Point of the Transfiguration & the Saints

"Adam Clarke makes an interesting point about this story, to wit, that Moses and Elijah demonstrated two ways of receiving a glorified body; 

(1) by being translated without seeing death, as in the case of Elijah, or 

(2) by dying but then later being resurrected and given a glorified body, as in the case of Moses. 

Perhaps one of the purposes of the story is to show us that both routes lead to the same end result:

"Elijah came from heaven in the same body which he had upon earth, for he was translated, and did not see death, 2 Kings 2:11. And the

body of Moses was raised again (Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. Jude 9), as a pledge of the resurrection; and as Christ is to come to judge the quick and the dead, for we shall not all die, but all shall be changed, Behold, I shew 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 Cor. 15:51-2. 

He probably gave the full representation of this in the person of Moses, who died, and was thus raised to life (or appeared now as he shall appear when raised from the dead in the last day), and in the person of Elijah, who never lasted death. Both their bodies exhibit the same appearance, to show that the bodies of glorified saints are the same, whether the person had been translated, or whether he had died."

--Properly understood, the story of the transfiguration provides support not for the doctrine of immortal souls freed from a body, but rather for the teaching that the redeemed dead will be resurrected with glorified but very real bodies." 

F.D. Nichol

Lesson from Elijah's Prayer

 And he requested for himself that he might die. 1 Kings 19:4

"IT was a remarkable thing that the man who was never to die, for whom God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the man who should be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire, and be translated, that he should not see death—should thus pray, Let me die, I am no better than my fathers.  

 

Strange was it that the lion-hearted Elijah should be so depressed by Jezebel's threat as to ask to die, and blessedly kind was it on the part of our heavenly Father that He did not take His desponding servant at his word.

 

--There is a limit to the doctrine of the prayer of faith. We are not to expect that God will give us everything we choose to ask for. We know that we sometimes ask, and do not receive, because we ask amiss. If we ask for that which is not promised—if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have us cultivate—if we ask contrary to His will, or to the decrees of His providence—if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease, and without an eye to His glory, we must not expect that we shall receive. 

 

Be then, dear reader, 

much in prayer, 

and make this evening a season of earnest intercession, but take heed what you ask."

Charles Spurgeon

Sunday Sacredness as a Form of Baalism

"International Sunday-school lesson for July 17, 1898, was “Elijah on Carmel.” The M. E. Church South publishes a weekly Illustrated Lesson Paper, devoted largely to the lesson for each successive Sunday.

In this Lesson Paper, concerning “Elijah on Carmel” we find the following, which we copy exactly as it was there printed:

CATECHISM LESSON
Question 81.—What is the fourth commandment?
Answer.—The fourth commandment is: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Ques. 82.—What does the fourth commandment forbid?
Ans.—The fourth commandment forbids us to work on the Sabbath day.
Ques. 83.—What day is the Sabbath?
Ans.—Sunday is the Sabbath.

That is precisely the way that the Baalites talked and taught in Elijah’s time. See here:

CATECHISM LESSON
Question.—What is the first commandment?
Answer.—The first commandment is: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Ques.—What does the first commandment forbid?
Ans.—The first commandment forbids us to have any god but the true God.
Ques.—What God is the true God.
Ans.—Baal is the true God.

That is a catechism lesson such as was taught by the priests of Baal in Elijah’s time. And no man can fairly deny that it is parallel in every respect with the catechism lesson here quoted bodily from the Lesson Paper of the M. E. Church South.

Setting Up a False God

The word of God in the fourth commandment, as printed in this

catechism lesson of July 17, A.D. 1898, says, plainly, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Yet directly in the face of this word, a man, or a set of men, sets up the word, “Sunday is the Sabbath;” while these men themselves know that Sunday is the first day, and not the seventh day at all.

Just so in the lesson of July 17, B.C. 898; the word of God in the first commandment said plainly that the true God was he who had brought the children of Israel “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Yet directly in the face of this word of God, men set up the word, “Baal is God;” while these men themselves knew that Baal was not he who had brought them out of Egypt." 

A.T. Jones

The Elijah Message Redux

"Today, as in the days of Elijah, the line of demarcation between

God's commandment-keeping people and the worshipers of false gods is clearly drawn.

 “How long halt ye between two opinions?” Elijah cried; “if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). 

 

And the message for today is: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.... Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:2-5). 

The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. 

The observance of the false sabbath will be urged upon us. The contest will be between the commandments of God and the commandments of men." E.G.W.