"Enoch and Elijah were taken alive into heaven. It appears that their bodies went, and Jesus' body was resurrected from the grave. His earthly body rose up as his resurrected body. Wouldn't these be a benchmark for us regarding the rapture?"As the question regarding the nature of the glorified body is generally very little understood, I will address that important question, in this essay, as follows.
Before that we may intelligently speculate concerning any aspect related to the subject at hand, it will first be needful to lay a firm foundation of truth regarding the same. Read, carefully, if you will, the following passages of Scripture:
"But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
"All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial [this is not a reference to spiritual] bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we [the living] shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." (1 Corinthians 15:35-56)
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"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle [earthly body] were dissolved [gone back to dust], we have [present tense] a building of God, an house [body] not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house [body] which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked [disembodied]. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed [disembodied], but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:1-8)
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"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:3-5)That much may suffice (though somewhat more could be added from Scripture) to enable us to discern the truth concerning the nature of the glorified, that is to say, the spiritual body.
To begin with, Paul used the analogy of grain. He wrote: "[T]hat which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain...". Which seems to me to be a most important statement. Thus, Paul likened our earthly body to "bare grain;" whereas, our glorified body is something altogether different ~ although, the glorified body is still, somehow, intimately connected with that kernel of grain. Though the outer shell of that kernel must decay and return to the dust; yet, the life that is (was) within that kernel actually brings forth unto itself an entirely new and different form of embodiment. So is the Resurrection ~ and the Rapture.
(Not to distract anyone. But we tend to think of "heaven" as being "out there," somewhere. When, it may actually be the case that our own spirit is a kind of portal to another dimension where heaven is. Thus, in the analogy of grain: the new body arises from within the life that is within the kernel. If you can wrap your head around that; though I will not further elaborate on that point....)
Your earthly "house" embodies the life that is "you." Whether through death, or at the Rapture, "you" are going to put off that outer shell ~ which shall return to the dust. But the "life" that is "you" will then be "clothed upon with [y]our [new] house [body] which is from heaven" ~ not from the ground of the earth. That "house," moreover, is "eternal in the heavens"; meaning, that your new body is in heaven at this very moment ~ as Peter wrote, it is even "reserved in heaven for you...".
Peter, furthermore, wrote, that your new body ~ which is your "inheritance," is both "incorruptible" and "undefiled." Is there any whose earthly body has never been "defiled"? Is there any whose earthly body is "incorruptible"? There is none. Even Jesus Christ took upon himself the nature of humanity ~ which involved, even for Christ, an house (a body) that was of the earth.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Now, concerning Enoch and Elijah. (We will afterwards examine the case of Jesus.) To have been taken "alive" does not necessarily equate with their (Enoch and Elijah) having been taken "bodily." We do know that in the case of Elijah, the mantle that he was wearing "fell from him" (2 Kings 2:13-14). Did he cast that off on his way to heaven? Or did Elijah undergo a change such that there was then no longer any material (earthly) substance to support that mantle?
And why would Elijah stipulate to Elisha, that Elisha's petition (for a double portion of Elijah's anointing) was conditioned upon his ability to "see" Elijah after that he was taken up? Unless, Elijah meant that Elisha's desired spiritual anointing (in the case that he did receive that) would enable him to "see" into the spiritual realm ~ where that Elijah could only then (after he was taken) be seen.
We do have strong indication in Scripture, in the case both of Enoch and of Elijah, respectively, that the earthly bodies of those two men were indeed searched for, but never found. Yet, that is not sufficient to warrant a conclusion that their earthly bodies were taken into heaven ~ especially, not in light of the teaching revealed in the lengthy passages of Scripture, above. Furthermore, in the case of Moses, we know that Satan desired to have Moses's dead body ~ but that God would not allow that. Could it be that God also concealed the earthly bodies of Enoch and of Elijah ~ both of whom, not unlike Moses, were great prophets of God?
(Interpretation of Scripture requires a level of care and of attention to detail that is not to be compared with any other text. Many, and gross, errors have resulted from wrong assumptions based upon an incautious and/or injudicious approach to interpreting Scripture.)
Jesus. We must also be very careful here. God was willing to give to Christ's disciples "many infallible proofs" of Jesus's resurrection (Acts 1:3). It was therefore needful, I suppose, that Jesus's earthly body should have been (at least for a time) reanimated. But though his earthly body evidently was reanimated, does not necessarily mean that that is the same body that ascended up and is now in heaven.
After his resurrection, Jesus still had the scars from the wounds in his body. Should we then understand that we, too, must retain the scars and defects that we have in our earthly bodies, after the Resurrection/Rapture? We believe that shall not be the case. But if we take Jesus's resurrection (with respect to what many have supposed, concerning the nature of his resurrected body) as the model of the Resurrection/Rapture; then, in that case, we have reason to believe that we must go to heaven scarred and maimed.
Isn't it more than curious, the fact, that none of Jesus's most intimate friends recognized him, following his resurrection? They only recognized him ~ either by the Spirit (as in the case of Mary, when Jesus spoke her name; and, in the case of the two whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaus); or, by his scars.
Then, too, we have the testimony of the apostle John, to whom, when he was on the isle of Patmos, Jesus appeared unto him. But John's description of the glorified Jesus bears no physical resemblance to that same Jesus whom John had previously known. In fact, the apostle Paul wrote: "[T]hou we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more" (2 Corinthians 5:16).
When all of the Scriptural facts and testimonies and teachings are taken together, I believe there is abundant reason to believe that not even Jesus's earthly body is the same body that he now possesses. To be sure, it is the same Spirit, the same man, Jesus Christ who now lives in heaven, who once lived as a man on the earth.
But, though it is true (as I have elsewhere written) that "man is not man without a body;" yet, it is also true that the saved man (person) does not ever "lose his soul" ~ meaning, that the saved person is never at any time disembodied. But how can that be ~ if it be so that the righteous dead are disembodied until the Resurrection? It is not so. Rather, the righteous dead are even now in possession of their "house which is from heaven." And they are themselves "present with the Lord," in that same place where that Jesus is, bodily; those saints, too, are there, bodily.
For them, the Resurrection has nothing to do with receiving their glorified body; but it has everything to do with their spirit at that time being exalted.
For those of us who are still in the earth, however, we must first need to receive our new body at the Rapture, (immediately) after which our spirit shall also then be exalted, together with those who have gone on before us.
This subject really requires book-length treatment. Maybe, some day....
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