The ‘Chariot of God’ and the ‘Children of Israel’
Demetric Muhammad
The Great Wheel which many of us see in the sky today is not so much a wheel as one may think in such terms, but rather a place made like a wheel. The like of this wheel-like plane was never seen before.
—The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” the popular Negro spiritual, was first recorded in 1909 by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The song, written sometime before 1862, is credited to Wallis Willis, a freedman of the Choctaw Nation. He is said to have drawn inspiration from the Red River (a major tributary of the Mississippi River and the geographical boundary between Texas and Oklahoma), which reminded him of the Jordan River and of the Prophet Elijah being taken to heaven by chariot.
The “Chariot of God” takes on special significance in the history of the Children of Israel as depicted in the Bible. The Bible refers to this “chariot” in the lives of Moses, Elijah and Ezekiel. In Exodus 13:21 the Lord, from what is symbolically described as “a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night,” was guiding the Children of Israel.
In Kings 2:11 the prophet Elijah escapes death and was instead taken up in a whirlwind. That this whirlwind is the famed “Chariot of God” is confirmed in Isaiah 66:15, which reads: “See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.”
The most popular of these symbolic references to the “Chariot of God” is in the book of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel it is described as a great “wheel within a wheel.” As Ezekiel describes his vision, he describes it as being associated with the wheel, a throne and a man seated on that throne. This is consistent with what the Holy Qur’an describes in Surah 7:54: “Surely your Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six periods, and He is established on the Throne of Power.”
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote several articles where he dealt with Biblical eschatology under the subject heading “The Battle In The Sky.” These articles detail a key component in what is often referred to as “Liberation Theology,” the belief that God will come to deliver His people from their enemies in a vehicle known as the Chariot of God. In the Old Testament the English word chariot was called “rakab” in Hebrew, which means a “vehicle or chariot,” as well as “chariotry or cavalry; and an upper (or ‘riding’) millstone,” which is a thick disc-shaped object used for grinding, and also could be used as a weapon (Judges 9:53; 2 Samuel 11:21).
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that his teacher Master W. Fard Muhammad taught him of the reality of Ezekiel’s wheel. In Message To The Blackman in America, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad writes:
The Great Wheel which many of us see in the sky today is not so much a wheel as one may think in such terms, but rather a place made like a wheel. The like of this wheel-like plane was never seen before….The similar Ezekiel’s wheel is a masterpiece of mechanics. Maybe I should not say the wheel is similar to Ezekiel’s vision of a wheel, but that Ezekiel’s vision has become a reality. His vision of the wheel included hints on the Great Wisdom of Almighty God (Allah); that really He is the Maker of the universe, and reveals just where and how the decisive battle would take place (in the sky)….The present wheel-shaped plane known as the Mother of Planes, is one-half mile by a half mile and is the largest mechanical man-made object in the sky.
It is my understanding that on Feb. 25, a film will debut on what has been dubbed “The Battle of Los Angeles.” It will debut on the 69th anniversary of this very significant event that involved a giant “UFO” over the city of Los Angeles on February 25, 1942. This event is important because it involved actual military combat with a “UFO,” and there are photographs and actual eyewitness accounts. Many will view this film with a future extra-terrestrial attack in mind; however, it is clear that the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad describes these planes as being from our own planet Earth. Truth be told, Mr. Muhammad is the authority on this subject. This is evident when you consider that the first “UFO sightings” of the modern era take place during the 1940s, which is more than 10 years after Mr. Muhammad had been taught the true knowledge of these planes by his teacher Master W. Fard Muhammad. The Battle of Los Angeles took place in 1942 at a time of the widely known Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day Celebration of the anniversary of the birth of the Nation of Islam’s founder, Master W. Fard Muhammad, which is celebrated on or near February 26 each year.
In an unusual and key event in our Nation’s history, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad was ordered to be arrested by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in May of 1942. We wonder if President Roosevelt was not taking Mr. Muhammad as a prisoner of war when he had him arrested nearly 3 months after the “Battle of Los Angeles.”
We also see the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as pioneering in this area, because the terms “UFO” and “flying saucer” actually don’t enter into the American vernacular until after the widely reported sighting by pilot and businessman Kenneth Arnold in 1947. Mr. Arnold’s sighting was 17 years after the coming of Master Fard Muhammad, who revealed that the Mother Wheel made its maiden voyage in the year 1929.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has reminded the world of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s teachings and given us a deeper understanding of this profound body of wisdom. The Minister has been criticized for asserting that the Black Man and Woman of America are in fact the prophetic Children of Israel. But I offer that what we have in the way of the teachings on the Mother Wheel or Mother Plane, so-called UFO’s, and the body of supporting evidence that includes the testimony of U.S. Presidents is one of the most powerful proofs of Minister Farrakhan’s claim.
The “Sweet Chariot of God” coming to do battle against the enemies of the Children of Israel, as we have shown, is a strong theme in how the Children of Israel would be delivered. Minister Farrakhan has the knowledge of the fulfillment of those prophecies. Scripture and the teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad reveal that actually it will be Black Men piloting the Great Mother of Planes that will execute divine judgment against the enemies of the Black Man and Woman of America in a final battle in the sky. On Saturday, February 26, 2011, there will be a plenary session titled “The Truth About the Existence of Unidentified Flying Objects,” and renowned international scientists and researchers will bring compelling, extraordinary evidence that bears witness to what we in the Nation of Islam have been taught.