Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: Stay with us as Dr. Gary Hedrick leads us in a discussion of the second coming of Elijah. Today, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinct first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello. Today, our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, and his subject is the second coming of Elijah. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now, with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you and we welcome all of our listening friends to this edition of the program. I'm Gary Hedrick and today we're concluding our series of prophetic studies dealing with the second coming of Elijah. Our text from the Old Testament is taken from Malachi chapter 4, verses 5 and 6, where the Lord said this: "Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful 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."

We've been discussing this remarkable prophecy in which Malachi describes a second coming of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. We've also been discussing the fact that Revelation chapter 11 describes two prophets during the coming tribulation, whom I believe may be the two Old Testament prophets Elijah and Enoch.

When we ran out of time on the last program, we were talking about the ministry of these two prophets in Revelation 11. We said that before we can understand the ministry of these two prophets, we've got to know something about that period of time the Bible calls the tribulation. The Greek word for tribulation literally means pressure, and the tribulation period is that period of time just prior to the establishment of the millennial kingdom, when God begins to take steps to bring his people Israel back to himself. The way he does that is by applying pressure to Israel during this time of tribulation.

Here's what we've got to see before we can understand the ministry of these two prophets in Revelation chapter 11. The tribulation is divided into two periods of three and a half years each. The first three and a half years are known as simply the tribulation. The second three and a half years are known as a time of great tribulation. In fact, Christ himself said in Matthew 24:21, "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." He's talking there about the events during the last half of the tribulation period.

By the way, let me just say this. You'll never properly understand Matthew 24 or the rest of the Bible for that matter, until you see it from a Jewish perspective. The reason so many Bible teachers and so many preachers get so confused when they come to Matthew 24 is that they're trying to interpret it from the perspective of the church. They end up with post-tribulation raptures and mid-trib raptures and all sorts of confusion. The mistake most of them make is thinking that Matthew 24 has something to do with the church, when it really doesn't. When the events described in Matthew 24 take place, the church is already gone. Besides, who's the Lord talking to here in Matthew 24? Of course, he's talking to his disciples and they were Jews.

My wife and I have the opportunity to visit in lots of different churches throughout the year when I'm out preaching, and we really have a wonderful time and make lots of new friends and we enjoy it. Not long ago we were in a certain church. This church happened to be a Baptist church, fairly large church. My wife and I decided to sit in on one of the adult Sunday school classes. I guess there were 40 or 50 people in this particular class and they were studying the Gospel of Matthew and they just happened to have come to Matthew chapter 24 when we were there.

I could tell that this teacher had really done his homework. On the desk in front of him, he had a notebook full of notes and there was a stack of books and commentaries about a foot high. So I thought, "Wow, Matthew 24, one of my favorite chapters. This is really going to be good." But as that class went on, that poor man got so confused. I don't think he knew if he was post-millennial or pre-millennial or even what a millennium was.

What I do know is that when he was finished, no one in that class had the foggiest notion of what Matthew 24 is all about, mainly because he failed to understand that Matthew 24 is addressed primarily to a Jewish audience. After the class, I tried to encourage him to get rid of most of his commentaries and just read the book of Matthew in its Jewish context.

Let's get back to the two witnesses here before our time gets away from us. We said he's talking here about events that happen during the last half of the tribulation period, which would be the great tribulation. Let me give you a principle, and this is something you can use to understand what God is doing not only here in Revelation but at any stage of biblical history. It's a principle that Dr. Halff, the Jewish founder of this ministry, taught me about 15 years ago. The principle is this: God never, under any circumstances or for any reason, ever leaves himself without a witness on this earth.

You need to remember that. Even in the days of Elijah, which were terrible days of apostasy and idolatry among those Jewish people, when Elijah stood there on Mount Carmel and he told the people, "I alone am left a prophet of the Lord," Elijah may have thought he was the only one who hadn't bowed his knee to Baal. But later, God told Elijah, "I have reserved 7,000 Israelites who have not bowed down to Baal." You see, God still had a witness. In the days of Noah, it was down to only eight people. But here's the principle: God never leaves himself without a witness.

Keeping that principle in mind, let's look at the tribulation. Prior to the tribulation, of course, those of us who believe in a pre-trib rapture believe the church will be removed prior to the tribulation. If the pre-trib position is true, and I believe it is, then we've got a little problem here and that is, with the church gone from the scene after the rapture, what witness does God have left on earth? And if the church is removed before the tribulation, then who are the multitudes of God's people who will be martyred during the tribulation?

The answer to both of those questions is found in Revelation chapter 7, where John says that during the first half of the tribulation, God will seal 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes. Those Jews will be his witnesses during the first half of the tribulation. When these 144,000 Jewish evangelists go forth to the four corners of the world preaching the gospel of the kingdom, it says there will be so many people saved, chapter 7 verse 9 says it will be a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues standing before the throne. These tribulation saints have been martyred and they're in heaven now standing before the throne.

During the last half of the tribulation, the persecution becomes so intense, the 144,000 Jews are forced to flee into the desert. Revelation 12:6 says that they flee into the wilderness, where they have a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,200 and threescore days, or again three and a half years. Some scholars believe this place of refuge will be the ancient city of Petra, located about 100 miles south of Jerusalem, actually a little bit southeast of Jerusalem, just south of the Dead Sea, but no one knows for sure where it will be.

Again, remember we said that God never leaves himself without a witness. So after those 144,000 Jews who will be God's witnesses during the first half of the tribulation go into hiding and their converts are all martyred, then what witness will God have left during the last half of the tribulation? Whoever they are, we know they'll have to be protected supernaturally because the last half of the tribulation is when the Antichrist goes on this demonic rampage to completely wipe out all the Jewish people from off the face of the earth.

His campaign of death will make Hitler's Third Reich look like a Sunday school picnic, my friend. Even the kings of the East descend on Israel from the Orient, leaving in their wake a path of death and destruction across half of Asia. Satan hates the Jews. He always has. Do you know why? The reason Satan hates the Jews is because virtually all of God's plan for humanity and for this world revolves around his chosen people, the Jews.

If Satan ever succeeded in destroying the Jews, he knows he would effectively destroy God's plan. Every promise God ever made to the Jews or to anybody would be nullified. That's why there is nothing Satan would rather be able to do than to destroy the Jews. But God is sovereign, my friend, and he has said, "These are my people."

There's no power in the universe that can destroy the Jew. He is indestructible. That's why Pharaoh couldn't destroy him in Egypt. That's why the waters of the Red Sea couldn't drown him. That's why the gallows of Haman in the Old Testament couldn't hang him. That's why the fiery furnace couldn't burn him and the lions couldn't eat him. That's why the Nazis couldn't annihilate him because the Jew is indestructible.

During the last half of the tribulation, God will raise up these two prophets and they will be supernaturally protected until their mission has been accomplished. I believe they'll be the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Enoch. God will raise up these two prophets to be his witnesses during this darkest and most dangerous period of earth's history. Remember, God never leaves himself without a witness.

Revelation 11:8 says that after God allows the Antichrist to kill these two prophets, their dead bodies will lie in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days. It's interesting, the Bible says in Revelation 11:9 that all the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations of the world will see the bodies of these two dead prophets lying there in the streets of Jerusalem. For the first time in the history of the world, satellite technology and television make a literal fulfillment of this prophecy possible.

After three and a half days, the two prophets are resurrected and stand to their feet and great fear falls on those who see them, verse 11. They heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up hither," and they ascended to heaven in a cloud and their enemies saw them, verse 12. So ends the ministry of these two prophets. That's all we have time for today, so that's where we'll have to stop. Bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you Gary, and thank you listening friend for tuning in today. It's always good to have you with us as we look into God's word together. If you enjoyed today's presentation on the second coming of Elijah by Gary Hedrick, you'll be glad to know we've placed the entire series on one convenient CD. Just ask for CD number GT4 entitled, "The Second Coming of Elijah."

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As always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick begins his series on Egypt and the Arab Nations in Prophecy, right here on Messianic Perspectives.