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3673 — Elijah

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 27, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 9.

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3673 — Elijah

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Who is Elijah, spoken of in Mal. 4:5? The late Dr. Dowie, in Zion City, claimed that he was. Will it be some man, or was it Christ?
W. L. H. and E. F.
The Elijah predicted in Malachi is both an individual and a class. The fulfilment of the prophecy in an individual was met in John the Baptist. Jesus, evidently referring to this prophecy, told the Jews, while mentioning John the Baptist, "If ye will receive it, this is Elijah, which was for to come." Matt. 11:14. And the angel said of John the Baptist before he was born that he was to go before Christ "in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children," etc. Luke 1:17. That is, Elijah in his work was a type of John the Baptist, in bearing a message to an apostate people, to a king who had wandered from God to the world, to a king who had married contrary to God's express instruction. This was true in the case of both Elijah and John, with the plea that sinners should turn to God with repentance and reformation of life. And yet John the Baptist tells us himself, as recorded in John 1:21, "I am not" Elijah; that is, he was not Elijah in person; he was the antitype, however, of Elijah the prophet to that one nation. But that nation is a type of God's professed people in the last days, and John the Baptist and Elijah are also types of messengers to God's professed people in the last days. The same characteristics of apostasy, of Baal- or sun-worship, of utter disregard of God's law, are manifest in these last days, just as they were in the days of Elijah the prophet, just as they were in the days of John the Baptist; and God's last reform message will be carried forward "in the spirit and power of Elijah" just the same as it was in the days of John the Baptist, and those who bear that message to the world will be the antitype of Elijah for the last days, but like John the Baptist they will not be boasting that they are Elijah. They will simply be content to be the voice of God through His prophets, in declaring the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ.