Enoch, the Heavenly Realm, and Prayer

So let’s deal with the elephant in the room first. Yes, they teach magic. Not really my realm of expertise, however it is Dr. Justin Sledge’s and if you watch his lectures in the previous footnote he deals with how that happens and works. I bring this up because the book of Enoch seems to be gaining increased popularity in Christian circles, and that should be done with a large portion of caution. It should also be noted that the book wasn’t written by Enoch. Dr. Sledge deals with this as well, but generally speaking in Apocalyptic literature of the time, it was contemporary(meaning Second Temple period) writers who would commune with the souls of the deceased, saints and write a message from them. There is one book that is generally accepted to be an exception to this, the Book of Revelation.²

The second and main thing that Enoch is intended for, is to teach people how to ascend before the throne of God. First to this there is the warning that Dr. Justin Sledge mentions in his lectures, that mystic systems are Highly culture and worldview dependent. Not living in that culture we cannot hope to truly understand or access its mysticism. Second to that, as I will demonstrate as we go on, it is made irrelevant by the Sacrifice of Christ.

Now we get to the really fun part, that is really the only reason to study these texts, the worldview. Their worldview predominated the second temple period and made up how they understood the heavenly realms.³ If you are Charismatic/Pentecostal you probably see three realms of spiritual heaven. If you are High Church, Catholic or Orthodox you probably see it as sky, cosmos, divine realm. Neither of those views however line up with the Second Temple View or that which is in the New Testament.

The literature of the Second Temple, arguably going back to the Tabernacle saw the Temple as a reflection of heaven, hence the various icons of angels and such embroidered in the walls of the Tabernacle and later carved into the walls of the Temple, so that as you entered the Temple you were walking through the various courts/levels of heaven, and the icons served as windows into heaven itself.⁴ This was copied over in the earliest Christian worship spaces with icons of angels and Jesus painted on the walls.⁵ Where these ancient texts differed was whether there were 7⁶ or 10⁷. I’m not going to delve into the difference just now, other than you started at level 1 and as you approached the ultimate presence of God you ascended levels with level 7 or 10 being outside the reach of man, and previous level being the where a rare few were able to reach. Enoch, Moses, and Isaiah are the accepted three attested to in all the Heikhalot literature.

N.T. Wright notes in his Paul and the Faithfulness of God that when Paul writes, “I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.”(2 Cor 12:2-3) Was the ultimate backhanded humble brag. He’s describing an experience that most there couldn’t imagine, but at the same time was saying that he barely got his foot in the door. Paradise corresponding to the court of the Israelites. Which puts his explicit recitation of the contents of that vision into interesting perspective, “It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I fell into a trance, and I saw Him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’(Acts 22:17-18)

While Enoch offers us a great deal of information regarding the heavenly realm, Divine counsel, Angels, Demons ect. which will prove important down the line, what it offers us most at this moment is an understanding of our standing in prayer. In the Enochic worldview of Second Temple Judaism, access to the divine council and the heavenly sanctuary was the rare privilege of extraordinary visionaries. In texts like 1 Enoch, Enoch ascends through heavenly realms and beholds the throne of God surrounded by fiery hosts, but such ascent is exceptional and terrifying. Even within the Temple cult this pattern held: only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:2, 16:34). The veil signified the barrier between humanity and the immediate presence of God, reinforcing that even Israel’s priests approached with fear and mediation. In that older framework, the heavenly throne room was real, but humanity stood largely outside it; access was restricted to prophetic visions or angelically guided ascents, and even these encounters were rare and overwhelming (Daniel 7:9–10; Isaiah 6:1–5).

The New Testament proclaims that in Christ this order has fundamentally changed. Through His incarnation, death, and resurrection, believers are not merely permitted to glimpse the heavenly court—they are brought into it. When Christ died, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two” (Matthew 27:51), symbolizing that the barrier to God’s presence had been removed. Because of this, the Church now approaches God with confidence: “Let us then with boldness draw near to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16), and “we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus… through the curtain, that is, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19–20). Even more strikingly, the apostles speak of believers already sharing in the heavenly reality: God “raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6), and Christians have come to “Mount Zion… the heavenly Jerusalem… and to God the judge of all” (Hebrews 12:22–24). What once only the greatest prophets glimpsed in visions is now the spiritual location of the Church itself.

The Church Fathers emphasize that this new access means that the faithful truly stand before God whenever they pray. Prayer is not merely symbolic speech but an entrance into the divine presence opened by Christ. As Athanasius of Alexandria explains, through the Word made flesh humanity is brought again into communion with God⁸ . Likewise John Chrysostom teaches that when the Church prays it stands with angels before the heavenly throne⁹. The Fathers repeatedly stress that this communion is real even when it is not yet accompanied by visions or extraordinary experiences.¹⁰ The apostles themselves describe the normal Christian life as “having access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18) and as beholding the Lord’s glory with unveiled face (2 Corinthians 3:18). Thus while few may experience something like the visions granted to John the Apostle (Revelation 4:1–2), Scripture and the Historic Church speak with one voice that every sincere prayer is nonetheless spoken in the presence of God Himself, literally face to face with the Father through the mediation of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The veil that once stood as barrier, both on earth and in heaven, has now been torn and the blood of Christ has written above it “Enter In”. This is no small thing we have been given. Hopefully it will stir our hearts to pray and worship more sincerely and more.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzR391dpsBc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8LBP4Y-hRM&t=200s ↩︎
2. Maahs, Kenneth H. Of Angels Beasts and Plagues Mounce, Robert H. NICNT The Book of Revelation ↩︎
3. Heiser, Michael The Unseen Realm, Wright, N.T., Paul and the Faithfulness of God Collins, John J. The Apocalypitic Imagination, Nicklesburg, George W.E. 1 Enoch: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Boccacini, Gabrielle Beyond the Essene Hypothesis. ↩︎
4. Yoma 54a–b ↩︎
5. Alfeyev, Hilarion, Orthodox Christianity: The Architecture, Icons, and Music of the Orthodox Church ↩︎
6. Testament of Levi, 2 Enoch, Ascension of Isaiah ↩︎
7. Hekhalot Rabati, 3 Enoch, Mishnah Kelim 1:6-9 ↩︎
8. On the Incarnation 54 ↩︎
9. Homilies on Isaiah 6 ↩︎
10. Symeon the New Theologian and several other Fathers say such experiences are normative Christianity, just not always immediate. ↩︎