Here ya go!
Source note:
H.W. Armstrong
Beware winds of doctrine...
Hmmm. Abraham's bosom?
marck
Elijah was a prophet. He could have written the letter 7 years prior. Keep in mind, Federal Express was still a couple of years out. Prophets get to prophesy about things that happen in the future, that is actually the definition of a prophet, I think.
Elijah is not mentioned in the list of those who died in faith in Hebrews 11. Elijah is the absolute most popular prophet of the OT. Why is he absent?
Why would these guys think Elijah would come save Jesus?
Mat 27:47 And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, "This man is calling for Elijah."
Mat 27:48 Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink.
Mat 27:49 But the rest of them said, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him."
These guys think Elijah could come back:
Mar 6:15 But others were saying, "He is Elijah." And others were saying, "He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old."
Here, they say Elijah had appeared, but OTHER prophets had risen from the dead - Elijah not in the "risen from the dead" group:
Luk 9:8 and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again.
Mat 17:9 tells them not to tell anyone of the vision.... oh wait a minute, until Jesus had been resurrected. Why then?
Joh 3:13 "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.
Sounds like you got me there, huh, but wait....
Joh 20:17 Jesus *said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'"
Jesus hadn't ascended when he said nobody had ascended. How do you square that one?
Hebrews 11:5 says:
Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated--not to see death, and was not found, because God did translate him; for before his translation he had been testified to--that he had pleased God well,
Hebrews 11:5 DOES NOT SAY:
Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated--not to see [THE FIRST] death, and was not found, because God did translate him; for before his translation he had been testified to--that he had pleased God well,
Your source's definition of "Metatithimi" is incorrect. It does not mean simply to "transfer." It means to transpose, to change, or to swap one thing for another.
Note that of the other biblical uses of this word, none suggests movement:
Jude 4: For there are certain men, crept in unawares, who, before old old ordained to this condemnation: ungodling men turning ("transforming") the grace of our God into lasciviousness.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed ("transformed") from him that calls you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.
Hebrews 7:12 For the priesthood has been changed ("transformed"), there is made a necessity a change ("transformed") also of the law.
It's an understandable mistake the author makes. "Tithimi" means to lay, put, fix or establish. "Meta" means to change. So doesn't "Meta-Tithimi" mean to change where something is put?
Not really. "Tithimi" means "put" more in the sense of assigning a place to something. Meta-tithimi, then, means to change where something belongs, or, by extension, to change the status of something. That's why the word, "translate" was used in Latin, not "transfer," which would have meant what your author means.
Even as such, however, the bible doesn't make clear that Enoch lived forever. Although he was possibly somewhere other than a grave, he was certainly not in Heaven in the sense that he was standing before the beatific vision of the Risen Christ, for Christ had not yet been enthroned in Heaven.
The prevailing notion that Enoch was not in the grave comes from the Book of Enoch. The Catholic Church (and, following it, the Protestant churches) has not asserted that the Book of Enoch is necessary as a source of doctrine, so it is not in the Catholic or Protestant bibles (although it is, IIRC, in the Coptic bible). The bible, however, does quote from the Book of Enoch, in the Epistle of Jude:
"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling [words], having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.'"
Interesting topic. Are we all created at our conception? The position taken in your article would seem to require it.
A day of the Lord is like a thousand years to man, right? On the seventh day, while God rested, were none born? On the sixth day, men & women were created. Sure all that were created on that day were born that day?
Good question. Neither one has posted since signing up.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?name=enoch
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?name=elijah
Eternity.
To paraphrase Doc Brown: "The appropriate question is, When the heck are they?"