This verse along with the story of Moses and Elijah with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration leads people to believe that Elijah was transported to heaven alive, that is, he never died. He then later reappeared on the mount to Jesus, Peter, James, and John.

First of all, if Elijah never died, but was caught up to heaven alive...uhm....how is this an argument for continued disembodied consciousness after death? He didn't die! He wasn't dead! Elijah's experience is therefore not relevant to the question of continued existence after death.
 

The fact of the matter is, I believe, that Elijah did NOT go to heaven alive, and that he DID die - but he died YEARS after the incident of the chariots and whirlwind. Those who hold the position that Elijah didn't die must maintain it in spite of Hebrews 9:27:

 

• And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment...

 

The way some get around this is they say that Elijah appears once again as one of the two witnesses in Revelation 11, where he keeps his appointment with death. The problem with this is the identification of the other witness. It is on the basis of the signs performed by them that the two witnesses are usually identified. Shutting up the sky so that it doesn't rain is indicative of Elijah, and it is on this basis that this witness is so identified. Again, even if this is the case, nothing is said about a continued consciousness-after-death. One could speculate that Elijah was kept alive in order to meet his appointment with death here in Revelation 11. He was dead (asleep) for 3 days, and then was resurrected and caught up to heaven.  

 

The other witness is usually identified as Moses because of the power over the waters, to turn them to blood, and to bring down plagues. The problem is that scripture is very clear that Moses died, yet here he is, dying again, contrary to Hebrews 9:27 where it says that it is appointed for men to die ONCE before the judgment. Because of this, there is a school of thought that the other witness is Enoch. According to Hebrews 11:5:

 

• By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was found no more because God had taken him.

 

I deal with Enoch in another page but for now I will accept for the sake of argument the understanding that Enoch did not die. If the second witness is held to be Enoch and not Moses, then the validity of using the signs that these witnesses perform as a means of identifying them is severely weakened. There are no signs associated with Enoch. Therefore we cannot say that the first witness is Elijah simply because he performs the same sign that Elijah is known for. We are now identifying the two witnesses, not on the basis of the signs that they perform, but on the basis that those are the two specific men who didn't die. But that is begging-the-question. It is exactly the issue of Elijah's death that is in dispute. Secondly, there is nothing in the text of Revelation that specifies one of them does one sign and the other one does the other sign. It says,

 

• THESE have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of THEIR prophesying; and THEY have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as THEY desire.

 

Furthermore, if Enoch didn't die, then his experience is also irrelevant to the question of continued existence after death.
 

So, as far as I'm concerned, comparing Revelation to 2 Kings 2:11 and/or the Mount of Transfiguration is a very weak argument. We don't REALLY understand Revelation, do we? I don't REALLY know who the two witnesses are - or were - but I'm pretty sure they're not LITERALLY Elijah and Moses or Enoch, for reasons that I hope to make clear.

 

Those who believe Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind without dying also have these statements to reconcile:

 

• No one has ascended into heaven...(John3:13)

• Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

 

The word translated, "heaven" would be transliterated as, "sky". Elijah was caught up into the sky by a whirlwind. In fact, Elijah apparently had a reputation for being "caught away", or translated from one spot to another on the earth. Read 1 Kings 18:7-16. Notice verse 12 where Obadiah tells Elijah,

 

• After I leave you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you to some place I do not know, and when I go to inform Ahab and he does not find you, he will have me killed.

 

Most people are familiar with Philip being translated in this way:
 

• ...the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him...But Philip found himself at Azotus...(Acts 8:39-40)

 

In 2 Chronicles 21:10-13 Jehoram receives a letter from Elijah telling him that the LORD will strike his people with a great plague. Verse 12 says:

 

• He (Jehoram) received a letter from the prophet Elijah with this message...

 

Consider:
 

1. Elijah taken to heaven in a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11). The year is 852 BC.

2. Elisha takes over the duties of Elijah in the reign of Jehoshaphat. (2 Kings 3:10,11).,

3. Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat becomes king of Judah in 848 BC.

4. In 842 BC, the year before he died of dysentery, and 10 years after Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind, Jehoram receives a letter from Elijah, the prophet. (2 Chron. 21:1, 9-12).
    

King Jehoram was the son of King Jehoshaphat. Elijah "went up to heaven" during the rein of Jehoshaphat, yet Jehoram receives a letter from Elijah 10 years AFTER that incident. The obvious conclusion is that Elijah was still alive and on earth AFTER he was supposedly caught up to heaven. The only other possibility that I can think of is that Elijah wrote the letter before he went to heaven, and had it delivered at the proper time. If that is the case it is VERY curious that a miracle of foresight like that would go unreported. Or maybe Elijah returned from heaven to write the letter. Maybe the letter was written in heaven and somehow delivered to Jehoram. It quickly gets ridiculous, doesn't it? Since there is no hint of any of these vain speculations in the text, why hold to an interpretation that creates conflicts with other scriptures when there is an interpretation that DOESN'T create conflicts?
 

As far as I know, there is no record or account of Elijah's death. Do we conclude from this that Elijah didn't die? Not in light of scripture that says, "it is appointed for men to die once" and, "death came to all men".
 

Is there any evidence that the Jews thought Elijah had ascended to heaven? His fellow prophets didn't think of this. They thought that he might have been dropped on some mountain or in some valley (2 Kings 2:16). Fifty athletes searched for him for 3 days but didn't find him (2 Kings 2:17). Obviously they thought he had been transported to somewhere else on earth. Eight centuries later, writing about 94AD, Josephus says, "Elijah disappeared from men and no one knows to this day of his end" (Antiquities ix. 2:2)
 

Conclusion: Elijah was caught up into the sky by a whirlwind and transported from one place to another. HE NEVER LEFT THE EARTHLY REALM! 10 years after this incident, he wrote a letter to Jehoram. There is no more data given beyond this. We must assume, based on Heb 9:27, John 3:13, and Romans 5:12, as well as Hebrews 11:32-39, that at some point in time after he wrote the letter to Jehoram he died and sleeps in the earth, awaiting the resurrection even though "no one knows to this day of his end".