The Messiah - Part 16

The Coming of Elijah

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:5-6

John the Baptist was not Elijah but came in the spirit and power of Elijah. He was a type of Elijah in that He fulfilled the prophecy of being the one who prepares the way for the 1st coming of the Messiah. John was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart of children to
their fathers. John came to prepare the way of the Lord and to preach the baptism of repentance.

According to many bible scholars though, Elijah himself is supposed to return also before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Since the first coming of Jesus was not dreadful since He came to bring us salvation and eternal life. He came then to heal the sick, preach the gospel and give hope to a lost and dying world.

The dreadful day of the Lord has to mean the Second Coming of the Messiah. At the Second Coming, judgment comes upon those who did not repent. Judgment comes upon those who made light of or rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some even killed and persecuted those who
preached the gospel. Judgment will come upon all the world for their refusal to repent and recognize God's gift to them.

Elijah the prophet is to return just before Jesus Christ to preach and bring Israel to repentance. He will probably be accompanied by another since the book of Revelation speaks of two witnesses and the book of Zechariah speaks of two olive branches.

And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Zechariah 4:12-14

Fulfillment in Revelation

Revelation 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
11 And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
12 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

When these witnesses were killed people had themselves a celebration and even gave gifts to one another in celebration. They celebrated something similar to Christmas but instead of rejoicing in someone's birth they rejoiced in someone's death.

It is sad when we rejoice at someone's death, when bad happens to them or they experience hardship. The bible says to weep with them that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice.

Just as John preceded the advent of Jesus Christ's first coming, Elijah is to precede His second coming. God sure goes to a lot of trouble to warn, save and get people to repent. I don't think He really wants anyone to be lost. We human beings are so stubborn. He offers joy, peace, love,
salvation, eternal life, new resurrected bodies, happiness and we prefer to ignore all this and enjoy sin for a while and when we finally die our natural deaths be lost forever in hell.

Repentance has always been a way of salvation both in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament. Repentance means to change, turn around and be different. It is a change of heart, mind and soul. The life is totally reformed.

Repentance has been the cause of God changing His mind and delaying or stopping judgment. There is always hope when one repents. Jesus came to give us the Holy Spirit, the living water so that when we repent and turn to Him we will have the power to keep walking in the Spirit and not return back into a life of sin.

Before Jesus came to pay for our sins and give us God's gift of the Holy Spirit, mankind didn't have much hope in keeping himself free from sin. I believe though that those who turned to God in the Old Testament and repented of sin was saved by looking forward to the time when God would send a savior, and supreme sacrifice to pay for their sins. Now in the present time we look back to the time when the sacrifice for our sins was already done. We can now have the power of the Holy Spirit to tell others of this gift of God.

Now is the time to receive Jesus Christ and give yourself wholly to the Lord. If we wait much longer our hearts get harden by the influence of sin around us. The time of severity and judgment will come at the appointed time when there is delay no longer. When people start allowing the harm of innocent children be watchful because the judgment may be nearer than we think.

Notice that the two witnesses in the future tribulation period are different in their ministry than witnesses and apostles before them. Before the tribulation, preachers, prophets and apostles preached repentance, healed the sick, warned of judgment but did not as a rule harm anyone. These witnesses are different they are more severe. The day of grace is drawing to a close and the day of judgment is coming at the Second Coming of Christ.

His Second Coming is not going to be meek and mild like the first one. Men will have no power to kill and destroy Christ this time. We need to be ready spiritually and not be outside the safety of God's salvation when this time approaches. The true believers at this point will have gone to be
with the Lord and will return with Him at His Second Coming. There will be those that are saved during the tribulation. God will not forget those and will be with everyone of them and give them strength to endure until the end.

Some teach that there is no rapture or catching away of faithful believers to be with Christ and escape the tribulation. They teach that all living believers will go through the tribulation. I sincerely hope they are wrong but no matter which is right, we still need to be ready spiritually because
we need to have Jesus Christ living within us to make the rapture or to get through the tribulation period. The same power would be needed for either event.

I don't believe in falling out with people who do not see eye to eye on whether there is a pre-trib, mid-trib or post-trib rapture of the church. I lean toward the theory that Jesus will come first as a thief in the night to catch away His faithful believers just before the great tribulation and I hope in that teaching. All I know for certain is that He is coming and that no man knows for certain the day or the hour. Arguing about these things gets us away from the gospel of repentance and receiving the gift of eternal life, although I believe we should be discussing, searching and seeking for understanding of all these things and not avoid bible prophecy out of the fear of controversy.

We need to stay focused on getting people to Jesus and saving lost souls from an eternity in hell and stop getting sidetracked from that main goal. However, that doesn't mean that we avoid bible prophecy, on the contrary, a blessing is promised to those that read and keep the things written in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

We like to try to guess who the two witnesses or two olive branches are. Some guesses would be Elijah and Moses. Elijah and John, Elijah and Enoch. I've even heard Enoch and John. John the apostle, not John the Baptist.

Some reasoning is that it is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment. Enoch and Elijah did not die. Some believe there is no record of the death of John and that he still might be alive. It is kind of fun to search the scripture and speculate but let's not argue over this because the main point is not who they are but what message they bring. They are coming to bring one last warning to Israel and the world to repent and turn to Jesus Christ before He returns in judgment.

God allows these men to be killed but just as Christ was resurrected, they will come back alive and fear will fall upon those that witness this. This causes some to fear and give glory to God. Others will not repent and still go on to resist God and follow after evil.

Today we live in a day when some believe and others reject Jesus Christ. Some are deceived into a false religion. False religions are only counterfeits to the true way of salvation. Satan uses false religion and cults to keep people feeling religious and thinking they are right so that they miss the true way of salvation and die lost.

Some are so confused by the many religions, denominations, sects and differences of opinion. That is just what Satan wants us to be confused, so that we miss out on God's gift of salvation. Jesus is not a religion, He is the Way, the truth and the life. He is a gift of God. He is the author of
eternal life. It is not a religion that saves, it is Jesus. It is not a denomination that saves, it is Jesus. DC

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12

Messiah Index

Messiah part 17