The double-portion return of the spirit of the prophet Elijah upon Elisha at the Jordan River was a mysterious event in 2 Kings 2. However, this is not the last time the spirit of Elijah returns to earth.
Malachi prophesied that before the coming of the Messiah, a messenger would appear. This was later understood to be the spirit of Elijah upon John the Baptist. However, Elijah is not yet mentioned in Malachi 3.
Malachi 3
3 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
This messenger is also identified as the herald of the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah:
Isaiah 40
A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Matthew confirms that this messenger is John the Baptist.
Matthew 2
3 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”
Matthew goes on to describe the ministry of John using the same language found in Malachi 3:4-5. Christ also describes John primarily in the context of Malachi 3, the messenger of the covenant:
Matthew 11
9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’
Later in Malachi 4, Elijah’s name is mentioned in reference to the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.
Malachi 4
4 See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch… 5 Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.
This is the same Day of the Lord spoken of in 2 Peter 3, clearly referring to a future event.
2 Peter 3
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
If we take these events to be in the distant future, then it follows that there will be a second coming of the spirit of Elijah just as there will be a second coming of Jesus Christ.
When the Jews demanded to know if he was Elijah, John the Baptist openly denied it. John knew these Jews were expecting the arrival of the Messiah that would initiate the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. Their expectations were similar to our expectations of Christ’s second coming. However, John did not identify with that manifestation of Elijah. Instead, he pointed to Malachi 3 and Isaiah 40, which speak of the messenger proceeding the Messiah’s first coming and earthly ministry.
John 1
21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said,
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’”
In this sense, John is proclaiming that he is in fact Elijah, just not the one they are expecting. Notice that when the angel originally heralded the birth of John to his father Zechariah, he begins quoting from Malachi 3. However, he pivots mid-quote, leaving open the possibility that there is more left to be fulfilled after the death of John.
Luke 1
16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
This first Elijah, John the Baptist, will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, making ready a people prepared for the Lord. The omission of the second half of the prophesy leaves space for the interpretation that there will be a second Elijah proceeding the second coming of Christ, whose work will be to turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers, lest there be the utter destruction of the earth.
In this interpretation, John is the Elijah of the first coming that will usher in the gentile age. He transfers his disciples to Christ, the hearts of the Apostolic fathers being turned towards their converts who establish churches during the intervening period. However, according to Paul, the faith of the children will grow cold and the “Lawless One” shall appear before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.
2 Thessalonians 2
2 As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction.
In Mark, Jesus tells his disciples that the work of Elijah is not only to herald his coming, but to restore all things. This in effect will turn the hearts of the children back to the faith of their Apostolic fathers. Some time after the death of John the Baptist, the disciples witness Moses and Elijah conversing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. On returning from the mount, Jesus tells the disciples something that troubles them very deeply.
Mark 9
9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.
The disciples, like the Jews who questioned John as to whether he was Elijah, had no concept of the intervening millennia between the first and second comings of the Messiah. In their minds, Jesus was about to usher in the kingdom in power. As Messiah, he would break the nations in the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, establishing Jerusalem as his seat of authority and victoriously ruling the nations with a rod of iron. Confused by this new saying of Jesus, they then asked him how the coming of Elijah fitted into this unpredicted turn of prophesy.
In response, Jesus affirmed to them that Elijah would indeed come in the future to restore all things before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. However, in one sense Elijah had already come, through the ministry of the late John the Baptist. However, John did not restore all things.
Mark 9
11 Then they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” 12 He said to them, “Elijah is indeed coming first to restore all things. How then is it written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt? 13 But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him.”
It was not until after the death and resurrection of Jesus that the disciples fully understood what their master had been trying to tell them. After the healing of the crippled beggar, Peter displayed his new understanding in his address to the Jews at Solomon’s Portico. In this sermon, Peter is sympathetic to the ignorance of the Jews who crucified Jesus, because he himself was ignorant, not knowing that the Messiah must suffer. Peter, finally understanding the words of Mark 9:12, proclaims that Jesus must now remain in heaven until “the restoration of all things.”
Acts 3
17 “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, 21 who must remain in heaven until the time of the restoration of all things, that God announced long ago through his holy prophets.
This time of the restoration of all things, announced long ago by holy prophets, is referring to the second coming of Christ and the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, heralded by Elijah who is “coming first to restore all things.”
The prophet Amos explains why it is necessary for Elijah to precede Christ’s return. No great deed of the Lord goes unheralded by prophetic announcement, which Amos parallels to the warning sound of a trumpet.
Amos 3
6 Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster befall a city,
unless the Lord has done it?
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing,
without revealing his secret
to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?
In Revelation 1, John hears a voice that sounds like a trumpet, which turns out to be the resurrected Christ.
Revelation 1
10 I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
In his hand are seven stars, which John soon learns are seven “angels,” or messengers of the seven Churches.
Revelation 1
20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
As in Malachi 3:1, these messengers are widely taken to represent human messengers and not heavenly angels. These messengers are given a prophetic word from Christ to their respective churches. These churches, existing in first-century Asia Minor, may prophetically represent all believers spanning the entire church age. These same angels are featured later in Revelation.
Revelation 8
6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.
These angels can only be the seven messengers of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 1-4, and so the seven trumpets are their respective prophetic messages. The seventh trumpet heralds the return of Christ, and the end of the time of the church age.
Revelation 10
…“There will be no more delay, 7 but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”
Notice that this phrasing, “as he announced to his servants the prophets,” is very similar to Peter’s words in Acts 3:21, indicating the time in which all things will be restored. If the message of Elijah is to restore all things as Jesus says in Mark 9:12, then this final trumpeting is no less than the return of the spirit of Elijah, turning the hearts of the children to the fathers and thus preventing utter destruction as he heralds the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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