The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Barbara Swanson of Batesville, Arkansas, from the tape, GC 1301-F, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 8." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1977. All Rights Reserved.
Question
In what way can we harmonize John the Baptist’s claim that he was not Elijah
with the statement of the Lord that he was?
Answer
Now let me give you a little background. John the Baptist was a forerunner
to Jesus Christ. He was a proclaimer of the coming Messiah. The Lord said, “This
is that Elijah that would come.” In other words, the prophecy said that in the
last days, one like unto Elijah, in the spirit and power of Elijah would come.
And John the Baptist supposedly was that Elijah. The Lord seems to indicate
that, and yet John denies it.
Well, let’s go back and find the solution to this by first of all [by going to]
the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi, chapter four. Malachi, chapter
four, verse five. And we’ll hurry because I want to get to some other things.
The Old Testament ends with a statement about the forerunner of Christ, “Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible
day of the Lord: 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.” Now, before the great and terrible day of the Lord, Elijah will come.
Now let’s look at Luke 1:17. Luke 1:17. This is very interesting. And here is
the account of the birth of John the Baptist. The angel comes to Zacharias and
tells him he’s going to have a son, and he’s very, very happy about that after
he finally believes the Lord—he didn’t believe at first. And it says in 17, “He
shall go before him,” this is his son now, “in the spirit and power of
Elijah.” All right now this prophecy of Malachi, “One will come, an Elijah.”
That doesn’t mean a literal Elijah any more that the fact that Christ would come
as David, He is one in the line of David. And so this one coming would be like
Elijah, and here it says of John, “he shall go before him in the spirit and
power of Elijah.”
Now let’s look at Matthew, chapter 17, and see what Jesus said. It looks like
John the Baptist is going to be this fulfillment of one like Elijah who comes
before the great and terrible day of the Lord. In Matthew 17:10, the disciples
and Christ in conversation, “And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Why then say
the scribes that Elijah must first come?’ And Jesus answered and said unto them,
Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things.” Get everything ready.
“But I say unto you, that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but
have done unto him whatsoever they desired. Likewise also the Son of man,” and
of course what did they do to John the Baptist? They cut off his head. And Jesus
is saying, “Well, the one to fulfill that prophecy has already come, but they
killed him, just as they did the Son of man.”
Now I want to add something that’s very important. If—and I’ll show you in a
minute from Matthew—if they had accepted John the Baptist, if they had accepted
Christ, John the Baptist would have been the fulfillment of that prophecy. Look
at Matthew 11:11. Matthew 11:11—very important text. “Verily I say unto you,
among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the
Baptist,”—greatest man that ever lived—“notwithstanding he that is least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” He was the greatest one of the Old
Testament, but those in the New are greater. “And from the days of John the
Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take
it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”
Now listen, here comes the verse we want to note. “And if you will receive,” and
you can imply him there rather than it, “if you will receive him, this is
Elijah, who was to come.” Or you can read it this way, “If you will receive it,”
that is the kingdom, “then this is the Elijah who was to come.” In other words,
the prophets said there will be a forerunner who comes announcing the kingdom.
Jesus says, “If you will receive the kingdom now, John the Baptist will have
been that Elijah.” But the implication is if you reject the Messiah and the
kingdom, then he is not going to fulfill that prophecy—there will yet have to be
another.
And so, did they receive the kingdom? No. Did they receive the king? No. Did
they receive John the Baptist? No. So there is yet future the Day of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord didn’t come, did it? It didn’t come then, because they
rejected the king. And so God postponed it. And before the Day of the Lord comes
again in the future, another will come in the spirit and power of Elijah and
fulfill that prophecy. So John could have been that one, but John was not.
Now there are many who believe that Revelation chapter 11 describes the future
one or ones, because here you have two witnesses who come. I’ve always thought
this was one of the most fascinating accounts in the Bible. You who were with us
when we studied Revelation will remember just how fascinating it is. But many
people believe that one of these two will be Elijah. Now I don’t know if that’s
true or not, but it might be. Very, very difficult to know, in fact it’s
impossible. But during the time of the tribulation there will come two witnesses
who will prophesy. Revelation 11:3, “They will prophesy a thousand two hundred
and threescore days,” and that’s exactly half of seven years—twelve hundred and
sixty days, three and a half years. Three and a half years of the tribulation,
half of the tribulation these two men will prophesy. And many believe one of
these will be the fulfillment of that Elijah. Who the other is—some say it’s
Moses, and we don’t really know. One representing the Law, Moses; one
representing the prophets, Elijah, is often suggested. I’m not sure, but I’m
just going to give it to you because many do say that.
I kind of feel that we don’t know who they are, and I’ve told the Lord time and
time again that I certainly will volunteer for this job if He’s looking for
someone, because they are very interesting. It says, “If any man hurts them,
fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies.” Isn’t that
interesting? “And if any man will hurt them, in this manner he will be killed.”
So they will go around preaching during the tribulation. The world will try to
kill them, but instead of the world being able to kill them, the world will find
that there will be fire coming out of their mouth consuming the one who tries to
do that. “They have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their
prophecy.” They can go into a town and simply say, uh, “It will no longer rain
until we’re finished,” and they stop the rain. “They have power over the water
to turn it to blood and smite the earth with all the plagues as often as they
will.” Now this is going to be headline stuff in the tribulation, folks, believe
you me. You start reading in the tribulation about the fact that it hasn’t
rained in a certain city the whole time they were there, and all the time they
were in Chicago the water was turned to blood, and then they went over to Kansas
City and all the plagues—frogs jumping all over Kansas City, or whatever. This
is going to be very real and occurring in the tribulation. And when they have
finished their testimonies, the beast that ascends out of the pit, or the
Antichrist, makes war and kills them, and the world lets their bodies lie in the
street for three and a half days. They’re so glad they’re dead, and in our
modern society that’s incredible, but it happens in Jerusalem—they’re killed in
Jerusalem.
It says at the end of eight, “the city where our Lord was crucified.” They call
it Sodom and Egypt, because they associate it with paganism, because Jerusalem
is so far from what it used to be. So they die there and they’re left there
three and a half days, and according to verse nine, the whole world will watch
them on television. “And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations
shall see their dead bodies three days and a half.” Now how in the world could
everybody in the world see those people in Jerusalem unless there was some
medium to transmit that? Television. The whole world will watch, and they’ll
rejoice, and this is crazy, they’ll make merry and send presents. “Happy Dead
Witnesses Day,” and send a gift.
And of course verse eleven, “After three days and a half the Spirit of life from
God enters them, and they stood on their feet.” Oh, man, how would you like an
instant replay on that? They stand up! After three and a half days of being dead
in the street, they stand up. And everybody panics, great fear. A voice from
heaven, “Come up here.” And they ascend into heaven. And a great earthquake
comes and a tenth part of the city falls and it says, there “were slain of men.”
In the Greek here, they were men of renown. Seven thousand of the famous men of
the world die.
Well, you can see that there is coming some prophet. Now some say that this
might be Elijah. We don’t know. But it is clear from our Lord’s word in Matthew
11 that John was not able to fulfill that prophecy because the people rejected
the Messiah.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
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