Objection:
When Christ was transfigured, there appeared with Him on the mount “Moses and Elias talking with him.” (See Matthew 17:3). The fact that Moses was there proves that man is an immortal soul, for Moses died and was buried at the time of the Exodus.
Answer:
There are two ways to view this transfiguration incident: as a vision or as a literal event. If we view it as a vision, then the objection before us is pointless, for, in vision, a prophet may have presented to him a picture of men and events without either the men or the events being at that moment actually before him. But suppose we view the incident as literal, which we believe it was. In that case, the objection is equally pointless, for the transfiguration narrative says nothing about an immaterial spirit or soul, called Moses, hovering beside Christ. Instead, we read that Christ was present, and beside Him, “Moses and Elias.” We know that Christ was real because “the Word was made flesh.” (See John 1:1-3, 14, 18). We know that Elias was translated bodily to heaven (See 2 Kings 2:1-11). Therefore we may rightly presume that he was real. And there is nothing in the account to suggest that Moses was any less real. We repeat, for it is of the essence of the question before us, that the account does not say that Moses’ spirit was here, but that Moses was.
Further, the disciples most evidently must have considered Moses to be as truly real as the other two, for Peter wished to build three tabernacles, “one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.” (See Matthew 17:4). Tabernacles are not made for immaterial spirits.
In his well-known Bible commentary, Adam Clarke, a Methodist scholar and a believer in the immortal soul doctrine, makes this clear comment on Matthew 17:3:
“Elijah came from heaven in the same body which he had upon earth, for he was translated, and did not see death, 2 Kings 2:11. And the body of Moses was probably raised again, as a pledge of the resurrection; and as Christ is to come to judge the quick and the dead, for we shall not all die, but all shall be changed, 1Corinthians 15:51, he probably gave the full representation of this in the person of Moses, who died, and was thus raised to life, (or appeared now as he shall appear when raised from the dead in the last day), and in the person of Elijah, who never tasted death. Both their bodies exhibit the same appearance, to show that the bodies of glorified saints are the same, whether the person had been translated, or whether he had died.”
Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible
The very presence of Moses on the mount of transfiguration, which Clarke explains in terms of Moses’ resurrection, may help us to understand the real meaning of the somewhat obscure passage in Jude. “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” Jude 1:9.
The transfiguration record provides support, not for the doctrine of immortal souls, freed from the shell of a body, but for the doctrine of the resurrection. Jesus said to His disciples, “There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” (See Matthew 16:28). Well, all the disciples died, so what gives? Jesus is no liar! Six days later, He took three of His disciples into a high mountain apart and was transfigured before them. (See Matthew 17:1-2). Christ shined with the same glory that He will return with when He comes to reward the righteous with resurrection, represented by Moses, and will translate those faithful who live to see Him come as He did with Elijah. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The transfiguration event was a miniature model of the coming of Christ, the resurrection, and the translation of the righteous.
