By Phillip Harris
I realize that most of you don’t really know who I am. You see my name and my picture, and you may even read my brief biographical sketch, but you are not my neighbor. You don’t see how my wife Janeane and I actually live. Even more, you don’t know the details of my past. You only know what I write. To be sure, the things I write reflect the truth of what I think and believe, but you do not know the events and divine interventions that led me to my conclusions today.
Thinking about the fact that you do not know me reminds me that there are several great men of faith in Scripture about whom we know almost nothing—except that they were known and commended by God. Enoch, for example, comes to mind. We know very little about him except for this shocking revelation:
“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Gen. 5:24).
I have lots of questions about Enoch: did his wife know that God was going to take him, or did he just not come in for dinner one day? How did a depraved man living in the pre-flood world know and trust God so well that God took him? Why did God take him instead of allowing him to be a witness on earth longer?
We don’t know because God gave us only the important facts: Enoch had such deep faith in God that God raptured him to Himself.
In the famed “faith chapter”, Hebrews eleven, we learn that of all the people listed there, Abraham is tied only with Moses for having the most verses devoted to describing him. In fact, Abraham’s faith is the example of the faith that defines all who trust God completely: “[Abraham] believed the LORD; and He counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
In other words, our saving faith is the same as Abraham’s faith.
Hebrews eleven has a list of heroes of the faith, including Enoch, but we learn almost no personal details about most of them In fact, the chapter culminates with references to a “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 13:1) who, for the most part, are only known to God:
Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (Heb. 11:35-40).
I find it interesting that in this summary of the “heroes of the faith”, Hebrews doesn’t make direct mention of Elijah who was dramatically taken from earth in a chariot of fire without experiencing the death that is common to the rest of us. As He did with Enoch, God took Elijah, but even his miraculous rapture was possible only because his sins were covered by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
In my mind, the account of Elijah’s life is the most dramatic of all of God’s prophets, yet all we really know of his background is that he was called a Tishbite. He was called “Tishbite”, yet scholars are not certain what the word means.
What is important to God?
Obviously, what God considers important enough to include or not to include within inspired Scripture is beyond my own limited ability to understand fully. For example, in my personal Bible reading, I am currently in the book of Job where the narrative seems to go on endlessly. Then, just this morning, this jumped out at me:
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27)
Job understood what Jesus guaranteed: Job (and I) will see God in his flesh. We ourselves will see Him. It won’t be second-hand descriptions that we will receive, but first-hand, in-our-flesh seeing Him on that day when He returns and stands upon the earth!
How do I, an unknown man in the state of Washington in the twenty-first century, know that I will see God face to face? Job the Bible writer might have been told he would see Him, but who am I?
As I said in the beginning, you don’t really know me. Nevertheless, as Paul did in Philippians 3, I am going to tell you a little bit about myself so you will understand the miracle of God’s assuring me that I will one day see Him face to face.
As a young Adventist boy I simply could not understand the words of Ellen G. White. I had accepted Jesus as my Savior and desired to please Him, not simply to take another person’s word fork, what I must do. I assumed that my inability to be good and to understand Sister White’s instructions was because I was the problem. I decided I was unable to think because I was defective, so I just gave up.
I’ve never openly shared before the desperation I felt about myself that finally led me to attempt to commit suicide. I felt hopeless in school as well; I flunked high school English because the laws of grammar and spelling just did not make sense to me. In fact, writing is far from being a natural ability of mine.
God rescued me. In fact, I can say now that there are four miracles in my life through which God continues to change me. One is my personal salvation, and another is my marriage to Janeane. The other two are that He taught me I was capable of thinking, and He taught me I was able to write.
Step by step
Learning that I could think came in progressive steps.
The first step occurred when I took the Mare Island apprentice test at the Mare Island Apprentice School in Vallejo, California. I was shocked to learn I had scored so high I could train for any trade I wanted. Since I had always wanted to work with iron, I became a shipfitter.
Next I had to take the SAT test before I could begin attending college. Later I was informed that I had set the all-time high score among students entering Napa Valley College. The only area I had scored less than perfect was in English grammar. That part, at least, wasn’t a surprise.
Then, once I began attending classes, my English Composition instructor informed me that, with a little training in the basics, I could become a great writer. What, me? The idea was a shock!
Finally, once I completed my training and was employed, a brother in Christ, while working with me on the shipyard, introduced me to the real gospel and prayed with me. I finally knew I was really secure in the arms of Jesus.
Directed by the Holy Spirit, my native-born ability to analyze and reason began to develop, and gradually I realized that I really could think. I now know that I had not been defective; rather, Ellen G. White promoted defective thinking.
Most important thing
Someday, because of our faith like Abraham’s, we who know Jesus are all going to walk with God the same way Enoch walked with God. Someday, whether we are raptured like Elijah or taken to the presence of the Lord as Moses was after dying, we will be glorified, and with Job, we will see God face to face
On that day when you find me, there probably will be no more ships to build. Then you will finally know that I am realizing my deep desire to be a gardener. Nevertheless, when all has passed away in this present life, the most important thing for any of us to know about each other is that we can say, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” †
- Daniel 5: Babylon Is Fallen! - April 25, 2024
- Daniel 4: The Stump Bound By Iron and Bronze - March 7, 2024
- Daniel 3: The Fiery Furnace - December 21, 2023
I thank you for the main trend of thought of this article, but I would like to bring into question two related interpretations as to what happened to Enoch and Elijah. According to Ellen White, both OT heroes were taken to heaven without dying, and I don’t think she was the first one to come up with such an idea. However, if I may, I would like to point out that the Bible DOESN’T say that Elijah went up to heaven riding a fiery chariot. It says that such a chariot separated him from Elisha while they were walking, and then Elijah was transported skyward by a whirlwind. I have the distinct impression that such an experience is detrimental to one’s health, so I take it for granted that Elijah was killed in the incident and his corpse disintegrated.
As for Enoch, the Bible DOESN’T say the Lord took him to heaven without dying. It says the Lord took him at a comparatively young age. To this day, it is quite customary to say, on the occasion of a young person’s funeral, that God took him or her in the prime of their life. Was really Enoch’s passing any different? Admittedly, the whereabouts of his corpse were unknown, but that also happened to Moses, and we know for a fact that Moses died.
EMR, I agree, the bible doesn’t say either man is in heaven. I only mentioned these two men “of faith” by quoting what scripture say about them and to point out how little we really know about them as a backdrop to what I was sharing about my own life. What is your reaction to my own reference to Ellen G. White?
Don’t get me wrong. I think BOTH men are in heaven. Just not the way Adventists imagine. Both men died, and then they were taken to heaven.
In Genesis 5 the end of the descendants is said as, “he died.” Except Enoch, who “walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Since his end is not, “he died” can we not conclude that as he was walking with God, he one day “was not” on this earth for “God took him” to where God is (heaven)? As far as Elijah goes, 2 Kings does say that chariots of fire and horses separated Elijah from Elisha and Elijah was taken up by a whirlwind…It is not hard to imagine that the chariot was used for transportation rather than something that separates two individuals and the chariot that carried Elijah (and thereby, Elijah) could have been transported by the whirlwind…into heaven…God is a God of miracles. I do not think we need to be so disgruntled by EGW lies that we cannot see the clear and simple reading of the text and that she might not have been wrong about every minute detail. God does not say that they died but that “God took Enoch” and Elijah “went…into heaven.”
I forgot…2 Samuel 13:14 has king Joash exclaiming the same thing at the death of Elisha, “My father, my father: the chariots of Israel and its horsemen.” What does this mean? Well, possibly that it was that these were symbols for the power of God as the strength of Israel. The Bible clearly says that Elisha died in verse 20. When the Bible clearly states, consistently that people die, when the same words are absent for others, it seems we need to look more carefully at the text without reading into the text something that is not there.
Reading into the text something that is not there? Such as, for instance, that a person went bodily into heaven without dying? Is that what you mean? Do you actually mean imagination is free and, therefore, we can come up with all kinds of fanciful notions? Sorry, that’s not for me?
There shouldn’t be a question mark at the end of the last sentence. It’s: “Sorry, that’s not for me!