Are you asking why Elijah was translated, but not Moses and David? This is a challenging question. Here are a couple of perspectives.

1. Translation is not the only way to heaven. For example, in the last generation, I am aware of the following groups:

(a) martyrs

(b) those laid to rest

(c) 144,000

(d) those who will be as though they had never been

(e) the wicked

Suppose that I am out in the world, and come to God and am converted late in the loud cry period. God knows my heart and whether I am safe to save.

However, that's not the same as saying that I have developed a righteous character and have learned to depend fully on God, such that I can make it through the great time of trouble.

2. In the case of David, one of the issues was that he was Israel's designated leader, and a very public figure. His problem was not just a momentary failure, but something longer term.

It's interesting to consider this quote:



It wasn't just the sin with Bathsheba, but other things like polygamy.

3. Moses was also a public figure, who had talked with God face to face (Deuteronomy 34:10). Note what EGW says about this situation:



Another point here is that Moses was nominally a very spiritually mature man, who would be held to a high standard.

4. What about Elijah? It appears to that he had no official role in Israel, at least until some point after Carmel. He was neither a king nor a priest.

EGW says that by his failure he cut short his lifework (Ed 150). I used to think that his failure eventually became public knowledge, but it's not clear that this was the case.

If you do the chronology, it also appears that Elijah remained on earth for an extended period of time after Carmel, say 15 years.

What I do know is that God wanted to use him further in overthrowing Baal worship, and this wasn't possible:



The whole subject of "translation righteousness" is a hard one to tie down.

I believe the sealing process involves an evaluation of character, which presumably is the same as "measuring the temple".

There's an EGW quote that talks about judgment and measuring:

Very interesting. I wasn't aware of that: Not able to completely finish his life work and translated early because of his failure! Quite a lesson isn't it? A failure to trust, even one that appears to have no effect on others still alway has it's consequences.

I rather see from reading that EGW statement in full in Ed 151.1 that God could no longer work mightily through Elijah because of that “failure of Faith”. So Elisha had to be raised up to continue that work in his place. Like Moses before him, the bar of faith was raised quite high for him given the great working of God through him. Yet, in Divine fairness, the rewards for having done that demanding work, and at a “99%” faithfulness rate, were also correspondingly quite high/great, and God is indeed just and faithful.



The key here, as alway is to ascertain that the message is Biblical. Elijah’s contra-idolatry message clearly was, as corroborated by many statements of God in the Law. That is why the burden of anyone who claims to have a message from God is to make it was transparently Biblically proven as possible. Elijah had done so. Indeed, as stated in this post (Search for “oathmaking”), even his call for no rain was itself also fully Biblical. (See e.g., 1 Kgs 8:35; 2 Chr 7:13, 14; Isa 5:5-7; Jer 3:1-3; cf 14:1-12ff; cf. Zech 14:9ff; 16-19).

I have looked into this a little more, and have an additional thought or two.

If you look at the measuring passages in the Bible, it seems like they are mostly corporate rather than individual.

I take the notion of measuring a church to (a) be an evaluation of how that church's beliefs are distinct from others, and true to divine light, and (b) how well that church measures up to its stated beliefs.

Here are a couple of quotes that illustrate these points:





I think the idea of measuring can apply at any time in history. For example, if you were one of the Waldenses, you would be concerned with whether your church was free from the gross spiritual errors of the day.

In this sense the sealing of Ezekiel 9:4-6 can apply at any time, in that God's people are always being tested to see if they will embrace truth and reject error.

This general application does not preclude a more specific application to the investigative judgment and the end times.

I have thought about this some more. In the case of Moses and David, one further way of saying why they weren't translated is because they gave occasion for the enemies of God to blaspheme (2 Samuel 12:14).

Elijah's case is quite a bit more elusive.

If you look at the chronology, he still operated as a prophet for some time after Carmel. For example, we know that he outlasted Ahab and Ahaziah, and was the one who called fire down on the groups of fifty soldiers (2 Kings 1).

At an apparently even later point, he wrote a letter to the king of Judah (2 Chronicles 21:12, PK 213).

So in exactly what way was Elijah's work cut short? One thought that occurs to me is that he had a specific weakness -- he was afraid of Jezebel, and would have known about all the prophets that were killed at her instigation.

So perhaps God could not use him in the specific work of overthrowing Jezebel, and Jehu was used instead (2 Kings 9).

In modern terms, there might be a case where a person goes out and does a great work for God, and then collapses when a specific threat is made against him.

Yes, Rev 11 talking about measuring seems to be taking an accounting of things. And while that has been done throughout history, and can end at any time for any individual, the chapter is between the 6th and 7th angels sounding.

It also talks about 42 months which translates to 1260 days. Matching the end time in Daniel 12.

The question becomes, does the judgment end when the 1260 days start, or sometime within it? If not before, probably very shortly after it begins as the beast from the pit will make war against them. They will have made their choices prior to that.

Which means, that since they are prophesying, there is hope some will listen and therefore, for those others, their judgment has not happened. Each will make a conscience and explicit choice.

Revelation 11:1 seems to be talking both about corporate and individual judgment.

This dovetails with some other lines of evidence in the Bible. The principles seem to be (a) a church can be judged independently from its members, and (b) people are judged based on the light they've had.

If we look at passages like Daniel 9:24-27, Matthew 23:38, and Acts 13:46, it seems clear that Israel closed its corporate probation with God at the time of the cross and the stoning of Stephen. It was judged as a corporate entity.

This did not preclude individual Jews from later conversion to Christianity, with Paul as a notable example.

With reference to people being judged based on the light they've had, some verses that make this point include Ezekiel 9:6 and 1 Peter 4:17.

How do we apply these principles to the end time?

Based on what I've seen in EGW, it appears that the SDA Church is judged before the world. I am thinking of quotes like these:





It appears that the church is judged fairly early in the process, and goes through the shaking time. The net result of this process is a group of fully-committed people who can go out and give the loud cry in the power of the latter rain.

Another aspect of this is what EGW calls the "closing work for the church" (3T 266), which apparently occurs before the loud cry.

The point of all this is that the church and its members need to be on track with God themselves if they're going to proclaim the final warning to the world.

There are many more passages in scripture and the SOP that warn the church that it is judged first.

For a long time I believed that revival and reformation among Adventists had to come first before the little time of trouble. I see now that that was a dangerous viewpoint and not consistent with prophecy. Historically, persecution has been the means of the revival and purification of the church. Prophetically we're told that the end time church will overcome him, the devil by "the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev 12:11,12.

The church is purified and revived during troubled times.

A "short time" is much less than 1260 years. The primary application of this warning is to the end-time church. It's telling us that at the end God's people will overcome when they have rock solid faith that doesn't flinch in the face of death.

When you actually understand what is Biblically, Spiritually “fully” involved in the (present day Eschatological) Mark of the Beast, you can easily and tangibly see that SDA will by the vast majority fail this “time of trouble” development (cf. EW 85.2) because they here prefer to trample upon the Sabbatical principles of God in order to “make a living/profit” within their espoused snaringly unbiblical and evil Capitalistic system, for of course, in the present state of world affairs, if one does not go along with the system, then they are automatically bound to suffer economic hardship even unto permitted death. So I clearly do not see this Church and its collective membership taken the due stand for God and His truth in this pivotal end time issue. Indeed borne out of various forms and degrees of covetousness, pointedly in Western Countries, they have fully fallen for this special and targeted ensnaring deception. EW 266.1-268.2.

You all, as usual/type-ical, can, even childishly (=Pharisaically (Acts 7:57 = 7:51; Matt 13:9, 15 = Zec 7:8-14; Jer 5:20-31)), summarily/defaultly wholly ignore this key issue, not even, tellingly enough, being able to Biblically refute it, but that does not make it go away or become a non-(Present)-truth. As EGW says (cf. this post (#134670)):