Settled As It Is Established

August 15

“By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him, for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him,” Hebrews 11:5,6.

If Enoch was translated, how can the word be true that says, “It is appointed to man once to die…” Hebrews 9:27? This question perplexes many believers who adhere to not only the intent but to the letter of the word. Given their resolve to be fully committed to the Bible, how can they juggle this seeming discrepancy?

And this is not the only verse that causes believers in Christ consternation and that gives unbelievers fuel for the fire of doubt they are continually fanning with the hope it will consume all faith in its flames. Another is that which says Jesus died on Good Friday and arose on Sunday morning because the Bible says He was in the tomb for three days.

As I Corinthians 15:4 says, “…He was buried, He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” A little quick counting on your fingers confirms that from 3 P.M. Friday (according to our reckoning of time) when Jesus died to Sunday morning at sunrise when He arose is not three days.

So do we dismiss the entirety of scripture as a passel of lies because our understanding of the word is limited to our finite ability to comprehend it? The obvious answer to that question is that we must not. What we should do is to endeavor to grasp the intent of the mind of our Heavenly Father so we will know what He intends that we know.

We should solicit the help of the Holy Spirit Whom Christ said He would send to us to “teach all truth,” John 16:13. If it doesn’t appear that He is teaching or that we are learning the truth as it is set forth in the Bible, perhaps it is because we are not ready in our level of maturity to “rightly handle the word of truth,” II Timothy 2:15.

Just as we do not teach trigonometry or advanced biology to kindergärtners, neither does the God who loves us expect us to grasp His living truth that is beyond our ken. What He does expect is that we delve deeply into the holy writ and consume voluminous amounts of the holy word in order that we might attain maturity in the things that are eternal.

When we have done that, the scripture that He wants us to know will be understood by us at the precise moment He wants us to know it. There will be no mysteries for us to unravel for He will spread the truth before us as He did for Peter when he questioned God about sharing His word with gentiles.(see Acts 10:11-15).

There were few outside the Jewish nation who knew the truth of God prior to the resurrection of Christ, “when the fullness of time was come, and God sent His Son to bear our sins,” Galatians 4:4, but when that glorious event had been accomplished, everything changed and the gospel became available to all mankind.

So, too, will all truth be made known to all men at its appointed time, and when it is fully known, “every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,” Romans 14:11.

May we bow before Him now. May we confess Him now. For “now is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation,” II Corinthians 6:2. No vague concept that we don’t understand should ever cloud that glorious truth that is so clearly stated to us.

Can we not allow the fact that Enoch did not see death to remain with God? For indeed, he is the precursor to the reality that we shall not taste death! (See Matthew 16:28). I John 3:14 tells us that we pass from death to life when we receive Jesus as our Savior, so like Enoch, death cannot hold us.

Can we not accept that Jesus was in the tomb for a portion of Friday, all of Saturday, and gloriously arose at the beginning of Sunday morning? Indeed we should, for those three days that He sojourned in the grave represent the work He did to “set the captives free,” prophesied in Isaiah 61:1 and fulfilled on the glorious Sunday morning when He arose!

Let us allow the transformation of our temporal existence from fleeting exercises in futility to reflections of His own holy life settle the matter of the veracity of Holy Writ forever in our minds, even as it is forever established in eternity.