This is the conclusion to “Rebirth to Physical Life (1)”. Part 1 should be read first, before continuing with this Part 2. Also, I suggest you read “Universal Christian Salvation”, before proceeding here.
In “Rebirth to Physical Life (1)”, we read about God’s future for the men of ancient Sodom, and for men in both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah in the light of Ezk.37:1-14. A physical rebirth. The apostle Paul wrote in Ro.11:26, “All Israel shall be saved”. Not just a remnant!
We considered the book of Job, when he was suffering. Jb.1:21 Tanakh KJV Septúagint “Naked came I forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.” Job indicated he could later be reborn from a mother’s womb, his spirit indwelling a human newborn! Job symbolically compared himself to the ancient phoenix bird (Jb.29:18 Tanakh), which would live again after a cycle of 500 or 1,000 years. (see Part 1.) cf. Re.20:5 “The rest of the dead lived not again until the 1,000 years were completed.” Re.20:8 the dead, resurrected and returned to physical life, would inhabit “nations” of the earth.
Where in the Bible do we read of an individual, a human spirit, indwelling a second physical body…a personality who later did return to a mother’s womb (as Job indicated) to live another physical life?
The prophet Elijah lived in the early 800s BC. He was a famous character in Israel’s history. There’s no scriptural record of Elijah’s death. 2Ki.2:1-14 he was translated into heaven by a whirlwind.
{Sidelight: Elijah’s immediate successor Elisha then received a double portion of God’s Holy Spirit, unlike other “sons of the prophets”. Elisha performed miracles (ref 2Ki.2:9, 15, 1Co.12:28-29). Poole Commentary 2Ki.2:9 “Elisha seems to have had a greater portion of the prophetical and miraculous gifts of God’s Spirit.” Elisha still had his own human spirit of course; it wasn’t replaced by Elijah’s spirit!}
In the 400s BC the Lord said in Mal.3:1, “Behold, I will send My messenger; he will prepare the way before Me”. Mal.4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Consequently, the Jews expected a bodily return of Elijah. Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.100 “The coming of Elijah…he was to appear personally.” Traditionally, each spring they’d set a place for Elijah at the Passover Seder table and leave the door open for him. Rabbi David Kimchi “When God shall bring him [Elijah] to life in the body, He shall send him to Israel.” He’d be sent from God, bodily.
John the Baptist was a man “sent from God” (Jn.1:6). Lk.1:13, 24-27 John was born 6 months before Jesus. John’s mother was Mary’s aunt Elizabeth. Mk.1:1-4 John “prepared the way” for Jesus’ ministry.
Jesus identified John the Baptizer as the Elijah who was to come! Jesus said of John in Mt.11:13-14, “This is Elijah”. John the Baptist was the Elijah who had lived approximately 900 years before! Jesus said later in Mt.17:12-13, “Elijah has already come, and they didn’t recognize him. Then His disciples understood He was talking to them about John the Baptist.” Cambridge Bible Mt.17:12 “[Many Jews] didn’t recognize him as the Elijah prophesied by Malachi.” Mk.9:13 re John, “Elijah has indeed come”.
The angel Gabriel foretold Zacharias re John his son to be. Lk.1:14-17 “He will go before Him [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elijah”. The same human spirit in Elijah was in John the Baptizer. Both were empowered to call the people to repentance. Jews believe Elijah will return bodily. He did.
Let’s now notice several similarities between the lives of Elijah and John the Baptizer:
Both dwelt in the wilderness east of the Jordan River (1Ki.17:2-6 & Mt.3:1-3, Lk.1:80).
Both characteristically wore a shaggy cloak and a leather belt (2Ki.1:8 & Mt.3:4).
Both were witnesses for the true God (1Ki.18:37 & Jn.1:14-15).
Both mocked their opponents who displayed a form of religion (1Ki.18:27 & Mt.3:7-9).
Both reproved their wicked king who disobeyed God (1Ki.18:17-18 Aháb & Lk.3:18-19 Herod Ántipas).
Both were wanted dead by the king’s evil wife (1Ki.19:2 Ahab/Jezébel & Mk.6:17-24 Herod/Herodiás).
Both endorsed their replacement, Elisha and Jesus (1Ki.19:16, 19 & Mk.1:9, Jn.3:28-30).
John the Baptizer even ministered at the same site on the east bank of the Jordan River from where Elijah had been taken up into heaven 900 years before (2Ki.2:1-14)! Scripture reflects too many similar characteristics for it to be just coincidence. They were the same personality, the same human spirit.
Ja.5:17 Elijah was a man with faulty human nature, as we. He made mistakes, one serious. 1Ki.18:4, 13 Israel’s evil queen Jezebel had killed prophets of the Lord. Elijah took vengeance by killing Jezebel’s false prophets. 1Ki.18:40 “Elijah said to them [Israel], ‘Seize the prophets of Báal [450 men, v.22]; don’t let one of them escape.’ They seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishón and slew them there.” Ellicott Commentary 1Ki.18:40 “The ruthless slaughter of Baal’s prophets. Pulpit Commentary 1Ki.18:40 “It is true that the spirit of Elijah was not the spirit of Christianity (Lk.9:56); because our religion instructs us to leave it to Him who has said, ‘Vengeance is Mine.”
Elijah wasn’t a civil authority. Yet he made the decision to kill the false prophets without having the authorization to kill/stone false prophets (cf. De.18:20, 13:6-11). The Lord didn’t tell him to kill them. Elijah chose to kill them…with the sword. 1Ki.19:1 “He had killed all the prophets with the sword.”
1Ki.19:2-3 after slaying the prophets, Elijah fled for his life in fear. He escaped from evil queen Jezebel.
However, 900 years later John the Baptizer died by the sword, at the behest of evil queen Herodias! ref Mk.6:17-29. v.27 the king’s executioner had John “beheaded in the prison”.
Elijah, as John, eventually reaped what he’d sowed! Ga.6:7 Paul wrote, “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap”. Cause and effect. Elijah killed with the sword…John the Baptizer died by the sword. Mt.26:52 Jesus said, “All who take up the sword will perish by the sword”. What goes around, comes around. Oba.1:15 “As you have done, it will be done to you.” Ps.7:16 “His violence shall come down upon the crown of his own head.” Barnes Notes Ps.7:16 “He’d be treated as he had designed to treat others.” God is just. Karma? John reaped the payback for Elijah’s unauthorized ruthless treatment of the false prophets. Although Jezebel failed to kill Elijah, Herodias succeeded in having him/John slain.
Jesus said John the Baptizer was Elijah. Jn.1:21 but John didn’t think he was Elijah. It seems that God mercifully causes amnesia to set in before or by the time children mature. So a person (like John) isn’t tormented with guilt from any memory of his previous life when he’d committed major crimes or sins.
Elijah was considered a great prophet. In the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), Moses typified the Law and Elijah typified the Prophets…the “Law and the Prophets”. And in Lk.7:28, Jesus said there’s no greater prophet than John/(Elijah)! Mt.17:3-4, 10-13 in the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus. The representatives of the Law and the Prophets were two witnesses to Messiah Jesus’ upcoming death (Lk.9:30-31). Note that the Transfiguration occurred after John the Baptizer was beheaded (back in Mt.14:10). Elijah couldn’t have been present in the Transfiguration if John was still alive in Judea.
The commission given to John the Baptizer as “My messenger” (Mal.3:1, Is.40:3 & Mk.1:2-4) came to pass in the 1st century AD, although unconverted Jews still don’t think John was the prophesied Elijah.
Rebirth to physical life was a common belief in Bible times. Elijah was expected to personally appear on the scene. Philo Judaeus (ca 20 BC – 50 AD) wrote of the Lógos (Greek), the Word of God. Works of Philo: The Special Laws 1, p.541 “Now the image of God is the Logos [Word], by which all the world was made.” The apostle John affirmed in Jn.1:1-4, 14, all things came into being through the primordial Logos/Word who became Jesus in the flesh. Philo preceded the apostle John.
Philo also wrote in On Dreams 1:138-139, “Now of souls some descend upon the earth with a view to be bound in mortal bodies. Of these, those which are influenced by a desire for mortal life, and familiarized to it, again return to it.” According to Philo, some Jews returned to a physical life and others didn’t. (This wasn’t the false New Age belief of transmigration of souls into lower animal bodies!)
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 18:1:3-5 “Pharisees believe souls have an immortal rigor, and under the earth [cf. Paul’s Php.2:10] there will be rewards or punishments. Virtuous souls have the power to revive and live again, the vicious to be detained….The doctrine of the Sadducees is that souls die with the body…The Essenes teach immortality of souls and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for.” Pharisees & Essenes thought there was life after death. Paul had been a Pharisee.
Roman author Pliny (23–79 AD) wrote admirably of the Essenes. Biblical Archaeology Review Spring 2020, p.49 quotes Pliny. “So fruitful for them [Essenes] is the repentance which others feel for their past lives. Natural History 5:17:4.”
Jews who encountered Jesus thought He too had lived previously. Some mistakenly thought Jesus was the expected Elijah to come, or that Jesus was John the Baptizer reincarnated. Mk.6:14-16 “People were saying, ‘John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him [Jesus].’ But others were saying, ‘He is Elijah.’ When Herod heard of it, he kept saying, ‘John, who I beheaded, has risen!” Evidently Herod didn’t hold to the Sadducean doctrine of no resurrection.
Others thought Jesus was an Old Testament prophet (other than Elijah) returned to life. Jesus asked His disciples in Mt.16:13-14, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They answered Him, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the Prophets.” Some of Jesus’ countrymen thought He was Jeremiah (lived ca 650–570 BC) physically alive again. Why Jeremiah? Jeremiah had prophesied of the future Messiah (Je.23:5-6) and New Covenant (Je.31:31-ff). Both Jeremiah and Jesus were persecuted by Jewish leaders who opposed them (cf. Je.20:7-10). JFB Commentary Mt.16:14 “Jeremiah…suggested by a supposed resemblance between the ‘man of sorrows’ [Is.53:3 Messiah] and the ‘weeping prophet’ [Je.9:1, 13:17]?” Jeremiah’s book of “Lamentations” means “weeping”. So it is perhaps understandable why some would (wrongly) think Jesus & Jeremiah were the same human spirit.
Jn.9:1-3 Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus about the man born blind from birth. “His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents, but in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus then displayed the works of God by miraculously giving sight to this man.
We understand, a human embryo or fetus in the womb doesn’t commit sin. Jesus’ disciples assumed the man sinned in a past life and his blindness in this life was the payback; he was reaping what he’d sowed. Or else the man’s blindness was caused by some sin committed by his parents. Jn.9:34 Pharisees who opposed Jesus accused this man of being “born entirely in sin”. Although sin wasn’t the cause with this man, Jesus didn’t tell His disciples that a person couldn’t have sinned in a prior physical body.
Gill Exposition Jn.9:2 “The disciples asked whether this man had sinned in a pre-existent state when in another body. This notion, Josephus says, was embraced by the Pharisees.” Barnes Notes “Many of the Jews believed…that the soul of a man, in consequence of sin, might be compelled into other bodies, and be punished there.” The nature of the past life sins may not be capital crimes or wholly evil. Ellicott Commentary ties Jn.9:2 to the apocrypha book Wisdom of Solomon 8:20. “Being rather good, I came into a body undefiled” (KJV 1611 edition). He’d been more good than evil; his rebirth body had no congenital defects. (In Mt.12:42, Jesus referred to the “wisdom of Solomon” 6:1.) Jesus didn’t tell His disciples that belief in a rebirth from a mother’s womb (as Job believed, Jb.1:21) was erroneous.
Jn.5:28-29 Jesus said that from the graves there is resurrection to eternal Life (Strongs g2222, Greek) for those who did good, and resurrection to judgment for those who didn’t. Judgment involves evaluation. Ac.24:15 Paul said there shall be “a resurrection of both the just and the unjust”. Cambridge Bible Jn.5:29 “This passage and Ac.24:15 are the only direct assertions in the New Testament of a bodily resurrection of the wicked.” (also cf. Da.12:2 with Je.23:40.)
He.11:35 a resurrection to eternal Life with a spiritual body is better than resuscitation, and better than resurrection to another physical life. 1Co.15:44 that which is planted a natural physical body is raised a spiritual body. Paul is referring to the just who believed, repented, and lived by the Holy Spirit. (see “Life and Death – for Saints”.) The just were “firstfruits” (Ja.1:18, Re.14:4), rising to eternal Life. The just who sowed good works reap a spiritual body to be with the Lord.
He.9:27 all die at least once physically. cf. deaths: He.11:35, Jn.11:44, 1Ki.17:22, 2Ki.4:35. Re.20:14 a second death which terminates consciousness is indicated for the very few. (see “Gehenna (2) – Lake of Unquenched Fire”.) Yet based upon God’s principle of justice seen in De.19:21, “life for life”…there wouldn’t be a second death without a second life preceding it! To hear the name Jesus, believe, repent.
Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.1064 “It is at least conceivable that there may be a purification or transformation of all who are capable of such…and that in the end of what we call time, only that which is morally incapable of transformation, be it men or devils, shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.” (Also, some few view the lake of fire as a refiner’s fire of purification.)
So what do the scriptures reflect will be the final result when every human, BC and AD, has had ample opportunity to hear of salvation via Jesus’ sacrifice, and time to show belief and repentance from sin?
Re.5:11-14 “And every [g3956] created thing – which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, in the sea, and all [g3956] that are in them – I heard saying ‘To the One who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb [Jesus], be blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the ages of the ages. Amen.” Ellicott Commentary Re.5:13 “The whole universe joins in this grand acclaim.” Barnes Notes “Ascribing praise. All worlds seem to join in it.” JFB Commentary “The universal chorus of creation.” Every creature.
So this is total. At this time all will worship, giving honor and praise to the Lord. This is done of their own free will. 2Ti.1:10 Jesus has “abolished death”! There are none left in a hell agony, resisting God!
John envisioned in Re.21:1, 4 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist. He [God] shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death will not exist any more; or mourning or crying or pain; for the former things have ceased to exist.” There’s no cries of pain & torment from a hell-fire! Gill Exposition Re.21:4 “There will be nothing to afflict the mind.”
What great news this is in regards to our ancestors, family members, friends & loved ones who died unconverted/unsaved! Their ultimate fate isn’t eternal conscious torment in hell! The same goes for “all Israel” (not just a remnant). And for the unnamed multitudes who lived in BC times. God is so good!
Needless to say, Christians should hope that Universal Salvation for all through Jesus will eventually be a reality in the ages to come. God’s loving, impartial plan for mankind, created in His image, is greater than we’ve thought! Praise the Lord!
Bible Topic Exposition 