(This was posted as a blog by my close friend Bill Ritzman on his myspace page.)

Did Elijah really go to Heaven?


For those of you that know me, you know I've had an unhealthy obsession for understanding the question of whether we go to heaven or hell when we die. Growing up in a religion that taught of being resurrected at Christ's return to this earth, it's been difficult for me to grasp the concept of going to heaven or hell when we die. My questions have always been stuff like: Since you're already in heaven or hell, does God pull you out of wherever you are at the great white throne judgement, after Christ returns, only to judge you and throw you back in again? If people die an early death, and have never had the chance to experience Christ, are they really tormented forever and ever? I believe that God is a righteous judge, don't get me wrong. Would he really let us be tormented forever? Or in his merciful love, would he just put an end to us? The wages of sin is _______ (eternal torment?). I believe it's death. Anyway, more of that in the future. Tonight I want to focus on Elijah – many believe that he was caught up in the heavens, and went to live eternally with God. Is that what the bible really teaches, or is our belief in people going to heaven when we die kind of clouding the true story? I'm going to present to you the biblical facts of what I think. I don't pretend to know it all, because I by no means do know it all. However, I would encourage you to get out your bible and look at a couple of things that I'm going to present to you. Let's start off by turning to II Kings 2:1-18, where the story of Elijah unfolds. V1: And it came to pass, when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. V11. And so it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Seems like an open and shut case, doesn't it? But let's look at a couple of interesting points. The sons of the prophets KNEW that God was going to take Elijah. V3 shows the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel asked Elisha if he knew that the Lord was going to take his master. V5 shows the sons of the prophets of Jericho asking him the same thing. Now, in V16, after Elijah had been taken up into heaven, the sons of the prophets of Jericho asked Elisha that he send out a "search party" to look for Elijah. Interesting that they knew what was going to happen, that Elijah was going to be taken up, yet I don't believe THEY thought he was going to heaven. Why would you send out a search party if you thought someone was going to heaven? So, the question still remains, did Elijah go to heaven to be with God? Sometimes in our studies we have to look at verses that we feel like are pretty concrete, and then compare them to other verses that might seem more obscure. As an example of my concrete verse, I'm going to have you turn to John 3:13. Here, Nicodemus and Christ are talking about the Kingdom of God. Basically, Nicodemus is asking alot of questions, and Nicodemus really isn't understanding or believing Christ. V:13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Christ is clearly telling Nicodemus that NO ONE has ascended up into heaven. Being in the New Testament, we know that this happened many, many years after Elijah's existance. Had Elijah ascended up into heaven, Christ wouldn't have said this, because we know he can't bear false witness, because it would have been a sin. So, we can feel pretty sure that Christ's words are true, so it couldn't have been the heaven where God resides, that Elijah was taken up to. So which heaven was it? The Bible talks of 3 different heavens. 1) Our earthly atmosphere – the heavens where the birds fly – Genesis 1:20. 2) The outer space where we find the sun, moon, stars, comets, and planets. It is of this heaven that God spoke when He said that the sun, moon and stars were to be for lights. Genesis 1:15-17. 3) Where God's heavenly throne resides – II Corinthians 12:2. From reading John 3, it's clear that Christ is talking about the 3rd heaven, where God's throne resides. So we know that Elijah could not have been taken there. It's unlikely that Elijah went into outer space, even though God could have protected him, it doesn't seem feasible. That leaves us with the first heaven, which is part of the earth's atmosphere, where the birds fly. What's tricky is the Bible just isn't very specific. It doesn't tell us where Elijah ended up, it just says he was "taken up". However, the Bible does leave one clue. In II Chronicles 21:12, a letter comes from Elijah. In my mind, this proves that Elijah was placed somewhere else on this earth. If he was really in heaven, would he send a physical letter to someone? How do we know that the letter is significant? Well, we have to do a little homework, and try and figure out a timeline. The best way to do this is to follow the succession of the Kings of Judah and the Kings of Israel through the books of Kings and Chronicles. At the end of I Kings 1, we see that Elijah prophesizes to King Ahaziah, telling him that he will die. King Ahaziah took power of Israel in Samaria in the 17th year of King Jehoshaphat, King of Judah's reign, and reigned only two years. In I Kings 2, is the story of Elijah ascending into heaven. Now, in I Kings 3, after the story of Elijah ascending into heaven, we see Elisha, Elijah's servant, prophesizing to King Jehoshaphat, who reigned a total of 25 years over Judah. I think it's safe to assume that Elijah was "taken up" while King Jehoshaphat was reigning over Judah. Now if we jump back to II Chronicles 21:12, we see that the letter that Elijah sent is addressing King Jehoram, King Jehoshaphat's SON. So we know now because of the succession of kings, that Elijah was taken up when Jehoshaphat was King, and he sent a letter to Jehoram after Jehoshaphat had died! Another thing that I would like to point out is there is another example of God taking someone, and supernaturally moving them to another place. If you look in the book of Acts 8:39, this is the story of Philip baptizing the Ethiopian. V39 Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. V40 – But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. The big difference between the two stories, is the Bible doesn't reveal where Elijah was. I think with the evidence that the Bible provides, it would be difficult to prove that Elijah actually did ascend into heaven to be eternally with God. Please feel free to ask me any questions or give feedback, I'm always interested in your thoughts. I used the New King James version of the Bible to quote scriptures from. I have an Excel spreadsheet showing the times and scriptures of the kings – if you would like it let me know and I'll email it to you. I'm not able to get it in a readable format on MySpace. It's not 100% accurate, there's a couple of things I'm researching. But it gives you a visual aid and the scriptures if you want to see how I put this together. Thanks for reading!!!