Moses and Elijah -- A Deeper look at the Transfiguration

Since this is technically an addendum to my previous article on the Trinity, I won't repeat the points here that are included there. This is just a look at where, exactly, Moses and Elijah had been during the millennia between their lives and Jesus' arrival on Earth as the Representative of the Trinity in physical form.

The first thing we need to understand here is that the spiritual realm is not only Heaven and Hell (technically, the Lake of Fire, see Revelations 20:14) It is actually 4 separate and distinct regions, as we will discover here. They are, Heaven, Hell, Abraham's Bosom, and the Lake of Fire. Moses and Elijah were in the third.

We begin in 1 Samuel 28:3-19. In this passage, King Saul has lost connection with God. Samuel has recently died, so Saul, in desperation, calls on a Medium. The fact that we read of Samuel answering is proof that he has not yet arrived in Heaven.

In natural progression, as well as Biblical order, we observe that King David spoke frequently of Sheol in the Psalms he wrote. These were moments of deep sadness; when he felt most distanced from God in his spirit and felt tortured.

In my research over the last several years, I have come to realize that the words for Sheol, Hell, Hades, and Tartarus all spoke of the same thing. Essentially, a "waiting room" for the dead. As mentioned above, the spiritual realms number 4 in total. The last being Abraham's Bosom. We'll look at that in just a bit. Now, some of you might be thinking, "What about Gehenna??", right?? But that's actually another name for the Lake of Fire, as it speaks to the point of total destruction. While this would seem to contradict the belief in eternal suffering, it does and it doesn't. I'll explain further when we look at the bit about Abraham's Bosom.

Now, we turn to the New Testament for support of our premise of Moses and Elijah being in Abraham's Bosom.

Our initial passage is Matthew 27:45-50. This is the account of Jesus' last few moments on the Cross. When He called out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?", some thought He was calling out to Elijah. A brief search tells me that this sounded very much like the word for "Elijah". This mistake of proper hearing was fueled by 2 things. Number one, the noise surrounding the area, and number two, the erroneous expectation that Elijah was meant to return as Messiah. They were misunderstanding that John the Baptist was taking on the ROLE of Elijah in "making straight the way of the Lord". (See Isaiah 40:3 and Mark 1:3)

Time now, to explore Luke 16:19-31 and Abraham's Bosom --

Luke 16:19-31

New International Version

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

The overview of "Abraham's Bosom" speaks of it as the Jewish idea of eternal bliss. A place of comfort and close connection with God.

The key concepts we want to focus on here are the fact of 2 separate and distinct places from which the Rich Man, Lazarus, and Abraham are speaking, the fact that there is a great gulf between the two with no changing from one to the other, and that the passage ends with Jesus speaking about Moses and the prophets being with Abraham and the other OT people of faith. (See Hebrews 11 for a partial listing) I just want to say here that, although the Catholic Church has since rejected the idea of Purgatory, which is clearly debunked here, they still embrace a Works > Faith ideology. This is Legalistic and unbiblical. While our works should PROVE our faith, there is nothing we can do, either for ourselves or others, to change our eternal destiny after death. Jesus invites us into a close relationship with Him while we're here. There is no Biblical support for Salvation after death. Thus, the emphasis on urgency, both in Jesus' preaching and in Paul's. The fact that Jesus speaks of the idea of Moses and the prophets "rising" to preach clearly indicates that they have not yet ascended into Heaven.

Which brings us to our next point -

In John 3:13, we find that Jesus is telling Nicodemus that, "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. (NKJV, emphasis theirs) This makes it abundantly obvious that, up to the point of His own Ascension, no one had yet gone directly to Heaven. (No, not even Enoch or Melchizedek. See Genesis 5:24 and 14:18-24, also Hebrews 7:3) And just for clarification, Melchizedek is really just a title, meaning "King of Righteousness", Jesus is only spoken of as being LIKE him in terms of manner. If Jesus were the same person to whom Abraham spoke, the Bible would say so.

Our next stop is 1 Corinthians 15:20-24.

1 Corinthians 15:20-24

New International Version

²⁰ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. ²⁴ Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.

We read very clearly here, that, "...in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn... then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom..." This debunks the popular belief that, since the time of Jesus' Resurrection, all Christians go directly to Heaven. Do not pass "GO", do not collect $200. Paul's words, inspired of the Holy Spirit, tell us otherwise. Further on, in verse 52, we read that, "... we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye..". This is where the whole question of eternal suffering comes into play. What I've heard about the meaning of this phrase is this -- no matter WHEN we die "in Christ", the time that passes until the 2nd Coming will FEEL like "the twinkling of an eye". At least in relation to eternity itself. This is supported by Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5:8 where he talks about how being "absent in the body is to be present with the Lord.". This means that, for those in the spiritual realm of Hell, their suffering will likely feel the same. As mentioned above, Gehenna speaks of total destruction in the Lake of Fire. Therefore, while eternal damnation means death of both body and spirit; the whole suffering part is only the temporary state of the unrenewed spirit being separate from God after death.

Likewise, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 tells the same story for the Believer. "... For the Lord Himself will come down...and the dead in Christ shall rise FIRST. At the 2nd Coming of Christ. This clearly indicates that no one has yet risen to Heaven. Personally, I think most people know this. They just tell kids that "Great Grammy is in Heaven" because its easier than explaining it all out. It also helps to remember here that, in the Bible, there are 3 different meanings of "heavens". The first, obviously, is Heaven, as in our Eternal Destiny. Secondly, there is outer space. Thirdly, there is the atmosphere, which is literally, "clouds". This is the Greek word being used here. "Nephele". The term speaks specifically of a cloud or mass of clouds, also fog.

Finally, in Hebrews 12:1, the author speaks of a "great cloud of witnesses" who are watching the actions of the current Believers. This tells us 2 things. One, there are obviously still people in that "cloud" watching us today. There is a plethora of anecdotal evidence to support this, including, but certainly not limited to my own experiences.* Two, Heaven and Hell are not the "upstairs", somewhere in space, and "downstairs", under (or inside) the Earth. (Now that I think about it, neither of those makes sense. What would that say for Australians to us Northerners, or vice versa?? And inside the Earth is a physical reality, not a spiritual place, so there's that.) The truth here is that all of it is simply on a different dimension from our current existence. Saul's conversation with Samuel is proof of this, as is the "cloud of witnesses" in our verse above. Also, we have in our arsenal of information, the fact that the book of Hebrews wasn't written until around 88 AD. This refutes the idea that everyone after the Resurrection of Jesus goes directly to Heaven.

So there it is, my friends. Evidence showing where Moses and Elijah were, and still are. The scene of the Transfiguration was, for them, the same as it was for Jesus. A momentary glimpse of reality for Peter, James, and John. Which, in fact, also lends itself to the fact of the spiritual realms being just another dimension of Earth.

-- God Bless!!

Since this is the only footnote, I'll dispense with the formatting -

My personal experiences with the spiritual realm began when I was 8 or 9 years old. My great aunt had passed about a year and a half prior. One night, before I was fully asleep, I saw her ghost in my bedroom. I could tell this was real because I could see my laundry bag hanging from my closet door behind her. The next one came during my brief time in college. My roommates and a couple of their friends had a Ouija board. I wanted no direct part in it. I stayed up on my bunk, but told them to ask about my brother. Now, my roommates only knew that I was a Christian, they didn't know that I had a younger brother who had died of Crib Death (SIDS) at 2 1/2 months. The response from the board spelled out "JESUS". A few years later, I was engaged to my now ex-husband. He has a history of Spiritual Warfare literally IN the spirit realm. When I first took him to the cemetery to visit our family plot, he bent down at my brother's stone for a few minutes. When we got back to the house, he told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was not at peace because I needed to let him go. (Clearly, the fact that I was only 3 yrs old and barely remember him didn't matter. It was the point that, at various times over the years, I would talk to him as if he were there because I needed someone to talk to.) I did, however, do what was necessary to follow instructions. Some years later, my husband gave me an update, saying that my brother was proud of me. (When I asked, he said it's not so much words, as impressions.) Sometime in between, I had a scary dream about a demon. When I told my husband about it in the morning, he knew exactly who I was talking about. A strong prayer in the kitchen, where the dream had taken place, solved it. Skipping ahead to just a few years ago, 2022, to be exact, we lost my now ex-husband's father. (We divorced in 2011, amicably) His father passed 2 years after his mother. I was present for both services. After all, they had been my in-laws for nearly 19 yrs.. The evening of his father's funeral, my ex, Rich, had gone upstairs to bed, and our younger two were still at the neighbor's house visiting. Our oldest and I were talking and playing cards at the dining table. Suddenly, we heard a noise in the hall, which is in direct view from the table. I also saw the rug scrunch up with the movement of feet crossing over it. My daughter, Carissa, was unphased. She heard and saw what I saw, and simply said, "Yep, that's just Grammy and Grampa, heading up to bed like always." And most recently, our former house cat has been haunting me. After Rich's mother passed in 2020, his father asked him to move back home. He did so on January 4th, 2021. From that day, the cat was rehomed with me. She died exactly one year later, at the approximate age of 15 1/2. (She was found as a stray kitten, so we don't know exactly) For most of the past year and a half now, I've been doing everything I can to get rid of her. Literally, all that's left are online pictures. Over the past few weeks, she's been less and less in evidence. I think I may finally be free... But, as you can see from all of this, the spiritual realm is very, very real. It is NOT something to be trifled with. Especially not when it comes to your Eternal Destiny, so I pray that all who read this will be joining me in The Kingdom of Heaven one day. Once again, God Bless!!