6. WHAT MUST COME BEFORE CHRIST?
From this point on, I am assuming that Paul spoke the truth when he gave the fact of II Thessalonians 2. And that Peter also spoke the truth when he told his people to look for Jesus, though many things were coming first.
Assuming there is no secret rapture, since that rapture is even a secret to Scripture, we must brace ourselves to be looking for other things first.
Imagine for a moment that you are a retiree to be, and you are in your final year. Oh what a difficult year that is. Every day strains by on leaden feet. And there is paperwork. There are arrangements to make. Costs to count. A certain amount of apprehension.
But all this is overshadowed and pushed out of the way by the great moment-to-be. One day you will walk out of that office, that factory, that building of whatever shape or fashion, and you will leave it all behind. You will be free!
See how that works? You are looking for the retirement. That is your hope. But you know just as certainly that other things must come first. You can deal with both truths at the same time.
Or you are a runner. You see the goal line, and it draws you on. But there is sweat and pain and courage that you must inhabit until you cross that line. Your eye is fixed on the goal, your body is still in the turmoil of the race.
These are not the best examples, but they give us a flavor of the Scriptural idea of watching and looking. Part of our watching has led us to the Scriptures, to dig deeper than before, and we have found the passages I have been sharing that indicate things must come first.
Does this take our eyes off Jesus? Does this lull us to sleep? No the race continues. The last year of the job still calls us to report to duty every day. But we know that soon it will be all over. If the events mentioned in the texts do not happen in our lifetime we know that at the very least death will summon us to the place where we shall behold Him. Our eyes are on Jesus the whole time. the ultimate watching is the watching of his face.
Folks, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can behold two mountains, one higher and one lesser, at the same time. We can count to 5 on our way to counting to 10!
Jesus will return!
But the book of Revelation is clear that a whole host of events come first. Why, the entire book of Revelation comes before Jesus does!
Chapters 1-3 come before Jesus does. That is, all of church history. Those seven chapters do not represent seven church ages, by the way. How do I know? The Bible doesn't tell me so, that's how! The Bible simply tells me the condition of seven churches, and as I view church history and look at the condition of the churches today, lo and behold! those seven churches match every imaginable church situation: worldliness, deadness, false teachers, persecution, overcoming...
Chapter 4 is not the rapture, dear sheep of God. I refer to you as sheep now, because just as the sheep who is writing these words to you, I know that you are led astray pretty easily. Someone stands before you and tells you that because John is caught up in chapter 4, therefore the church is caught up too.
Oh, brilliant!
And that same person will then tell you that the church is not found in the Book of revelation after that. What he should have said is that the word "church" is not there, but oh! the church is all over that book.
I cover this ground in Caught Up But When but here let me just say how Annoying, with a capital "A", it is to see otherwise solid Bible teachers pass on this poison to God's people.
One thing we do see in chapters 4 and following is a certain time frame, which can be translated simply as three and one half years. This is the Tribulation period foretold by Daniel and others. World chaos and upheaval. Death. Famine. Wars like never before.
All of this before Jesus. Well, look at Matthew 24! When Jesus was asked when he would come He too began listing things that would happen, then stopped and said, "but all these things are merely the beginning of sorrows."
These are not the signs of His coming. Even though some well-meaning scholar wrote that title on the top of Matthew 24 in my Bible, and he probably wrote a book by that name too.
No, the signs of His coming are the preaching of the Gospel in the whole world (has that happened?) and the abomination of desolation (has that happened?).
The Book of Revelation talks of the rise and fall of Babylon before His coming. Has that happened?
It talks of a beast rising from the sea. It talks of a resurrected ruler becoming King over all the earth. It talks of a false prophet at his side. It talks of 2 Elijah-like prophets who will miraculously come from Heaven, be killed, resurrected and brought back to Heaven. Has any of that happened?
Finally it talks of the heavens being opened, and the rider on the white horse, and the armies around Him - newly raptured- and the supper of flesh given to the animals of the earth as a major slaughter takes place.
That is the coming of Jesus, the only one predicted in Scripture, and it is nearly at the end of the Book.
Folks, let's not be deceived. Now, all of these things can happen in a relatively short time, but it does not appear that any of them have happened yet! Keep your eyes on Jesus, the One who most definitely will come! But let's read the Manual. Let's not get caught up in end-time deception portrayed in movie and song. God's Word cannot change!
7. ELIJAH IS COMING FIRST
Oh my. Dare we muddy the water even more? Or perhaps this will serve to prove what I have taken the time to share with you: many events precede the actual physical return of Jesus.
Elijah is coming again, too.
Let's carefully examine the Biblical record. It was a question on the mind of the disciples that starts this study. See Matthew 17: 11-12 and/or Mark 9:12-13.
Matthew and Mark tell identical episodes, with one significant difference. The Greek in Mark supplies a word that Jesus said, proton, that Matthew does not mention. It is the Greek word for "first." Just so you know. It's in there. Nearly every translation uses that word in the Mark account. Jesus says that Elijah comes first.
The setting. Jesus and his closest men have just witnessed the transforming power of God on His Son. Also witnessing the event were the Prophets Moses and Elijah.
Seeing all this dazzling manifestation, questions came. This one in particular. Master, we've been taught that Elijah will come first. But here you are, and Elijah has not come. So are you the Messiah foretold in Scripture?
I have added my explanation of their question to the actual words. They wanted to be sure. Their lives were on the line.
Jesus' assurance is two-fold. Yes, He says, Elijah will come first. And he has already come, at least in one sense.
Urgent that we see both portions of Jesus' answer, or the passage gets lost in hopeless confusion. There are two comings of Elijah spelled out by Jesus. One of them had manifested, after a sort, in the person of John the Baptist.
It is Luke who supplies the information, via an angel (1:17), that John will come in the spirit and power of Elijah, to do what Malachi said he would do, (Malachi 4:6), turn the hearts of the people toward God so as to prepare the way for Jesus' teaching ministry in Galilee and surroundings.
So we know that in Jesus' mind, "Elijah" had already come. The people had been prepared. When it was time for him to move on, in John the Baptist that is, he quietly exited the stage, and Jesus took His place.
But wait. Before we let him walk out, hear his words to the seekers at the beginning of his powerful ministry. They wanted to know who he was, and they rattled off a list of possibilities to him for affirmation or denial. One candidate on their list was Elijah! Are you Elijah? they said.
Denial. Clear denial. He knew he was John, a man called to prepare the way for this first coming of Jesus, a voice for sure, even a fulfillment of a prophecy, but not Elijah!
Contradiction here? Not at all. He was like Elijah, in many respects. He fulfilled the coming of Elijah in a spiritual way. But we all know that he was not the man Elijah.
Yet that Elijah still lives and needs to be dealt with. if we stop here, we don't get the fullness of what Jesus was saying.
Jesus said first, remember, "Elijah does come first and restore all things." Some versions, doing some interpreting, read "will come first." Meaning there is still a coming out there.
That further explanation dovetails with other things we know about Old Testament prophecy and the Book of Revelation. And Elijah, who waits in Heaven as I write.
Malachi saw the coming of this great prophet before the "great and terrible day of the Lord." Well, it was a great day when Jesus came, but none could characterize it as "terrible." That is, it was not earth-shattering, accompanied by judgment and the very wrath of God, as the final day will be.
Yes, such a day is coming. The prophets are clear on that point. But Jesus' first advent did not trigger the judgment. Yes, there was a sense that an Elijah figure had come, and we must listen to the way the Son of God interprets this verse.
But if Jesus is coming again, and He is, and on that day there will be judgment, and there will be, it seems proper also to say that Elijah, this time the actual man Elijah, will return before Him, to restore His own people to where they ought to be.
So far I appeal to logic, not clear revelation. But there is clear revelation too!
I was fascinated as I did the research for this treatise to run across the fact that the two doors to the inner sanctuary of the Temple were made of pure olive wood (I Kings 6:31-32). To get to the Holy of Holies, you passed by two olive trees.
What is so fascinating about that?
To answer that question I take you first to Zechariah 4. The prophet is having a vision of a portion of the Temple, it seems, and he is shown a golden lamp-stand accompanied by two olive trees. When he asks about the olive trees he is told that they are two "anointed ones" standing by the Lord.
And there it ends in Zechariah. You see two trees, which are called two beings, and that is all you know.
Until.
Until another prophet comes to the fore, a man we also call an apostle, the great Revelator John.
Revelation 11. Yet another Temple scene. Three and one half years are measured out for earth's inhabitants, the times of the Gentiles, nations that will trample the Holy City. But concurrent with them, two witnesses, called also by John the two "olive trees" that stand before the Lord, a clear reference to the prophecy of Zechariah.
Lest anyone try to "spiritualize" or generalize the text, we are made sure that these two beings are not angels, nor are they groups of men or organizations. Two men.
They prophesy for three and one half years, while antichrist is waging his campaign against all things holy.
They are at first unstoppable. They have supernatural protection flowing from within them outward to anyone who tries to harm them. Shades of Elijah already. Read the stories of the men he consumed by fire.
They can keep rain from falling. As did Elijah.
Then they will be killed by a power far greater than Ahab and Jezebel, and with no ravens and angels to deliver them.
Their dead bodies will simply be left in the streets of Jerusalem.
They will be viewed on worldwide media, and each view will trigger jubilation and parties. Finally the message of righteousness is finished.
But in 3 plus days they are resurrected like their Lord and called up to Heaven. While the world watches.
If we say correctly that these witnesses are men, then which men? Zechariah saw them. They were living then, but in heavenly realms. They had lived before, but had not died. It is appointed unto man to die, though, and so they must come to earth to keep that appointment.
Certainly Elijah must be one of them. Carried up into the heavens while Elisha watches, he never dies. Enoch also is a candidate, though some want to put Moses in the second spot.
But for sure, Elijah comes first.
8. CONCLUSION
So stand with me on the low plains of Earth and look up to yonder hills, from whence comes our Help, our Lord, our returning King. Can you see the distant hill, the hill of His return?
Can you also see a lesser hill in the foreground of your vision, a man pretending to be that Savior and that King? No need to focus on it. No need to be discouraged by it. Definitely no desire to sleep through it. Our salvation is, then, nearer than any time in history.
It is really acceptable to see both hills at the same time, as did Peter and Paul. Jesus saw them too and spoke of them in Matthew 24.
Antichrist truly comes first, concurrent with Elijah the prophet and his companion. There is no reason to slacken our zeal because of this. God's true people have been zealous for the Lord of hosts for thousands of years, knowing He might not come for a thousand more.
Zeal is based on the daily abiding with Jesus in the Secret Place. It has nothing to do with the calendar. Be encouraged with this knowledge when the skies begin to cloud and the world changes into a dark and evil place. Our hope is in Him, wherever we are in history.
