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Enoch and the Second Coming of Christ, December 2
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied ... saying, Behold, the
Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all.
Jude 14, 15
.
The pure and lovely Garden of Eden, from which our first parents were driven,
remained until God purposed to destroy the earth by a flood. God had planted that
garden and specially blessed it, and in His wonderful providence He withdrew it
from the earth, and will return it to the earth again more gloriously adorned than
before it was removed from the earth. God purposed to preserve a specimen of His
perfect work of creation free from the curse wherewith He had cursed the earth.
The Lord opened more fully to Enoch the plan of salvation, and by the Spirit
of prophecy carried him down through the generations which should live after the
Flood, and showed him the great events connected with the second coming of Christ
and the end of the world (
Jude 14
).
Enoch was troubled in regard to the dead. It seemed to him that the righteous
and the wicked would go to the dust together, and that would be their end. He could
not clearly see the life of the just beyond the grave. In prophetic vision he was
instructed in regard to the Son of God, who was to die man’s sacrifice, and was
shown the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, attended by the angelic host,
to give life to the righteous dead and ransom them from their graves. He also saw
the corrupt state of the world at the time when Christ should appear the second
time—that there would be a boastful, presumptuous, self-willed generation arrayed
in rebellion against the law of God and denying the only Lord God and our Lord
Jesus Christ, and trampling upon His blood and despising His atonement. He saw
the righteous crowned with glory and honor while the wicked were separated from
the presence of the Lord and consumed with fire....
Enoch continued to grow more heavenly while communing with God. His face
was radiant with a holy light which would remain upon his countenance while
instructing those who would hear his words of wisdom. His heavenly and dignified
appearance struck the people with awe. The Lord loved Enoch because he steadfastly
followed Him and abhorred iniquity and earnestly sought heavenly knowledge, that
he might do His will perfectly. He yearned to unite himself still more closely to
God, whom he feared, reverenced, and adored. God would not permit Enoch to
die as other men, but sent His angels to take him to heaven without seeing death.
In the presence of the righteous and the wicked, Enoch was removed from them.
Those who loved him thought that God might have left him in some of his places of
retirement, but after seeking him diligently, and being unable to find him, reported
that he was not, for God took him (
The Story of Redemption, 58, 59
).
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