.: Did Elijah send
a letter to King Jehoram after his ascension into heaven?
2 CHRONICLES 21:12:
"then a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet...."
JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ARGUMENT:
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that no person
who lived prior to the coming of Jesus Christ went to
heaven. In order to support their ideology, they explain
Elijah's ascension into heaven as a temporary removal
from one place on earth to another and claim that Elijah
reappeared on earth to send a letter to King Jehoram
at 2 Chronicles 21:12 years after he went up to heaven
in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11).1.
BIBLICAL RESPONSE:
There is no indication that Elijah
went up to heaven before he sent the letter to King
Jehoram of Judah. We read at 1 Kings 22:50 and 2 Kings
1:17 that Jehoram became King of Judah two years before
a different King Jehoram became king of Israel. It wasn't
until the NEXT chapter at 2 Kings 2:11
(during the reign of this other King Jehoram of Israel)
that we read of Elijah's ascension into heaven.
It is important to note that nowhere
does the Bible give a specific year for Elijah's translation
into heaven. We only know that it happened sometime
during the reign of King Jehoram of Israel. Since King
Jehoram of Judah (who received the letter from Elijah)
had already been reigning two years by the time King
Jehoram of Israel took the throne, Elijah could have
easily sent his letter to King Jehoram of Judah before
his ascension into heaven at 2 Kings 2:11.
2 Chronicles 21:19 notes that Jehoram
of Judah began to experience the effects of the condemning
words in Elijah's letter two years before he died in
the eighth year of his reign, so it is reasonable to
conclude that Elijah's letter and his subsequent translation
to heaven occurred sometime between Jehoram of Judah's
second to sixth year of reign.
Furthermore, if Elijah was to reappear
on earth and resume his ministry after ascending into
heaven for a few years, one would have to question why
Elijah spoke of being "taken from" his apprentice
Elisha and why he would have gone to the effort of requesting
for Elisha a "double portion" of his spirit
upon leaving.2.
Such commitment to Elisha would hardly seem relevant
if Elijah was to resume his work on earth only a few
years after the whirlwind incident. Thus, we see that
not only does the Scriptural account negate the Watchtower's
view of Elijah's ascension, but the circumstances surrounding
the event speak of the permanence of his ascension into
heaven (that is in the Abraham’s bosom portion of Hades described at Luke 16) until he appears with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration
at Matthew 17:3.
============
1.
Reasoning from the Scriptures, p. 314
2. See
2 Kings 2:9-10
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