p. 2 | 3928-Elijah by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 3, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 47.

3928—Elijah

By Editor

Please explain Mal. 4:5, 6. A Mormon claimed that Elijah had come to them. Do you not think that Elijah will come, or has come? T.

Elijah, because of his stalwart reformation, his faithful character, his direct preaching in the power of God, has been used by Inspiration as a type of those who should come later. So he became a type of John the Baptist, and Jesus said, "And if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, that is to come." Matt. 11:14. But when John was asked by the Jews, "Art thou Elijah?" he said, "I am not." John 1:21. How, then, can we harmonize these? Luke gives us the key to the harmony in his first chapter and 17th verse: "And he [John] shall go before His [Christ's] face in the spirit and power of Elijah." That is what John was; he was simply doing the work of Elijah adapted to his own time and his own way, but with the same spirit and power. But Malachi speaks of a different time, the time just before the great day of God shall come. What, then, are we to expect? That Elijah himself will come again?—Not at all. But just the same as Elijah was a type of John the Baptist, who heralded Christ's first coming, so he was a type of that people who will herald Christ's second coming. Not that it shall be necessarily confined to one, but the very body of people that shall herald Christ's second coming are typified by the one Elijah, and also by John the Baptist. John the Baptist went to a very small people, a small kingdom. It would be impossible for one individual to do the work in the last days that Elijah did in his day. That is, it would be impossible for one individual to give warning to the whole world as Elijah did to the people of God in his day.

Jezebel, an individual, is used as a type of the great apostasy in the Christian age. See Rev. 2:20. This does not refer to one woman, but it refers to the apostate church. So Elijah is used as the type of the true remnant church of God, which keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. He will bring before the world the statutes and the judgments which God commanded to Israel. He will preach against the union of church and state just as Elijah did in the unholy union between Ahab and Jezebel. He will call the world back from idolatry to the great God who made the heavens and the earth. So it will be done in the last great messages recorded in Rev. 14:6-14. And this message is the only thing, because it is the everlasting gospel, which will turn the heart of the fathers with the children, and the heart of the children with the fathers, to the great God who made the heavens and the earth.