Translation of Elijah Typical.
ADVENT believers are generally agreed in referring to the translation of Enoch and Elijah, as being examples of the translation of those who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord, of whom the apostle speaks when he says, We shall not all sleep. This being the right understanding of the subject, we may learn something of the destiny of these from what is left on record concerning those. And since some are of the opinion that those who expect to go to Heaven, the habitation of the Father, when changed to immortality, are indulging a false hope, the inquiry naturally arises, Were Enoch and Elijah really “removed” as the word translated denotes? and if so, to what place? Paul says that Enoch “was not found, because God had translated him.” He was no longer on earth. Where did he go? “God took him,” says Moses. Of Elijah it is recorded, “And it came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into Heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went,” etc. We may justly conclude, then, that God took these men to himself. But the sons of the prophets of Jericho were skeptical. They proposed to Elisha to have send fifty men to seek for Elijah. They said, “Peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley.” And he said, Ye shall not send. And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent, therefore, fifty men; and they sought three days but found him not. And when they came to him again, he said unto them, did I not say unto you, Go not?” It is reasonable then to believe, that when the saints are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, at his coming, they will not be cast upon some mountain, or into some valley of this sin-cursed earth, but that they will go to dwell with Enoch and Elijah till the period of the resurrection and destruction arrives, when the earth will be renewed, and a dwelling thus prepared for immortal beings, where there is “no more curse.” Enoch and Elijah are not dead, but they have been absent from the earth for thousands of years. During this time they have doubtless received a portion of the reward of their faith and obedience, for their walk with God was the cause of their being taken away. But when the purchased possession is redeemed from the curse, Eph. 1:14, they will have an inheritance in it; for “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.”