The Spirit of Prophecy

1. Did the Jews of Old Testament times believe that sometime in the future Elijah was to reappear after he was translated?
   John 1:19-2 1: “And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.”
   Mark 15:34-36: “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.”
   [Further Study]
   2 Kings 2:1, 11 “And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. . . . And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

Elias is the Greek form of the Hebrew Elijah.

2. When were they expecting the return of Elijah?
   Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
3. According to Jesus, instead of Elijah coming in the flesh as a fulfillment of this prophecy it was someone else. Who was it?
   Matthew 11:10-11, 14: “For this is he, of whom it is written (Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” ), Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: . . . And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.”
   [Further Study]
   Matthew 17:9-13 “And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”

This prophecy which the Jews had misapplied was about someone who would come “in the spirit and power of Elias” (Luke 1:17), someone who would preach a message similar to that of Elijah. We will discover as we proceed that the prophecy of Malachi 4:5 has a modern day fulfillment as well.

4. Does the Old Testament prophecy concerning the return of the prophet Elijah apply to someone besides John the Baptist?
   Malachi 4:5: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.”

This prophecy is referring also to someone who would be living during the “time of the end”, because the “great and dreadful day of the Lord” is a reference to and just before the second coming of Christ. Since John the Baptist lived two thousand years ago he could not be a total fulfillment of this prophecy. The “time of the end” (Daniel 12:8) has reference to the end of the 1260 year prophecy of Daniel 7:25 and 12:7 and Revelation 11:2-3 and 12:6, 14 and 13:5. All these references are dealing with the same time period and when applying the day for a year principle (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6) it began in 538 A.D. And ended in the year 1798. This 1260 year prophecy covers the period known as the Dark Ages, the time of papal supremacy, representing the time in which the church of Christ was to suffer oppression from Rome. Everyone living after this date (1798) would be considered as living in “the time of the end”. This interesting time prophecy is covered in another lesson.
Daniel 12:8 “And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?”
Daniel 7:25 “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
Daniel 12:7 “And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”
Revelation 11:2-3 “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Revelation 12:6, 14 “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. . . . And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”
Revelation 13:5 “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.”
Numbers 14:34 “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.”
Ezekiel 4:6 “And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.”

5. Does the Bible give us a time frame as to when we should expect this modern day messenger?
   Joel 2:30-31: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”
   Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days (1798) shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.”
   [Further Study]
   Joel 2:10 “The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:”
   Joel 3:15 “The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.”
   Isaiah 13:9-10 “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.”
   Revelation 6:12-13 “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”

These verses in Joel and Matthew refer to signs in the heavens that would take place just before the second coming of Christ.
Matthew 24:30-31 “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Joel describes the second advent as “the great and the terrible day of the Lord”. In Malachi 4:5 it refers to the second coming of Christ as “the great and dreadful day of the Lord”. The words terrible and dreadful in the original Hebrew are exactly the same word and describe the same event. Have these signs in the heavens already taken place? Yes. (See supplemental material at the end of this lesson.) Since the last of these signs took place in 1833, according to God’s word “Elijah the prophet”, or someone with a message similar to that of Elijah, would appear on the scene closely following these events.

6. What kind of message did God give Elijah and John the Baptist to deliver to His people?
   1 Kings 18:18, 21, 37: “And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. . . . And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. . . . Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.”
   Matthew 3:1-3: The Elijah message is a message of repentance, calling God’s people to turn from apostasy and begin following the commandments and counsel of the Lord in every particular.
7. According to Malachi what would God’s last day messenger do?
   Malachi 4:6: “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”

This is more than a prophecy of families getting back together, more than the healing of father and son relationships.
Matthew 10:35-38 “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”
This is a message to return to the faith of our fathers. Just as the literal sons of Israel were being called to return to the teaching of the patriarchs, so we are being called back to the teachings of the Bible and to obedience to all of the commandments of God. Today God’s faithful people will be calling for repentance because the judgment has already begun.
Revelation 14:7 “Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
It’s time to get with God’s program (Revelation 14:12), and come out of Babylon (Revelation 14:8; Revelation 18:1-4), out of confusion and to separate from error. They will worship the Creator who “made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters”, and warn the world about the fate of the wicked (Revelation 14:9-11).
Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
Revelation 14:8 “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
Revelation 18:1-4 “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
Revelation 14:9-11 “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

8. What are the identifying characteristics of God’s remnant (the remaining ones) church, and did a messenger and a people arise after the last of the heavenly signs were fulfilled in 1833?
   Revelation 12:17: “And the dragon (Satan, Revelation 12:9) was wroth with the woman (church, Jeremiah 6:2; Isaiah 51:16), and went to make war with the remnant (remaining ones) of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
   Satan
   Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
   church
   Jeremiah 6:2 “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.”
   Isaiah 51:16 “And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.”

According to this verse God’s last day church (the remnant) would advocate keeping all ten commandments and have the gift of prophecy manifested within their midst.
Revelation 19:10 “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
The messenger of the Lord is Ellen G. White who received her first vision the very year the first angel’s message was being proclaimed in 1844.
Numbers 12:6 “And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.”
Mrs. White fell asleep in 1915 after 86 years of fruitful ministry. By the inspiration of God the material she has written fills more than 80 books, 200 tracts and pamphlets, and 4,600 periodical articles. Sermons, diaries, special testimonies, and letters comprise another 60,000 pages of manuscript materials. Ellen White’s function as God’s messenger was not to write another Bible, or to be a part of the Biblical cannon. Her writings are to lead us back to the Bible and to simplify the truths already given, so we can better understand salvation. As you have studied each lesson you have read a sampling of quotes that have come from her pen. We trust these statements have been a blessing to you, and have drawn you closer to Jesus. May God bless you as you continue to study His word. The apostle Paul said, “Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21).

SUPPLEMENT

“Prophecy not only foretells the manner and object of Christ’s coming, but presents tokens by which men are to know when it is near. Said Jesus: ‘There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.’ Luke 21:25. ‘The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.’ Mark 13:24-26. The revelator thus describes the first of the signs to precede the second advent: there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.’ Revelation 6:12.

“These signs were witnessed before the opening of the nineteenth century. In fulfillment of this prophecy there occurred, in the year 1755, the most terrible earthquake that has ever been recorded. Though commonly known as the earthquake of Lisbon, it extended to the greater part of Europe, Africa, and America. It was felt in Greenland, in the West Indies, in the island of Madeira, in Norway and Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. It pervaded an extent of not less than four million square miles. In Africa the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A great part of Algiers was destroyed; and a short distance from Morocco, a village containing eight or ten thousand inhabitants was swallowed up. A vast wave swept over the coast over Spain and Africa engulfing cities and causing great destruction.

“It was in Spain and Portugal that the shock manifested its extreme violence. At Cadiz the inflowing wave was said to be sixty feet high. Mountains, ‘some of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as it were, from their very foundations, and some of them opened at their summits, which were split and rent in a wonderful manner, huge masses of them being thrown down into the adjacent valleys. Flames are related to have issued from these mountains.’—Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, page 495.

“At Lisbon ‘a sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately afterwards a violent shock threw down the greater part of that city. In the course of about six minutes sixty thousand persons perished. The sea first retired, and laid the bar dry; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet or more above its ordinary level.’ ‘Among other extraordinary events related to have occurred at Lisbon during the catastrophe, was the subsidence of a new quay, built entirely of marble, at an immense expense. A great concourse of people had collected there for safety, as a spot where they might be beyond the reach of falling ruins; but suddenly the quay sank down with all the people on it, and not one of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface.’—lbid., page 495.

“‘The shock’ of the earthquake ‘was instantly followed by the fall of every church and convent, almost all the large public buildings, and more than one fourth of the houses. In about two hours after the shock, fires broke out in different quarters, and raged with such violence for the space of nearly three days, that the city was completely desolated. The earthquake happened on a holy day, when the churches and convents were full of people, very few of whom escaped.’—Encyclopedia Americana, art. ‘Lisbon’, note (ed. 1831). ‘The terror of the people was beyond description. Nobody wept; it was beyond tears. They ran hither and thither, delirious with horror and astonishment, beating their faces and breasts, crying, ‘Misericordia! the world’s at an end!’ Mothers forgot their children, and ran about loaded with crucifixed images. Unfortunately, many ran to the churches for protection; but in vain was the sacrament exposed; in vain did the poor creatures embrace the altars; images, priests, and people were buried in one common ruin.’ It has been estimated that ninety thousand persons lost their lives on that fatal day.

“Twenty-five years later appeared the next sign mentioned in the prophecy—the darkening of the sun and moon. What rendered this more striking was the fact that the time of its fulfillment had been definitely pointed out. In the Saviour’s conversation with His disciples upon Olivet, after describing that long period of trial for the church,—the 1260 years of papal persecution, concerning which He had promised that the tribulation should be shortened,—He thus mentioned certain events to precede His coming, and fixed the time when the first of these should be witnessed: ‘In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.’ Mark 13:24. The 1260 days, or years, terminated in 1798. A quarter of a century earlier, persecution had almost wholly ceased. Following this persecution, according to the words of Christ, the sun was to be darkened. On the 19th of May, 1780, this prophecy was fulfilled.

“‘Almost, if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious and as yet unexplained phenomenon of its kind, . . . stands the dark day of May 19, 1780,—a most unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and atmosphere in New England. ‘—R. M. Devens, Our First Century, page 89.

“An eyewitness living in Massachusetts describes the event as follows: ‘In the morning the sun rose clear, but was soon overcast. The clouds became lowery, and from them, black and ominous, as they soon appeared, lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and a little rain fell. Toward nine o’clock, the clouds became thinner, and assumed a brassy or coppery appearance, and earth, rocks, trees, buildings, water, and persons were changed by this strange, unearthly light. A few minutes later, a heavy black cloud spread over the entire sky except a narrow rim at the horizon, and it was as dark as it usually is at nine o’clock on a summer evening. . . .

“‘Fear, anxiety, and awe gradually filled the minds of the people. Women stood at the door, looking out upon the dark landscape; men returned from their labor in the fields; the carpenter left his tools, the blacksmith his forge, the tradesman his counter. Schools were dismissed, and tremblingly the children fled homeward. Travelers put up at the nearest farmhouse. ‘What is coming?’ queried every lip and heart. It seemed as if a hurricane was about to dash across the land, or as if it was the day of the consummation of all things.

“‘Candles were used; and hearth fires shone as brightly as on a moonless evening in autumn. . . . Fowls retired to their roosts and went to sleep, cattle gathered at the pasture bars and lowed, frogs peeped, birds sang their evening songs, and bats flew about. But the human knew that night had not come. . . .

Dr. Nathanael Whittaker, pastor of the Tabernacle church in Salem, held religious services in the meetinghouse, and preached a sermon in which he maintained that the darkness was supernatural. Congregations came together in many other places. The texts for the extemporaneous sermons were invariably those that seemed to indicate that the darkness was consonant with Scriptural prophecy. . . . The darkness was most dense shortly after eleven o’clock. ‘—The Essex Antiquarian, April, 1899, vol.3, no.4, pp.53-54. ‘In most parts of the country it was so great in the daytime, that the people could not tell the hour by either watch or clock nor dine, nor manage their domestic business, without the light of candles.

“‘The extent of this darkness was extraordinary. It was observed as far east as Falmouth. To the westward it reached to the farthest part of Connecticut, and to Albany. To the southward, it was observed along the seacoasts; and to the north as far as the American settlements extend.’—William Gordon, History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the U.S.A., vol.3, p.57.

“The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though it was still obscured by the black, heavy mist. ‘After sundown, the clouds came again overhead, and it grew dark very fast.’ ‘Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some artificial light, which, when seen from the neighboring houses and other places at a distance, appeared through a kind of Egyptian darkness which seemed almost impervious to the rays.’—Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy; or, American Oracle of Liberty, vol. 10, no.472 (May 25, 1780). Said an eyewitness of the scene: ‘I could not help conceiving at the time, that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete. ‘—Letter by Dr. Samuel Tenney, of Exeter, New Hampshire, December, 1785 (in Al3s~chusetts Historical Society Collections, 1792, 1st series, vol.1, p.97). Though at nine o’clock that night the moon rose to the full, ‘it had not the least effect to dispel the deathlike shadows.’ After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first visible, had the appearance of blood.

“May 19, 1780, stands in history as ‘The Dark Day’. Since the time of Moses no period of darkness of equal density, extent, and duration, has ever been recorded. The description of this event, as given by eyewitnesses, is but an echo of the words of the Lord, recorded by the prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred years previous to their fulfillment: ‘The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.’ Joel 2:31.” The Great Controversy, pages 304-308.

“. . . John in the Revelation declared, as he beheld in vision the scenes that should herald the day of God: ‘The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.’ Revelation 6:13. This prophecy received a striking and impressive fulfillment in the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833. That was the most extensive and wonderful display of falling stars which has ever been recorded; ‘the whole firmament, over all the United States, being then, for hours, in fiery commotion! No celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was viewed with such intense admiration by one class in the community, or with so much dread and alarm by another.’ ‘Its sublimity and awful beauty still linger in many minds. . . . Never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same. In a word, the whole heavens seemed in motion. . . The display, as described in Professor Silliman’s Journal, was seen over all North America. . . . From two o’clock until broad daylight, the sky being perfectly serene and cloudless, and incessant play of dazzlingly brilliant luminosities was kept up in the whole heavens.’—R. M. Devens, American Progress; or The Great Events of the Greatest Century, ch. 28, pars. 1-5.

“‘No language, indeed, can come up to the splendor of that magnificent display; . . . no one who did not witness it can form an adequate conception of its glory. It seemed as if the whole starry heavens had congregated at one point near the zenith, and were simultaneously shooting forth, with the velocity of lightning, to every part of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted—thousands swiftly followed in the tracks of thousands, as if created for the occasion.’—F. Reed, in the Christian Advocate and Journal, Dec.13, 1833. ‘A more correct picture of a fig tree casting its figs when blown by a mighty wind, it was not possible to behold.’— ‘The Old Countryman,’ in Portland Journal Advertiser, Nov. 26, 1833.

“In the New York Journal of Commerce of November 14, 1833, appeared a long article regarding this wonderful phenomenon, containing this statement: ‘No philosopher of scholar has told or recorded an event, I suppose, like that of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling to mean falling stars, . . . in the only sense in which it is possible to be literally true.’

“Thus was displayed the last of those signs of His coming, concerning which Jesus bade His disciples: ‘When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.’ Matthew 24:33. After these signs, John beheld, as the great event next impending, the heavens departing as a scroll, while the earth quaked, mountains and islands removed out of their places, and the wicked in terror sought to flee from the presence of the Son of man. Revelation 6:12-17.” The Great Controversy, pages 333-334