Today I want to talk a little bit about Enoch.
Enoch was a character from the Old Testament who lived before the flood, and I've often
heard those who believe in a pre-trib rapture say that he is proof that the rapture comes
before the tribulation.
Let me read you what the scripture says about Enoch.
The Bible reads in Genesis chapter 5, verse 23, and all the days of Enoch were three hundred
sixty and five years, and Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.
And if we go to the New Testament to Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible says, 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.
And so Enoch was a person who did not die, God actually just took him, and he was translated
that he should not see death.
And many people have pointed to this as a foreshadowing of the rapture, and I say amen
to that, because that is similar to the rapture, that those of us that are alive and remain
will be translated, will be changed in a moment in 20th of July.
But what they've tried to do is say that this proves a pre-tribulation rapture, and in fact
I just heard a pre-tribulation rapture preacher say that Enoch proves that the rapture is
before the tribulation, because Enoch was caught up right before the flood came, and
he said that represents believers being removed from this world before the tribulation, whereas
Noah was, you know, he went through the flood, and that pictures the tribulation saints who
will go through tribulation.
But here's the problem with that logic, Enoch's life is nowhere near the flood in history.
In fact, Enoch was translated 669 years before the flood.
So this idea that Enoch was somehow removed from this world to spare him the judgment
of the flood and to spare him having to go through the flood is ridiculous, because he
would have been dead before the flood ever came.
I mean, he lived 365 years, and then there was still another 669 years.
So even if he had lived as long as the longest man who ever lived in the Bible, he still
would have died of natural causes long before the flood.
So to say that Enoch pictures a pre-tribulation rapture because he was caught up right before
the flood, that just shows that someone has not studied the genealogies there and done
the math to realize that Enoch did not live in the time of the flood.
And he lived long, long before the flood, 669 years before the flood, his life ended.
And so Enoch is a good picture of the rapture, but doesn't prove anything about a pre-tribulational
rapture.
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