Messianic Perspectives

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

Shalom, and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. This is 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. And now, with today's installment, here's Gary.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you. We welcome all of our listening friends to this edition of the program. Today, we're continuing a 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 says 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."

And we've been discussing this remarkable prophecy in which Malachi describes a second coming of the Old Testament prophet, Elijah. In fact, on previous programs, we've seen that although many Christian scholars don't take this prophecy literally, Jewish rabbis have been teaching for centuries that Elijah would return to earth to announce the coming of Messiah and the Messianic age.

Now, some Christian scholars do take Malachi's prophecy literally, and they say, "Yes, Elijah will come to earth sometime during the tribulation period." But they go on to say that Elijah is not one of the two prophets mentioned in Revelation chapter 11, which I'm going to read here in just a second. But it seems strange to me that God would rapture Elijah in the Old Testament and reserve him in heaven for some prophetic task during the great tribulation and then give us no record of it in the book of Revelation. To me, it doesn't make sense.

On the other hand, if you take the scriptures literally and you assume that Elijah will return to earth at some point during the tribulation period and you begin to search the book of Revelation looking for clues as to when and how Elijah might return, you find something very interesting here in chapter 11 of Revelation. In verse 3 it says, "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days," that is 1,260 days, "clothed in sackcloth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies, and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed."

Verse 6: "These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will." Verse 7: "And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them."

Now, what a remarkable scene this is. You've got two prophets standing there in the streets of Jerusalem right at about the middle of the tribulation, and they're in sackcloth, which means they're prophesying God's coming judgment just like the Old Testament prophets did. And look what these two guys are doing. They're calling fire down on their enemies and creating drought conditions and smiting the earth with plagues just like in the days of the Old Testament prophets. I mean, they look and they act and they talk just like Old Testament prophets.

But how could they be Old Testament prophets? The Old Testament prophets by this time, that is during the tribulation, would all be in heaven with glorified bodies. And of course, a glorified body is immortal and is not subject to death. So it would be impossible for a glorified prophet or for any of us who have our glorified bodies by that time, for that matter, it would be impossible for someone like that to die in the streets of Jerusalem.

You see, many of the Old Testament saints were resurrected when Christ was resurrected, and they received their glorified bodies at that time. That's what Matthew refers to over in Matthew chapter 27 when he says in verse 52 that the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, verse 53, and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many.

In fact, there's an ancient tradition recorded in the extra-biblical literature, a tradition that says that there were at least 12,000 individual sightings of resurrected saints in Jerusalem following the resurrection of Christ. These were Old Testament saints whose spirits were released from the Old Testament paradise, or Abraham's bosom, and they were reunited with their resurrected, glorified bodies. They were getting ready to go directly into the presence of God in heaven because with the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, salvation was now complete.

Then if there were other Old Testament saints who were not resurrected there in Matthew 27, then they'd be resurrected at the time of the rapture and would receive their glorified bodies at that time. Now, I know I'm going the long way around to get to this, but what I'm saying is this: when we come to the middle of the tribulation here in Revelation chapter 11, all the Old Testament saints who died will have already been resurrected and received glorified bodies, immortal bodies, bodies that cannot die.

So if these two witnesses in the streets of Jerusalem are Old Testament prophets, and it certainly looks to me like they are, they would have to be men who never died and therefore were never resurrected with glorified bodies. Does that make sense? I think it does. And strangely enough, just like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that fit together perfectly, when you look at the Old Testament, you find that there were two prophets who were both judgment prophets and who were taken directly to heaven by God without dying.

The first of those prophets, as we've already said, is Elijah. And the second of those prophets is Enoch. Is it possible that Enoch is the second prophet mentioned in Revelation chapter 11? Well, interestingly enough, that was the position of many of the early church fathers. Tertullian, for example, said that these two witnesses in Revelation chapter 11 would be Elijah and Enoch.

Now, you might say, "Wait a minute, Gary, I didn't know Enoch was a prophet." Oh, yes, he was. Let me call your attention to the New Testament book of Jude, beginning in verse 14, where Jude says, "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,'" verse 15, "'to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.'"

Now, that sounds like a judgment message, doesn't it? And this is very interesting because it tells us three things about Enoch. Number one, he is recognized by God as a legitimate Old Testament prophet. Number two, not only was Enoch a prophet, but he was a judgment prophet, just like Elijah. And number three, now get this, number three, the prophetic message given by the Lord through Enoch, as recorded here by Jude, that prophetic message specifically dealt with the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints."

You see, the Lord apparently revealed to Enoch prophetic truths concerning the second coming of Christ, truths that he revealed to no one else in that very early stage of revelation. Remember, Enoch was only the seventh generation from Adam. This was hundreds of years before even Noah and the flood. I mean, this goes way back. So some people object to the view that this second prophet in Revelation 11 could be Enoch because they don't realize that Enoch was indeed an Old Testament prophet. But he was.

Another objection raised by some who don't believe this prophet could be Enoch is the fact that Enoch was a Gentile. In fact, a very well-known commentary, and I won't tell you which one because my purpose here is not to embarrass anyone, but a very well-known commentary written by a well-known Christian scholar says the two witnesses in Revelation are Elijah and Moses, and he rejects the idea that Enoch could be the second prophet because he says, and I'm quoting here from page 145 of volume 2 of this man's commentary on Revelation, he says, "Enoch was a Gentile, and these two witnesses are obviously Israelites. Therefore," he says, "Enoch does not meet the qualifications for being one of the witnesses."

Now think about that just for a moment. He says it couldn't be Enoch because Enoch was a Gentile. Well, of course he was a Gentile, my friend. There were no Israelites until after Abraham was born, probably a thousand years after the time of Enoch. Listen, Elijah would have been a Gentile, too, if he had been born before the flood like Enoch was. There were no Israelites in the days of Enoch.

Actually, I guess you could say that Enoch was just as Jewish as anyone else in his day. Now technically, there were no Jews until there was the tribe of Judah. That's where the name Jew comes from, from Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, long after the days of the flood. And there were no Israelites until the time of Jacob, when God changed Jacob's name to Israel. So there were neither Jews nor Israelites until long after the time of Enoch.

But when you trace the Messianic line from Adam and Eve, Enoch was a forerunner of Shem in the Messianic line. In fact, he's listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ given there in Luke chapter 3. So that's why I say Enoch was just as Jewish as anyone else who lived before the flood. So let's play fair. Let's not disqualify Enoch for not being Jewish. I mean, there were a whole bunch of people before the flood who weren't Jewish, but they were still part of God's plan and they were still part of the Messianic line.

And they were the forerunners of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And in Enoch's case, he was recognized as a legitimate prophet, a distinction normally reserved only for Israelites. So it's silly to suggest that Enoch couldn't be the second prophet here in Revelation chapter 11. There is absolutely no reason in the world why he can't be. And if you can think of some reason I haven't thought of yet, I wish you'd write and tell me what it is. I'd like to know. Well, we're out of time for today, so we'll have to continue this on the next broadcast. Join us, won't you? I'll see you then. Bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. 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. It's available for a gift of just $6 or more to the ministry of Messianic Perspectives. Just ask for CD number GT4, entitled The Second Coming of Elijah.

Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas, 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. And 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. This is Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series on the Second Coming of Elijah, right here on Messianic Perspectives.