Hebrews 9 Footnotes

9:27 Some skeptics say this verse teaches that it is appointed for all people to die, thus conflicting with verses such as 1Th 4:16-17, which refer to living saints being taken directly into heaven, and Heb 11:5, which speaks of Enoch not seeing death. But Heb 9:27 does not say that everyone without exception has experienced and will experience death. This cannot be what the author of Hebrews meant because Enoch had already been taken up by the time Hebrews was written. Further, dying is indeed the normal way one passes from this life to the next. Nonetheless, if the Lord wants to take some people out of this earthly life and straight up to heaven, then he is certainly within his prerogative to do so. He “is in heaven and does whatever he pleases” (Ps 115:3).