04/05/2017
STUDY:THE TWO ELIJAH'S.
MALACHI PREDICTED TWO ELIJAHS--JOHN THE BAPTIST AND LAST PROPHET.
JOHN WAS NOT THE LAST 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
The last prophet who wrote in the Old Testament Scriptures was Malachi. He predicted that Elijah the prophet was to come (quoted above). And because God's Word continues in the New Testament Scriptures with Matthew about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus' first advent, the majority of the Christian churches would think Malachi's prediction of the prophet Elijah must only apply to John the Baptist.
They do not see that Malachi predicted two comings of Elijah; because he said Elijah appears before the Lord (the Messiah--Jesus) comes. And since Jesus comes twice (Dan. 9:25,26), then there must be two Elijah's. That is, just before each coming Elijah is to appear and "turn" the "heart" of "fathers" and "children" to each other (Mal. 4:6) by a reformatory message. John's baptism proved he was the Elijah before Christ's first advent, who prepared many Jewish hearts by his reformatory baptisms. So the last Elijah also came before Christ's second advent, and he will prepare today many hearts of fathers and children in the SDA church by his reformatory message.
ELIJAH TO COME BEFORE THE GREAT AND DREADFUL DAY
It's important to note that Malachi said Elijah would come before the "great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. 4:5)! Does this "day" apply to John? or to the last Elijah ? or to both? To learn the answer, we must first know for whom will the day be "great"? and for whom will it be "dreadful"?--the saints or the wicked? The common belief of the Jews and Jesus' disciples was only one Elijah and one coming of the Messiah, who would sit on David's throne as King, overthrow their Roman captors, and set them free forever. They did not see that the Messiah must first come to die for the repentant sinners, and set up His spiritual kingdom for His Christian followers. Then two thousand years later He would send His antitypical Elijah to restore His literal kingdom "in" the earth (Mt. 6:10) but not "of" the world (Jn. 18:36), and then the Messiah would come the second time to take them to Heaven. But the erroneous teachings of their Pharisees led the Jewish people to believe that the "day" Malachi spoke of would be "great" for them (when the Messiah comes to set up His kingdom) and "dreadful" for the Romans (when their kingdom is overthrown by the Messiah)! Instead, the Jewish people were greatly surprised when most of them were either killed, or taken captive when Titus the Roman general attacked their city in A.D. 70 (P.K. 713:0) and completely destroyed Jerusalem.
GREAT DAY FOR WICKED AND DREADFUL DAY FOR SAINTS
Instead, from the time of John the baptist (first Elijah), the "day" that Malachi spoke of was to be "dreadful" for the Christians after the Jews crucified their Messiah; because Stephen was stoned to death, after which "there was a great persecution against the church" (Acts 8:1) by Jews and Romans. And this "dreadful" day was greatly intensified when the Devil urged his agents to persecute and kill them by the millions (GC59:3) during the "great tribulation" (Mt. 24:21) of the Dark Age period (538-1798). And so the "day" that began with John (Elijah) to prepare the saints for Christ's first advent, which continued for almost two thousand years, was "great" for the wicked who triumphed over the people of God, made it "dreadful" for the saints. But that "day" will be reversed!
