if the saints are dead, like mary and joseph, moses Elijah, how is it that during the transfiguration of Jesus

Question

Moses and Elijah both appeared and were talking to one another? Looks like Jesus is God of the living not the dead, which means dead as in hell.

Answer 1

very good point!!!

how can they rationalize that according to their decided beliefs, I don't know. as a Catholic, I am waiting for these protestants' answer to this question.

Answer 2

first of all God has never appointed anyone to be a Saint.. The catholics appoint saints. As far as Moses and Elijah, you need to get your facts straight.. it was not Elijah.. it was Elias and Moses. the appearance of the two points out two things.. One there is life after death.. ( Moses died a physical death and Elias was transfigured yet both appeared together) Two.. (There is truth to the statement that after death, you keep your identity).. and yes Jesus is the God of the living and companion of the spiritural soul. As for Joseph and Mary.. They are not saints..but among the spiritual living in a much better place..

Answer 3

Yes, the saints never die. Jesus told the pharisees when they were arguing with him over the resurrection that God IS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He didn't say God WAS the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they were still living. Jesus said that God is a God of the living, not the dead to the sadducees because they did not believe in life after death. prayer to the saints. what did God say immedietly after Peter suggested building the altars? verse 5 - While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" Jesus didn't say "not yet". I think Elijah and Moses are the two prophets in revelations and I can only guess what they were talking to the Lord about. They might have discussed the things Jesus was going to suffer or the end times. We really don't know because the bible doesn't say.

Answer 4

Now Mary and Joseph were both alive and Mary even outlived Jesus if you had bothered to read the Gospels. The Crucifixion was over 1970 years ago so she died over 19 centuries ago roughly. She is now in heaven maybe having tea with Moses's wife. :-) At death the soul goes to its destination and the body become fertilizer or scavenger food.

Jesus is the son of the God that created all Earth, heaven, the universe and the souls of men. After death there are 2 destinations depending on if you pass this test we call life. The souls that are cast into hell are forever separated from God's love.

Here this is a best selling book I hear and it was a link awhile ago.
23 minutes
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=648563944666093503


I prefer this option of post-life myself. Don Piper was declared dead for 90 minutes and here is what he saw and some of the story of his recovery etc..
http://www.90minutesinheaven.com/
http://www.haventoday.com/prevbroadcast/1367
http://www.haventoday.com/prevbroadcast/1368

Todd

Answer 5

Jesus said God is the God of the living and not of the dead. So all those people that were saints in the Old Testament were alive during the time when Jesus was here on this earth and even until now in our time.

Answer 6

Some protestants believe every Christian is a Saint - myself included. That makes me a living saint.

Physical death doesn't mean 'cease to exist' - it means the spirit / soul and body are separated.

I believe one can also be physically dead yet spiritually alive. I consider spiritual death to be a soul or spirit that has been eperated from God.

Your question, as I see it, is: how were physical, living men able to see and interact with souls or spirits of men who's bodies were buried, yet who's souls were still alive.

Answer 7

No one is dead yet, they may have had the 1st death(death of the Fleshly body), but as far as the 2nd death (Lake of Fire) no one goes into that till the end of the Lords day. Rev 20.

Those who have died are just in a different dimension with GOD.

2Cr 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

Answer 8

Moses and Elijah were given by God the power as Gods accrding to the bible.They died as humans but their spirit are living. Both are righteous men not to go to hell but in heaven.

Answer 9

No analysis of the "two witnesses" would be complete without mentioning Moses and Elijah. The visions of these two prophets were themselves symbolic when they appeared at Jesus' transfiguration"! That event pointed forward to the time when Christ would sit in glory on the throne of God's Kingdom, which Jehovah's Witnesses believe occurred late in 1914 (see references below).

(Matthew 17:2,3) [Jesus] was transfigured before them, and his face shone as the sun, and his outer garments became brilliant as the light. And, look! there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, conversing with him.

(Matthew 25:31) When the Son of man arrives in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne


Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the symbolic "two witnesses" of Revelation 11:3,4 represents Jehovah's Witnesses themselves between 1914 and 1919. Anointed Christians among Jehovah's Witnesses preached despite terrible persecution for three and half years, their work seemed "dead" for a brief period, and then their preaching work re-activated larger than before!


The Scriptural passage which introduces the "two witnesses" mentions the "prophesying" or preaching and teaching work they perform for 42 months, and connects the "two witnesses" with lampstands and olive trees.

(Revelation 11:2-4) [The nations] will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. 3 And I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days dressed in sackcloth.” 4 These are symbolized by the two olive trees and the two lampstands and are standing before the Lord of the earth.


Jehovah's Witnesses note strikingly similar language from the bible book of Zechariah (compare with Rev 11:2-4):

(Zechariah 4:1-3,11-14) And the angel who was speaking with me ...said to me: "What are you seeing?” So I said: "I have seen, and, look! there is a lampstand... And there are two olive trees alongside it... And I proceeded to answer and say to him: "What do these two olive trees on the right side of the lampstand and on its left side mean?" ...Accordingly he said: "These are the two anointed ones who are standing alongside the Lord of the whole earth."

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that all (or most) Witnesses in the first few decades of their modern history were "anointed"; that is, these expected a heavenly resurrection at their deaths.


Jehovah's Witnesses also believe that the 42 months is a literal length of time, because the time period is repeated in another unit of measure as "1260 days" (42 months of 30 days). Jehovah's Witnesses believe that this same 42 month period of time is discussed as 'three and half years' in Daniel 7:25. (Note that 3.5 years = 42 months = 1260 days.)

(Daniel 7:25) [The "small horn"] will speak even words against the Most High, and he will harass continually the holy ones themselves of the Supreme One. And he will intend to change times and law, and [the holy ones] will be given into [the "small horn's"] hand for a time, and times and half a time [or literally, "one year and two years and half a year"]


The book of Daniel seems to use that "small horn" to represent the Anglo-American world power which has dominated the world scene since World War I (See "Pay Attention to Daniel's Prophecy" (page 141), published by Jehovah's Witnesses).
http://watchtower.co.uk/publications/publications_available.htm
https://watch002.securesites.net/contact/submit.htm
How did these secular governments "harass continually the holy ones" (Dan 7:25)?

As WWI heated up, persecution against Jehovah's Witnesses accelerated because the preaching work tormented the secular governments. The 42 months (Rev 11:2) seems to have begun in December 1914 when the Witnesses were moved to chose as their 1915 year-text "Are ye able to drink of my cup - Matt 20:22, KJV". Over the next three and half years and amidst the war hysteria, anointed Christians among Jehovah's Witnesses were imprisoned and even tortured in Canada, Britain, and the United States. Witness publications were banned, and even in the United States certain Witness publications were deemed "illegal". The 42 months of preaching in the face of persecution seems to have culminated in June 1918 when the U.S. sentenced the president and directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society to long prison terms. With the Witness "leaders" imprisoned, political entities around the world thought Jehovah's Witnesses were dead.

(Revelation 11:7-10) And when [the two witnesses] have finished their witnessing, the wild beast [representing secular governments] kill them. And their corpses will be on the broad way... nations will look at their corpses for three and a half days, and they do not let their corpses be laid in a tomb. 10 ...these two prophets tormented those


These "two witnesses" must have been "dead" long enough to stink, and to seem really dead to the observations of their enemies and other onlookers (compare John 11:39). So too all of Christendom assumed Jehovah's Witnesses were gone permanently when their "leaders" were imprisoned. Yet what does history tell us?

(Revelation 11:11) And after the three and a half days spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet

On March 25, 1919 the president, officers, and directors of the Watch Tower Society were released from federal prison. By September 1919, Jehovah's Witnesses were again publicizing the hypocrisy of Christendom and the superiority of God's Kingdom over human governments. Jehovah's Witnesses, the "two witnesses" of Revelation 11, were again alive in preaching the Kingdom message despite the feelings of "the wild beast" and false religion (see Kingdom News #37).
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/kn37/

Learn more:
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/20040401/
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/dg/index.htm?article=article_09.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_10.htm
http://watchtower.co.uk/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_02.htm

Answer 10

Anything can happen in a "vision".