The Man Who Disappeared

The message was brought by Rev. Eddie Foster on Jan 5, 2025.

Genesis 5:22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

There are two men in the Bible of whom it’s said that they walked with God:  Enoch and Noah. Noah was preserved through the flood. Enoch was lifted out before the flood. This shows us what happens when Jesus comes again to rapture the church. The flood shows tribulation, of which the Bible says the church is not appointed to wrath. That’s why I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church. In the Tribulation there is a definite showing of the wrath of God. We are called out before this wrath. During this time water will be turned to blood, people will be dying, the sun won’t shine. It will be horror and heartache unlike any ever known to mankind.  Enoch was taken out before the floods, which typify tribulation. Noah was preserved in the flood representing the Jewish people preserved in the tribulation. Why?  The Jews are still God’s chosen people. Some of them will be preserved.

To walk with God means to agree with him. If two truly walk together, they agree. Now mind you, the agreement means we agree with God’s terms. David had a great sense of what this meant when he wrote Psalms 23. He noted he had nothing to fear even in time of death because the Lord would be with him. Walking means there is progress. In other words, we grow as Christians. The Corinthian church had problems. Note that even in I Corinthians 3:1 Paul still addressed them as brethren. He told them they should have progressed as believers but they were still on the milk of the Word, not the meat. Even after all this time they were still babes in Christ. The book of Hebrews says babes are on the milk of the Word and they grow until they can eat the meat of the Word.

Without this growth there is a danger of falling away. In the story of the sower of seeds some fell on the rocks. They received the seeds but didn’t get rooted. This speaks of a person who believes but doesn’t get rooted and grounded in the Word. When offences come, there is a tendency to fall away. A person deeply rooted in God won’t fall for cults because he/she will know the truth and not be deceived. As we walk with God we become more like him because we are growing in Truth.

The beginning of the walk is when you realize you’re a sinner and need to be saved. When you do and follow up with repenting of sins, you start your walk with the Lord. In the Old Testament people trusted in a sacrificial lamb that was offered as a substitute for them. In this age, we trust in the Lamb of God–Jesus Christ–who was our substitute when he died on the cross in our place.  They looked forward to the ultimate sacrifice while we look back at it with thankfulness of heart.

The end of the walk:  Enoch was 365 years old at this time.  Look back a few verses and you’ll see “Adam 935 years..and he died”; Seth 912 years…and he died’ and on and on. It doesn’t say “and he died” about Enoch.  He didn’t get shorted. God called him out, a type of how believers will be called out as shown in I Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:17 Then we which are alive and remain  shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Jesus steps out on the clouds. There is a trumpet blast with the voice of God. Those who believed but are already dead will rise from their graves and those (I think we) who are alive will meet them in the air and be with the Lord forever. This is the rapture of the church.

Things are getting worse all the time. The incoming President can’t solve the problems. Things won’t be set right till the Prince of Peace comes back to earth in the second coming (this is not the rapture). He will literally come back to earth, which doesn’t happen in the rapture of the church.  When he sets up his throne after the tribulation, there will be peace.  I can see lots of things happen when God calls his children home. There will be vacancies in families, neighborhoods, the police force, the church. Where are the missing? As believers, they were caught up to meet the Lord. It WILL happen when Jesus comes. It will be a sad day.  Matthew 24 reminds us that if a homeowner knew what time a thief was coming he’d be ready.  We are that homeowner. Yet we don’t know when Jesus, as the “thief in the night”, is coming. That’s why we need to be ready now. Only those who are ready will go meet him. The unsaved–those who aren’t ready–will be left behind to suffer the wrath of God. 

I plead with you to get ready today. Don’t be left behind.