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Chosen no: R-3417 a, from: 1904 Year. |
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"He Was Not, For God Took Him."
Our Golden Text relates to Enoch,
but is not inappropriately applied by the Lesson Committee to Elijah, for what
was true of one was apparently true of the other also. Enoch, the faithful
prophet of old, whose only prophecy recorded is his announcement of the second
coming of the Lord to execute righteousness in the earth and to convince the
gainsayers (`Jude 14,15`), suddenly disappeared from amongst men, and the
inspired record is that he was not found because God had taken him; and so
likewise Elijah, having served his mission, disappeared from amongst men for
God took him. True, the sons of the prophets suggested to Elisha afterward that
perhaps the Spirit of the Lord, which had taken him up, would drop him down to
some other portion of the world, but there is nothing to confirm such a
supposition. "He was not found, for God took him."
The question arises, Where did God
take these two prophets of old? and there is no answer to the question. True,
in Elijah's case it is stated that the whirlwind took him up into heaven, but
the word heaven here is used to represent the sky, the circumambient air, and
has no reference whatever to the heaven which is God's dwelling place. That
neither of these prophets went to the latter place we have the very best
evidence in our Lord's words, "No man has ascended into heaven save he
which came down from heaven, even the Son of man."--`John 3:13`.
We can only conjecture respecting
these two prophets, and our conjecture is that they were not only taken away in
order that their disappearance from the earth might be typical, but that
possibly the Lord has taken them to some other suitable habitation, perhaps
some other world, that in due time he might bring them back to earth and possibly
thereby impress upon mankind some lessons which could not otherwise be so
forcefully taught. For instance, he might thereby give the lesson of his
abundant ability to fulfil any and every promise ever made to mankind. We have
no thought, however, that Elijah has ever yet returned to this earth--we have
no thought that he was present on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord
and the apostles as already shown; we accept the Lord's testimony respecting
the spectacle on the Mount--that it was a vision merely.--See our issue of
April 1, 1904.
W.T. R-3417a : page 254 -1904r
