I was minding my own business and beginning my day as I often do, reading the Days of Praise devotional from ICR (Institute for Creation Research). I like ICR because as a kid, I read “The Genesis Flood” by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris. Morris founded ICR. This book put me on the path to belief in a literal six-day creation instead of the evolution I was being taught in public school.
My only gripe with ICR is that they will sometimes twist Scripture in an effort to undergird their Premillennial Dispensational presuppositions. Today is such an example. How someone can take the plain meaning of Scripture and butcher it so badly is inexcusable to me. Especially, when they have built their whole organization on the idea of taking the Bible literally; at least until it gets in the way of their presuppositions. Ironically, attacking the presuppositions of others is part of what ICR does when they battle evolutionists. Sadly, they call the kettle black a little too much as you will see shortly.
Today’s Days of Praise topic was:
And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.”
Luke 9:30–31
This verse is part of the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to a high mountain where Moses and Elijah appear and speak with Jesus. The voice of the Father is heard here as well.
Analysis of the Event
While not directly the subject of my blog today, here are a few comments on this passage.
First, geography in the Bible is important. As Michael Heiser and others of like mind point out, the ministry of Jesus is as much about combatting Principalities and Powers as it is rebuking the Jewish religious leaders and proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Just a few verses prior to the Transfiguration, Jesus said the gates of Hell won’t prevail against His Kingdom. Jesus said this while standing in front of the Gates of Hell, a pagan shrine dedicated to the god Pan. Then he and the three disciples climb Mt. Hermon, the holy mountain of Bashan, to have the Transfiguration episode.
Mount Hermon is also much higher than Tabor (8,500 feet vs. 1,843 feet), which would fit better with the description of a “high mountain” by Mark (and in Matt 17:1). Some scholars still hold to the Tabor identification, but many have come to agree that the close proximity of Caesarea Philippi to Mount Hermon and the symbolic-religious associations that relationship entails make Mount Hermon the logical choice for the transfiguration.
The imagery is striking. We’ve seen already that the Jewish tradition about the descent of the Watchers, the sons of God of Genesis 6:1–4, informed the writings of Peter and Jude. Now we see that the transfiguration of Jesus takes place on the same location identified by that tradition. Jesus picks Mount Hermon to reveal to Peter, James, and John exactly who he is—the embodied glory-essence of God, the divine Name made visible by incarnation. The meaning is just as transparent: I’m putting the hostile powers of the unseen world on notice. I’ve come to earth to take back what is mine. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Discovering the Supernatural World of the Bible, Expanded Edition (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2025), 348.
Details in the [Transfiguration] narrative seem to fit better with Mount Hermon, located on the northern edge of Bashan—a region associated in Jesus’ day with demonic activity. Based on this connection, Jesus’ revelation of His true identity in the Transfiguration can be understood as an advance against evil: The King has arrived to defeat the powers of darkness and claim what belongs to Him. The eschatological conquest of Bashan is described in Psa 68, a passage quoted by Paul in Eph 4:8 in connection with the Church.
John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016)
My second observation is the word “decease” in the KJV or “departure” in NIV is the Greek word “Exodus” (ἔξοδος). Jesus would be going on an Exodus! Wow, I don’t recall hearing that said in church before.
But it gets better because, my third observation is that this exodus is coupled with the Greek word “mello” (μέλλω). So, the exodus of Jesus was an event that he was about to accomplish. The KJV, “he should,” in the phrase he should accomplish, masks the immediacy of the event. Another KJV paraphrase?
ICR Puts Their Thumb on the Scale
This is a mysterious passage. Peter, James, and John watched in awe as Christ was transfigured before them as He had promised (Mark 9:2). But how could Moses and Elijah be there? Moses’ body had been buried by God in an unknown tomb in Moab some 1,500 years before, and no resurrection had yet taken place (Deuteronomy 34:5-6; 1 Corinthians 15:22-23). Elijah had been taken alive into heaven in a chariot of fire over 900 years previously (2 Kings 2:11).
How could Moses and Elijah be there?
This is the wrong question to ask but ICR’s answer is the following:
But when He [Jesus] does return in glory, there will be two groups of people sharing His glory with Him: Moses represented the resurrected saints and Elijah the “raptured” saints.
Wow. This is so wrong on so many levels.
First, Moses represents the Law. Elijah represents the Prophets. Jesus repeatedly says the Law and Prophets testify to him so why is that anything novel for me to claim?
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Matthew 5:17–18.
44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luke24:44.
23 And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.
Acts 28:23.
Lest you think I am alone in my thinking, Logos Software yields the following:
> why are Moses and Elijah at Transfiguration
Moses and Elijah appear at the transfiguration to authenticate Jesus’s messianic identity and demonstrate his continuity with Israel’s redemptive history. They function as representatives of the Law and the Prophets, pointing to Jesus as the messianic Son.[1] This pairing carries profound symbolic weight: Moses had experienced a mountaintop encounter at Sinai where his face shone, and served as a prototype of the coming prophet[2], while Elijah held eschatological significance in Jewish thought as a figure associated with the end times and the Messiah’s precursor.[2]
Beyond their covenantal roles, Moses and Elijah embody a deeper spiritual reality. Both men had longed to see God during their earthly ministries, and their appearance at the transfiguration allows them to witness the eternally begotten Son.[1] Remarkably, Moses finally enters the promised land he was forbidden to inhabit in life, and sees not merely the land but Immanuel himself.[1] Mount Sinai provided the geographical intersection of their ministries—the only place both had gone—where each witnessed a theophany on the mountain.[3] The transfiguration thus echoes this pattern, positioning Jesus within the continuum of God’s self-revelation.
Moses and Elijah demonstrate how Jesus completes the story: under the old covenant they were servants, but under the new covenant Jesus is the master—the prophet, priest, and king Israel awaited.[1] Their presence draws attention to Jesus’s place in continuing God’s redemptive work from the Exodus through the eschatological future, and underscores his superiority over even these revered figures of Israel’s past.[2]
[1] Patrick Schreiner, The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2024), 87–88.
[2] Walter L. Liefeld, “Luke,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 926–927.
[3] Benjamin A. Foreman, “The Geographical Significance of the Transfiguration,” in Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels, ed. Barry J. Beitzel and Kristopher A. Lyle, Lexham Geographic Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), 306–307.
So back to ICR.
How could Moses and Elijah be there? ICR’s original question. Well, the Bible never gives us an answer. It states a fact and expects us to believe it.
Peter, James, and John were there because under Old Testament law, valid testimony required two or three witnesses that attested to the same set of facts. These disciples were sworn to secrecy until a later date which followed the exodus of Jesus.
9 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.
Matthew 17:9.
Folks, ICR has really gone out on a limb which can’t support the weight of their argument. There is zero reference anywhere in this passage about the ideas expressed in I Thessalonians 4:16-17 concerning those that “sleep” or are alive. Again, there is no such thing as “The Rapture” in Scripture; unless you presuppose its existence.
Thus, the claim that Moses represented the resurrected saints and Elijah the “raptured” saints is so novel that nobody has any basis to believe it. It is definitely not supported by the text or the historic understanding of the Transfiguration. Such an interpretation is manufactured in an attempt to lend credibility to the biblical presuppositions of Premillennial Dispensationalism.
I Just Had to Look in Scofield’s Notes: Big Mistake
Just for fun, I looked up the Transfiguration in my Scofield Reference Bible. This Premillennial nonsense is not in Luke’s account of the Transfiguration but in footnotes in Matthew’s version of the Transfiguration event (Matthew 17:2 & 10).
None of Scofield’s notes for the Transfiguration event in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, mention anything about the Law and the Prophets as it relates to the presence of Moses and Elijah.
However, Scofield mentions another bit of theological crap. In his comments on Matthew 17:10 he states:
(1) Christ confirms the specific and still unfulfilled prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6: “Elijah comes and will restore all things.” Here, as in Malachi, the prediction fulfilled in John the Baptist, and that yet to be fulfilled in Elijah are kept distinct.
The New Testament, and Jesus in particular, say that John the Baptist was Elijah that was to come.
10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? 11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. 12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
Matthew 17:10–13.
Scofield winks at that and then, essentially claims that Jesus was wrong and despite the assurances of Jesus, Elijah will literally return in physical form to do some future tasks that John was not able to do. Without explicitly saying it, I guess he expects Elijah and Moses to be the two witnesses in Revelation 11:3-12.
Folks, people don’t typically come back from the afterlife. Jesus clearly states that John the Baptist fulfills the prophecy because he came in the spirit of Elijah, the Bible knows nothing of reincarnation.
Also, does anybody but me have a problem with Moses, having died 4,000 years ago and counting, be required to take on human flesh again so that he can die once again during the Great Tribulation. Moses has already been in Sheol from his death until Christ’s Resurrection, and then he gets a spiritual body and then his eternal life is undone so he can come to earth and die again. Wow. What a horrible punishment; especially for a very righteous man. Scofield is a sadistic S.O.B. for expecting such a fate for Moses. Then again, he is Ok with killing 2/3 of the Jews on the planet so what’s one more dead Jewish guy?
Scofield’s whole claim is based on one distortion. John the Baptist was asked if he was Elijah. John said, “No.” John was John, not the reincarnation of Elijah. Thus, Scofield once again taking symbolic language literally, makes the assertion that Elijah never came as prophesied.
Again, Jesus said that John was the Elijah that was prophesied.
11 And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? 12 And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. 13 But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him. Mark 9:11–13.
Lest you think I’m playing fast and loose with the text, let’s go to yet another passage.
13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. 14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. 15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. 17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Luke 1:13–17.
This passage closes the case. Scofield’s insistence that Elijah literally return to Earth so he too can be killed during the Great Tribulation is unsubstantiated crap.
Again, Moses and Elijah are never named in Revelation chapter 11, but a search for the name “Elijah” in my handy Logos Software brings up the passage anyway. Proof that some folks think this is a thing. Ridiculous! (I’ll have more on this in a future post.)
Not Scofield Bible Notes
My other Bible has the following note on Matthew 17:3
Moses and Elijah
Since the Law and the Prophets testify to Jesus, Moses the lawgiver, and Elijah, one of the greatest prophets of Israel, are here privileged to appear with Jesus. According to Luke 9:31 they discussed Jesus’ coming death.
New Geneva Study Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995.
Conclusion
The Transfiguration is about authenticating Jesus’ message and verifying that he is the promised Messiah. Both the Law and Prophets—again two witnesses—validate the authenticity of his claim. God the Father appears to further validate the claim. It is a preview of Christ’s enthronement in the kingdom of God.
The idea that Moses and Elijah appearing at the Transfiguration is about “The Rapture” is pure fiction and very laughable. The further claim, that either Elijah, Moses, or both will literally return to planet Earth during the Great Tribulation, for the express purpose of dying in Jerusalem, is also nonsense and lacking in biblical warrant. I intend to take up the hoopla about Moses, Elijah, and the Two Witnesses in a future blog post.
Taking symbols literally just makes an ass out of people that we hope are otherwise intelligent. Taking a passage literally should mean in accordance with its type of literature, not literally in a wooden, ChatGPT, AI sort of way. Following Scofield’s notes inevitably leads people into the ditch.