(2 Kings 2:7-12 NIV) Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. {8} Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. {9} When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied. {10} "You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours--otherwise not." {11} As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. {12} Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.
Elijah and Elisha were walking and talking together. Suddenly, some horses and a chariot came and separated Elijah from Elisha. The horses and the chariot were like fire. Then Elijah was carried up into heaven in a whirlwind.
2 Kings 2:11 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=2%20Kings%202:11&version=ERV
Okay I have read both comments. But it negates the credibility of what Jesus said: "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me"
If Elijah went to heaven without Jesus, then it means Jesus' testimony about h being the only way to heaven is not true
I don't know that this "negates the credibility" of what Jesus said. Who said that Elijah went to heaven without Jesus? Are you saying that Elijah went to heaven of his own human power? Because that is not what the message is here. The Bible verses that were referenced by @barncat and @truth-be-told were speaking of Elijah being taken to heaven by God. Maybe I'm not understanding what you are saying, but I don't see how those verses negate God or Jesus' credibility...
As at the time of Elijah, there was no Jesus. Only the WORD resident in and with the father.
When Jesus died the power that tore the veil went out and quickened the body of all the Saints that were in the city of David.
But none of them came out of their graves, until Christ resurrected, because Jesus had to be the FIRST BORN AMONG THE DEAD.
Next Jesus descended to the lower parts of the earth to do 3 things.
To set free the spirits of all the Saints who died and were kept in Abraham's bossom.
To declare his victory over death, sin to the devil and his cohorts
To blunder them and collect the lost possession of mankind.
Notice the word all the Saints.
The great Father Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Elijah
Elisha
Even Enoch too. If you doubt me read Hebrews 11:13 then go back and see whose name was mentioned in verse 5.
Not sure what your point is in any of these statements. Are you saying that "The Saints" are specific people only? And that after Jesus rose all the "saints" who died before Him rose and are in heaven?
I felt what you were saying is that Elijah is not in heaven because he did not go to heaven by way of "Jesus." If Jesus is the only way, yet Elijah went to heaven without Jesus being born, then Elijah cannot be in heaven. That's what I understood about what you were trying to say.
If that is in fact what you were trying to say, then I would have to disagree with your statement. Which is why I responded the way I did.
Look at this: 2kings 2:7-12 Elijah supposedly goes up to heaven during the reign of Ahab.
Yet in 2nd Chronicles 21:12 he writes a letter to Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat. Who was king at that time
I'm interested in what your point is; rather, I'm trying to understand it. What exactly is your point?
I read the verses that you indicated, and I also took the liberty to read the chapter before and after the account of 2 Kings 2 and Elijah and Elisha's stories... Near the very end of 2 Kings 1 it says that "this was the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, who was reigning JOINTLY with his father in Judah." It also mentions that other things that Ahaziah did are recorded in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel... is this what you are referring to or is there some confustion as to the harmony of what is recorded in the Bible?
Yet again see what glorious statement Jesus makes in John 3:13: New International Version
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man.
Context matters. What was Jesus talking about right before that statement? What point was He trying to make?
Jesus was trying to explain spiritual things to Nicodemus that was hard for him to understand.
He was trying to explain that no one has lived in heaven and then come here to live except the Son of Man. He lived there before and has come back to make spiritual things easy to understand.
No man can penetrate the spiritual world. Flesh is flesh, that is, born of the earth; therefore, it is earthly (1 Cor. 15:47). However, Jesus Christ was different from all other men. His origin was out of heaven, out of the spiritual world and dimension of being.
We are preaching the same thing. NO MAN MEANS NO MAN. even Abraham the Father of faith, when he died, he didn't go to Heaven. He had to wait for Christ, the way to come. Luke 16:19-25
don't you get it, Jesus had to be the first in everything. No man could enter heaven before him. Jesus was the first born from the dead, the first son of God, the first to have the Holyghost live in him, the first in all things.
Elijah was taken to heaven while alive.
(2 Kings 2:7-12 NIV) Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. {8} Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. {9} When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied. {10} "You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours--otherwise not." {11} As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. {12} Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.
Have you read:
It was near the time for the Lord to take Elijah by a whirlwind up into heaven. Elijah and Elisha started to leave Gilgal.
2 Kings 2:1 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=2%20Kings%202:1&version=ERV
Elijah and Elisha were walking and talking together. Suddenly, some horses and a chariot came and separated Elijah from Elisha. The horses and the chariot were like fire. Then Elijah was carried up into heaven in a whirlwind.
2 Kings 2:11 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=2%20Kings%202:11&version=ERV
Okay I have read both comments. But it negates the credibility of what Jesus said: "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me"
If Elijah went to heaven without Jesus, then it means Jesus' testimony about h being the only way to heaven is not true
I don't know that this "negates the credibility" of what Jesus said. Who said that Elijah went to heaven without Jesus? Are you saying that Elijah went to heaven of his own human power? Because that is not what the message is here. The Bible verses that were referenced by @barncat and @truth-be-told were speaking of Elijah being taken to heaven by God. Maybe I'm not understanding what you are saying, but I don't see how those verses negate God or Jesus' credibility...
As at the time of Elijah, there was no Jesus. Only the WORD resident in and with the father.
When Jesus died the power that tore the veil went out and quickened the body of all the Saints that were in the city of David.
But none of them came out of their graves, until Christ resurrected, because Jesus had to be the FIRST BORN AMONG THE DEAD.
Next Jesus descended to the lower parts of the earth to do 3 things.
The great Father Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Elijah
Elisha
Even Enoch too. If you doubt me read Hebrews 11:13 then go back and see whose name was mentioned in verse 5.
Not sure what your point is in any of these statements. Are you saying that "The Saints" are specific people only? And that after Jesus rose all the "saints" who died before Him rose and are in heaven?
Yes. Or have you not read so
Jesus is God. He is the Word made flesh. He has always existed and there is nothing that is made that was made without Him.
Are you saying that Jesus, or the creator, did not exist until the NT?
I never said such.
You are saying that Jesus did not exist before his human body. Jesus has always existed.
Again! I never said such. Jesus existed as the word, not Jesus. Jesus is his earthly name.
And please respond to my other comments.
Thanks
sorry, it’s been a loooong day for me. But I will respond 😉👍
I felt what you were saying is that Elijah is not in heaven because he did not go to heaven by way of "Jesus." If Jesus is the only way, yet Elijah went to heaven without Jesus being born, then Elijah cannot be in heaven. That's what I understood about what you were trying to say.
If that is in fact what you were trying to say, then I would have to disagree with your statement. Which is why I responded the way I did.
Look at this: 2kings 2:7-12 Elijah supposedly goes up to heaven during the reign of Ahab.
Yet in 2nd Chronicles 21:12 he writes a letter to Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat. Who was king at that time
I'm interested in what your point is; rather, I'm trying to understand it. What exactly is your point?
I read the verses that you indicated, and I also took the liberty to read the chapter before and after the account of 2 Kings 2 and Elijah and Elisha's stories... Near the very end of 2 Kings 1 it says that "this was the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, who was reigning JOINTLY with his father in Judah." It also mentions that other things that Ahaziah did are recorded in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel... is this what you are referring to or is there some confustion as to the harmony of what is recorded in the Bible?
Not sure what your point is. What that's got to do with anything?
Yet again see what glorious statement Jesus makes in John 3:13:
New International Version
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man.
Even Enoch did not go to heaven.
Context matters. What was Jesus talking about right before that statement? What point was He trying to make?
Jesus was trying to explain spiritual things to Nicodemus that was hard for him to understand.
He was trying to explain that no one has lived in heaven and then come here to live except the Son of Man. He lived there before and has come back to make spiritual things easy to understand.
No man can penetrate the spiritual world. Flesh is flesh, that is, born of the earth; therefore, it is earthly (1 Cor. 15:47). However, Jesus Christ was different from all other men. His origin was out of heaven, out of the spiritual world and dimension of being.
We are preaching the same thing. NO MAN MEANS NO MAN. even Abraham the Father of faith, when he died, he didn't go to Heaven. He had to wait for Christ, the way to come. Luke 16:19-25
don't you get it, Jesus had to be the first in everything. No man could enter heaven before him. Jesus was the first born from the dead, the first son of God, the first to have the Holyghost live in him, the first in all things.