The Second Advent of Elijah and John the Baptist

Chapter Advent of the Messiah

Section II

The Second Advent of Elijah and John the Baptist

It was foretold by the prophet Malachi that Elijah would come again (Mal. 4:5), and it was Jesus' testimony that John the Baptist was none other than the second advent of Elijah (Matt. 11:14, 17:13). However, John the Baptist himself, as well as the Jewish people in general, did not know the fact that John was the second advent of Elijah (John 1:21). John's doubt of Jesus (Matt. 11:3), followed by the disbelief of the people, finally compelled Jesus to take the way of the cross.

1. The trend of Jewish thought concerning the Second Advent of Elijah

During the period of the United Kingdom, the "ideal of the temple" was invaded by Satan, due to the corruption of King Solomon.

God set up the ideal of the temple the second time. In order to prepare the people to receive the Messiah as the substantial temple, He worked for the separation from Satan by sending them four major prophets and twelve minor prophets. It was to stop Satan from preventing the realization of this ideal that God had his people destroy the god Baal by sending his special prophet Elijah and having him fight against the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. However, Elijah ascended into heaven without having fully accomplished his divine mission (II Kings 2:11), and Satan's power was again rampant.

Therefore, in order that the ideal of the substantial temple, Jesus, might be realized, there should first be the providence of having another prophet succeed Elijah and accomplish the mission of separating Satan, which he had left undone on the earth. Because of this providential necessity, the prophet Malachi foretold the second advent of Elijah (Mal. 4:5).

The fervent hope of the Jewish people who believed in these prophecies was, of course, the advent of the Messiah. But we must know that they nonetheless longed for the second coming of Elijah. This is because God clearly promised the people, through the prophet Malachi, that He would send the prophet Elijah prior to the advent of the Messiah in order to have him prepare the way of the Lord (Mal. 4:5). Meanwhile, the prophet Elijah had ascended into heaven nearly 900 years before the birth of Jesus (II Kings 2:11), and we are familiar with the occasion when he appeared to Jesus' disciples in spirit (Luke 9:31). The Jewish people believed that Elijah, being in heaven, would come from heaven in the same manner as he had ascended into heaven. Therefore, the Jewish people of that time were waiting for Elijah to come again, looking up into heaven in the expectation that Elijah would come on the clouds.

However, there had been as yet no rumor of Elijah's coming as Malachi had prophesied, when Jesus appeared, claiming to be the Messiah; thus, great confusion was caused in Jerusalem. So, the disciples were faced with an argument against Jesus' being the Messiah (Matt. 17:10): if Jesus were he, then where was Elijah who was to come before him? (Mal. 4:5). The disciples, at a loss as to how to reply, asked Jesus directly; and he answered that John the Baptist was none other than Elijah himself, for whom they had waited (Matt. 11:14, 17:13).

Jesus' disciples, who believed him to be the Messiah, could believe without question Jesus' testimony that John the Baptist was Elijah. But how could the Jewish people accept it, when they did not know who Jesus was? Jesus himself, knowing that they would not easily believe his testimony, said, "If you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come." (Matt. 11:14). The Jewish people could not believe Jesus' testimony that John the Baptist was Elijah because it came after John himself clearly denied the fact (John 1:21).

2. The way of the Jewish people

Jesus said that John the Baptist was none other than Elijah, for whom the Jewish people had waited so long (Matt. 11:14), while on the contrary, John the Baptist himself had already denied the fact. Then, whose words were they to believe and follow? It depended upon which of the two appeared to be more believable to the people at that time.

Let us then examine how Jesus appeared to the Jewish people, from their own standpoint.

Jesus was a young man of little formal education. He had been born and raised in the poor and lowly home of a carpenter. This young man emerged unknown, calling himself the Lord of the Sabbath, and yet violated the Sabbath which the Jews strictly observed (Matt. 12:1-8). Therefore, Jesus came to be known as one who wanted to abolish the Law, which was the symbol of salvation to the Jews (Matt. 5:17). Therefore, Jesus was persecuted by Jewish leaders and had to gather fishermen to be his disciples. He became a friend to tax-collectors, harlots, and sinners, eating and drinking with them (Matt. 11:19). More than that, Jesus declared that the tax-collectors and harlots would enter the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of the Jewish leaders. (Matt. 21:31).

On one occasion, a woman, weeping, began to wet Jesus' feet with her tears, wipe them with her hair, kiss them and anoint them with a flask of precious ointment (Luke 7:37-38). Such conduct would not be acceptable even in today's society and how much more unacceptable it would have been within the strict ethics of Jewish society, in which they could stone an adulterous woman to death. Nevertheless, Jesus not only accepted it, but reproached his disciples, who had rebuked the woman; in fact, he also praised her (Luke 7:44-50, Matt. 26:7-13).

Moreover, Jesus placed himself on the same level as God (John 14:9) and said that no one could enter the Kingdom of Heaven except through him (John 14:6). He even said that people should love him more than their parents, brothers, husband or wife and their children (Matt. 10:37, Luke 14:26).

Because of the attitude which Jesus' words and actions seemed to convey, the Jewish leaders derided him and accused him of being Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons (Matt. 12:24). From all this we can gather that Jesus was not accepted by the Jews of that time.

Next, let us investigate how John the Baptist appeared to the Jewish people. John was born to a distinguished family as a son of Zechariah, a chief priest (Luke 1:13). His birth greatly surprised the whole city because of the miracles and signs surrounding his conception. His father, burning incense in the holy place, saw the angel of the Lord, who announced that his wife would conceive a son. Upon disbelieving the angel's words, Zechariah was struck dumb, and his speech was restored only upon the birth of the child (Luke 1:9-66). Moreover, John led a brilliant life of faith and discipline, living on locusts and wild honey in the wilderness, and he appeared so admirable to the Jewish people that even the chief priests, as well as the people in general, asked him if he were the Messiah (Luke 3:15, John 1:20).

Considering the above, when we compare Jesus and John the Baptist from the standpoint of the Jewish people, whose words would they be more likely to believe?

It was only natural for them to believe the words of John the Baptist. Consequently, they had to believe John's words when he denied being Elijah more than they believed Jesus' testimony that John the Baptist was Elijah. Since the Jewish people came to believe the words of John the Baptist, Jesus' testimony appeared to be false, and thus he was condemned as an imposter.

In this way, Jesus was condemned as a man of reckless words and his manner was offensive to the Jewish people. Their disbelief in Jesus became aggravated by degrees. Since the Jewish people believed the words of John the Baptist rather than those of Jesus, they had to think that Elijah had not yet come; accordingly, they could not even imagine that the Messiah had arrived.

From this viewpoint, the Jews had to deny Jesus, who claimed to be the Messiah, because, from the standpoint of believers in the prophecy of Malachi, they could not believe that Elijah had come. Otherwise, they would have to deny the Scriptures, which prophesied that the coming of the Messiah would take place after the return of Elijah. In this way, the Jewish people, who could not abandon the prophecy in the Scriptures, were compelled to choose the way of disbelief in Jesus.

3. The disbelief of John the Baptist

As already discussed in detail, the chief priests as well as all the Jewish people of that time respected John the Baptist to such a degree that they thought he might be the Messiah (Luke 3:15, John 1:20). Consequently, if John the Baptist had declared himself to be Elijah as Jesus testified he was, the Jewish people, who expected Elijah's return before the coming of the Messiah, would have come to Jesus, because they were accustomed to believing the testimony of John the Baptist. However, the ignorance of God's providence on the part of John the Baptist, who protested to the last moment that he was not Elijah, was the principal cause blocking the way of the people to Jesus.

John the Baptist once testified:

I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (Matt. 3:11)

Again in John 1:33-34 he confessed, saying:

I myself did not know him; but he [God] who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit [Christ].'. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.

In this way, God directly manifested to John the Baptist that Jesus was the Messiah, and even John himself testified to him as such, while in John 1:23 he said he came with the mission of making straight the way of the Messiah. In addition, he declared in John 3:28 that he was the one who had been sent before the Christ. Therefore, John the Baptist should have known through his own wisdom that he was Elijah. Even if John the Baptist had not realized on his own that he was Elijah, he should have nonetheless declared that he was Elijah in obedience to Jesus' testimony, since he knew Jesus as the Messiah through the testimony from God (John 1:33-34), and he knew that Jesus bore witness that John was Elijah.

However, John not only denied Jesus' testimony (John 1:21) from his ignorance of God's will (Matt. 11:19), but he also deviated form the direction of providence even after that. We can well imagine how sad Jesus must have been when he had to regard John the Baptist in that way, not to mention the sorrow of God, when He looked at His son who was placed in such a difficult situation.

In fact, the mission of John the Baptist as the witness ended with his baptizing of and testifying to Jesus.

Then what should his mission have been after that? His father Zechariah, moved by the Holy Spirit, said about John, who had just been born: "we...might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways..." (Luke 1:74-76), thus prophesying clearly about his mission.

John the Baptist should have ministered to Jesus as a disciple, after having testified to him. Nevertheless, he went about baptizing people separately from Jesus, thus confusing the Jewish people (Luke 3:15), even the chief priests (John 1:20).

Further, the disciples of Jesus and the followers of John quarreled about "purification" among themselves, each saying that his own teacher baptized more people (John 3:25-26).

Besides, John 3:30 tells us eloquently that John the Baptist did not bear the same fate with Jesus, who said, "He must increase, but I must decrease.". How could he ever decrease while Jesus increased, if he shared the same destiny with Jesus? In fact, the gospel of Jesus should have been proclaimed by John the Baptist himself. But through ignorance, he could not accomplish his mission, and at last he degraded his life, which was to have been devoted to Jesus, to a thing of practically no value.

John the Baptist knew Jesus was the Messiah, and when John was on God's side, he testified to him. But when God no longer directly inspired him, and John returned to his normal state, his disbelief of Jesus became aggravated by his ignorance.

John the Baptist, who did not realize that he was Elijah, regarded Jesus from the same standpoint as other people, especially after John's imprisonment. Accordingly, everything Jesus said or did seemed, from the merely human standpoint of John the Baptist, to be strange and incomprehensible. Moreover, John himself could not believe that Jesus, who had appeared before the coming of Elijah, was the Messiah. At last John sent his disciples to Jesus in an attempt to remove his doubt, by asking him, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (Matt. 11:3).

Jesus, so questioned, answered indignantly, with an air of admonition (Matt. 11:4-10). John the Baptist was chosen by God while he was still in his mother's womb for the mission of serving Him throughout his life (Luke 1:76), and was trained in the wilderness, leading the bitter life of an ascetic, in order to prepare the way of the Lord. When Jesus started his public ministry, God first told John who Jesus was, then had him testify to Jesus' being the Son of God.

When John the Baptist, who was failing to fulfill his mission and blessing from heaven, asked Jesus such a question, Jesus did not answer straightforwardly that he was the Messiah, which should have been plain enough. He answered in a roundabout way, saying:

Go and tell John what you hear and see! The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. (Matt. 11:4-5)

Of course, John the Baptist was not ignorant of such miracles and wonders done by Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus gave such a lengthy explanation in order to let him know who he was by reminding John the Baptist of what he was doing.

We must understand that when Jesus said the poor had good news preached to them (Matt. 11:5), he was indicating his grief over the disbelief of the Jewish people, and especially that of John the Baptist.

The chosen people of Israel, especially John, had been richly blessed with divine love and care. Nevertheless, they betrayed Jesus, and he was compelled to wander about the seacoast of Galilee through the region of Samaria to search among the poor for those who would listen to the Gospel.

The ignorant fishermen, tax-collectors and harlots were such poor people. Actually, the disciples Jesus would have preferred were not people of this kind. Jesus, having come to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, was more in need of one person qualified to lead a thousand than one thousand following him blindly. Did he not, therefore, first preach the Gospel in the temple to the chief priests and scribes in search of those who were able and well prepared?

However, as Jesus indicated in a parable, he had to call beggars roaming about on the street to the feast, because the invited had not come. Jesus, who himself had to go about bringing in those who were uninvited, at last uttered bitter words of judgment in deep lamentation, saying, "blessed is he who takes no offense at me." (Matt. 11:6). Jesus predicted John the Baptist's destiny by saying, indirectly, that one who took offense at him would not be blessed, however great he might be.

On the contrary, it was John the Baptist who had offended Jesus. How did John the Baptists offend him? John failed to carry out his mission of serving and ministering to Jesus.

After the disciples of John the Baptist left him, Jesus said:

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Matt. 11:11)

Indicating that, from the standpoint of his ministry, John the Baptist had come originally as the greatest of all the prophets, but that he was failing to accomplish his mission.

All those in heaven had once been born of women and lived their earthly lives before they died. Therefore, it would have been natural for him who was the greatest of all those born of women to be the greatest also in heaven.

Then, why was John the Baptist worse than he who was least in the Kingdom of heaven?

Numerous prophets in the past had testified to the Messiah from a distance, looking forward to his coming in the future. But John the Baptist came with the mission of testifying to the Messiah directly. Since it was the mission of the prophets to testify to the Messiah, John the Baptist, who was to testify to the Messiah directly, was greater than any of the other prophets, who testified to him indirectly.

However, seen from the point of ministering to the Messiah, he was the least one. This is because the least in the Kingdom of Heaven recognizes Jesus as the Messiah and serves him, while John the Baptist, who was called for the mission of serving him closely in person (Luke 1:76), did not prepare the way of Jesus and failed to serve him.

Jesus went on to say, "From John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it.". If John the Baptist, who was chosen in the womb and trained in so difficult an ascetic life in the wilderness, had only served Jesus as he should, he would no doubt have become his chief disciple. But since John failed to accomplish his mission of serving Jesus, Peter took the position of chief disciple.

In the passage, "From John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence", Jesus was not referring to the failure of people in general, but that of John the Baptist himself. If John had acted wisely, he would not have left Jesus, and his deeds would have remained for eternity as righteous; but, unfortunately, he blocked the way for the Jewish people to go to Jesus, as well as his own way.

Here, we have come to understand that the greatest factor leading to the crucifixion of Jesus was the failure of John the Baptist. Paul lamented over the ignorance of the people, including John the Baptist, who crucified Jesus, saying:

None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (I Cor. 2:8)

4. The reason that John the Baptist was Elijah

According to what we have previously stated (cf. Sec. II, 1--153), we can see that John the Baptist came to succeed Elijah and accomplish the mission which Elijah had left unaccomplished on earth. As Luke 1:17 says, John was born with the mission of going before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. For this reason, John was the second advent of Elijah from the standpoint of their identical mission. Details will be clarified in the chapter on "Resurrection", but we know now that Elijah descended in spirit to John the Baptist. By cooperating with John the Baptist he tried to accomplish his mission, which he had left unaccomplished during his physical life on earth, through the physical body of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was in the position of representing Elijah's physical body, making himself identical with Elijah from the standpoint of their mission

5. Our attitude toward the bible

We have learned from our study of the Bible that the ignorance and disbelief of John the Baptist brought about the disbelief of the Jewish people, which finally compelled Jesus to take the way of crucifixion. Since the time of Jesus until the present, no one has been able to reveal this heavenly secret.

This is because we have hitherto read the Bible from the standpoint that John the Baptist was the greatest prophet of all. We have learned from the story of John the Baptist that we must abandon the conservative attitude of faith which has caused us to be afraid to remove old traditional concepts.

If it would be unjust to believe that John the Baptist had failed to accomplish his mission when he actually succeeded, it would also no doubt be wrong to believe that he fulfilled his mission, when on the contrary he had failed to do so. We must struggle to obtain the right way of faith, both in spirit and truth.

We have now brought to light the true nature of the story of John the Baptist as demonstrated in the Bible. Any Christian who, in spiritual communication, can see John the Baptist directly in the spirit world will be able to understand the authenticity of all these things.