1 And it came to pass, when Yahweh would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

Paul says of Enoch‭ (‬Heb.‭ ‬11:5‭) ‬that

‭ "‬before his‭ ‬translation,‭ ‬he had this testimony that‭ ‬he pleased God‭"

‭—‬a fact which we may also infer in the case of‭ ‬Elijah.‭ ‬It would follow that men can please God or otherwise by the course they pursue,‭ ‬and that when they please Him entirely,‭ ‬He is moved to exempt them from evil,‭ ‬except where,‭ ‬as in the case of Job and Jesus,‭ ‬there is a special object to be served by subjecting them to it undeservingly.‭

We are not aware of any scriptural warrant for attaching a typical significance to the fact that one was‭ ‬translated before the flood and the other after.

The Christadelphian, April 1876

11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

When Jesus said (Jno. iii: 13),

"No man hath ascended into heaven,"

he did not mean to deny that Elijah was removed from the earth by a whirlwind, ...but merely that any man had ascended to the Father's presence, as he, Jesus, would do and has since done, in accordance with the word of Jeremiah:

"I will cause him to draw near and he shall approach unto me" (Jer. 30:21).

"Heaven" is not definite enough to found an objection on. There is a heaven local to the earth—the firmament (Gen. i: 8), and there is a heaven of heavens (Deut. x: 14) where the Father dwells.

The Christadelphian, March 1898