Mount of Transfiguration #1 Kathryn Kuhlman Transfiguation a Type of the Rapture

Turn, if you will, to the 16th chapter of Matthew. And there's a very familiar scripture there, full meaning, and yet I feel that this portion, the Word of God, has been grossly misunderstood. It's a time in the ministry of the life of Jesus. when he became very personal with his own. Perhaps he was saying to them, I'm going to have a little heart -to -heart talk with you now. And getting very confidential, he said, Whom? do men say that I am? What are they saying about me on the streets? And one spoke up and said, some say you're John the Baptist, some that you are Elijah. And still there are others who say that you are Jeremiah the prophet. Most all of them agree that you must surely be one of the prophets. And then, I believe that without even raising his voice, he continued by saying, Whom say ye that I am? And very quickly, before anyone else could answer, Simon Peter answered and said unto him, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. There was no question in Peter's mind. There was no hesitancy whatsoever. He had the answer. He knew. He understood fully. No doubt. No questioning. It was a positive... Answer to a positive question. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. He didn't say just thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. For flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. In other words, this has been spiritually revealed unto you. This has not come through much learning. This has not come through teaching. This comes through spiritual revelation. Then Jesus continues and said, I also say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He does not promise to build his church upon Peter, get this now, but upon himself. his deity, his divinity. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is built upon Christ, the very Son of the living God. He is the head of his church. And when he was talking to Peter, he did not promise to build his church upon Peter. upon a personality, but upon himself, as Peter himself is careful to tell us in 1 Peter, the second chapter. Read it, if you will, please, from the fourth to the ninth verses. But this isn't what our little heart -to -heart talk is all about. Because Jesus said on the day when Peter confessed, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, and in that same chapter, he said, Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. There are those who contend that the fulfillment of those words required the return of Jesus and the setting up of the kingdom during the lifetime of his disciples, and that therefore Because no literal kingdom was set up during the lifetime of the disciples, Jesus must have meant a spiritual kingdom, which they claim was inaugurated on the day of Pentecost and that Jesus now reigns through the church. Is this true? If not, what is the explanation of the words of Jesus? I want you to see something. Here we see the misleading character of chapter divisions in the King James Version of the Scriptures. There should be no chapter division between Matthew the 16th and the 17th chapters. This chapter division is very misleading because you cannot separate The 28th verse of the 16th chapter of Matthew from the first verse of the 17th chapter. There should be no chapter marking there whatsoever. Get this if you will, please. I hope you have your Bibles. This will mean nothing to you unless you're following me in the reading of the Word. I'll read it to you exactly as it... should be given without the chapter marking. Jesus begins with the word verily. Therefore, we know that it is something most important. Verily I. And whenever Jesus says I, he wants you to know that it comes from the highest authority in heaven and earth. There is no higher authority. There can be no questions asked. It comes straight from the very Son of the living God. Therefore, I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste the death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah. talking with him. See something for just a minute. When Jesus turned to his disciples and said, There be some standing here. Not all. And we find out later that only three were included. Peter, James, and John. He did not name them at the time. Which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. And six days later, the very thing that he was talking about came to pass. And the first word in chapter 17 begins with and. After six days. Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. Oh, this is glorious. His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Where was the glory? I'll talk about that in another little heart -to -heart talk, perhaps in a day or two. Where was the glory? On just one. Just one. He was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun. and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him. Keep in mind, Peter, James, and John recognized Moses. They had never seen him before. Yet he was standing there in bodily form, They saw him. They recognized him. They had never seen Elijah. And yet, immediately, they recognized him. They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it was Elijah. But we'll not go into that just now. But I want you to see something that's most important. In this transfiguration scene, We have a glorious fulfillment of Christ's words that there were some, only three, Peter, James, and John, of his disciples who should not taste the death until they saw the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. For the transfiguration scene was a rehearsal. of the second stage of Christ's second coming. But why was Moses standing there? Why? Moses stood upon that mount of glory, the representative of the law. Elijah there represented prophecy. Moses for the law. with its requirements, its provisions, and its shadow of sacrifice. Elijah for prophecy. Not foretelling merely, but foretelling. That glorious, wonderful gift bestowed upon various men among the ancient people and continued at intervals in unbroken succession until it ceased with Malachi. There was Moses. His presence signified that in Jesus the shadow of the law was all fulfilled and now withdrawn. And here upon the mount was the great lawgiver himself. And by his presence acknowledging that this glorified one who should presently be crucified in the name of the law, did in himself gather up all that was hinted at, suggested, included in the economy of the past. There he stood. Oh, this is wonderful. Peter, James, and John had a foreview transfiguration of the glorious coming of Christ. In that scene, Moses was a type of the first resurrected saints. Elijah, a type of those who shall be caught up without dying. And in their glory on the Holy Mount. We have a sample of the glory of the saints at the time of the rapture. Go with me for just a second to the scripture in 1 Thessalonians, the time of that glorious resurrection. In the fourth chapter, we have it. For the Lord himself... shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And there was Moses, a type of those who had died. saints of God. For the word of God said Moses died and was buried. He is a type of the saints of God that died. And when the trump shall sound, they shall be resurrected. Those dead bodies shall be resurrected. from the dead. Is that all? No. Then we, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Elijah had never tasted of death. Never. You cannot find anywhere in the Word of God. Elijah died. For as you well know, God has chosen him to be one of the two witnesses for that which is still prophecy and will be fulfilled in the future. Therefore, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Elijah was chosen to be the type He was the type of those of us who may not taste the death, but who will be caught up at the time of the rapture of the church. Now, Peter understood fully, completely, the meaning of that which he saw. And remember, these things only come by spiritual revelation. I've often wondered why Jesus just chose the three of his disciples to witness his glorious scene on the Mount of Transfiguration. Just Peter, just James, just John. I cannot give you the answer. But I believe that all three understood perfectly without any explanation exactly what they were seeing. I'm sure Peter did. For later he refers to it. 2 Peter, the first chapter, the 16th verse. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were witnesses of his majesty. No, we're not following comingly devised fables. Peter said you may feel we are a little touched. These things are just figments of our imagination, but they're not. Peter says we have proof. We saw. We were there. We saw our master as he was transfigured and transformed before our very eyes. We were witnesses. We saw Moses. We saw Elijah. We were not dreaming. If only one had seen, it might have been different. But there were three of us. We were there. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory. When there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. The same voice, Peter said, that was heard at the baptism of Jesus when he came up out of the waters of baptism. The person they did not see, but they heard the voice. They knew it was the voice of God the Father when he said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This same voice which came from heaven we heard. when we were with him in the holy mount. No, beloved, we follow not cunningly devised fables. We know in whom we have our faith, our trust, our confidence. I know what I believe. I am sure of my belief.