Will There Be Another Elijah? -- By: Carl Armerding

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 100:397 (Jan 1943)
Article: Will There Be Another Elijah?
Author: Carl Armerding


Will There Be Another Elijah?

Carl Armerding

The closing chapter of the Old Testament, with its prophecy concerning the sending of Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, is of considerable interest to us just now because of the apparent imminence of just such a day. The day itself is described in the opening verse of the chapter, a day “that shall burn as an oven (lit. burning as a furnace); and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” In striking contrast to all of this is the promise to those who fear Jehovah’s name for to them “shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings” and they shall go forth and leap like fatted calves. And they shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of their feet in the day that the Lord of hosts does all these things.

But before the coming of that great and terrible day, “Behold,” says He, “I will send you Elijah the prophet...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.” Here let us notice three things: first, the time of the prophet’s coming; second, the character of his ministry; and last, the threat with which the prophecy closes. The prophet was to be sent before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Therefore he must come before the Tribulation. His ministry must be such as would turn hearts in the right direction, with consequent blessing for the land, if received. If not, then the Lord of hosts threatens to come and smite the earth with a curse, or “to smite the land with utter destruction,” as some have rendered it. Finally, we should note that the prophet was to be sent primarily to those who fear Jehovah’s name (cf. Mal 4:2, 5). They were to be the special objects of his ministry.

The long silence that followed this prophecy was first

broken by a voice saying, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It was the voice of John the Baptist of whom the prophet Isaiah had spoken, saying, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and they were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their ...

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