[Vision2020] Life after death

[Ralph Nielsen]

You are right, Andreas. In Genesis 5:22-24 we read how Enoch "walked  
with God. ... All the days of Enoch came to 365 years. Enoch walked  
with God; then he was no more, for God took him."

The Jewish Study Bible, p.2, says, "The meaning of the statement that  
'God took him' is unclear. ... It is possible that Enoch's earthly  
life, like Elijah's (2 Kings 2:11), ended without death."

Both Jewish and Xian scholars agree that there is definitely no life  
after death in the Torah (the first five books of the OT) and nobody  
dies and goes to heaven in the rest of the Hebrew Bible. Thus the  
only way you can get to heaven is to go there physically, like Elijah  
(and Jesus, too), while you are alive. Once you're dead, you're dead.  
Period.

When I go to Bible scholars' conferences, I like to ask people if  
they know what breed of horses carried Elijah up to heaven. Of  
course, they have never heard of such a thing. "Well, I have inside  
information that they were Appaloosa horses. How do I know that?  
Because we have the Appaloosa horse registry in Moscow, Idaho, where  
I live."

Ralph


> On 12/30/06, Ralph Nielsen <nielsen at uidaho.edu> wrote:

>> I'm sorry, I should have phrased this better. By fact, I was
>> referring just to the text of the Bible, not any "interpretation" of
>> it. In other words, does the OT tell us about anyone who died and
>> went to heaven?
>>
>> The answer is: not one single one.

> On Dec 30, 2006, at 9:58 AM, Andreas Schou wrote:
>
> Actually, Ralph, the answer is "Enoch," though there's some textual
> ambiguity about whether he died and went there or rather just went
> there.
>
> -- ACS