Who Is Coming, The Spirit Of Elijah Or Elijah Himself?
Question : Will just the spirit of Elijah or Elijah himself will come very soon in our end time according to Scriptures?
Answer : The Jewish people of 2000 years ago were expecting to see the Old Testament Prophet Elijah literally, physically descend from heaven as God promised them through the Prophet Malachi around 450 B.C. saying, " 5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 6 And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6). This they were expecting before Messiah would come to deliver them from the bondage of evil.
According to the Old Testament book of II Kings chapter 2, Elijah the Prophet had ascended "into heaven" in a "chariot of fire", in this same way they were expecting him to come and announce the coming of the Messiah. But as the New Testament says, "14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one." (1 Cor 2:14-15), they were not spiritual enough to understand the right interpretation of God's timetable of his blueprint for the salvation of humanity.
Because these Jewish people were fleshly expecting a political kingdom to be set up by the Messiah as they were under Roman rule and oppression, they completely missed that God was going to send the Messiah the first time for the people of Israel and for the Holy City of Jerusalem, "...To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy [in heaven (Heb 9:12)]." (Dan 9:24). With their natural mind they could not understand the spiritual plan of God which He had to free people from their sins and also bless the whole world spiritually if the Jews would reject the offer of the suffering Messiah (Matt 21:42-44; 23:34-39; Rom 11:20-33). Only when the Jews will accept Him as the Messiah who have suffered for their sins on the Cross, then Jesus will appear in His Second Coming to the earth to rescue them from the imminent destruction of the nation of Israel from Antichrist and the nations of the world at time of Armageddon (Zech 12:10-11; Rev 19:19-21).
The spiritual people who expected the things of God to happen in God's own way understood and saw the Messiah as a baby and praised God for seeing salvation, in the same way, also Zacharias understood how Elijah's power will come upon Israel through his little boy John the Baptist whom God gave to them to make him the greatest prophet who will welcome Messiah to Israel through his baptism (Luke 1:13-17, 46-55, 67-80; 3:21-22). To both Simeon a just and devout man and Anna a prophetess, God promised that they will see the little baby Messiah and exactly according to His promise they saw him and were satisfied (Luke 2:25-38). These people were spiritual enough to understand the truth from the Spirit and were not fleshly to misunderstand and miss God's ways in their generation.
Before the time John the Baptist was conceived in his mother's womb, an angel of the Lord visited Zacharias his father and told him about the prophetic future of his baby by saying, "...15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He will also go before Him 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.”" (Luke 1:15-17). From the above Scriptures we know that John the Baptist was the one who had come to turn "the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers" so that they all could turn to accept the wisdom of the just and be prepared for the Messiah's coming. During the first coming of Jesus, thus John the Baptist in the spirit and power of Elijah did the job of Elijah to turn the people of God towards the Lord (Matt 3:1-12; Luke 3:1-20).
God always has spiritual fulfillment and also literal fulfillment for all His Scriptures. First the Spiritual and then the literal fulfillment is the order of God's execution (1 Cor 15:46). So in the first coming of Jesus, the spiritual fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy has already taken place, but the literal fulfillment of it will also happen in the very near future in which Elijah the prophet who had gone in to heaven will again come alive to this present earth to warn the people of the earth against accepting the false Messiah of Antichrist, but to wait for the true Messiah Jesus who will come to rescue them from this false impostor of evil. At that time whoever will try to destroy Prophet Elijah and Prophet Enoch of the Old Testament (Jude 14-15), they will command "Fire" against all their enemies and a supernatural fire of heaven will immediately come and consume them all (Rev 11:3-6). They will stand at the entrance of the third temple which will be built soon and will bring the judgment of God on the unbelieving world, they will demonstrate their ministry for three and half years after which they will die being overcome and killed by the beast, and will get resurrected after three and half days and will return back to heaven (Rev 11:1-2, 7-13). These two prophets will blow the prophetic horn for repentance of all humans, to make them fear God and turn them around to believe the Messiah because the final war of the Messiah will be at hand at that time in which Anti-Messiah and all his supporters will be killed (Joel 2:1; Rev 8:1-6; 9:20-21; Matt 24:12). After this event literally Jesus will come to defeat all His enemies and rule on earth for a thousand years (Rev 16:12-15; 19:11-21; 20:4).
Jesus agreed with the same truth we discussed above. The four closest disciples of Jesus who were Peter, James, John and his brother Andrew were taken by Jesus to a high mountain later at the end of His ministry, in which they saw Jesus' transfiguration as the Son of God and also saw Elijah and Moses literally appearing and talking with Jesus about his departure from earth to heaven which was going to happen very soon through His death on the Cross for their sins, all these things they saw in a vision and understood that Jesus was God their Messiah on earth. Immediately while coming down from the mountain, their natural mind being confused with what their spiritual mind saw, asked about the mysterious theological question of Elijah that was still unsolved at that time because all the Scribes who were the most brilliant theologians of their times were still saying that Elijah must come first and then only Messiah can ever come, thus rejecting the belief of people that Jesus was the Messiah of all (Matt 17:1-10).
"11 Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. 12 But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist." (Matt 17:11-13). In the above verses one of the greatest truth of all time about the coming of Elijah has been revealed by Jesus. When Jesus said, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things", he did agree with what the Scribes were telling but placed this event in the future of his Second Coming. But when Jesus continued saying, "But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.", he was emphasizing that this was his first coming so already Elijah has come spiritually in the form of John the Baptist who came in the "spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17) and he was killed by evil people to make a way for Himself to die for the sins of the world and bring everlasting righteousness to all humans (John 1:29, 36-37; Matt 3:14-17). Once He explained this truth they "understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist."
As we are living in the end of time, we should understand that as Jesus is going to come for His bride the Church and want to rapture us all back to His and ours Father's mansions in the heavenly city of New Jerusalem (John 14:2-3; 1 Thess 1:10; Heb 11:16), once again the spirit and the power of Elijah will come upon the Church spiritually to revive and turn it towards the Lord Jesus its Messiah before the rapture takes place. Also this truth was confirmed by John the Baptist himself who told that Jesus the bridegroom must increase in the desire of the bride of His which is the Church and he as a personality must decrease before their eyes (John 3:29-30). Now that the shell of John the Baptist's body is no more who is the Elijah to come (Matt 11:14), he who is the least in the kingdom of heaven will operate in a greater capacity than him to violently take the kingdom of God by force which suffers violence from the days of John the Baptist who is the spiritual Elijah who opened up the "spirit and power of Elijah" to turn people towards Jesus until the time of rapture of the Church in which the Spirit without measure will be withdrawn because literal Elijah immediately will appear literally in Jerusalem after the rapture of the Church (Matt 11:11-12; John 3:34; John 20:21).
So both the spirit and power of Elijah will be upon the Church in its zenith to turn people to Jesus before the rapture takes place in these end of end times and also Elijah himself will literally come very soon to Jerusalem once the Church is raptured with Jesus in our end time according to Scriptures. Both are right and will take place very soon.
Much Blessings...
Answer : The Jewish people of 2000 years ago were expecting to see the Old Testament Prophet Elijah literally, physically descend from heaven as God promised them through the Prophet Malachi around 450 B.C. saying, " 5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 6 And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6). This they were expecting before Messiah would come to deliver them from the bondage of evil.
According to the Old Testament book of II Kings chapter 2, Elijah the Prophet had ascended "into heaven" in a "chariot of fire", in this same way they were expecting him to come and announce the coming of the Messiah. But as the New Testament says, "14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one." (1 Cor 2:14-15), they were not spiritual enough to understand the right interpretation of God's timetable of his blueprint for the salvation of humanity.
Because these Jewish people were fleshly expecting a political kingdom to be set up by the Messiah as they were under Roman rule and oppression, they completely missed that God was going to send the Messiah the first time for the people of Israel and for the Holy City of Jerusalem, "...To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy [in heaven (Heb 9:12)]." (Dan 9:24). With their natural mind they could not understand the spiritual plan of God which He had to free people from their sins and also bless the whole world spiritually if the Jews would reject the offer of the suffering Messiah (Matt 21:42-44; 23:34-39; Rom 11:20-33). Only when the Jews will accept Him as the Messiah who have suffered for their sins on the Cross, then Jesus will appear in His Second Coming to the earth to rescue them from the imminent destruction of the nation of Israel from Antichrist and the nations of the world at time of Armageddon (Zech 12:10-11; Rev 19:19-21).
The spiritual people who expected the things of God to happen in God's own way understood and saw the Messiah as a baby and praised God for seeing salvation, in the same way, also Zacharias understood how Elijah's power will come upon Israel through his little boy John the Baptist whom God gave to them to make him the greatest prophet who will welcome Messiah to Israel through his baptism (Luke 1:13-17, 46-55, 67-80; 3:21-22). To both Simeon a just and devout man and Anna a prophetess, God promised that they will see the little baby Messiah and exactly according to His promise they saw him and were satisfied (Luke 2:25-38). These people were spiritual enough to understand the truth from the Spirit and were not fleshly to misunderstand and miss God's ways in their generation.
Before the time John the Baptist was conceived in his mother's womb, an angel of the Lord visited Zacharias his father and told him about the prophetic future of his baby by saying, "...15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He will also go before Him 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.”" (Luke 1:15-17). From the above Scriptures we know that John the Baptist was the one who had come to turn "the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers" so that they all could turn to accept the wisdom of the just and be prepared for the Messiah's coming. During the first coming of Jesus, thus John the Baptist in the spirit and power of Elijah did the job of Elijah to turn the people of God towards the Lord (Matt 3:1-12; Luke 3:1-20).
God always has spiritual fulfillment and also literal fulfillment for all His Scriptures. First the Spiritual and then the literal fulfillment is the order of God's execution (1 Cor 15:46). So in the first coming of Jesus, the spiritual fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy has already taken place, but the literal fulfillment of it will also happen in the very near future in which Elijah the prophet who had gone in to heaven will again come alive to this present earth to warn the people of the earth against accepting the false Messiah of Antichrist, but to wait for the true Messiah Jesus who will come to rescue them from this false impostor of evil. At that time whoever will try to destroy Prophet Elijah and Prophet Enoch of the Old Testament (Jude 14-15), they will command "Fire" against all their enemies and a supernatural fire of heaven will immediately come and consume them all (Rev 11:3-6). They will stand at the entrance of the third temple which will be built soon and will bring the judgment of God on the unbelieving world, they will demonstrate their ministry for three and half years after which they will die being overcome and killed by the beast, and will get resurrected after three and half days and will return back to heaven (Rev 11:1-2, 7-13). These two prophets will blow the prophetic horn for repentance of all humans, to make them fear God and turn them around to believe the Messiah because the final war of the Messiah will be at hand at that time in which Anti-Messiah and all his supporters will be killed (Joel 2:1; Rev 8:1-6; 9:20-21; Matt 24:12). After this event literally Jesus will come to defeat all His enemies and rule on earth for a thousand years (Rev 16:12-15; 19:11-21; 20:4).
Jesus agreed with the same truth we discussed above. The four closest disciples of Jesus who were Peter, James, John and his brother Andrew were taken by Jesus to a high mountain later at the end of His ministry, in which they saw Jesus' transfiguration as the Son of God and also saw Elijah and Moses literally appearing and talking with Jesus about his departure from earth to heaven which was going to happen very soon through His death on the Cross for their sins, all these things they saw in a vision and understood that Jesus was God their Messiah on earth. Immediately while coming down from the mountain, their natural mind being confused with what their spiritual mind saw, asked about the mysterious theological question of Elijah that was still unsolved at that time because all the Scribes who were the most brilliant theologians of their times were still saying that Elijah must come first and then only Messiah can ever come, thus rejecting the belief of people that Jesus was the Messiah of all (Matt 17:1-10).
"11 Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. 12 But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist." (Matt 17:11-13). In the above verses one of the greatest truth of all time about the coming of Elijah has been revealed by Jesus. When Jesus said, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things", he did agree with what the Scribes were telling but placed this event in the future of his Second Coming. But when Jesus continued saying, "But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.", he was emphasizing that this was his first coming so already Elijah has come spiritually in the form of John the Baptist who came in the "spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17) and he was killed by evil people to make a way for Himself to die for the sins of the world and bring everlasting righteousness to all humans (John 1:29, 36-37; Matt 3:14-17). Once He explained this truth they "understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist."
As we are living in the end of time, we should understand that as Jesus is going to come for His bride the Church and want to rapture us all back to His and ours Father's mansions in the heavenly city of New Jerusalem (John 14:2-3; 1 Thess 1:10; Heb 11:16), once again the spirit and the power of Elijah will come upon the Church spiritually to revive and turn it towards the Lord Jesus its Messiah before the rapture takes place. Also this truth was confirmed by John the Baptist himself who told that Jesus the bridegroom must increase in the desire of the bride of His which is the Church and he as a personality must decrease before their eyes (John 3:29-30). Now that the shell of John the Baptist's body is no more who is the Elijah to come (Matt 11:14), he who is the least in the kingdom of heaven will operate in a greater capacity than him to violently take the kingdom of God by force which suffers violence from the days of John the Baptist who is the spiritual Elijah who opened up the "spirit and power of Elijah" to turn people towards Jesus until the time of rapture of the Church in which the Spirit without measure will be withdrawn because literal Elijah immediately will appear literally in Jerusalem after the rapture of the Church (Matt 11:11-12; John 3:34; John 20:21).
So both the spirit and power of Elijah will be upon the Church in its zenith to turn people to Jesus before the rapture takes place in these end of end times and also Elijah himself will literally come very soon to Jerusalem once the Church is raptured with Jesus in our end time according to Scriptures. Both are right and will take place very soon.
Much Blessings...
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