A. T. J by Alonzo T. Jones

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 23, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 28.

A. T. J

By Alonzo T. Jones

The question may arise, Why was Moses there? It is foreign from the lesson, yet so intimately connected with the line of Scripture which we have pursued, that it might be well to explain this point. The answer to the question is that Moses was there as the representative of the righteous dead, as Elijah was the representative of the righteous living. For we have seen that when Jesus comes the righteous dead are raised, as well as the righteous living translated. Now as the Scriptures make absolutely no provision for reaching life beyond this world, except by a resurrection from the dead, or a translation, as were Enoch and Elijah; and as Moses had died, it follows that as he, a man, stood in glory, on the Mount of Transfiguration, he was there by virtue of a resurrection from the dead. There is Scripture that shows this, Jude, in the ninth verse, says: "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses." Now Paul says that the devil had the power of death, Heb. 2:14. He says, also, as we have quoted above, that it is at the voice of the archangel that the dead arise (1 Thess. 4:16); and we read in John 5:25 that it is the voice of the Son of God that will raise the dead; therefore the archangel of Jude 9 is the Son of God; as it is he alone who raises the dead; and as when one dies he goes into the power of the devil who has the power of death; when the Son of God went to raise Moses, the devil disputed his right. Mark, this is a dispute between the devil and the Son of God, about the "body of Moses." And as the body of Moses stood in glory on the Mount with the Son of God, we know that when he said to the devil, "The Lord rebuke thee," he took the body of Moses, in spite of the devil's dispute. And thus Moses stood on the Mount of Transfiguration, the representative of the righteous dead, as Elijah stood there the representative of the righteous living; and the Lord Jesus above all, as the one whose voice shall call both dead and living from this world to himself in glory, when he comes in his glory.