Explain to me Malachi 4: 5-6

[faithinhim]

Aleph, Please explain to me Malachi Chapter 4 verses five and six and explain to me how it could be Elijah in the person of John The Baptist as mathew 17:11 and 11:14 and Mark 9:11 and Luke 1:17 says. My wife was alarmed due to how it sounds a lot like reincarnation.


Faith In Him

[aleph]

First of All Eliyah Never died, he was lifted alive, so he didnot reincarnate,
Second;
The Old Testament promised that Elijah would come to the Jewish people. Some who believe in reincarnation think this is what occurred with John the Baptizer being the fulfillment of Elijah's coming.

The Angel Gabriel announced to Zecharias that his son's name would be called John in Luke 1:13. He goes on to say in verse 15 that he will be great in the sight of the Lord and “shall drink no wine or strong drink and will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb.” Verse 17 says of John, “he will also go before Him (The Lord) in the Spirit and power of Elijah,” which is a ministry of reconciliation, would have the “hearts of the fathers turned to the children and children turning to their fathers.”

To claim that Elijah is John the Baptist is to teach reincarnation. The premise is that a spirit in a former body comes back to be born in another body. At the very least, it is transmigration. The Bible has never taught this.

In Matthew 11:13, Jesus states: “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.” (Jesus calls him “John” not “Elijah.” Elijah is included with 'all the prophets' who came before John. In verse 14, Jesus says “and if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt and preached in the wilderness. This was the same attire that Elijah wore (2 Kings 1:8), bringing attention to the Jews of the similarity of John's mission to that of Elijah's. Prophecy has many patterns and sometime dual or more fulfillments.

Malachi had predicted that before the Messiah's appearing, Elijah would come as a forerunner (Mal. 4:5-in relation to the day of the Lord). If the people had been willing to receive Jesus as the Messiah, then John would have filled the role of Elijah. Jesus then tells them to heed His words. If John fulfills Elijah's coming then Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus pointed to John the Baptist as a type of fulfillment of Elijah's coming but he was not a reincarnation.

This is proven in John 1:20 when the Jews sent out the priests and Levites to investigate John's ministry. They ask him if he is the Christ. He states emphatically “No!” They ask him again if he is Elijah, John answers “I am not.” This is not a temporary memory loss for John that Jesus has to correct later. In verse 25, John the Baptist is asked, ‘Why do you baptize if you are not the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?’ In verses 25-27 John points to the Messiah who is coming after him. He states that it is he who is the forerunner of Malachi 3:1. In Luke 1:76, we see that John's father, Zecharias, is filled with the Holy spirit and says that his child will be called the prophet of the highest and will “go before the face of the Lord and prepare His ways again.' This relates John's ministry to Mal. 3:1, 4:5, and Luke 1:17. John labored in the same Spirit and power of the former prophet by calling people to repentance and he was preparing them for the salvation that Christ would later bring.

Both are Elijah and John the Baptist are forerunners. Elijah was promised to come for the second coming not the first, therefore he is not John the Baptist. Mal.3:1 promised an unnamed forerunner Mal.3:1: “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” Malachi speaks of two messengers one that will prepare the way for the Lord, this is none other than John the Baptizer who is foretold in Isa.40:3-4 as “The voice crying out in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

[jackiedee]

I believe that had the Jews been ready to accept Yeshua as their Messiah, then John would have been born Elijhah, but remember God knows the end from the beginning, so He knew that the Jews would not accept Yeshua. Besides, Yeshua had to be sacrificed; be the Sacrificial Lamb to forgive the sins of mankind. It was God's plan from before the beginning, and it had to be carried out. Had to Jews accepted Yeshua as the Messiah at His first coming, I don't know where we Gentiles would be left!!

[faithinhim]

Thank you Aleph ands Jackie, I was thrown into a side pocket when I read that book again. We do not believe in reincarnation so my wife did not wish to even discuss the chapter she just got frustrated by it and said we do not believe in reincarnation. I decided to ask you about that chapter and connecting books and chapters to clarify it.


Faith In Him

[aleph]

We believe in Re-incarnation through the resurrection;
In other Words you died and your Spirit left the body which is buried, then your spirit returns with Masshiach and re-incarnates the body again which is transformed into a Spiritual body, that is the true re-incarnation.
But as far as returning as a roach or a lizard no I don't believe in that either,lol

[john1010]

I agree with Aleph.

The plain understanding of Mal 3:1 is that John the Baptist fulfilled this prophesy, thus preparing the way for Messiah's first coming. Luke 1:17 says John would go as a forerunner in the "spirit and power of Elijah." Jesus declares to His disciples in Matt 17:10-13 that this has already happened, right after Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus a few verses earlier. When asked, John clearly said he was not Elijah (John 1:21).

But Mal 4:5 prophesies that "Elijah the prophet" will be sent, not reincarnated, before Messiah's second coming.

Could Elijah be one of the two witnesses prophesied in Rev 11:3, and Moses be the other?

[jackiedee]

I believe it is possible that the two witnesses are Elijah and Moses. Many say Elijah and Enoch because they did not die, but with God, all things are possible. Though we do not believe in reincarnation, would it be impossible for God in the one case of Moses? Also, Jude tells us that Michael, the Archangel, disputed with the devil over the body of Moses. What would the devil want with the body of Moses. The devil knows Scripture. Does he know something that we don't yet? Does the devil know that God intends to use the body of Moses again as one of His two witnesses of Revelation? I don't know. I just raise the question. Certainly much of the work of the two witnesses mirrors the plagues on Egypt pronounced by Moses.