The Doctrine of Heaven

We have the doctrine classes. Of course, we've been going through basic doctrines, core doctrines, and every once in a while I like to take a sermon and just go through one of the doctrine classes, just so that we all need to know this information is the core of what we believe so much. There's a scripture in Hebrews. Let's go to Hebrews 11. And this scripture is used by a great majority of especially Protestant churches to establish a certain teaching to reinforce a doctoral belief.

So we're going to go through a very simple doctrine. There's a lot of aspects to it we won't go through, a lot of aspects of how this expands out into different other doctrines. I just want to go through the simplicity of this doctrine because it's a major idea in our society. Verse 5, 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.

Enoch was taken and did not see death. Now, if you pick up almost any commentary, they will say what this means is that Enoch did not die. There's two people in the Bible that did not die, Enoch and Elijah. And Enoch and Elijah, instead of suffering death, immediately were taken to heaven. And the belief is that, of course, when everyone dies, you either go to hell or heaven.

And this is one of the major points in the belief that when you die, you go to heaven. And there's two men that didn't even have to die to go to heaven. They went directly to heaven. Because it says he did not see death, but he was taken. How do we answer that? Really, to answer this Hebrews 11.5, we have to look at the whole concept of what heaven is, and that we have to look at what it actually says about Enoch. So what does the Bible teach about heaven? Now, we could go through the doctrine of what happens after death.

And when we get into that doctrine, we realize that when you die, there's no consciousness, you wait a resurrection. That's a whole other aspect of this. I would just deal directly with heaven, directly with heaven, because there are others who believe in the resurrection who believe that everybody that has died is waiting, they're unconscious, except for two. So there are people who actually believe in the resurrection the same way we do, that you die, you're unconscious in the resurrection, but except for two people. Enoch and Elijah were the only two who are consciously in heaven today. Is that what the Bible teaches?

So how do we sort through that? I mean, there are people who believe that. How do we sort through that? Well, let's start by just talking about heaven. Okay? Heaven. Early in Jewish writings, you go back to the Talmud, the Ptoidic era, you'll see that they believed that there were different strategies of heaven. There wasn't a heaven, there was more than one heaven. And they developed the concept of seven heavens. Now, you know, if some of you are old enough to remember old songs that were doing back before my time, Mr.

Isaac would remember these back in the, I don't know, 40s. What people would say they were in love, they were in the seventh heaven. I think there was even a movie that came out the seventh heaven. It was about, you know, two people falling in love. The idea was that the seventh heaven was bliss because you were with God. So the idea of seven heavens is actually comes from Jewish theology.

Now, the Bible does not teach that there are seven heavens, but the Bible does teach that there's more than one heaven, that the word heaven itself has various meanings, and that you can actually break these down into different areas, if you will. Let's look at Deuteronomy 10.14. Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 14. Now, once again, I'm not trying to get the context here because I just want to pick out the verse because the verse makes a statement. Moses writes, "... indeed, heaven, and the highest heavens, plural, it's plural in Hebrew, belong to the Lord your God, also the earth and all that is in it." So we have heaven, we have the highest heavens, we have earth, all mentioned in the same verse.

So the idea that the heaven was, if you will, different strata was something that was believed very early in the scripture. Look at 1 Kings 8.27. Now, we're skipping ahead hundreds of years in history, but we see the same concept.

1 Kings 8.27. "...But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven, and the heaven of heavens." Heaven and the heaven of heavens. So there's heaven and the heaven of heavens. Once again, heaven is plural there. "...cannot contain you. How much less the temple which I have built." This was of course Solomon talking about the temple that he had built to God. And he said, you are more than heaven, and you are more than the heaven of heavens.

You fill everything, so I can't continue into my temple. I can't bring you down and somehow control you inside a temple, because you are everywhere. Now Paul, though, says something that's very unique in the scriptures. The only way is to put this way that really gives us an insight into the concept of the plurality of heavens. That there's...

when he talks about heaven in the Bible, it could mean different places, if you will. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 12. So once again, we're going to go through a lot of scriptures today, because this is one of the doctoral classes. Not everybody gets to come to the doctoral classes, and I like every once in a while to give one as a servant. So our format will be going through a lot of scripture. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 1. Paul writes here, It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions of the revelation of Paul.

It's typical sarcasm of Paul. It's really good for me to boast about the visions and revelations I've received from God. It's a very sarcastic statement. Paul could be really sarcastic. Sometimes that's missed as we read through, but it's sarcasm here. He says, I know a man in Christ. Now what's interesting here is, I can tell you about all the things that God's revealed to me, but I'm going to tell you about this man. As you read through this, you'll see that this man is himself. So you see the sarcasm. I can boast about what God does with me, but let me tell you about this guy.

He's actually talking about himself. I know a man in Christ. But 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows how he was caught up in the paradise and heard inexpressible words, which is not lawful for man to utter.

Verse 5, he goes back, Of such I will not boast, yet of myself I will not boast, except for my infirmities. No, I'm sorry, of such I will boast. So I'll boast about this man who was caught up into heaven.

And you read through this, he's talking about himself. But I won't boast about myself, because this man that God actually gave a vision to. But he calls it the third heaven. So we have the heavens, the heavens of heavens. Here we have the mention of a third heaven. So that means we need to go through the Scripture and try to determine, if the Bible lets us know what these three heavens are. Now, what is that?

If there's a third heaven, what is the third heaven? How is it described? If there is a second heaven, how is it described? If there's a first heaven, how is it described? What does it mean? Because when we talk about going to heaven, then there has to be some explanation of which heaven you're in.

Now, here when he talks about the third heaven, he calls it paradise. Paradise in the Scripture means the throne of God, the place where God is. So when he talks about the third heaven, we are talking about, you know, when people talk about when you die and go to heaven, or they talk about heaven is where God's throne is. That's what the third heaven is, not where you die and go to, is where God's throne is. This is where it says God fills all the heavens. And yet there is a place, there's an actual place, a realm, I don't even know how we can describe it, it's outside of the physical universe, a dimension. There's a dimension where God lives in a reality, and yet He fills all the other heavens. This is the greatness of God. This is the greatness of the God we worship. There is a dimension someplace He calls paradise, or the third heaven Paul calls it. And he says, I can't tell you whether I really went there or not.

I don't know, because it's not like anything else I've ever experienced, you know, as a vision of something. There is a dimension where God dwells. It is described in Revelation chapter 4. So let's go to Revelation chapter 4. You know, I like to do studies of books, as we get into the context of the book. Then sometimes when you do a topical study, you have to jump all over the place to get all the bits and pieces to put it together. And just like studying a book takes a discipline, you have to know the background, you have to know who it's being written to, you have to know the style of the writer, you have to know the history, the culture. There's so much that it goes into the discipline of studying a specific book of the Bible. There's also a discipline it has to go into when you study a topic, because you're taking all these bits and pieces of a puzzle and putting them together, and you have to make sure they fit right. So Paul says he was taken to this third heaven, this place of God's dwelling. John also went there. Verse 1 says, And these things I looked to behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard, was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this. Immediately I was in the Spirit. He was no longer physically someplace, he was spiritually someplace. He entered a whole new realm. He entered a new dimension.

And just like Paul, he's not able to know whether he's awake or seeing this as a dream. He just knows he's no longer in the same state he was in. He's been transported to some other dimension.

And what is it like there? And behold, a throne said in heaven, and once settled a throne.

And he who sat there was like a jasper, a sarda stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne, and it appeared like an emerald. He begins to try to describe it as, he says, Well, it's like taking precious stones. And when light hits on that, and you see that, and the light reflects off of it, that's what this one city with a throne is.

And it's like a rainbow above it, but it's like an emerald rainbow.

We're just getting this tiny little glimpse of the third heaven that John goes to or sees in a vision, or however God reveals this to him, because he's in the Spirit.

And we get this little glimpse into the place of God's dwelling.

He says in verse 4, that around the throne were twenty-four thrones. From the throne I saw twenty-four elders sitting clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne were seated lightnings, thunderings, and voices. He didn't even have to explain what he was hearing. I'm hearing voices! Well, he must be schizophrenic.

He's hearing things he can't even explain. There's lightning. There's flashes of light going on.

Maybe it's angels coming back and forth, whizzing back and forth by him, coming before the throne of God. He hears rumbling that sounds like thunder to his mind. He hears voices as all these beings, all these angelic beings before the throne of God are talking, and we know from other places they're singing. This is the realm. This is the place called the heaven of heavens in the Old Testament. Verse 6 says, before the throne where there was a sea of glass like a crystal.

He says it's like a sea. It just went on and on. As far as I could see, it looked like glass. But it was like crystal. You know, you can see through crystal. There's facets to crystal, and light shines through and does things out of crystal. It was sparkling, just like around it. It was just what looked like a sea of sparkling glass. I didn't know how to... I mean, how do we even try to envision what the Apostle John is seeing? And there were four living creatures full of eyes and front and back. He describes angelic beings beyond our imagination. Hollywood hasn't even come up with beings like this yet. A being that looked like the hymn like it was full of eyes, just covered with eyes. Verse 7 says, the first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. He goes on and says they have wings, and there's 24 elders, and they sing.

And the whole rest of chapter 4 is John trying to describe what it is to be, quote, in the spirit and in the heaven of heavens, to actually see this third heaven that Paul saw.

So that is the third heaven. So that's the third heaven. There has to be a second heaven, right?

Has to be a second heaven. Well, let's look at Genesis 1. Genesis 1.

And there's something very interesting about this verse that we can miss as we read through it.

That's very important. Genesis 1 verse 14.

Then God said, Let there be light in the firmament of the heavens. You notice that's plural?

This isn't just the heaven. This is part of the heavens. Now, we know what the third heaven is, and what He's describing here isn't the third heaven. It's lights. It's what we call stars, billions of suns out there. Some of them make our sun look like a little, tiny little thing.

Billions of suns.

Let there be light to the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let there be foresight and seasons and days and years, and let there be for light to the firmament of the heavens to give light of the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights. The greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars also. Here we have what would be the second of the heavens. And it's a plural word here.

And this heaven is what we call outer space. It's beyond the earth's atmosphere. It's the universe.

And if God lives in a spiritual dimension and He creates a physical dimension, He's now created a second heaven, a second place. The first place, I mean, if you really reverse this, you know, the first heaven really, you know, some ways is God's throne, because it was the first thing that was there. But from Paul's viewpoint on the earth, He went to the third heaven.

So from Paul's viewpoint, that was the third heaven. In reality, that's the first heaven.

So we look at the third heaven. He now creates the second heaven, which is the universe. Genesis 1 verse 6.

That God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. He's talking about the earth. And let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were from above the firmament and on it. And God called the firmament heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Now, notice what He's talking about. He's talking about dividing waters and creating an atmosphere.

He's creating an atmosphere. Now, what did He call the atmosphere He created?

Heaven. Now we get the first heaven. Well, we talk about heaven in the Scriptures, and you think about how we use the word heaven.

Now, people can look up into the heavens. That means they're standing on the earth just looking up. Right? In the Bible, the earth's atmosphere is heaven. It's the sky. It's the place around the earth that God created for us. The other heavens, plural, it's interesting here, the word heaven here is not plural. God called the firmament. He called the area around these waters, this area that He's working on, this earth He's working on, the heaven. When He built out here, He called it the heavens. So it's more than one heaven. We know what the third one is. So we have three heavens, the atmosphere, the universe, and the throne of God. Now, that doesn't seem like a really important, you know, understanding. Okay, it's interesting, but it is vital if we're going to understand what happened to Enoch. And it's vital if we're going to understand what happened to Elijah. John 3.13, Jesus said, no one has ascended into heaven.

Acts 2.29 and Acts 2.34 says, no one has ascended into heaven except, in all those cases, except Jesus Christ. So which heaven did He go to, and why is He the only one to go there?

In other words, Enoch and Elijah could not have gone to the heaven He was talking about.

If He says, I'm the only one, He did say, I'm the only one except for Enoch and Elijah. He said, I'm the only one. If Jesus is the only one, we have to know which heaven He went to. And, of course, when you look at those verses, He's talking about the throne of God. Only Jesus has gone to the throne of God. So if only Jesus has gone to the throne, you know, been resurrected and lived there, Paul and John got a vision of it. Only Jesus is actually gone there.

Where did Enoch and Elijah go to? Because they went to heaven.

So let's look at the story of Enoch and the story of Elijah with the simple understanding that there are three heavens. There's the atmosphere, the universe, and the throne of God. And let's take Jesus at His word, and let's take the writer of Acts, and he quoted Peter at their word, that Jesus and Peter both believed that only Jesus went to the throne of God. And we know it's what it is because Jesus said, it's where I came from. So unless Jesus came from Mars, it had to be the throne of God that he's talking about.

So only He is gone there. So we come back to, okay, now we can understand what you and me would die. They await a resurrection. So now this supports our basic doctrine of all what happens after death. You die, you're in like a state of sleep, you wake up at the resurrection. But it still doesn't answer where Enoch and Elijah went.

What do we do with them? So let's go look at Enoch. Genesis 5.

Genesis chapter 5. And let's look what it says about him. Genesis 5.21. Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years, and Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

Now that's all the Old Testament says. He was around 365 years, and then he wasn't there anymore because God took him. Now you can't take that and just say, well, he went to heaven.

But they take this and couple this with the Scripture that we've already read in Hebrews 11.5. So let's go back to Hebrews 11.5 and look at that. Hebrews 11 verse 5.

See, with me so far, we have a very simple premise. There are three heavens. Paul calls God's throne the third heaven. So we guess you have to figure out what the other two are.

The universe of the Bible is called the heavens, plural.

The earth's atmosphere is called heaven, singular. So we've got one, two, three heavens.

Only Jesus has gone to the third heaven to live there. Paul and John received visions of it.

He was 11.5. By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. See, he did not die.

So that's the argument. He was taken someplace because he did not die.

He was taken away. Now, that's interesting. He was taken away.

It's translated in different ways in different versions. It's translated.

It was translated that he was translated. He was translated to another place.

It is rendered that he was carried over or carried back. But I want you to understand that Greek word nowhere implies heaven.

Heaven isn't part of the meaning of the word. What it means is exactly what it says here, that he was taken away. Now, it doesn't say where he was taken. This is where we have to be very careful about reading something into the Scripture that's not there, which we do, too. We have to be very careful about that. Does it say there he was taken into heaven? The great majority of Christians believe that's what it says. But see if you can find the word heaven there.

It's not there. It does say he was taken away. This word that's translated taken away or carried away or translated, there's another place that's used.

And remember, always take a word and look at different ways that it's used so that you can get an idea of how the meaning was used at that of the word at that time. What was the meaning of the word at that time? We're looking at, of course, the Greek word. Let's look at Acts 7.

Acts 7. Verse 15.

Here, Stephen is giving this long sort of sermon about the history of Israel. And he says, then Joseph, this is verse 14. Let's get to verse 15. So Jacob went down to Egypt and he died.

He and our fathers. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb of Abraham.

They were carried back. You know, that's the same Greek word taken away.

Same Greek word. Now, what does it mean there? Does it mean that they went to heaven? No, it says their bodies were taken from Egypt to the land of Israel to be buried. So they simply were taken from one place to another.

So the word only means, whether it's translated, carried away, taken away, translated, moved from one place to another, that's all it means. It literally means, now this is from a Greek dictionary, to transfer to another place. That's all it means.

So we have to figure out what the place was.

And the common explanation is, he was transferred to heaven because he didn't die. Or there's a belief that somehow, Edoch is still walking around today.

Now, there's some people believe that. He didn't die. He's still walking around today.

Hebrews 11, of course, is what is called the faith chapter. Now, we just read Hebrews 11 verse 5 that talks about Edoch being taken away.

And this chapter talks about Abraham and Sarah, and it talks about Moses, it talks about Isaac and Jacob, it talks about Rahab and Samson and David, it talks about all these great men and women of the Bible, and how God worked in their lives. Edoch is part of the list of all these people. And then it says something, the writer of Hebrews, at the very end of this chapter, that's very, very important. Verse 39, now remember, Hebrews 11 is a list of people.

It starts with Abel, by the way. It starts with Abel. These are all people who follow God. Abel, Edoch, and it goes through all this list of people.

At the end of the list, it says this in verse 39, and all these, all these what? All these people on the list, all of them. It doesn't single about, say, all these people except one. It says, all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. They did receive the kingdom. If you look through Hebrews 11, it says they all searched for another country. They all searched for a different kingdom. They all searched for God. None of them received the kingdom of God.

None of them received going to the third heaven. None of them. And that includes Edoch. They did not receive the promise. God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. They will not be made perfect until all the saints of God are made perfect. And Edoch is in heaven. It's got to be a really strange thing because he's not perfect. He's not perfected. That means he's not spirit. What is he then? A physical man walking around in a spiritual world? There's no, you know, what, they had a little bubble so he could breathe? He said the problem. If Edoch is part of this list, and none of them have been perfected. That means none of them have been given a spiritual body. None of them have been resurrected. He can't be there because what part of all is not part of all.

So when we put this together, the only thing that we can conclude, now the thing is, he was translated from one place to another. Where was the place? You know, the Bible doesn't tell us. Remember, you have to put the word heaven in there.

He was taken from one place to another, and since it's not heaven, it's on the earth. He was moved from one place on the earth to another place on the earth so that he didn't die at that time. It doesn't mean he didn't die. It means he didn't face death at that moment. And you know, there's lots of places in the Bible where people are translated or carried away or taken from one place to another so they didn't see death. Yet they all died. Peter was miraculously translated from prison to the house of people in the church. In fact, he thought he was dreaming. He wasn't even sure where he was. And yet he was translated from one place to another. Did Peter eventually die? Yes. Moses and the people of Israel were translated. They were carried away on eagle's wings, the opening of the Red Sea. They were translated from Egypt to the desert. Are any of them alive today? No. But they were taken from one place on earth to another. In other words, why is this story somehow different than all the other stories where people were taken from one place to another to escape death? It's happened over and over again. It's not any different. That's the point.

Edoch was taken from one place to another so that he would not have to face an untimely death.

That's what happened. Unless you want to come up with it, the only other explanation you can come up with is that if he's not in heaven and he's not perfected, you've got to somehow believe he's still walking over the earth today alive.

And that's a bizarre concept. There's nothing in the Bible that can lead you to believe that at all.

So the Edoch argument comes apart fairly easy if you believe there's three heavens. But even if you didn't believe that, it never said anything went to heaven. It would just take everyone place to another. So that one doesn't work. The simple premise, the simple statement by Paul, a third heaven, changes everything. And the statement by Jesus that no man has gone to that heaven except me. So Jesus himself says Edoch couldn't go there. So the argument, this argument, which amazes me how it is so prevalent in commentaries for hundreds of years. It's amazing because it's such a weak argument. Once again, once something becomes part of a mindset, it is hard to change. Then we have Elijah. Okay? 2 Kings 2. Now this one seems to be the veil in the coffin. This means to prove the point. 2 Kings 2 verse 1. 2 Kings 2 verse 1. And it came to pass where the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind. Then Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Verse 11. Then it happened. As they continued to talk, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. There you go. Proof. You can't argue that one. He went to heaven. Because Jesus said, no one is ascended into heaven except me. Now, I didn't say He goes to the heaven of heavens. In fact, the word here is not plural. He went up into the heaven. So what happened to Elijah? Now, we know if you read the story here, what's happening is that Elijah is about to retire, and Elisha is going to take over his job. So the two of them are together, and Elijah is teaching him, teaching Elisha his job. And it's now time for him to go. And suddenly, this chariot with horses that looks like it's made of fire appears, and Elijah steps on it, and off it goes. Not down the road, but off up into the sky. Well, they all must have stood there, because there were a number of people, a lot of people, standing around watching it. And they must have watched it go up into what? Towards the moon? Did they watch it go up and disappear like a rocket? You know, when you watch a rocket go up, and you watch it go up and up and up, eventually it leaves the atmosphere, doesn't it? Was Elijah the first astronaut? Is that what he was? It's very interesting. When you look at the impact this had on the people who saw it. 2 Kings 2 verse 15. Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. They came to him and bowed to the ground before him. And they said to him, look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master. Less perhaps, as the spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him up upon some mountain or just some valley. Now if they'd watched him go straight up, they'd go straight up. They said, well, you know, he went out over there. God had to leave him someplace over there in one of the mountains or valleys, and maybe we should go see if he needs some help. Or, you know, maybe build him a house or something. I mean, where did he go?

Yeah, they would have said this if they'd have watched him go straight up.

It says in verse 17, that when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, said them. Therefore, they said, fifty men had searched for three days, but they did not find him. Then they come back and said, hey, we couldn't find him. So, where is Elijah go? There's something very, very interesting in Kings that's so simple to miss. Who was... and it's a simple... you know, remember at Newber's Bible studies, I've given you a simple chart of the dates or the years of the rulers of Israel and Judah. And I said those dates could be lost by a year or two at the most, but even secular historians agree to a great extent when the rulers of Israel and Judah were kings.

So, it's fairly accurate. And you look through that and you find out who was the king when Elisha became the prophet of God, and it was Jehoshaphat of Judah.

Okay, well, what did that have to do with the story? Well, Jehoshaphat of Judah reigned from 873 to 848 B.C. Oh, that's a nice fact. But it was during that time period that this event took place. Okay? So, it's during the time period when Jehoshaphat was king that this event took place. And Elijah gets on this fiery chariot and goes off into the horizon and disappears.

So, let's go to 2 Chronicles 21. Remember, 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles tell of the same events. They're just different writers, so they give us different details.

2 Chronicles 21, verse 1.

2 Chronicles 21, verse 1.

Then Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers at the city of David.

Then Jehoshaphat's son reigned in his place. Okay. So, as during Jehoshaphat's reign, and if you put Kings and Chronicles together, this is obvious, he was the king of Judah. At this time period, this is what happened. And Elijah's gone, and Elisha is now the prophet of God. And then, years later, Jehoshaphat dies, and his son Jehoshaphat becomes king. And Jehoshaphat is the king. And what he does is he goes back to idolatry. Verse 11, it says, So his son makes the best of everything. So what happens to his son? Verse 12.

And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet.

This is years after Elijah is taken away in a fiery chariot. Years later, and Jehoshaphat dies, and his son gets a letter from the man who is supposed to have gone to heaven.

Great postal service.

Now, there's only a couple explanations for this. I will give you three of the most common ones. Elijah was given this prophecy long before he died, and he gave the letter to somebody and said, you give this to the son of Jehoshaphat later. The problem is, that's totally made up.

There is nothing in the Bible that says that. I mean, that is totally, completely, 100% made up.

It's something that is in Jewish history. You have to be careful about Jewish history.

They make up things that fill in holes. I don't know if that's one of their teachings. It's like the Jewish belief that when Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, after that either Isaac or Sarah ever talked to him again. They lived in a different place, refused to ever talk to him, and he lived. That's why he got concubines. His wife left him.

And that's a common belief in the Jewish world. Yet, the Bible doesn't say that. They say it at all.

So, there are people who believed that Elijah wrote this letter long before he was taken to heaven, and that it showed up decades later. But the Bible doesn't say that. You have to literally just make up that story and have faith in a myth. The second explanation, you will find, is that someone else wrote it and signed Elijah's name. There, that solves the problem. But that's not what it says, and a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet. That's what the Scripture says. In that case, they don't take the Bible literally, they just make something up. Or the third is, he wrote it from heaven. And, you know, it was delivered from heaven. But that's not what the Bible says either. It says he simply got a letter from Elijah the prophet. If no one is ascended into the third heaven except Jesus, and that means Elijah never got there, then there's only two possibilities.

He didn't get to the heaven of heavens. He went up into the heavens, which means that God put him in a spacesuit and off he went. Or, he was always in the earth's atmosphere, but he was off the ground when he was in the heaven. Which is what, you know, the firmament, the separating of the water, the creating of the atmosphere is called the heaven. He's in the heaven, and he's taken from one place to another. And years later, from wherever God dropped him off, he wrote a letter. No, he was retired now. He didn't have to show up in person. He just sent a letter, and the letter shows up years later. I have to admit, just from a logic viewpoint, that makes so much more sense to try to put him in the third heaven.

But from a scriptural viewpoint, you have to discount the very words of Jesus to put him in the third heaven. You have to say, Jesus said, everybody except Elijah, Elon. But he didn't say that. He said, no one. You know, well, maybe he forgot. He said, no one.

And so, the whole argument of Enoch and Elijah, which is a major part of you die and go to heaven argument, cannot be scripturally upheld. It just doesn't work.

And that's why, you know, going through the doctrine classes, and that's why, you know, every, ever since I've been here, you know, most of the major doctrines you're going to hear, you've heard covered twice in the time I've been here, of one form or another, because those things have to be remembered by us. And, you know, some of this, you might say, well, this isn't interesting. You know, this is, no, this is important. And it's important for young people because the Enoch and Elijah argument is still used today. And if you're not prepared for it, well, see, Elijah went to heaven. So, you go see the movie about the little boy who went to heaven and came back and told everybody, you know, all the things he saw in heaven, which is based on a book, which this little boy says he saw those things. I mean, there's no reason to discount that he did have some kind of experience. But you go see that movie, you tie Enoch and Elijah, and you say, oh yeah, people do die in good heaven. And that kind of argument will be built and people will buy into it.

What happens, of course, we know from John 14. John 14, verse 1, Jesus says, Jesus didn't say, I'm going to go prepare a place and you will come to me. He said, I'm going to go to prepare a place so that I will come to you. Of course, we couple this in with the book of Revelation. We couple this in with 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We see that Jesus Christ is returning and the dead are resurrected. It's not like he said heaven sitting there with Elijah and Enoch saying, well, we've got to go back and resurrect all those people. You're the only two that never had to be resurrected. It's interesting that Jesus Christ became the firstborn of his brethren, how? Through a resurrection. That's the argument. That's what Paul says. If he became the firstborn among brethren, then that would mean through a resurrection and that we all have to be resurrected. That means Enoch and Elijah aren't his brethren. Unless he's going to put him back into a physical body. Well, I don't know what he's going to do with him. You see, the whole thing becomes so convoluted to try to create that argument. You know, well, there's just spirits up there right now, and God's going to bring them back and resurrect them by putting them into a spiritual body. So these two guys are just wandering around heaven. Well, no, they didn't get to go to the third heaven. So where are they? They must be on Mars. And I don't mean to make fun of it. I mean it to say there's something logically just breaks down as you try to work this out.

And it takes us away from some fundamental truths. First Thessalonians 4. First Thessalonians 4. Verse 13.

But I do don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, because certainly those who have fallen asleep, and in the doctrine classes when we go through the state of the dead, they are asleep. That is how the Bible describes them. Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. And I'll read this at the funeral.

On Monday morning.

So the first resurrection includes Abraham and Moses and Sarah and Mary, the mother of Jesus. It includes Peter.

It includes all of us. It includes Enoch and Elijah. They will be resurrected in that first resurrection, and they will rise in the air after receiving a spiritual body, and they will be with God forever. It's very interesting. Eventually, the third heaven does what?

Revelation 20 and 122. It comes here. Eventually, the throne of God actually comes here to this earth, and this becomes the dwelling place of God. This is our hope, the hope of the resurrection, and the realization that Jesus was absolutely correct when He said, no one has gone to heaven, ascended to heaven, except He who came down from heaven, which was Himself. So this is a core, basic, simple doctrine. Like I said, it's one of the classes. I'm not going to get through all 50 of them here. I thought I would, but I won't get through all 50 of them. But we'll get through still some more over the next few months, and I'll do a couple more in some sermons as we continue to go through the core, basic doctrines of the Bible.