Burnside

www.CreationismOnline.com

Genesis 5:5 “Adam lived 930 years: and he died”.

Genesis 5:11 “Enos was 905 years and he died”.

Genesis 5:14 “Cainan was 910 years and he died”.

THE OLDEST PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE

Hebrews 11:5 Enoch’s current age = 5018 years

Matthew 17:3 Moses’ current age = 3500 years

2 Kings 2:11 Elijah’s current age = 2800 years

God’s sentence of death was no idle threat.

Scoffers have maintained that these ages were impossible, and the record should read “months” instead of years. Notice the absurdity of their claim.

Genesis 5:6 “Seth lived 105 years and begat Enos”. If 105 should be months instead of years, it would mean that Seth was 8.75 years old when he became a father. I would say “A little too young”.

Romans 1:22 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”.

Genesis 5:24 The somber words “And he died” and their monotonous repetition is broken. “Enoch walked with God and he was not; for God took him”.

Hebrews 11:5 “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him”. “He passed through the gates of the Holy City, the firs from among men to enter fi ere”. Patriarch and Prophets, page 87.

“God took him” - Note the contrast with Jesus. “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven”. 2 Kings 2:11. The saints are “caught up.”

John 3:13 Jesus alone ascended to Heaven.

THE SABBATH KEEPING MAN

Jude 1:14 “Enoch the seventh from Adam”. Why did Jude introduce this apparently unnecessary detail in his short epistle? No other patriarch is thus specifically numbered.

1. As Enoch is the seventh from Adam, - “the first man”, so the Sabbath is the seventh day from the beginning. He could be called the “Sabbath man”. The parallel is striking.
2. Like the Sabbath he never died but following his life on earth he goes to the glory land for eternity. So the Sabbath after its earthly sojourn, goes to Glory for eternity. Isaiah 66:22, 23 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, said the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, said the LORD.

Both the new earth and the Sabbath will be eternal.

3. Enoch lived on earth for 365 year. The same number of years as days in the year. A year of years. The same number of days as the revolution of the earth round the sun. The lesser a figure of the greater. The complete circle. So the Sabbath lasts the complete span of this world and then throughout glory’s eternity. The Pulpit Commentary reminds us that seven is used so often in the Scriptures to constantly remind us of the Sabbath, the seventh day, so Enoch the seventh reminds us of the eternal, holy seventh day Sabbath.
4. Enoch not only prophesied but he himself is a prophecy of those who shall be translated and not see death. As he was “the seventh”, those translated ones will be seventh-day Sabbath keepers. The history of his translation is condensed into those brief words “And he was not, for God took him” so “they will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, so shall they ever be with the Lord.”

Malachi 3:17,18 “They shall be mine, said the Lord of hosts, in that day when 1 shall make up my jewels (my special treasure) then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not”. The end of the Bible tells much of this Advent preacher, of the first book, who preached “Behold the Lord comes to execute judgment upon all that are ungodly. From first to last the Sabbath is found - the Alpha and the Omega. The Bible is a perfect unit, and like its Sabbath it is from first to last.

ENOCH THE PROPHET

Genesis 5:21 “Enoch begat Methuselah”. Enoch, the prophet, gave his son a prophetic name. The margin gives its meaning. “At his death the sending forth of waters?

Genesis 5:27 He lived for 969 years and when he died when the flood came.

Genesis 5:25 187 years. Genesis 5:28 182 years.

Genesis 7:11 600 years = 969 The Flood came the year Methuselah died. Jewish tradition says that he died seven days before the flood.

SEVENTH IN SIN

Genesis 4:16-24 Here is recorded Cain’s line to the seventh generation and there it ends. It ends in polygamy and murder.

Genesis 4:21 22 Tubal-Cain, is the first metal smith on record. It is claimed by some that the Greeks and Romans took their smith-god Vulcan from Tubal-Cain.

THEY WERE NOT CAVE MEN

“In strength of intellect, men who now live can bear no comparison to the ancients. There have been more ancient arts lost than the present generation now possess. For skill and art those living in this degenerate age will not compare with the knowledge possessed by strong men who lived near one thousand years. There perished in the flood greater inventions of art and human skill than the world knows today. The arts destroyed were more than the boasted arts of today”. Ellen G. White, Letter 65, 1898.

Genesis 6:11-13 “There never has been and never will be an age when the moral darkness w ill be so dense as when Enoch lived a life of irreproachable righteousness.” SDA Bible Commentary, Volume 1, page 1088.

Genesis 5:22 In this corrupt age “Enoch walked with God.”

“The experience of Enoch and of John the Baptist represents what ours should be. Far more than we do, we need to study the lives of these men he who was translated to heaven without seeing death, and he who, before Christ’s first Advent, was called to prepare the way of the Lord, to make His paths straight”. 8 Testimonies page 329.

“We can have what Enoch had. We can have Christ as our constant companion. Those who will be translated at the close of time, will be those who commune with God on earth. Those who manifest that their life is hid with Christ in God.” SDA Bible Commentary, Volume 1, page 1087.

HOW DID ENOCH WALK WITH GOD?

“Prayer in secret, prayer while the hands are engaged in labor, prayer while walking by the way, prayer in the night season this is our safety. In this manner Enoch walked with God”. That I May Know Him, page 252.

 “That God who walked with Enoch was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He was the light of the world then, just as He is now”. That I May Know Him, page 208.

Hebrews 11:5 “Enoch pleased God”. Three times the Scriptures state that Jesus pleased God. Matthew 3:17 “This is My b loved Son in whom 1 am well pleased.”

Matthew 17:5 John 12:20 30

John 8:29 “1 do always those things that please Him.”

HOW CAN WE PLEASE HIM?

If Jesus abides in us, He will live there the same kind of life, a life that pleases God.

John 15:4 “Abide in Me and I in you” Here is revealed the simplicity, beauty, and power of the Gospel.

Romans 8:6-9 “Carnally minded is death”. “They cannot please God.”

Christ’s overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being. In our conclusions, we make many mistakes because of our erroneous views of the human nature of our Lord. When we give to His human nature a power that is not possible for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of His humanity.

“The obedience of Christ to His Father was, the same obedience that is required of man. Man cannot overcome Satan’s temptations without divine power to combine with his instrumentality. So with Jesus Christ; He could lay hold of divine power. He came not to our world to give the obedience of a lesser God to a greater, but as a man to obey God’s holy law, and in this way He is our example. The Lord Jesus came to our world, not to reveal what a God could do, but what a man could do, through faith in God’s power to help in every emergency.” - Ellen G. White Comments, S.D.A. Bible Commentary, volume 7, page 929.

This is a life of faith, this is victory, it is overcoming, it is righteousness by faith.

Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please him.” “It was through constant conflict and simple faith that Enoch walked with God. You may all do the same.” 3 Testimonies, page 543.

Satan and his agents have claimed that no one can keep “the commandments of God”. The life of Enoch proves that it is possible.

Remember, “There never has been and never will be an age when moral darkness will be so dense as when Enoch lived a life of irreproachable righteousness” SDA Bible Commentary, Page 1088.

Remember too, that Enoch was a descendant of Adam. He was born of sinful parent, with all the weakness and sinfulness of humans but in this world’s worst age he lived to please God. What a wonderful Savior, who can save mankind “from their sins.”

Jude 1:14, 15 “Ungodly” - Repeated four times in one verse. Enoch was criticized by the ungodly, and hated by them, but he “pleased God”.

Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” To walk with God means harmony, a corresponding nature.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 “What communion hath right with darkness No sinner can walk with God. Sinning a thousand times a day is not walking with God.

Isaiah 59:2 Sin separates from God. Sin does not “walk with God”. Revelation 3:20,21 With Christ Enoch became an Overcomer. Revelation 21:7 “He that overcomes I shall be his God.”

“The world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis”. Prophets and Kings, page 537. “The whole world appears to be in the march to death.” Evangelism, page 26.

“The question is asked, What is the cause of the dearth in the church? The answer is, We allow our minds to be drawn away from the word. “The Bible is God’s Voice speaking to us, just as surely as though we could hear it with our ears. “Many fail of imitating our holy Pattern. They do not refer every thought and action to Him, inquiring, ‘Is this the way of the Lord?’ If they did, they would walk with God, as did Enoch”. 6 Testimonies, page 393.

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