“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him" reads Genesis 5:22–24
2 Kings 2:11, "And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.".
In John 3:13, Jesus tells us the following: “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13)
Might I speculate about this seemingly biblical contradiction? First let me say, I’m attempting to in no way take from, or add too the biblical scriptures. My opinions here are simply speculation ^ pure unproven opinion, & I welcome all to speculate with me.
It seems that common sense would have it that Enoch and Elijah either “ascended” to earth from heaven, or didn’t go to heaven. I’m subscribing to the latter with pure speculation. I speculate that in the Father’s House are many mansions, i.e. “Other worlds,” i.e. planets, thus I’m speculating that Enoch & Elijah were taken by the Lord to other perfect worlds in God’s great universe? What’s your opinion?
The context should answer the seeming contradiction. Here is the full text.
John 3:7-17
7 "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
The indications of what is being said here are somewhat hidden, but here they are.
- The sequence in verse 13. First is "ASCENDING" in verse 13. In our understanding, Jesus should have said that He had DESCENDED FROM heaven
- The tense in verse 13. The "son of man IS in heaven" - present tense. But at that moment Jesus was on earth.
But first we must establish why our Lord Jesus accused Nicodemus. Does the Old Testament reveal the rebirth? It does - in at least two places. The Book of John is written for one reason alone. That reason is found in
John 20:30-31;
30 "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."
The reason John is written is to achieve what was suspended at the Gate of Eden. Man was to have access to the Tree of LIFE. What happens when we eat fruit. The body starts a process whereby we become organically one with the fruit. The NATURE of the fruit is organically MIXED with us. If you cut open the eater after a day, you will not find the fruit anywhere. It has become ONE with the man. And thus was God's plan. Adam was a perfect human. But he was missing the decisive ingredient to be really like God - God's LIFE and God's NATURE. Eve settles it for us. After God had paraded all the living creatures before Adam, and he had inspected them and named them, not one was found "MEET" for him. "MEET" means "up to the standard of". For Eve to be "up to the standard of Adam", she had to possess his SUBSTANCE and his NATURE. So also, to be in the likeness and image of God, we need to be INFUSED organically with God's Nature. This does not mean that we ARE God, but that we are humans with the capability to display and project God. Nicodemus should have known this.
What Nicodemus should also have known is the lesson of the Bronze Serpent in Numbers 21. Israel murmured. Serpents bit them. The death that caught up with the bitten
coursed in their veins. The bitten had intrinsic death in them. The issue was not the wound as if a lion had bitten them. It was the very "death-nature" that coursed in them that was the problem. So when God solved the problem by FAITH in the Bronze Serpent, it does not say that the bitten WERE HEALED! It says "THEY LIVED". The hanging of the Bronze Serpent on a wooden pole as a substitute, caused imminent DEATH to change to LIFE (Nu.22:8). And what was the rebirth for? Nicodemus should have clicked that man does not need HEALING from his Adamic nature. He needs a NEW LIFE - one that operates out of the SEAT of human life - the human spirit (Jas.2:26).
There are more examples like the Manna and the various Offerings that Israelites ATE and became organically one with. But Israel had made the fatal error of not recognizing that the Adamic nature could not be fixed by the law of Moses. The Law was "unto life" (Rom.7:10), but it addressed the utterly weak flesh. Nicodemus, an educated man at his peak after 1,500 years of proof that men could not keep the Law, did not have a clue why the bronze serpent was "lifted up". So our Lord told him that he did not comprehend because it was a matter hatched in heaven. And it was hatched by "WE" (Jn.3:11). Who is a "WE" and domicile in heaven? Why, the TRIUNE GOD - Father Son and Holy Spirit. From this August source comes the original plan to INFUSE man with God's LIFE. And no MAN has ascended to heaven to be a WITNESS of this plan. It is not a contradictory word against Enoch and Elijah. It is about WHO is in heaven who WITNESSED this plan in the making.
The mean is NOT that no man has ascended, but that no one ascended to witness the plan except the Son of man Who WAS IN HEAVEN AT THE TIME (present tense) and Who goes there to accomplish it. So the sequence is:
- Jesus is born to a woman but not man. He is thus 100% man but does not have Adam's blood coursing in his veins
- Jesus leads a perfect life under Law to make Him eligible to die for men who could not
- Jesus dies as a perfect, unblemished Substitute. He is "lifted up" on a wooden pole.
- Jesus, Who has no sin, is judged as a Serpent. But He is a bronze Serpent because He does not have the nature of a snake
- Jesus must be resurrected to be proof that every little sin was dealt with
- Jesus must "ascend" first to present His blood to the Father (Heb.9:12). This He does before the woman may touch Him
- Jesus "descends" that evening and BREATHES the Holy Spirit INTO His disciples
- His disciples are NOT healed but RECEIVE (DIVINE) LIFE
- The plan hatched in heaven, to which the Triune God ALONE was "witness" is accomplished
- Since then believers are "partakers of the divine life" - 2nd Peter 1:4