Elijah and Elisha Part 1 of 2 Get Ready Church!

*****(From a past Bible Study -good for reference)

excerpts from a teaching by Gordon Magee

ELIJAH

"The one thing God desires today is Churches of God exactly similar to the Churches of God in which Paul preached."

Elijah is a type and shadow of the original apostolic church whereas Elisha stands for the restored apostolic church in the last days...

The remarkable parallels between Elijah and the church we read about in the New Testament:

9 Points:

1. Elijah appears in an hour of Declination (1 Kings 17:1)

The nation of Israel was in deplorable spiritual condition when Elijah began his ministry. Ahab was on the throne and continually did evil with and by Jezebel, his wicked queen. They patronized Baal worship and it was flourishing being served by over 400 false prophets. It was a very sad hour. Similarily , in the early NT church ...the Jewish people in the time of our Lord and his apostles were really far from God. They did have the temple but didn't Jesus call it a 'Den of Thieves'? Even the sacred office of the high priest was bought and sold as a political prize. The Sadducees believed neither in angels, spirit or resurrection. Even the Pharisees while practicing outward forms of godliness really denied the power....the early church like Elijah made it's appearance in a time of apostasy.

2. Elijah's ministry opened with a resurrection miracle (1 Kings 17:8-24)

the climatic miracle of raising the dead actually occurred right in the beginning of Elijah's ministry when he restored to life the son of the women who befriended him. Likewise the early church made her debut with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 5:33 Figuratively speaking, the tomb of the Christ was the womb of the church(Christ is the church)

3.Elijah was hidden for 3 1/2 years, then revealed. (James 5:17-18)

In 1 Kings 17:3 , Elijah is commanded of God to hid himself. the 18th chapter verse 1 the commandment is reversed and he is told "Go shew thyself". Something similar could be for the early church....After the period of relative obscurity of the infant church with the 3 1/2 years of Jesus earthly ministry and then came Pentecost when the birthday and church was fully revealed...In the 4 gospels we read of Christ and then in the book of Acts we read of the body of Christ, the church. And so like Elijah, coming forth from 3 1/2 years of obscurity , the church was suddenly and dramatically projected into the foreground

4. Elijah's unveiling brought the rain (1 Kings 18:1)

God said to Elijah, "Go ,shew thyself....and I will send rain upon the earth." Just as Elijah's unveiling brought the natural rain in his day, so the unveiling of the church at Pentecost brought supernatural rain in it's day(Acts 2:16) Peter preached that the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit was a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy of the latter rain(Joel 2:28)

5.Elijah's prayers brought a cloud the size of a man's hand (1Kings 18:42-46)

Just as Elijah's prayed until there arose up a cloud out of the sea like a man's hand(5 fingers) and brought a great rain , so the early church prayed (Acts1:14) until the 5 fold ministry of Ephesians 4:11 came to pass. Elijah's cloud the size of a man's hand no doubt answers to the 1. apostles 2. prophets 3. evangelists 4. pastors 5. teachers who spearheaded the great Pentecostal revivals of the first century.

6.Elijah loses ground to the evil religious woman (1 Kings 19)

After a great victory on Mt Carmel when 400 false prophets of Baal were slain, Jezebel sent a letter to Elijah threatening to kill Elijah within 24 hours. Elijah arose in FEAR and FLED into the wilderness, and lost ground to this apostate religious queen. This parallels the experience of the early church. In Revelations 2:20 the risen Lord warns the church (body) about the foul activities of the spiritual Jezebel and in the 17th chapter the harlot church...the dales Jezebel church fills the picture(This also is in the last days which has risen up) In the early church it lost ground to the apostate roman harlot

7.Elijah's belief once held by many, becomes the faith of a remnant only

Notice the language in 1 Kings 18:39 , all the people said "Jehovah , He is the God: Jehovah. He is the God." the supernatural fire streaking down from heaven in answer to Elijah's prayer consumed the sacrifice, the water, the stones and the dust and convinced the Israelites that Baal worship was false worship and that Elijah's God , Jehovah was the only true God. But only a remnant of the 7,000 remained true to Jehovah (1 Kings 19:18). Again, this parallels the experience of the early church. they met with phenomenal success in evangelizing their generation, and multitudes became obedient to the faith. But the apostles were not deceived. they were made to know by the Holy Spirit that there would be a great falling away and a great departing from the faith which had its fulfillment in the Roman apostasy. (2 Thessalonians 2:3 ; 1 Timothy 4:1-3) ( This is also speaking to the end time state of the church as well as we are witnessing today!)

8.Elijah's enemies prosper (1 Kings 20)

This chapter contains the remarkable account of how evil King Ahab who persecuted Elijah prospered in his military encounters with the Syrian Ben Hadad. The early church had this same experience when their spiritual foes prevailed over the truth by the forces of apostasy

Matthew 16:18 is a much misunderstood verse. Jesus did say, "upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it", but what did He mean? Did He mean as the Roman theologians assert that the church would be immune to apostasy and overthrow? By no means! Because this is exactly what happened to the apostles church!(and happening again) And thus we had the dark ages. What then did Jesus mean? the word hell in this connection is "hades", which means "grave". "Gehenna" in other verses means "the lake of fire"

Jesus was(and is) promising to His church that the gates of the grave would not prevail against it and praise God , they never shall! The elect church shall burst the gates of the grave and come forth triumphantly at the sound of the last trump.(1 Thess 4:15-18, 1 Cor 15:51-57 and Isaiah 38:10.

9. Elijah prophesies the doom of Ahab and Jezebel for martyring Naboth

Naboth was a godly Israelite. He had an inheritance which he refused to sell to covetous Ahab. Jezebel trumped up a false charge of blasphemy against the godly Naboth and had him stoned to death. Naboth was a martyr. Elijah came on the scene and under the anointing of the Holy Spirit prophesied the judgement of Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel. "Dogs shall lick thy blood eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel".

This is a type and shadow with the early church...the apostolic fathers in the faith refused to sell the truth and the false church (spiritual Jezebel) falsely accused them of blasphemy and gave them a martyrs death. The spirit of prophecy in the early apostles also predicted the doom, judgement and downfall of the future antichrist and harlot church just as Elijah had done to Ahab and Jezebel before them. (2 Thess 2 and Rev 17-18)

LOOK for PART 2 in the next entry: ELISHA(last day church) is CALLED!