#50. Elijah’s Ascension, Part 4: Concerning Glorification and an Intermediate State in the Old Testament

Published by Ben Stahl on June 4, 2020June 4, 2020

Then 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.

II Kings 2:11 NKJV

We must not move on from Elijah’s wonderful entrance into glory without examining three lessons, doctrines, and divine comforts our Lord Jesus Christ is teaching us by His Spirit and His Word. The first two we will consider today and the third tomorrow. 

First, Elijah’s entrance into glory with his body and soul together pictures for us the final resurrection and glory that awaits all believers. When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” we are praying for several things including that the “kingdom of glory might be hastened” (WSC #102). That kingdom of glory is the New Heavens and the New Earth where believers shall in body and in soul be with the Lord Jesus Christ for all eternity (I Thessalonians 4: 13-18). The Heaven we go to at death is primarily a place for the souls of believers, but it is not without the promise of the body and soul reunited for eternity. Enoch and Elijah are there in the flesh along with the King of Kings who sits enthroned in the flesh, Jesus Christ, who ascended up into Heaven after His resurrection and will soon descend with power and glory. Elijah reminds us to look forward to Heaven and to pray for the great day of Resurrection when the bodies of believers will be raised up to glory and reunited with their souls for all eternity!

Second, Elijah’s ascension into Heaven teaches us that Heaven was a reality in the Old Testament. An error originated in the Middle Ages called limbus patrum (limbo of the fathers) that expressly denied the immediate entrance into Heaven for Old Testament believers. Instead, those Old Testament believers were locked up as it were in a dungeon (limbo) until Christ actually died in history, freed them from limbo**, and brought them to Heaven. 

The biblical reasons against this perspective are more than we can number and go beyond the purpose of this devotional, but suffice it to say this account of Elijah’s entrance into heaven shows us no intermediate state in the Old Testament (beyond a swift whirlwind) before believers enter into glory.* In one verse, in a short period of time, Elijah, a sinner saved by the grace of God, was carried up in a chariot by a whirlwind, into Heaven (vs. 11). 

The promises of God are yes and amen. So certain are God’s promises that even in the Old Testament Abraham could look forward by faith to the coming of Jesus and be saved by the blood of Christ shed 2,000 years later. So powerful is the blood of Christ that today you can look back in faith to the blood of Jesus Christ shed 2,000 years ago and be made righteous in the sight of God by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to you. Praise be to the Lord!

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*Consider also Psalm 23:6: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” and Psalm 73:24-25: “You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.” 

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