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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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