On page 675 of Present Truth (October 24), you speak of the translation of Enoch. How do you understand his translation, in connection with Christ's words in John 3:13; also the words of the apostle Peter in Acts 2:34? I shall be pleased to have some light on this.
Let us first have all the texts before us, so that we can take them in at one glance, and then we can study their agreement. John 3:13, together with the two preceding verses, reads thus: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and you receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and you believed not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man has ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, and even the Son of man which is in heaven." (John 3:11-13) "For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on my right hand." (Acts 2:34)
And here is what the Bible has to say of the translation of Enoch: "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him." (Genesis 5:24) "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." (Hebrews 11:5)
Now let us not forget that nobody who doubts can understand God's Word. It is by faith that we understand. The only way we can hope to arrive at a knowledge of the Bible, and of a solution of its difficulties, and its seeming contradictions is by steadfastly maintaining our confidence in it and in its Author.
We must know absolutely, first, last, and all the time, that the Bible is God's Word, and that, as God cannot lie, it cannot possibly contradict itself in any particular. The Scriptures do not require any "harmonizing"; they are absolutely in harmony--each verse with every other verse. Our part is simply to recognize this perfect concord.
If we attempt to harmonize two portions of Scripture, we make a sad muddle; because the very attempt shows our unbelief that they do agree. In plain words, every such attempt is a vain endeavor to make truth out of what one really believes to be incongruity.
The truth in this case is that Enoch was translated to heaven without seeing death, a thing that has happened to but one other man of whom we have any record,--Elijah. Most men, no matter how good, die and go into the grave to remain there until the resurrection, as is the case with David, "Who is not ascended into the heavens, but he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre remains until this day." (Acts 2:29)
When the Lord comes, all the dead in Christ will be raised to immortality, and the living will be translated, as Enoch was, changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) and caught up to "ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
The question, then, resolves itself into this: "How are Christ's words recorded in John 3:13 to be understood, in view of the record that Enoch was taken to be with God, whose throne is in heaven?"
The question answers itself, if we consider the words that Christ spoke in connection with those recorded in the thirteenth verse of the 3rd chapter of John. He was talking to Nicodemus about the new birth, that is, about sonship. His first words to the Jewish ruler were: "Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3,margin)
Jesus Christ was born from above when He came into the world; but other men have to be born again, since their first birth is of the earth. And when they are born again, from above, as Jesus was, then their citizenship is in heaven, and they dwell and walk with God. Such can ascend to heaven, and as Enoch and Elijah did, and as all the saints will when the Lord comes at the last day.
Note the words of Christ: "No man has ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven." (John 3:13)
Jesus was in heaven even while on the earth. Even so it must have been with Enoch; for he "walked with God." He had been born from above, and when he talked with the men of his generation about heavenly things, he spoke that which he knew, and testified that which he had seen, just as Jesus Christ did.
So it may be and should be today. By His Holy Spirit, "the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father," (Romans 8:15) we are made to know "the deep things of God." (1 Corinthians 2:10) "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His secret." (Psalm 25:14) "But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)
So the Christian may talk of solemn and joyous realities which he has seen with his Father, and to those who listen he may seem to be raving. He has been in communion with God in the heavens, and he speaks what he knows, and testifies what he is seen. "What he has seen and heard, that he testifies, and no man receives his testimony." (John 3:32)
Only the Spirit of God can enable a man to discern heavenly things when they are spoken.
If all this seems too much to be true of man, remember that Christ spoke of himself in this connection, as He always did as the Son of man. He identified himself with men in order that men might for ever be identified with Him. By Him we have access to God, being made partakers of the Divine nature. "[We have] boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," (Hebrews 10:19) because in Christ we come down from heaven. By Him, and Him only we enter Heaven. Since we become sons of God by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, it is true that there is only "one new Man," namely Christ Jesus, so that even when all the saints shall have been taken to heaven, it will still be true that no man has ascended to heaven but the Son of man.
And since all this is true of us, we can see that the redemption of our body for which we wait is a natural consequence of our birth from above, and we know that we shall soon be taken bodily to be ever with the Lord.
There shall we see His lovely face, And ever be in His embrace.--Samuel Stennett, A Song of Praise to Christ ("Come every pious heart"), 1782.--Present Truth, November 14, 1901.