The Bible contains 1,189 chapters, but before we can get through the first 5 of those chapters, we find what can only be described as an encounter resulting in a "divine" abduction.

"And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." (Genesis 5:24).

Although, in the 4th Century AD, Eusebius arbitrarily determined that the writings of Enoch would not be included in the first "Bible", this book did survive. A reading of Enoch's writings is an amazingly detailed recounting of his experiences after "God took him"; complete with strange vessels, beings, places, and an incredible account of Enoch’s transmutation into another type of being.

Close Encounters of the 4th Kind

On at least a dozen different occasions in scripture, an individual, or a group of people, are described as having "Close Encounters of the 4th Kind", which means being invited aboard, or taken aboard a vehicle, and/or having experiences therein. Here are several of those encounters from both the Old and the New Testaments; many that have never been considered as being such an event:

• Moses, the Leader: "And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights." (Exodus 24:18)

• Samuel, the Prophet: "He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters; He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place:, because he delighted in me." (2 Samuel 22:17-20)

• Elijah, the Prophet: "And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal." (2 Kings 2:1)

• David, the King: "He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me." (Psalms 18:16-19)

• Ezekiel, the Prophet: "Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord's house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people." (Ezekiel 11:1)