The incidents of Elijah's and Elisha's life are rich in typical significance. Elijah did not die in the wilderness, an angel of God fed him. Elijah continued to live and bear witness of God until it was time for him to ascend in the whirlwind.

Elijah was sustained in the wilderness, just as the Christian Church will be sustained during the period of time when God permits Antichrist to suppress the testimony of Christ.

Jesus warned those in Judea to flee when they saw the abomination of desolation—a man enthroning himself as God Almighty in the Most Holy Place of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Those who flee in obedience to the Lord will be nourished in the wilderness by the Lord. If not, why would He advise them to flee? So they would be sure to perish? If they will pray, God will watch over them so their flight from Judea will not be "in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day," for that would greatly increase their hardships (Matthew 24:20).

This passage (concerning praying that flight would not be required in the winter or on the Sabbath) teaches us that we always should turn to prayer, even in the most difficult of circumstances, so God will guide and help us in our hour of need (Psalms 46:1,2).

The Scriptural concept of fleeing is a practical message. The hour may be approaching when we Christians will have to choose between remaining in the comforts of civilization and watching our children be turned into monsters of lust and violence, or else leaving the comforts to which we have become accustomed and making a place of survival for our families in remote wilderness areas of the earth.

Fantastic? Incredible?

What shall we say, then, of the Puritans who left the comforts of the English home and hearth and struggled against the cruel bleakness of the New England countryside?

Are we better than they?

What of the five million Christians whose bodies were buried in the catacombs of Rome? Should they have remained in the comforts of the Roman cities with their children and worshiped that former Antichrist—Caesar? Were those Christians as precious in God's sight as we? Were their children as deserving of fresh air and fresh vegetables as our children?

Did they have as much right to live on the face of the earth, under the sun, moon, and stars, as we do?

Or is it true, as some claim, that God loves us more than He does them and will "rapture" us out of difficulty before He would ever allow us to be forced to flee to any kind of forest, desert, or catacomb? Are we so much more righteous, holy, and obedient than the Puritans and the saints of the Roman Empire? Are we God's "favorites" that we should be treated differently from all the other saints down through the ages?

Perhaps it is true that we have been deceived already by Antichrist because we have refused to take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

To be continued.