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The Coming of Elijah
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Malachi 4:5 Behold, I
will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of
the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
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6 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.
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.
- Zechariah 4:12 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?
- 13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be?
And I said, No, my lord.
14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by
the Lord of the whole earth.
Fulfillment in Revelation
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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.
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4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks
standing before the God of the earth.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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, but 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
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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, the 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 Ghost 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
Pretribulation rapture,
that Jesus will come first as a thief in the night to catch
away His faithful believers just before the great
tribulation. He is coming for sure and 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.
Remember the promising of a blessing to all who read and
keep the words in Revelation. This promise is in Revelation
chapter 1.
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,
- 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 lets 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 they
ignore all teaching on this subject. That is
just what Satan wants us to be, So confused 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.
Messiah Index
Messiah
Part 17
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Son of Abraham
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5The
Anointed One
part 1
part 2
part 3
The Messiah's Birth
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
The Forerunner
part 1
part 2
part 3
The Son of God
part 1
part 2
His Ministry
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
Prophet & Priest
part 1
part 2
Suffering Messiah
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
Death & Resurrection
part 1
part 2
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