MALACHI 4:5-6?
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 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.”
Every serious Christian knows that the hour is desperately late that soon our beloved Lord Jesus Christ will appear to meet His Bride in the AIR (1 Thess. 4:16-17). What most people don’t know is that, even as John the Baptist forerun the first coming of our Lord, there must come a prophet having the spirit of Elijah who will forerun Christ’s second coming. Of course, even now there are many false prophets in the world, leading many astray (Matt. 24:11-24). But the same God who said there would be the false, said there would come a TRUE Prophet.
But remember Amos 3:7, “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets”. (Gen.6:13, Gen.18:17, Daniel 9:22-27)
Now, please take note of Mal 4:5: ”Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” Examine it closely and answer the following questions:
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Who is the “Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD”?
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Which day is “the great and dreadful day of the LORD”?
(Mal. 4:5, 6 This VERSE, HAVING A COMPOUND MEANING IS REFERRING TO TWO SEPARATE COMINGS OF ELIJAH).
Firstly, an angel said concerning John the Baptist (Lk.1:17), ”And he shall go before Him (Jesus) in the SPIRIT and POWER of Elias (note: Elias is the Greek word for Elijah), to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, (John was to fulfill this much of Malachi 4:6 but that was all, for the angel goes on) and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” The angel said nothing about John turning “the children’s heart to their fathers” because that part of Mal.4:6 didn’t pertain to him.
Now Jesus said John the Baptist was Elijah, that’s true (Matt.11:7-14), “for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.” But now turn to John 1:19-23: ”And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.“ That’s odd. Jesus said John was Elijah; John said he wasn’t. Does the Bible contradict itself? Not at all.
(Remember the Jews were expecting an Elijah who will forerun the coming of the Messiah that will come in Power to restore their kingdom unto them (Acts 1:6). But this will be at the end-time “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” John knowing their thoughts as a true prophet of God said, “No. I’m not that Elijah.”)
“Then said they unto him, who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.” John knowing well who he was, linked himself to scripture Isaiah 40:3, Malachi 3:1.
Again, Jesus Christ Himself split up Mla.4:5-6 as two comings of Elijah. Although Jesus had told His disciples plainly that John the Baptist was Elijah (matt.11) sometime later (Matt 17) they were still confused.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? (11) And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. (12) But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed… “Then the disciples understood that He spake (spoke) unto them of John the Baptist.” (Matt 17:10-13)
Again, examine closely verse 11, where Jesus says, Elias truly SHALL FIRST COME, (note: future tense. This Elijah had not yet come) and RESTORE ALL THINGS.
Did John the Baptist restore all things? John prepared a people for our precious Lord’s appearance, but he didn’t restore all things. But Jesus said there would come an Elijah in the future who would restore all things. Now read Acts 3:19-21, where Peter talks about Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must receive until the times of RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS.”So the Lord who we love must remain in heaven until all things are restored; and Jesus himself said Elijah would restore all things. Therefore, Elijah’s ministry is essential because if John the Baptist had not come to show us the Lamb of God that is to take away the sins of this world, nobody would have believe JESUS CHRIST to be the Son of God, for which He was even crucified. Remember the levites, the Priests, the scribes, the Jews, etc did not received Him but the people JOHN PREPARED DID. “Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus” (John 1:35-37).
In Matt.24:37-39 Jesus said,” But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Alright, how was it in the days of Noah? There was gross blindness in the people concerning the Word of God, which caused them to act wickedly. God sent one man, a prophet, with a Message, “Come into the ark and be saved”. God said that if he didn’t send Elijah in these last days, the Truth would be so watered down and messed up He would have to “smite the earth with a curse. “This Elijah’s Message will be come into CHRIST AND BE SAVED” Remember, Christ is the word, (John1:1, 14, 1John 5:7).
The Word of God has been twisted and perverted and lost down through the ages until today there are more than 1000 denominations in the world, all claiming to have the correct interpretation of the Word. But God promised the truth would be restored. This, in fact, is what the strange language of Mal.4:6 say.
The angel said John would “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.” By studying what John later did we can see he turned the hearts of the orthodox Jewish fathers’ FAITH to the new FAITH in Jesus Christ, for Christ’s followers at John’s time were but spiritual children. Those children grew spiritually and became the apostolic fathers, whom God used to build His church, and to write the New Testament.
But the churches today have strayed from that original foundation, (Eph 2:19-20) to their organizational ideas and man-made theologies until the truth lies hidden before our eyes, smothered by hundreds of philosophies and millions of opinions. This end-time Elijah will “turn the heart of the children to their fathers”, that is he will turn the heart of us,, the children of the end-time, back to the faith of our apostolic fathers, until our faith ,lives, and doctrine match theirs perfectly.
Briefly we will sketch this Elijah through the Book of Revelation. In chapter 2 and 3 Jesus Christ is dictating 7 letters to 7 Gentile churches in Asia Minor. If you note the listed conditions of each of these churches, then study church history, you’ll discover that each letter was a prophecy, for the letters in sequence correspond exactly to 6 ages the Gentile church has gone through. Today we are in the 7th or Laodicean church age Rev.3:14-22. Now notice that each church age has an angel, (Rev.1:16, 20 / 2:1, 8, 12, 18/ 3:1, 7, 14). The word angel means MESSENGER, and does not always mean a heavenly being. (Gal.4:14, Rev.22:8-9) since these are earthly Gentile churches, these are earthly angels. So each church age had an angel, or messenger, the apostle Paul being the messenger to the first or Ephesians Age. Rev.2:1 Acts 9:15; 13:46-49. Rom. 11:13; 15:15-16. GAL.1:11-12; 2:6-8; Eph 3:1-8; 2Tim. 1:11). Concerning the 7th church we read,” – And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write… (Rev 3:14a)
Jesus then severely denounces the vast, rich organizational systems of this age, saying they are poor, blind, naked and DON’T KNOW IT. In verse 20 we find Christ pushed out of his own church, making a call to the few individuals who hunger and thirst to go all the way with God
Since this 7th age is the last church age and since Elijah must restore all things before Jesus comes for His Bride- we see that the man who will have the spirit of Elijah will also be the 7th church age messenger. He will be a prophet messenger, even as John was both prophet and messenger (luke7:24-27) therefore Rev.3:14-22 will be part of this Elijah’s message
Now consider Rev.10:7 -“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets” according to this verse , the 7th church age messenger will reap up all the loose ends in our thinking. God will reveal to him the mysteries that have been hid in the Bible pages through the centuries, thus finishing the mystery of God; at least to the extent that He has declared it to the prophets. This corresponds to what the man clothed in linen told Daniel, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end” Dan 12:4a, 8:9). So the vision given Daniel must be revealed in our day.
Therefore by the grace of God, through this humble means we present to you The Vindicated Elijah, The Prophet Before The Second Coming Of Our LORD JESUS CHRIST.
(The 7th Angel/Gentile Prophet/Messenger).
William Marrion Branham
(MAL.4:5, 6, Rev10:7)
COME AND SEE. (John 1:45-46)
MYSTERIES REVEALED BY THE (MALACHI 4:5-6, REV. 10:7) PROPHET Visit Here