WHY SEND ELIJAH AGAIN? by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 22, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 34.

WHY SEND ELIJAH AGAIN?

By G.

THE last words of the Old Testament constitute a promise and an alternative: "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." Mal. 4:5, 6. In reply to the query, Why send Elijah again? we conclude that there are conditions on earth so similar to the former time of Elijah, that an earnest reform message and a heroic messenger, such as were Elijah and his message, are necessary to meet the emergency. To learn why the last messenger is likened to Elijah, and to get an understanding of what is meant by the promise we have quoted, we must revert to that which was "written for our learning."

Elijah's ministry was mainly during the days of Ahab, king of Israel. For the condition of affairs at that time we quote the record in 1 Kings 16:29-33:—

"And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him."

We read also this further record in chapter 21:26:—

"And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel."

Ahab represented the government, and Jezebel not only dictated the worship of the people, but she also dominated the king. She killed the prophets of the Lord, and sustained the prophets of Baal. There was a union of religion and the State. Of course it was a false religion, for true religion never undertakes State control, stirring up the civil power to persecute those who adhere to other forms of worship. The result of that union would have been to utterly annihilate the people of God, had not the design of the tyrants been thwarted by His providence. Elijah was protected and provided for by direct interposition of the Lord, while a hundred others were hidden in caves and fed secretly by Obadiah, the governor of the king's house. In this history we have Ahab and Jezebel standing as a type of Church and State government in after times, and Elijah especially as the type of those who should suffer its persecution.

In the Time of John the Baptist.

Coming down to the time of "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight," we have the counterpart of Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah in the persons of Herod, Herodias, and John the Baptist. Herod was the head of the government, and a Jew; Herodias was a Gentile, and a bitter opponent of the Lord's prophet and therefore of His people. She greatly "stirred up" Herod, as Jezebel did Ahab, and succeeded in putting to death the special object of her hatred. Speaking by the Spirit of prophecy, Zacharias said of John before his birth: "Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the Just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Thus the Lord's purpose was that the prophecy of Malachi concerning the coming again of Elijah should be fulfilled in John. And, so far as John was concerned, he faithfully delivered his warning to the people. But he could not fulfil the prophecy on their part. He proclaimed the coming of the Lord, and many were convicted of sin under his ministry; but in the main his message was rejected, and he became, in effect, not the Elijah of Malachi's prophecy, but a counterpart type with Elijah the Tishbite, of the people who should fulfil that work before the second advent. Jesus, after He had shown to three disciples a representation of His kingdom of glory on the mount of transfiguration, explained the position of John:—

"And His disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them." Matt. 17:10-12.

Then we must look to the days just prior to the second advent of the Lord for a complete fulfilment of the promise given through Malachi. Therefore the spirit and work represented by Ahab and Jezebel continue in the world, receiving occasional setbacks through the providence of God, as they did in their case, and in the case of Herod. It became more than ever prominent in the Dark Ages, however, when it seemed about to conquer every opposition. Of this time of persecution Jesus had said, "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Matt. 24:22.

Testimony of the Revelation.

This time, and the reason for this dire persecution, are also portrayed in the Revelation. There the history of the Christian church unto the coming of the Lord is given in seven messages to the church under various conditions experienced during different periods. The message to the church at Thyatira is understood to cover the time which is now designated as the Dark Ages—the time from the rise of the Papacy to the Reformation. The message to this church is, in part, as follows:—

"And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass: I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not." Rev. 2:18-21.

The spirit of Jezebel was allowed to permeate the church until it united with and finally was able to control the State. As Jezebel "stirred up" Ahab, and as Herodias swayed Herod, so "the church" in the Dark Ages influenced the State to persecute to the death the true people of God, who would not fall into line with Church and State religion enforced by the power of the State. The setback which this diabolical work received, and which for a time rendered it to a good degree powerless, was the Reformation. However, the tendency and eventual results of such "fornication" between Church and State, when having a comparatively free course, are described in Revelation 17, from which we quote as follows:—

"So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication; and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration ("a great wonder," R.V.)." Verses 3-6.

A Still Later View.

At the time to which this description applies especially, the dominant civil government of earth was Rome, and it was dominated by the Church of Rome. But in chapter 18 we are given a later view, which involves all nations in the meshes of Church-and-State union, and shows the inevitable results to both, through such unhallowed connection. The first five verses of this chapter read as follows:—

"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities."

"All nations" must include every nation, of whatever form or pretense, and "Babylon" is the combination of false churches that dominate these nations. By virtue of laws, decrees, and judicial decisions, the nations will be supporters of the religion of Babylon, whose spirit was typified in Jezebel. So in these last days there is the necessity and the call for the reformation, in the spirit and power of Elijah, set forth in the prophecy of Malachi.

The Testimony of Paul.

The terrible apostasy of the professed Christian church in the last days is also pointed out by the apostle Paul in his second epistle to Timothy:—

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their

own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

Incidentally it may be noted here that the injunction, "from such turn away," is equivalent to that of Rev. 18:4, "Come out of her, My people," etc. But the present necessity of a message in "the spirit and power of Elijah," for the purpose of turning the heart of the fathers unto the children, and the heart of the children unto their fathers, is peculiarly prominent. Note, "men shall be lovers of their own selves," not of their fathers or of their children. Again, they are "covetous," and covetousness estranges one's heart from every one else. Another specification is, "disobedient to parents;" another is, "without natural affection." Such being the condition of the church, or those "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof," it is not surprising to find them imbued with the spirit of Jezebel, and seeking the power of civil government to enforce a formal compliance with apostate religion. Surely the nominal church and "all nations" are ripe for the work of the antitypical Elijah—the "remnant" people of God, "which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:17), which is the "spirit of prophecy" (chapter 19:10). The striking signs of the times, in both religious and secular circles, make these things worthy of earnest consideration. G.