Enoch: The First Rapture
So I will have this debate with people about the rapture of the church, and I hear this response from them all the time. The rapture isn't biblical. And I guarantee you I'll even see it in the comments from today's episode. The rapture isn't biblical. And these days when I respond to that, I usually just kind of I tend to say the same thing.
Luke:If you want to tell me that the rapture is not biblical, then what happened to Enoch? Because here's what Genesis 5 says about Enoch. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. And so on the previous episode, we talked about what this verse means because it's a little bit confusing at first. He was, and then he wasn't.
Luke:Like what exactly does that mean? Well, and in case there was any confusion, the New Testament makes it clear. Hebrews 115 says by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. So Enoch was essentially taken to heaven without dying. There's a theological word for this, a rapture.
Luke:To be raptured is to be taken to heaven without dying. Now, I know a lot of keyboard warriors, they're cracking their knuckles right now because I just said the no no word in eschatology. Every time I've ever done a podcast episode talking about the rapture, I get raked over the coals in feedback because I'm told how we, you know, we are appointed to suffering. This idea that God would take us to heaven without experiencing more of it, Well, that's just thoroughly unbiblical. But my response to that is this.
Luke:Then what happened to Enoch? Enoch was taken to heaven without dying. I call this a rapture. And there are actually more examples of this in scripture. Enoch was just the first one.
Luke:If you find this to be weird, then let's explore how much this comes up in the Bible. Turn to Genesis 5, and let's get weird. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing, or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we're going to be talking about raptures in the Bible. And let's just touch on Enoch one degree further before we move on.
Luke:Let me read just a little bit more context about Enoch. Genesis 5 verses 21 through 24. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
Luke:Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. So Enoch was raptured. But prior to that, he had a son named Methuselah. Don't read Genesis 5 for baby names, ladies and gentlemen. Enoch's not bad, but, like, what was he thinking with Methuselah?
Luke:Well, actually, I will tell you what he was thinking. Okay. Genesis 5 is a genealogy. It's telling us about the 10 generations that existed between Adam and the flood of Noah. And so we'll talk next time about how Enoch, he didn't only walk closely with God, he was also a prophet and his son actually had a prophetic name.
Luke:The name Methuselah. That name means his death shall bring. So let's read a little bit more about Methuselah. Verse 25, when Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived after he had fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters.
Luke:Thus, all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he died. So, as you've noticed, the lifespans back then were much longer than they are today, and maybe we'll explore that in a in a future episode. It is strange. Methuselah is actually the oldest person recorded in scripture. He had 969 years under his belt, which means his Roth IRA was probably banging by the time he got to retirement.
Luke:And because the Genesis 5 account, it is so mathematically precise, it's one of the things I love about the early chapters of the Bible. We can actually graph out exactly to the year when everybody lived and died all the way up to the flood. So Methuselah, he lived right up to the year of the flood. I'm not saying he died in the flood. I think he if you if you do the math out, I think he died the year before.
Luke:But again, his name, it means his death shall bring. And after his death, that is when God brought judgment upon the entire world with a flood. And so, Methuselah's life, it was really a prophecy about how long it would be until the rainwaters of God's judgment fell. And that just tells us something about God's compassionate heart. When God says I just love this about God.
Luke:When he says this person's death will mean that I'm going to pour out my judgment on the world, when when God says that about somebody, then watch God goes and makes that person live longer than any other human being. Why is that? It is not God's will to destroy human life. A lot of people today, they're anticipating the end times. You know, they had their fingers crossed.
Luke:We had this this eclipse this week and, you know, people were just, like, on the edge of their seats. Some thought it might be kicking off the end times. You know, I wish they could have been right. I would love to have been raptured and gone to heaven. I would have loved for it to be the end.
Luke:I would have loved for Jesus to come back. All that stuff's great. A lot of people are anticipating the end times, and they just wonder why has God allowed things to go on as long as they have. You know, why hasn't the end of the world come yet? And so many people are crying out, how long, God?
Luke:You know, how much longer can all this stuff go on? Here's the reason God is as compassionate today as he was in Methuselah's day. Ezekiel 18 tells us that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. 2nd Peter, I think chapter 3, it says God is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And so I just wanted to include that here because it just it teaches us something here about the heart of God.
Luke:And it also fills in a little detail about Enoch. Okay? So Methuselah didn't experience the flood because he died first. Okay? And I don't know how long Enoch would have lived, you know, if he hadn't been taken to Heaven without dying.
Luke:But here's something else interesting is that Enoch was also able to avoid experiencing the flood, and he didn't even have to experience the horrors of the pre Flood world, the days leading up to the Flood. As the Bible says, mankind's heart was filled with violence all the time. We've talked about the pre flood world in the early episodes of this podcast. We talked about the Nephilim or the giants who roam the Earth and the ancient texts, how they describe these beings as so brutal, cannibalistic. I will link to that episode in the show notes if you want to go back and hear more about that.
Luke:But, Enoch, he got to skip over all that. He was taken out of the world before it reached its most wicked state, and Enoch also avoided experiencing God's judgment. And so this was a this was a blessing upon his life, and it was because of how closely Enoch walked with God. And so we went with we went through with all that means on the last episode. But anyway, I use this word rapture to describe what happened to Enoch, because to be raptured means to be taken to heaven without dying.
Luke:And so some people are gonna object to me using that term because they think the word rapture can only mean one specific thing. It's this this doctrine we hear about a lot nowadays that the church is going to be taken out of the world prior to the end times kicking off. And so they say the word rapture can't be applied outside of that doctrine. That is not true. Okay.
Luke:A rapture is not a word that is meant to describe one specific hypothetical event known as the rapture of the church. The word rapture is a more general word and it means to to go to heaven without dying. Okay? As you listen along today, I'm gonna prove that the Bible uses it more broadly than just that. The word rapture has its origins and, you really trace it back to the Greek language.
Luke:We'll talk about that later. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. All right. So I can't trace the word rapture back to Enoch in the biblical languages, but it's the same concept. Okay.
Luke:I'm going to show everybody today the New Testament Greek uses rapture in a in a more broad way than just talking about the rapture of the church. But let's look at a few more who were raptured. Okay. As I said, Enoch was just the first. There was another man who walked closely with God, and he was taken out of this world without experiencing death, Elijah.
Luke:And I don't think Elijah needs much much introduction. He was a prophet. He had a series of amazing stories throughout his life. He also took on an apprentice who had the name Elisha, which I always found that, like, that's unnecessarily confusing if you ask me. Okay?
Luke:Could could he have found a guy named Ricky or something? You Why does he have to go find a guy who has basically the almost the exact same name? It's just kind of weird. Okay. I'm not going to do a podcast episode about it.
Luke:It's just it's weird to me. But, anyway, 2nd Kings chapter 2 verse 11, it's talking about Elijah Elijah and Elisha. They said as they as they let me I'm trying to find it here in my notes. And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the 2 of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Luke:And Elisha saw it and he cried, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. And he saw him no more. And I'll stop there. But that was a little different from the others. It says there were chariots and horses of fire present.
Luke:There was a whirlwind. I don't think the other raptures probably included this, but, you know, as we'll see as we read through these, everyone has something unique going on in their rapture story. Okay. No two rapture stories are exactly the same. The only thread that connects all of them is that it involves somebody taken up to heaven without dying.
Luke:Alright? That is what a rapture is. There's a third rapture, which is another person that you've probably heard of. He's mentioned in a lot of books in the Bible. He has a lot of nicknames.
Luke:I like to call him Jesus. And the Ascension of Jesus at the beginning of the book of Acts, That is the 3rd rapture in the Bible. Acts 19. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a Cloud took him out of their sight. And and so this was a little different in one in one important respect.
Luke:Okay? In this in Jesus' case, he had already died. You know, as I said, when you're raptured, you're taken up to heaven without dying. But, as we know, Jesus died, and, of course, he resurrected 3 days later. If you don't agree with that, then, I mean, you have a lot bigger things to worry about today than how many raptures there are.
Luke:Alright? I'm assuming that we all know Jesus after he died, that he later resurrected, he was alive again. And the reason that he's not still running around on this world today is because 40 days after, he ascended up into heaven. And so this is the 3rd rapture in scripture. Now, some people will balk at calling this a rapture, but did you know that the Bible itself refers to this event as a rapture?
Luke:Okay. And and let me explain where this comes from. Let me lay the groundwork here because people will tell you the word rapture doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible. Alright? And the and this is oftentimes an objection to the doctrine of the rapture or the pre tribulation rapture of the church.
Luke:People say rapture doesn't even appear in the Bible. I consider that the low IQ objection when people complain about the rapture being unbiblical. Okay? Those are the word rapture doesn't even appear in the Bible. It's unbiblical.
Luke:I call this the low IQ objection because there's a lot of doctrines that we believe that don't actually have a word for it in the Bible. The basic one is like the word Trinity. Okay. Trinity is not in the Bible. The concept or the doctrine is in the Bible, but the word itself is not in the Bible.
Luke:Are you following me? Okay. Does that mean that the Trinity is unbiblical? Of course not. Alright.
Luke:The word Bible is not in the Bible. Does that mean the Bible is unbiblical? Right? It's it's just a silly objection. You know, if people want to play that game, we can go to Stupid Town real quick.
Luke:Okay? And and it's even sillier. If you know that the word rapture actually is in the Bible, it's just what we we if we trace it back to the original languages, if you don't look at our English translation, that's how we're gonna find it. Okay. The word rapture literally means caught away or it can mean catching away.
Luke:We see that word used to talk about the rapture of the church in first Thessalonians 4 verses 16 17. We'll we'll come back to Jesus. Don't worry. But these are really famous verses. The rapture of the church.
Luke:For the Lord himself will descend from Heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. And so this is the 4th and this is the most controversial rapture in the Bible.
Luke:Again, I'm not quite done talking about the third one yet, but that's the 4th one. So this phrase that we look at here, the word caught up that shows up in those verses. This is the Greek word harpazo. Alright? And when when it was translated into Latin, when Greek was translated into Latin for the Bible.
Luke:It was translated enrapturo. Alright? And, obviously, many of our modern English words, they're influenced by Latin roots. One of these words is rapture. It's really easy to see how enrapturo becomes rapture.
Luke:Enrapturo was just a translation of harpazo. Okay. But, you know what, that that harpazo was written 2000 years ago, and we're dealing with a translation of a translation. And so, yes, the word rapture is not in English in our English translation of the Bible, but the concept is there. The meaning of rapture is right there.
Luke:It's just in that phrase, caught up. Okay? Alright. Can we just be clear about that? It's it's it's, like, it's the dumbest little side quest that people will send you on when they try to tell you that rapture doesn't even appear in the Bible.
Luke:Okay? It's, like, guys, that's not even the point. The concept is right there. If we can we can find the word if we trace it down. Anyway, I made my point.
Luke:Let's go back to Jesus. Okay? The Ascension of Jesus. Some will say that his rapture should not count as a rapture, because, you know, there's things about his ascension that are different from the other ascensions. You know, as I said, every rapture in scripture is unique.
Luke:The main point is that it means to go up to Heaven without dying. It still fits that definition and the Bible calls this a rapture in Revelation 12, verse 5. That verse says she gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to His throne. Okay. The individual being talked about right there in Revelation 12, it's talking about Jesus.
Luke:But I just want to focus here on one thing, the child. Jesus, the child. He was caught up to God and His throne. You know, as other verses tell us, he now sits at the right hand of the Father. It's referring to where Jesus is now.
Luke:But it said he was caught up to God and to His throne. That word in the Greek is harpazo. So Jesus' Ascension into Heaven is a rapture in the bible. If you if you don't like the word rapture, fine. Okay.
Luke:Call it a harpazo if you want. I don't care. But it's the same Greek word right back here in 2nd Thessalonians 4 where it says believers are gonna be someday caught up together with him in the clouds and so we will be with the Lord forever, caught up right there is harpazo, same word it uses to talk about Jesus going up to heaven. Alright. I'm glad we could settle that.
Luke:Jesus and the Church are both said to have a harpazo, or as I like to call it, because I speak English, a rapture. Now, I believe also in what's called a pre tribulation rapture. I believe that there is a 7 year period of time that is coming, I think soon, in which the end of the world is gonna come about. Alright? And there there are some Christians out there and they believe the rapture comes in the middle of the tribulation, and there are others who place it at the end of the tribulation.
Luke:And those kind of disagreements, I don't it's fine with me. You know, I don't listen, I will admit, I don't I do not have a verse that just says the rapture is going to be before the tribulation. Yeah. I I will I will, first of all, admit we don't have a verse that says that. It would be a lot simpler for all of us if we did have that verse.
Luke:We wouldn't have to have all these arguments. Alright? So we just have to think about it logically where to place it. I think it makes the most logical sense to place it at the beginning of the tribulation or before technically. Okay.
Luke:There's just some things that don't add up for me when you try to stick the rapture anywhere else, but it's okay with me if you disagree because I at least we're all at least agreeing. Right? We're believing what the Bible says that there is a rapture. Okay? Even if you wanna put it in a different spot, can we at least agree that there is one there?
Luke:This is that's not the response I usually get when I talk about the rapture. I get called all types of names. I get called everything from a heretic to a false teacher. I I had one person tell me this week on Twitter that the Rapture is a doctrine of demons. I'm just like, guys, let's tone it down just a little bit.
Luke:Okay? The rapture is in the Bible. Obviously. It's in it's right there in 2nd Thessalonians 4 or 1st Thessalonians 4. Excuse me.
Luke:1st Thessalonians 4. It's right there. If you disagree about the timing of it, that's one thing. But can we at least agree that it's there? So, like, guys, I'm just calling on everybody.
Luke:Let's tone down the rhetoric around raptures. Let's stop getting so emotional about it. Okay? We don't need to play the heresy card about it. At the end of the day, it's a secondary doctrine.
Luke:We are still brothers and sisters in Christ. When someone disagrees with me about the timing of the rapture, that's okay with me. I shrug my shoulders and move on. That is not the response that I usually get. I often get very angry messages on my podcast and on my social media telling me I'm a I'm a false teacher and and things of that nature.
Luke:So if you have hate mail for me today, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com. And if you want to say something nice, you know, I will accept positive messages as well. If you are on a platform that does commenting, you know, go ahead and comment away. Tell me where I'm wrong or tell me where I'm right, but you can leave feedback there as well. I'll probably see it.
Luke:If you want to tell me that the rapture is unbiblical, if if that's something you wanna say, fine. But answer this question, what happened to Enoch? Because if you can't answer that question, then your comment or your email, it's probably not gonna be super persuasive to me. When people try to tell me that the rapture is not biblical, not only are they wrong, I think they actually agree with me about a lot more than they think they do. Okay.
Luke:We already agree about 3 raptures in the Bible. Right? Nobody ever debates the first three. We're really just arguing about the 4th one. And hopefully, we're not even arguing about whether the 4th one exists.
Luke:I mean, 1st Thessalonians 4, it's still there. It it must mean something. All that we're really arguing about is the timing of it. But the rapture is 100% biblical. There is a rapture in the 5th chapter of the Bible.
Luke:There's this really famous quote about quantum mechanics. It's, by doctor Richard Feynman. He said, I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics. In fact, it is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is Quantum Theory. Some say that the only thing that Quantum Theory has going for it, in fact, is that it is unquestionably correct.
Luke:And Bible teacher Chuck Missler, he said similar things about the doctrine of the Rapture. It's the wildest, most extreme, most preposterous idea in all of theology. Those who hold to it are mocked, belittled, and excommunicated from polite society. The only thing that it has going for it is that it is, without a doubt, true. In fact, it's all over the Bible.
Luke:So if you think the rapture is weird, the rapture is not weird. We are weird because we don't know about how common raptures in the Bible actually are. But now we do. Thanks for listening. God bless you for sticking around till the end, and we'll see you next time.
