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Abstract

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I
Chapter  1
Chapter  2
Chapter  3
Chapter  4
Chapter  5

Part II
Chapter  6
Chapter  7
Chapter  8
Chapter  9

Part III
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13

Appendixes

Journey Out of Time

 

Appendix III

Elijah and Enoch

 

     Elijah and Enoch: these are the only two men who were translated so that they did not pass through death.
Yet we are given to understand from Hebrews 9:27
(1) that death is "appointed" for man. Are they to escape
this appointment?
     It may be that we have the answer to this question in Revelation 11:8-9.
(2) Here we find two very special
witnesses. They are singled out by the Lord as "my two witnesses" (verse 3). We do not know where they
come from, but for three and a half years they bear their testimony against Anti-Christ, while living under the special protection of God. They are given extraordinary powers over earth and air and water, powers

1. ". . .it is appointed unto men once to die. . . . Hebrews 9:27
2. "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was
crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three and a half days, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves." Revelation 11:8-9.

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which were in one respect not unlike the powers exercised by Elijah (see James 5:17,18(3)). When they
have completed their testimony, God allows them to be martyred. We are then given some remarkable details about what happens to them after they are slain. Revelation11:8 and 9 tells us that:

      Their dead bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom
and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and
tongues and nations [i.e., of this truly cosmopolitan city] shall see their dead bodies three
days and a half and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

     The three and a half days satisfies the legal requirement for the certification of death according to Jewish
law. And then in verse 11 and 12 we read:

      After three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered them and they stood upon their
feet; and great fear fell upon them that saw them. And they [the two witnesses] heard a great
 their enemies beheld them [as they went up].

     Thus, if they are indeed Elijah and Enoch, these two special witnesses — having now fulfilled their
appointment with death — rise up to join the saints who have already become part of the Lord's
entourage and are awaiting his descent upon the Mount of Olives as predicted by Zechariah (14:4
(4)). The
words "Come up hither" seem to signify a special form of home-taking.
     In the meantime, until that day comes for them to bear their witness and be martyred, perhaps they
"sleep" until the time when they are re-united with their original (?) bodies and introduced again into the
world to give their joint testimony.
      Certainly it does not seem that we have yet any clear understanding of what the circumstances will be for
these two uniquely translated saints — if, indeed, they are Elijah and Enoch. Moreover, the general

3. "Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." James 5:17, 18.
4. "And his [the Lord's] feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. . . ." Zechariah 14:4. Z

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"appointment to die" is not entirely universal (as Paul seems to clearly signify in 1 Corinthians 15:51 f.(5))
since at the time of the Lord's return many who are still alive will apparently pass directly into glory without experiencing death at all.

5. "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52.

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Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All rights reserved

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