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 and we welcome all of our listening friends to this edition of the program. I'm Gary Hedrick, and today we're continuing 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: "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 Jewish rabbis have been teaching for centuries that Elijah would return to earth to announce the coming of Messiah. It's interesting that Malachi's prophecy fits so well with what we read in Revelation chapter 11, where John says in verse 3: "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."

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, I've been sharing with you on the last few programs my view that these two prophets in the streets of Jerusalem here in Revelation 11 are none other than the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Enoch. One reason they qualify for the position of course is that both Elijah and Enoch were prophets.

And another reason they qualify is that both Elijah and Enoch were translated directly to heaven by God without ever having died. Now you might say, how does that qualify Elijah and Enoch to be the two prophets mentioned in Revelation 11 just because they never died? Well, that's a very good question and the answer is very simple. Now follow me. By the time you come to the tribulation, all the Old Testament saints have been resurrected and glorified with only two exceptions.

And the reason that's important is because, now watch this, a glorified saint could not die in the streets of Jerusalem like these two prophets in Revelation chapter 11 die in the streets of Jerusalem because a glorified body is incorruptible, according to 1 Corinthians 15. It's not subject to death or decay or disease. If these two prophets in Revelation 11 had glorified bodies, listen, the antichrist could hit them with ICBMs, with nuclear warheads, or anything else he wanted to and when the dust cleared, those two prophets would still be standing there because with glorified bodies, they would be immortal.

But as I said, there are two exceptions. There were two Old Testament prophets who never died and therefore were never resurrected and therefore never received glorified bodies. And those two prophets, of course as we've already seen, were Elijah and Enoch. And we've already spent lots and lots of time on previous programs looking at the biblical data so I'm not going to rehash all of that here today.

But I think a very good case can be made for identifying these two tribulation prophets as Elijah and Enoch. And by the way, if you've missed the previous five or six programs where we've discussed these things in detail, just stay tuned at the close of the program today and we'll tell you how you can get a cassette with all the programs on it. Now let me just stop here and say something else. I believe the two prophets in Revelation 11 will be Elijah and Enoch, but I know there are problems with that view and I don't pretend to have all the answers.

For example, let me just give you one. Why were Elijah and Enoch allowed to go directly to heaven while other Old Testament saints when they died had to wait in a place known as paradise, or sometimes called Abraham's bosom? It's a good question and we can only speculate as to what the answer to that question might be. It probably has something to do with the fact that Elijah and Enoch still had physical bodies when they were translated and all the Old Testament saints in paradise were only spirits whose bodies had not yet been resurrected, you see.

So maybe there was some reason why Elijah and Enoch in their physical bodies could not or maybe should not coexist with the disembodied spirits in paradise. I don't know. That may be part of the answer. I don't think anybody knows for sure. And there's another problem, let me give you one more, and this is something that you may have already caught so I'll go ahead and deal with it now so you won't have to write to me and give me a lesson in theology 101.

Here's the problem. How could Elijah and Enoch be translated and taken to heaven without glorified bodies if 1 Corinthians 15:50 says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption? I mean, that's what it says. So how could Elijah and Enoch go directly to heaven in bodies of flesh and blood? And how would they survive in heaven in those mortal bodies for thousands of years? Well of course, that last part of the question's not so hard because we know there's no time in heaven.

So since there's no time, aging wouldn't be a problem. But what about Paul's statement that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God? Well again, that's a very good question and all we can say is that apparently that statement that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15 doesn't necessarily mean that a body of flesh and blood cannot exist in heaven temporarily. And actually, if you look at that verse carefully, it doesn't say that flesh and blood cannot exist in the kingdom of God. What it says is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

And you know when you stop and think about it, Elijah and Enoch have not really inherited the kingdom of God because it's not their permanent possession. An inheritance is something that becomes legally yours permanently and it's not theirs permanently. I mean someday they've got to give it up and come back to earth and carry out the most difficult mission of their prophetic careers and they're going to die. So I don't think we can rightfully say that they've inherited the kingdom of God.

What I'm saying is this. There are some things about the second coming of Elijah that I don't entirely understand. And quite frankly, as I read through the book of Revelation and the book of Daniel and other prophetic books, there are lots of things I don't understand completely. No one does. But that doesn't make it any less true. I mean there are a lot of things I don't understand about automobiles and about internal combustion engines and electronic ignitions and all that kind of stuff, but that didn't keep me from driving down here to the studio so I could talk to you today.

You see, the fact that you and I don't understand something doesn't make it any less true. Well, our time is slipping away and since we've already spent enough time on the question of who these two prophets are, let's move on quickly to the question of what their ministry will be. And in order to understand the ministry of these two prophets in Revelation 11, we need to know why they're going to be here. So let's spend the rest of our time together today looking at this period of time known as the tribulation.

The Greek word for tribulation literally means pressure. In fact, it's the same Greek word used in the Gospels where it says that the crowds thronged around Jesus. It literally means to press or to apply 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. And the way He does it is by applying pressure, you see, applying pressure to Israel during this time of tribulation.

At certain times during the tribulation, that pressure takes the form of a political figure known as the antichrist. At other times during the tribulation, it takes the form of plagues and warfare and demons and all sorts of terrible supernatural things that happen during the tribulation. It's a seven-year period of horrendous evil that engulfs the entire world beginning sometime after the rapture of the church and culminating with the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And one of the purposes of this pressure is to bring Israel back to God, back to Jehovah. That's why the prophet Jeremiah calls the tribulation "the time of Jacob's trouble" in Jeremiah chapter 30. Now 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 says 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." And he's talking there about the events during the last half of the tribulation period. You know, it's interesting that the prophetic scriptures are so precise when it comes to the timing of these tribulation events.

Back in Daniel, it talks about a "time, times, and half a time." That is, one year plus two years, which would be three years, then half a year, for a total of three and a half years. That's in Daniel chapter 12. Then over here in Revelation chapter 12, the same period is called in verse 2 "forty-two months," which again is three and a half years. In the next verse, verse 3, it's "1,260 days," which again is three and a half years on the Jewish calendar because the Jewish calendar is based on a lunar year of 360 days.

So 1,260 days on the Jewish calendar is exactly three and a half years, precisely to the day. How wonderfully precise God's word is. And unfortunately, our clock is also precise and that's all we have time for today. So keep those two halves of the tribulation in mind and I'll show you next time how this ties in with the ministry of the two prophets in Revelation 11. Join us, won't you? I'll see you then. Bye-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 GT-4 entitled "The Second Coming of Elijah."

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