After reading another book proclaiming the so-called “Truth” of the Elijah Revolution that is “going” to happen before the second coming of Jesus I figured I should share my 2 cents about why I think this is ridiculous.
1. Jesus said that the least in the Kingdom is greater than all the Old Testament prophets.
All the prophets includes Elijah!
The 5 year old who just gave her life to Jesus is greater than any of the Old Testament prophets because she didn’t receive a miniature Holy Spirit. She got the real deal and because she got the real deal she can make a huge difference!
To say we need an Elijah Revolution is a step backwards, not forward.
What we need to truly finish the Great Commission is a “Kingdom Revolution” that forcefully advances God’s purpose on the planet.
2. They always use the verse that says “Elijah must come first”
And they quote the Old Testament as proof that this is true.
Don’t you remember they asked Jesus when this would happen and he says “it did happen. It was John the Baptist.”
So…why in the world does this need to be fulfilled again?
I get really bothered when I hear people using an Old Obsolete Covenant that Jesus very plainly says has been fulfilled
as proof for their weird End Times Theology.
Now…
I do believe that believers can operate in the same power that Elijah moved in and I do believe that the hearts of the Fathers are being turned to the sons and the sons to the Fathers.
It’s happening!
Really, this is a matter of semantics and doesn’t really make a difference.
Elijah or Kingdom Revolution?
But…
We advance the Kingdom, not Elijah or whatever.
Just sayin….
Having read your summary, the Spirit within compells me to touch on a few things:
Christ is Alpha and Omega as I am sure you know. He is the first letter to the last of Greek New Covenant. He is the Word of God manifest into the flesh. Nevertheless, this “Word” was the Tanakh (Old Covenant) when He came, for none of the new did exist except being in the heart of God. Therefore, Christ is also Aleph and Tav, which He was at first. To lightly dismiss the shadows which confess to the Substance is not a pleasure or honoring of God. The shadows bare witness to the man for those who cannot see the brightness of His person.
The prophecies of Messiah, written in the old, are not merely of the Suffering Servant Messiah and first coming; they look equally- if not more- to His second coming. These are here to teach all believers.
In Isaiah 40, pertaining to Elijah, before “The voice of one crying in the wilderness” is written, God speaks of Elijah, saying, “Comfort, yes, comfort My people! Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
Now we know that Jerusalem was a city that God punishes for sins, for spiritual Jerusalem did not yet exist and would not be punished. Therefore, the “My people” spoken of here are the natural and the natural city. When John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah, Jerusalem and the Temple had already be destroyed once by the Babylonian Empire in 586 BC. Nevertheless, John, in no way, spoke comfort to the city or the “generation of vipers.” His message was one of coming judgment on a wicked generation. The “axe is already at the root of the tree.” Now one can twist this verse to meet their eschalogical views and say he spoke comfort to those who would follow the Lamb, but doing so is more than a stretch of this verse; it’s intellectually dishonest. This verse alone shows that not only is there a second coming of the spirit of Elijah, but that it will be a coming to support Jerusalem during troubling times. It will be a comfort and promise of salvation….as a rainbow on the angel’s head. Why? Because Jerusalem has already received double for all her sins….the second destruction under Titus and the tenth legion, when Rome destroyed the city and temple 70 AD. Jerusalem of the Apocalypse does suffer and is fear, and half the city is taken into captivity, but then Christ comes as Savior of Israel and Jerusalem. And before He comes, Elijah and Moses are there comforting the gathered believers and prophesying against the nations of the world which seek to torment the elect.
Furthermore, about the coming again of Elijah. All things of God are not yet restored for the return of the Great King. This is why Christ said, “Surely Elijah shall come first and restore all things.” He not only declared John the spirit of Elijah but enhanced the Malachi Elijah and looked into the future. John the Baptist did not restore the nation to God, although he had a powerful ministry. John did not reveal all mystery of Scripture or Christianity. He did not solve all disagreements over difficult passages. He did not return the 10 tribes of Israel, which prophecy foretells to be done before the messianic kingdom. Malachi 4 speaks of a day when all who do wicked are burned-up and leave them nothing, not even roots in the earth. This is when Elijah is foretold to come, and this is the restoration of all things. The Hebrew fathers of the faith are restored to the Christian offspring, and hearts are united and restored to the likeness of the 1st century Jewish Christian church. This is the Church will have the glory and power of the whole Word of God. And if Elijah did not come to perform this restoration, and make the people of God “one” as Christ commands, God would strike the earth with “utter destruction.”
Right now the churches are not prepared or restored for the coming of Messiah. Hundreds, if not thousands of denominations conflict in teaching, understanding, and the place of the “Church.” The “Bride” is far to spiritually immature to be the Bride of Christ. The bride is more like scattered little girls running back and forth on the playground, whispering in one another’s ears and laughing and playing. Can you really call all these warring sects the “Bride?” And do you really not believe there should be a restoration and preparation? Nevertheless, it matters not what you believe; Elijah is friend of the Groom and comes to prepare and unify the Bride and clarify and restore all prophecy. He comes with the hidden manna, even the DNA of Scripture: the Moedim Paradigm. At that time, all things built on that Rock which is Christ will be tested by the truth and the fire of the Spirit. All these churches and denominations and catholism will certainly be done-away.
Again…my big problem with your explanation of why we need Elijah to come back is the fact that you spend paragraphs and more paragraphs explaining “your opinion” of Elijah when Jesus and the Apostles said the Old Covenant has been fulfilled and is therefore obsolete.
You can play with the text all you want.
Jesus said he has already fulfilled it.
Hello R.K. Thanks for starting this blog on the Great Comission.
I have been making disciples in Indianapolis for the past couple of years and I am trying to reach out to to other like minded believers who are “Great Comission Minded” for mutual encouragement and support. Would you have ten minutes in the near future that we might be able to talk on the phone/skype?
I look foward to hearing from you!
Christopher Elliott
To simply say “all things are fulfilled” in Christ is a meaningless wave of the hand. To say all the prophecies of Tanakh have been fulfilled is simply not true. Many of them are exclusively directed to the Apocalypse. It’s fitting that the coming role of Elyahu be rejected by Gentile believers, for Jews will accept him and the truth of Messiah through him. Christians find it hard to share prophecy outside of the “church”, but the churches fail and are divided, having little understanding. All things are not restored, not even close. And to imply a restoration hints at a breaking apart. The national tribes of Israel are broken apart and lost. The churches are broken apart and in disunity. The interpretations of Scripture (exegesis, eschatology) are all over the chart.
Christ did come to fulfill prophecy and completed all which was foretold of His coming as the Suffering Servant Meshiach ben Yoseph; yet to say the first coming fulfilled anything to do with the coming Great and Conquering King, Meshiach ben David is utter nonsense. And to say the “Church” has anything to glory in is nonsense. Elijah is sent to unite all that are to be one in Christ, just as a best man is sent out in Jewish weddings to announce the coming groom and make sure the bride is prepared. Where the churches have failed in all areas and leave confusion, Elijah is called to restore, clarify, unite, and gather together those who will be the Bride, of Jews and Gentiles. Not all who confess Christ or are saved will be the Bride of Christ.