Prophet Elias and Very Dark Days

hey everyone god bless you and a very uh special joyous feast of the holy prophet elias the tishbite today notice my wonderful new mug this is the monk's rock up in kodiak alaska great mug i have a reflection today on the holy prophet elias and very bad days and why the prophet elias is such an important witness to us an example for us christians living in 2021. before i do that i want to tell you that the lectures from our pnp conference dedicated to the mother of god in our lives which took place uh june 4th through 6th of this year have been edited and will be available uh in our pnp store soon if not today in the next day or so and those of you who joined us by livestream for that conference we'll have that in your box as well as long as you have your pnp account so what a man what a man the holy prophet elias is this great gift of god to the world and especially to his people prophet elias lived in very very difficult days very very sad and grievous days in which apostasy was just at a great scale such a great scale in fact that the prophet elias thought that he was the only faithful believer left at a very low moment of his life he thought that they had torn down the altars of god they had killed all the prophets and abandoned the lord and that he alone was left and the lord had to correct him that in fact there were seven thousand faithful believers who had not bowed the kneel the knee to ball and worship false gods but anyway you look at it really bad days uh if there were three million israelites let's say and seven thousand only had kept themselves from apostasy we see the fail failure of faith on catastrophic levels just outrageous proportions of infidelity compared to loving god and being faithful to him anyone who reads the account in the kings of the life of the prophet elias is absolutely struck by what uh an otherworldly man this holy prophet is and what a type of a spirit-filled christian he is this man was able to be so close to god he was such a zealot for standing before god's face he was so dedicated to prayer he was so radiant in his commitment to purity and utter chastity and of course all of this before death had been destroyed and before sin had been atoned for and before the holy spirit had been given and the devils had been smashed truly a remarkable person his character was known especially for his great zeal he had potent prayers was able to raise the dead and burned with a fiery zeal for god in fact fire appears numerous times in the life of the prophet elias fire at his beck and called descended twice and burned up 50 soldiers who were coming to arrest him um fire at his request came from heaven and consumed his sacrifice on the top of mount carmel fire fell from heaven in a chariot in order to pick up the prophet elias and to carry him who knows where only god knows and and the prophet elias what a man what what a man i'd like to just point out a couple things one for your encouragement is is a beautiful thought with regards to the end of the prophet elias's earthly life uh of course he didn't die he's one of two figures in the old covenant the holy and righteous enoch together with the prophet elias that apparently did not die exactly where um these holy men are and if in fact they are the two witnesses that will return as spoken by the apocalypse by saint john in the apocalypse before the return of christ to fight against the antichrist i can't say for sure although there are fathers who think that and say that at the end of his life as he was preparing to be taken up by god uh his dream to escape the pollution of the faithless world even of god's faithless people and to be near god the lord was going to grant this wish and so the holy prophet elias asked his spiritual son elisha to accompany him and promised elisha that his request for a double portion of the spirit would be given if he saw him ascend into heaven and in fact the holy prophet elisha did chariots descended from heaven and picked up uh the holy prophet elias these chariots of fire and carried him off into the heavens and the prophet elisha witnessed this glorious ascent and cried out my father my father we still call our spiritual fathers like this my father my father the chariots of israel and their horsemen and as the prophet elias was being taken up he cast his mantle and the holy prophet elijah picked up his mantle and accepted the the gift of the spirit and accepted the leadership uh amongst the prophets to be the great prophet in succession to his spiritual father the prophet elias and immediately took the prophet elias elias's mantle and smack the jordan he had been taken up just outside of jericho smack the jordan and said where is the god of elias and in fact the jordan parted in everyone who was watching all the sons of the prophets who were watching recognized that the spirit of elias was now upon elijah saint romanos the magnificent theological melodist and pornographer of the church around 500 wrote a beautiful conduction on the prophet elias commenting especially on uh of note i think is his interpretation of this being this taking up of elias he says this is a a foreshadowing of the ascension of christ after his resurrection when 40 days after the resurrection our lord in his glorified humanity ascended and up to the right hand of the father and sat down at the right hand of god enthroning humanity at on the throne of god on the throne of the universe saint romanus romano says this was a picture of that this was a foreshadowing that and the throwing down of the mantle of the prophet elias as he was going up is a symbol of the casting forth of the the gift of the holy spirit that christ sent as a enthronement gift as a love gift from heaven once he was enthroned at the right hand of the father this is particularly important because if if we had to define the greatness of the prophet elias we would say that he was a spirit bearer he was one who had the holy spirit in such great measure as a gift from god for his own piety and his own calling now why do i say that uh the holy prophet elias is of such import today what can christians in 2021 gather especially from the example of the holy prophet elias of course all of the virtues are modeled in elias's life and he is a proto-monastic he's been someone that has been adored by christians for for 2000 years as a model of of devoted prayer of other worldliness of fiery zeal uh of courage i particularly want to read to you a a comment that the holy apostle james makes about the prophet elias at the end of his epistle in chapter 5 of saint james's epistle because he focuses on the power of saint elias's prayers and encourages us to keep the powerful prayer of elias in our mind not to think that he was able to stop the heavens from for three and a half years from giving rain because he was of some other nature than us no he was a human being a sinner like us by nature but sought god as an example and dedicated himself to the greatest and most creative of human efforts which is prayer and as a result became mighty before god and was able to be a true man saying to the heavens stop like joshua had once said to the son stop and it stopped for a day the prophet elias had that influence he assumed the position of glorified adam in in paradise was able to be the head of creation but there's more to it more to his relevance than just being a model of every virtue listen to saint james he says is any among you sick call for the priests of the church and they are to pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who was sick and the lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins they will be forgiven therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you might be healed the effectu effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish month so here we're thinking about how a person's piety can give power give give potency to his prayer and immediately who does saint james think of after saying that he says elias was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months and then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit at his prayer the heavens shut at his prayer the heavens opened and listen to this as a background to what james had in mind when he was talking about the powerful prayer of the prophet elias it wasn't shown just in bringing uh rain to the earth and of course this is also symbolic of the gift of the holy spirit but it was effective in turning people back to god people who had lost their minds people who had wandered into a distant land people who had gone off the narrow road and had sold their inheritance for a bowl of pottage just think of the prophet elias when he was on the top of mount carmel and how he was able by his prayers to provide a context in which the true god was shown to be the true god and the false gods and those who worshipped and served baal and the ashara were shown to be false prophets and what did the prophet elias do he addressed the people and he called the people who had been led astray into idolatry led astray into godlessness he brought them back to the lord god he looked at them and honestly said how long will you hesitate between two opinions if god is god serve him if baal is god serve him and then he proved before them that god is god and the false gods are just devils and what did the people do they fell down and worshiped the lord and said the lord he is god the lord he is god all by the witness of the life of the prophet elias and this is why i think that saint james finishes this section talking about elias in the power of prayer by saying this my brethren if any among you strays from the truth just like israel did at the time of the prophet elias and one turns him back let him know that he who turns a sinner from the air of his ways will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins what a marvelous text that is who more than the prophet elias was able to turn thousands and thousands all israel had been gathered and he brought them back to the lord god by his courage by his prayer by his call to repentance in the same way today it is very important for us his witness is relevant to us because so many have strayed so many have left calling upon the lord god who have sold their inheritance as christians for nothing literally the nuns for nothing and have wandered into distant lands and have been tricked by false gods and all sorts of earthly corrupt pleasures and the prophet elias is showing us that it is a great matter to work hard to bring back our neighbors our brothers and sisters who have fallen away our neighbors who don't know the lord god but are elsewhere far from him no he has a great relevance the prophet elias has a great relevance to us today brothers and sisters what an incredible virtue it is what an incredible virtue it is to turn back to god someone who has fallen away to take make the effort in love and to take the risk to try to help someone become reconnected to god to invite someone into your home to invite them back to church to speak with them about their souls and the importance of loving god if we do this we'll save souls from death and will cover a multitude of sins by the way not just their own sins not just their own sins but our sins are you looking for a way where you can cover over your sins who isn't who isn't right we confess them and we trust god's forgiveness but we also have this means to labor for the salvation of our neighbor in so doing saving their souls from death and covering our own sins the multitude of them that exist god be with you and a very blessed feast day of the holy prophet elias patristic nectar publications is pleased to present a new 11 lecture series by father josiah trenham entitled the gospel revealed an exposition of saint paul's epistle to the romans this most famous of all saint paul's letters is a majestic proclamation of the christian gospel a gospel described as the power of god revealed from heaven for the salvation of all who believe the great apostle sets forth the dire need of all human beings for god's saving work in jesus christ as well as the majestic fruits that attend faith in the lives of christians here in 16 chapters saint paul expounds many themes that have captured the christian imagination for 20 centuries now available at patristicnector.org

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Keywords: Prophet Elias, Kings, Holy Prophet, Holy Fire, Chariots of Fire, Jesus ChristJesus Christ, Father Josiah Trenham, Father Josiah, jesus christ, Patristic Nectar Publications, Trenham, Orthodox Christian, christian vlogger, orthodox church, holy orthodoxy, ancient christianity, orthodox christianity, Theology, Bible study, Christian podcast, Josiah Trenham podcast, bible study

Id: ohCK7NvoGsc

Length: 16min 30sec (990 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 21 2021