Elijah the Prophet by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 23, 1864

Elijah the Prophet.

By Editor

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Mal. iv, 5.

There can be no mistaking what day is meant here by the great and dreadful day of the Lord. It is the day mentioned in verse 1 of this chapter, Mal. iv, which shall burn as an oven, when all the wicked and proud shall be stubble, and be burned up both root and branch. It is the day spoken of by Zephaniah as the great day of the Lord, and described as a day of wrath, trouble, distress, wasteness, desolation, darkness and gloominess; a day when the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, and a speedy riddance made of all them that dwell therein. It is the day of which Isaiah speaks when he says that “the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire.” It is the day when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, and his ungodly enemies will pray for rocks and mountains to hide them from the presence of him that sitteth on the throne. It is the great day of the wrath of the Lamb, which fortunately or unfortunately for this seething world of wickedness, has not yet opened upon them with its terrific scenes. That day is evidently future, but—

Before the coming of that day, Elijah the prophet is to be sent. It becomes, then, a matter of importance to inquire concerning the meaning of this prophecy; for our interpretation of this will materially affect our views concerning the nearness or remoteness of the great day of the Lord. Who is meant by Elijah? Is he personally to appear? Has the prophecy been fulfilled? or is it future?

Some take the ground that the prophecy was wholly fulfilled in John the Baptist; others, and this opinion seems to be growing of late, that Elijah is personally to appear, and that his manifestation is yet future. If we mistake not, both these views are incorrect.

There are certain allusions to this prophecy in the New Testament, from which we must draw our conclusions. It was prophesied of John the Baptist, Luke i, 17, that he should go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah 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. When John came upon the stage of action, and commenced his preaching in the wilderness, the Jews asked him plainly if he was Elijah, and he as plainly answered that he was not. Jno. i, 21. And yet when He who was greater than John appeared, he told his disciples distinctly that if they would receive it John the Baptist was the Elias, or Elijah, which was to come. Matt. xi, 14.

In these statements, apparently, at first sight, contradictory, we find a key to the solution of this question. The Jews were expecting Elijah personally to appear. See Bloomfield's Greek Testament on Matt. xi, 14. And when John in answer to their question tells them that he was not Elias, he simply affirmed that he was not that prophet in the sense in which they were expecting him, that is, the same identical person.

But when Christ says that John was the Elias which was to come, he evidently speaks of him in the same sense in which he was prophesied of, namely, as one coming in the spirit and power of Elias. It is the spirit and power, then, and not the person, that fulfills the prophecy. This, it seems to us, should forever settle the question that it is not necessary that Elijah should personally appear. John affirmed expressly that he was not the personal Elijah whom they were expecting; and yet Christ says that John's mission was a fulfillment of the prophecy respecting Elijah, because, as we are compelled to conclude, he came in the spirit and power of that prophet.

But was the prophecy wholly fulfilled in John the Baptist? We answer, No; for it is more intimately connected with the great day of the Lord than was the mission of John. His work had exclusive reference to the first advent; but the prophecy must relate more especially to the second advent, which is the crowning event of the ushering in of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

The first and second advents are in many respects parallel events. Single prophecies often contemplate them both, the prophetic utterances glancing from one to the other in quick transition. Such prophecies receive a partial fulfillment in the events of the first advent, and a complete accomplishment in events connected with the second. Of such a nature we believe are some of the predictions of Malachi. See for instance, chapter iii. “Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple,” &c. Christ in Matthew xi, 10, applies this to John the Baptist, saying, “For this is he of whom it is written, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” Yet the very next verse of Malachi iii reads, But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? glancing right down from the preparation for Christ's first advent to his revelation the second time in power and glory. So with the prophecy respecting Elijah. Fulfilled primarily in the preaching of John the Baptist to prepare the people for Christ's first coming, which was itself an antecedent step looking to his second advent, we may look for its ultimate and complete fulfillment near the coming of the notable day of the Lord, in some work which will be at once both the herald and precursor of that great event. If, then, we can find a work, even if it should be now going on, which is the counterpart of the work of John the Baptist, or which bears the same relation to the second advent that his did to the first, and withal, is the same in character as the work in which the literal Elijah of old was engaged before his transition, may we not take our stand upon it, not timidly and falteringly, but boldly and firmly, as the ultimate fulfillment of this important prophecy? Assuredly we may.

The question remains, Do we find any such work being accomplished? Need we ask this question of any who have had a knowledge of the great Advent proclamation of the past twenty-four years—a proclamation brought to view in Rev. xiv, under the symbols of three angels flying through mid-heaven with important messages for the children of men, and denoting, as we understand, a body of religious teachers going through the land with the blazing light of truth, giving the announcement and warning of coming judgment? John's work was to expose the traditions and corruptions of that age, and prepare a people for the first advent of the Lord. In like manner it is the object of the work symbolized by the messages of Rev. xiv, to prepare a people for his second appearing.

Do you say the prophecy must be fulfilled by one person? We answer, Not necessarily; for the case of John has shown us that it is not the individual but the spirit and power that fulfills the prophecy; and why may not this spirit and power accompany a body of men as well as a single individual, especially if the magnitude and importance of the work demand such an increased agency?

Do you say again that the spirit and power of Elijah is a miracle-working power, and the fulfillment of the prophecy must be accompanied with such miracles as Elijah wrought? We answer, John the Baptist worked no miracles; and his mission was not a failure on this account. He preached a plain and cutting message to the people, and laid the axe to the root of the tree of their pride, errors and corruptions. The Advent message is designed to do the same thing.

In the development of the great Advent proclamation, we have now reached the third message of Rev. xiv; and here we see the striking similarity between this work, and that which Elijah was commissioned to perform. He was sent to the apostate kingdom of Israel to stand up for the honor of the true God and vindicate his name in opposition to the gross idolatry of that people. What says the third message? It comes

heralding the commandments of God and faith of Jesus, enforcing the claims of the down-trodden law of God, which the man of sin has thought to change, and vindicating its immutability and perpetuity to the honor of God's great name, thus endeavoring to restore the true worship of God, in opposition to the traditions and departures from the faith which characterize the present age.

One more point of resemblance will complete our evidence on this subject. Elijah was to be sent to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers. The reading of the Septuagint is a little peculiar here. It reads that he “shall turn the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his neighbor.” It denotes the earnestness with which a person, on receiving the truth, would seek to impart the same light to his relatives and friends. Fathers would yearn over their children with longing desires for their salvation, and children over their parents, and both over their neighbors and friends. Such has been a characteristic of this work more or less from its commencement. We are happy to see a fuller manifestation of this spirit of late. May it increase still more among us.

We say, then, that we believe that the third angel's message is now completing the fulfillment of Malachi iv, 5, 6. Hence, let none be beguiled with the fancy that Elijah is yet personally to appear, but give heed to the work already going on before their eyes.